Reader Discresion Advised.
Chapter 3: The Cannibal demon.
The campers sat around the war table of the big house in Camp Half-Blood. It had been three days since they had gone to look for Percy, they had succeeded in their task, but not how they wished.
Thalia and Jason sat together at the Zeus table for breakfast. Both were silently eating.
"I still can't believe that Percy hates us," Thalia said.
"I don't blame him. After…that…we disregarded him…" Jason said.
Thalia nodded.
"After it happened all of us were too worried about him…we…I thought it was a good idea! I thought I could lift his spirits…I ended up making it worse…" Thalia said sadly.
"We all did…" Jason said sadly.
Sebastian sat at the Apollo table. The situation at the downtown bar with Percy was unexpected. Of course, he had heard of Perseus Jackson, there was a statue after all…but he did not expect him to be so…cold.
His mind went back to that night, when Percy had discovered him with Annabeth…
"Sebastian," Annabeth said, "you know I have a boyfriend…we may have had something going on, but we were kids. After I ran away…"
"Annabeth," said Sebastian, "We have been friends since we were born. My family and your father have always been close…who is he"
"He is important Sebastian, now that you know about this world you will hear about him a lot. He saved Olympus twice, people here respect him…" Annabeth said, but Sebastian got closer to her.
"And where is he?" Sebastian asked, taking Annabeth's face in his hands.
"He's…in his cabin…" Annabeth said.
"Why?" Sebastian asked.
"Stuff happened…and he has not been the same since…" Annabeth thought about that incident…
Before any of them knew what had happened, Sebastian's lips were pressed onto Annabeth. She was shocked, but her thoughts went to Percy…on how he had changed after that happened, how distant he had become. Annabeth returned the kiss.
"Interesting turn of events…isn't it?" A voice said. Annabeth and Sebastian jumped back and turned to find a smirking son of Poseidon.
"No, go on. Don't let me bother you." Sebastian went to take Annabeth again but stopped as she noticed her wide, terrified eyes.
"Annabeth?" Sebastian asked, "Who is he?"
"Yes Annabeth," Percy said, "Who am I?"
"Percy…" Annabeth said.
"Wrong answer Wise girl, another chance! WHO AM I?" Percy yelled and the earth slightly shook.
"Sebastian…" Annabeth's eyes began to tear up, "He's Percy…my boyfriend…"
"Ex." Said Percy. With that, he turned and walked away.
Annabeth was terrified. Percy had gone through something terrible during their trip to Greece, he had come out different. Before, Percy would have yelled, got angry and let loose. But a quiet Percy was terrifying…
"Annabeth…" Sebastian said.
"Sebastian…I…goodnight." She said.
Sebastian came out of his memory as he saw Annabeth on the Athena table. She had been miserable. Crying her eyes out a few times. He thought that he should be blamed, but Annabeth only blamed herself. Sebastian silently cursed Percy in his mind for causing Annabeth pain.
Everyone had been sad, but Nico had been the worse. He had locked himself up in his room, like that day that he had come back bruised and bloodied. Hazel tried to cheer him up, but he kept repeating the words: 'I killed them…I failed him...'
Either way, life in camp had become gloomy. Opposite of the cheerful behavior that characterized the first few days of camp.
A horn sounded in the distance, calling the cabin counselors to the big house for a meeting. The counselors perked up, as they, and only they, knew what exactly it meant.
They hurriedly got up and ran to the big house.
A few minutes later all counselors were settled.
"What has happened?" Asked Clarisse. As Annabeth was momentarily incapacitated due to her emotional shock, Clarisse had stepped up as a camp leader.
"Nothing good." Said Chiron, "Another god has fallen. Achelous, the minor god of Rivers has died. Poseidon confirmed it."
The atmosphere was one of sadness.
"Well…as long as only minor gods fall, we are good, right?" Asked Jacob.
