The Blood of Athens

by Amy Leigh Strickland

  When they returned to the hotel Wednesday evening after dinner, the group still had copious amounts of energy. Celene was certain that they would not escape the hotel this time, and planted herself with a book next to the lobby door.

  That left them with no choice but to wander from room to room before curfew, hanging out and spending their time talking, rather than getting up to trouble.

  Peter sat on the bed in Penny and Minnie's hotel room, fiddling with a metal puzzle that he had picked up at a gift shop. Penny sat on the floor, organizing a bag of brochures and tickets for scrap-booking when she returned home.

  “I'm just saying, there were way too many people at The Agora for it to be fun,” Peter said. “Dead and alive.”

  “But there was so much to see and buy.”

  “We cross the Atlantic Ocean to go shopping? We could do that at home.”

  “You can't buy that stuff at home.”

  “You can on the internet,” Peter mumbled. “And this piece of crap. This, I could easily buy at home.”

  “Well that was the museum gift shop. And you only think it's crap because you can't solve it.” Penny got up and walked to the bed. She took the puzzle out of Peter's hand and twisted it. In just a few moves it was in two pieces.

  “How did you--?”

  “I've been watching you attempt it for an hour. I got some ideas.”

  Peter tossed the puzzle to the foot of the bed.

  “Are you going to complain about a free trip, Peter? Wasn't the Acropolis alone worth it? And I know you didn’t get to go inside, but the cave at the cemetery...”

  Peter sighed. “It's just not what I thought it would be.”

  “You expected more than walking through an archway to Mount Olympus? And an entrance to Hades?”

  “I didn't expect to fly almost six thousand miles away from home, only to find yet another dead body.”

  Penny sat down next to Peter. “Oh. That.”

  “Yeah. That.”

  “We sure have found a lot of bodies, huh?” Penny tried to recall them all. First it was the guy that Diana found in the woods, then the museum curator, and did they count the Titans that they killed? Penny had helped Frank bury the body of Atlas only a few months before. “I would think you'd get used to death, what with seeing ghosts,” Penny said.

  “Yeah. Well a ghost and a recently offed corpse are two different things.”

  “Is it weird that the guy's ghost wasn't hanging around?”

  Peter shrugged. “Maybe? Not all violent-deaths leave spirits behind. Maybe he was slightly suicidal. Maybe he was just extremely emotionally healthy and didn't fear death. Anyway, I didn't have time to look around. I didn't want to be found with a corpse in a bathroom overseas. American students don't exactly do well in foreign courts.”

  “I'm sorry, Peter.”

  Peter just nodded.

  “Really. Anyone could have found that guy. I'm sorry it had to be you.”

  “It's okay. Someone from the Pantheon needed to see it. We might be in danger. Again.”

  “Or it's a serial killer who is really into his heritage. We are in Athens.”

  “True.” Peter looked down at his hands. “I'm just a magnet for death.”

  “That's not true. Diana found that guy last fall and everyone found the museum curator together. You don't have it any worse than the rest of us.”

  “Penny,” Peter said. “I see ghosts all the time. When I was born, I killed my mother.”

  Penny looked away.

  “I have to blackmail my dad to keep his hands off me because he knows. He knows it's my fault.”

  “People die, Peter. It's not your fault. Your father doesn't have the right to hurt you because he doesn't know how to handle his own sadness.”

  Peter nodded. “Dr. Livingstone wants me to get emancipation and live at a shelter.”

  “Maybe you could live with my mom.”

  Peter laughed. “Your mom hates me.”

  “She doesn't hate you.”

  “She certainly doesn't want us under the same roof.”

  Penny didn't dispute that. “Are you going to do it?”

  “I might. Doc says the blackmail isn't a long-term solution.”

  Penny threw her arms around his shoulders. He looked like he needed a hug. Peter buried his nose in her hair and closed his eyes, just breathing and enjoying the warmth of her embrace. Peter wasn't a particularly huggy person, but physical contact from Penny was always welcome.

  As Penny pulled away, Peter felt the moment. It was that moment, when watching a romantic comedy, that every member in the audience could anticipate the big, climactic kiss. It was the right moment. He had to go for it. Peter turned his head, his lips passed by her cheek and then he was kissing her. The stars had aligned.

  Penny pressed her hand to his chest and pushed him away. She stood up and turned around.

  Peter's heart tightened in his chest. He opened his mouth, starting to apologize, but he didn't want to apologize.

  “Why did you do that?” Penny asked.

  “You know why,” he said.

  “Peter,” she warned.

  “I love you, and it's not just because it's been engrained in my soul for a couple thousand years. I love you, Penny, not Persephone.”

  “I thought we covered this in August,” she said. “You're my friend.”

  “Why am I just your friend? Because I'm not rich like Teddy? Because I'm not as charming as Zach? Not as tall as Frank? Not as handsome as Nick?”

  “How about because you raped me.”

  Peter fell silent for a moment. He stood up. “That wasn't me. That was Hades.”

