2/13/15

Something really weird happened at lunch today...

I was sitting at lunch with my small group of friends, and Ryan (the annoying Hephaestus kid who seems to think we're friends), looking around the dining hall when suddenly it hit me.

I sat up completely straight, barely able to breathe. Somewhere far away I heard a startled gasp and a cup being knocked to the floor. I didn't recognize where I was, but somehow I… knew. It was like entering a dream. The world around me was white. Snowflakes fell gently from the sky, swirling around bare white tree branches. Everything was so peaceful, except me. I'd been running and only just stopped to catch my breath. There was no sign of my pursuer and the stitch in my side told me I'd be resting whether I wanted to or not.

I slumped against a tree trunk and slid into the snow. It felt good against my hot, stinging skin. The world felt shaky and out of focus. The air was thin and sharp. The longer I sat the easier it was to breathe and the heavier my eyelids seemed.

Just as sleep began to creep upon me, something dropped from the sky. Its leathery wings snapped shut. "You shouldn't leave a dinner party early. Isss terribly rude," the gorgon hissed.

I jumped to my feet and tried to run, a new adrenaline rush giving me extra strength. It was no use, it had me cornered. Before I could make it anywhere she snatched me up in her talons and took to the sky. I squirmed around, figuring I had a better chance facing the ground than the gorgons.

"Stop it!" she screeched. "Fussy demigods. Always struggling. Oh well." I screamed in agony as the gorgon's talons dug into my neck. A crack was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

I thought I was dead. How could I not be? I had that tingly feeling in my fingers. But I could feel myself breathing. People were whispering around me.

"Uh, Claire?" a voice asked. All I could do was grunt. "Someone help?" the voice asked again.

"Get her to the infirmary," a guy's voice ordered. Some people picked me up and carried me away. When I tried to open my eyes the light was too much. "Keep your eyes closed. You'll be fine, the guy said.

I was laid on a bed in the infirmary that squeaked with every movement. People shuffled out the door, leaving me alone with the guy, some random cougher in the corner, and probably some other Apollo kids going about their business. My senses were still a little off, making it hard to know exactly who was in the room.

"Can you talk?" he asked.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah," I rasped as he checked my pulse.

"Good. Open your eyes." I looked up to see someone I'd never met before standing over me. He had brown hair with almost red highlights that shone through when the sun caught them. He was hard to look at with the light streaming through a window. I figured he must be a son of Apollo. The most noticeable thing about him were his eyes. They were an intense sky blue clouded over with a fading green mistiness.

I must have been really out of it because the only thing I managed to croak out was, "What's wrong with your eyes?"

He just laughed. "My name's Tristan. Nice to meet you." He surprised me by placing a bite of ambrosia in my mouth. I chewed it slowly. Tristan tried to help me sit up, but I pushed his arm away. I pushed myself up and back against the cold, metal bed frame. He gave me another piece and I ate it on my own. It did the trick. Things started to seem normal again and the lead began to drain from my limbs. Tristan was looking at me expectantly.

"Oh, yeah. My name's Claire."

"You're a daughter of Pluto?" it wasn't really a question. He was being polite by not mentioning all the rumors that indicated exactly who I was. I almost told him I was a daughter of Hades, not Pluto, but I figured it didn't matter.

"You're a son of Apollo right?" I continued the formalities. He nodded.

"So, you had a vision, right? It was pretty nasty. I'm guessing you don't have much experience with visions or control over them."

"Excuse me?"

"since it happened once, it might happen again. You can't have a seizure and mumble to yourself whenever you have a vision. And the screaming is definitely out."

I groaned. Like I needed another reason for everyone in camp to gossip about me and think I was a freak.

"How do you know I was having a vision?" I questioned.

Tristan's voice dropped to a whisper as another kid passed us on his way out the infirmary. "Because I saw it too." My jaw dropped open. "At first I thought you had just passed out at the same time I had a vision, but then I realized it couldn't have been a coincidence. Especially with the… mumbling."

"Oh. What?" I asked stupidly.

"Exactly. I've never heard of two demigods sharing a vision at the same time! Without help from a god anyway," Tristan whispered excitedly. It was obvious he didn't want the other people in the infirmary to hear us.

"Well yeah. I don't really know much about visions and stuff. But my sister Hazel can sort of share memories with people…" I began.

"Memories!" he interrupted excitedly, "that's it! That's why it didn't feel normal." He beamed with excitement at his discovery. Suddenly he became somber again. "That's a messed up memory," he said looking at me sadly.

"Yeah. You must've had one bad childhood," I replied.

"What are you talking about? That's not my memory."

"It's not mine either. Thankfully I've never met a gorgon in my life. And I'd never be anywhere I couldn't at least use my shadows to defend myself. There wasn't much I could do to fight back in that memory," I confided. And thinking about it a little more I realized something. "And whoever's memory that was definitely died."

"Did you get that death sense?" he asked intensely.

"Well, yeah, but it didn't feel… recent."

"What's it like?" he inquired, completely missing the point. He looked so eager. It's not exactly something most people ask about.

"When a death occurs nearby it feels sort of like shivers running down my spine. When I go somewhere a death has occurred in the past it's more like a tingling in my fingers."

He nodded and sort of mentally disappeared for a while. "Wait!" he exclaimed, jumping back into reality. "You said the death didn't feel recent…" I nodded. "So we saw someone else's memory of death in the past."

I thought about it for a moment. "Yeah I guess. Probably… a year ago at least."

After that Tristan got lost in thought and just stopped talking. By then I was feeling well enough to go back to my cabin. I did get excused from the rest of my classes so I could take a nap. As my brother has said: "with great power comes a great need for a nap." He is right… sometimes. Having visions is rough. So since I had a "seizure" earlier, the counselors encouraged me to take the day off. Like I'd pass up a free skip.