Chapter 36
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJ or HoO series by Rick Riodan.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, all three of us rushed out and started running to my mom's room.
When we got there, we found the door was cracked open slightly. My stomach instantly tied itself into a million knots. This was not a good sign.
Nico and I get out our weapons and I carefully nudge open the heavy wooden door.
It was dark, except for the silvery moonlight pouring in from the barred window.
We creep in and look around. I look at the bed and see my mom's sleeping body.
I do a mental sigh of relief. I guess one of the nurses just didn't close the door all the way while leaving the room.
"What a beautifully destroyed woman." a voice whispers in the corner.
Before I can notch an arrow, two blue orbs of light smack into Nico and Walker's chests. The orb sort of sinks into their skin and the blue glow of it spreads all over their bodies. They can't move. It's like they're frozen.
Then it hits me. They are frozen. The orbs of light were some kind of freezing spell or enchantment.
I turn away from them and within two seconds, I have an arrow notched and aimed to where the voice had come from.
"Oh, Kyra. Haven't we been through this enough? There's no need for the weapons." Callie says, stepping into the moonlight.
"And we've been over that. Whenever you're involved, there is." I say.
She sighs and lets her head fall back. "I'm so tired, Kyra." she says.
She truly did sound tired. Sort of like a mother who's been dealing with her screaming baby all day, on top of answering a non-stop ringing phone and house work.
"What are you tired of, Callie?" I ask, curious.
"Trying to kill you and your family. I've tried so many times and you just won't die." she says, sounding irritated.
"What can I say? The Hales are a hard family to just kill off." I say, shrugging.
"I've realized that." she growls.
"Callie, why can't we just make this between you and me? My mother is useless. She can't do a thing to make up for, as you claim, "ruining your life." Why can't you just settle it with me? Kill me?" I ask.
I knew that if Nico could talk right now, he'd be trying to shut me up.
"That's not a bad idea…" she says, pondering my suggestion.
"But I'd rather just kill you both." she says.
She snaps her fingers and the newly made-over Drew appears out of nowhere by my mom's bed-side.
She grins at me, revealing those ugly long fangs. Then she looks down at my mom and before I can react, plunges her teeth into her throat.
"No!" I scream, shooting the arrow at Drew.
It slices the top of her hand and she jerks up, yelling in pain.
"Too late." Callie tisks.
I look, mournfully, to my mother. Callie was right. Her throat was completely ripped out, leaving a gory mess of blood and skin tissue.
I turn back to look at Callie. She had a smug look on her face.
"Why must you take everything away from me?" I ask.
"You already know the answer." she says.
I take out an arrow, ready to shoot her again, sending her to Tartarus for what felt like the millionth time. Then, yet another unexpected thing happens.
She pulls out a mason jar. It was full of a gray powder that shimmered green when it was moved around.
Greek fire. That's what was in the jar. Or at least, un-ignited Greek fire.
I inhale sharply and say, "Shit."
"Ah. You see what I've got here, huh?" Callie says, giving me an evil grin.
"All I have to do is light it up and this whole place is gone." she says, revealing a pack of matches.
"Callie, don't." I say, my eyes widening.
"Aw, too bad your pleas don't work on me." she says, striking one of the matches and dropping it into the mason jar.
"C'mon, Drew. We must go." Callie says, quickly walking out with Drew trailing behind her.
"What am I going to do?" I ask, panicking.
I hear a sort of cracking sound behind me, kind of like ice breaking. I spin around and see Nico and Walker starting to move their arms.
"Wha-what happened?" Nico asks, shivering and hugging himself.
"No time to explain. Callie just lit up a jar of Greek fire and we've got about two minutes to get out of here." I say.
"Pull a fire alarm. This building needs to be evacuated immediately." Walker says.
He and Nico start to run out, but I stay by my mom's bed.
Nico notices I'm not with them and comes back.
"What the hell are you doing?! We need to get out of here!" he says.
"I'm not leaving her to burn. John burned and I'm not letting her." I say.
He gives me a look then carefully scoops my mom up in his arms.
He runs out and I'm right on his heels.
Just as we get to the lobby, I hear an explosion.
Tons of people were pouring out of the doors, trying to get out. Nurses, doctors, patients. Everyone.
"There you two are! I was worried sick!" I hear someone say.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and look to see Walker. He was no longer disguised as Dr. Luis, but back to his normal self.
He guides Nico and I through the crush of people and out the hospital doors.
Just as we get into the parking lot, the whole second floor explodes in green flames. The fire quickly spreads into the upper floors of the hospital and soon, the whole building starts to collapse.
Before I even realize it though, I'm back in my living room, Walker's hand still on my shoulder and Nico standing beside me, holding my dead mother.
A/N:
I told you it was about it get crazy. The next chapter is a bit of a filler, but 38 is longer and more things happen, believe it or not.
So, you guys remember Keegan, right? Kyra's other brother from camp who turned and tried to kill Kyra at prom? And you know how a few chapters back when Kyra and Nico were at that Mexican restaurant with Will and he told Kyra that Keegan had been abused by his god-mom? Well, I decided that I'm going to write a story about Keegan, and what his life was like before he came to camp. I've already started working on it, but I haven't gotten very far. It should be interesting, also pretty sad, so if any of you are going to read it, be prepared when I publish it.
M/A:
So, today in Music Appreciation, I think the best feeling on the planet is when you find songs that you had no idea existed by your favorite band. Yesterday I found Green Day's cover of "Working Class Hero" originally by John Lennon. Oh man, that song is just so perfect in all ways. The lyrics the music, just everything. I also found a bunch of other GD songs I didn't know existed as well as some MCR songs.
A good song you guys should check out is "Trap Doors" by Broken Bells. It sounds sorta psychedelic, really.
"'Walk out before you make it worse on yourself'"
and
"'And close your eyes to us
Fight fire
Trap doors to endless wisdom
Young lad, have we grown too tired
Longing to find'"
I think those are my favorite verses from this song. "Trap doors to endless wisdom" sorta reminds me of Mark of Athena when Annabeth is trying to navigate her way to the Athena Parthenos.
Really though, just check out Broken Bells. They're a fucking awesome band that hardly anyone knows about. For some reason, "Trap Doors" reminds of The Smiths' song "Asleep," even though they sound nothing alike.
Another good song is "Sometimes" by Papa Roach. I love how it starts out soft and it sounds like it's going to be a kind of love song or something, and then it just explodes into rock music and it's just amazing. I love it when musicians do that with their songs.
"'I look around
Sometimes I get sad
'Cause I don't know which way to go
I look around
Sometimes I get sad,
'Cause my life is spinning out of control'"
That's the chorus of the song. I absolutely love those lyrics because they're so simple to understand and easy to relate to. You don't have to try and decipher them, you already know what they mean the first time you hear the song.
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25