Hello, readers. How are you? Me? I just got over the flu. Hey that rhymed! Heh, things that rhyme are godly. To me, anyway. Moving on...I would've updated sooner, but I wrote this a few days ago, got the flu, came back to post it and realized that it hadn't saved . So, here you go, newly written and...You know its 7:52 in the morning right now and I still haven't gone to sleep yet. I need coffee...Sorry, my ADHD brains wandering a bit. Just too clear up confusion: The long pointless italic part is a flashback! Haha I hope you enjoy(:
I sat in my bed, iPod blasting with Break Myself by Something Corporate trying to forget the events that took place last night. This naturally means that I couldn't forget it. It just keeps replaying over and over again in my mind...
"You saved my life, but at the same time you left me there to die."
"What? How is that even possible?" Nico asked, looking both shocked and confused. "Tell us what happened, exactly. It might help me to understand..."
So, upon the request of the Great and Famous Nico di Angelo (insert the rolling of the eyes here followed with immature fake barfing) I described in excruciating detail - or excruciating for me, anyway. I didn't really want to relive it - what happened in the dream. When I'd both Nico and I sat there silently, listening while Percy suggested about 50 theories a minute about what the dream could have meant. Actually, I was almost positive I knew what the meaning of the dream was; and I didn't like it. Not one bit, which is why I wasn't exactly volunteering the information. Of my own free will, anyway. I didn't like it because it meant that Nico would possibly betray me. No, wait, Nico couldn't betray me; in order for one to betray another there would have had to have been an established trust to begin with. And quite frankly, I didn't trust Nico, no offense to him. It's just we barely know each other and I'm not exactly quick to trust and...Okay so maybe I trust him a bit. Just a teeny weenie little bit.
"Cynthia?"
"Huh?" I asked, breaking my train of thought.
"I asked you what you thought about it." Percy said, looking at me worriedly. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I knew I'd been acting a little bit depressed and a lot strange, but I hadn't realized how it'd been affecting Percy; he looked worried to death.
"About what?" I asked stupidly, really not helping the whole Percy-is-extremely-worried thing.
"About your dream." Percy said looking, as I'd expected, more worried than ever.
Well of course he meant the dream; what else could it have been, dear? I heard someone say, someone female. I looked around for the source of the voice, but when I didn't see anyone but Percy and Nico I decided I'd imagined it until I heard the voice again. No, you didn't imagine it. Here I am! I heard the voice laugh and I realized the voice was just for me; it was inside my...my head. Great, now I'm hearing voices. Oh no, Percy can't find out; it would just shred the little ray of hope he has left that I might maintain some level of sanity.
"Oh...well," I said, dragging out the word well.
Oh, come on Cynthia; you know what the dream meant, just tell them. Poor Percy looks so worried...
Shut up, I told the, ah, voice. You're probably just some goddess screwing with me.
I can assure you, honey, than I am not 'screwing' with you. I'm here to help.
"Cynthia!" I heard Percy and Nico yell simultaneously.
"What?" I asked.
"You zoned out again," Nico said, looking almost as worried as Percy.
"Oh sorry...Um..." I licked my lips. "I think I might know what the dream might have been about. Um, if I'm right, then it could be one of two things: It could have been two possibly futures, one in which Nico saves me and another where he betrays me." I sent him an apologetic look, both for what I'd just said and what I was about to say. "Or it could be that Nico is going to betray me in a way that could get me killed somehow, and then he'll save me before I die."
It's the first one dearie. It is the first one, of that I am positive.
Shut up.
"Cynthia...I won't..." Nico looked at me with pleading eyes, looking heartbroken that I would even suggest such a thing. I looked down to hide the tears that were forming in my eyes.
"I-I need some sleep." I mumbled.
"Okay...I'll leave." Nico said, still looking hurt.
Just as he was about to open the door I said, "Nico?"
He turned around to face me. "Yeah?"
"Just...for the record, I think it's the two possible futures, and that you wouldn't betray me."
I smiled a bit. "Thanks."
I nodded at him and he left without another word. Percy turned to me and said, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah," I lied. "I'm just really tired. Long day."
"Okay," he said, not sounding convinced. "Just wake me up if you need anything, alright?"
Percy went to bed after that, and I laid down and rolled over, covering myself with my blacked, which had fallen off, thinking there was no way I was going to sleep.
So yeah, now I'm just sitting here blasting music. Just me, myself, and the stupid voice that refuses to shut up no matter how many times I tell it to.
I am not stupid, nor am I an it. I have a name, you know.
