A/N- Whoo! I'm back! And since I missed you all so much *fake sniffle*, I brought you a present! *creepy smile* It's…AN UPDATE! Yay! And…THE SON OF NEPTUNE IS COMING OUT! REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY SOON! *fangirl squeal* Anyways…*looks embarrassed by all the commotion* Here's the chapter…Enjoy!
Disclaimer- I would just leave this out, but Mr. D threatened to turn me into a grape, so I disclaim.
Chapter 7: Day Three, Part Two/ Day Four, Part One
Erin's POV
I ran in the direction of Lief's scream, hoping I wasn't too late. I unsheathed my dagger as I ran, preparing for a fight. I ran into a clearing and stopped suddenly, surprised by what I saw. Lief was backed up against a tree. His bow was on the ground, out of reach. Something was leaning over him. Its back was to me, which meant that Lief was facing me. His face surprised me. It was surprisingly calm, but held just a trace of pain and fear. There was also something that I had never seen before on Lief. Hate. Pure, cold, dangerous hate. His eyes caught mine. He made a small motion for me to stay back.
I took a closer look at whatever was leaning over him. For a second it seemed to flicker between two forms, before settling on one. Flaming hair, pale skin, a metal leg and a donkey leg…an empousa. This couldn't be good. She hadn't seen me yet, as she was too concentrated on Lief. I heard her hiss something, and leaned in to try to hear it. "You can't control me," Lief growled. Did I miss something here?
"You are wrong. I can control you. Watch." Lief closed his eyes, but the empousa forced them open. He looked directly at her. His eyes were blazing with pure, unrestrained hate and a cold fury that scared me. Lief looked scary, to put it simply. Suddenly, that disappeared. Lief shrank back against the tree and his breath came more quickly. He blinked rapidly, but his gaze remained locked to the empousa's eyes. He winced.
"You are not in control. You can try, but I'm not like everybody else." Lief said. I think I may have been the only one who heard the slight quiver in Lief's voice.
"Oh, I know you better then you think. And I'm going to finish you off, no matter how much you struggle. Just like with everybody else," the empousa sneered.
Lie gasped like he had been punched, but quickly straightened up, eyes flashing defiance. "Fine then. Go ahead. It's not like there's really anything left for me to live for. Or anybody who'll care when I'm dead." He flashed me a glance before standing straight, back against the tree. He closed his eyes and made his face blank.
"Lief, no!" I cried. The empousa whirled. Lief didn't. "You can't just let her kill you!"
"Watch me," Lief murmured. "If it is my time to die, then it is my time to die."
"You can't! What will people think? How will Theo and Noah feel? What about Will?" What about me? I thought.
"Theo and Noah have each other. Will has other people to care about. And frankly, I've never cared what people think."
"Never?" The empousa cooed. "You've cared. Oh, you've cared."
"Not now. Now, there's nothing left for me. Go ahead. Kill me if you like."
The empousa looked suspicious. "No struggling?" she asked.
"None."
"Then I believe I'll enjoy this." She turned back to Lief, a cruel smile on her face. "Now, what shall we start with, hmm? Perhaps…Ah. We'll start with the eyes. Open your eyes, sweetie."
Lief opened his eyes and stared coolly at the empousa. "I'm not afraid, you know."
"You should be." The empousa lifted her hand showing a dagger, sharp as pain. She raised it, about to make a slash across Lief's eye. Before I knew what I was doing, I lunged forward, my knife in hand. The empousa seemed to sense that I was coming, though, as she turned right before I stabbed her. Her dagger flashed and the side of my head exploded in pain. I crumpled to the ground as the empousa turned back to Lief…
…and into a knife. She let out a wail as she crumpled into dust. She had time for one last strike, though. Her knife was flung forward and into Lief's side. He groaned and fell beside me. We were both gasping. "Lief?" I asked.
"Yeah?" His voice was faint.
"You really would have let her kill you, right?"
"Yeah. It's not like anybody would really mourn me."
"You're wrong. I would have." I said. I wasn't sure whether we were dying or not, but it seemed important that Lief knew this.
"Really?" Lief gasped. His voice was low and his breathing was ragged.
"Really."
"Thank you." He fell silent. I struggled to sit up and looked over at Lief. He was lying very still.
"Lief?" No answer. "LIEF!" Still nothing. "You can't be…dead." Yet he seemed to be very much so. I felt like just laying back down and crying, but managed not to. Ambrosia? We didn't bring any, did we? I was about to give up, but remembered something. Lief shouldn't have had a knife, should he? It wasn't in his pack…His boots! He must keep something in there…
I pulled one of his boots off with difficulty. Blood was getting in my eyes and I fiercely wiped it away. There were pockets lining the inside. I checked through them. Nothing of any importance. I pulled off his other boot. Please, please, please. Let there be something, I begged. Wait…at the very bottom there was something hard. I pulled it out. A piece of wood. No, a box. But there was nothing in it. I gave up then. Gave up for both of us. Lief was laying there on the ground, looking very dead. My head was starting to spin, lights flashing in front of me. I fell forward, my head resting on Lief's chest, and started to let go. Just before everything went black, I heard voices. "Who's that?" One said.
