S'Agapo

I stood up, and Apollo's head banged back down onto the carpet. With a humph, I said, "I'm not your prize, you self-absorbed pig. I'm your punishment." I resisted the urge to smile evilly. Instead, I glared at him and threw the towel into the kitchen.

"Oh, goodie, a dominatrix! I haven't had one of those in a couple dozen years!" Apollo exclaimed, jumping up and starting towards me.

I grabbed the bat and held it threateningly. "Get the hell away from me!" I said.

He continued to advance, so I hit him again with the bat. This time, he caught it in his hands and flung it on the couch. "Stop that, you could hurt me!"

"That's the idea!" I found myself getting slightly frightened. I ran for the stairs, but before I could reach the top, he was in front of me. He grabbed me around the waist and pressed me against him. His lips started coming way too close. Obviously, I screamed and jammed my knee into his...area. Apollo grunted and fell to the ground. I ran back down the stairs.

"Damn it! Get out of my house right now! I refuse to let you live here, even if you don't have 'powers'!" I was red-faced, partly because I had almost gotten kissed, and partly because I was massively pissed off. Apollo finally managed to stand up and took a good, long look at me. His eyes revealed an aristocratic boredom that left me irritated.

"Calm down, I know your not a 'gift'. The old man never does that kind of thing; I was just testing to see if you were as strong willed as the other gods say. " He walked up to me and added, "Besides, you're just a girl. I prefer women. "

I resisted the urge to pick up the bat again, and asked, "What do you mean the 'other gods'? As far as I'm concerned, the only 'gods' I've met were Zeus and Artemis."

Apollo stopped in front the kitchen table and turned around. "You're so naive. Even Ares has been talking about how much he enjoys watching your...'fiery attitude', was it?"

I blinked and came back down the stairs, stared at him in the kitchen.. "Ares? As in the god of war has been talking about me?" I had to admit, I was curious about why they were all talking about me up there. What was so interesting?

"Yeah, and so has Hermes. He thinks you're cute, but reports that you're too hard-headed to ever be his type." Apollo was looking at his nails. Then he looked up at me briefly and said, "I don't know how anyone can be attracted to you though."

"Okay, I'll ignore that," I said, "Your room's upstairs, I'm going back to bed. Hopefully I'll die in my sleep."

"Like your old man?"

I stopped at the foot of the stairs, frozen by what he had just said. Apollo came out of the kitchen but i refused to turn around to look at him. I bit my lip, trying not to let the pain surface.

"I heard he died in his sleep. Hades told me that your mom killed him while he was sleeping because he cheated on her. And then, because she was so horrified by what she had done, she killed-"

"Shut up," I clenched my teeth and gripped the railing, "You shut your fucking mouth." I blinked away tears that were dangerously close to spilling, willing them to get sucked back up into my eyes. "Don't you ever speak about that bitch, or my dad. If you do, I'll rip out your fucking tongue and feed it to you."

I took a deep breath and walked up the stairs and into my room. I stood in the doorway a moment, and then decided that I wanted to go sit on the roof. I shut the door quietly, locked it, and went to the library, where there was a skylight in the ceiling. Grabbing the ladder from the corner of the room, I positioned it and climbed it.

The wind outside was kind to my already shivering body. I pushed my self up and pressed my knees against my chest, rested my chin on them. No one mentioned my parents, even though the whole school knew what had happened to them. I was seventeen when they died. Everyone had tried to console me, but I simply stared at him or her until they went away. Soon, everyone started to see me as a cold-hearted person who they wouldn't dare come near. They all thought I was going to be like my mother, a crazed jealous woman. But they had forgotten that my father had been funny, and sweet, and wonderful. He made the mistake of falling in love with someone else, that was all. Mom was always thinking that he was cheating on her, always afraid that she would lose him. And she did; to herself.

When they died, I just tried to hide myself. I was embarrassed and ashamed that my family was like that. I created a shell, and I hid in it. No one saw the broken me, they saw the steely, stoic me. But...she didn't exist. Not until they created her, anyways. But fine. If that's what they insisted I be, fine. I would just do it; it was easier than fighting them anyways.

I had just expected someone to try harder to reach out to me, that was all.

I buried my head in my arms and sighed. "I can't believe the hell I've created for myself."I collapsed on the roof and closed my eyes so the sun wouldn't blind me.

I woke up a few hours later and ran down the stairs. My jeans were sticking to my legs, so I stripped them off as I ran through the hall to my room. The second I opened the door, I threw the moist denim on the bed and jumped into the shower. Hey, it's not the first time I've fallen asleep on the roof in the middle of summer.

I opened my closet and picked out my only dress- a bright green spaghetti-strap summer dress. It billowed out at the skirt so whenever I moved, it flared up. It also looked a little ratty, so I didn't feel overdressed in it. I ran a comb through my hair and checked how much money I had in my wallet. Enough for what I needed. When I was pulling on my converses, I noticed it. A huge lump under my quilt. It was moving. I grabbed my black metal bat from its corner and started to beat the shit out of whatever it was, my mouth seized shut.

"Ow! Cut it out! Cut it out!" I didn't stop until a hand reached out and grasped my wrist. It pulled me onto the bed. I screamed. Another hand came out and slapped my mouth shut. I was about to have a heart attack when Eros's head came out of the covers. Then, I fainted.