Archived:Romeo Crawford

Personality
Romeo has earned the right to the title of "Loner". He can always be seen by himself, shying away from the world and everyone in it. He prefers not to speak and if one manages to strike a conversation with him, they'll likely only get a few words out of him. However, if one manages to get past his emotionless exterior, you'll catch a glimpse of his kind-hearted soul with a hint of his bottled sadness.

History
My name is Romeo Crawford. I am currently sixteen years and apparently not dead yet. My whole rollercoaster of a life began when my mother, Olivia, met a man whom she fell in love with on the spot. This man wasn't like any other man, as my mother stated. He was a man who seemed to carry a great burden with him. A man radiated quiet power, yet a face filled with sadness. He was the man in black. My father.

My mother didn't tell exactly how they met, only that it was on the night of a full moon. I never really got to meet him, considering he bailed as soon as I was born. He didn't say where or why, nor did he even say goodbye. He just disappeared. Not that I care. When my mother held me in her arms, she smiled so brightly that it caused me a smile a bit too. It was then I was given the name Romeo.

Even though she was alone, my mother vowed to do her best to raise me, and she did a pretty damn good job. I always smiled when she was near me and it filled her up with joy to see me. It was just us in our little apartment in the bustling city of New York. Little did I know that this city or even this world was crazier than it let on.

As I grew older and started school, I learned that I was unfortunate enough to develop dyslexia as I had trouble reading and writing certain. This didn't really help my self esteem as it was already low due to the bullying and taunting from the other kids. Even though they tried their best to get a rise out, I managed to ignore them. My mother had always told me to ignore people like that. They're all simply talk.

Even with my disability, I managed to pass all my classes and managed to even graduate elementary school. Even with all the taunting, I managed to graduate and make my mother proud. At the age of ten, my mother got married to another man she met a while back. Ramone Landors was his name. He was pretty nice, at least, when my mother was alive. That all changed when she died months later from an unknown disease that couldn't be cured at the time. It was hard for me to see her in the casket. Mostly because somehow, in a strange way, I knew she was going to die,nyet I did nothing to prevent it. I...I failed her.

Ever since my mother died, my life changed drastically. Ramone drank ever since the funeral and kept blaming me for her death. In a drunken rage, he beat the everloving hell out of me, be it with the liquor bottle or his bare hands. I tried to call someone, anyonw for help, but he'd catch me somehow and beat me again. It was a painful way to live. School was my only safe haven and even their, I was beaten and taunted by bullies. I never said a word to anyone ever and they still picked on me. Nothing changed as I got older, only I've been getting the feeling of being watched everywhere I went.

At the age of twelve, something terrifying happened that I won't forget. I was walking home from school one day in the pouring rain when I felt eyes on the back of my neck. Getting a little nervous, I walked a little faster as I took my normal shortcut home. I would've made it too if I hadn't been stopped at the sound of growling. Like the idiot I was, I turned, only to have my blood chilled to below 0. It was a type of dog, only it was a big as a f*cking tiger and had eyes as red as blood. It growled at me as it inched closer to me, baring it's elongated teeth. I backed up as slowly as I could before I tripped on a bottle and fell on my ass. The black dog found it's chance and pounced at me. I raised my arm and waited for imminent death before I felt a slight pinch in my stomach, followed by a canine yelp. I looked up to see what happened and my eyes widened in horror. A skeletal hand erupted from the ground, holding what appeared to be a sword was piercing right through the hellhounds head. It was frozen in a state of shock for a moment befoee the entire thing dissapated. I was too shocked to move or even breath, but I was pulled out my daze when I saw the skeletal hand sink back into the ground. I was freaking out too much to wonder what happened, or why I had a slight buzzing in my ears, so I grabbed my stuff and ran as fast as I could to my apartment, only to find a police car waiting for me.

The officer brought me to the station to tell me the news. Ramone had apparently suffered from liver failure due to his constant consumption of alcohol. I knew eventually all that drinking would catch up to him. Later on they brought me back to my place to grab what little stuff I had telling me I was to stay at a small group home.

I never learned the name of it, only that it was a decent living home. The owner of the home had about ten other kids living resident in the home. I never spoke to any od them for fear of their rejection. I kept my distance from them all, always sitting in the most secluded areas. They would talk about me behind my back, but I didn't care. As long as they kept their distance.

