Chapter 4: I Make Friends with Death... Sorta.

We walked the other half of the cabin area. Cabin four was Demeter, a green and brown farmhouse surrounded by plants and crops, and overgrown with ivy. Cabin six was for Athena, a white and tan renaissance style house, with a statue of an owl next to the red wood door. It almost reminded me of a library.

Then there was cabin eight, which was left vacant for the goddess Artemis. Thankfully, I knew she didn't really do kids, since she had sworn off marriage and men. It spared me a lecture from Sephora. The cabin was a silvery white wood home, with paintings of white deer and huntresses in the woods. I was told that it moves in the moonlight, acting almost like an animation. 

Cabin ten reminded me of a pastel dollhouse. It was a typical townhouse style, painted a pastel pink, with white trim, and sky blue window sills. Pink and white flowers grew in flower boxes near the door, which was painted white with bright, neon pink hearts and roses adorning it. I knew right away it was Aphrodite.

At the end of the loop was a small Cape Cod looking house, painted brown with white trim. It had purple shutters, and grape vines growing up the pillars of the front porch. Cabin twelve, Dionysus. A little to the left of the porch was a fountain of a man lounging, his cup tilted slightly, spilling reddish-purple water into the basin below. 

"It's just water, of course," Sephora had told me. "Hermes kids would go wild if it weren't."

Cabin thirteen was something I wanted to steer clear of. It was a black house, much like those seen in horror movies, with dead, thorny vines climbing up one side. A statue of a weeping woman sat nearby the front porch, where an old, dark wooden rocking chair seemed to continuously rock, even without the wind. A realistic skull hung over the doorway, the mouth open to show a black stone with a tiny '13' carved into it. After refusing to go closer, I was made aware that it was Hades' cabin. 

As we were walking towards cabin fourteen, we ran into someone. Sephora grabbed for my hand, her own shaking just a bit. I looked up and saw him. The guy looked like a walking corpse, pale with sunken eyes, dark hair, and the wardrobe of a Hot Topic fanatic. He stood just below eye level with me, and his hair was black, fluffy, and very, very choppy. His eyes reminded me of gold, with how light brown they were. He wore pants that had two patterns on them- one a black and white pinstripe, the other a black and red checkerboard. His shoes were black combat boots with white laces. He wore a shaggy, ripped black long sleeve shirt, with a three-headed dog embroidered over the heart. Directly under his eyes, there was a small mole- and a nasty scar along his cheekbone.

He radiated pure death. 

"That's Jasper Graves. He's a bit of a wanderer. He's been through Tartarus, and back," Sephora whispered, "No one's been able to talk to him since the quest ended last year." 

"I.. see." I muttered. Jasper and I ended up locking eyes, and for a moment I saw his open just a bit wider, before he raised a few fingers in a light-hearted wave. "He doesn't seem that bad."

"If you want to talk to him, that's all you. I'll go head off and see if I can get you signed up for something, like archery practice, or rock-climbing," Sephora patted my back, as if reassuring me, before immediately scurrying off, casually stepping aside to avoid Jasper. I assumed her not being a demigod had something to do with how creeped out she was. She was never one for the scary or weird.

"Um, hello!" I waved towards Jasper, who was now walking up the creaking stairs of the Hades cabin. He turned back towards me, before nodding his head, inviting me to come in. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. 'Ren! The place looks like the house of a serial killer! Don't go in! That's the number one cause of horror movie deaths!' Well, I'm not the brightest. 

I followed him up the stairs, which creaked with every movement. At least there's no sneaking into this cabin. 

"I assume you know my name?" Jasper spoke softly, his voice raspy- as if he were parched. "I'm Jasper, Son of Hades."

"Oh, yeah… Sephora told me. I'm, um.. Ren, Son of… Estelle?" I couldn't really related to the whole 'godly parent' thing yet.

The inside of the cabin was a bit less scary. I realized that a few cabins had significantly less people in them. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Hades only had one camper each, according to Sephora. Artemis had none, but her Hunters stayed there from time to time. The Hades cabin was laid out like a Victorian home. Once you walked in, a living room adorned with statues of skeletal animals was the first thing you were greeted with. A black velvet sofa, a bookshelf filled with a few old books, some bones, and some questionable things that looked like urns. There was a large stone fireplace, in which burned a pale green fire. 

