I woke up half an hour before lunch. Megara was sitting on the foot of my bed.

“You’re Mindy’s sibling?” She asked.

“Yes.” I said.

“Tell her, I said stay away from this hall. I don’t want to see her here. Her being your sister doesn’t change my rule.” Megara hissed.

“Excuse me? No? Why can’t she?”

“No one related to Zeus is allowed near my room. My safe place. Do you understand?” She glared at me.

“Um yes?” I said.

“No you don’t. I’m not stupid. I know the curse and its origin. I know how to lift it. But I tried everything. I failed. Zeus and his offspring aren’t welcome near me or my room. Again, I don’t care if Mindy is your sister.” Megara said.

“If she ever comes here, you won’t know it. But as she is my sister, she will come into my room. Anyway she hates her father I mean why do you think she’s the champion of Hera?” I said.

“She’s the champion of Hera? I thought- but that doesn’t make sense. She goes on quests for- fine she can but I don’t want to see her and I don’t want Lexie to see or talk to her either.” Megara said.

“Okay. I got it.” I nodded. Megara glared at me and then left.

I sighed. Such sisterly love. Who knew being Mindy’s sister would piss Megara off so much?

“Hello!” A small voice said from below my bed.

I turned to see a small girl with cornrows crawling out from under my bed.

“What the hell?” I asked.

“I’m Lexie Earp. Short for Alexandria Tonya-Rose Earp,” She said. She did a dramatic bow as soon as she stood up.

“Hi?” I cocked my head at her. So this was my five year old sister? Lexie seemed a shit ton nicer than Megara.

“Meggie is troubled. Lord Zeus promised to lift the curse for her if she- but he didn’t. He wasn’t the first to hurt her. She tries her best to be strong. I’m sure Mindy is nice. Meggie will come around to that,” Lexie said.

“Uh. Okay. So what time is it?” I asked. I didn’t want to talk about Megara anymore so that was the only thing I could think of to change the subject. Even if I already knew it was eleven thirty.

“About half past eleven. An hour before they start serving lunch.” Lexie said. An hour? Damn it, I was kinda hungry.

“Thanks. I’m going to find Mindy to talk about something,” I said.

“Is that something about the plants growing under your bed?” Lexie asked.

“What?” I looked at her.

“Plants growing through your bed. They’re under you.” Lexie pointed.

I looked at my bed. Vines and leaves were poking through my mattress. Holy shit.

“Yes, I need to go talk to her about these,” I said.

“These plants talk funny. They keep calling out to you and won’t talk to me. As if they follow only you. They only think of you,” Lexie said.

“That’s strange?” I didn’t know plants could talk or think.

“I’m going now. These plants bug me,” Lexie said.

I stared at her as she walked away.

After I got to the main stairs I realized I didn’t know where to go. So I just walked, hoping to run into someone I knew.

Soon I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around to see Kore. She smiled when she saw me.

“Hey. Where are you going?” I asked.

“My garden.” She said, her hands just above her hips.

“You have a garden? Do you mind if I come with?” I smiled; it’s not like I had anything else to do or to be. And maybe being in a garden would be good for me.

“Yes. And yes, you can.” I noticed Kore’s fingernails were painted with dark red nail polish. Like a pomegranate color.

“Thanks. So what do you grow? Pomegranates?” I smirked.

Kore smiled. “No. Mama says no. I grow flowers most. I love roses.”

“Roses are nice. I prefer daisies through.” I let her walk past me so I could follow her.

We walked in silence. I took note of the way she seemed to be lost in thought as we walked. Her eyes were bright and her mouth was tilted slightly upwards, forming a small smile. She was really pretty. Not even her large scar could dim her beauty.

A scream pierced the air. Kore looked alarm. She looked at me and signed, “Cafeteria and gym floor. Mindy scream.”

She pointed at a nearby door. I was closer so I opened it. We ran into the hall. Many others had gathered around something.

I pushed my way to the front; to Mindy. Mindy was kneeling over a body. I bent down beside her. The body belonged to Allen Raye. The boy whose mother was killed by mine. His head had a sword in it.

