chapter XV
1 9 9 9 🌙

🌷  Daphne couldn't count how long it had been since she'd had a candy bar.

It was a rare commodity to come across, really, especially in the life she and Thalia were leading right now. You're more likely to stumble across a few dollars on the streets floor than a full-sized mars bar. Kids know their value and eat them up fast.

Despite only being the ripe ages of 11 and 10, both Thalia and Daphne were quite mature in their spending. They had backpacks with a blanket and a toothbrush, toothpaste and a hairbrush to share. They spent their scarce money on valuable stuff, such as drinking water or bread to make sandwiches to live off of for the next week.

And such, candy was expensive. They couldn't allow themselves the luxury.

It was only fitting with their intense streaks of bad luck that they both had a sweet tooth big enough to rival their starvation.

It was December, which meant birthday.

Thalia hated celebrating it. She loathed it, even, and had even tried to make Daphne forget that she had ever told her when her birthday was in the first place. To no avail, of course.

Birthday presents were, of course, forbidden. But Daphne felt so guilty. On her birthday, Thalia had acted as though she'd forgotten but gave her these warm, thermal pink gloves with a duck pattern on them that fit her perfectly. Daphne was really looking to find something, anything that she could say 'oh, I just found it in the gutter' and be believable. And today was their anniversary. 2 years together on the streets. They dodged child protective services like absolute pros and hid from the monsters in the shadows of the disgusting American sidewalks.

Being total pros at being street cats and stoleways, Daphne and Thalia had a number of secret hideouts around where they were traveling. Daphne stretched as she saw Thalia sharpening her sword, trying to nonchalantly slip outside of the door made completely of old tin trash cans and cardboard boxes.

The girl's head shot up and she gave her a scathing look of interrogation. "What're you doing?"

"Uh," Daphne dropped her arm from stretching behind her back awkwardly. "Nothing. Just... wanted to get some air."

Thalia stared at her, a small smile on her lips. "You're not trying to run out on me, are you?"

A small joke which had so many layers.

"Of course not!" Daphne scoffed, scandalized. "I... I just wanted to get some more newspapers from the subway. You know, for the fire later."

It was winter, and they were freezing cold. Not as bad as those two years ago, their hearts now alight and fighting off the bitter frost of loneliness. They both snuggled in a large scarf at night with their coats and gloves on.

Thalia liked to be on the move, and Daphne just couldn't agree more. It was dangerous for demigods to stay in one place for too long, attracting monsters of all sorts towards them. But winter didn't grant them such liberties. They needed a place which was built up enough to break the sharp wind as they rested, and traveling was too risky in case they couldn't find a place of shelter. It didn't help that they were both probably quite malnourished.

"Okay." Thalia didn't look convinced. "Come back soon, though, or I'll come and find you."

Daphne nodded excitedly and jumped out from their hiding spot, nestled within the corner of an alley. She zipped her coat up and put a warm bobbled beanie over her head, pulling on the gloves and venturing into the very busy, bustling city.

She checked her wallet which she found on the ground one day and saw that she'd found approximately 6 dollars and 54 cents dotted about the floor. Keeping it close to her, not wanting to be pickpocketed, Daphne ventured further into the city and tried to find an appropriate present which wasn't really a present but most definitely was.

Her heart ached when she walked beside the massive stores of beautiful clothes she wouldn't be able to fit in for years. Daphne tried not to let her eyes linger on the candy shop, bountiful towers of colour lining the walls and decorating the heaven-like place she longed to go in. Every store she walked past held something she would've loved to get for Thalia, in another life maybe. But alas, she kept walking...and walking...and walking...

Why on earth was New York so expensive? Daphne couldn't wait to find a small corner-store to take her pick of a small candy bar. And she couldn't go too far, because she knew Thalia would make good on her promise of coming to find her. Daphne couldn't blame her - she would've done the same.

She shivered and - as Daphne was distracted by trying to watch out for the ice on the pavements - she found herself bumping into a rather tall woman who held onto the hand of a plump child.

