Part 1

“Welcome, demigod.” A woman in a beautiful white dress said. “I should be introducing myself to you, but unfortunately, we do not have enough time. You must wake up this very moment and save your friends. You are their only hope.” She said as she started fading.

I slowly opened my eyes and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. As I sat upright, the book on my chest fell to the floor. I picked it up and placed it on my bedside table. I checked the clock. 6:30 in the evening. I must’ve dozed off while reading. I looked around. Nico wasn’t in my cabin. Actually, no one was. I was alone. Why was I alone?

“Hey! It’s time for the party, guys!” Connor burst in our cabin and announced. “Go, I’ll be fine.” I told Nico. He insisted on staying with me in the Zeus cabin as I wanted to rest, since a ride from London to New York could get really exhausting. I knew he wanted to go, but he really didn’t want to leave me. “I’ll drop by at eight.” He sighed as he let go of my hand and followed Connor to the Hermes cabin.

That’s when I smelled something terribly wrong, I mean literally. I rushed out of my cabin only to find the Hermes cabin on fire.

Dana and Kris came running towards me- rather Dana was running and dragging Kris behind her as if she didn’t really want to come. “What happened? We were just talking in our cabin when we smelled… oh, shit.” Dana cursed as she realized how dire the situation was.

Dad, maybe it’s time to use your paternal skills on your daughter and help her out, I thought. I had an idea, but I needed my dad’s help. It never usually rained on camp, since a protective barrier kept rain from reaching it, but if my father felt like it, he could make a typhoon appear right in the middle of dinner and could make it disappear within a millisecond. And right now, I needed rain. I needed the rain to pour as heavy as it could. I focused my thoughts on heavy raindrops and before I knew it, raindrops started falling, one by one at first, then heavily after a few seconds.

Thank the gods my Olympian parent loves to dote on me.

Just then Chiron and Apollo emerged from the trees. As you may recall, Mr. D was still out of camp, I don’t know where he is and I really couldn’t care less. What confused me was the fact that Apollo was still here. I mean, I thought he was only supposed to bring me here safely, but thankfully I wasn’t the only reason he was here. Phew.

“What happened here? Why is it raining?” Chiron asked, galloping his way towards us. Yes, I said galloping, because if you weren’t informed, Chiron is actually a Centaur. He’s half-man, half-horse. “I don’t exactly know, Chiron. I just woke up and saw this. Oh, and sorry about the rain, I had to stop the fire.” I explained to Chiron as Apollo, Dana and Kris carried people to the infirmary. I can’t help but feel like something bad just happened.

I scanned the people lying down in the infirmary, half-hoping I would see Nico and half-hoping that I wouldn’t. Then someone placed their hand on my shoulder. “Come here, Reena.” I jumped up, surprised by the seriousness of the voice. When I turned and saw who it was, I was even more surprised to find it was Apollo. Apollo was almost never serious about anything, so I figured that whatever it was, it was a matter of life and death.

And, fuck, was I right.

I saw Nico, lying on a bed near the end of the infirmary. Chiron looked down at him as if he only had a few minutes until he pays a visit to the Underworld, not as a human, but as a ghost.

The way Chiron looked at him and the way Apollo acted made me feel uneasy. Something wrong was going on here, and it had something to do with Nico. “Okay, this is as far as it goes. What’s going on here?” I asked Chiron demandingly.

“I’m sorry, Reena, but Nico’s been poisoned and there’s nothing I can do to heal him.” Chiron said as he stepped away from Nico. “Wait, what? What do you mean he was poisoned? How could this have happened?” I asked the two of them as I took a few steps closer towards Nico. His skin was as pale and as cool as snow that he could’ve passed for a corpse.

“He was food poisoned.” Percy walked in, aided by Bianca. His clothes were scorched and he was panting heavily. He must’ve tried to protect Bianca and endangered himself. “After eating and drinking, his stomach started to hurt and he told Percy he was going to outside and he’ll be back in a few minutes. When he didn’t come back, Percy and I started getting worried because he looked dazed when he went outside and we looked for him outside. We found a puddle of vomit that must have been his but we didn’t find him. We went back inside and after a few minutes, the cabin was on fire.” Bianca explained, as she laid Percy on a bed next to Nico’s.

“Isn’t there anyway to cure him?” I asked Chiron, hopefully, but he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Reena, but it isn’t as simple as that. He wasn’t just poisoned. Apparently, when he was food poisoned, he lost control of his actions—” Chiron explained. “Synesthesia.“ I said out loud. “Pardon?” Chiron said, knitting his eyebrows. “When stimulation of one sensory pathway is activated it leads to activation of another. That is a condition known as Synesthesia. But I never knew Nico had Synesthesia, much less that Synesthesia can lead to getting your mind controlled.”  I explained as I pondered over the thought.

“Can’t we ask Mr. D to cure him? I mean, he’s an expert in these kinds of things, isn’t he?” I clenched my fists. I hated not being able to do anything. “Unfortunately, Mr. D is still in England and cannot be reached.” Chiron said.

I punched the wall and cursed. Why now, of all times? Then I felt something move. I looked at Nico and saw that he tightened his grip. As painful as it was to see him in such a dreadful state, I looked at him and knew that if I were him, he’d definitely save me.

“Chiron, please, let me go to England.” I pleaded and I saw how much he wanted to granted my request, but he still refused. Well, not that I wasn’t already expecting that. I asked them to leave me for now.

“Don’t do anything reckless.” Apollo said as he threw me a bag of golden drachmas and dollars. I smiled at him and said, “Isn’t that my line?” And he left the room.

“It’s my time to save you.” I whispered into his ear and kissed him on the cheek. I’ll definitely save him, no matter what it takes.

——-

You probably thought I would never post anything ever again and that we were dead. Actually, we’re probably dead, but I’m trying to revive it. I just can’t bring myself to quit writing. Although I can’t promise a new chapter everyday, I’ll try to update as much as I can. :)

Tell me what you think. http://-loganlerman.tumblr.com or http://electrostaticdischarge.tumblr.com

I missed TDF! <3