Just one more chapter after this. Thank you all for reading.
Charlie's POV
The pressure on my body was growing greater. My breaths were becoming harder to take in.
"Eric," I tried to call out. It was barely a whisper. "Eric," this time louder with as much strength as I could muster. "I'm sorry," I cried. "I am so sorry. I wished I hadn't been such an idiot. I shouldn't have held a grudge. I shouldn't have ignored you for so long." Why had I resented the things he had said to me when we were fighting. I had given up one of my best friends, because of a stupid grudge and now I was going to die. I guess when you are nose to nose with death, you start to remember what's really important.
'Thunk.'
Four arrows in a straight line embedded themselves in the cyclops. He cried out, tossing me away in the process.
The warehouse turned into a blur as my body twisted throw the air. I knocked into something, flattening it to the ground. I opened my eyes. Simon now lying beneath me. His face was twisting in pain.
I scrambled up pain shooting out everywhere. "Simon. Are you ok?"
He sucked in a breath, "Peachy." He was attempting to sit up. "Are you guys trying to blow up the generator?"
I nodded.
One of his cuts had begun to bleed again. Or maybe it was a new one. I couldn't be sure. Simon was only focused on the fighting. I helped him to stand. It was a struggle on both parts.
"Eric, he's… winning."
I was now looking too. Eric seemed to notice himself. He dropped my sword pulling out the all too familiar chakrams. The way he was swinging them, it was if he had always fought this way.
"Simon," I tugged on his arm, pointing to our own problem. He had just finished pulling out the last arrow. I glanced around us. We were next the exit. Stupid monsters.
"Simon shoot the generator when Eric gets past ok? Like with a fire arrow or something."
"What?"
It was too late, I was already running. I stabbed the monster with my dagger, pulling it out as quickly as possible and running towards Eric's fight.
"Eric, you need to go to Simon. I've got a plan, he will explain."
"What?"
Why didn't anyone just do what I said? I ran to the other side of him and shoved him towards Simon. "Go!" Eric was about to question my intentions, but he had to dodge a flying fist from the cyclops.
He finally went running towards Simon.
I found myself standing on top of the generator. "Hey you ugly trolls. Come get me."
Now I know what you must be thinking, I am going to sacrifice myself for my team. Now you are either judging me for giving up, or wondering how courageous I am. To be honest, I am being totally selfish. I couldn't take it if either of them died. Not that my goal is for myself to die, because I am selfish that way too. I really want to live.
What I am really doing is getting the cyclopes close enough for me to try to run away, while Simon shoots the generator. Then we can all ride home to celebrate our victory.
"Now Simon," I called out, zigzagging around hairy legs. My sprint was probably a weird gallop with my bleeding leg, but it was faster than those two ugly things.
"Now!"
Eric's POV
Simon had used an exploding arrow. I don't think Charlie had been counting on that. She went flying, towards us. Simon and I were knocked back a little by the almost concussive force.
The entire building was up in flames by the time Simon and I had managed to drag out Charlie.
"Wait here. I'll get the chariot, you get Charlie to wake up." I knew I was going to be the quickest.
I didn't even wait for Simon to respond. I was sprinting. Thanks to the armor, I was only bruised. The bruising was probably really bad, but it was better than the (most likely) broken bones and bleeding cuts both my friends were suffering from.
I led the horses around, too afraid to climb and take the reins. I didn't want to end up twenty miles away by accident.
"Charlie," Simon was gently shaking her.
'Mmmmh.'
"Charlie." There was panic and desperation in Simon's voice.
"Come on, we have to get back to camp."
Our backpacks we had left here were gone. No doubt taken by Stilson. With the backpacks gone we had no ambrosia or nectar. We had nothing. Simon had already lost his shirt to Charlie's neck. She needed something for her leg. He needed a pair of tweezers for all the glass that was more than likely in his skin.
As fast as humanly possible I tore off my breast plate and shirt. Tossing the latter to Simon. "For her leg."
