THE PROBLEM WITH LEO VALDEZ
Disclaimer: thanks Uncle Rick for making such great characters
THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED, COME BACK WHEN THE PLOTLINE MAKES SENSE
07/03/16
CHAPTER: II
LEO
Illusions In The Morning
Leo had woken up with some awful headaches before, but this one was by far the worst. Pain shot through his skull, reaching out and attacking the rest of his brain. Ringing screeched in his ears. He groaned and brought his hands up to his temples, trying to get it to stop.
Of course, it didn't do anything.
Leo lay still in his bed, exhausted. His eyes drifted over to the electronic clock that he kept on his dresser, and disappointment washed over him when the time flashed 5:14am. How could it still be so early?
"Give me a hand, Hypnos." Leo muttered, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn't really mean it, and with a tired sigh he forced his eyes back open and slowly began to pull himself to his feet.
It was then did someone begin to furiously assult his cabin door with their knocking.
Leo jumped at the sudden noise, surprised at it, then recoiled when the banging only added kindle to his headache. Stop, he willed it, though to no avail. Stop. Stop stop stop. Maybe if he ordered it to enough times, it'd get sick of him and leave him alone.
"What do you want?" Leo called out, tossing the blankets off of him and groggily walking over to the door so he could open it. His feet crunched on crumpled up pieces of paper and dull pencils that he had at some point thrown on the floor, but he didn't pay much attention to the mess. He'd get around the cleaning the room eventually. When he actually had time to.
Why was anyone awake, anyway? He knew of Percy and Annabeth's strolls through the ship, though no one else had their exception. They seemed to be getting as much sleep as him recently, which was to say hardly any. He figured it was nightmares. Sometimes when he walked past their cabins he'd hear them shouting things at their dreams, though he never got more information than that.
Leo felt the guilt begin eating at his stomach again. He was probably the last person they wanted to talk to about that sort of stuff.
The boy sighed and swung the door open, expecting to see a familiar face. Instead, he was greeted with the pleasnt friend that was no one. He looked behind him in case Buford had been the one throwing a fit in the hall, but the table was nowhere to be seen.
No one was seen.
Leo's brow furrowed, frustration and confusion fusing together in his already too hard of working mind. "Bet it was Jason." he said to himself, swinging the door shut again and turning back towards his bed. He could imagine his friend acting all giddy with Piper, who no doubt would try to fit some humor in to his life. The two of them were awful at pranks, really. Leo took the opportunity to mention it to them whenever he could.
Leo was the funny guy one the ship, and Jason... well, he was a blond version of superman with worsening eyesight and far more concussions. It was just better if the two stuck within their own categories.
Leo rolled his eyes, tapping his fingers rapidly on his pajama pants as he thought. As much as he would have loved to blame bland humor on Jason and Piper, he surely would have heard them running off down the hall. He wasn't deaf. People running weren't silent.
He scowled, then turned back towards the door a second time and pulled it open. His eyes darted left, then right, then instinctively he glanced behind him again before slamming the door shut. He was being paranoid, Leo reasoned with himself. This was what happened to people who didn't sleep.
He kicked at one of the crumpled pieces of paper on the floor with his foot. The garbage rolled under his bed, sneaking into the shadows that, according to his logic, were secret portals that somehow got rid of the trash in his room. If he couldn't see it, it didn't exist anymore. All problems solved.
Leo shook his head again, as if trying to clear it. The headache persisted, his thoughts remained jumbled, his nerves were all over the place. Sweat began to drip down his forehead, and he felt too hot in his pajamas. He had fire-proofed most of the clothes he wore, but spontaneously sprouting fires still remained to be a horrible source of fun. He needed to cool down. He needed walk. He needed some fresh air.
Tap-tap-tap
Leo walked slowly, trying to fend off the dizziness that was invading his head. He had tried moving fast, but twice already he had fallen over, and he didn't dare risk a third. He didn't think he'd be able to get back up.
He felt sick.
Tap-tap-tap
Heat rushed to his face in random bursts. He could feel his shirt clinging to him, held by a disgusting amount of sweat. Did he have a fever? He felt like he had a fever. Where did he keep the medicine supplies? Did he have medicine supplies? Surely he had something stocked away somewhere.
