Okay so I hit a block for writers (so I started another fic, but don't worry I'm still working on this one!) and I'm still a little stuck but I'm hoping just starting to write will help get the creative juices flowing. Sorry for the long wait! All the reviews this chapter were great, keep it up you lovely people :)
Another Chance
Chapter Four: Deja Vu
Orange figures blurred behind Archie's eyelids as he stirred, the short grass of the clearing brushing against his cheek. With a groggy moan he opened his eyes to late sunlight filtering over the trees. From his sideways orientation Archie could see the curve of dark trees surrounding the circular clearing in which he was, whose rich green grasses were littered with small flowers.
Confused, he used a hand to elevate himself to sitting. Where am I? he thought, twisting his head from side to side and taking in the area of grass. No sounds reached his ears, not even the wind, though he could see the movement of soft air through the upper branches of trees beyond the clearing.
"Hello?" he shouted to the sky, hoping to Zeus that he would hear a reply. What he got back was his own voice, ricocheting off the trees into a mess of echoes. He furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of his situation. No trees echo sound like that. And I'm in the middle of the forest! What is happening?
"Anyone?" he yelled again, anxiously yet suspiciously eyeing the trees surrounding him as the sun began stain the sky a rosy pink.
"I'm here, Archie."
Atlanta frowned and surveyed the scene around her again. Behind her was the path Archie had torn through the forest and which she had followed to where she was currently standing. Around her were thick black trees, calm and undisturbed. That same sight was in front of her, yet Archie was nowhere to be seen. But his path ends here, she thought with distress. Where is he?
She clenched her fists and squinted her eyes against worried tears. "Where is he?" she cried to the sky, tilting her head back in defeat. "Where…?" she choked, hitting the nearest tree with her fists. Her breath caught in her throat as her tears got the best of her and she leaned her forehead on her fists. Why do I have to care about him now that he's gone?
Atlanta sank to her knees and leaned her back against the trunk of the tree, keeping her eyes closed as she took a deep, if staggered, breath to calm herself. Okay Atlanta, just keep calm, he has to be somewhere, she encouraged herself. Fighting physical objects had always been easy for her, but fighting something she couldn't see daunted her, and the thought that Archie was so near but so far crushed her even more.
"I'm here, Archie," she heard a soft voice say. Was it hers? Her eyes fluttered open. She couldn't remember saying anything, but despite the darkness which she was greeted with when she opened her eyes she could see a form – which she assumed correctly to be Archie's – through the trees in a clearing that hadn't been there before.
"Who said that?" the form, who she now confirmed was Archie, demanded the air.
"I..." Atlanta began to say softly before the same voice cut her off: "I did," it floated from a patch of trees to Atlanta's left. She staggered to her feet in disbelief – there were many different creatures in the forest, yes, but rarely did they speak.
"Atlanta? Is that you?" asked Archie, a hopeful smile forming on his lips while his eyes remained vacant, searching for the body to accompany the voice.
"Atlanta? Why would Atlanta be coming to find you? She rejected you, remember?" it practically sneered.
Archie's smile dropped at the memory and the bluntness of the speaker's statement. Atlanta's eyes widened in shock then narrowed in anger as she dug her nails into the bark of the tree she was taking refuge behind. Now I really want to know who that is, she fumed.
"Then who are you? How do you know who I am?" Archie interrogated defensively, reaching subtly to his pocket where he kept his Hephaestus Whip.
"Oh, I know all about you, Archie," the voice giggled, now somehow on Atlanta's right, "and all about Atlanta and the rest of the little 'team'."
At the mention of her name, Atlanta felt something slither near her ankle. Looking down she saw ajade vine cringe at her foot and begin to twist around her shoe. "A…Archie!" she yelled, picking up her foot to avoid thehunting foliage and pushing into the clearing.
"Atlanta?" Archie turned to catch his crimson-haired friend pierce through the depth of the trees and into the rosy dusk light that shrouded the clearing. His smile was as wide and relieved as Atlanta had ever seen, and she was sure hers was a mirror image. But their reunion was cut short as a vine split the trees where Atlanta had just come from and was heading their way.
"What?" Archie protested to whatever force was driving the vine. He rolled his eyes and crouched into a fighting stance. "Where have I seen this before."
Okay I'll close this chapter there but now that I've actually got an idea I hope to update faster. Yay! And don't go thinking this voice is Pan, I know it's a similar idea but this is different! Plusthere'll be a Pan/Atlanta confrontation in the next chapter :P