Well, if you're to going to tell me that name, then I am going to continue to call you either the voice or it! Seriously, I have been trying to get you to tell me, you know!
Now dearie, what fun would it be if I just told you? You have to guess!
Will you tell me if I'm right?
But of course.
All right then...Aphrodite?
NO! That is the twenty-third time you've suggested that shallow woman.
Liar. It's my twenty-second time. Any anyway, who else could you be? Cupid?
Of course not; he is a boy. And his Greek name is Eros, Cupid is Roman.
Okay...whatever. Suddenly I heard a knock on the door and I smiled. The stupid voice would shut up when I was talking to people. Sometimes. I got up off the bed and opened the door, standing there in shock. "What are you doing here?"
"Hey, good to see you too Cynthia. I've been great, thanks for asking." Thalia said sarcastically, waltzing right in. "And I could ask you the same question; what are you doing here? This is Percys cabin."
"Oh, sorry Thalia. Haven't seen you in a while, should have been a bit nicer. Ah, I just meant you don't normally come to camp, seeing as you're a Hunter of Artemis and all." I replied, closing the door and going to sit on my bed.
"Mmhm." Thalia said, sitting beside me. "You going to tell me why you're in Percys cabin now?"
"Oh yeah, right you were with the hunters. Well, I got claimed and it turns out I'm a Daughter of Poseidon."
"Oh," Thalia said, nodding. "Makes sense. Wait a minute, though, then why weren't you claimed instead of Percy when Poseidon needed someone to clear his name? You been here what...ten years? Since you were four, right?"
"Seven, actually. I was seven when I got here, which was seven years ago. And I've wondered that myself. I'm thinking that it might have something to do with the fact that I was eight back then and I wouldn't have stood a change on the quiet; but hey, whatever. Everything turned out okay, right."
"Yeah," Thalia murmured. "I still wonder why he didn't claim you sooner."
"I don't know Thals, and I probably never will. I don't mind though, really. And it's pointless to dwell on things that you can't change." What I didn't say, though, was that I didn't want to drive myself past the point of insanity I've already achieved by wondering what might've been going through my father's mind all those years I went unclaimed.
I yawned and stretched and I felt my sleeve fall a bit, revealing my arm slightly. I yanked my arms down, but it was too late. Thalia narrowed her eyes and yanked my sleeve up to my elbow. "What is that?"
I looked down to see how bad it was, and I saw my arm was almost completely covered in bruises and I had a long cut running up from my wrist to my elbow. Shit, there was no way I could convince Thalia to not tell Percy once she found out. Unfortunately, it sounded like a question when I said "Um...sword fighting?"
Thalia gave me an annoyed look. "I'm not a moron, Cynthia; if it was sword fighting there would be more than one cut and virtually no bruises, unless you fell, and even then there wouldn't be that many bruises. One, maybe. But even then it's a long shot. Plus, they would have healed it with ambrosia or nectar."
What was I thinking to not think of using ambrosia or nectar to heal myself? Stupid. "Er...well. Fine, I'll tell you. But first you have to swear on the River Styx not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you ever, unless I say otherwise."
"No." She said defiantly. "I'm not swearing anything on the River Styx until you tell me. I'll swear after."
"Then swear on the River Styx that you'll swear on the River Styx not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you after I tell you," I said, smirking. "Or I'm not telling you."
"Fine! I swear on the River Styx that I will not tell anyone what you're about to tell me unless you say otherwise." She said through gritted teeth, obviously not happy about it.
Thunder rumbled in the sky and I was satisfied that there was no way she could tell anyone now, no matter how much she wanted to. So I said super confidently, "I'm being abused."
Okay, so that might not be how it happened exactly. I may have whispered it meekly, but hey! Let's see you tell someone you're being abused nonchalantly.
I could do it.
Shut your fucking mouth. This is so not the time.
"What?" Thalia said, her eyes widening. "Cynthia, you, you have to tell someone! I would never have sworn on the Styx if I'd known...but I can't tell anyone now, so you have to! I swear, if you don't I'll beat you."
"I have told someone," I said, "And they're not telling anyone."
"Who?"
"You." She glared at me. "I'm kidding, Thalia. Another one of my friends - Jillian Mistero, Daughter of Athena - knows. Well, okay I didn't exactly tell her. It went just like this, actually; she noticed and I told her, I guess. But I didn't have to make her swear on the Styx. She get's that I need to be the one to tell people, when I'm ready. Honestly, though, most people will never know."
"Well, who are you planning on telling?" Thalia asked. As an afterthought she added, "When you're ready, I mean."
