“I want out! I wanna run! I don’t like sitting for 6 straight hours…. At least at home I got to do my school work in my time and got to take breaks when I wanted and got to run around when I needed… I want out of this metal prison box! I can’t even sit crisscrossed! I have to sit up dad. UP!” I complained like a little kid, not like the teenager I was.

“Archie. Me and Mom hate it too. We wished you were just a mortal with good reflexes. But that’s not true. Babe, I told you we should have lived closer to New York.” My dad replied to my complaint and then addressed my mom.

“Honey, I really wished it was safe enough for us to be. But it’s in urban areas, with so much western culture. Out in the country like our house is is safe, monsters haven't found us for 20 years and haven't found Archie-“

“Knock on wood mom! We don’t need to get jinxed.” I held out my pencil for her to knock on, which she did, 3 times.

“There. We’re not jinxed.” My mom said it again.

“Mom! That’s how you get us Jinxed! Knock on the wood again!” I kept my pencil out and she knocked on it again, 3 times.

“Archie, what are you so worried about?” My dad asked.

I paused for a moment, gathered my thoughts. Then I spoke, “I’m scared. I don’t want to run into a monster… I don’t know how to fight and… and what if one of you get hurt? You're both still mortals too… kinda but you get it! You can’t live forever… And what if we don’t make it to the camp in time? And what about my friends back in Iwao? I’m just gonna be gone with no context for them. What if they think I’m ghosting them? What about them?”

My parents were quiet for a moment. Then my mom spoke up, “Archie. You are so much more than just a demo-god. Do you have friends? Yes. But you’re friends aren’t gonna just think you abandoned them. This is just temporary. We don’t know what to do because you seem to have a mix of both gods’ powers. Meaning you are special. Not like me or dad, but like both of us. But what’s interesting is that you don’t seem to be able to see through the mist. Which is even more concerning as you are a demi-god. So right now, your safety matters to us. We just need you to be able to know how to defend yourself if a monster were to attack and we need you to be able to protect yourself. Also we need you to be able to have the mist more thinned for you. It effected me and your dad. We saw it as hazel eyes shifting color, when your eyes are bright, we can tell more because we know. Mine shift color too, but does it look like I have hazel eyes to you?”

I looked into the mirror, “Yeah. You look like you have hazel eyes.”

“See? Its dangerous not being able to see through the mist. We’d hopped that you seeing through the mist would be you telling us you’re a demi-god like us, not you accidentally causing a power outage. In the entire building like your grandpa.” She was talking about Apollo

“Yeah… at least it naturally turned back on unlike his, your grandma needed to turn it back on.” My dad nodded to my mom’d words, as he added his little point about Iris.

Should I call them my grandpa and grandma? I didn’t really know.