Under the dark sky. (Kevin)

[Deleted]

It was nighttime, and logically, Leonora should be heading to bed right now.  She had spent a lot of her energy pranking, stealing, and doing a lot of physical exercise as usual.  She had also finished eating her dinner, and it was cold outside.  In other words, the child of Hermes should be both exhausted and chilly.  But Leonora was always one to have fun and adventures until she took her last dying breath, so instead of rolling back to the cabin, the girl decided to spend the time of the night out in the amphitheater under the open dark sky which was covered with clouds, so sadly she would be seeing no stars twinkling about.  

Well, it wasn't like she was going to be doing anything crazy.  Sure, she probably did a lot of crazy things under the name of Hermes, but this time what she was doing was considered civil in camp terms.  All she was doing was sitting in the amphiteater in front of a campfire with her brother, Kevin.  The two of them were going to burn eat smores and Kevin promised to tell her a story.  Seriously, sometimes she thought her brother was a child of Athena.  He had the genius of one when it came to cooking up mystery stories.  Well, why did they always need to compare to Athena kids whenever it came to doing something intellectual and smart? No, Kevin was better than those geeks when it came to storytelling.  In fact she thought that Hermes kids were smarter than Athena ones in their own way.  They had the means of achieving what they wanted through cunning and conniving wile Athena kids could only build upon already known facts.

Anyway, Leonora was sitting on one of the rows of seats of the amphitheater beside her brother.  She had a small blanket wrapped around her as she was gripping onto a stick that speared her smore at the end that she was dipping into the flames of the fire to burn.  Glancing at Kevin from the corner of her eye, she said with a faint smile, "So...time to scare your poor sister out of her perfectly sane mind? She's ready for it, even if that doesn't promise that she'll react courageously to it." She had to admit that she was someone who spooked easily from talk about creepy and strange things, and mystery stories often gave her the chills.  But they were also very intriguing, and if anything, she could always cling onto Kevin to staunch the fear.  Shrugging, Leonora glanced back at the fire.  "Just expect your personal space to be invaded, most likely somewhere in the middle of your upcoming eerie tale."  In other words, she meant she was going to hug him tightly if she got too spooked. 

Tag: Kevin Cook

[Kevin Cook]

This was Kevin's moment in the spotlight. His moment to shine in the world of storytelling. It was probably not the most ideal setting in the cold by a bonfire while roasting marshmallows for s'mores, but this was still good. Every author and storyteller had to start somewhere and his happened to be scaring the crap out of his sister. A slight smirk crept onto his face as he looked over at Leonora. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" he chuckled as a dark look washed over his face. "You might not be able to sleep tonight if I continue." He chuckled a bit more before he continued, "So... have you ever heard of Bianca of the Beach?"

He took a deep breath before he dived into the story. "This story takes place long ago, long before Camp Half-Blood was a reality here. There was a lovely young woman named Bianca and she liked to take nightly strolls on the beach. She lived in a cottage where the Big House currently stands. She lived a simple life and didn't know that many visitors."

"But..." He said dramatically as he looked over at his sister. "That all changed when a fisherman from the east came onto her shores. Some would say he was a pirate. Others would say a fisherman. But one thing was true, he had an obsession with ladies and those obsession didn't end well."

[Deleted]

Leonora supposed that another reason why Hermes kids would probably be better storytellers than the rest was because of their father's love of traveling.  No, even if none of them have ever stepped out of their local town, they probably had his international influence running through their veins.  Why would she associate that with storytelling? Well, that was because different countries meant different cultures, experiences, an philosophies that could serve as recipes for diverse storytelling.  Leonora didn't have that in her, but those traits most likely passed on to her brother.  But she was fine with that, because she would rather her creativity and imagination be used for pranks, not forming stories in her mind. 