"Hiyah!" I shouted at the horses. We were almost thrown out as they reared taking off at a gallop. Charlie had warned us that taking the horses so quickly would exhaust them, even with the magic. Good thing we only had one more place to go.
Home.
It must have been somewhere in Missouri when Charlie was finally awake. Simon was holding onto her, making sure she didn't slide out the back.
"Hey," Simon was talking light and sweet. Like how you might talk to a child waking up from surgery. "I need you to stay awake. Keep talking to me."
The first words were garbled. As if the words in her head had been knocked around too.
"Don't- fast. Horse- in the sea."
I glanced down at Simon, who looked as confused as me.
"Don't over shoot." Charlie's speech sounded better and louder. "Don't over shoot into the sea. We will drown. Slow down."
"I'll slow down when we get to camp Charlie."
She mumbled something.
"Charlie," Simon shook her awake. "You have to keep talking to me. Tell me- Tell me- Tell me your favorite color."
Charlie hummed for a second. "Grey. Grey is my favorite color."
"I always thought it was blue." I was surprised as Simon to hear myself speak.
"No, that's my second favorite color. Obviously, you suck at paying attention."
Simon sounded urgent again. "Try to keep your eyes open Charlie." He was panicking.
"Hey Charlie, what's your favorite holiday?" I asked, hoping to help calm Simon.
"You know I don't have a favorite holiday," she sounded exasperated. I wondered if she even was aware of how bad our situation was.
"Um," Simon gulped trying to swallow the fear. "Why don't you have a favorite holiday?"
"Holidays are spent with family." Charlie suddenly inhaled sharply. "That hurts really bad." I could only take glances. I didn't want to take my eyes away from where we were headed at this speed.
Charlie shifting, trying to ease her discomfort. She finally sighed, and I let out the breath I had been holding.
"You know what day I do like?"
Simon asked, "which day is that?"
"I like," she paused. "When everyone comes back to camp. Everyone is excited to be back and they are always hugging each other and there's lots of happy sounds. I shouldn't complain because I have Corey during the school year."
"You could always come visit me." Simon sounded like he was teasing her. Like maybe he was grinning like a buffoon and poking her.
"Yeah," Charlie gave a light 'ha.' "You and you're private jet and expensive vacations."
Simon's POV
"We don't really do things like that." I replied. I was starting to feel my panic ebb away. Once we had made it out of the way of danger, the monstrous kind anyways, all my other emotions came flooding at me. The most prominent one was fear. At first I thought I had killed Charlie. Even if she told me to shoot the arrow, it would have been my fault. Then once I realized she was alive, I was afraid she was going to die when she was unresponsive. Now she was responding, but I could tell she was barely conscious. There was almost a fog to her eyes. Like she was getting closer to falling asleep. A deep comatose sleep.
"What kind of things do you do Simon?"
I shook my head, "what?"
"What kind of things do you do instead of going to private islands?"
I wanted to laugh. "Okay, we sometimes go on nice vacations. But for the holidays we usually stay home."
Charlie closed her eyes again, "That must be nice."
I patted her cheek, her eyes fluttering open.
"Yes, so if you come visit me, we can do nice normal people things," I joked. Or tried to joke.
Charlie was staring straight at me, a crazy smile forming on her lips. "If I come visit you, can we cook together? I haven't done that since my mom was alive."
I nodded in response. "Alright Charlie, it's a deal. I'll write my mom about it when we get back to camp. She will like you a lot."
Charlie laughed, but stopped a pained look passing over her face. She finally settled with a smile. "I bet your family is really cool." She took a deep breath. "Eric," she started.
"Yes?" Eric was glancing between her and the road.
Her face fell into a guilty look, "I'm sorry I never forgave you until now."
He laughed out loud. Charlie looked as confused as I felt.
"I'm glad, and I hope that means we can be best friends again."
Charlie was attempting to nod, but her face grew paler when she started to move her head. "Yes, we are best friends."
