Everything was Just Starting to Come Together

We'd all fallen asleep outside. I woke up and I was facing Maliah, her face to me. She looked so peaceful again, I didn't want to disturb her. Her eyes opened while I was standing, though, and she smiled at me.

"Hi." she said, sitting up and yawning.

"Hi." I smiled back as I stood up.

I offered my hand to her and she took it, allowing me to help her up. I looked around our makeshift camp and realized that Katelynn was the only one still asleep. I walked over to her and gently shook her shoulders.

"Morning," she said, once she'd woken up and stood.

"Morning, sleepy." I responded, she blushed a little, "When did you go to sleep?"

"Sometime after the fire went out. I just couldn't stop thinking. I'm so excited to see him again." she said, softly.

The twins bump into me, laughing, and almost knock me down. I grin at them and push the closest one, Jake, down. They both laugh as well.

"We should head out now, we still have to find Tony." Harvey reminds us.

And suddenly we weren't normal kids on a normal camping trip anymore. It was back to being demigods and saving someone's life.

"You're right," Maliah said, "Tyler, Katelynn and I will check along the shore and in the water. I just can't shake this feeling I have about it."

"Okay, Ellie, Jacob and I will take the right woods and Jason and the Hecate brothers can take the left," Brandon says.

"Okay, just be careful. I have a bad feeling." I say.

They all nod and for a minute none of us move. We look at each other, taking in what could be our final moments as a whole. Then it's over and we move. I follow Maliah back down to the shore watch as Katelynn eyes the water, worriedly. Maliah pulls me to the side.

"As a son of Poseidon, you can feel when somethings off about the water, right? Like when there's something there that isn't supposed to be?" she asks.

"Yeah," I said but it came off as more of a question.

"Step in and tell me what you feel." she said.

I step into the water and concentrate as the shallow waves wash against my legs. At first, I don't feel anything. Then, a moment later I feel the hum and vibrations of something large. It almost felt like there was electricity, but that wasn't it. I felt something else, something also big but this thing was moving. It was racing right for us.

Suddenly I was pushed back out of the water and landing on Maliah. I look up and I'm face to face with a monster that has six necks and grizzly heads with four eyes. I can't move at first. Katelynn runs to us and helps us up.

"Did you feel anything else?" Maliah asks me, desperation in her eyes.

"Yeah," I say, catching my breath, "a building, I think. There was electricity so-"

"Tony's there, isn't he?" Katelynn asks.

"I think so."

"Stay here, both of you." Maliah says as she walks to the dock, striking the monster down with lighting. It disappears and Maliah jumps into the water. I find myself praying to my dad that she's okay and that she can breathe down there just long enough to get them both up here. I look at Katelynn and realize she was also staring at the same place where Maliah had just been moments ago. We wait in agonizing silence for what feels like forever. A few more moments pass, maybe it was seconds, maybe it was a minute, maybe more. I don't know how long she was gone until there was water splashing on the dock and I heard two audible gasps for air.

Katelynn and I share a look before running to meet them. Maliah was pushing the dark haired boy up on the dock and Katelynn grabbed his arm, pulling him up. I grabbed Maliah's hand and pulled her up onto the dock as well. For a second everything was great.

The monster resurfaced and Katelynn screamed. It was holding a large piece of wood and was aimed at Tony. I jumped in front of him, but as the monster released, Katelynn pushed me out of the way and hugged Tony for dear life. I didn't understand it at first until I realized he was straining, trying to push her away out of danger. He was still trying to save her life, but she believed it was her turn to save his.

She screamed as the wood pierced through her back.

"Why did you do that, Katelynn?" he screamed, her head falling onto his shoulder.

"I couldn't let you or Tyler die. Both of your lives are so important, Tony. I owed you. Thank you so much for saving me that day in fifth grade. All I've wanted since then was to repay you and today, I got to do that." she whispered.

Tony hugged her lightly and I could hear Maliah sobbing behind me.

"You stupid girl, you aren't dying today." he told her.

Maliah's sobs stopped, and she screamed, "Oh, gods, oh no. Tony! Tony, get her off of the dock! Now! I know what's going to happen next, get her off of the dock!"

"Maliah?" I began but I was stopped when she used a wind current to shove all of us away, holding me back with one, "What are you doing?"

"I know how this ends, Tyler. I've seen it. One of us is going to die here and I refuse to let it be you!" she was crying again.

I hated it when she cried.

I could hear everyone else following the commotion and joining us. I knew the Hecate brothers would save Katelynn so I wasn't worried about her life anymore. I could only worry about Maliah. I didn't take my eyes off of her and her sad eyes. She was at the end of the dock and I wanted to run to her and grab her but I was stuck, she wouldn't let me move. In an instant, the monster resurfaced, crashing through the dock in between us and for a moment, time stood still as I screamed her name. I held her gaze for what seemed like eternity to me. Those sad, blue eyes with their grief and tears, they were the only things I could focus on. She seemed to be mouthing something, saying something to me but I couldn't hear the world around me anymore. Then she was gone, sinking under the surface.

I could move again and I ran to the water, enraged. I refused to let anyone die today. I screamed and the water shot into the sky, bringing Maliah out from below the surface with it. The last time I did something this big, I almost killed everyone I tried to protect. I couldn't let it happen this time. I had to keep her alive. I dropped to my knees, willing the water to me. I grabbed her, collapsing onto my back as the water fell away, back into the sea.

"Maliah," I called, shaking her, "Mal?"

She wasn't waking up. I shook her but nothing was happening. Before I could do anything else, the monster resurfaced and I moved Maliah, shielding her from the monster with my body as he attacked. Nothing happened, but I heard the screams.

