A huge thanks to my friend Jacey W. who created the cover for my book on wattpad.
I do not own PJO.
Chapter 7.
Sean closed his eyes and thought for a second before speaking. "Come sit down, Alethea. You might want to." He pulled a chair back for her to sit in.
Thea looked thoroughly annoyed with Sean but she complied. Strangely, she staggered over to her chair and blinked her eyes as if trying to stay awake.
She sat across from me and to the left of Sean. You could see the bags under her eyes and the tired look on her face. I could definitely tell that she hadn't slept in days; probably from my disappearance.
I grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly to reassure her. "Now Alethea, all of what we are about to tell you is going to be a lot to take in. It will also be very dangerous for you to have this knowledge. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"I have to know." She prodded.
"Very well." Sean sighed, "You know how I disappear to a boarding school for people with dyslexia, ADHD or other problems for most of the year?"
"Y-yeah…" Alethea answered.
"It's a lie. All these years I have been going to a summer camp," He thought for a second, "A camp for kids with special abilities like me, Peggy and Percy here." He gestured to the three of us while speaking.
"Abilities? What do you mean, Sean?"
"I mean that we are not like normal people. In Greek myths Gods would come down from Olympus and have children with mortals. Well, us three are the offspring of, well… gods."
"You absolutely cannot be serious." She gaped at the three of us. I could tell the information just wasn't processing in her brain. Perhaps it was too much for any mortal to take in all at once.
Sean spoke, "I am dead serious, Thea. Hermes is my father and he found mom attractive because of how much she traveled around the world. But gods never stay for-"
He was cut off by Alethea, "That means you're- you're all half-" She stopped mid-sentence. I knew she couldn't take it all.
Her eyes rolled back slightly so I could see more white than what was normal and she collapsed on the ground. Her head hit the floor first; pretty hard might I add.
"Alethea!" Sean and I yelled in tandem. All three of us jumped out of our chairs and ran to her side. I placed my fingers at the side of her neck to check for a pulse.
"Her heartbeat is way too slow and she isn't breathing! What happened? What do we do?" I squeaked, on the verge of tears. Alethea's skin was beginning to pale, she looked awful.
Percy was surprisingly calm for the circumstances, "She must've feinted from exhaustion and the shock." Some blood began to pool up on the floor beneath Alethea's head. "I'm not sure what we can do. If we give her nectar and ambrosia she will literally burn up."
"Do either of you know CPR?" Sean spoke up, frantic. I could for sure tell he was crying and at this point I was too. Both Percy and I shook our heads violently.
"We need to get her breathing and fast. Seeing as we have no children of Apollo here to heal her, I guess we'll have to call upon Apollo himself." Percy stated.
"Ok, quickly then."
Percy scrambled up to the gas stove and turned it on. He then proceeded to dump whatever foods he found on the table into the flames. Specifically, pasta, burgers and half of a grilled cheese. He ran back to us and got down on his knees. As the food burned up, he began to chant over and over: "Oh great lord Apollo, please accept our sacrifice and help us in our time of need. Please, oh please save our friend."
Soon enough, Sean and I got down on our knees and joined him.
The blood pool on the floor was beginning to spread further and I could tell Alethea would die within a few more seconds without help. I began to lose hope and was thinking of saying my final goodbyes to her when a bright, golden light filled my vision.
The light was so brilliant, I couldn't see for a few moments. Finally, the glare cleared and I could see what was happening.
A young man roughly 20 years old was standing over Alethea's body. He had perfectly clear, tanned skin and blonde hair. He stood at least 7 feet tall and he radiated power. Apollo! A glimmer of hope returned to me as soon as I saw him.
Apollo knelt to down to Alethea's side and lifted her up in his arms as if she weighed as much as a feather. Blood dripped from her scalp and colored her hair a deep red. A smile of pity appeared on Apollo's face and he pushed the blood-stained hair to the side of her face.
Apollo began to sing a beautiful song and the blood flow stopped. As he continued the color returned to her skin and her eyes rolled back forward. Her eyelids closed and her chest began to rise and fall, signaling she was breathing again.
"Alethea," I whispered under my breath. Tears of joy began to well up in my eyes.
Alethea's eyes fluttered open barely and she looked Apollo strait in the face. "Wh-who… who are y-you?" She stifled out, obviously weak.
"I am Apollo, child." He smiled down at her. "Greek god of the sun, light, healing, music, poetry, archery, reason and prophecy."
Alethea looked surprised (as much as she could, considering she was practically half asleep at the time). Her eyes widened and she gasped when she finally comprehended who was cradling her in their arms. "Th- they weren't lying…" Tears formed in her eyes and she shut them tightly while covering her face with her hands.
