"Keep running." Luke screamed pulling Annabeth behind him where she was stumbling being much smaller than and not as fast as Luke.
Grover stumbled next to Thalia due to his hoof feet but he quickly got his footing or rather hoofing back and kept running.
"Were almost," Grover huffed getting winded. "There." He pointed ahead. They had to get up this giant hill then they could find the opening of the camp. That was if they could out run the monsters.
Luke cursed himself out. This was his fault. If he hadn't tried taking on that stupid hellhound mutt, then the furies wouldn't have found them so easily. Then they wouldn't have tried hiding in a Cyclopes layer who evidently tried to eat Thalia, Grover and him. They were lucky enough Annabeth, who was only seven was brave enough to stab the Cyclops in the foot and cut Thalia bonds so they could survive another day.
All three of the furies were chasing them, with an army of hellhounds. Man did Luke really wish those Hunters of Artemis were still here. I mean Thalia almost punched the lead hunter girl in the face because something she had said to her, which he had no clue was about; but they had killed the monsters chasing after them and gave them time to run.
Luke's heart pumped a beat with every step he took when he ran. He looked back and found three women who didn't look anything like women, flying up in the sky above them. There leather wings spread out as they glided above them. One of them started to swoop down and her sisters fallowed her. The three demigods and Satyr just kept running. They had to get to the camp where Grover said other camp members could help them out with there monster problem.
"Watch out!" Luke yelled. Right then the Furies came down with there claws extended. Luke yanked Annabeth ahead of him and slashed at the Fury with his sword backbiter; she screeched and flew away from both of them. Grover screamed but when Luke looked at him he was fine and still running. Thalia had her magical shield Aegis out pointed at one of the furies who were trying to attack her; the monster hissed and flew away.
"What are you waiting for? Run!" Thalia said looking back at Luke who had stopped running unlike Grover and Annabeth who were ahead of both of them. He nodded and they both dug there feet into the ground with every step they took to get away. Luke had this terrible Nott in his stomach.
The Hellhounds were barking behind them and the Furies were cackling with joy tormenting all of the fleeing half-bloods, and Grover. "Stupid." Thalia grumbled under her breath. Luke had no idea if she was referring to the monsters or to him being so stupid.
One of the hellhounds was faster then his other siblings and bit at the ankles of Luke and Thalia. Luke swiped behind him with his sword but he couldn't tell if he was actually hurting the hound. Thalia had her shield pointed behind her at the hound and glanced back at the monster still running. Luke spun around and slashed at the face of the hound. He must have aimed well because the dog yelped and thrashed and retreated into its siblings. It knocked one of the furies out of her flying pattern where she crashed into her sisters.
"HA!" Luke gloated. He smiled even though he was terrified.
"Come on." Thalia grabbed his free hand and pulled him along with her. Her shield had turned back into her little silver bracelet. It was easier to run when you weren't carrying a heavy scary looking shield.
Grover had just reached the top of the hill ahead of them. Annabeth was between the goat boy and her two underage guardians. Luke was glad Annabeth wasn't seriously hurt unlike Thalia and him. They both were bleeding heavily from getting raked with so many different sharp claws, but it was better that they took the pain and not the little blond girl they both acted like parents for. Luke the Father and Thalia the… well you get the idea. He would have blushed thinking about this but he didn't have the blood to spare or the time.
Annabeth stumbled and fell down scraping her knees and hands on the ground right before she reached the top of the hill. Thalia pulled away from Luke and rushed up to help her. She grabbed her arms and pushed her up to her feet. "Hurry, Annabeth." Thalia's voice trembled.
The little girl had mud smudged all over herself. She had a few scratches on her arms, neck and one on her cheek but she seamed to be okay. Her curly blond hair was tangled over her grey eyes that streamed tears. Thalia pushed Annabeth forward softly and the little girl stumbled down the hill past a couple of lone trees after Grover who was half way down the hill now. Luke reached the top of the hill next to Thalia and they both could see the stone columns that signified the opening to the camp that could be a new safe and permanent home for them.