Mindy was sobbing. “No. No. No.”

“Mindy.” I whispered.

She looked up at me and then she hugged me. Her tears caused a wet spot on my shoulder. Electricity shocked me slightly but I didn’t mind. Around us no was paying attention to the body of Allen Raye anymore.

“They look so much alike.”

“I swear I heard Mindy calling zir her sibling.”

“I thought Bobbie was the child of Demeter.”

“Could the last Oracle have had two kids?”

“Are they twins? I know they have the same birthday.” A voice I knew said. Nina.

“Shouldn’t we be worried about the murdered boy?” Another familiar voice said. Johanna.

Mindy looked up at her. “I got a text from him. Then I found him like this.” She said. She trembled against me. I felt so bad for her. Her older brother was gone. I knew how that felt even if Macaria turned out to be a goddess, I still mourned her for days before her funeral.

Johanna took control of the situation, “Okay. Mindy, you should come with me. I’m gonna take his body to the infirmary. Multo and Florence help me with the body. Lex, go find all the Zeus kids and get them to the infirmary in room eight. Bobbie Flora, can you be a dear and get Zander to help clean up the blood, his room is on the seventh floor and it the door with the red cross painted on it and then can you come help me with some things. Everyone else needs to clear out.”

I guess there was something about the fact she was a healer and no one wanted to deal with the body except for her and those who got called out to help, or something because the mob started to leave. Except for Kore.

“Oh good you’re here already. Do you mind helping me? I’m going to send for Bec to do the funeral rites.” Johanna said.

Mindy let go of me as Johanna and the other two picked up the body. I got up and left to go get sweet little Zander. Poor kid was going to have to clean up blood, I should probably help him but Johanna wanted me to help her for some reason.

I didn’t know Allen but I still had a bad feeling in my stomach. It was probably because I wasn’t going to eat lunch today and that was rather a sad thing.

I passed a girl as I walked up the stairs.

“Hey you. Is it true?” She asked as I passed.

“Yes, Allen Raye is dead,” I said.

“Not that, trust me I don’t care too much about Allen being dead. Death happens. And I barely knew him. No, are you and Mindy really siblings?” She asked.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Incredible. The Oracle had two children. I’m Luce, daughter of Apollo.” She said. A bit of information I had forgotten flicked in my head. I was the descendant of Apollo. Fuck me.

“Nice to meet you, I best be going. See you later.” I said, probably sounding like a crazy old timey robot. I made a note to myself; avoid Apollo kids if possible after I get Zander and help Johanna.

I knocked on Zander’s door. The small boy opened it and frowned. “How many got hurt?” He asked like he knew why I was here.

“Just one. Allen Raye, he’s dead,” I told him.

His eyes grew wide and he took off running. I followed him the best I could, down a steep flight of stairs. He seemed to almost fly down them while I had to navigate each one of my steps. At the end of the stairs was a door labeled infirmary. I opened and saw Z Deak talking to Kore. Kore was frowning and her hands were balled into fists. I crept up and listened in on their conversation.

“I know you did it. You hated Allen after he cheated on you with June Grace and Michael Lin last spring!” Z yelled.

Kore stayed still. Z grabbed her arms. “Answer me! You and your sibling are nothing but monsters! They killed y’all’s own mother so how can you be much better!” He screamed at her. I took a step forward to smack the living shit out of him.

A bolt of lightning hit him in the head before I could even hit him. I leap backwards, and stood in shock. I looked over to the source of the bolt. Mindy was glaring at her brother. “Zeus Anthony Deak. I know you are not harassing Kore. You know how Allen treated her, you know about June and Michael. And the others. Kore wouldn’t hurt a fly. June or Michael would be better for you to bug. But not Kore.” Mindy said, walking up to Z and pulled him away from Kore. Z started crying. Mindy frowned, “Go lay down for a while. See if Robin is okay. You know how sensitive she is.”

He nodded and walked past me without a single word.

