Before the Dawn | open

Melanie slowly walked through the woods on her way back to the House of Hades. She’d been gone for two weeks and her only communication with Concordia had only consisted of two missives: one to let her siblings know she wouldn’t be home and the final call for retrieval when the mission was finally over. Aimery and Lilith had probably been informed of her presence, and chances were that they weren’t quite worried about where she had been anyways. Neither of them had the clearance to discuss her missions, except for Aimery on the occasion that the council called him to represent the house. Only then did he know what exactly she had been doing. Lilith would have the clearance someday, but for now Melanie knew she couldn’t confide in her sister without risking severe punishment, or worse, for both of them.

The house seemed farther away than usual, most likely because of the injuries to her hip and shoulder. Just because she didn’t let it affect her demeanor, didn’t mean that it was effecting her actual movements. To the average passerby, she probably looked like someone out for a leisurely stroll, which is what she preferred. She was hurt, not incompetent.

Damn Aimery for building this thing as far out as he possibly could. She thought to herself as she spied a fallen log alongside the path she was currently following. Melanie almost sat down on the welcoming perch, but stopped short as she heard a noise behind her. The monsters found on the island had never been completely eradicated, and most of them resided in the woods. Normally they didn’t come inland, but occasionally they did make it past the patrols. Reaching under the jacket she had acquired from her locker back in the barracks, she grasped the handle of one of her knives and began to remove it from its sheath.

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, telling Espn it was probably time to stop with the partying and go back to her little apartment. Just as she stood and was about tell her sister she was heading out, a boy from the Dionysus group back at camp poked her in the ribs and dared her to a "test of courage". Apparently that meant leaving the safety of their bon fire and exploring a deep, dark part of the woods. She wasn't supposed to come back until she found another person to join their party or could prove to them that she ran into a monster. Perfect. Another stupid demi-god game. Unfortunately she wasn't about to back down from a dare.

Without even blinking Espn grinned and took off, feeling the buzz of alcohol coursing through her veins as she stumbled through the trees. It didn't take long for the light of their fire to disappear from view. It was only then that she realized she was surrounded by unfamiliar territory. It wasn't like her it be in the woods all alone. As if to make her feel worse, a rustling alerted her to something beyond a clump of trees. Espn wrapped her fingers around a chopstick that has been holding her hair in place. She felt her tresses tumble around her neck as she peered around a tree trunk and tried to see what was moving.

The only reason she knew it was human was because of the glint of light that hit a knife the person had. She was coming up behind them and, preparing for a freaked out demi-god, held her hands up, "Hey."

Turning quickly towards the sound of another person's voice, Melanie barely registered the familiar sounding tone. Another woman was walking towards Melanie with her hands raised, still under the cover of darkness. With a few more steps, she was close enough for Melanie to make out the face of one person that she would probably never quite forget, Espn Cassidy.

After sheathing the knife, Melanie took a few steps towards Espn, trying to gauge the situation. She recognized that look anywhere. Espn was drunk, very drunk, and wandering around in the woods just before sunrise. Melanie wasn't quite sure what she was doing, probably because they hadn't talked in at least four years. Probably longer. They had been close once, but with Melanie's new career and Espn's lifestyle they hadn't been able to make things work. Maybe that had just been Melanie though. She was more than slightly aware that she had cut almost everyone out of her life, even Aimery for a while.

"Espn? What are you doing out here at this time of the morning? Shouldn't you be getting ready for work?" she questioned while approaching the daughter of Aphrodite.

Work? Espn narrowed her eyes at her old friend and shook her head, digging into her pocket and wrapping her fingers around her iPhone. She pulled it out and squinted at the screen, letting herself relax, "No school on Saturday." She confirmed aloud before turning her eyes back to Melanie.

Even though it had been more than a few moments since she ran into the girl, Espn was only just now responding, "Melanie!" Espn jumped forward and swung her arms around Melanie's neck, knocking her to the ground. She had temporarily forgotten that they hadn't been speaking since Melanie fell off the grid a few years ago.

Once again, she didn't react the quickest. She stood awkwardly hugging her old friend before recognizing that they couldn't really be considered 'friends' anymore. She pulled away and took a few steps back, smiling strangely and trying to probe Melanie's feeling to make sure she hadn't completely crossed a line.

The sudden impact almost knocked Melanie over. She hadn't been prepared for the contact and the shock left her speechless. She wasn't used to being touched anymore. When she had still been a part of that crowd, Melanie wouldn't have thought about it twice. She had hugged Espn more times than she could count, but that had been years ago. Melanie only knew what she did and where she had been because one of her informants had passed on the information about a year ago. She hadn't checked in on Espn since.

Then again, once the shock wore off she wasn't necessarily upset. Melanie had to admit that she missed Espn from time to time, whenever she had enough time to really think about her life and everything that she had lost or left behind. It was bittersweet.

