Hey you guys. I was sick again. Once again I had time. If I can get out more chapter it'd be nice, but lately I've gotten two or three reviews a chapter and it makes me upset. So, now I'm writing for myself and not you guys. I've decided that. Thanks to KATEisBEAST and storyteller1425 for your reviews on the last chapter. Y'all are great. This story is going to be dark and its not going to be lovey. It's about deceit and lies. Sure, underlying love, but mush will not control my story. We'll see how it goes. I hope you enjoy, whoever is reading this.
The next time Melanie was allowed out of her cage she was followed by guards. Shadow, what used to be her shadow, was now full enough to not have to feed off Melanie to build her form. Shadow came to be known as her own person around the mountain top and everyone feared her. She was the leader of 'security' for the gigantes even if they didn't need it. She could seep through walls and then solidify herself. Or she could simply push you out of control of yourself and control your body. You would have no choice but to follow.
Melanie would have been in a crumpled form if she had been anywhere around. Shadow was her worst fear, and for one, she was glad Shadow hadn't come after her at all in the last couple days. Right now she was being led out to what had come to be called 'free yard'. When captives were broken down enough they were brought to a ledge on the side of the mountain that had this 'free yard' situated on it. It was basically a small prison. There was a yard fenced in along with a medium sized cement building that, from far away, looked like a cinderblock.
One of the men pushed Melanie into a large metal cylinder. Her hands were bound and the chains from her wrists were hooked to cuffs on her ankles. No guard was needed to follow her into the elevator. The controls were on the outside and there was nothing but solid metal.
As the cylinder lowered itself down the mountain on a cable, Melanie was taken to the free yard. The cage of an elevator turned slowly so that by the time it hit solid ground she was facing the electric fence that held in heart broken demigods that had been reduced to nothing. There were no more than fifteen of them in the enclosure. Their numbers hadn't grown enough to even make the building three stories. Right now it sat at a lowly two; one was where the offices were for the turned demigods left over from the titan war who currently ran the jail. The second floor was where all the cells were.
Melanie was shoved around to the gate where she watched one demigod crumble to the ground as a large looking Hephaestus kid whipped him on the back for disobeying orders. The boy was nine or ten and had many whiplashes across his chest and back where he no longer wore a shirt. "Please stop!" He screamed in pain trying to crawl away as much as possible. He only made it a few feet before he flipped over to his back and began to lay down giving in when a blow landed hard to his neck. He tried to cry out but his wind pipe had been crushed.
After a few moments of watching him, Melanie had to turn away. The Hephaestus kid just watched for the next four minutes until the kid suffocated and died. The rest of the kids in the free yard turned away from the scene and headed for the stairs that led to the floor with their cells.
Melanie followed the group when her shackles were released. The group dispersed into their individual holding cells and Melanie was guided to one at the end of the row near no one else's. She sat in solitude staring at the wall. At one point the guards let all the girls out. This dwindling group was led back to the first floor to the shower rooms. The guards left them be as they turned on the water. A few bars of soap were passed around.
Melanie was shocked when most of the girls just stripped and stood beneath the water smiling as if this was the best part of their day. Cautiously, she too took off her clothes and stepped under the running water. She was handed a bar of soap and Melanie started to clean her body. She then realized why these girls were happy, this was the first time in five or six days she had been able to shower and she was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of water against her pale skin.
When the water was shut off everyone groaned in frustration and dried off with what looked to be fresh towels. They then got dressed and were herded like sheep back toward their cells. As Melanie took a look around, she realized that every one of the girls had at least some white in their hair. Realizing she had the most she pulled her hair back using one of her curls to tie it up in a messy ponytail. Only the tips of some of her curls were still black. Most of the curls that were at least tipped with black were on the underside of her hair in the bottom layers. Her curls were the only reason they showed.
She could tell by the look that some of the girls gave her that Melanie Jackson was not a faceless name. She was known by some of these people. She wasn't sure what reputation she had among these people or her stories that had obviously spread, but she would leave it be until she was confronted about it.
Melanie made her way back into her cell and found the small mirror that had been placed in her cell. As she looked at herself she nearly cried. She had been right about her hair. Most of it was now white. A scar was precise and straight right beneath her eye. What used to be beautiful she now found disgusting and repulsive. Her eyes were dull and she could see the clouds that had taken over her irises from when Shadow had taken her over.
Melanie lay in her cot that night staring at the ceiling. She was disgusted by herself and could do nothing about it. She touched her hand to her face and felt the scar beneath her right eye. Her tears leaked from her eyes and ran down the side of her face and into her hair until she eventually cried herself to sleep.
The next morning she was woken up by a little girl shaking her. Slowly, Melanie opened her eyes and met the eyes of the little girls. "Hurry," she whispered quickly, "the doors are open for five minutes and he's waiting for you."
"Who?" Melanie asked as the little girl grabbed her index fingers and yanked her out of bed.