"Since everything is good between us, I guess I can explain my curse now." Eric went on. Charlie's eyes were open, but she couldn't see Eric well from her place on the ground, so she stared at the chariot wall.
"I had a dream. I met with a god who isn't too fond of my dad to start with. He showed me you, working in the forges Charlie. You burned your hand working on my chakrams. It was funny to watch you hop around," Eric teased.
"I remember that day." Charlie's face was either scrunching from the memory of the pain, or the actual pain she was experiencing now. Her forehead was glistening with sweat. It must have been the present injury. "Who was it you made so angry they curse you?"
"Your dad Charlie."
There was a bit of silence.
"Why," Charlie whispered.
"He told me if I ever hurt you, then every blade I touched would be cursed. Not six months later, I said some really dumb things trying to get you to fight. That was my fault. I guess I shouldn't have compared you to your dad."
Charlie didn't say anything, but she was frowning now.
"If it makes you feel any better. I think for a sister you're pretty cute. And you have your dad's eyes. In that one dream I saw a whole spectrum of emotions. Anger, pride, joy, and a little bit of sadness. You have all that."
"Simon," Charlie turned to me. "I think Eric is just trying to get on my good side again."
"No, he's got a point." I smiled at her. Charlie smiled, looking at at the sky.
Charlie was silent before taking a deep breath. "I promise to tell you both about Aphrodite whenever this thing is over. I promise it has nothing to do with the quest." I was about to tell her that we didn't care. It was ok for her to have secrets. Before I could tell her, Charlie's face scrunched tightly again. She froze, closing her eyes tightly. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Water, do we have water?" I knew we didn't. We didn't have anything except for the clothes on our backs, well Charlie's backs, and the few weapons we managed to get away with. The weapons included my bow (a little dinged up), two left over arrows, and Eric's shield and chakrams set. Both Charlie and Eric's swords had been lost during the fight and Charlie had dropped her dagger when the generator exploded.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Charlie still had her eyes shut, but she looked a little better.
"Let's keep talking Charlie," I started.
"Sure, Simon. Let's keep talking."
I waited for her to go on. Nothing. "Tell me something Charlie. How long have you been working on this chariot?"
"This thing?" She knocked her knuckles lightly on the floor. "I started designing it not too long after the battle of Manhattan. I added the enchantments idea after I found out we were fighting the earth. I think it's in pretty good shape." She lolled her head to the opposite side. She pointed at the Eric's shield, secured to the side of the chariot. Eric had taken it off to drive.
"I made that for Eric last fall. I was going to give it to him when he first got back to camp, but we had been fighting."
Now I was curious. "Who did you make the bow for?"
She rolled her head back to face me, pausing for a moment. I knew she was queasy again. "I honestly didn't know who I designed that for. I made it to your specifications when I found out you were going on this quest."
"Found out?"
Charlie frowned for a moment. "Rachel had a vision. You and Eric were in it." Charlie smiled at me. "I honestly wouldn't have picked you, but I'm glad you came." Her hand was on my arm as if she was trying to show me her earnestness.
"And here I thought you picked me for my incredible talent and good looks." I gave her a cheesy grin.
She took a shuddering breath. There was only so much healing I could do without ambrosia and nectar to help the process. Even then her wounds were too severe. I myself probably had a broken rib and glass stuck in my skin, but Charlie was losing too much blood. The shirt tied on her leg was soaked. The one on her neck wasn't as bad, but it was still a deep cut.
I don't know how we got on topic, but before I knew it, Charlie was telling us how she won her third-grade science fair. She and Eric tag teamed on the story of how they met and how she couldn't skip out on sword fighting practice with Eric anymore.
I don't remember how long we rode. It must have been hours, but before I knew it Eric was pulling at the reins.
We all spilled forward, ramming into the front of the Chariot. There was screaming and yelling. I don't remember whose. Maybe mine. I was glad when a familiar face reached down and pulled Charlie out of my grasp.
"Charlotte!" The girl stroked Charlie's hair.
"Hi Sam."
