“Everyone living in this neighborhood as !”

Cursing out loud for the nth time, dumbfounded and infuriated, Winter was now standing alone at the middle of the street under the scorching heat of the sun in the early hours of the day, holding the torn plastic bag on her hand while the other was balled into a fist, ready to punch whoever the first person who would approach her again, as she watched over her small milk cartons, packs of candies, chocolate bars, snacks, and soda cans (in which some were uncontrollably descending itself over a slope road) scattered all over the surroundings – she bought those from a convenience store somewhere around this neighborhood she despised living in the most. Why she hated it here? Simple. Because she was surrounded by ordinary mortals, but the majority were half-blood mortals like her. Sounds like it didn’t seem so bad? Oh. Think again.

Chaos. Chaos everywhere, and for other mythical creatures like nymphs, satyrs, and demigods like Winter, it’s already expected – just another usual chaotic day in the neighborhood even though the ordinary mortals were not aware of their supernatural presence; after all, we all had different beliefs in life. Although, all ordinary mortals couldn’t able to see the real chaos because of the Mist which was the created by Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and magic; it would twist their sight from seeing all the supernatural occurrences by replacing it with the things the ordinary mortal mind knew and could comprehend, so everyone in the world could live in peace and harmony… barely happened but we’re getting there.

It’s a good day for a movie marathon later that day, so Winter decided to go out to buy her favorite goodies to munch on; she rarely went outside her house because she had this hypersensitivity to daylight (she just made it up on her own because she disliked sunshine and going out), and fake allergies in having interactions with random people in her neighborhood – which what happened to her now could explain why.

When some three little young kids riding in bikes, picked her as their first victim of their day: the girl pointed at Winter, marking her as their target when they saw her from a distance, approaching her. As the distance closed in, the big boy, who seemed to be their leader, jumped off his bike where he suddenly grabbed the plastic bag from Winter’s hands, throwing all the contents inside it out in the air like there’s a firework display, as he ripped the plastic bag in front of her afterwards with an angry look in his face where the big kid probably imagined he looked so cool just like the incredible Hulk from Avengers, but actually, Winter thought he just looked constipated for two weeks. Then, he quickly rode his bike again and told his gang to escape – where the big kid left first, then the girl who sneakily stole three chocolate bars before leaving was next, and the other shy boy who had an apologetic look in his face stared at Winter, wanting to say or to do something, but he couldn’t or else he would be kick out from the gang, so he just left and followed the rest. Such a poor boy, Winter thought, if only the shy kid knew what kind of friends he’d been hanging with.

Winter and the rest of the people like her could easily tell ordinary mortals apart from someone like them; and Winter knew that the shy kid was just a normal human being. Based on what the ordinary shy kid could see, his big kid leader friend just had some anger management issues, while the girl was just really sneaky. While Winter, on the other hand, could see that the big kid leader was a son of Ares, the god of war, because of his impulsive anger and bloodlust for violence, and his physical attributes where he had a glowing aura of flickering red fire surrounding him; while the girl was a daughter of Hermes, the god of merchants, thieves, and the messenger of the gods, because she sneakily stole chocolate bars that no one barely noticed, and her physical attributes of small face like an elf, a remarkable sly grin, and cloudy aura surrounding her – and of course, no ordinary mortals could see those features, except the half-bloods, and the divine, and demon deities and creatures.

Ordinary people could see Winter as a normal young adult who had a black short hair and hazelnut eyes. But in the perspective of the supernatural, they could see her as powerful young adult who had a short ash gray hair and Iris blue eyes; she had a shimmering aura in light silver smoke, and she didn’t cast a shadow in the midday, where she sometimes moved like a mirage especially in the night – just like her father, Morpheus, the god of dreams.

Staying pissed out there under the sun would only bring Winter to nowhere, so she began to pick up her goodies from the ground and cradled it in her arm, throwing the ripped plastic bag in the nearby trash bin because it was useless.

Those kids probably think they were safe just by running away from her, but little did they knew, they messed with the wrong demigod. Winter might look like innocent and kind person outside but she’s actually one trickster and brutal motherer inside. They could run, they could hide, but they could never escape her revenge, because no matter what they do, all creatures in the world slept during the day or night – and that’s when Winter always got revenge, by giving nightmares to anyone who dared to cross the line; wherein it was also her number one source of entertainment when she’s bored. Her version of fun was to see people’s terrified reaction after the nightmare, and that’s what she raved about the most. Smirking from the thrill of her redemption, planning it in her head recklessly, Winter would teach the two demigod kids a lesson that they would never forget in the rest of their childhood to the point they would get scared of going outside their house again; on the other hand, she decided to spare the shy kid because he was an ordinary mortal for the reason being she believed he’s just being pressured by his demigod friends, unbeknownst to him, to do something he didn’t know if it’s right or wrong.

Winter always had a big heart for the ordinary mortals, and the reason was obvious, because they were clueless and the demigods around them would usually lead them towards – Chaos. Just pure chaos everywhere – it’s better to leave those normal human beings alone, than to interact with them, just exactly what she was doing, avoiding or limiting all interactions with ordinary mortals at all cost. Winter could just leave this community and move in to a new place where there were less demigods residing in; but she didn’t want to, because no matter how chaotic this neighborhood could get on a daily basis, she wanted to stay for one ordinary mortal, her only exception.

Walking down to get the last soda can that rolled over the downhill slope road, Winter crouched on the ground, struggling to pick it up because her other cradled arm was full of her goodies – she began to regret wearing a low-cut denim jean because her crack was getting its Hollywood exposure, but she was unable to lift her jeans up because her hands were both occupied at the moment. When suddenly, a shutter sound of a camera surfaced. And as a demigod, her sixth sense were stronger than ordinary ones, she knew that someone took a photo of her from behind.