"No," Annabeth said, shocking people. "When a minor god fades, his power passes onto whoever is higher up in their chain. If Achelous faded, then Tethys is the next in line…if Tethys falls then Poseidon will gain their powers…and the slayer of Poseidon…"
"He shall gain all those powers…so he/she is basically driving all those domains into one single being…" Jason said.
"And then strike down the Olympians once they have gathered all those powers into one…" Piper ended for him.
"It's…" Sebastian said but trailed off.
"Genius," Annabeth said.
"What?" Asked Clarisse, "God's are dying, and you say it's genius?"
"Yes, it is." Chiron said, "Minor gods are not as powerful, so it would be easy enough for someone with that kind of power to attack them. Attacking the Olympians would be foolish, just as the domains of a minor God passes onto the next most powerful deity, the same happens if you attack an Olympian. Their domains will be distributed between the next being that has the power of handling it. Since there are many minor gods, there are many ways that their powers would be distributed. Now if you attack from the bottom up…then you only have to cut the head."
"So, whoever is behind this is after the powers of an Olympian god?" Asked Pollux.
"Not only the power of an Olympian, the powers of a force of nature. He has attacked Aeolus and Achelous, Wind and water…" Chiron sat down, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Still, we need to—" Clarisse was cut off as someone began desperately banging on the door.
"Chiron!" A muffled voice said. "An army! Monsters at the border!"
"They cannot pass the border," Clarisse yelled back.
"There's someone in front of them! Oh, gods, they are entering camp!" The demigod ran off.
"OPEN THOSE DOORS!" Clarisse yelled and Annabeth ran to the doors and unlocked them. The counselors exited the Big house to find Camp Half-Blood in chaos.
Cabins burning and campers running around, looking for their weapons. An army of monsters was marching into camp, with a lone cloaked figure riding a hellhound.
"Initiate defense strategy #2!" Yelled Annabeth to one of her siblings, who nodded.
The cloaked person saw them, and a shiver went down the spines of the campers when they saw two glowing red orbs from under the hood, and a shadowy creature with large teeth and horrible horns coming from its head.
A few hours earlier:
Percy and Jacob walked the streets of New York. Percy wore a long blue coat over his white t-shirt, sea green camo pants, and black combat boots. Simon, on the other hand, wore a black long coat over a black t-shirt and black jeans.
"It's been a while since we went on an adventure, hasn't it, Perce?" Asked Simon.
"too long, it is time to move around." Said Percy with a smile.
"So, to this infamous camp, we go?" Asked Simon.
"There is something I need to investigate first," Percy said as they turned a corner.
"Ah." Simon thought.
They stood in front of a broken-down apartment complex. A place that had been abandoned almost three years ago after a terrible murder occurred. Some say it was haunted.
"are you sure about this Percy?" Asked Simon.
"Before I go back to that life, I need to see this. I need to remember why I left." Percy said solemnly.
Percy entered the building and Simon followed.
"Remember our trip to Romania, Simon?" Percy asked as they walked up the stairs.
"How could I not? We fought those Strigoi. Nasty creatures, I tell you." Simon laughed.
"Remember our visitor?" Percy said.
"Of course. How could I forget the great Apollo?" Simon snickered.
"Remember what he said?" Percy asked as he stood in front of a door with a plaque that had the letters J-ck-n faded off.
"When the moment comes, and you will know the moment, you will need to go back to your life. Everything will be explained, even those things that happened before…" Simon said. "Very ominous if you ask me."
"For some reason, I needed to come here today. Maybe it is time…" Percy said as he pushed the door open.
The apartment was just like that night. Furniture half destroyed, walls torn and curtains hanging loosely and ripped. On the center of the room, a dark stain could be distinguished from the dust that had settled.
Percy looked at the stain, a slight pain in his heart, but fury boiling up inside him.
"P-Percy?" Simon stuttered. Percy turned around and his eyes widened in horror. A creature was standing there. Still, not moving, but dark red eyes stared at him.