She arched an eyebrow at Kevin when he asked her if she was okay with it.  "So you're already revealing that it's going to haunt me for the rest of my life?" she said.  "What a spoiler."  She kept her eyes on him, though, and watched him go into his little theatrical expressions.  He could scare Hades with that look, she thought sarcastically.  "Well, and if it comes to that then there's always the option of bunking in with you, bro," she said with a wink and nudged her elbow against his arm.  It was meant in an innocent sibling way, of course.

Leonora quickly glanced at the smores being roasted in the fire to see if they were ready to east yet, but she saw that they weren't and glanced back at her brother.  Bianca de la Plage? Well, that sounded rather blunt.  This was most likely some seaside horror.  She wondered how Poseidon felt about that.  "Well, I've did just now," she responded to his query about whether she heard about this Bianca of the Beach or not.  "And I must say she sounds like one of Poseidon's brats, if she's one of us."

Anyway, she listened to the beginning of his tale.  This Bianca was a woman who lived on Camp Half-Blood territory even before there was such thing as a Camp Half-Blood? Her cottage was where the Big House stood? Well, she was glad that this Bianca was evicted somehow so that a more necessary sanctuary could be built.  "And where did her lover live, in the arena?" she teased, but continued to listen to him. 

She blinked at the next thing he said.  The pirate-fisherman sounded like a lecherous man by the sounds of it.  Leonora tilted her head to the side.  "So...she gained an unwanted suitor?" So far the story wasn't really proving to be scary, but she wasn't going to put it past Kevin to make it scary.  Perhaps this Bianca turns into a ghost later on after getting killed by the fisherman-pirate.  Maybe she was even allegedly haunting the camp as well! Leonora didn't like that idea, but she was waiting with suspense for Kevin to continue.  She chuckled.  "If he were handsome I think I would become Bianca in a heartbeat."     

Tag: Kevin Cook

[Kevin Cook]

Kevin looked at his sister as he told his story trying to gauge her reaction. That was one of the keys of being a good storyteller: know your audience. Right now, that audience was her sister and scaring the crap out of her was his goal. He didn't need to give her the creeps or whatnot, but he wanted to make sure that she couldn't sleep at night and that she'd had to bunk him, like she had threatened.

"She was a hermit, she didn't have a lover," Kevin quickly added during his story. Her questions kept him on his toes, making sure that he was tailoring this story to her. "She didn't even have an animal companion. She just lived on her own in her cottage." He wanted to make sure he answered all of her questions before he continued on with his story. "An unwanted suitor is probably the nicest way to put he," he said solemnly as he checked on his marshmallow in the fire, turning his stick to make sure it was evenly done on all sides.

He looked back at his sister before he continued with his story. "Bianca took this stranger in and offered him friendship. He was in the area for a while as he did repairs to his ship and gathered provisions. He tried to pursue Bianca, but she kept turning him down." His eyes looked toward the bonfire before he added, "And everything seemed to be okay for Bianca... until that fated night..."

[Deleted]

Leonora was happy to say that her smores were ready, and so she drew them away from the fire and, drawing them to her mouth, began to bite down on them.  While she was chewing on her smores, Leonora kept her eyes on Kevin and listened to him tell the tale.

She raised her eyebrows when he said that Bianca was a total hermit, and that she was the only living soul living in that isolated cottage in isolated premises.  What on earth was this Bianca? A druid? She sounded worse off than those Artemis nuns.  How on earth could anyone stand 24 hours a day doing perpetually nothing but frolicking in the woods, splashing aimlessly in the ocean, and just simply having nothing good to do besides trekking around  the empty land? Maybe she invented her own little game to do by herself? Perhaps she got more intelligent by her brain games and got to understand the land better, plus used that to her advantage to navigate the nooks and crannies of her surroundings better than anyone else could.  But, still...

Leonora frowned.  "Sounds more like the runaway patient of an asylum," she quipped.  "Seriously, what has she to gain by living in the back of beyond? More mental problems, I should say.  I'd be begging Hades to take my soul away from by body if I found myself in her lonesome predicament."  Leonora took another bite from her smores, and while chewing she said in a voice that sounded like she was chewing at the same time as speaking, "Aphrodite should've bestowed that loon's beauty on someone who would actually show her face around for people to stare at.  What difference would it make if this Bianca were ugly? Only her cottage would mind." 