“Bobbie. Can you go help Johanna? I need to talk to Kore.” Mindy asked and pointed to a door. I noticed her hands had blood on them. Gods. I nodded and went to the door.

Inside the room Johanna was removing organs from Allen's body. Her face was blank and cold. It was strange. She seemed so happy and sweet when I first met her. And why wasn't an adult doing this job?

“Need any help?” I asked. She looked up at me. I tried to focus on her face and not the body.

“Yeah. Just take that paper and write down anything I tell you to do so.” Johanna pointed to a chart next to Allen.

I picked it up along with a nearby pen.

“Write cardiac cancer stage two,” She said.

I did. “He had cancer?”

“Yup. I knew his heart sounded weird but… well it doesn't matter now. Ew! Gross. Write tar in lungs, he smoked,” Johanna said. Her face twisted up in disgust.

“Why isn't there an adult to do this?” I asked as I did so.

“Mortals can't handle being here long unless they're an Oracle or pregnant with a demigod. They can only stay for an hour so they don't come most of the time. Plus I can tell things that no doctor can. I can see things quicker than them. Like the fact that there was sodium hydroxide on that sword. Or that the sword went in to the edge of his skull but didn't go through the last centimeter. Also he was stabbed after his death.” Johanna said shrugging.

“Oh. Wait so he was already dead? Then why would someone stab him?”

“Not my problem to figure out. Bec and Kore will ask their dad, Hades, who killed Allen.”

“How would he know?”

“King of the underworld. Knows all deaths. Write tattoo on penis.” She snorted.

“Are you joking?”

“Nope. He's got one. It's the name Apollo. Wait. Oh. Ew. I remember Allen making a joke about my dad’s whoreiness to my sister Abbie. She punched him so hard his nose broke. I did a piss poor job of healing him.”

“Do you think they were banging?”

“Yeah probably or the tattoo was a dare. But knowing my dad, the tattoo wasn’t a dare. Write scars and cuts on thighs. Self inflicted. Write tattoo on thigh, a lightning bolt.” Johanna told me.

I wrote it all down as a thousand thoughts raced through my head.

Did Mindy know about Allen sleeping with Apollo? Did Mindy know about the scars? Did she know about the tattoos? The smoking? And still why can't someone who isn't a child do this? Like a god. Johanna seemed like she could handle it but she was only fifteen. Fuck, I was only sixteen and yet here I was helping her with a gruesome task. And Allen was only nineteen and was now dead as a doornail.

This place seemed so different from my life before yet I felt use to it; numb to the changes that were happening. Going to Mia’s house to swim, skating with Willow at Skate World, and watching anime with Jamie at his house while his mom bakes us brownies; my old life seemed so distant, so strange.

I looked at the body of Allen. He was Mindy’s brother, he was the boy whose mother was killed by mine, he was the eldest demigod alive before now. He had a life just like me.

“You know, this isn’t the first dead body I’ve worked on. I had three older brothers, Levi, Merlin, and Kane who died. Levi was only a few months older than Allen. Someone summoned a horrible monster. The Minotaur. Sixteen demigods were killed. I was the only healer left. The only one who could do this job. I am use to this after all that. And then there was Harry and Garnet. This is nothing.” Johanna said as she started to cut open Allen’s head.

“Can I see the papers for Harry and Garnet?” I asked without a single thought. I wanted to see where the curse affected them.

“No. They were sick but their organs had no damage. A curse leaves no trace,” She said.

“Oh.”

“That’s disgusting. Write brain is slush. Or mush. Both words work. Bloody damn!” Johanna screamed the last part. I looked up from the paper to see she had jumped away from the body.

“What?” I asked her, alarmed.

“Run!” She yelled. Then I saw it. Something was climbing out of Allen’s head. I froze up. Soon the brain matter covered thing was out and on the floor. Johanna had climbed onto a table.

The door swung opened behind me. I heard Mindy’s scream. I stayed frozen. I started to call any plant to come help. Soon I noticed green things sticking in through the floor. Vines.

Trap it. I commanded them.