My name is Ash. Please don't ask me what it's short for. I won't answer that. I'm 17 years old and I'll soon turn 18. My family lives in Abuja the capital of Nigeria. We are not a happy family like most famiies. My family is dark and cold. My family has been into politics for so many generations now and my father was no exception. I'm on the exception because all those stuff about politics bore the hell out of me. But if you look on the bright side, we are filthy rich. That is if you call having dirty money a "bright side"

My family uses politics as a frontier, when infact, our main occupation is assassination. My family have been assassins dating back to generations I can't even remember or I'm not aware of.

My father, Larry Okechukwu is a very strict and stern man. He wasn't friendly with me at all. Even when I was old enough to go to school, his first advice to me was "Friends are a liability"? and since then I've not been allowed to make any friends. The only friend I was allowed to have was a boy called Daniel. He is from the cleaner family.

If you're asking what I mean by a cleaner, they're people who do the clean up work for us after assassinations and they clean up the mess to make sure no trails or evidence are left.

I wouldn't call what I have with Daniel friendship exactly. I'm going to be the head of my family after my dad and he's going to be the head of the cleaner family sometime in the future and we are expected to work together. That's the kind of relationship we have.

Since our families were well to do, we attended one of the best prestigious school for the elites. The name of the school is American international school, Abuja. I'm known as a loner who stays by himself and isn't friendly at all. Can you blame me? I was trying to be a silent individual.

By the time I was 10, my dad revealed the secrets of our family to me. I started training on how to be an assassin. My dad usually gives me a body examination every time I'm about to turn a new age to make sure my body was flexible and fit enough for assassination jobs. Sometimes I even have fight simulations with him. At the age of 10, I knew all the assassins that worked for my family and was very conversant with them.

I know you must be asking, where's my mother in all this? My mom, sweet soul. How she ended up marrying someone like my dad, will always be a mystery to me. She's this quiet kind of woman that hardly says anything. She's the best cook by the way.

Soon, I'll be 18 years and I know what that meant for me. I'll finally undergo my trial as an assassin. As usual, my father called me into the secret chamber.

"Take off your clothes" he said calmly, but in a commanding tone.

I did as I was asked and took every bit of my clothes off and awaited further orders.

"Raise both hands up." he said again, and I obeyed.

He ran his hands all over my body, from the back of my head, to my shoulders, and down to my entire body.

"Spread your hands sideways."

He examined the flexibility of my arm, forearm and wrist. Then he asked me to take one foot up whilst standing. This went on for almost 30 minutes until he was satisfied and asked me to put my clothes back on.

"You've grown so much in this past couple of years." He said and I bowed slightly.

"I've followed your guidance and instructions down to the last. Failure isn't an option."

"Hmm, I see you'll be turning 18 in about 15 days. Today is August 16th, If I'm not mistaken."

"Surely you jest, Nna. You're never mistaken."

"Hmm. You know what that means for you, right? Don't disappoint me." He said and started walking out the room.

"Never." I said, and raised my head. Suddenly it occurred to me that I forgot something. "Nna, I forgot to inform you that my school is organizing an excursion to Greece for my class. Although I did drop a letter containing the details on your table."

"Hmm, I'll look into it, that's not a problem at all." He said and walked away.

I stepped out of the secret room and looked to see if he has left the vicinity. When I confirmed he was no longer there, I let out a long loud fart and fanned it away with my hand.

"Phew! I thought I'd explode." I muttered to myself and tried to sniff the air.

Staying in that room makes me feel like I'm being suffocated. I looked out the window.

"The Assassin's trial, Huh?"

Just like my father said, It wasn't a problem because he paid for the excursion without breaking a sweat. This was two days later, meaning that there was 13 days left to my birthday. The excursion is supposed to be a three days activity. I don't know the distance from Nigeria to Greece, so I didn't add it. Oh, never mind. I just browsed it and it's about 5 hours 34 minutes, give or take, according to Google. We are supposed to leave the day after tomorrow, which is 21st of August.

My mom was really busy trying to get things together for my trip. This is not the first time I'm leaving the country for an excursion, so she knows what to prepare and what not to prepare.

Daniel was also getting ready for the trip. We met up a few times to discuss what we should expect at the trip. In my mind, I was thinking about Ancient Greek history. My father doesn't like me reading stuff like that. He calls them "mystical nonsense" but I still hide to read them. I was looking forward to this trip.

The night before the excursion, I brought out the book I had on Greek mythology and started reading it again.