But, to be honest, that also scared Leonora somewhat.  She didn't know why, but the idea of this Bianca lady living without another soul around her to keep her any company made her feel slightly strange and creepy.  She had to mock it to feel better, but it was actually getting at her.  If she was utterly defenseless and alone, that could mean it would be dangerous for her, especially in the night time...what if there were ghosts? There was just something about being completely alone, especially in the dark, that made Leonora afraid of spooky things like that.  Didn't she feel uneasy at night?  That wasn't to say that she couldn't meet crazy murderers as well, or people would would be at liberty to harm her without any good resistance.  What if she were alone with a ghost, or a strange was able to get into her cottage?  Did she have any weapon to fend of living threats, at least? Leonora didn't know...but either way, she was already imagining her in that predicament and it chilled her.  She pulled blanket tighter around her and chewed a bit more slowly as she had her eyes transfixed on Kevin.

Leonora had expected the sailor bloke to lecherously do something to Bianca or kill her gruesomely.  It was still chilling, but those were typical fates of people who were in stories like these, so she did find it too scary yet.  If she thought about it too much and imagined herself in that position, Leonora found herself less blasé about it.  Funny, Leonora was a pretty daring kid and real life experiences never scared her much, but she became rather feint of hear easily just by listening to tales.  But then again, she was a demigod and the blood in her made her brave against monsters and threats, so she couldn't afford to scare easily in real life.  Yet, for some reason, stories made their effect on her. 

By the sounds of it, the sailor started off as somewhat of a gentleman.  He seemed to not be bothering Bianca a lot and wasn't forcing her to do anything that she didn't want to do.  "Well, again, if the sailor was handsome, then that's her loss," she said nonchalantly in regards to Bianca turning down his advances.  "But if he were uglier than medusa, then I can sympathize."    

The moment of truth was coming.  Something most likely bad.  Leonora wanted to know, but part of her wanted to giver her an April fools and tell her that nothing happened.  She pulled the blanket tighter around her yet again and was staring at him with slightly mystified blue eyes, no longer eating the smores.  "Tell me she threw a birthday bash for herself," she said, pretending to plead with him.      

Tag: Kevin Cook

[Kevin Cook]

The questions kept coming from his sister and some of them almost stumped him. "She doesn't like people, since she learned that they cannot be trusted," he quickly replied to her question. "She was betrayed when she was young by her mother and the first chance she got, she left her family and civilization. She knew she could only trust herself and she didn't want to be hurt anymore." He glanced over at the bonfire to see that his marshmallow had caught on fire. Just the way he liked it. He brought it towards himself to blow out the flaming sugary goodness before he started making himself a s'more.

"Unfortunately," he said as he glanced up at his sister through the corner of his eye as he made his s'more. "It was not a birthday party. A birthday party would've been more enjoyable than that night." He decided to draw out the suspense a little bit more as he took a bite of his s'more and made sure he chewed and swallowed before he continued the story.

"Bianca decided that night that she would take her nightly stroll on the beach, but little did she know she had a... companion joining her for that walk... the last walk of her life." A slightly evil smirk crept onto his face as he continued. "The sailor ambushed her that night and slit her throat, but the cut went too deep. Her head rolled off into the ocean and her body stained the sand with her blood until high tide came in to wash it away." He chuckled a bit as he looked off in the direction of the beach. "Her body still haunts the beach, looking for its head. They say that Bianca doesn't care which head it gets, as long as she gets one." He turned back to his sister and chuckled. "So I'd stay away from the beach at night if I was you." He winked at her before he took another bite of his s'more.