I looked up and turned, finding Brandon slumped over on what was left of the dock. There was golden dust falling around us as he bled from the deep gash on his chest. He didn't look up at us, he just held his position for a moment and then fell forward, without a single movement. I cried. We had too many injured here and they weren't going to make it. The Hecate brothers could only do so much and they were already struggling with Katelynn. I turned to Maliah and started doing CPR and I prayed to my dad. After a minute, she spit up water and stared at me. Before she could do anything, she turned her head and saw Brandon.

I'll never get her scream out my head. I tried to hold her back, maybe I was trying to comfort her, but she wouldn't let me. She fought against me, the entire time she never stopped screaming for her brother. Finally, my body gave in. I was too weak and she was too... broken to be stopped. For once, there was something so awful that even I couldn't fix it for her.

She dragged his body into her arms, sobbing. I looked around for Ellie, finding her collapsing into Perry's arms as her body shook with violent sobs.

This was the life of a demigod. This was the only thing I had to look forward to, and when we went to war I was going to witness even more of my friends dying. I was so infuriated that my blood was boiling.

"Don't worry," a voice calls to us.

I look up and see the sun god himself, awfully cheerful considering the scene before him.

"I'm here to help." he says.

He walked over to Brandon and hummed his song while the wounds on him slowly healed, "he should rest."

"Thank you," Maliah said, tears still in her eyes.

The god smiled at her and walked over to Katelynn.

"Rest, dear brothers. I'll take it from here," he took her hand and smiled at her, Tony still holding her other one, "You know, Katelynn Michaels, I have met many demigods. I've met many children of Aphrodite, and you my dear girl have to be the bravest one of all. I want you to hold still for me, okay? You'll be okay."

He talked to her so gently. I feel like no matter who you were, you just had a soft spot for the sweet, brave blonde girl. He began humming, his magic working and Maliah walked over to them, sitting next to Tony.

"You're the one who saved me, Maliah, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." she said.

"Thank you." he said, looking down.

"It was no problem."

It's quiet until the god is finished with Katelynn.

"Kate! Oh gods, I'm so glad you're okay! Never do that again. We're all important, we're all the prophecy!" Maliah told her, pulling her into a hug.

Katelynn hugged her back, tightly.

"I think I know who it is, or maybe I don't know, but that's the point." Katelynn says.

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

"Whoever did this to Tony, to us. I hate them. I hate them so much." she says.

"A hatred for an unknown nation," I say.

"Yeah. But we're going to find them. We're going to save the Lost. We're going to save everyone and we're going to do it by always sticking together, isn't that right?" Katelynn asks.

"That's right." Maliah agrees.

I can't look at them in the eyes and make that promise.

When we got back to the ship, we got Brandon set up in his room with Ellie watching over him. The sun god told us he should be better by tomorrow and that we just had to let him rest. That was hard for most of us to do. I managed to convince Maliah to go back to her room and get some rest of her own. Tony and Katelynn followed us and I remembered the promise I made to her.

"Tony?" I say, catching his attention.

"Yeah?" he asks.

"Do you hate Katelynn?" I ask.

He looks completely taken back by the question, "No, I don't."

"Then why didn't you talk to me when I came back to school?" she asks him, softly.

"You left me all alone, Kate. I had no other friends. I was alone." he told her.

"I came back for you." she said.

A comfortable silence falls on all of us for a minute.

"I think we're all going to be okay." Maliah laughs.

We soon fall into a nice conversation, all of us just talking and laughing with each other. I look over at Maliah and I realize I can't stop looking at her. She smiles at something Katelynn said, and lightly pushes Tony, making him smile as well. She radiated this wholesome beauty and I was going to have to walk away from it when we returned to camp.

After a while, everyone had fallen asleep. Tony and Katelynn were on the floor and Maliah was cuddled up to me. I listened to her breathing and I found myself crying again. I thought that this was going to be easy, but nothing prepared me for how wrong I was.

The rest of the trip went by in a blur. We didn't rush the trip, knowing we didn't necessarily need to anymore. We coasted for about two weeks and all of us took the time to relax while we could. Tony rested up, Brandon healed. We all trained more, laughed more. I'll be the first to admit that I think we got too comfortable. We were happy. I know we needed to relish in the rare happy moments we had, but it was so hard not to take it for granted.

When we reached Florida, Tony told us he was rested enough to shadow travel us the rest of the way to camp.

"Ooh, the dance is tonight," he grinned.

"You hate dances. You almost cried last year when they made you go." Katelynn pointed out.

"The Hermes boys are spiking the punch, though." he said, happily.

"A dance?" I ask.

"Oh, we have three throughout the summer. The summer solstice dance, a Fourth of July dance, and an end of camp dance. The solstice dance is the one tonight." Brandon said.

He was looking and feeling a lot better now. Maliah had been so upset with him but he reminded her that he knew what was going to happen to him because of the prophecy, and that he was happy with his decision. He even went as far as telling her he would do it again.

She didn't like that.

"Okay, everyone hold hands." Tony said, cupping Maliah's and intertwining his hand with Katelynn.

I intertwined my hand with Maliah and grabbed Jake's free hand with my other one. A second passed and suddenly I had that familiar feeling of being lost in darkness and time. I heard nothing and if not for the people I was touching, I would feel utterly alone. After what seemed like an eternity, we were back at camp.

We stepped out of the Big House and were greeted by Chiron.

"Ah!" he announced, happily, "I knew you could do it, heroes! The dance starts soon and Aphrodite came and left you lot a few gifts. Go, hurry, there's still so much to do."

I knew his last line was directed at me but I said nothing. I turned to Maliah.

"Do you want to go to the-"

She stops me, "I'd love to."

We shared a smile and I find myself, again, wondering how I'm going to leave her.