Curfew came too soon. Even after the campfire songs and smores she still had gotten to spend an hour or so with Lee on the beach before the conch blew signaling curfew and she frowned looking up at her boyfriend. "I guess we need to head back to our cabins," leaning back in Lee's arms she just said, "I'm going to miss you, once, Grace and I leave." His arms tightened around her as he said, "hey, we can IM each other while you're on the quest." Nodding she let him help her to her feet and pulled him into a hug, "see you when I get back Lee."
Pulling back to lock eyes with him she found herself memorizing his face, the soft smile, tan skin, sky blue eyes that were locked on her own gold gaze. Curls of golden blonde hair framed his face, and she rose onto her toes kissing him softly, dropping back onto her heels and smiling widely, "see you then Morgan. Now let's get back to our cabins before we both get eaten by the patrol harpies." Chuckling she wrapped an arm around him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders walking back towards the cabins, where she ducked into her cabin, closing the door and flopping onto her bed.
Pulling her locket out from under her T-shirt, the gold oval embedded with amber stones around the edge of the pendant. Unfastening the small clasp, she opened the locket, looking down at the picture inside. A young girl with olive skin and black hair, a dark green cap on top of her hair, and a silver jacket over, Bianca, her half-sister had died on a quest to rescue Annabeth and the goddess Artemis.
Standing beside her was her brother Nico, all three of them herself included had been fathered by Hades, and all three of them had been cursed with bad luck because of it. Nico was smiling, a rare sight to see outside of Will's company, wearing a bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jeans, not a sign of the aviator jacket he wore constantly nowadays.
He'd left to go try to track down Bianca, who had been reborn into a new body, and now she was leaving camp before she would get to see him again. Flipping the small frame over to reveal the other two photos, one of them still made her smile, it was taken by Grace, about three years ago. The two of them had been sitting in the strawberry fields during the summer, so she could remember her friend while she was in Rapid City, all the way back in their home state of South Dakota. They had been eating strawberries and watching the sky, as relaxing a day as you could get at Camp Half-Blood.
The third picture had her eyes watering, the girl in the photo was beautiful, with long dark hair and stunning features this was Silena Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite. She was one of the only campers who hadn't completely abandoned her when her father was revealed to be Hades and had been her first real friend. The Titan War had ended with the Battle of Manhattan, Silena had led the charge to try to kill the Drakon unleased on the city, and it had cost her, her life.
Shuddering at the memory, she closed the locket and got up, getting ready for bed with her spare things before tugging off her jeans, pulling on sweatpants, and climbing into bed. Falling asleep and into dreams.
Not very many things sucked worse than dreams, tonight was no exception. She recognized her surroundings, it was a cyclops den under twelfth avenue, the same one she had been trapped in on her journey to camp, ten years ago. Her small feet pattered against the stones, her shoes worn and battered, her clothes which she had stolen from a store hung loosely around her, her hands streaked with dirt and blood.
But worst of all was the voice she could hear urging her down the hall, soft and kind, it was the voice of her mother, coming from a mouth that was anything but soft and kind. Her arm throbbed, the gash there covered in dirt and dried blood, her leg was searing with pain as she started to flee the hall, limping away from the monster who had broken it. The dirty halls scattered with bones and rusty spots made her heart pound, and she struggled to draw in breath.
The thud of loud footsteps rang in her ears as she limped around the corner hiding in the shadows as her heart pounded. "Come out darling, I've missed you so much." Biting her lip, she felt her body shaking, her hands clenched tightly around the strap of her backpack and the branch she had grabbed outside. The broken edge was already covered with monster slime, hearing the footsteps of the cyclops walking towards her.
"You're not my mother," she said quietly keeping herself hidden in shadow as she added, "you're a monster." A low laugh sent a chill down her spine and her knees to jelly, her legs buckling out from under her, and she barely managed to stay hidden in the shadows.
Her hands shook around the branch and she saw the monster round the corner, tall ugly and with only one eye, he wore a loincloth made of leather and nothing else. His hairy body was muscular and filthy and he carried a large club made of wood.
Embedded in the wood were several bronze spearheads the weapon dragging on the ground beside her, scraping against the stone. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, her breathing fast and shallow as the monster looked over towards her, his one eye roving over the crevice she was hiding in. A voice broke into her thoughts, "Morgan by the gods, wake up!"