[Deleted]

Leonora snorted.  "Hmm, she does give me an idea.  One day if you decide to betray me, Kevin, I swear I'll go make myself a cottage in the land of far far away where you and other people will never look at a single strand of hair from me ever again," she said jokingly.  She thought that it was clever of Kevin to leave the idea of how the mother had betrayed Bianca up to her.  If Bianca had been hurt enough to want to escape from the interactions with mankind, then her mother must have done something pretty nasty...and it would've taken away her curiosity and imagination if he had given her a set, mental image of what had happened.  Again, Hermesians were the wily ones.  She was proud of it.

By the time he told her that it was definitely not a birthday bash, Leonora had finished her smore.  She smacked her lips contentedly.  That was a good one.  Although, she didn't mind having no more smores to eat, for she was too engulfed in her brother's story to really focus on chewing and swallowing now.  As already said, she was beginning to feel a little...scared.  That was because she thought it was eerie to live all alone with anyone nearby--ghosts and killers on the loose, hiding in forest and shadows.  Again, Leonora probably would face monsters bravely in battle, but listening to creepy stories took the bravery from her.   

She had known that it was obviously going to be something worse than a mere birthday bash, of course.  That was simply not how things went.  She waited in suspense for him to deliver what sounded like the creepiest part of the story.  And, he did not disappoint.  Her throat was slit and when it got to the part of where her head rolled off into the ocean, Leonora squeaked and, leaning forward quickly, grabbed her brother's arm and hugged it tightly.  "Holy Hermes! That's gruesome!" she exclaimed, squeezing her eyes shut.  She was doing her best not to imagine the scene in her head.  It was just...gross and horrible.

But that wasn't the worst part.  Ghosts were what scared her the most, so when it got to the part of Bianca's ghost, Leonora felt intrigued yet fearful.  She opened her eyes and stared at her brother's face with eyes as round as the full moon, pretty much.  "What? So she's able to cut off people's heads?" she asked with frightened curiosity as if this were a true story.  "H-how can a ghost do that?"  She could already imagine the misty, transparent form of a floating body under a dark sky, wondering about the sand by the ocean.  And when it saw her...she gulped.  "I wouldn't for all the treasure in the world," she said when he "warned" her not to go there at night.  "Okay...maybe if there was a lot of gold I might take the risk...but you and our other siblings are coming so that if Bianca comes I can run away first while she takes your heads."     

  

    

[Kevin Cook]

Kevin chuckled as Leonora talked about moving off to her own isolated island if anything happened to her. He smirked a bit as he glanced over at his sister. "Tsk. Tsk." he mused. "You might have to rethink that once you hear what happened to Bianca. I don't think you'd want to meet the same fate she did." He smirked a bit. He was telling her a scary story after all. He watched his sister as he told the rest of the story to her. If he did succeed in scaring the crap out of her, he wanted to see her reaction.

And bingo. Kevin smiled mischievously as Leonora grabbed his arm tightly and squeaked. "What else were you expecting?" he asked as a content smirk crept onto his face. Mischief managed. He chuckled when she asked more about what Bianca did. "Well... she carries around a knife... some say it's the same knife that was used on her... and she sneaks up behind innocent people on the beach and cuts their heads off." He chuckled a bit as watching his sister's reaction brought him a lot of joy. "Well, Leonora, you gotta to remember," Kevin chuckled before he took another bite of his s'more. "Marius, Zeo, and I can teleport. So you're better off pitting the our other siblings against Bianca if you want to stand a chance."

[Deleted]

Leonora was still hugging his arm tightly.  She couldn't get the image out of her mind, not matter how she tried to shake it off.  And because she couldn't shake it off, it was still stuck in her mind.  And because it was still stuck in her mind, she felt squeamish and had to hold onto her brother.  She really hated it when she lost control of her actions like this.  Normally she was good at acting nonchalant and unimpressed, but there were some things that she couldn't control, unfortunately.  Scary and gory tales were part of it.

