"Breakfast!" Adora screamed cheerfully in my face. I opened my eyes and saw her grinning from ear to ear, jumping from the bed next to me in our cabin. I breathed in the familiar scent of the ocean as I got up.
"I'll be there in a minute!" I called. Adora laughed and bounded from the cabin toward the mess hall. She was still wearing her pajamas.
I got dressed and followed her out for breakfast. I was out about twenty feet away when I saw Charlie waving at me from the mess hall. Behind him I noticed my parents and siblings eating at the Poseidon table. Well, it wasn't really the Poseidon table, we didn't segregate the tables by godly parents anymore. We just called it the Poseidon table because that's where our family usually sat. My dad lifted his head and grinned at me, his mouth full of blue pancakes. I was only about fifteen feet away now and my hand was raised to wave back at Charlie when a dark figure appeared behind him. Arai. I tried to yell but Charlie couldn't seem to hear me. The aria took a hold of Charlie's head, and twisted. Violently. Snapping his neck.
Like the curse I'd already taken, I found myself unable to move. I couldn't run to him, even though I knew it was too late.
Flames engulfed the hall around Charlie's limp body. His head hung at a taunting angel. From somewhere in the burning building I could hear Adora screaming. My parents were yelling for each other and for the rest of our family. Casey was screaming my name but I couldn't move to help her. The arai moved swiftly around the hall, killing those who fought or weren't consumed by the flames. I screamed my throat raw and tried to claw my way forward. After there was no more life left, the arai gathered at the charcoaled entrance. There were seven of them.
They were coming
I only blinked steadily when I woke up. A small bead of sweat trickled down the back of my neck and my breathing was heavy enough to alert Charlie that I was awake. He stroked my cheek gently, swiping away tears I didn't even know were there. He didn't ask if I was ok, he didn't ask if I'd slept ok. He rocked me back and forth like I was a child, but I wasn't embarrassed. It was calming.
"Estará bien," he whispered. "Estoy aquí para ti, mi amor."
I didn't understand what he was saying but his words were comforting. He kept speaking in hushed spanish as I tried to stop my tears from reaching an intolerable point.
"They won't all be this bad, right?"
Charlie smiled reassuringly. "Maybe," he said truthfully. He was right. I accepted this curse, so my dreams were probably going to be worse than this. I had to learn to live with it.
"We will get through this, Jase."
"We can," I corrected with a smile.
Charlie scoffed and rolled his eyes, jokingly punching me. I mockingly glared at him and we began to laugh. We were idiots. Complete idiots. Laughing our mostly-dead asses off in the deepest pits of Hell.
"We've got to go. We've been here too long," Charlie warned. He offered me a hand.
"I think Damasen's herbs really do work," I told him. The wounds on my legs were nearly gone. They were scabbed over, close to being healed.
"I think it was something to do with your doctor too. Have you even noticed that the stab wound in your stomach is gone?" He pressed his hand to my stomach where my wound once was.
"Wow. Great job, Chuck!" I smiled at the twisted white scar that remained. It was a bad memory, but it no longer hurt. "You are my wonderful miracle maker," I said. It had been a week since the Arai's attack, and I still hadn't adjusted to the change.
My dad usually showed up when the situation was most dire, and when he was needed most. I felt like this counted, but he didn't come. Not that I wanted him to be stuck back here, but it kind of destroyed the image that Percy Jackson always came to save the day. With the Kane siblings, Dad was there to save their buts at the beginning of every battle. With Magnus, Dad was this unbeatable hero that even the gods use as a last resort. At this point, my last resort would be to kill myself and hope my soul wasn't trapped in Tartarus forever.
"JJ, what's the name of that one monster with snakes for hair?" Charlie asked, his voice a little too on edge to be a casual question.
"Is there a particular reason why you'd like to know?" I countered.
"And is she known for having a giant scorpion sidekick?" he pointed ahead of us, where Medusa was rounding a corner with an unreasonably large scorpion monster.
They'll kill you
I was too focused in the voices. Charlie dropped to the ground, pulling me with him. I needed to learn to ignore them.
"Don't let her see you!" he hissed.
"No, I was just going to run up and introduce myself!"
"Shut up!"
"Hi, I'm Jase Jackson, my dad killed you and my grandma used your head to turn his step-dad into a statue! Nice to meet you!"
"Shh- wait, what? Are you serious?"
We stopped talking when we realized that we couldn't see Medusa anymore. The scorpion was hurriedly scurrying towards us with its tail raised high and proud.
"Shit!" Charlie cursed. He jumped up and whipped around, slamming right into a tall figure.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Medusa hissed.
Charlie clamped his hand over his eyes and quickly prompted me to close my own by smacking me wildly with his other arm. I hated closing my eyes. The arai swam around my blank field of vision, reaching towards me with their long thin hands.
Back in the real world, I was pushed to the ground. Medusa set her hands almost seductively on my shoulders, letting her long nails dig into my skin. Her snake lunged at my face, leaving small scratches on my cheeks.
"Open your eyes," she whispered. "Just one little peek. Haven't you always wanted to see the woman more beautiful than Athena?"
"No, not really," I admitted as I reached blindly for my weapon. I couldn't tell where Charlie was but I couldn't afford to open my eyes and look.