"Sorry," Daphne winced, straightening herself up and massaging where her forehead had hit the woman's shiny purse.

The woman blinked at her with a concerned sort of look on her face, taking in her disheveled and dirty appearance. With what little face she had uncovered by layers of scarves and a massive coat hood, her eyes narrowed into a frown. "It's alright, dear. Where is your mother?"

Daphne froze. Shit. She was never good at lying, and one of her and Thalia's ever-growing list of rules was to avoid as much contact with Normals as possible, especially kind looking ones who could be concerned about them.

(They hadn't thought of a name for people who weren't like them yet. And by that, Daphne meant people who weren't plagued by monsters which she was now nintey percent sure she wasn't hallucinating. There had been no definitive reason for why these monsters were only able to be seen by them, but Daphne was okay with not knowing as long as she stayed alive.)

"Uhh..." her head whipped around behind her, eyes instantly drawn to the flashing sign: Hedone's Extra Delighting Candy Store! "In there." she lied.

The woman looked suspicious still. "And why are you out here? Isn't she worried about you?"

Her child, who looked about three years younger than Daphne, said with a superior voice, "Mom, she's not really clean, is she?"

She felt her mouth go slack in offence. The girl's mother made no attempt to scold her child for being so rude, which Daphne thought was a real failure on her part. "I just wanted some fresh air!" she defended herself, glaring scathingly at the little girl.

"Hm..." the mother rose an eyebrow at her, leaning down closer. She pulled her scarf away from her mouth and Daphne couldn't stop her nose from visibly wrinkling - her breath was absolutely abhorrent. Daphne may have been homeless, but she and Thalia brushed their teeth in the gutters. "My dear, are you absolutely sure your mommy is in there?"

"Yes!" Daphne snapped, backing out of her gaze. "And she also told me not to talk to strangers, so go away!"

And with that, she turned on her heel and stomped into Hedone's Extra Delighting Candy Store. Daphne cast a few glances behind her at the woman, who she saw hadn't moved a muscle from where she'd grabbed Daphne, almost rooted into her spot. Her eyes burned into the back of Daphnes head and she was very uncomfortable.

Strapped beneath her coat, she almost found herself reaching for a trusty dagger, just in case. Now Daphne cast her mind back to it, didn't that woman have a weird sort of scale look to her neck? Maybe it was some sort of condition. Either way, she wanted to stay for a little longer in the store until she'd cleared away, just in case.

Daphne knew she shouldn't have started to look around the candy wonderland. It wasn't the smartest decision since she was poorer than a pauper and her stomach rumbling could be heard even over the loud music and large screams of chatter in the store, but she couldn't really help it. Her eyes strayed from bowls of all different coloured mnms to mountains of peppermint and made up gingerbread homes for Christmas, lined with strawberry and rainbow laces, decorated with gumdrops and sprinkles. There was one wall which was just shelves of all sorts of flavored syrups, and the one straight opposite to it having a Pick 'n' Mix of all sorts of licorice and haribo candies.

Daphne swallowed, her throat dry, her mouth watery. All thoughts of the weird lady fell to the back of her mind as she stared, mouth slack, gazing in awe around the store which stretched about four normal stores bigger than normal.

She walked forward and raised her hand to one of the display cases, stepping on her tiptoes to see what sorts of candy had been shaped into the form of a bear, when - CRASH!

The force of somebody running into her side sent them both flying to the ground. Daphne was already off balance from her position of trying to peek over the display and groaned as she massaged her back and pushed herself up off of the floor.

None of the candy shop-goers offered them any help, sending them dirty glared and muttering something about roughian kids and child delinquents. Honestly, Daphne was really offended. Truly, all she had done today was mind her own business and get called dirty by all the strangers on the streets and in a candy store.

Stealing her attention from the injustice of the public, however, was the boy who had ran into her in the first place. He was cursing loudly, which really shocked her since they looked around the same age and she didn't know half of the words which he was muttering. As she was blinking and trying to stand back up, she noticed the boy was picking up all of the things he had dropped, gumdrops which scattered across the floor and smarties which ran away from them loudly.