Her face paled even more when he said that Bianca held a knife to cut off the heads of unwary people on the beach.  Kevin just knew how to add more spice to it without making it sound overly exaggerated.  Not only was Bianca a creepy ghost, but she was a murderer in the dark as well.  That made Leonora wonder if she ever wandered over to the amphitheater on occasion, too, and that caused her to hold Kevin's arm more tightly.  Was she hurting him? She didn't know, but she didn't care at the moment.  She needed it for support that was all she could think of at the moment, as selfish it may seem.

"Wielding a weapon even after death?" she said nervously.  "What does she think she is, a daughter of Ares?" She glanced upward and gazed at his face.  "Kevin...I thought ghosts couldn't hold onto objects.  How can Bianca hold a knife, then--especially the one used to..." She wanted to say "behead" her, but she couldn't bring herself to.  Therefore, she just settled upon a vague description that still implied what she meant.  "...do that to her?"  Bianca wasn't real, but Leonora was a little convinced that she was, now.  That was because she was caught up in the thrill of the story.  She knew that it was false, but her imagination was telling her that it was the real deal.  She shook her head.  "Poseidon ought to appeal to his brother about having her on the lose on his turf. She's definitely in the wrong domain of the Big Three."  Leonora smirked.   "I reckon Hades could bring her to heel before you can say 'caduceus'.  And she ought to be judged for afterlife crimes, too! She certainly had a fair chance to go to Elysium but messed it up for herself, first for not plummeting straight down to the Underworld when she kicked the bucket, and for turning into a crazy executioner, alive or not."  She rolled her eyes.  "Not cool."  Mocking the lady helped staunch the fear somewhat.  Mocking was what she did best, anyway.

However, she perked up at the talk of her brothers knowing how to teleport.  Leonora had the speed, stealth, lying skills, and lock-picking ability of a typical child of Hermes, but she still didn't know how to teleport.  It was probably a rare thing among the children of Hermes, but as much as she loved Zeo, Marius, and Kevin, she coveted their teleportation skill, too.  That helped her forget about Bianca momentarily.  "Maybe if you teach me how to teleport I can join the elite Teleporting Trinity," she said coaxingly.  "C'mon Kevin, I know that you were probably some kind of golden chosen one to be born with a skill that can only be inborn into a precious select few, but it doesn't hurt to try at least.  If it doesn't work, then it doesn't, and I'll happily walk home in defeat."  She knew that there might not be a way for him to teach her.  Maybe it just came naturally for him and there wasn't a way to pass it on.  But, at least he could tell her exactly how he did it--like, what thoughts had to be in his mind when he teleported, did he need to take a deep breath, etc.--and she could try to copy him repeatedly, and if she got lucky she might actually be able to do it.  Normally Leonora was too prideful to beg like this, but around her siblings she felt more free to express herself.

[Kevin Cook]

Kevin smirked as he could tell that his story was really getting to Leonora based on the fact that she was squeezing his arm pretty dang hard. He was sure that any moment now that his hand and probably his entire arm would get all tingly when it fell asleep on him, but it was worth it. The expression on her face was all worth it, especially since he could see it in her eyes that the idea was really freaking her out, but couldn't stop thinking about it. But this was every writer's dream and Kevin couldn't help but soak it up.

"Ghosts can't hold onto things," he muttered with a slightly evil smirk. "But poltergeists can. They are vengeful spirits and Bianca is not too happy that she's headless." He chuckled to himself as Leonora continued to ramble. He guessed it was something to make her mentally feel better or at least get her off the topic of Miss Bianca. "Do you realize that Hades as a lot more on his plate than a murderous ghost?" His evil smirk grew a little bit. "I think Bianca is low on his list of priorities right now."

His evil smirk was replaced with a frown at the mention of teaching her how to teleport. To be honest, Kevin didn't know if it was a teachable thing. He just knew a few of the siblings, the males ironically, knew how to teleport. He scrunched his eyebrows together as he tried to think of a way to let down Leonora easily. "I could teach you... but I don't know how much we can actually get done. I don't know how dad works this power, but I don't know if it's a teachable power."