Hey guys. Hope you like my 7th chapter! Don't worry they'll be more! :) please review, I love those kinds of things
"Awwwww! That is so sweet!" Lindsey squealed with delight.
"What does it say?" Will asked, leaning towards her. All the others crowded around her.
"Well?" Annabeth snapped. Lindsey glared at Annabeth.
"It says," she began with eyes still on Annabeth. "My dearest Apollo," she turned back to the letter.
"The dark and gloomy days I spend away from you are unbearable. I yearn to see your rays of sunlight once more, to feel your glowing skin close to mine, and to hear the sweet sound of your music. My days here are dark. Erebus forbids me to talk about you, or the sun. Instead of wandering the dark halls and listening to the haunting sound of his music, I write to you, and only then do I feel at peace. I regret to say, but I have lost the inner will to sing. Erebus pressures me into singing every night, and when I do I sound like a lost soul with no spirit, which I am. He weeps over my knees, and I feel sorry and I weep over him, too. As he sings lullabies to me when I crawl into bed, I think of the things that have happen in the past time. I remember the first time I met you, in the lobby of the Opera House. How handsome did you look! And fearless, too. We talked, and after a couple of meetings we kissed, too. Oh, Apollo, those were the golden days. When we had no care, no sense of the world around us. When you told me who you really were, I was stunned. You were the Apollo, the one my dear dead Papa told stories about to me at night. If we meet again, can you promise to take me on your chariot? Anyway, I couldn't believe it was true. That night, my Angel of Music took me away to his underground hideaway. That was maybe the only time I ever felt happy with him. The second time he took me away, he revealed who he was. He was a god, just like you! I was even more stunned, and I fainted. When I woke up, he was standing over me with his snowy white mask on. I asked him to take it off, but he refused. Why would a god conceal his face in a mask? Surely it was too beautiful for any mortal like me, almost like the Cupid and Psyche story. After pestering him for awhile, he agreed to reveal his face. I was ecstatic, to enthrall in his beauty. When he showed his face to me, I was completely wrong. He wasn't a beautiful creature, but an ugly beast. Overcome with surprise and fear, I fainted again. When I woke up for the second time, I found you standing over me in my dressing room. How frightened I was! And, well, you know what happened next. When I told you about Erebus, and how he showed his face to me, and how we devised a plan on the roof to escape Paris. Apollo, I never said how happy and thankful I was when you came down for me to his lair after when he kidnapped me on stage. We were stupid to talk about our plan on the roof, and I was stupid to perform that night, but it was my way of saying goodbye to him. After that night, I never saw you again. I lie awake thinking the same thing every night; 'What if he destroyed you?' Is that even possible? I never want to know." She choked out the last sentence with her blue eyes watery.
"Isn't that adorable?" she swooned.
"What does the rest say?" Nico said.
Lindsey coughed for a second. "I can't wait until the day we'll be reunited. That will be the day I will die of happiness. Forever yours, Odette."
"What's the date on it?" Annabeth asked.
"Uhm…1882. Percy, when was she kidnapped?" Lindsey said.
"If she was born in lets say 1862," Percy thought. "And she was kidnapped at 18, so she was 20 when she wrote this letter. That means she was abducted by Erebus in 1880."
Annabeth checked his math. "He's right." She said. "And if she was born in 1862, that means she's 148 years old now!"
"Wait so Percy." Grover interrupted. "We're looking for an old lady? Shouldn't she be
like, a bag of bones now? Since she is a demi-god, she ages just like us."
Nico answered that one. "No, 'cause remember? Poseidon told Percy that Odette was 'preserved' at the age of her abduction? So she is 18 forever."
Tyson sniffled out a tear. "So…cute!" he cried and buried his face in his hands. Lindsey comforted him.
"Lindsey, what do the other letters say?" Nico asked.
"Uhm…" she picked them all up.
"My darling Apollo, something very strange is happening. I'm not aging! I should be 22 now, but I still look 18! Shouldn't I look different…? Dated 1884.
