It's Either War or Peace

Katie Vereeka's Point of View

Later that day, I left Alice alone in my room to watch a movie I had no desire to see. There was too much of that lovey-dovey crap in it. Yuck. Not for me.

I headed down to the third floor to see what Demi was up to. Joe wasn’t here today because he, Jackson, and Rip went on some trip. None of them would tell us a single detail about it.

I knocked on Demi’s door.

“Come in,” she said.

I slipped in and closed the door again. Demi was sprawled out on a couch that sat in a faraway corner of her room. She had her nose in a Vogue magazine.

I sat on the floor in front of the couch. “What are you up to?” I asked.

Demi didn’t look at me. “Reading.”

“A boring magazine?”

Demi looked at me, appalled. “It’s not boring. It’s Vogue! How can Vogue be boring?”

I shrugged. “I’m not a fashionista, remember? Think about the outfit I was wearing when I came here.”

Demi made a face of utter disgust. Yup. She definitely remembered it. She went back to her magazine.

I went over my conversation with Alice in my head. Did Demi know anything about the demigods? Most of all, what did she think of Alice now? Was she against Alice biting me? Only one way to find out.

“Demi, what do you think about Alice?” I asked.

Demi didn’t look up from her magazine. “She’s cool. Why?”

“You aren’t against her idea of biting me?”

“Nope. I understand where she was coming from. You became the friend she never had since you were in her visions for so long. Of course she didn’t want you to die. I probably would’ve done the same thing if I was in her shoes. Besides, if she did leave you there to die, I wouldn’t have the awesome, thirteen year old adopted sister I have now.” Demi turned a page and then looked at me. She smiled.

I giggled. “Thanks.”

“No problemo,” Demi said.

“Do you know what Joe thinks of her?” I asked.

“He understands Alice’s side too,” Demi said. “He just wishes you weren’t so young.” She went back to reading her magazine again.

Her bookshelf in the corner of her room caught my eye. I crawled over to it and sat down, gazing at the titles. All of the spines were perfect. The books themselves looked like they were just bought from a store not even a week ago. Demi was like me when it came to reading. I absolutely loved to read when I was a human. I never read now because I didn’t have any books (must ask Demi if I could borrow some of hers). The books I left at home looked brand-new too because I was always paranoid about ruining them. I hated when a spine was broken right down the middle on a paperback. That white line annoyed the hell out of me. I stopped letting people borrow my books because once I got a book back with its spine broken. Oh, the horror I went through!

I rubbed my fingers along the spines of the books. Ah. I missed doing this. Demi had books about all sorts of things. I found the Hush, Hush series (was that series real too?) and then Maximum Ride series (it would be pretty creepy if this was real). While looking, I found The Twilight Saga. I giggled. Demi had every Twilight book, even The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner and The Official Illustrated Guide. I almost pulled the guide off the shelf but then something caught my eye. On the bottom shelf was the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. All. Five. Books. Demi even had the guide.

I crawled back to Demi. “You read the Percy Jackson series?” I exclaimed.

Demi looked over at her bookshelf and then at me. “Well, yeah,” she said. “The books are there for a reason.”

“How were they?”

“I honestly thought they were great.” Demi closed the Vogue magazine and sat up on the couch.

“Does it creep you out that they actually happened?” I asked.

“Jeez Katie. You ask tons of questions, don’t you?” Demi began to laugh.

“Hey man, I’m new to this immortal stuff,” I said.

Demi laughed again. “To answer your question, it only creeps me out a little. At the same time it doesn’t. I don’t know why. But it did teach me a lot about Greek mythology.”

“Tell me some facts,” I said.

“Well, Kronos – he’s evil – is the father of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Zeus to me is, like, the god of all gods. He’s the god of the sky. Poseidon is the god of the sea and Hades is the god of the underworld.”

“Do you know any other gods?”

Demi nodded. “Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war, Ares is the god of war, Apollo is the god of music and medicine, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and Hermes is the god of thievery. There are still tons more but those are the gods and goddesses everyone knows. One that not a lot of people know is Hephaestus. He’s the god of fire.”

I recognized all of them except Hephaestus. “Okay. Now tell me all you know about demigods.”

“The demigods are half mortal and half immortal. The immortal parent is a Greek god. The Big Three – Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – have only one or two children each. Zeus has one daughter named Thalia. Poseidon’s two sons are Percy and Tyson. Tyson is a Cyclops. Hades’ son is Nico and he had a daughter named Bianca but she died. The rest of the gods and goddesses have many, many children. A lot of them have specific descriptions too. Athena’s kids for example have blonde hair and gray eyes.”

“I had blonde hair and gray eyes as a human!” I exclaimed.

Demi gave me a weird look but then went on with what she was saying. “Athena’s kids are also born through thought.”

I raised an eyebrow. How the hell does that happen?

“That’s pretty much it,” Demi said. “The rest is that they’re trained to fight monsters and stuff.”

“What I want to know is what is a god or goddess doing have sex with a mortal?” I asked.

Demi laughed. “Katie, gods and goddesses can change their forms. They change themselves into human form and then let the magic happen.”

“Oh. I knew that,” I said sarcastically.

Demi rolled her eyes. “Sure you did.”

“Did you hear about the demigod girl whose parents are both gods?” I asked.

Demi nodded. “She’s finding out through a surprise party right? Yup. I heard of her. She’s technically a full ‘goddess’. But I guess they don’t say she is since she’s really not a goddess of anything. Her mother is Athena and her father is Poseidon.”

My eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“Some of her information is already on a whole bunch of websites,” Demi said. “None of them say her name though.”

I stayed quiet. Am I supposed to tell Alice this or what? I didn’t know which was worst: figuring out the demigod (or full goddess?) out to kill you is the daughter of two very powerful gods now or when the time came. What do you guys think? Would you rather have your fear grow or stay where it was and then be taken by surprise?

“Don’t tell Alice now,” Demi said as if she read my mind. “Wait till you know when they’re coming for sure.”

“But how will we know?” I asked. “Alice can’t see them in her visions and I don’t know if I can or can’t.”

“Alice may get another letter,” Demi said.

“Hmm. Well that’s true. But in a way I doubt that would happen. Don’t you think they would want to surprise her? That’s what all the murderers do in crime shows,” I said.

Demi shrugged.

A vision popped in front of my eyes. Rip, Jackson, and Joe were back with something to say. Once the vision was over I was able to smell their scents already.

“C’mon,” I said. “Rip, Jackson, and Joe are home. They have something to tell us.”

Demi and I stood up and together we walked down to the living room.