Reyna

Reyna knew there was something wrong with the place from the start. But for some inane reason, she ignored her instincts, casting them aside as irrational fears.

Jason had once convinced her to watch a scary movie with him a few years ago. That was back when she thought they had a chance of being together. He'd walked up her living quarters with a bucket of popcorn under his right arm and a packet of goobers and a scary movie in his left.

"Oh, no," Reyna moaned, opening the door.

"You and I are going to watch this movie and it's gonna be great," he said.

The movie didn't scare Reyna much. She'd been in Camp Jupiter war games that were scarier and far more realistic. She had jumped every now and then when something popped up out of nowhere, but what really bothered her was the idiotic decisions the characters kept making. Oh, we found a mysterious book in a spooky house that says don't open? Cool, let's read it out loud and see what happens. Halfway through, Reyna remembered asking Jason why the stupid girl kept turning corners, armed with nothing more than a steak knife. "Because she's dumb," he replied through a mouthful of popcorn.

Reyna didn't get it then. Why would anyone in their right mind go looking for the monster waiting for them in the dark? She got it now. At the start, you might be in your right mind, but you aren't at the end. You aren't anywhere close. You turn another corner, thinking, if nothing is there, then maybe I'm sane after all. They do it to prove themselves wrong.

Reyna wasn't at all shocked when they landed in the middle of nowhere about a mile from an overgrown and decrepit house that was the only building visible in a sea of fog. This one was Nico's fault.

They had landed in a marsh. Reyna struggled to push herself into a sitting position. This last jump had been much too long. Ever since Pompeii, Reyna had been lending Nico her power; a gift special to the children of Bellona. By her estimations, they had ended up somewhere in England, but where they were exactly, Reyna couldn't tell. She wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep, ignoring her mission. Spots danced in her vision, taunting her with promises of darkness.

Reyna was covered in a sticky brown goo that smelled like a mixture between rotten milk, mud, and decay. She stood and stumbled forwards a step or two. Her legs felt about as supportive as noodles. Reyna squeezed her hair between barely formed fists, but she was unable to wring the stuff out.

Reyna scanned her immediate vicinity for the the others, and noticed that the Athena Partenos was sinking. Athena's stern face seemed to glare at her. Nico had collapsed face down in the marsh. He wasn't moving. A wave of panic washed over Reyna and she forged through the thick liquid trying to reach him. With every step she put back in the marsh, the mud reforms around her legs like jello. You cannot be dead, she thought. Reyna reached Nico and turned him over. His face was pale and muddy, but he sputtered and opened his eyes.

"Reyna," he gasped, "Where? How?"

Coach Hedge chose that moment to emerge from beneath the surface, gasping and splashing around dramatically. Reyna resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she helped him up.

"There's something in there!" he said, quickly trotting out of the marsh. Reyna frowned, narrowing her eyes at the murky waters.

"What kind of something Coach?" Reyna asked as she drew her sword. She tried to look through the stuff, but could find nothing. She shrugged. "Maybe it just doesn't like goats." Hedge scoffed, several times.

"I take offense to that, Cupcake." he growled, shouldering his baseball bat. Reyna again rolled her eyes, before turning her attention to the worn down building. She eyed it warily.

Half the roof had caved in, the paint had chipped and faded revealing the brick underneath, and one of the shutters was knocked off its hinges. Tall ferns climbed up the face and crept into the windows. But if the plumbing worked, and it if had beds, Reyna thought the old manor would be perfectly suitable for the night.

Hedge glared at the house with distaste. He sniffed the air, his nose twitching rapidly. "I don't like it," he said. "Smells... Odd."

"Odd? Like Monsters?" Reyna asked.

Hedge shook his head. "No, this is different... I can't tell what it is, exactly. Could be nothing, remains of something... Who knows?"

Reyna turned the hilt of her sword over in her palm. Don't do it, a small voice in the back of her mind said. She chose to ignore it. "Well, whatever it is, we're going in."

Hedge let out an irritated bleat. "Oh no way! In there? I have a wife and child to get back to. I refuse to walk into a trap! Do you even remember Pompeii?! You're insane-"

Reyna held up a hand, cutting off his rambling. "What other choice do we have? We're all covered in mud, Nico is closer to death than life, and I think we could all use a shower. Come on, Coach!"

Hedge huffed. "Fine," he said begrudgingly. "We'll check it out. If there's trouble, there's trouble. Could be fun. I've been meaning to try out a new roundhouse kick anyway..." Together they dragged Nico up to the house.