"Just one look and you won't have to worry about anybody hurting you ever again. No more pain, no more suffering. The evil that surrounds you will finally leave you alone," she prompted.
The idea was nice, but I was smarter than that. If I opened my eyes I would be trapped in Tartarus forever. I held them tightly closed and tried to find any kind of weapon with what little wiggle room I had.
"Open your eyes or I will stab you through the heart with your own sword," she threatened, her voice still as sweet and alluring as before.
"I'm beginning to see why my dad killed you," I said. I heard the snakes jump back and Medusa's grip loosened just enough for me to scramble away. I felt my way around until I found my dagger. Medusa hissed at the sight of the weapon.
"Chase," she whispered.
"Jackson, now," I shot back. I depended on my hearing to locate where she was, but she moved across the ground as if she was floating. I slashed in the direction I thought she was, but hit nothing.
"Be careful, Jackson, that you hit me and not the companion you so carelessly are leaving behind."
Leaving behind? I hadn't gone that far, Charlie was still close. Right?
"Jase?" When he called out, he was not close by.
"Charlie! Stop moving!" I warned.
"Where are you?" he asked.
I felt a breeze against my cheek and swung, missing again. I heard footsteps approaching but I couldn't tell if they were Medusa's or Charlie's.
"Jase, I'm opening my eyes," Charlie said.
"Wait, no!"
There was a cry of alarm and my eyes snapped open. Medusa stood in front of Charlie with her hands around his neck, he had his hand over his eyes. But he wasn't turning to stone. He hadn't looked, yet.
"Just move your fingers, one peek won't hurt," Medusa chided.
There was no way I could attack. She knew exactly where I was and if I went in blind, she would turn Charlie around and I'd run him through instead. Charlie's fingers began to tremble and slowly creep away from his face.
"Charlie! Stop!"
"I, I can't-stop!"
I had just decided that screw it, if I was a statue at least I wouldn't be in pain anymore, when a piercing pain blossomed from my shoulder. I turned around and plunged my sword through the scorpion's back. It wriggled under the blade's pressure but eventually succumbed to its death. When I turned back around, Charlie's hand was stiff at his side, his eyes were not yet open.
The poison in my shoulder seeped into the rest of my body and I dropped to my knees. My vision went blurry. In one last attempt, I raised my hands and summoned all the power I could muster. There was no water, no pull in my gut, but there was the last ditch attempt of a dying demigod.
Medusa froze. The snakes on her head stopped moving and she moved away from Charlie as if pulled by an invisible barrier. Charlie dropped to the ground but didn't open his eyes.
"Jase, what's going on?"
I didn't answer. Medusa sunk to her knees. Green oozing blood seeped from her mouth and eyes, and it took me a moment to realize that I was the reason. A dark power flowed through me as if it had been there all along. I felt myself rise to my feet and take in a deep breath of undying energy. The poison literally flowed back out of the wound from which it had came.
Charlie's eyes were open now, he was staring at Medusa, who was writhing on the ground. This was wrong, this was so wrong. I tried to stop, but I couldn't. Shadows darker than any night I'd ever seen leaked from my fingertips and swirled on the ground at my feet.
Feel the power, Jason
Imagine what you could do with this power
"Charlie, help!" I cried, hoping he'd understand. Charlie ran forward and grabbed my wrists. His face was inches from my own.
"Jase, you can stop this. You are stronger than the power within you. You can fight this, Jason!"
You can't fight this, Jason
I couldn't. The power was trying to latch onto Charlie now. I knew if it did, it would kill him. I pointed at my mom's dagger and he quickly brought it to me, not knowing my intentions.
"Charlie, I've got to stop this," I said.
"I know! Just focus on your breathing, don't let it consume you. You need a distraction; think about math!"
He was right. I did need a distraction. With what little self control I had left, I took the dagger and stabbed myself in the leg.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
The power let go when the pain struck me. I groaned and fell back, hitting my head on the rocks. I let my hand drop from the dagger. I could see Charlie above me, frantically yelling and waving his arms about. My vision was fading, and I couldn't hear him clearly anymore.
"What are you doing? Oh no, don't fall asleep. Jason, don't fall asleep!"
When I woke up, I couldn't decipher whether or not I was still sleeping. There were still screams echoing in my mind from the nightmare I'd just faced.
"Jase, it's ok. I'm right here, we're ok," Charlie soothed, taking my wrist and pulling me into his lap. He ran his fingers through my hair.
"Charlie, what I did, I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop."
"Yeah," Charlie scoffed, "I noticed. Do you know how hard it was to stop the bleeding? I think you must have hit an artery or three," he joked.
"I'm sorry."
"Jase, don't apologize. You saved my life, you saved us both. It's in the past. But let's try not to do that again. Now, tell me what happened," he quietly urged.
"I don't know. I was controlling her blood, I think. I was killing her from the inside. The arai were helping me, in a way, they were controlling the power and telling me to keep going. But I couldn't control it, not at all. Once Medusa was dead, the arai latched onto you. That's when I asked for the dagger, before they made me kill you," I explained.
Charlie was silent. He didn't jump away from me like I'd expected. He gripped my hand tightly and placed a kiss on the top of my head.
"We can control this, Jase."
(Sorry for the late chapter! Hope you guys are enjoying, and I'd love to hear more suggestions for what you'd like to see next!) :)
