~ { Shadow and Beauty } ~

Ghosts And Gardens

{Kiara}

That night, when she finally fell asleep at 2 in the morning, Kiara had dreamed of Nico being trapped inside a bronze jar—just like Percy had described.

   It scared her to death that something might happen to her brother. She had just reunited with Hazel, she didn't want to lose Nico forever. Kiara knew she'd never recover from that big of a loss.

   She'd lost her sister, Evelyn, and probably her mother—both of whom she didn't remember at all. She'd lost Jeremy Walker, her best friend.

   She had recovered most of her memory—the part Juno had stolen—and she could remember Jeremy now. His tawny hair that fell just above his shoulders, his honey brown eyes, his tan skin. The way he would always joke, and would prank people to keep the moods up at camp. He was the one that had made Kiara realize she was lesbian. He had supported her, and accepted and trusted her when no one else had.

   Now he was gone. No one at Camp Jupiter trusted her, and everyone at Camp Half-Blood acted weird around her—except that one blond dude, the medic, Will Solace. Kiara didn't know why he acted all sunshiny around her. Maybe it was an Apollo thing.

   Piper had left her too. The physical distance between them wasn't much, but the emotional distance felt like it stretched for miles. Kiara had to face it: she had a crush on someone who would never like her back. With her luck, Piper was probably straight, just like everyone on this ship. Like Leo, and Percy, and Annabeth and the others.

   Right now, she was sitting on her bed, the dark velvet blanket a swirling mess around her. The digital clock on her nightstand stated that it was 5 AM. She had slept for only three hours, yet she didn't feel tired. Not physically, anyway. She felt like an empty box on the inside.

   She got up and walked over to her desk. She grabbed the jacket she'd thrown on the chair the night before, and reached into one of the pockets, fishing out a small white business card. Thalia had given her that back at Pikes Peak. She had told Kiara that she would be a really good hunter. One look back at Piper, and Kiara had refused the offer without a second thought.

   Thalia had seen her looking back at Piper and said, "You won't be abandoning them, you know. You just have to swear off romance. You can visit your friends whenever you want."

   "Yeah," Kiara said, still looking at Piper. Then she turned her head and faced forward. "Friends."

   Now, she was reconsidering Thalia's offer to join the Hunters. Maybe if she joined she would forget about Piper and finally move on. It seemed hopeless, though. For the past six months, starting from the day she'd first seen Piper, Kiara couldn't get the daughter of Aphrodite out of her mind. Piper was plaguing her thoughts and Kiara couldn't think straight anymore.

   Okay, that was a bad pun, but it is true.

   Even after Leo had told her that there was nothing wrong with girls liking girls, Kiara found that hard to believe for some reason. Everyone around her was so normal, and she felt out of place. Maybe that was the case, if the dream she'd had at Camp Half-Blood was true and she was from the 1930s. She couldn't have been more different and out of place.

   Kiara had told Hazel about Piper, but she doubted her sister understood. Hazel had an amazing boyfriend, Kiara was hoping for a straight girl with a flawless boyfriend. It was true that Hazel had done her best to comfort Kiara, but the raven haired girl still felt awful about everything.

   You're worthless. Just admit it.

   There it was again: the voice in her head that kept telling her she was a worthless pile of shit no one cared about. And the worst thing was, she believed it. It wasn't a monster, or Gaea, or some giant talking to her, trying to throw her off track, but her own consciousness.