About to go ballistic, Winter was ready to bite someone’s head off – she’s furious where her light silver smoke aura turned into dark slate gray; it’s probably another demigod kids who wanted to pull a prank on her. Standing up on her feet slowly with her knuckles on her fist turned white, as she turned around to see the brave soul who dared to mess with her again, she shouted. “HOW DARE YOU TAKE A PHO–“

Another sound of shutter.

Winter was cut off from her sentence when the bright flash of the camera blinked her eyes, where she saw Karina, her blind since birth neighbor, was smiling in a confuse way at her (which Winter thought it’s cute), holding a yellow Instax polaroid camera above her chest. “Ex–excuse me. Hi?” Karina stuttered but her smile was still unwavering; she looked a bit terrified because she didn’t know if she did anything wrong because she couldn’t see.

In just a snap, the boil in her blood dissipated into a cooling state just by looking at Karina – just a sight of her made Winter’s pissed furrowed eyebrows and tight lips instantly made her face relaxed, tugging a soft smile. “Hey, Karina,” Winter greeted calmly.

“Oh! It’s you, Winter! I thought it’s somebody else,” Karina chuckled, relief washed over her.

“What are you doing out here alone? The kids in this neighborhood are on bullying strike again. It’s dangerous,” Winter asked as she approached her where she stood in front of her neighbor – Karina’s eyes were unfocused, making small movements in different directions, but it didn’t bother Winter at all because all her attention was on the warm and dainty chocolate orbs she was staring at.

“Oh no. Did they do something to you? Are you okay?” her hand absentmindedly moved and rested on Winter’s available forearm, worry quickly laced on her tone and on her face.

Smiling from the gesture as she shifted her sight back, Winter assured. “Yes. But don’t worry. I have everything under control,” just thinking about her vengeance in her head made her blood thrilled to wait for the night to come when those kids would sleep.

“That’s great to hear,” Karina beamed a smile. “I’m actually practicing to take photos for my special photography class for the blinds. And I’m about to take a photo of the patch of flowers over there,” she pointed where Winter looked at what she’s referring to. “I don’t know if it looks good. Can you check it for me?”

“Sure,” Winter agreed, as Karina handed her the two blurry films from her yellow polaroid camera, waiting for it for few seconds to process where the full picture finally revealed – the latest film was a photo of Winter getting angry, while the first film was a photo of her exposed crack beside the patch of flowers that Karina was about to take a photo of. “Wow,” the demigod snickered. “It’s actually a work of art.”

“Really? Is the photo great?” Karina got excited, creating small jumping movements despite of her tall structure – she’s like a giant happy kid. If ever Karina would be a demigod, Winter thought she would be Apollo’s child because she was glowing in sunshine, ever bright, ever smiling. “Did I take a great shot of the flowers?” she asked again in glee.

“Well, you did,” Winter chuckled. “But you also took a great photo of my perfectly shaped crack beside it. You can earn multi-million dollars if you sell this photo to a paparazzi because of me,” the demigod grinned from ear to ear.

Flustered and her cheeks were blushing in red, Karina was speechless, although she didn’t know the concept of what body parts supposed to look like, she knew that the crack was one of the body parts that humans don’t expose in public in a daily basis. She stammered. “I’m so– sorry, I didn’t know…”

Damn. How can she be so cute like this? Winter laughed, but not in an offensive way. “It’s fine. How about I keep this photo for myself in exchange for I will guide you to take another perfect photo of the patch of flowers?” she offered. If another person other than Karina, took a photo of her crack, she would be enraged and be merciless – but it’s Karina, and it’s always a different story.

The embarrassment on Karina’s face slowly turned into a warm bright smile, nodding. “Okay!”

Winter slid the two polaroid photos in her back pocket, still cradling the goodies in her other arm, as she stood beside her neighbor where the strong rose and vanilla scent of shampoo filled her lungs. The demigod guided her by giving her few instructions in which Karina followed because she trusted her. Winter couldn’t refrain herself from stealing glances at her here and then – that look of pure concentration and a pretty smile that could easily make her heart fluttered. And a snap, the photo was finally taken. “Done!” Karina announced, beaming a huge grin once more.

They patiently waited for few seconds for the film to process – and voila, it’s a perfect photo. “Now, this is much better than the last one with my crack,” Winter complimented, earning a good laughter from Karina – the sound of it was a music in the demigod’s ears.

“Thank you so much, Winter,” Karina smiled as she put the polaroid photo inside her small sling bag.

“Always my pleasure,” Winter smiled back.

Suddenly, the day was overcast, resulting to the absence of the glow of the sun covered by the dull heavy clouds that was taking over the horizon, indicating it’s about to downpour, where the roll of lightning flashed across the dimmed sky, followed by the first roar of thunder – Zeus, the supreme god, was making his presence known to the mortals.

“Is it going to rain?” Karina asked, worried because she didn’t bring an umbrella with her. “I thought the weather today is going to be sunny according to the news before I left the house.”

“I think so. How unusual,” Winter had a bad feeling about this, now that she saw a raven bird magically appeared out of nowhere at the branch of the tree nearby, staring at her. A raven symbolizes bad luck in their culture, it’s a messenger that brought bad news that something unfortunate was about to happen – and now it’s looking at her straight in the eyes. “I think we should go home now,” she suggested, staying calm and collected, maybe she was just overthinking things.

“Alright,” Karina was about to bring out her retractable white cane from her sling bag when Winter offered her arm. “You can hold onto me.”

“Is it okay?” Karina was shy and hesitant