  “Which is part of you.” Penny sighed. “I know it doesn't seem fair, to be blamed for things that we did when--”

  “No, it's not fair. I'm a different person. I was born Peter Hadley, grew up in a shitty house with my shitty dad, and I would never do that to you.”

  “I know.”

  They looked at each other for a long time. Penny had to admit that Peter had become quite tall and handsome over the last year and a half. He was her best friend, but it wasn't enough. “Peter. When you remember me, do you see me, Penny Davis?”

  Peter furrowed his brow. “You mean when I remember Persephone?”

  “Right.”

  “No. But I know it's you.”

  “Exactly. Like a dream. You don't look like you, but I know it's you. And when I finally remembered that, when that memory came back to me or was unlocked or whatever the hell happened, I remembered it as you. So you, Peter Hadley, never did that to me, and never would-- I hope-- but I remember it as you, because it kind of was you, before. I know this doesn't make sense, but it doesn't have to.”

  Penny began to cry. “When you try to kiss me, Peter, I remember being dragged through the earth and taken against my will. Nothing will ever fix that. You could look like Darren Criss and have all the money in the world, and I would still have that in my mind. I can't be with you, Peter. Ever. And I know it isn't fair, which is why you're still my best friend, but some part of you long ago is guilty, and I can't forget it, even if I've forgiven it. I can't be with someone that I fear, even a little. I can't ever forget that.”

  Peter sat down on the bed. He took Penny's hand. She tensed, but she didn't pull away. It had taken two years for Peter to understand. He got it now. All of this time he had worried that Penny didn’t like him as a person. He was angry for being saddled with the guilt of something he had done in a past life. When he had met Penny, he hadn’t felt like Hades, Lord of the dead. Now, as more memories came back, he knew that that identity was part of his life. She knew it, too. She didn’t blame him. She didn’t hate him. She forgave him. She just couldn’t break that association.

  “I'm sorry,” he said.

  “I know you are.”

  “Thank you for explaining that to me.”

  Penny hugged him and Peter left it at that, just a hug.

  “Friends?” she asked. />
  Peter nodded. “Of course.” Though there was a painful twisting in his gut, Peter understood. It wasn't fair, but he couldn't fix it. Trying to force the issue was only going to cost him his best friend.

  Alexis Ruiz was down the hall, visiting one of the boys from the marching band. Diana was alone in her hotel room, watching a nature documentary in Greek. The language barrier wasn't that big of an issue, given Diana's first supernatural ability; generally, when she watched Animal Planet, she was unable to focus on the narration anyway. What the exotic animals had to say was much more fascinating. Diana was watching a family of Meerkats argue over food when Astin knocked on the door.

  Diana turned the TV on mute and got up from the bed. She looked through the peep hole and sighed. Did she have to answer it?

  “I know you're in there,” Astin said.

  Diana unlocked the door and let her brother in. “Hi.”

  Astin walked past Diana and into the room. He stood by the window, overlooking the busy Athenian street.

  “What do you want?” Diana asked. She had been cold to him since August. She had every reason to be since the Titan Atlas had revealed that Astin had murdered her boyfriend with a peanut butter sandwich.

  “To talk?”

  Diana crossed her arms and just stared at him

  “I mean, we used to talk all the time, and now we don't.”

  “I wonder why that is.”

  Astin rolled his eyes. “Your anger is noted, Di.”

  “Yeah, and justified. Is there something important you needed to talk about?”

  “I need to fix this.”

  “Well, you can't.”

  “I know, but I need to try. Diana, I killed Ryan. I thought he was corrupting you, or hurting you, and then he was coming between us and I just wanted to get rid of him. I just saw him as a threat, someone who was going to break your heart and blow our cover and ruin our lives. But the moment he stopped breathing I realized that I had made a mistake. It was too late. I couldn't take it back. It was a mistake”

  “A mistake is something that happens in the moment. You planned it. You actively planned to kill my boyfriend.”

  “I didn't realize he was that allergic. I thought I'd have time to stop it. I thought I could heal him.”

  “You killed him.”

  “I know,” Astin's voice cracked. “I'm sorry.”

  “This isn't even your first offense. You did this before. I have memories of you setting me up to kill Orion. You don't even have the guts to do it yourself, you have to trick me into it. It's like you're so threatened that I'll fall in love with someone and stop being your sister.”

  “I suppose I am.”

  Diana sat down on the bed and picked up the remote. “Get out,” she said.

  “I'm sorry,” Astin repeated.

  “I know. But I'm not ready to forgive you. Get out.”

  Celene sat in a large arm chair, camped out with her laptop and her step-down power converter in the lobby of the hotel by the elevator. She wasn't going to have a repeat of the night before. She knew that she couldn't reasonably stay up all night until the trip was over, but she thought that staying out until one-thirty would give the impression that she was holding a constant vigil.

  Celene restarted her game of solitaire and started clicking through her stack of virtual cards, looking for aces. Bed check was soon. Students would need to be in their rooms, then the real watch began.

  The elevator opened and Nick Morrisey stepped out. Celene was ready to jump up and call him a hypocrite for ratting out his friends and then attempting to sneak out on his own, but Nick turned straight for her. He was seeking her out.

