Disclaimer:
I do not own the PJO characters
We stared at the Immortal. He lowered himself to the ground beside us.
"Why do you want to come to camp?" I asked.
"Well I haven't been there in a while, like Hazel said, and I miss my children. You know, like Will, Austin, Kayla, those people."
"Uh, Austin and Kayla left camp years ago," Hazel said.
"Oh, uh, yeah I forgot about that. Well I can see my other children then."
"Can I call you Papadopoulos!" I blurted out. I started to laugh my head off.
"Well, I-, uh, if you want," Apollo stuttered.
"No, I was joking, I just think that name's funny. You were amazing in the Trials Of Apollo," I said.
"On that note," Apollo said, trying to change the subject , "who wants to ride in my chariot? Obviously Arion can't carry all of us, soooo."
"I'll pass," Hazel said as she gracefully mounted Arion. "The ground is more my thing."
"I'll go," I said.
"Really?" Apollo asked, a little surprised.
"Yeah it seems fun."
Damian looked at the ground nervously. "I-I'll come too," he said. I knew he didn't want to come but he didn't want to leave my side.
I walked over to him and grabbed his hands in mine, our eyes met. "You ride with Hazel," I said, "I'll be fine," I choked at those words but kept going. "Plus we're not going to be that far apart." I reluctantly let go of Damian's hands and walked back over to where Apollo was. Somehow his chariot and fire horses had appeared out of nowhere.
"You ready to go?" He asked cheerfully.
"Sure."
Apollo snapped his fingers and his chariot magically turned into a car. I don't know the names of cars but let's just say it was a really nice car. "I like it this way better, more modern. You wanna drive?"
"Nah," I said, "I don't want to pull a Thalia and crash into the lake."
Apollo just laughed. He got in the driver seat while I sat in the passenger side. It felt extremely weird sitting next to an Immortal while he drove his magical chariot all while listening to the radio quietly play a loop to Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons.
Outside the car, I watched Damian get onto Arion and ride off with Hazel. A lump grew in my throat.
"Buckle up," Apollo announced as he turned on the car, "it's going to be a fun ride."
Let's just say that his version of fun and my version of fun was not the same. We zoomed off at maybe 500 miles per hour and my head pushed against the seat, hard. It felt like my insides were coming out and my head was going to pop off, I couldn't move. I should not have agreed to this.
I quickly, using what I had been practicing the past few weeks, grabbed a hold of the car and willed it to slow down.
"Hey I was having fun," Apollo pouted.
"Well it felt like my head was going to pop right off my shoulder," I said as I took a deep breath in. "Just please go slower."
"Fine," sighed Apollo.
I let go of the car and he slowed down. "Thanks," I breathed.
We sat in a very awkward silence for a while. "There's another reason why I wanted to come with you," Apollo said.
"Hmm?"
"Well I thought you should know about what happened when you were stuck in the ice. Out of all the, uh, Immortals? Is that what you call us?"
My mind was going a hundred miles an hour trying to understand what he had just told me. But I managed to get my head straight and answer. "Uh, yeah."
"Okay, well out of all of us Immortals I'm the only one who knows what you're going through. They don't understand what it's like being a mortal, which if you ask me, I think they could use a mortal body for a while. Anyway, while you were in that iceā¦" he took a long pause, this made me worry. He looked me in the eyes. "Trish you died."
Thanks for reading! We will probably post another chapter today, because we thought this was a really good place to stop, kinda like a dun dun dun, moment. Anyway we thought it was a really good place to stop but also wanted to keep going. Stay safe!
-Lou Ellen and Sydney