"Hey!" she snapped at him, hopping up and angrily dusting herself off. "Watch where you're going."

He looked up at her, sandy blond hair looking unkempt and falling into his blue eyes. "It's not like I meant to do that!"

"Then why'd you do it?" she challenged him, raising an eyebrow at how he was frantically picking up all of the bars of chocolate he'd dropped.

He stared at her. "I wasn't looking where I was going - I fell over."

Daphne cast a glance out the shop door and saw the woman waiting there still, rummaging through her handbag, her child sitting on a bench kicking their feet boredly. She figured she might as well pass the time by talking to someone. "Whatchu fall over for?"

He jumped up, glaring at her defiantly. "I didn't do it on purpose!"

Daphne was a little embarrassed about how long it took her to notice that the boy wasn't carrying one of the red shopping baskets that everybody else in the shop had. It finally clicked when she noticed that as much of the sweets that the boy could carry from the floor was gone, and his pockets suddenly looked very lumpy.

Daphne wasn't a stranger to thievery. She'd been living on the streets for over two years, alone for one of them, so she'd needed quite a lot of practice in order to survive. But she wasn't very good at it yet, and had been caught an embarrassing amount of times. But even she was smart enough to know that nobody would be able to get away with as much candies as he thought he could, especially when there were security guards lining the entrance.

"That's never going to work." she told him in a superior sort of tone, crossing her arms.

The boy smirked as he turned around and started to walk away, weaving through the shopping aisles. "For you, maybe."

Whether it was because she was genuinely curious or she just felt like being a nuisance, Daphne followed him quickly and watched as he slipped things from the shelves into his pockets, up his sleeves and into the front of his jacket. His hands were sleek and quick as they worked, and Daphne wondered if he regarded stealing as a sort of art that he'd perfected. His arms were almost impossible to keep track of, one minute hung nonchalantly by his side, the other weaving towards his prize.

He wore a lazy sort of pride on his face, but Daphne saw the dark circles beneath his eyes and the buildup of grime on his face. She noticed that his eyes glinted with the same look she saw in her reflection passing by great yellow taxis - one of hunger, shining with abandonment. He was skinny and pale. The gloves he wore had holes in them. And he, too, kept casting glances to the woman standing outside.

"You'll get caught by the buzzers." Daphne said, this time not challenging but almost kindly. She pointed towards the entrance which had some sort of security system. (Just for candy? Daphne questioned herself. That seems... strange.) "There, see."

The boy stepped back from her with a frown. "I don't need your help."

She looked affronted. "Well, I was just trying to -"

"Do you children need any help?"

Daphne and the strange boy froze as they turned around and faced a sweet looking woman, beautiful enough to have statues crafted of her and not so matching the ideal thought you'd have of someone who works as a manager in the candy store. Her long brown hair was tied into a braid behind her, with eyes so golden Daphne was sure they were glowing. The nametag pinned onto her red and yellow striped shirt read: Hedone - Manager of Enjoyment and Delight.

"Umm..." Daphne felt quite frazzled. She really hoped she wouldn't notice the boys bulging pockets, because she really didn't feel like getting into any trouble. "No thank you, ma'am."

The boy forced a smile and wrapped an arm tightly around her shoulders. "Yeah, no help needed here. I'm just with my sister, looking at stuff for...her New Years celebration cake."

Daphne fought the urge to writhe out of his grip and smiled awkwardly at the woman who seemed very amused by them. She and this boy looked nothing alike: he had the perfect surfers complexion, his sandy blond hair paired with lightly tanned skin. He was full- American, and if her features were anything to tell, Daphne looked very European.

"Hmm..." Hedone said bemusedly. "How sweet. You know, my dear children, I have made it my lifelong goal to being enjoyment and delight to mort- people all around the sphere. When candy was invented, I instantly knew - my calling! What makes people smile in delight more than a peppermint imp, or a tube of sherbert? Tell me, what's your favourite flavour of chocolate?"