  “Hey, Dr. D, I was just looking for you.”

  “Were you?”

  “Yep. I wanna show you something.” Nick had a newspaper in his hand and he held up the rolled-up issue. “But not here.”

  Celene looked between her laptop screen and the newspaper. Curfew wasn't for another twenty minutes. She could check-in with Nick, do the sweep, and then come back down here. Surely nobody would sneak out right before bed-check. They would be missed.

  “Alright,” she said, folding her laptop and unplugging it from the power source. “Let's make it quick.”

  Celene followed Nick to the elevator.

  “So tell me,” she said, after pushing the button to return to her floor. “What made you rat them out?” Celene had been turning over Nick's possible motives in her mind all day. He was usually at the root of trouble, right? Of all of the kids in The Pantheon, Celene would peg Nick as the one most likely to sneak out to a nightclub in a foreign country. Why had he stayed behind to tattle?

  “We already pushed our luck vanishing through an archway at the Acropolis. I just knew someone like Lewis would do something stupid to get us all exposed. I mean, they almost got caught up in a crime scene, right? Like we need that association added to our record.”

  Celene wasn't sure she believed it. Was his self-preservation instinct actually stronger than his desire for hedonism? Maybe Jason’s speech this summer had worked. The door opened and Celene stepped out onto the plush rug. Nick followed her down the hall.

  Celene unlocked her door and looked around. Nobody in the hall. Good. She didn't need to be seen going into a hotel room alone with a student, especially Nick. “Make it quick,” she said as he closed the door. “What's in the paper?”

  “The guy who was killed was a tourist. American. Nothing special about him. He's from Missouri and he was traveling abroad after college. Some of his friends were at the club with him. They said he had been buying drinks for a girl when they last saw him.”

  “So the killer is female?”

  Nick shrugged, “Or part of a team. Anyway, the police released that all of the victims have been left with a coin in their mouth, as we suspected, but also that their names were carved into the surface they were found on, almost like a burial marker. This guy's was scratched into the toilet.”

  “Odd,” Celene frowned.

  “Yeah, so he kills in public places without being seen and then follows Ancient Greek burial rites. Sound like a Titan?”

  “Or just a serial killer who happens to be in Athens. What's the timeline?”

  “The first associated murder was September. There was a second in October, two in November, six in December, a little cooling off period in January and early February, and then three more in the last two weeks.”

  “Thirteen.”

  “But it started right after we killed Atlas.”

  Celene shook her head. “We can't assume that this is a Titan. All of the Titans thus far have come to us. But, we can't relax either. We've been attacked by three in one year. We can't drop our guard.”

  “We need to have a meeting when we get home,” Nick said. “Olympus, that cave Peter found today, and finding bodies on top of it?”

  “And I got a strange email from Jason this afternoon about giving Diana and Frank's baby a haircut.”

  “A haircut?”

  Celene nodded.

  “Cryptic.”

  “It's just not safe to share what's been going on through digital communication. We'll have to meet with everyone in person.”

  Nick set the newspaper down on the dresser. He sat down on her bed. “That sounds good. Minnie is trying to seize control in Zach's absence, but she's not doing a very good job of being a leader. She and Lewis went off and played Blackjack last night. Real responsible.”

  Celene raised an eyebrow at him. “You're going to lecture about responsibility?”

  Nick stood up, laughing. “Fair enough. But hey, I'm eighteen. Maybe I've just finally decided to grow up.”

  Celene looked down at her watch. “Bed check is in ten. I can't be seen with you leaving my hotel room. You'd better go.” When she looked up, Nick was standing very close.

  “You sure you want me to go?” he asked.

  Oh hell no, she thought. Celene stepped back. “Nick, get out.”

  Nick smirk
ed. “You've never been curious?”

  “You're a teenager.”

  “I’m eighteen. It’s alright.”

  “No, it's not. Get out.”

  “Or do you only sleep with bearded men?”

  “It's not funny, Nick. Get--”

  The room was plunged into darkness.

  “What just happened?” Nick asked.

  Celene looked out the window of her room. The lights were still on in every other building on the busy street. “It's just this hotel. A fuse must have blown.”

  “Well, we could make use of the time--”

  “Shut up, Nick. I don't need the lights to put my knee in your crotch. Use the blackout to get out before someone sees you.”

  “Jesus, fine. Alright.” Nick grumbled as he walked to the door.

  Celene had expected the backup generator to kick on by now.

  “You know where to find me if you change your mind,” Nick said.

  Celene was just about to answer that she wouldn’t when somebody screamed.

  “Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.”

  -Virgil

  xiv.

  The great walls had been built by the gods themselves,

  and the army of Agamemnon was tired.

  No siege weapon was strong enough to breech them.

  It fell to deceit.

  The wooden horse was presented at the gates.

  The fleet of Greek ships receded from the harbor,

  and the Trojans took the sign of surrender

  as a great godsend.

  They brought the parting gift inside the great walls.

  After dark the great sculpture began to stir,

  and Greek seamen burst with a rallying cry

  from inside the horse.