"It doesn't matter who! You need to get out to the yard!" She hissed pulling Melanie into the group of prisoners who were running for the yard happy for their hour of partial freedom. "He's over by the fence in the corner." The little girl pointed to a small section of wall that was perpendicular to the fence instead of the wall and fence meeting perfectly in a line where a boy in an orange t-shirt was leaning against the cement.
When she looked closer she realized there was no white in his onyx black hair. "Logan?" she muttered to herself before running toward him. Hearing the footsteps the boy looked up suddenly. He didn't quite recognize the girl sprinting towards him, but she recognized him. "Logan!" She screamed. At the sound of her voice he opened his arms and hugged her tightly. "Logan, oh my gods, you're here." She sobbed holding onto him with her arms wrapped around his neck tightly.
"Melanie, they said you were here. I can't believe it. What happened to you?" That's when her happiness ended. She knew that was she thought of her appearance wasn't just in her mind anymore. Someone agreed. Melanie dropped to the ground and stepped away.
"I know. It's terrible." Melanie looked at her feet and didn't meet Logan's eyes until her head was lifted to do so by a gentle hand. "You don't have to pretend you like me. I know I'm hideous now." Melanie muttered looking into his dark blue eyes that seemed to light up with a bit of humor.
"You are gorgeous and there is no changing that." Logan's lips met hers with the gentlest touch. For a moment, Melanie stood completely still. Her reaction was slow, but it soon came as her lips formed to his. When he pulled away she was left with a smile. "You are gorgeous and I love you."
Melanie's heart leaped into frenzy hearing those words. She had always wanted to hear them, but she wasn't sure when she would. When he said those words she felt as if the jail wasn't as bad as it used to be a few minutes ago. "I love you too," Melanie whispered hugging him. They stood there for the longest time until they were noticed. Someone yanked the couple apart and forced them to opposite sides of the yard.
For the rest of the hour Melanie stood in a group of girls talking about how bad their hair looked with the new highlights. They messed with each other's hair and tried to convince each other that they looked really good while Logan sat where all the weights were, bench pressing for a good number of reps before he started to run around the fenced in field. At the end of the hour there was a loud whistle and guards came out with whips. Everyone fled toward the stairs to the second story including Melanie and Logan until they were grabbed.
"Leave her alone!" Logan yelled thrashing in the arms of two large Cyclopes. "Don't you dare do anything to her!" When Melanie was dragged off to the basement he lost it for a few moments until she was out of sight.
Logan was let go and he turned to face the warden. She smiled at him and tapped her foot. The blond haired girl had her arms crossed over her chest and her green eyes glinted with a bit of mischief. "Lovely acting," she complimented clapping her hands slowly. Her brown sweater dress sat against her curves perfectly and her high boots made her a good three inches taller. "Now, we send you out in the field. Girls, take care of his disguise and then send him on his way."
Three girls walked up to him grabbing him by his arms and pulling him a long to a little office. They giggle as they handed him a shirt a stood there to watch him change. They then cut up the ends of his shorts and died a few bits of his hair white. Logan sat down in one of the chairs and waited patiently until a man came in.
"Listen, uuuh Logan?" he said unsurely looking at a paper. "You get out there you bring in her little family and boss let's your girl go. You fail, she dies. You take too long, she dies. Right now she's in the hole and she'll stay there in solitude until you come back. No food and only a limited amount of water a week. So be quick about your little mission it would be ashamed to lose something so pretty."
"Shut-up!" Logan spat.
"You," the boss walked back in sliding a pair of sunglasses onto the top of her head, "don't back talk him and be back soon. All you have to do is bring Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth. One for each of our lords and then the war will begin. Go find Calypso or something and you can be safe once you get your little girl back. Goodbye Logan." A child of Morpheus walked in and smiled sleepily as Logan. As if that was the best shot of Nyquil, Logan passed out.
He had a wild dream of him escaping the mountain and running into the woods. It felt so real by the time he was running through the woods avoid monsters he thought it wasn't a dream anymore. When he got hit in the head by a tree branch and blacked out he could actually feel the pain and woke up in the middle of the woods as if it had all really happened.
"Ouch," Logan grumbled sitting up groggily. The sound of footsteps in the woods caused him to get to his feet quickly. Through the brush in the night Nico di Angelo emerged holding out his stygian blade in front of him. He froze when he saw Logan and shut stared for a bit before Odessa, Annabeth, Percy, two pegasi, and finally Tristan who ran full speed to Logan.
"Logan!" He shouted tackling him to the ground. "What are you doing out here?" Tristan asked climbing off when Logan groaned in pain.
"Yea Logan," Percy said accusingly stepping forward from the group, "what are you doing here?"
Logan looked around nervously as if he wasn't exactly sure where he was before he took in a deep breath and started the act, "I don't know."
Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuh lol, felt like being silly. Next chapter will be out at some point. Later people.
Sincerely,
wisegirlindisguise