I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus. They belong to Rick Riordan.
Edit: I am in the process of making some revisions to this story, considering my writing style has probably changed. I hope it becomes more appealing to the readers!
The conch horn blew, signaling the end of the Capture-the-Flag game. The moods of the two teams were polar opposites. The Hunters beamed at each other as Thalia jogged over to the dejected campers with a smirk on her face and the flag in her hand.
"What was that, their 1000th time winning?" Percy muttered under his breath as his rival approached to brag. He glanced at his girlfriend. Her stormy gray eyes held a frustrated look, and she barely seemed to acknowledge anyone.
"Hey, Annabeth. It looks as if your brilliant plan didn't work out too well," Thalia grinned.
"How did you know our plan? It was laid out so carefully," she grumbled.
"It was so well-planned out that it was so predictable," Thalia declared with a laugh.
"That makes no sense!" Annabeth argued vehemently. Percy got ready to intervene before a cat fight started. He never got the chance.
A distorted shriek rang in the woods. They looked at each other with alarm and sprinted towards the disturbance while the other campers quickly followed. What they ran to sent shivers across his spine. Nico di Angelo was curled up on the snow covered ground with a scrunched up expression and his hands over his ears. He was being pulled into the ground by tendrils of wiggling darkness, and no one seemed to be able to reach him, as if they were frozen in fear. Then Percy shook off his shock and tried to push through the crowd. He noticed that Clarisse did the same, with a bit of a dazed look.
Percy got through first, but it was too late. Just as he managed to reach the dark area, Nico was dragged under completely. A second later, shadows resembling spasmodic spiders grabbed at Percy's arms! Panic threatened to overwhelm him as visions of fire and destruction raging through a city suddenly assaulted his mind. He struggled desperately and escaped what was grabbing him. The vortex and its strange extensions faded as soon as he stumbled back and fell to his knees. Percy started to shiver. Those visions…were they what he feared? He couldn't recall ever thinking about burning cities. As adrenaline died away, he sat still until a barrage of voices entered his ears.
"What happened?"
"What was that thing?"
"The kid disappeared!"
But a single voice drowned out everyone else's. "PERCY!" His girlfriend kneeled next to him and scrutinized at him with concern. "Are you okay?"
Percy blinked sluggishly. He recovered from his trance-like state and very elegantly said,"Uhh…"
Annabeth started to talk. "Di immortals! I thought you were going to get swallowed too! And Nico was-"
She was cut off by Chiron's stern and grim voice. "Counselors, we are having a meeting in the rec. room. The rest of the campers and Hunters, return to your cabins immediately." Chiron trotted away from the woods with haste, leaving behind a group of stunned, fearful demigods.