Chapter 11
I could hear Luke he said,
" REN! WAKE UP!"
I could hear Jess,
" OH MY ZEUS!"
I could feel that deadly aura of Nico. I can feel him lumming near my injured soul he said,
" She isn't dead, yet."
Jess came running to my side and whispered to me,
" Ren, can embrosia or nector heel you?"
I muster all my strength and say,
" No magic can work in here, it's all part of the game."
" Ren I am not going to let you bleed out."
Jess started to sing, my best bet she is singing a heeling song. I can feel a warmth inside me almost reaching my wound, then it went dark again. I woke to a lot of yelling to my surprise it was mainly between Luke and Jess, she screamed,
" HOW IN THE FUCKING WORLD IS THIS NOT YOUR FAULT!"
" JESS I DIDNT HAVE CONTROL IN THIS SITUATTION! WHY WOULD I WANT TO HURT HER! SHE IS ALL I HAVE, ALL I HAVE TO LIVE FOR!"
" BULLSHIT! SHE WAS PISSED AT YOU SO YOU THOUGHT PAY BACK WOULDN'T HURT!"
" THAT IS FUCKING BULLSHIT JESS!"
" IT WAS YOUR ASSHOLE MOVE THAT NEARLY KILLED HER! AND IF SHE DIES IT'S ON YOUR FUCKING HEAD!"
Nico interjects,
" Jess it wasn't all his fault."
" NICO YOU BETTER SHUT THE FUCK UP OR I WILL BE PISSED AT YOU A WHOLE HELL OF ALOT MORE!"
I yell to them which was pretty much a whisper,
" Shut up! This is what he wants."
They all freeze and look over at me they looked relieved and concerned at the same time. Luke comes running toward me and places his hands on either side of my face. He started crying and said,
" Thank the gods that your alright. I am so sorry."
He rests his forehead against mine and I whisper,
" It's okay I am right here and I'm not going anywhere."
I try to get up and scream from the pain that surges through my shoulder. I say to Jess,
" I thought you healed me?"
" It only half way healed there is still a good amount of damage and bleeding."
I look down at my shoulder and see my shirt was socked with blood, I say,
" Damn it this my favorite shirt. Someone give me a new one."
Luke took off his hoodie and was about to take off his shirt when I said,
" The hoodie is good, Jess will you come and help me?"
Jess comes running over and with out looking at them she said,
" Neither of you are going to look unless you are ready to be in a world of hurt."
I could tell Nico wasn't going to risk it, but Luke wasn't going to take his eyes off me again. But Jess stared him down until he turned around facing the wall. I said,
" Jess there is no need to be mad at them."
" There is plenty of good fucking reason."
" Jess I think you need to stop using the colorful language."
" But I am mad..."
" Not worth it little miss sunshine. And trust me this isn't my first near death experience."
She helps me take off my shirt with my bra still on when Jess says,
" Oh my gods."
I look down and see all the scars I have. There are three stab wounds near my belly button, a few claw marks when I wrestled with a lion, the burn marks from the fire, and a few other things here and there. Now that I think about I'm surprised that I never marked up my face or upper turso for that matter. When Luke hears Jess he turns around and sees the rest of the scars I have . He looks like he could die when he tries to imagine the pain I went through. Jess binds my wounds with what is left of my favorite shirt, gets me in the hoodie. Luke comes over and picks me to carry me, I say,
" Luke let me walk."
" No."
" Then at least let me ride piggy back style."
" But your arm..."
" I have another one Luke."
So now I am on his back with one arm across his chest the other across my chest to keep pressure. Luke says,
" Which way Ren?"
" Do the test I showed you."
" Nico."
He cautiously stabbed the knife into the dark passage and luckily picked the right one. About twenty feet in it went completely dark Jess says,
" This is a little creepy."
Nico must have reached for her hand because she said,
" No way in Hades are you getting any of this!"
I yell,
" Why don't we play the quiet game!"
That got them all to shut up. Clearly Nico is going to have to learn that you always side with your girl rather than your friend, and I'm pretty sure he regrets that mistake. After another ten minutes a light started to glow behind us I turn my head and see Jess is literally glowing sun beams. I hear Nico whisper,
" The light of my life."
Jess,
" Shut up Nico you dark romantic."
I think I hear a kiss on a cheek and a giggle. To my surprise she stayed mad at him for a whole half an hour, I only gave it thirty seconds. I say,
" Okay bright and dark lead the way."
They bounced their way in front of us giving us the chance to see what was in front of us. Luke and I stayed in silence for a while when he couldn't stand it any longer and said,
" Ren, you know that I only came to protect you, but clearly I haven't done a good job of it."
" You don't know this place like I do you couldn't have known."
" I should've trusted your judgement."
" You should've."
" Don't stay mad at me Ren."
" I won't Luke."
I know I should probably stay pissed but I don't know if we are all going to get out of this alive. I also know that I miss him even though we're close I just miss the connection I cut off from him. I reach forward and turn his head toward me. And say,
" I'm not mad at you."
I kiss him on the lips. His mouth was hard as if made of stone but slowly turned back into the lips I know. I pulled away and smiled at him he said,
" Thank the gods, I was going to die if you stayed mad at me for another second."
He kissed me one more time and we were back to following little miss sunshine and dead head. All was good until we came to the next puzzle. It said,
Silence is golden but where is the gold?
I pat Luke on the back and point to the opposite wall. He carries me to the wall, I take out a knife and carved two words, Stay silent. Under it I carved, anybody got an answer? Nico raised his hand and I handed him the knife. He sliced the palm of his hand and smeared the blood across the word golden. The wall dissolved into the ground and he said,
" Blood is gold to the body."
Jess runs over to him and gives him a kiss that quickly turns into making out. I say,
" Not the right time or place you guys."