Sleeping Beauty

Chapter Ten


At his desk, flipping through pages of another report, Chiron sighed. No matter how hard he tried to drown himself in his work, only one word continued to plague his mind.

Selene

It's been weeks since Percy left with Aphrodite to find Selene and fix whatever mess it caused. He trusted Percy, his prized student, but his heart screamed at him. He needed to find Percy and Aphrodite, but above all else, he needed to find Selene.

Closing his eyes, Chiron let his mind wander. The moment his ears twitched, his eyes snapped open. He heard footsteps and a moment later, there was a knock at his door.

"Who is it?" Chiron asked.

"It's Annabeth. I need to talk to you. It's about Percy." Annabeth said.

"Come in."

The door swing opened to Annabeth and Grover entering his office. The two were dressed in civilian clothing. Annabeth had her daggers strapped to her hips, while Grover had a sword strapped to his back.

"You said this was about Percy?" Chiron asked.

"Yeah, he found Selene. Long story short, she's being held in a factory in L.A by a strange dark presence." Annabeth said.

"He needs our help," Grover said.

Chiron wasted no time in sheathing his sword and strapping it around his chest.

"Since it will be a long trip, we can tell you the rest on the way," Annabeth said.

Opening the drawer at his desk, Chiron pulled out a large, glowing white orb.

"It won't be as long as you think," Chiron said, twisting the orb.

They all watched as the orb steadily turned blue as the symbol of Poseidon appeared.

"Sweet!" Grover said. "What is it?"

"A tele orb, it's able to track any demigod. It's Only used in emergency's," Chiron said. "Are you both ready?"

"Will the three of us be enough?" Grover asked.

"It's gonna have to be," Chiron said, as he twisted the orb again and a light engulfed them. When it diminished, they were gone.

Pulling up to the factory gate, an alarm welcomed both Seth and Vivian. Along with countless guards running all over the place.

Driving through the gate, Seth pulled into a parking spot near the bay doors.

Vivian looked around as more guards ran towards the inside of the factory. Blinking, a shiver washed over her, causing her to rub her shoulders.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Vivian said.

The moment she said that, Vivian let out a scream as a few guards jumped onto the car, hugging the windows. Looking inside with their glowing red eyes, shivers ran up and down both Seth's and Vivian's spine.

After a few moments, the guards pulled themselves off the car before running toward the docking bay doors. Taking a deep breath, Seth slipped off his seat belt and opened the car door. He looked back at Vivian.

"Stay here. I'm going to see what's going on," Seth said sternly.

"No," Vivian said, taking a hold of his hand.

"I'll be back, I promise." Seth said, giving her hand a light squeeze.

Nodding, Vivian let go of Seth's hand. Staring at her for a few moments, Seth turned around and stepped out of the vehicle. After dodging a few guards, he ran inside.

All Vivian could do was watch as Seth closed the door and run toward the docking bay doors. She let out a sigh of relief the moment he made it inside. But the feeling that made her shiver refused to leave her.

Meanwhile, inside running down the corridors, Aphrodite, Joseph and Tracy split up. They knew it was dangerous, but it also split up the guards following them. Keeping quiet, Tracy navigated through the dark corridors. She kept close to the wall as glowing red eyes were all around her.

Looking up ahead, Tracy spotted a glowing exit sign along with the back of Joseph's head. Smiling, she was about to move closer towards him, but she also noticed more guards moving toward him. Slipping out her cellphone she text Joseph. Slipping her phone back in her pocket, Tracy took a deep breath before letting out a scream.

Joseph looked down at his phone then turned around as dozens of red eyes moved down the corridor toward the scream.

"Tracy... please be okay," Joseph said, as he took off running.

Running down the corridor with footsteps behind her, Tracy came to a stop when the corridor split into two paths. Turning to the left, she had planned to go down this way, but she noticed a white light which caused her to turn around and run down the right corridor instead.

The closer she got to the end of the corridor, the brighter the light became. She slowed down to a walk, for the light caused her to smile. She felt calm and weightless as all the tension and worry that Tracy was feeling escaped her.

"Hey you!" someone shouted.

Turning around, Tracy looked at the guards running towards her, but the moment the light touched them, their bodies shook violently as the darkness evaporated from them. She watched as their bodies dropped to the floor.

"You found me," Aphrodite said.

Tracy turned back around to find Aphrodite standing before her.

"This is Selene's aura, her essence is pouring out from over there," Aphrodite said, pointing through the light to a silver metal glowing door that was a few feet away from them.

"Great, we found her," Tracy said.

"Yeah, but now the hard part is getting inside," Aphrodite said.

Before Tracy could say a word, Aphrodite balled up a piece of paper and threw it at the door. Tracy's eyes widen as the paper ignited into flames and turned to ash before hitting the door. Tracy sighed as she rubbed her temples.

"Well, this might take a while."