The boy stared at her like she was nutty and Daphne felt him backing away. Despite her better judgement, she blurted out: "I don't know. I haven't had any in a while."

Hedone looked possibly very, very upset. "But my dear!" she cried, whipping her head around the candy store in horror. "Poor summer child. What a horrible life to not have had chocolate."

Wow. Called out much.

"Stay here," she promised. "I'll go and fetch you some samples from the Harpy."

Okay, yeah. She was crazy. It was about Daphne's time to leave.

She turned around, about to thank the boy who had thought very quickly on his feet, when she saw him about to leave the store. But this time it wasn't the security alarms which worried her - it was the woman from earlier, whose scales seemed to be crawling further up her neck and transforming her face, licking her lips at the sight of him...

Daphne pushed through the crowds of children awing at an everlasting gobstopper and lunged for the boy. "Wait!" she cried, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him away from the doors. "Please, just wait. That woman-"

She paused for a second, breathless. How would she be able to explain to him that a woman who must've looked innocent to the Normal eye, waiting with her child outside of a candy shop and rummaging through her purse was a threat? There was no normal explanation for why she was terrified, and she knew that nobody around them would be able to see how her body was transforming, a forked tongue flicking out of her mouth, a strange hissing noise coming from her daughter. Just like nobody saw the big dogs chasing her and Thalia, like how nobody managed to notice a cyclops barreling down the street and stopping the busy traffic. How would she be able to explain to this stranger that his life was in danger without making him afraid of her, or even call the police?

"What-" his eyebrows furrowed as he turned, trying to shake her hands off of his arm - until his eyes fell on the woman. She felt his arm go slack in her grip, and watched his face go whiter than a sheet of paper. Another string of colourful curses fell from his mouth as he backed into the store, both of them rooted in horror at the sight of a slithering, green scaly tail writhing from the back of her coat.

Everybody else minded their business and passed the snake woman as though she was a beggar on the street: uninterested and refusing to spare a single glance.

"Stay back," Daphne whispered, slowly reaching into her coat and pulling out her knife. The Normals would've thought she was holding a tennis racket, or something - their eyesight was terrible. "I know this is weird and I don't expect you to understand, but-"

"You're like me."

She broke her words of adruptly and whipped her head to face his. He was staring at her unabashedly, not trying to hide his awe as he looked at her weapon and back to the monster. "You - you're like me. You can see it. Can't you?"

Slowly, she nodded. "You can see it too?" she whispered in astonishment.

Amazed, he nodded. The boy looked slightly dazed as he started to waver, as though struck so off-kilter by the fact he wasn't alone that it was overwhelming. Daphne remembered the feeling from when she and Thalia had met for the first time.

But there was no time for sentiments. The snake woman was starting to move from side to side, and Daphne was sure that wasn't a good sign. Her child hissed and hissed and hissed. And then it pounced.

She wasn't quick enough to raise her weapon in protection - but she didn't need to be. Right as the child - who was now entirely reptilian and left a pile of sizzling clothes on the floor - had leapt at them, jumping across the line from the pedestrian sidewalk to the security barriers of the store - SIZZLE! And it was gone.

She gaped as the snake crumbled into dust right before their eyes. Daphne was used to monsters doing this before them when pierced by their weapons - but all it had done was cross the line.

"Nooooooooo!" The snake mother cried. "Foolish daughter! Curse you for your inventions, Hephaestus!"

Daphne heard a low whistle behind them and turned to see Hedone shaking her head. "I knew it was a good idea to get those things installed. Monsters don't really promote the idea of delight and enjoyment, do they? Oh- here, my dear. Your favourite is going to be honeycomb. Now get out of my store, please, you're driving customers away."

Daphne didn't know how it happened. But one second she was looking into Hedone's glowing golden eyes, and the next, there was a light breeze on her face, and she and the boy were standing outside of the shop which now had a closed sign hung on each of the stretching windows and chains across the handles.

She turned back to the snake, her forked tongue flicking between weirdly human teeth. "Time for lunch. Yum yum!"