On the day of the excursion, I bid my parents farewell, and headed to school as early as 6am. When I got there, most students were already waiting as the big school bus started loading our stuff to drive us to the airport. Our school had already booked a private airplane that would fly us to Greece and everyone was excited. While they all chatted away, Daniel and I sat the back of the bus quietly and no one paid us any attention.

By the time we got to the airport, it was already 7:45 a.m and we all lined up as the teachers who were chaperoning addressed us, after which we formed a single file and started entering the airplane. It was a really big and spacious airplane. My school is not called prestigious for nothing.

Inside the airplane, everyone sat with their friends and started from where they left off in the bus. In no time we were soaring in the sky. The journey to Greece took about six hours. I guess Google isn't always accurate.

Bookings were reserved for us at Grand Hyatt Athens hotel in Athens. It was a very luxurious hotel and I felt a little bit impressed.

Since we arrived in the afternoon, we were bustling with energy and decided to start our tour. Actually, Greece is two hours ahead of Nigeria, so we arrived by 3pm.

We all settled down in 30 minutes and begun our tour. The first place we visited was the Acropolis of Athens. It was one of the places that has a deep rooted connection with the history of Greece. Built atop a massive hell, the citadel comprises the ruins of several historic buildings, including the Parthenon. It is believed that the Mycenaean Megaron Palace stood here during the late bronze age.

The Acropolis is located at a height of 150 meters above sea level and is spread over three hectares, which is approximately the size of four football fields. How awesome is that?

But there is one problem, the hill on top of which the Acropolis is situated is unstable due to the constant change of tectonic shifts causing damage to the age old structures, who knows? Maybe the gods are angry.

We also visited the Parthenon, which was a temple. You can still see the structures standing. Lastly, we went to see the Athena Parthenos, it was a giant statue of the goddess Athena.

By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 7pm already. We quickly had dinner, took roll call and everyone went to sleep. We'll be going to Delphi tomorrow.

Early the next morning, we were woken up by 7am. We had breakfast, took our bath and got ready for our trip to Delphi.

It was a three hour drive from Athens to Delphi but we finally got there. From the little I know, Delphi was an ancient sacred place and the seat of the serpent Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. That was until Apollo the sun god murdered him and took his place. The Ancient Greeks considered the center of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as the Omphalos.

"You're geeking out again." Daniel said, bringing me back to reality.

"I'm not geeking out," I said feeling a bit embarrassed, "Just reminiscing on some things."

I was now staring at the Omphalos intently. There were symbols flickering on the surface. I tried to place my hand on it, but I was sucked into it.

When I came to, I was in what look like a cave brightly lit with blue crystals.

"Woah? Where is this?" A voice said, startling me.

"Daniel? How did you get here?" I asked.

"You got pulled in by the rock and I followed you." He said innocently and I face palmed myself.

"I hope you don't jump into a fire with me one day."

Just then, I noticed there was a lake at the far end of the cave. I started walking towards it and as I did so, I started hearing the voice of a woman singing.

"Um...shouldn't we go in the opposite direction?" Daniel asked, feeling a little skeptical "This is how people get murdered in movies."

"But the song" I said listening carefully "It's as though it's calling to me."

"Yeah..." Daniel said sarcastically "calling you to your death."

When we arrived at the lake, there was a lady sitting on a rock in the middle of the lake. She was cradling a short sword in a sheath and singing. It was as though her body was made of water.

I can't believe what I'm seeing. Could she be a Naiad? (Naiads are water spirits).

She was still singing when I stepped into the water and started waddling towards her.

"Ash, I don't think that's a good idea." Daniel called out in a worried tone, but I ignored him.

I got to where the Naiad was and she stopped singing and held out the sword to me and smiled with a sad face. I took the short sword from her and she started dissolving into the lake.

"Say it's name." She said in a whisper as she was almost fading.

"Name? What name?" I asked, confused as to what she was saying.

"Olym...pus." She said and dissolved totally, leaving me alone in the middle of the lake as I gripped the sword and looked at it in confusion.

"What did the Mami wota lady say?" Daniel asked from afar.

"Olympus?" I muttered, feeling more confused than ever. But in that instant, runes floated off the sword as it started emitting a blue light.

"Ash!!!" Daniel screamed out to me and in that moment, an explosion erupted from the sword, sending me flying out of the lake. Daniel was sent flying too as the whole world around me went dark.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

New Chapters will be released every Friday. I hope you all look forward to it.