"I 'unno. I didn't exactly make a list. Probably just Annabeth, Percy, Chiron and...Maybe Nico." I said, blushing a little at how that must sound.
Thalia peered over at me. "Cynthia, do you li8ke Nico?"
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, he seems pretty okay." I told her, ignoring what I knew she meant.
She rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant Cynthia; do you have a crush on him?"
"No." I quickly denied it.
"Liar. Listen, I spent years watching Annabeth drool over Luke, and I drooled over him for a while myself; I know how people act when they like someone, and you definitely act like you like Nico."
"Well, I don't." I grumbled, glaring at her. "And you sound like Aphrodite."
"Are you saying Aphrodite drooled over Luke when he was alive?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
I screwed up my face in disgust. "Oh Gods no, that's disgusting. I just meant that you're acting like you're an expert on love or whatever."
"You don't believe in love, do you Cynthia?" Thalia asked me curiously.
I sighed. I'd debated this topic with myself on numerous occasions. "Well...it's not that I don't believe in love, it's just that it seems so incredibly stupid and it doesn't seem quite worth it to me. I know it exists, because I've seen it, but it's nothing like how most people picture it, how people write about it in books. It's not all walks on the beach and playful wrestling matches that turn into kissing. It's painful and you fight like crazy and most of the time it seems like you hate each other, and I don't know maybe he does hate me. I never can tell. But it's so stupid and it's nothing close to worth it. I mean sure, we do have our moments I guess, but there so outnumbered by the painful ones that I can barely even remember them. Everyone thinks love is the most perfect thing in the world, and it's not. Especially since perfect doesn't exist; there's no such thing as being perfect, so perfection itself is imperfection. But, imperfect things tend to be crazy and unpredictable, when you're a demigod they do, and I like crazy and unpredictable things so...I might let myself fall in love. Just once, to see what it's like."
I looked over at Thalia, certain she was about to make some sarcastic comment, but instead I saw she was smiling a bit, and I couldn't help but feel the irony of the situation; I was talking to Thalia about love. Tough, I don't give a shit, given up on love, Hunter of Artemis, Thalia.
"You know," Thalia said, "Throughout most of that it sounded as if you were talking about your feelings for someone. A certain son of Hades maybe?"
"Thalia!" I exclaimed, annoyed.
"Okay, okay." She said, backing down. "Just trying to me helpful."
I blinked and stared at her. "That's seriously you being helpful?"
"No, that's me being right."
"Go screw yourself."
"Can't, Hunter of Artemis remember?" She asked me, smirking.
"I don't think that includes yourself." I said, not quite sure myself.
"Well, I wouldn't want to take the chance of getting kicked out, now would I?"
"Guess what? You're getting kicked out now." She looked confused until I hit her with my pillow and pointed to the door. "Get out."
"No need to act like you're seven again, Cynthia. It's not that big of a deal you like Nico." I said, smirking.
I hit her again. "I. Do. Not. Like. Him! Now, get out!"
"Alright, alright I'll see you later." Thalia said before getting up and walking to the door. She stopped before leaving and said, "The Hunters of Artemis were in New York and I convinced them to come to camp so I could visit a few people."
I watched her leave, confused until I remembered asking her why she was here. I let myself fall down onto my bed and I groaned. I knew I'd been childish, but honestly I was feeling irritable, mainly because Thalia had been right; in a few days time Nico had managed to get me to fall in love with him. No, wait. I was not in love with Nico di Angelo. He'd just managed to get me to form a teensy weensy little microscopic crush on him. Aw, who am I kidding; I had full on crush on Nico di Angelo. Somebody, please kill me. I wasn't even sure if I still had a boyfriend or not.
Oh, Gods no leave him right now! I heard the annoying voice say. Dump his sorry ass; trust me, Venus knows best.
Yes! So that's who you are. The Roman Aphrodite!
No, actually I was just fooling with you dear; I am Aphrodite.
Knew it.
Oh do be quiet; pride could get you killed when you're a demigod, just look at Achilles and what happened to him.
I'm not going to die because I was right about you being Aphrodite.
Yes, well, as you demigods would say, whatever. You do know why I'm here, don't you?
To annoy the Hades out of me?
No, of course not. I've taken a liking to you and Nico.
You've taken a liking to us? What the hell does that mean?
It means that, with the help of my lovely children, I am going to-Oh, I must go. Toodleoo .
And with that she shut up. Go figure, just when I'm getting somewhere with her she decides to leave. But what did she mean she's taken a liking to me and Nico? It's just a crush; no big deal. But...didn't Aphrodite take a liking to Percy and Annabeth? And now they're...
Shit, I'm screwed.