They trudged up to the doorstep, trampling over dried grass and wildflowers. Reyna scanned the area for any threats as they climbed up the weathered porch. A garland of dried honeysuckle was wrapped around the railing. An old rocking chair sat before a window with no panes.

The fact that the door was unlocked should have been hint enough, Dangerous. A heavy smell of rot and decay hung over the place like the fog that swirled over the moor, Leave, now. The shutters rattled against the window frame although there wasn't the slightest trace of wind, GET OUT. Reyna didn't listen to her instincts. The door swung open wide and slammed against the hallway inside, sending a flurry of dust in its wake.

The interior of the manor must have once been glamorous, but had since fallen into ruin. A grand staircase composed of two separate flights with gilt banisters twisted gracefully upwards to different wings of the building. The floor was beautifully tiled in a mosaic pattern that peeked through layers of dust and silt. Floor to ceiling windows on either side of the front door were that were missing almost all panes of glass rose thirty feet into the air.

Reyna stepped further inside, feeling oddly small, when she froze.

Coach Hedge didn't see them.

Reyna suspected that had Nico been anywhere near conscience, he would have. He would have told her and Hedge to leave while they still had a chance. He would have commanded the spirits to return to the underworld.

There were three of them; an old man, a young woman, and a little boy who could be no more than eight. They were looking straight at Reyna; their black eyes ready to consume her. The old man grinned, revealing several missing teeth, but he not speak. Instead, the floorboards creaked, "Welcome Reyna."

Reyna thrust her hand from her heart in a gesture to ward off evil that she had seen Percy do. The woman hissed in distaste, but they faded away.

Reyna hadn't noticed, but Coach must have walked away. From around the corner he yelled, "Water works! It's cold… and hard… but it works! Yes!"

After they had all showered in the slightly sulfuric smelling water, Coach Hedge and Nico decided to take naps. Well, Nico didn't really decide- he collapsed on his bed facedown with spots of shampoo still in his hair. As tired as Reyna was, she didn't feel at all comfortable leaving the group unguarded.

Reyna sat on her bed in a cleanish t-shirt and jeans, holding her sword across her lap. Every time a leaf scratched against a window, she jumped. The floorboards creaked, and she felt like eyes were staring into her back. Nothing is there, nothing is there.

As crazy as it was, she was sure that the house was speaking to her. Creak.

"We know who you are Reyna." She tried to convince herself she was imagining things. But she couldn't have imagined those ghosts. After Albania and Pompeii, Reyna was beginning to think that the Athena Parthenos attracted all things mythical like moths to a flame. Crack.

"We know what you have." What do we have? Reyna wondered. Her eyes widened. The Athena Parthenos. Creak.

"It shall be ours."

Reyna's heart jolted. The statue. They had left it in the marshes. She jumped off her bed and headed for the stairs. The wooden steps groaned in protest as she descended. Creak. Crack.

"You cannot leave."

The door was just a few feet away, Reyna should have reached it by now, but the distance somehow kept getting longer. She ran, breaking into a cold sweat.

"We have you!" The door swung shut and the locks latched with a final clunk. The moth-eaten curtains drew themselves shut, and the once lit foyer became so dark that Reyna couldn't see her own sword in her hands.

Hot air spread over her shoulder in steady intervals, sending chills down her spine. It was like someone was breathing… like someone was standing right next to her. Reyna was too scared to breath… or to blink. She feared that in the millisecond her lids covered her eyes– something would happen. Something would be there when her eyes opened. This is not happening, not to me, not after everything else, it isn't fair...

Reyna didn't blink, and she didn't miss it. The old man appeared right in front of her. His hazy image flickered like a dying candle and he became a rotten corpse before turning back into a ghost. Reyna stood her ground. She wasn't a daughter of the goddess of war for nothing.

"Who are you?" Her body shook- she couldn't control that. The temperature in the room was below freezing. She could see breath come out in little puffs before her. His did too.

The ghost smiled, the same toothless grin.

Everything happened too fast, all at once. A hand closed around her ankle like a vice and she was pulled to the floor. Her back slammed against the dusty carpet, and she lay unable to move; the wind was knocked out of her.

Reyna screamed as her body was dragged across the floor by invisible hands. She twisted onto her stomach, clawing for a handhold to stop her momentum. Her fingernails chipped away and throbbed painfully.

She had thought she was used to ghosts after growing up in a house full of them. But this was different.

The ghost swung Reyna across the room, and she crashed into a rocking chair that lay on its side. This time, she was prepared for another attack. She clambered into a standing position despite the pain and raised her fists, prepared to go down fighting. Nico and Coach Hedge were nowhere to be seen, and Aurum and Argentum were too weakened to appear. You're going to have to get yourself out of this one yourself Reyna, she thought.