Espn knew that, and it was written across her face. Silently cursing herself for forgetting that Espn was an empath, Melanie attempted to get her conflicting emotions under control as quickly as her head and heart would allow. She had been there early on, during the days where Espn's power had raged out of control and knew how bad things could get for her.

Espn still didn't like invading other people's emotions. It seemed wrong, and honestly she didn't like bothering herself with other peoples problems. It was like, she is too selfish to actually care but too nice to just let people off without helping them if they are having a hard time. But it did come in handy in moments like this.

Melanie seemed a little confused about how she felt. It was like, Espn was her friend, but they were so far removed from each other that she wasn't sure how to react. In true Espn fasion, the Aphrodite girl wrapped her arm around Melanie's shoulder and grinned, "Come! They guys are all back together! It's reunion night! It wouldn't be right if you weren't there!" She started to tug the girl along, ignoring any feeling of regrets the Hades girl might have been feeling.

"Espn, I can't." Melanie argued as the daughter of Aphrodite pulled her along. In reality, that was a lie. She could go back to them any time she wanted and she knew it, but she didn't quite know how to live in both worlds. Yes she sometimes met up with the guys and messed around, but they knew that they couldn't rely on her to be around from day to day. Every once in a blue moon when life became a little too much to handle and she needed to forget who she was, the beach and whatever alcohol someone managed to scare up tended to become her best friend. She could be Mel again for a second, not agent Melanthios Thorn, head of intelligence. It was inevitable, however, that she would wake up and the hangover would fade. she would go back to work and their lives would go on like she had never left, until she came back again.

Espn was a different story though. Those initial weeks after they had started falling apart had been hard on both of them, or that was what she had heard. If they went there now, she didn't know what would happen. Sure, they would be fine for a few days, maybe a week, but then she would have to leave again. What would be worse, leaving now and not knowing what would happen or staying for the fallout when things went sour again?

Espn hardly paused before she started dragging Melanie along again, "Oh, of course you can!" She grinned and leaned her head on the other girl's shoulder, "You want to, I can tell! Besides, you're lying!" Espn's empathy raging as she pushed passed one of the many branches.

Finally they were nearing the group, their fire appearing in the corner of her eye. She wondered if she should stop and let Melanie off the hook. This would be the point of no return for her. After thinking about it for a split second, Espn shook her head, letting her brown hair bounce around her shoulders playfully, and pulled Melanie out into the clearing.

The minute they entered the light the whole group turned around a hollered. By now, the sun was almost completely up, kind of ruining the point of the bonfire. Not that any of them cared. They had a couple palettes of wine still sitting behind a group of the Dionysus boys and were ready to keep the party going until they all passed out in the sun, "LOOK WHO'S BACK!" Espn yelled, bouncing into the group happily, tripping over a root as she went.

Melanie grumbled incoherently at the greeting, but still reached out to steady Espn when she tripped. The bonfire was hot and the sun was rising quickly, which only increased her want to go home. They had already seen her though so she couldn't quite justify leaving. If she had wanted to go, she should've left long before then. Overpowering Espn would've been easy in her inebriated state and she wouldn't have even had to hurt the girl to do it.

Instead she continued to follow her old friend, even after she had let go of her hold on Melanie's arm. She didn't follow her to the center of the group, deciding to find a nice log to sit on while she gauged the situation. On one hand, the people here could accept her back with open arms. Then again they could shun her and they would have every right to do so. She wasn't quite sure what was worse, and the line of thought led her to grabbing the nearest bottle of wine and taking a long swig.

Espn could feel Melanie's hesitation to completely rejoin the group. She could easily tell that they girl was wondering if she would be easily accepted back into the ranks of the partiers and she could even feel the curiosity and excitement of the rest of the group. In order to lighten the mood, Espn giggled and threw herself onto a tree stump next to Melanie.

She leaned over and wrapped her arms around Mel's neck and smiled at everyone, "Isn't it so exciting?!" Espn offered giggled and taking the bottle from Melanie's hands. She could feel her buzz dying and wanted to get ahold of it quickly before she was suffering from the world's worst hangover. She took a few gulps of the red liquid, smiling and offering it to the boy on her right.

There was suddenly a shift in the group. The boy took the wine and smiled and Espn could feel him loosening up to Melanie. It would be long before they were all laughing together just like old times.

Not a minute later, the girls had scooted around and were asking Melanie every question that came to mind. They were curious what she had been up to, why she had stopped seeing them, and many other things that goo along with a person being absent for so long.

Fielding the questions as well as she could, Melanie began to relax a little bit. The sun was rising and the alcohol was flowing, she had drunk enough that she could function in the situation. Some guy was sitting close on her left, invading her personal space enough that she could easily lean against his shoulder if she wanted to. Espn however, was on her right chatting away with another girl from their old group. One arm was casually draped around Melanie's shoulders while the other held a new bottle of alcohol, something pink and fruity. She wasn't entirely sure that it was wine, but it looked interesting so she reached over and took it.

