Daughter Of Madness
AN: Hey guys, for those who are not new to this or those who are, thank you for reading this, so in this chapter Ophelia will be getting to camp half blood , this will be a long chapter!
SHOULD I CREATE A NEW OC FOR OPHELIA OR SHOULD I JUST USE A CHARACTER FROM THE BOOK?
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON OR THE PLOT I ONLY OWN MY OC OPEHLIA
Chapter 5: Bull man named Chan.
Those haunting violet eyes. The same as mine.
Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.
With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."
I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have for-gotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.
Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.
Sally sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.
Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... He wasn't exactly Grover.
"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"
Sally was looking at us in terror-not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.
"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"
I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.
"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"
I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... Where his legs should be ...
G Man is a hybrid.
She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"
Grover ran for the Camaro-but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.
This is the most weirdest dream ever.
Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.
We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.
Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remem-bered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.
All I could think to say was, "So, your a hybrid then?".
Graver's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "No" he said. "I am a satyr". He then turned around and started talking to Percy and Sally.
"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey-"
" A hybrid Perc." I added to the conversation.
Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"
I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.
"Goat!" he cried.
"What?"
"I'm a goat from the waist down."
"You just said it didn't matter."
"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"
"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?" I said in disbelief.
"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Ophelia? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"
"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" Percy said in outrage.
"Of course."
"Then why-" Percy started.
"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."
"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?" I chipped in.
The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.
"Percy, Ophelia" Sally said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."
"Safety from what? Who's after us?" we said in union.
"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."
"Grover!"
"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"
I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had a wild imagination. But this? This isn't some theatrics that I act upon.
Sally made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"The summer camp I told you about." Sally's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you." she said to Percy.
"The place you didn't want me to go."
"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."
"Because some old ladies cut yarn." I added in.
"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... When someone's about to die."
"DIE?" I screamed in disbelief.
"Whoa. You said 'you.'"
"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"
"You meant 'you.' As in us."
"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."
"Kids!" Sally said.
She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.
"What was that?" I asked.
"We're almost there," Sally said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."
I didn't know where there was, but I found myself lean-ing forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.
I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.
I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."
"Percy!" Sally shouted.
"I'm okay... ." Percy said.
"Ophelia!" Percy shouted in panic.
I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.
" Percy stop!" I shouted at him since he kept shaking my shoulder. "Im fine" I finished. He slumped in relief.
Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"
He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are a Hybrid, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!
Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.
"Percy," Sally said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.
I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.
I swallowed hard. "Who is-"
"Ophelia, Percy" my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."
Sally threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.
"Climb out the passenger's side!" Sally told me.
"Percy-you have to run. Do you see that big tree?" He nodded
"What?" I cried from the car.
Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.
"That's the property line," Sally said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."
"Mom, you're coming too." "Ophelia get out!" he snapped at me
Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.
"Percy maybe you should just leave me" I said in the most calm voice I could muster.
"No!" he shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."
"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.
The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swing-ing at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... Was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...
"He doesn't want us," Sally told us. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."
"But..." I said my voice drifting off.
"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please." She cried.
I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Grover."
"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover." He shouted towards me.
I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if Percy didn't come to my aid.
Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waisthigh grass.
Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under-wear-I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms-which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.
His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-andwhite horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.
Eww.
I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.
I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"
"Pasiphae's son," Grover said.
"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you." Sally finished.
"But he's the Min-" Percy started to say.
"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."
The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.
I glanced behind me again.
The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win-dows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.
"Food?" Grover moaned.
"Shhh," I told him. "Sally, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"
"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."
As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded. Holy crap. This is some serious weight lifting skills.
"Percy, Ophelia" Sally said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way- directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"
"How do you know all this?" Percy asked.
"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me." she said.
"Keeping me near you? But-"
Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.
He'd smelled us.
The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.
The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.
Sally must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."
I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.
He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.
The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.
I saw him move towards Percy this time, but Percy just jumped out of the way, quickly tumbling a few steps, but he steadily got up waiting for the next attack.
The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bel-lowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, towards Sally, who was setting Grover down in the grass.
We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as Sally had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.
The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing Sally, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.
"Run, Percy!" she told him. "I can't go any farther. Run Ophelia!" she yelled at me.
But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.
"Mom!" Percy screamed.
She caught our eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"
Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... Gone.
"No!" Percy screamed. I ran towards him, I pulled his face up to mine trying to calm him down, but he was like an uncontrollable storm. He wanted revenge.
Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.
The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.
I couldn't allow that.
I stripped off my red rain jacket.
Not now G man, not on my watch.
"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster.
"Hey, stupid! Ground beef!" Percy shouted from the beside of me.
"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward us, shaking his meaty fists.
I had an idea a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.
But it didn't happen like that.
The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.
Time slowed down.
My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.
How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.
Percy formulating a plan or just wanted to join me for the fun, done a long run then jumped up towards me and he caught onto the bull-mans horn.
The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake us. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.
The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed us flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.
Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.
"Food!" Grover moaned.
The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!
The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.
The monster charged.
Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.
The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.
The monster was gone.
I looked around and noticed beside me with the other horn, it seems as if we've both done the same thing. Huh twinned it even in our time of despair.
The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen Sally vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm-house. I was crying. I heard Percy calling for his mother, but I held on to Grover-I wasn't going to let him go. I will never let either of them go.
The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be." "She is definitely the one, but sir?.." "she look like.."
"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "She's still conscious. Bring them inside."
AN: That was a pretty productive chapter, Okay so in the next one they will definitely be in the camp! I've been waiting till I could get this far, and maybe we will see Ophelia getting claimed! So if you can please review and let me know how I'm doing it would mean the world!. Oh and let me know if I should create a new OC or just use a character from the book for Ophelia.