The floorboards groaned. "I'm Maurice."

He appeared before her again, smiling with his rotten teeth. She wanted to punch them out of his stupid transparent mouth– but now wasn't the time to give in to her anger. He wanted something. She had to barter with this man.

"What do you want... Maurice?" She croaked. The ghost cackled by slamming the shutters opened and closed.

"You are even more pathetic than Gaea described, young one. Look at you, alone and in the dark, unable to save your skin. I will rip you apart, along with your pathetic friends, and give your ashes to Gaea."

Reyna cringed. She wished Jason was with her. She always felt safer when he was around. Stupid Venus. Stupid quest. Stupid Octavian. She wanted to scream, but she was losing energy fast. She needed help.

"Give me the statue, and you might live."

"Why? What's a statue to you?"

"We have been here for hundreds of years. We are restless. The statue will help us wreak havoc on the world in the name of the Earth Mother!" Nope, Reyna thought, not gonna let that happen.

Reyna tried to formulate a plan. Her brain buzzed a million miles an hour. I'm too weak to fight all of them. I need to turn them against each other, and make contact with Nico and Hedge.

"Everyone answers to someone, Maurice. What is Gaea doing for you? Giving you new life? You know she won't follow through. You want the statue so you can do the deed yourself! How do your friends feel about that? I'm sure they're not feeling very loyal–"

All of the sudden, a hundred more ghosts appeared around Maurice. Reyna used the distraction to assess her injuries and applied pressure to them. She could sense that she was quickly losing strength.

The ghosts hissed around their master. "Is it true?" asked one.

"Of course, you idiot! He's been plotting to be rid of us since the beginning, always skulking around!" said another.

"You owe me twenty drachmas!" shouted one gleefully.

It was working. Reyna stood unsteadily. Her knees were wobbled under her weight and her head spun.

"Oh Gods," Reyna whispered. She closed her eyes and tried to regain her balance. The house exploded in anger.

"THE GIRL LIES!" Maurice roared. The other spirits quieted. "I would never turn against any of you!"

Reyna knew her time was limited. She cursed under her breath and decided to leave (a really rare occurrence). Reyna made for the stairs. She didn't dare look behind her. She jogged up the steps, taking them two at a time. She thought she had had a stroke of good luck, maybe the spirits had forgotten her in their arguments, when the last stair gave out underneath her.

She fell twenty feet.

By the time she hit the bottom, Reyna knew she had broken her leg. She screamed, tears pouring down her face. She had never been in this much pain. She sobbed. She had broken a few ribs and blood was still seeping out of her wounds. She could barley breathe. Her chest was on fire.

She thought of all the people that needed her, and that were counting on her. She thought of the vision Aerico had shown her, of Jason dying right before her. If she died, Nico and Coach might not get the statue to Camp Half-Blood. You don't get to give up. The whole world is counting on you.

"NICO!" she screamed, using up all of her energy. Her rib cage felt as though it had exploded. The ghosts appeared around her. She realized she had a large, jagged piece of wood sticking out of her thigh.

The ghosts laughed at her misery. She sobbed again. Her body felt numb. How was she not dead yet? She felt her body heat up. She glowed red. Her pain momentarily vanished. Her wounds were still there, but she couldn't feel the pain anymore. Her first assumption was that she was in shock. Then she realized it was a blessing from her mother.

With great effort, she pulled the shard of wood out of her thigh. She slashed at the nearest ghost, and it crumbled to pieces.

"You think that I am pathetic?" Reyna roared. "Feel my wrath, you stupid idiots!" Not the best insult, but it made her feel good. She managed to take out three of them before collapsing. The rest swarmed in on her.

Nico was next to her then, his eyebrows knitted in concern. He must have come from the other stairwell.

"Reyna, what happened?" His eyes found Maurice and his ghost army, and he withdrew his Stgyian iron sword. He slashed and hacked. She stabbed and pulled. Coach whacked and bleated. Together, they defeated the ghost army. Reyna kicked Maurice in the face and stabbed him in the gut.

"This is what you get for playing on the wrong side," she whispered in his ear. He dissolved before her.

Nico was starting at her in astonishment. He gaped. Coach was slack-jawed. Reyna's glow faded. She felt weak, drained of life, and murderous. She gasped as the pain returned in one large wave and a ton of bricks seemed to crash onto her body. She wouldn't be able to lend Nico any strength for the next jump. She didn't have any to give.

She had just enough time to whisper, "Thank you mother," before the world dissolved around her.