There were so  many new faces, people she would have to get to know. At one point that would've been exciting, but now it was slightly daunting. Today she would enjoy herself though, as she really didn't have any choice at this point. The people were funny, the sun was warm, and the wine was good. Sure, the Commander would have her head if he found out she was this excessively drunk, but it would be worth the scolding and the hangover that was sure to come in the morning.

The sun was bright in the sky now. Espn was having a hard time keeping her eyes open all the way and felt a rumble in her stomach telling her it was time to eat if she didn't want to throw up all the alcohol she'd been drinking the last twelve hours. She stood up and started to speak, but her voice wasn't as loud as she had expected. She crossed her arm for a moment before one of the her sisters elbowed Melanie in the gut and silence fell over the circle, "I vote we send someone to get food!" She announced.

There was a wave of agreement across the circle and Espn started to point at people in the circle, "Eeny, meeny, miney, mo..." She smiled brightly, making sure to skip over Melanie in her counting, "My mother told me to pick the very best one and you are IT!" The Dionysus boy that had provided that nights refreshments groaned outwardly, complaining about how much of pain it was going to be.

"Then I'll take Melanie with me, help me carry." He said, drunk and stumbling. He grabbed Melanie's arm and pulled her up hard. Espn was surprised he didn't actually hurt the girl doing it.

Not quite prepared for the quick movement of her male companion, Melanie almost fell towards the fire when he wrenched her from her seat. He was lucky that he had grabbed her good arm, otherwise she would have taken a great deal more offense to what he had just done. However, the gods had smiled upon him that day. Instead she chose to follow him, the alcohol numbing her mind and body enough that she didn't quite care. They headed in the direction of the food court, stopping at some fast food place that she normally didn't eat at due to her solitary preferences. After ordering almost ten of everything on the menu, which Melanie chose to pay for much to the surprise of her friend, they finally made their way back towards the beach. Of course, it didn't occur to her until they were almost back that they simply could've ordered pizza from that 24 hour delivery place that they had put in last year.

As soon as they made it close enough to be noticed, the group began to cheer. The bags were quickly taken from her hands and laid on top of  a blanket someone had pulled out. When everyone had settled in with some food, she walked over to get some for herself. The sons of Dionysus had made their way back over to the Aphrodite girls, allowing her to take a moment to collect herself before moving back to Espn's side, which wasn't an easy task considering how many of her sisters had chosen that moment to sit around her. However, she did manage to find a spot on the opposite side of the log from the fire, slightly behind her friend. From here she could watch the ocean and eat her breakfast in a relative amount of peace, though her aching shoulder would remind her for at least a few more days to come of the importance of pizza.

Espn was as excited as the next person for the sudden arrival of food. But then again, Melanie sure did look comfortable over there...

After grabbing what she wanted and prying herself away from the words of her siblings, Espn joined Melanie on her log and smile nicely, "Thanks for coming, Mel." She sighed, watching the waves and swaying back and forth with the sound of the water rushing up the sand. It wasn't long before the food was all gone and people were starting to leave or just curl up on the ground and pass out there. It was actually kind of an interesting show of character. The Dionysus and Bacchus kids were all laying together, staring at the trees and smiling as they drifted off, and all of Espn's siblings were bowing out gracefully, certain that sleeping outdoors didn't count as "beauty sleep". Honestly, Espn agreed completely.

She turned her eyes to Melanie, watching her before saying quietly, as to not wake up the other, "So really, what have you been up to?"

" I can't tell you everything E. You have to know that." Melanie started after a few long moments of thought. If anything, Espn deserved a reason for why things had gone the way they did. "You know I joined the Garrison after...well, you know. No need to re-hash that part of the past. Let's just say that they found out I had some talent in a few areas they were lacking in and my work is much more dangerous than it used to be. I'm rarely on Concordia and when I am I'm working almost as hard as when I am gone. I don't have a social life, and I have to admit that partially I don't want one. People are too fragile. I'd rather lose all of you now and watch your lives from a distance than be the reason why they end. I can't save everyone, and I know that, so don't give me the lecture again. But I can control what happens. I can keep away the distractions and the attachments and do the best work I can to ensure that it doesn't happen again, and when it does I'll do what I can until I join my father and brother forever." she rambled, knowing that half of what she said probably didn't make sense.

She observed Espn for a long moment, not sure how she would react to the sudden outburst of emotion. Melanie had no right to lay everything on the woman like that, but the alcohol had loosened her up enough to make her care just enough less to let it go. They wanted her to talk, and here she was. She had said the words out loud and there was no going back, even if she tried.