"We did it." Luke's heart fluttered with a wide smile spreading across his face. "Come on." He never took his eyes away from the columns. Safety, Finally. He grabbed thalias hand and tried pulling her forward but she kept to where she stood.
He looked back at her surprised. Her spiky black hair swished with the wind. Her face held total despair, which only made Luke want to fix anything that was making her sad. She had three even scratches over her left cheek, but even that couldn't make her any less beautiful then she was. Her leather jacket had saved her from the worst of the attacks but she still looked hurt. "Go, Luke." She stood planted to the ground looking at him petrified.
"What are you doing? Were almost there." he looked back at the columns that Grover had run past into the safety of the camp to get help. Annabeth was almost there but she could still be hunted down easily.
"There's no way your going to get there. They'll catch you. They want me. They always have wanted me." She shook her head as tears began to flood down her cheeks. "Go get help, I'll stay and fight. You'll have a better chance of surviving if I do this."
She tapped her bracelet and spoke its name, and then her shield reappeared. Electricity crackled around her but she didn't seam to notice. She looked back behind her bravely.
Luke couldn't breath, and it wasn't because of the running. He didn't want to loose her. He was too attached to her, and if he had to say it then he would even say he was in love with this black haired blue eyed girl. He thought it ridicules for a fourteen boy to be so infatuated with a girl who was two years younger then him but after she had been the only one he could depend on and it was the same for her that he had begun to love this girl. Annabeth had only made there bonds stronger like a couple bonding over a child.
The furies screeched out in the night under the full moon. They had recollected themselves from the surprise attack from the blinded hellhound and now they were searching for there targets who were just standing on the top of half-blood hill as if they were asking to be killed.
Luke swallowed hard and grabbed Thalias free hand. She gasped and looked back at him like he had just appeared right in front of her. "No, we can make it if we run now."
Tears streamed down her face which only made her blue eyes brighter under the full moon light.
"No, we can't. You can, but I can't." She looked back at the hellhounds who were running up the hill and would be there in seconds. "Go, Luke. They only want me, Hades is angry for some reason that I'm alive. He wants me dead, they only want me. Protect Annabeth." Somehow she kept a calm expression.
She shoved him away from her but he still had her hand. He couldn't just leave her here to fight the monsters alone. "No, I'm staying. You won't die today; no one will accept those filthy monsters."
Her eyes widened then she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. It shocked him but he just melted and went with it. He had dreamed guiltily about kissing her and calling her his one day and this could be the day. Her lips were soft just like he thought they would be. Electricity hummed around her making the hair on his arms stand up, it was exhilarating and he loved it. He loved her.
He kissed her back wrapping his arms around her waist. She was the only thing he had ever wanted, a person who he could love and she would love him back. Her shield was still in her hand that was behind his back, her other one was around his neck that was moving down to his chest slowly. He rubbed her back feeling her smooth skin under her ripped and torn shirt and jacket. She moaned a little then her eyes shot open and pain flared up in his chest.
He went flying and tumbled away from her down the hill. The sky and the ground got swirled together as he tumbled down the hill. When he stopped rolling he looked up and found the girl he had just had in his arms slashing at two of the Furies who hovered in front of her up on the top of the hill.
He got up to his feet dizzy and his chest throbbing. He looked down and found his shirt black and partially charred around where he was hit. Thalia seduced him into kissing her then blasted him with a bit of her electricity to get him away from the monsters. She was protecting him; even though he was suppose to be doing that for her.
He looked back to her petrified. She had her spear in her hand now and was jabbing at a hellhound; she jumped out the way but only into the range of another. She was doing okay now but she couldn't do it forever. He had to go get help he decided.