Daphne was frantically looking for her weapon, but it had flung beneath the snake woman's feet by some extremely ugly boots. The trousers of which fell limp as the woman's legs transformed into her monstrous body, writhing forward and pushing Daphne into the glass door behind her. She had nowhere to go.

Just as a snake would unhinged its jaw to swallow its prey in whole, Daphne saw her helpless face reflected back in the strangely shiny look of the snakes fangs. She only managed to think Sorry, Thalia, before it exploded into dust and goo, caking her face and clothes with the remnants of the monster.

Before her stood the boy with his own bronze knife covered in the same golden dust, right arm stuck out from where he must've pierced her in the back. Daphne spluttered, trying to cough out the bits of Snake that had got in her mouth. She wanted to think that she would've been relieved or afraid, but... she couldn't help it. She was in absolutely awe.

"You..." she stammered. "Thank you. That was some quick thinking."

"It's okay." He wiped some of the dust from his knife with a frown.

She walked forward cautiously until the two of them were on the sidewalk together. Not cold anymore, Daphne unraveled her scarf and offered it to him.

Before taking it, he gave her a cautious look. She rolled her eyes and pushed it into his arms. He tied it around his neck and they stood in awkward silence for a second.

Everybody moved around them as though they'd noticed nothing, but no one tried to enter the candy store anymore. In fact, when Daphne cast a glance back at it, the lights were off inside and the doors had a load of cobwebs around the handles. That was... a weird experience.

Snow started to fall lightly behind them. "How long have you known?"

She looked surprised at his question. "Umm... well, I left home when I was nine. But I think I've always known about...that. That thing. Those sorts of things."

He pulled out something purple from his sleeve. When Daphne peered closer, she saw it was a chocolate bar - mint chocolate. Thalia's favourite.

The idea struck her quicker than the frost nipping at her nose. "Do you want to come with me?"

He stared at her. "What?"

"I'm with my friend. She - she's like us. We protect eachother, we're like a little family, and- here." She went rifling through her coat pocket and pulled out a strip of pictures she and Thalia had taken in one of those photo booths on the boardwalk. "This is her."

She didn't know why it compelled her to, but she showed him the pictures. He was oddly quiet when looking at them - she supposed it was because of the quiet bargaining he would be having with himself. But when she looked up to see what his eyes held, she saw him holding back laughter.

She snatched the photos back instantly, cheeks flaming in embarrassment. Was he laughing at the faces they were pulling?

"What?" she demanded from him, stomping her foot angrily.

"Nothing!" he said quickly, whipping away from her. "It's just...I know this girl."

Daphne blinked. "You do?"

"Yeah, I... I stole some stuff from her." he rubbed the back of his neck. "A load of stuff, actually. She was pretty mad."

Daphne's mouth made an 'o' of surprise. "Oh, you're the guy! You're Luke!"

"I am!" he grinned. But it quickly fell. "Uhh - I don't think she's going to want me with you two."

"If I vouch for you, she will." Daphne promised.

He stared at her. And then, "Okay."

"Yeah?" she grinned.

"Yeah," he smiled, tight-lipped. "I needed to apologize, anyway."

A few seconds passed with them grinning at eachother. And then they, like it was normal, they started walking back, shoulder-to-shoulder so they wouldn't get lost in the crowds.

"Oh, and before I forget-" Luke said casually, pulling something out of your pocket and handing it to her. "Here's your purse back. I was gonna take it, but then I just felt too bad. There's nothing in there."

౨ৎ ˖ ࣪⊹ 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🌷🪷🌊

   ʚɞ HI EVERYONE!! So obviously it's been a couple moments since my last update, but I've been super busy with my health and school exams. I promise with all my heart this story will not be unfinished as long as I remain on this app!! My updates won't be weekly anymore but they will still be there.

ʚɞ Your comments and support mean a lot to me :) you don't go unnoticed as I read every single comment and love them all, no matter how small! So if you want absolutely anything included in this story, please just say so - the story belongs to all of us now and I am grateful to be at your service 🫡

thank you for not giving up and I'll see you in the next update !💗