Hey fabulous people who made it to chapter 8! I felt the need to keep updating super fast until I can prove to you guys (and myself) that I really do want to finish this Fanfiction. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think with a review, if it's not too much trouble. I am always open to constructive criticism… and I'm thinking about bringing either Dawn or Matthew into the next chapter. Do you think I should do it? IF so, which one? Let me know! Thanks guys!
The next morning when I woke up, both girls were gone. It took me a couple seconds to process that information, and then I was on my feet, heart pumping and eyes darting. Where could they have possibly gone? Did they leave, or was it an ambush? Did it have to do with the creepy guy who had attacked us yesterday?
My question was answered when I heard laughter, carried to me by the slight breeze and blending in brightly with the leaves and greens around me. I could tell it was Vaz, but that was strange. I hadn't heard her laugh throughout this whole journey.
"…and that was the last time I ever tried bathing in that lake," Faith was saying when they appeared into the clearing. Vaz's sword was in her hand, and Faith, I noticed, was missing a couple arrows.
I interrupted the light atmosphere with a scowl. "Where were you two?"
They shrugged in unison.
"We were fighting off a monster attack," Faith was the one to respond. She shrugged her bag from her shoulders and pulled out some more arrows to restock. "We had to let you get your rest. Looked like you were pretty relaxed."
"I don't think Apollo brought us here to vacation," Vaz said, giving me a sideways look. "There's something about this place; I can't put my finger on it. It's some kind of enchantment."
"I don't feel anything," Faith frowned, taking out some of the few supplies we had salvaged yesterday.
"It's a Hecate thing, maybe," I suggested, trying to at least contribute somehow. I acted like I didn't care, but the fact that they left me here while they went to fight… it kind of hurt. I knew that I probably wouldn't be of any use to them, and that was probably why, but I hated feeling like I was a deadweight. A handicap.
"That makes sense," Faith nodded thoughtfully. She still had her bag open, and I walked over to see what she was looking at. It was the stupid bow again; the bow that kept getting us into trouble.
"I wonder…" Vaz trailed off, her eyes going wide. I felt something graze the small of my back, and my stomach became stone.
"You have the bow," the guy from yesterday was right behind me, talking right into my ear. I resisted the urge to pull away.
"We have the bow," Faith took two large strides so that she was standing next to Vaz, the bag (with the bow) clutched tightly in one hand, her own bow in the other.
"And I have your little friend here." he shook me by the arm a little, and I felt cold metal cut through my shirt and whisper past my bare skin. "I think you'd fancy a trade, no?"
"No." There was ice in Vaz's eyes. "We would not fancy a trade. Take him, I don't care."
"Don't play coy with me, Miss Rickie. Your father wouldn't like that tone."
She stumbled back. "M-my f-f-father?"
I could hear the smirk in his voice. "Why of course! We have him back at camp! Would you like to see him?"
She was speechless, but so were the rest of us. Whatever was happening was not good; Vaz had been seriously caught off guard. Someone needed to say something, quick.
"I would rather die than let you have our only lead!" I exclaimed loudly. Ha, that was a lie, but it drew his attention. When he turned me around to face him, his knife cut a very small scratch into my back. I didn't flinch, but I could feel it starting to bleed.
"I can see the fear in your eyes," he whispered inches from my face, eyes sparkling with twisted mirth.
"Your breath smells like cinnamon…and…evil," I said. Wow, nice insult Jackson. Thankfully, Faith saved me from his response.
"Let Luke go, or tell us what you want with this!" she held up his target, but it didn't appear to be tugging away, which was curious.
"To return it to its master, of course!" he laughed, letting go of me. I still didn't dare budge. The point of his knife had returned to my back, and I had a feeling that if I tried to run, I wouldn't make it even a step before he skewered me.
"Who is it's master?"
"You know the answer to that question!" he smiled at her expectantly, as if they were playing a game of trivia for elementary school kids.
She looked away. Great, he had both of the cool, sassy girls out of commission. They knew how to talk to these dangerous bad guys, and the greatest thing I could come up with had to do with cinnamon. We were so doomed.
"Are you a son of Hades?" I tried to distract him, my mind whirling. We had to get rid of this guy for good, or he would keep coming back.
He spat on the ground, startling me. When he looked up, I could tell I had hit a sore spot. "I'm not a son, I'm a decedent. I would never have made it into PoP as a child of a god. The last person who did that… well, I suppose you know what happened to him."
When he smiled in Faith's direction, something came over me. I don't know what, but a boiling rage washed over my whole being. I saw red, I felt the blood surging through my body, and suddenly, the whole earth was shaking. A crack formed in the dirt, zigzagging between me and the bad guy besides me. He shifted to shadow, but flickered back, as if his shadow traveling attempt had failed.
"Luke! Run!" Faith ran forward and jerked me by my t-shirt collar, effectively distancing me from the growing hazard in the ground. The crack was now at least a foot across, and our attacker was clearly weakened after trying to shadow travel. He stumbled, and fell. A couple more seconds and he would fall in.
Against my better judgement, I tugged away from Faith and hurried forwards, taking him by the hand. He raised his knife as if to stab me as I saved him, but it fell limply to his side. His eyelids fluttered, and then he was unconscious.