He ran down the hill half stumbling half running past all the trees. He would look at the gate then look back at Thalia to make sure she was okay. Annabeth had just reached the gate and Grover was long gone past it. He looked back up the hill. Thalia had three Hellhounds around her and a fury had its claws wrapped around her shoulder of her jacket where she was hovering in the air a few feet. Come on idiot! He screamed at himself.
He ran and ran, jumping over roots daring to trip him or past trees acting like obstacles for Luke. His heart pumped and his body responded to his screaming head. She's going to die if you don't hurry up!
He stumbled the last part when he reached the columns. He looked back up to Thalia. She stabbed a Hellhound turning it to dust with her spear but another took its place next to her. Now that he wasn't up there he could see just how many hellhounds there were. Thalia was the little speck that was hacking at everything around her then there were hellhounds at every side of her plus more. The furies cackled as they swung there whips that danced like flames at her and she would cry out in pain but kept hacking with her spear and kept the monsters at bay with her shield.
He had to help her. He screamed "Help! HELP!" He looked past the columns to where cabin looking buildings had kids bolting out of them realizing what was happening. They grabbed weapons and started running out of the safety of there camp in pajamas.
They wouldn't be able to help her just yet though. Luke reached for his sword but when it wasn't at his side he realized he had left it up there with Thalia. It was right under the massive paws of the hellhounds. He would just have to risk it.
He ran up the hill that was a lot harder to run up then down. He grabbed a branch that had fallen from one of the trees nearby. At least he had something to defend himself in till he got to his sword. Thalia cried out in pain and that caught Luke's attention.
She fell to her hands and knees bleeding everywhere. Blood ran off of her like water would to the ground. The hounds snarled at her with there dagger like teeth but they didn't advance. The furies circled her still laughing at her pain, but they didn't hit her with there fire whips. She struggled to her feet shaken and very off balance.
The next thing that happened Luke would probably never see in the rest of his life or ever want to. Electricity sparked around her like it had before but this time the clouds above her turned black and rumbled a deep base. She looked at all of the monsters as if waiting for one of them to attack her but none did. A crack of thunder and blinding white light struck. She thrusted her right hand up in the air right when white lightning hit the middle of her palm. A giant nuclear explosion is what the lightning acted like.
White rings of electricity spread from where she stood. It eliminated everything in its path. The hellhounds didn't even have time to howl before they disappeared. The furies wailed then there screaming disappeared as the rings of electricity washed over them.
If Luke had been closer to Thalia when she did this, he would be dead from electrocution. When the first ring of electricity came it slammed into him and he flew into the air again tumbling and landing at the feet of some very surprised campers who were at least twenty feet away from where he was originally standing before. He looked up and the rings of white electricity were still spreading from where Thalia was standing, monsters still disintegrating.
"Thalia!" Luke screamed getting to his feet feeling static all around him. He couldn't even really look to where she was standing. The white electricity was so bright that it was blinding. The rings began to fade and Luke could start to run up to her without being pulled from his feet.
Thalias silhouette appeared slowly when he got closer and the rings began to fade. She was standing still at the top of the hill. He was maybe thirty feet away from her. Then her knees buckled and she fell to her knees with a gasp. She was still alive but not for too long if nobody helped her.
As he ran faster and got closer to her he could see the blood running down her bare skin. The shirt she had been wearing was eaten up totally and she was only in her shredded black leather jacket that barely covered her also charred bra. Her jeans were ripped and torn and eaten so much that they were shorts barely hanging on by a few threads.