The room directly behind the living room was a small breakfast nook area. The walls were black with skulls that seemed to appear in the sunlight. A circular, dark wood table and matching chairs sat in the center of the room. From the ceiling hung taxidermied bats, each in a different motion of flying. There was a singular, narrow staircase in the corner, likely leading up to the attic room.

"Welcome, to my humble abode," Jasper said, waving a hand around as if he were less than enthusiastic to have a guest. "My predecessor was an eccentric. Liked all sorts of things from his travels. Really laid into the 'Underworld' vibes."

"I see," I said, nodding slowly. I didn't see. I had no idea what he was talking about. 

"I spend most of my time traveling the world, anyways, so the decorations stayed how they were for the last.. Few years. Make yourself comfortable," Jasper pointed to the velvet couch, which looked rather pristine, especially since the room felt dusty. Now that I think about it… Everything was spotless.

"It's nice in here," I complimented, taking a seat on the surprisingly plush sofa, inspecting the skeletal remains of 'Marble' the weasel. 

"Thanks, I try to keep it clean. It's been empty for a while, until I came to camp. Even the cleaning harpies didn't like coming in, so they didn't bother," Jasper took a seat in the armchair, which matched the sofa. He picked up one of the bones from the shelf, and all of a sudden the other bones started to rattle, forming together almost like legos. It created the shape of a cat, it's bony self resting in Jasper's lap. 

"Woah," I couldn't help that my jaw dropped, "You can reanimate the dead?" 

"Yeah," Jasper stated, giving the skeletal cat some well deserved scratches to its spine, "But it's nothing compared to what my predecessor could do. He was amazing, able to summon armies of undead.. Mine only works with one or two beings."

"Still, that's awesome! I'm still on stage one of the whole 'demigod' thing. I haven't found out who my godly parent is," I leaned back into the sofa. Any further, and I'd likely become lost in it.

"You'll probably be claimed at dinner, in front of the entire camp. That's how most of us were claimed…" His voice trailed off. 

"I assume you weren't claimed like that?" I asked curiously, finding myself compelled. 

"Almost all demigods are lucky their parents claim them after they arrive at camp, and others," he gestured to himself, "get claimed before they come here."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Not unless you have a death wish," Jasper spoke promptly, his words full of warning. "I was thirteen, I got claimed by Hades- one of the Big Three- and all of a sudden, every monster known to mankind decided I was the tastiest snack on the planet."

"So you're saying, once you know you're a half-blood, monsters can, like, find you?" I felt a little dumb repeating that. 

"It just makes it easier for them to track you down. Demigods have a smell to them, and certain auras that attract monsters. Once you know about it, the scent gets stronger- especially as you get older. However," The skeletal cat jumped onto the shelves it's bones were stored on, curling up for a nap, "When you reach adulthood, monsters tend to stay away. You're usually too strong for them to want to attack, so they'll go for the next best-smelling half-blood."

"And with me being seventeen?" I asked slowly, trailing off at the end.

"You're at the prime time of eating for monsters. I'm seventeen too, and it's been getting difficult to travel out of camp. Some demigods stay until they turn nineteen, some even become guides once they graduate from being a camper."

It all felt so new to me, yet things felt like a usual summer camp. 

"Others choose to go to Camp Jupiter, on the West Coast, to go to college and live life peacefully," Jasper rested his chin on his hand, staring at me with those golden eyes.

"Camp Jupiter?"

"The camp for Roman demigods- granted we both allow demigods from either pantheon to come and go. New Rome is a great place to live forever, without worrying about monsters. My cousin went to live there, and now he's got a job as an engineer for the legion- oh. Sorry, a lot of information," Jasper sank back into his chair, eyes drifting off to one of the bone statues, "Sephora and I don't get along, honestly. She's a mortal who escaped death, and I'm a demigod that emits an aura of death. She's just scared I'll drag her to the Underworld, or something… Most campers are."

"Escaped death? What do you mean?" What was he talking about? Sephora's always had a normal life, aside from her side hustle as a camper at a fantasy camp land, where myths are real. 

"Not my place to say, but some day she'll have to face her fate and make a choice. That's what my dad said when he allowed her to leave the Underworld with Hera."

In the distance, a horn sounded, Evening rays shined in through the window, painting the interior of the cabin a rich orange. 

"It's dinner time- you can sit with me."