My adrenaline slowed, and the earth stilled. I was still shaking, though, as I pulled his relaxed form as far away from the gap in the ground as possible. It was about five feet wide now, and it scared me. A lot.
"Did he do that?" Faith gestured towards the chasm, wide-eyed.
I shook my head. "Why would he? He tried to escape it, but... I don't think he could."
Vaz was at the edge of it now, looking down. She looked terrible, with dirt smudges, crazy hair, and blood all over her clothes. At a closer look, I saw that her eyes were shining with unshed tears, and at that moment, I felt like I should do something; maybe embrace her, maybe just reassure her with my words. She looked so dismal that I wondered what was wrong. And then I remembered that he had mentioned her father.
I could no longer stand. The sudden burst of adrenaline I had experienced was long forgotten, and my legs felt like jelly. I stumbled to the ground, and, with the last bits of energy I had, positioned myself so I was sitting on the dirt and facing our attacker.
Faith came and sat next to me, but didn't say anything. We both stared at the stranger, and I couldn't help but think he looked very peaceful now, with his dark brown hair covering his closed eyes, and his mouth slightly open. Little huffs of air disrupted the dirt below, and I wanted to laugh when some of it blew into his nose, causing it to wrinkle.
"I'm glad that Stabby here isn't awake," I broke the silence, nudging his hand with my foot.
"Stabby?" Faith fought back a grin.
"Don't judge me," I stuck my tongue out. "I bet it's better than any name he actually has."
I thought she'd laugh again, but her expression shifted into an unreadable one. "Why did you save him, anyway? He attacked us. He was going to kill you. You realize that, right Luke? He was going to take his blade, and…"
I held up my hand, signaling her to stop. "Hold up, I don't need to hear the rest of that sentence. I know what he was going to do."
She tilted her head, her newly blue eyes piercing into me. "So why?"
"Do you really think he deserved to die?" I nodded my head in the direction of the crack, where Vaz was still standing. "That was going to be his tomb, Faith. He would be dead."
She looked away, and I felt the burden of her gaze lift. "He's obviously a son of a kind of monster. He would've come back."
"You don't know that," I shrugged. "He's also part Hades somehow. Who knows, he could be a normal teenager just like us!"
Stabby shifted, his eyes still closed. His head was now resting on my foot, and I had to sit really still so as not to disturb him. He seemed so… normal now. There was no hissing or abnormal pleasantness or creepy shadow manipulation. He was just sleeping, and it looked like he needed it too.
"He's not like us," Faith spoke finally, and I could tell she was talking through gritted teeth. "He's one of them. The PoP. Luke, those aren't 'normal teenagers.' Those are cold-blooded killers."
"But we don't know if he's killed anyone. All we know, is that he came for the bow." I gestured towards the bag that was clutched in Vaz's hands.
Faith bit her lip and peered around me, her eyebrows suddenly scrunched together. "You're bleeding."
"I know. His knife grazed me, but it's no big deal."
She looked furious suddenly. "You could bleed to death! You should've told me so I could've bandaged it sooner!"
I didn't think it was a big deal, but she apparently thought so. With lightning speed, she jumped to her feet, ran to Vaz, got her bag, and returned to my side. As she pressed a disinfectant into my wound, I was reminded of how malnourished she was. Her fingers were thin and frail, but definitely practiced. She managed to apply alcohol, cotton, and a band aid to the scratch in under a minute, her hands deftly switching between materials.
She had just closed her bag when quiet voice spoke from behind us. "He should've died."
We both looked back, and Vaz—though it hadn't seemed possible—had edged even closer to the edge of the chasm without falling in. A couple tears had created tracks of dirt on her cheeks.
"No," I said firmly.
It scared me that both girls, who seemed so light and cheery, didn't think it was a big deal for this guy to kick the bucket. How many deaths had they seen in their life times? I knew having godly blood was a curse, but I had no idea what it did to people. To me, this guy hadn't done anything too bad (yet). I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but they didn't seem to understand.
I wondered if Vaz was going to bring up her father. All I was ever told was that he left when she was little, but there was obviously more than that. What had the guy meant when he mentioned her dad? He sounded like he knew him, but maybe I had misunderstood. Either way, there was no way we could give up now. There was something serious going on, and I wanted to find out what. It was driving me crazy, all these different puzzle pieces. None of them seemed to fit together, but I had a feeling I didn't have all the facts yet.
No one was moving still. The area wasn't quiet; there were distant sounds of animals and Zeus knows what else coming from every direction. We were all still, each in our own world of thought. Faith was back to tracing the pattern on her arm, that strange, dazed look in her eyes. Vaz was leaning over the crack in the earth, seemingly analyzing it's depth. There was Stabby, who had yet to wake, and me, who was too busy looking at everyone else to wonder what I was personally thinking. It was all very peaceful, yet there was an uneasy tinge to the air. I wondered if it was the same thing Vaz had been sensing earlier: the enchantment. I wondered if the PoP was near, and what Stabby would do when he woke up. I wondered why my parents were gone. I wondered why Vaz's dad was recently brought into the picture and I wondered if Faith's curse could be undone. I wondered for what seemed like hours, and it was surprisingly Vaz who jerked me out of my musings.
"Let's go," was all she said. I nodded and stood.
It was time to stop wondering, and start putting the puzzle together.