"It's that gloomy Apollo kid."
"And Erin."
"What's wrong with them?"
"Hey, Erin?"
"Erin?"
"Oh, dang, something's wrong. Look at all that blood."
"And that knife."
"Come on, Travis, we've gotta do something." I saw a blurry face leaning over me and felt something like a ragged, slow breath go through Lief before I lapsed into unconsciousness.
Later…
I opened my eyes slowly. Somebody was leaning over me. Somebody very familiar. "Travis?"
"No, Erin, it's Connor."
"Connor? But you're-"
"I'm here now." I reached up to where the throbbing in my head was coming from. There were a bunch of bandages. "Don't mess with that," Connor scolded. He looked serious instead of the usual carefree big brother he had been.
"What happened?"
"How am I supposed to know that? Travis and I just found you."
"Lief?"
"Who's Lief?" Connor asked, confused.
"Lief is the gloomy Apollo kid."
"Oh, him. He's in worse shape then you are."
"Where is he?" I asked. Lief, you better not be dead.
"I don't remember. I think Travis is with him."
"Connor, I need to know. Where is Lief? Is he going to be okay?"
Connor looked at me. "I don't know where or how he is. I've been in charge of you, along with Noah. Theo and Travis have been taking care of Lief. They're better at all that medical-" He made a face, "-stuff."
"Noah and Theo?"
"Oh, yeah. We kind of found them before we found you and Lief. They said they'd heard something going on and wanted us to investigate."
"Can I see him?" I asked.
"Why are you so worried about him? He's not your boyfriend or anything, is he? 'Cause I've never liked him, and if he's done anything to you…" Connor trailed off threateningly.
I had to laugh, even though it made my head hurt. "Since when did you get so suspicious? He's not my boyfriend. We just got stuck together for this weeklong survival thing."
"Good. And I'm not suspicious. I'm just worried about you."
"I'm not going to die, Connor."
"Huh. You were just about there when we found you."
"Stop being so serious, Connor. How's life been treating you?"
Connor grinned. "You should have seen the pranks we pulled! Travis and I have been banned from sharing a room because we were 'planning too many pranks and not doing enough studying'. We were passing all our classes!"
"Barely," I muttered.
"Anyways, we pulled this awesome prank with the salt and pepper shakers…" Connor kept going, but I wasn't really listening.
"Where are we, anyways?" I asked.
"Oh this. We're at Theo and Noah's camp. One of them was a genius and brought a tent. Lief- I think he's at that cave he found."
"He is? I've got to go see how he is!"
"No-" Connor started, but it was too late. I'd jumped up and started for the door. Lief, I'm coming…
Lief's POV
When I woke up, my head was spinning and my side hurt. "You're awake," somebody observed.
"Theo?"
"The one and only."
"Where am I?"
"You're in that nifty cave you found," Theo said, running a hand through his hair and making it stick up.
"What happened? How long was I out? Where's Erin?"
"First of all, I don't know what happened. I just saw Travis carrying you into our camp. You were looking very dead, man. We've been taking care of you, and I think you're gonna pull through. You were out for about…oh, maybe 23 or so hours. Erin…she's the pranking girl, right?"
"Yeah."
"She's fine. Or at least I think she is. Connor and Noah are taking care of her."
I let out a sigh of relief. Erin was okay, Suzie was dead…(A/N- Suzie is the empousa) "I- I should be dead." I said.
"Yes, you should. You took that dagger pretty hard. It's gonna leave a scar." For the first time, I realized I wasn't wearing a shirt. I looked down and saw bandages covering my side, which was throbbing.
Something Theo had said earlier hit me. "23 hours?"
"Yeah."
"So it's the fourth day of the week thingy."
"Yeah."
"Can I go outside?" I asked. I needed to clear my head for a minute.
"As long as you don't run. And don't mess with the bandages or try to put a shirt on."
"Fine." I went outside. I sat down for a minute before getting up and walking around a little. I heard footsteps, and turned just in time to get hit hard by something.
"LIEF! You're alright!"
"Erin?" I asked, disbelieving. Erin was hugging me, obviously quite excited to see that I was okay. "Erin, what are you doing?"
Erin pulled away, blushing a little. "You're okay?" she asked.
"Yeah. You?"
"I'm fine. I didn't take a dagger in the side." Erin stepped back and looked at me. "You're not wearing a shirt." She accused.
"Hey, Theo said I couldn't." I defended.
"Now, sit down. You've got a lot of explaining to do." Erin said.
"Okay. I'll explain." I sat down and started to talk.
A/N- There you go! Like it? Hate it? Review? Please?
-smartone101