Normally he would look away instantly and normally if he had seen this much of her she would have screamed and punched him very hard. In which case he had once accidentally, and it was a total accident; Luke had walked in on her when she was taking a bath in a lake and Annabeth was suppose to be watching guard for her but she had run away after a butterfly that had fluttered her way like seven year olds would do. He was so shocked and Thalia was too. He had clamped his hands over his eyes but not before he had seen the curvature of her body, the way her white skin was so pail, the way he wanted to trail his hand against her bare back and sooth her as she was pressed against him. She was only waist deep in the mucky water and her back was to him when he had walked in on her but when she realized he was there her arms clamped down across her naked chest, she screamed and dove under the water before his horny fourteen year old boy mind could fantasize even more about her being naked. He blamed it on the fact that he was a boy with the way he wanted her. Otherwise he wouldn't have stood there petrified waiting for her to come up from the water. When she did, only her head had popped up from the deep water she was skinny dipping in. She told him to go away and that if he didn't she would seriously hurt him when she got out. Luke probably would have stood there for hours waiting for her to come out if his mind was the only one making decisions but the boy side of him wouldn't control him and he ran as fast as he could away from her in to the brush. The next week was embarrassing, because he couldn't even close his eyes without seeing her in that lake even though he hadn't really seen anything of significance. Thalia was so angry at him that if she needed to talk to him she would tell Annabeth and Annie would tell him even though he had heard her the first time. Annabeth thought it was a game, she knew nothing about the incident that she could have prevented if she had been playing with the flowers and not the butterflies, but Luke couldn't blame it on the little girl. He could only blame it on himself for being attracted to this beautiful girl that would never be his.
Now all he could wish for was that she would be okay.
"Thalia!" he screamed again. He jumped past a tree root and kept making his way up to her. He needed to get to her and soon. She had lost too much blood; she was so pail she already looked like one of the dead.
She had heard him and her eyes opened up shocked. She was still on her knees and she looked exhausted. She coughed and blood came dribbling down her mouth. "I-I" She said trying to get to her feet.
"Don't-"Luke said stumbling up the hill scrapping his hands and knees on the ground. His head and heart were pounding and it made it almost impossible to stay on his feet.
She raised herself barely to her feet shaking. Then gasped and clutched at her stomach. Through gritted teeth stained red she said "Lu-Luke I-I love yo-"Then she gasped, her eyes shot open and she looked up to the sky.
He reacted right after her when he got a hand on her arm. He looked up and blinding white light washed over him.
He was blind and pain surged all the way through his body. His skin was peeling off of him. He couldn't move as his body contracted to the pain. He gritted his teeth tasting blood and squeezed his eyes shut. He felt like he was fly and also grounded at the exact same time. He screamed but it was like no one could hear his cries.
He tried fighting the pain but it was something he couldn't defeat simply with force. His eyes rolled back into his skull and he let go of the little air trapped in his lounges. Right before black washed over him and he gave up life he thought he could feel and hear Thalia whisper in his ear.
"I'll wait."
"THALIA!" Luke screamed jumping up to his feet. His head pounded and white spots danced in front of his eyes as his feet gave out from underneath him. He clutched at his head falling to his knees next to the infirmary bed he was laying on a second before.
"L-Luke?" a shrill voice said. He looked up squinting still seeing white every time he blinked. Annabeth looked timidly down at him ten feet away. Her hair was clean like the clothes she wore. Her gray eyes stood out from her wavy blond hair that fell down her small shoulders. She looked younger then she really was.
"Annie." He said taking his hands away from his head and opened his arms towards her. She ran into him and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. He squeezed her tightly and felt like if she wasn't holding him he would crack and shatter into a million pieces.
Her tears dropped down on his neck and back. He shook and he tried holding his breath in. he struggled to keep from crying and falling apart. This little girl holding him shook as her small crying was the only sound in the white infirmary room. He needed to keep strong, at least for her. Part of him felt dead and the other half grounded and alive.
Eventually she retracted from him and the second heart beat that hammered against his chest was gone. They had been hugging each other for so long that He couldn't even decipher hers from his in till now. She looked down at him standing and he was on his knees. "Come with me Luke." She said picking up his shaking hand.
He got to his feet silently swallowing down all the emotion that washed over him. He had to keep the tears from spilling over, the shaking from making him fall down to the ground, every time he blinked he could see the horrible blinding white light he had seen right before it hit him and Thalia.
