Samson decided he must be hallucinating; maybe the shrooms he and his band took last night were still in his system. It was the only logical explanation for everything that had transpired in the past hour.

His and Lena's shredded graduation gowns were the single remnant of evidence that something out of the ordinary had occurred. Aside from the shredded sleeve, his arm showed no indication of injury, and Lena's back was the same. Now, this stranger was telling them that this chimera-thing had been after them.

Samson shook his head in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?"

The stranger–Lena had called him Major–crossed his arms again and shifted on his feet, his brow furrowed. "The chimera wanted you two."

To Samson's left, Lena was uncharacteristically quiet.

"Why?" Samson asked in a small voice.

Major bit his lip like he wasn't exactly sure how to explain this situation better. "Because you're demigods." He gestured towards Lena's clenched left hand resting in her lap. "Marked demigods, to be exact."

Lena ran a hand through her hair and let out a breath. "Demigods? Like children of gods?"

Major nodded.

Samson's attention shifted to his sister. Her eyes narrowed into slits, lost in thought, her gaze fixed on the now silent flashing lights illuminating the red shadows on her face. He remained quiet.

"And that thing—chimera," she corrected herself. "Was after us because we are children of a god?"

Major nodded again.

Lena's eyes snapped toward Major's face; anger in her own. "And what insane asylum did you escape from today?"

"I am not insane." Major snarled at her. "You—you both are the children of Apollo."

"The Greek god of the sun?" Lena scoffed. "We also won the lottery the other night and are now multi-millionaires." She flicked her arms up in emphasis on the craziness of the implication.

"Our father is Aaron King." Samson stated.

Major kept his eyes on Lena's, and she his, but he spoke to Samson. "He may have raised you and helped hide you, but Apollo is the one who sired you."

Samson rolled his eyes. Major was delusional.

Memories of his father buying him his first guitar flashed through his mind's eye. Samson had been fascinated with all types of musical instruments for as long as he could remember. He always bugged his parents to let him take guitar lessons—or any sort of musical lessons at all, Samson just wanted to get his hands on anything that could make music. His mother always put a halt to it, claimed that they were already too busy.

That was until his father decided on his tenth birthday it was time to get Samson what he wanted. Aaron took him to a music store, and let Samson touch and test every single instrument in the shop. Nothing held a stronger pull on Samson like the guitars. There was just something about strumming the strings that resonated with Samson, like that was what he was meant to be doing. Strumming strings.

His father's eyes never shone with pride as much as it did that day with Samson.

Now this stranger claimed that Aaron King wasn't his father, but some god was...

Samson didn't care if he was right about the monster being the chimera from Greek mythology and was in fact real, like he said. Major was not right about this.

"That's a bunch of bullshit." Lena spat.

Major shrugged. "Only demigods can see past the glamour that surrounds the monsters—you two, and myself, obviously, saw the Chimera." He pointed at Samson's shredded sleeve. "It also attacked you. Meaning you're Marked."

Samson's brow rose in question.

Sure, he heard of demigods and the myths surrounding them; they're children of gods or goddesses and humans, making them half-god and half-human in at least some stories, but none of them mentioned being Marked. Or maybe they had? The only story he knew somewhat well was The Odyssey, and that's because his literature class had studied it.

"What does that mean?" Samson asked.

Major took his eyes off Lena and looked at Samson. "A demigod does not acquire their godly parents' powers; yes, they gain some supernatural-like abilities from their parents; most notable are those who are special in a certain ability," Samson noted that Major nervously flicked his hand around while he talked. "Like Amelia Earhart was the daughter of Zeus, Marilyn Monroe was Aphrodite's daughter, and George Washington was the son of Ares."

Samson at least recognized the names of the Greek gods Major spoke of.

"Though if they knew of their natural lineage or not," Major shrugged. "I don't know, but it's doubtful." Major shifted his weight between his feet nervously on the next part. "Marked demigods, however, receive all of their patron's powers."

"And you somehow believe Samson and I are like them?" Lena rolled her eyes. "Aaron King is our father."

Major held out his arm, his palm facing toward them, and made a circular motion with his hand. "Obviously not."

Samson heeded the mark on the pad of Major's thumb, the exact spot where his and Lena's birthmarks lay.

A lightning bolt. Lena must've noticed it, too, because she looked at Samson, eyes concerned.

"Where are Mom and Dad?" she asked.

Samson looked up. He went to find them after he dropped Lena off with the paramedics by the ambulance, but the paramedics insisted on looking at him, even though he kept explaining he was alright. And lo-and-behold, he was right. There was nothing wrong with him at all, even with one of his classmates, Olivia Benson, who had walked by frantically informing the paramedics that he was the one on the stage during the explosion.

"I haven't seen them," Samson told her.

Lena jumped to her feet, all thoughts of Major and his information eddied out of her mind. Samson flung out his arm, attempting to steady her from the fast movement, but even Lena acted like she healed from the blow to her head.

"We need to find them."

She went to go past Major, but he gripped her arm. Samson shot to his feet at that movement, jaw clenched. Heat tingled his hands.

"Let go," Lena said slowly through gritted teeth.

Samson knew that tone had been on the receiving end of that tone, and his body flinched out of pure instinct.

"I still need to talk to you both," Major insisted, pulling on her elbow leading her back to the ambulance.

"Let. Go." Lena said icily.

Samson smiled; if Major did not let her go, he was about to learn the hard way what Lena could do when someone got in her way. Samson had seen her take down men twice her size without her being provoked; he could only imagine what would be in store for Major.

Major sensed this as well and pulled his hand away, and if Samson couldn't tell any better, it almost looked like he winced in pain. Samson followed his sister, passing Major and shooting a glare at the other boy.

They searched the area for what felt like twenty minutes, with no sign of their parents. An ambulance pulled out of the parking lot, revealing his sister staring down at her phone.

"Do you think he's right?" Lena asked, hearing Samson approach.

Samson ran a hand through his hair. "I- uh, don't know." He glanced over to the now lesser flame of the school. "I feel like if Dad wasn't our actual dad, then they would've told us, you know?" Samson shrugged. "But I also know that the last hour has felt like a scene straight out of a fantasy movie."

Lena glanced up from her phone, her silver eyes glazed. "I did catch a few of our classmates talking about the explosion and the randomness. The favored conclusion was there was some sort of electrical mishap. No one mentioned the monster straight from mythology."

"But if what Major said about the chimera was right, only demigods could see it, and it was after us..."

"Then it'd mean he's right." Lena glanced down at her palm. "That we're not just demigods, we're Marked, and we have powers—whatever that's supposed to mean."

Samson raised up his once shredded, now fully healed arm, "I'm inclined to agree with him." He nodded his head toward the direction of her back.

Lena sighed and began walking back to the way they left Major.

"First things first, we need to find Mom and Dad to make sure they're okay," Lena said.

Samson hummed in agreement.

"Then we figure out this whole demigod thing and see if there's any truth to it."

Samson hummed once more.

Major approached the twins, and Lena halted abruptly, causing Samson to nearly run her over. His sister put her right hand on her hip and pointed with her left finger.

"You." She said. "Are coming with us."

Major raised his brow in question at her, whether to inquire "where to" or that she had the audacity to address him with that tone.

"You're the only one with a pointy metal thing, and we might need it if what you say is true."

***