Tap-tap-tap
Another wave of wooziness washed over him, making Leo's steps come to a halt. His hands reached out to the wall before he stumbled, and he stood hunched over for a few moments, trying to regain his breath. His lungs were choking him.
Tap-tap-tap
Leo froze. Had those not been his steps he was hearing? He clamped his mouth shut and did his best to ignore his lungs as they screamed at him in protest. He needed to listen.
Tap-tap-tap
Leo silently swore. He knew, reasonably, that it was probably just one of his friends trying to scare him. Reasonably, there was no way that a monster could get aboard a magical ship that was flying throusands of miles up in the air. Festus would have alerted him. Someone would have killed it by now.
The reasonable part of his brain was failing him however, and Leo couldn't shake the feeling that what was sounding near him was a monster.
The boy looked behind him, his body shaking. Whether it was from his fear or his supposed fever, he wasn't sure. It was most likely a poor mixture of both. His eyes narrowed in the dark hallway, trying to pick out something to see.
His heart sank.
There was something there.
Not a monster, or a person, but a shadow. Slick and lean in the darkness, it had no face, no features, no true shape. But it was there, standing near him, quietly watching with eyes he couldn't see.
Leo blinked. When his eyes opened, the shadow was gone.
Was he hallucinating? It would explain a lot, he figured. His brain was fried and now he was behaving like a madman. Cursing under his breath, Leo leaned his head against the wall and sucked the biggest gulp of air he could.
He still needed to get above deck.
Unease bubbled in his stomach as he made an attempt at walking again. He held an unsteady hand out against the wall as he moved, ready to brace himself, and slowly he hobbled towards the stairway.
One foot, other foot, one foot, other foot. Stop. Don't die. Repeat. Played over and over again in Leo's mind. He wondered if this was how old people felt when they crossed the street. He decided that he'd never give any of them cold looks ever again.
He was about to take a daring step up on to the first stair when a cold hand found its placed on his shoulder. Leo screamed, startled, and made a pathetic attempt at running upwards.
He stumbled.
"Stay back!" Leo cried, resorting to the loudness of his voice to fend of his attacker. He had heard somewhere that animals didn't like things that were louder than them. He hoped that monsters were the same way.
"How daring!" A familiar voice laughed, breaking Leo's terrified demeniour. The lights in the hall flickered on, and suddenly faces began appearing around him. Piper, Jason, Percy, Hazel.
Leo squinted, his heart pounding his in chest.
"You broke it, Percy." Hazel accused, her glare directed at the boy who was currently experiencing a laughing fit. "You're not supposed to touch him."
Percy took a few moments to catch his breath, then wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. The guy was freaked out!"
Leo stared at them, trying to make sense of the situation. He slumped against the wall, giving up at the idea just as quickly as he had tried to process it. He doubted he could make sense of anything at the moment, much something as confusing as this.
"The mist?" he croaked. Hazel nodded at him, her excitement showing in her eyes.
"I've been getting really good, huh?"
Leo tried his best to smile and look like he meant it. He wondered how much he failed. "Oh, yeah. I love thinking that I'm going to die. Real nice." he muttered, closing his eyes as dizziness came over him again.
Percy pursed his lips. "Dude, you alright?"
"Totally." Leo said through gritted teeth. "This is what I look like all the time, didn't you know?" His attempt at humor fell short, and not even five words in to his second sentence did his voice bleed out in to a painful groan. "Gimme a minute."
He felt his friends eyes focusing on him, which somehow made him feel even worse.
"Are you sick?" Jason asked, reaching out a hand to Leo. He clasped on to it, then managed a small nod of thanks when Jason helped him to his feet. "You look... awful."
"I couldn't tell." Leo muttered.
"You should go back to your room," Piper suggested, already moving towards him to lend a supporting shoulder. He shook his head, trying to find the right words to refuse.
"No, no. I wanna get some air," he mumbled, but he knew there was no way he could manage up the stairs even with help, and certainly not on his own. He glanced at Piper, his eyes only briefly meeting hers, but in the short second that they did an entirely new feeling came over him. Chills shot down his spine, his stomach seemed to have flipped. His knees gave out, and as he buckled to the floor a faraway hissing began to sound in his ears.
Charmspeaker... he thought he heard. His vision growing dark and blurry. He knew Jason was shaking his shoulder, but he couldn't feel the movement. First the Charmspeaker.