My dear Apollo, today is my birthday. I should be 27 not 18! I am afraid that Erebus might have slipped me a drug when I drank when I arrived. I want to experience growing old, but he has taken that away from me! Though, he still looks 20 and I can tell he doesn't age, either. And, of course, you can't age. When we meet again I won't be an elder, but the same young woman you met in the lobby of the Opera House. Dated 1889."
Lindsey went letter after letter, reading the scripted French with no mistakes. "Here's an interesting one," she said. "It's when the light moved to America."
"My Apollo, something strange is happening. I can't explain it. But I fell as though I have moved a long distance but haven't moved an inch! Erebus tells me we are in America now. 'America?' I asked him. 'How is that possible?' And he explained to me about a concept called 'Western Civilization.' I looked around the room. Nothing had moved, and nothing had been misplaced. He took me outside the little house, and I saw that we were still in the same underground. He led me through the sewers, which looked the same when I arrived at the little house, and brought me up to the surface. Sadly, I didn't see any sunlight, for the windows in the building were closed, but I could tell we were in a different building than the Opera House. It was big, alright, but there was no French architecture, only Italian and Roman. He told me it was called 'Carnegie Hall' in a foreign American accent. Feeling the need to educate me, he taught me English. Such a strange language! I am very fluent now, even though my stubborn French accent stays! Dated 1890."
Percy gathered up all the letters and began to stack them in a neat pile. Only one letter lay strewn on the floor. Tyson picked it up and stared at it. "Percy…? These are silly words."
Lindsey took it from him and began to read it. Her eyes lit up when she finished. "This is the most romantic letter I have ever read!"
"Read it!" Grover urged.
"My darling," she began. "When I hear you sing it fills me with a divine light that only you can make. If love had a million different meanings, I would define them all just for you. I have never heard musical perfection such as yours. Forgive me, my dear, but I am shy around people. I cannot express my feelings when I'm around you as well as I do in letter form. You see, people can't accept me the way I am, so I must live apart from everyone else. I believe you must join me soon. I will make it work, I promise. I will take care of you, love you like you should be, and care for you until the end of time. Please accept my offer of love. Come to your dressing room after the performance of Faust and give me you answer. Till then, your loving Erebus." Her eyes began to water. "Isn't that the sweetest?"
"More like the creepiest," Nico muttered. Will grinned. Percy smiled. "Alright," he said.
"Lets head back to camp and go to the Underworld."
"Oh, I'm not going there." Lindsey shuddered. "Too spooky."
"But Lindsey," Annabeth said. "What if neither of them speak English? We might need you."
"I taught Clarisse, she'll know what they're saying. Besides didn't it say in one of the letters that Odette spoke fluent English? So that means Erebus is fluent, too."
Annabeth sighed. "Guess you're right."
"C'mon guys, this was just the first leg of our journey. Let's go." Nico signaled for Argus to pull up his van on the curb.
"Yeah, let's go!" Tyson said ecstatically before squeezing in the crowded mini van.
"You shall go tomorrow," Chiron said when the campers arrived a noon. "You seem tired."
Lindsey immediately ran off to her Aphrodite cabin, with her dirty blond hair whipping behind her. Nico slipped into his Hades cabin, and Grover went into the woods to see Juniper. Will went off to practice his archery, which left Percy, Annabeth, and Tyson on top of Half-Blood Hill. They held hands while Tyson teetered behind them, giggling.
"Percy and Annabeth sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" he giggled with delight. Annabeth rolled her grey eyes with a smile, and Percy grinned and held her hand even tighter. As they neared Cabin #11, Percy and Annabeth kissed tenderly for a minute before she entered her bunk. Tyson was laughing and making kissy noises at Percy the whole way back to their cabin before finally falling asleep on his bed. Percy smiled and went to bed himself.
"Nighty night, bud." He said before drifting away in his sleep.