"Don't be sad or sorry. Just be thankful your friends and brother called for me when they did." Apollo said in the most gentle voice ever. "I must return to Olympus now. Goodbye Percy, Sean, Peggy and Alethea." How he knew my name, I did not know. Apollo set Alethea down on the couch and disappeared in another blinding flash of light.
Before everything returned to normal I heard Apollo's voice in my head.
At this quest's conclusion,
You will find who you truly are.
I am so cool.
I thought about what Apollo could have meant by that. I am so cool, talk about bad writing. Also, who I truly am? Did that mean I would find out who my godly parent was? There was only one way to find out and that was completing the quest. But for now, we had to calm Alethea down and get to bed.
Alethea sat on the couch looking petrified. Her hands were shaking badly and her hair and clothes were still covered in blood. "So, the gods are real, then." She said, not looking at any of us.
"Yes, they are, Thea." Sean said. He sat down next to her and held her hand. "Percy is the son of Poseidon, I'm the son of Hermes and Peggy hasn't been claimed yet.
"That means you're not even my brother." She said finally looking at Sean.
Sean sighed, "I'm your half-brother. Now let's get you to bed; You need sleep and so do we. The three of us have a quest to complete in the coming days."
Alethea nodded and slowly got to her feet. Sean lead her into her bedroom and us three demigods fell asleep on the couch.
. . .
The following morning, we awoke just as the sun was rising. We prayed a quick thank you to Apollo as he flew across the sky in his sun… city bus.
Percy, Sean and I left the apartment before Alethea got up and continued our search for Zeus' long lost child.
We walked along the streets in silence until Percy spoke up, "I think our best bet is to keep searching the city for areas with high monster activity. Monsters will most likely be swarming around the kid." Percy suggested.
"Sounds good to me. We should keep working diligently because we only have today and tomorrow to finish this quest." Sean added.
We searched around the city for a majority of the day. We encountered a giant scorpion and a pack of four hellhounds. The scorpion was easily bested by the three off us, however, the hellhounds were a different story.
Sean had successfully sneak attacked the first of the four hounds. But that earned him the attention of the other three. Percy and I were able to get two of the hellhounds off of him but the third had him pinned and without a weapon.
Percy was busy fighting off the largest of the remaining three and I was dodging the attacks of mine. Out of the corner out of my eye I could see the other hellhound's teeth coming closer to Sean. It would strike him in a matter of seconds so I had to do something. However, at the same time I had to avoid the jaws of my pursuer.
I saw the jaws of the hellhound who was pinning down Sean open and the hellhound attacking me back away, slightly. This is my chance!
With all my strength, I threw one of my knifes towards the hellhound attacking Sean. It struck the beast in the side of the neck. This made the hound tumble off Sean and allowed to retrieve his weapon.
I turned back to my opponent and saw he was on his on his haunches. He pounced and I saw him fly towards me, jaw open. Suddenly I felt my knife reappear in my hand. I knew I had a chance if I struck at just the right moment.
As soon as the hellhound came crashing down on me, his mouth surrounded my entire body but he had not yet closed his jaws. I drove my knifes into the roof of his mouth and he disintegrated into shimmering, golden dust before he could bite. I caught a glimpse of Percy and Sean finishing off their hellhounds.
We regrouped, sat down and talked.
"Thanks Peggy," Sean said while finishing off an ambrosia square. "I would have been done for if you hadn't thrown him off me."
"No problem." I replied. "I know the both of you would've done the same for me."
"Got that right!" Percy yelled happily. "Now let's go grab some grub I'm starving." I hadn't realized it yet but so was I. The three of us hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at Sean's place (other than ambrosia) and it was now 6:00 in the evening.
"I know a place." I said. There was a diner my foster family had taken Alaine and I to multiple times. "It's called Italian Happenings, they have great pizza."
Sean and Percy happily agreed and we made our way to the restaurant. We took a table in the corner next to the window. Multiple people (including the waitress) gave us funny looks because of our torn-up clothes.
A few minutes after we ordered, a blood-red bike pulled into the parking lot. Riding it was a bulky man with a leather jacket and sunglasses.
Percy tensed up, "We should go, now."
"Why?" I asked.
Percy narrowed his eyes at the man as he dismounted his bike. "Ares."
Hope you enjoyed chapter 7. I was laughing out loud when I wrote Apollo's poem (It's such a good reoccurring joke). The same thing happens whenever the 'dam' joke comes up in other fanfiction.
Happy reading my friends!
I do not own PJO.