A year went by without much incident, least not yet. I was hoping that I had been hallucinating that day or I had hit my head really hard when I tripped. Never had I been so wrong.

I was sitting on one of the branches of the tree that resided behind the home. It was a sunny day and everyone had decided to go the beach. I wasn't in the mood for water so stayed behind. As I layed by head against the tree, I watched the clouds quietly shift. A couple birds flew by, but one of them caught my eye. This one was bigger than the rest and dived from it's group...and headed straight at me. As it got closer, I noticed this bird wasn't really a bird. What tipped me off? Maybe the old grandma face.

I immediatly jumped down the tree before that whatever it was could tackle me off. It flew out of trees way regained some air before flying torwards me again. It screeched with murderous delight as it outstretched it's talons. I then did what any sensible person woukd do. I ran. I ran as fast as I could out of the backyard, only to run into the gate that was locked shut. I panicked, as it was the only way out. As the monster closed, I braced myself, wishing someone would come help. No sooner than I thought that did something...unexplainable happened.

Before the monster got any close to me, some...thing blocked it's path. It started as just a hand rising out of the earth. The scary part was that it's flesh was peeling off and had a grayish green tint. More and more came out until a full standing corpse was shielding me. It was wearing cracked armor that appeared to be greek in design. It held a rusty sword and charged at the monster. The monster hadn't had enough time to escape. The corpse grabbed the monster by the leg and hauled onto the earth before plunging it's sword deep into it's gullet. I watched in horror as the monster wailed in pain before it crumpled into a pile of dust. As the deed was completed, the undead corpse turned and looked at me with lifeless eyes. It gavr me a salute before it, too, disintegrated. I merely stood there, to shocked to move or to understand what had happened.

I couldn't tell anyone what happened that day. How could I? They would probably laugh and say I'd gone crazy. Maybe I had, or maybe it was something else. All I knew was I saw something that I'd have nightmares about. I only prayed something like won't happen again any timw soon.

I was lucky enough to last another two years without something like that. During that time I had gone through a deep depression. Sometimes I couldn't help but feel sad or I couldn't feel anything at all. Cutting didn't help, only leaving scars that worsened my condition. In an attempt to clear my head and tame my emotions, I decided go out at night and let the cold air. No sooner than five mintues later, I found myself running from some unknown creature that was stalking my every move. I tried my best to run back to my home, but it seemed too far away and the monster was gaining on me. Before I had lost all hope, everything went dark as I was running and I felt I was being launched through a cannon. When I came to, I found myself standing in my room. In the home I was recently just running torwards. As I stood their, I thought, "What's happening to me?"

On my 16th birthday, two years later, I went out on a walk to get away from the "family". Being around so many people, I couldn't take it, so I grabbed my jacket and left out the door. It was about midnight, but I didn't care for time. I found a small park nearbye and decided to walk through it. As I walked, I felt the sensation of being watched, like I did four years ago. I even heard the same growling as before, only this time it echoed, as if...there were more than one. My accusation was soon confirmed when I heard footsteps approach me from behind. I turned around to see three dogs this time, two being the size of a tiger and one beimg the size of a bear. I was backing up now. There was no way I could fight my way out of this one. I would have to come up with plan quick, but before I could do any of that, the sound of flying objects filled my ears as something was shot from a nearbye tree, piercing each hound and melting it into a puddle of darkness.

Before I could register what exactly happened, a figure leaped dowm from the tree. It was a young man, no older than I was, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. As he walked over to me, he asked me if I was alright. I was too shocked to use my voice so I simply nodded. He smiled before returning to his serious expression. He asked me why those hellhounds, as he called them, were after me. I was about to answer when I saw a pair of red eyes behind him. Before I knew it, another one of those hellhounds had appeared. I pointed my hand at the hound and yelled at the other guy to move. Before he could react, I felt a pulling feeling in my gut as well as a small tremor in the grouns. A small cracked opened up under the monster out of it came an eruption of fire that apparently incinerated the monster into nothing. The young man watched as the the hellhound was burned and the fissure fire died down. He then looked at me, then at the fissure, then back at me, now with a serious expression. He told me he understood now and why the monsters were after me. I attracted them to me. There were after me because of one reason; I wasn't fully human.

The boy saw how shocked and clueles I was and told me he'll explain everything once we got to somewhere. I asked him where and why me. He responded, "Camp Half-Blood. The only place safe for demigods like me and apparently you."