Hey guys! I'm back with the sequel to Stolen: The Rise of Chaos, like promised! I am going to miss that story so much! But now I have something else to take my mind off of it; The Calm Before The Storm.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
AJ's POV—
The gang and I stand outside the borders of camp, waiting to go in. I inhale a sharp breath, knowing that we're probably the worst group for a quest ever. All we managed to do is not complete it by not finding the weapons of the Big Three, and oh, of course, losing one of our members to the ancient goddess of Chaos. All in all, a bad week.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Bay's legs are shaking.
"It's going to be fine." I say, putting my hand on her shoulders. I see Mac breathing heavily, clenching her fists at her side.
"AJ, just reminding you..." Mac says, quirking an eyebrow angrily at me. "That it was Bay and you together in the first place that made Eme convert over to Chaos!"
I blink, and the fact that she's right comes barreling down on me, leaving a bad taste in my mouth, and a feeling like there was a rock in my stomach. You see, a few days ago, my best friend Eme had given up on all of her insecurities and given her body to Chaos to use for the upcoming Doomsday. Chaos herself—or Eme herself, I'm still not sure yet—had told me that I was the reason Eme had given up her soul and body for Chaos' to use.
I exhale sharply, moving my hands off Bay's shoulders and turn to face Mac. "I know that—but that's exactly another reason we're going to find and save her."
No matter how much I blame myself for causing Eme to turn into the freaking goddess of creation and Chaos, the gang—though, all except for Mac, for some reason—refused to let me believe it.
"Okay," Ray says, biting his lip. "Let's go."
The entire gang crosses over the border of Camp Half-Blood, the guard dragon of Thalia's Pine Tree and The Golden Fleece eying Bay suspiciously, and someone in the distance blows into a conch horn. Everyone comes pouring away from their activities, their cabins, and even some naiads walk out of trees and the river to come join the fun.
"Where's Eme?" a few kids from the Apollo cabin murmur, looking at each other, frowning.
"Who's she?" someone from the Iris cabin yells.
"She doesn't even go here!" someone from the Ares cabin yells, bringing on a round of laughter from the buffoons.
Ray steps up and glares at the Ares group, growling in his throat lowly. He begins explaining what had happened over the past week, us beginning on the R.M.S Avian, the ship sinking, us being stranded at sea on our way to Rome. He explains how I found Bay, and introduced her to everybody as the daughter of Hecate. The Hecate group—three girls and four guys ages fourteen to eighteen—waves her over to them but she just shakes her head and stays by me.
Then he explains how Chaos had her headquarters set up on Capitoline Hill in Rome, and Chaos snatching Eme away from us and taking over her body. He explains the conversation we'd had after that, though he leaves out the reasons why Chaos chose Eme as her host. Then he says even though with all this, we're going to save her.
"Wait... but why did Chaos specifically choose Eme?" a boy from the Hermes cabin asks. "If I would've chosen anyone, I'd chosen that hottie Bay." He winks at her and she glares at him, popping off sparks. The rest of the Hermes cabin elbows him into silence.
Ray opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, I widen my eyes and run off towards the omega cabin setup, sprinting into the seashell cabin that is Cabin 3, blinking back tears and collapse on my bunk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of my other cabin-mates laptops are still running.
I bite my lip, then walk over to the door and lock it. I walk over to the laptop and look at the LED display, the keys, thinking of what to type. I open up the web browser and slowly begin to type in.
Les Miserables.
An audio-recording of it comes up and I click on it, turning it up to full volume and walk over towards my bunk, tossing my dagger on the top bunk and taking for the rest of the day in the bottom.
Most of what I'm listening to doesn't make sense, but I refuse to turn it off. I'm listening to it in honor of Eme.
I scrunch my eyebrows together, thinking about how Eme always talked about wanting to be Eponine, and how she always felt like her. This, of course, hadn't made sense to me at the time, but listening to this, it opens up a new light on me.
"I love him, but everyday I'm learning. All my life, I've only been pretending. Without me, his world would go on turning. A world full of happiness that I have never known," A clear voice sings, and I begin to think about that.
Eme, you're wrong. I think. My world won't go on turning. Just then, her favorite song, A Little Fall of Rain, came on, and I walk over and turn the volume down all the way.
I close my eyes, and despite how racked my body is, sleep refuses to overtake me. Though I do get some messed up images in my mind, not dreams; I picture myself as Marius, Bay as Cosette, and Eme as Eponine. I think about just how worn-out and blunt I feel after listening to the musical and taking them into realization.
Even though I didn't want to, I couldn't help think of Eme dying. But not yet.
I'm just about to fall asleep when I hear the lock of the cabin door click open, and Mac walks in, wearing a pair of fresh clothes.
"Don't think about it," she says, more unlikely reading my thoughts. "I'm sorry about grouching at you earlier." She bites the inside of her lip.
"Don't worry about it," I say. "But how can you not think about it?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
She frowns. "Eme was my best friend," she says. "I miss her, but just missing her isn't going to get her back. Chaos is more unlikely feeding on our emotions and bringing Armageddon closer by getting more powerful. We just need to concentrate, and become better fighters to save her. The rest of the cabin comes in, and Mac closes and locks the door. Even though the guy that owned the laptop had shut it off, the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was Eponine's voice singing "Little you know. Little you care."