He knew she was gone. He could just feel it. The part of him that had died is the part that loved her. His mother, his father and now his best friend were dead to him. He felt like he was all alone. The only thing he had left was this little girl that was leading out back to the woods.
As they walked out of the infirmary and past the normal campers they all stopped what they were doing and stared at both of them like they were aliens. He felt as cold as they stared at him. His body ached and his skin was red as a layer of his skin had been peeled off when the white light had hit him. Ozone filled the air.
They walked silently up the hill he had lost so much at. As they walked up the hill he could feel the presence of the campers staring at them from far behind. The path seemed to have less trees then he remembered scattered along the hill. Maybe he had imagined all the obstacles.
But there was one tree that stood out from all the rest of them. A huge healthy pine grew at the very top glowing with gold from the sunlight that only spotted through the clouds to the tree. He knew for a fact that this one wasn't there when Thalia was fighting the monsters by herself. He winced. He should have been there the whole time by her side; but he wasn't and because of that choice she was gone. And this tree stood where she had now.
He blinked and she was there standing at the top perfectly fine as if she was waiting for him. She smiled down at Annabeth and Luke who took there time walking up the hill. Her black hair blew away from her face and her blue eyes shined in the sunshine then she was gone. The tree stood there protecting everything in it's boundaries.
As he got closer with Annabeth still leading him he could see something glittering in the sunlight. His sword sat stabbed into the ground at the foot of the giant trunk of the tree waiting for him to reclaim it.
Annabeth freely walked over to the tree and sat at the very base of it like this was her favorite place in the world. He was staring at the tree shaking from fright. He gasped when Annabeth spoke ripping his eyes away from the magical tree to the little girl sitting beneath it. She patted the ground next to her "she's here." She sighed deeply looking out to the camp that he could see now because of the sun below. "I can feel her. Can't you?"
He could feel Thalias presence pulling him closer to her, but he couldn't see her; only the tree that mocked him. His heart ached and skipped and he could almost see her holding his hand and pulling him up the hill to where Annabeth sat contently next to the tree. Thalia looked back and smiled at him like she had done so many times before. He could almost hear her say "Come on Luke. Gods sometimes you're so slow." She laughed at him and it echoed away like nothing as she disappeared like smoke from his eyes.
Tears fell silently down his face and he stumbled across one of the roots of the tree and fell clutching at the trunk. His knees dug into the soft green grass that grew around the tree, his hands above his head trailing down the familiar ridges of trunk like he had known this tree all his life. Yet he had known her all his life, the part of his life that mattered at least. Thalia.
He cried out screaming curses to the gods up in the sky. Tears flowed down his face and even after he had lost what little energy and Anger had been filling him up did he stop. He laid there thrown against the tree that was his only support for what seamed like hours. He was silent and grew calmer as time passed.
A small little hand reached around and touched his shoulder. He looked back blurry eyed to find little Annabeth smiling at him with so much hope in her grey eyes. "She's not gone Luke. She still right here with us."
She sat down next to him between a root of the tree and him. He turned around leaning against the trunk of the tree wiping away the tears. Annabeth yawned even though it was the middle of the day. She laid her head against his shoulder. "Family Luke. You promised." And with that she nodded off to sleep.
He looked out down to the new place he could call home. People busied by down below and it seamed to have everything he could ever want except one thing that was torn away from him. His heart slowed as he listed to Annabeth's slow breaths. His eye lids got heavy and right before he closed them he looked over to his other shoulder.
A spiky black haired girl smiled at him lazily. She pushed his shoulder lightly with hers. "Go to sleep Luke" She cooed. She held on to his arm then closed her electric blue eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder smiling contently.
He closed his eyes for the last time feeling the slow breaths of the two girls lull him to sleep. They were the only family he had left. If only one of them wasn't gone…