The creature was massive. It looked like a large human, dark bloodied fur covering every in in its body. Two long arms hanged on the sides, but the head…it was a scene of horror. It was a mixture of a human and deer skull. Half covered in skin, half covered in fur. It had large teeth and two giant horns sprouted from its head.
"You…" Percy said. It was a creature he will never forget, or those eyes he will never forget. That night, covered in darkness it had looked like a shadow, but now…Percy could see better the creature that had fed on his sister.
In its left hand, it held something. Percy looked to find, with horror, a severed head from a little boy, not older than 5. The creature held it by its eyes, piercing one of them with his huge claws. Blood covered the scene, and bones and pieces of half-eaten corpses lay around the creature's feet.
"A wendigo…" Percy said.
"Indeed, a creature of evil." Simon answered with braveness.
The creature, in a matter of seconds, threw itself on the window, crashing against it and falling from the building. Percy and Simon ran to the window, but the creature was gone.
"FUCK!" Percy yelled. "I almost had him."
"Calm down Percy." Simon said.
"IT WAS THE SAME CREATURE THAT FED ON MY SISTER" Percy yelled at him.
"And yelling at me will solve your problem?" Simon retorted. Percy took a step back.
"Sorry, …it's just…"
"I know. Look around, we might find some clue to where it's heading." Simon instructed and began to walk around the destroyed apartment.
Percy did the same. He walked to where the creature was standing and looked sadly at the young boy's head, who had rolled over and stared at Percy with dead grey eyes.
"Grey eyes?" Percy looked again at the boy's head. His eyes widened with realization.
"No…" He thought.
He began to look through the bodies or corpses at this point. All of them were of young kids or teenagers. He turned them over and looked at their features.
"Grey eyes, golden hair, brown hair, rough hands…" His suspicions became reality when he found a Drachma in one of the dead kid's pockets.
"Simon!" Percy called.
"Percy…" Simon said solemnly.
Percy and Simon looked at each other.
"I think they are all half-bloods…" Percy said, showing him the Drachma.
Simon nodded.
"then you might want to see this…" Simon said. He led Percy to his old room. Before it had been a normal teen's room, now it was a scene of a nightmare.
Heads and heads of deceased kids in different stages of decomposition were placed on top spikes…
"Those aren't spikes, Percy," Simon said, trying not to flinch from the smell.
Percy looked at the spikes and his eyes darkened with fury. They were weapons. Celestial bronze and Imperial gold swords and spears.
"They were demigods…" Simon said.
"Aye, they were…may they rest in Elysium." Percy sent a silent prayer to his uncle.
"They died here. Probably heard some noise, thought it was a hellhound or something, they came in and they found the Wendigo." Simon said as he analyzed the heads of the dead demigods.
"Makes sense…but this many half-bloods…Camp must have realized that most of them were missing, right?" Percy asked Simon.
"I don't think so…looking at whatever was left from these corpses, matching the heads to their bodies and getting some information from their corpses…the ones over there and there." He pointed to a few heads. "They were roman, they are impaled on Imperial gold weapons, and they didn't have marks on their arms…they weren't claimed." Simon said.
"How about the Greeks?" Percy asked.
"Hard to say…probably they weren't claimed either. For the last few months, I have been feeling some of my powers getting stronger…but now I know it was because of this…" Simon said and cursed.
"Is there anything else you can do here?" Percy asked his friend.
"I might be able to get more information but nothing that will help us…mostly on when they died," Simon said.
"Then we must leave, I know where the Wendigo is going," Percy said.
"As do I…it seems our furry friend likes Demigods…and now that we have discovered its layer, it would try and find another one." Simon said, knowingly.
"This part of town attracts Demigods, it is central and I've fought many monsters here, leaving some of that aura behind. So, logically it would go somewhere where it could find food…" Percy said.
"Simon." Simon looked at Percy. "How fast can you get us to Camp?"