It was official. Rachel Elizabeth Dare hated her life. Yes, it was common for a sixteen year old girl to say things like this. However most girls didn't have to deal nearly the same amount of pressure as she did. First off, she had a pair of snobby rich parents who barely acknowledged her existence, let alone her feelings or interests, and who had shipped her off to boarding school the second they she stopped resisting.
Second, she was dealing with a healthy dose of heartbreak, something all teenagers whether male or female had to go through at some point. She knew she couldn't be with him. The oracle couldn't be romantically involved. She also knew that Percy was probably completely oblivious to her feelings but that didn't make it hurt any less. Thirdly and most importantly Rachel was burdened with the divine gift of foresight. Constantly tiny flashes of the future passed through her mind, and while she slept her lips quivered as if eager to speak their next prophecy.
Dreams were something she dreaded every night as she lay down to sleep. Not all of them were bad, in fact some were wonderful. But as of late her dreams had become nightmarish blurs of twisted images and words that couldn't be interpreted by anyone, except perhaps a junkie. However Rachel wasn't prepared to consult a drug addict about the mystic prophecies swirling around in her head.
And now, finals were approaching, and she'd gotten absolutely no studying done. To her annoyance, she couldn't use her future seeing abilities to see the answers to the tests. Apparently Athena had a very angry conversation with Apollo about what powers he should be granting his oracle. Stupid wisdom Goddess, she thought bitterly as she stumbled tiredly into her dorm.
The room was split down the middle by the vastly differing decorations. On the left was Rachel's side, which was full of color, paintings and miscellaneous knickknacks she'd collected over the years. The right side however was as prissy as it was possible to be. Fashion magazines of every possible kind were strewn over her roommates twin sized bed, and her closet was full to bursting with more clothes than any one person could possibly wear. Rachel scowled at the site as she flung herself down on her bed.
"Oh, hey hippy," said an oily voice.
"Kelly," Rachel said bluntly, looking up to see her roommate exit the bathroom they shared with a towel wrapped around her body and curlers twisted through her hair. It was only natural that these two girls would end up rooming together, seeing as they were polar opposites. While Rachel was an environmental activist who aspired to an artist, Kelly was, simply put, a materialistic bitch. As the schools resident snotty rich girl, she spent most of her time dating guy after guy, several at the same time. The rest of her time was spent dressing so scandalously that she'd gotten skirts removed from the school uniform, forcing the girls to wear stopped after running khaki pants like the boys. It was actually very surprising she wasn't a daughter of Aphrodite.
"Dateless again this week, hippy?" Kelly asked with a poisonously sweet smile. She moved to her closet and began to dress.
"Yup," Rachel answered simply. There was no real point in her dating; she could never have a real relationship. "Who are you sinking your claws into tonight? Stephen again? I figured by now you'd have milked him for all he's worth."
"I have," Kelly answered. "It's a new guy this week, from off campus. I just met him this afternoon. He's really cute too, better than any guy you could get." Rachel rolled her eyes. Although her roommate was evil, she wasn't the smart kind of evil. She didn't get that Rachel didn't care about who she dated, and that ultimately all her taunts would get her nowhere. "Ian Castellan," Kelly said wistfully. "Dear God he's gorgeous. Instantly Rachel snapped up to a sitting position, her eyes wide open.
"Castellan?" she asked.
"You know him?" Kelly asked, pulling her ridiculously tight shirt over her head. "Well I guess even hippy losers like you have to meet at least some guys, even if you never actually get them to go out with you." Rachel ignored her. Her thoughts began to race. Suddenly a dim green light flashed from her eyes and a flurry of images burned through her mind.
A young man, tall and handsome with malicious looking gold eyes, wielding a vicious looking scythe. A girl with jet black hair dashed across a forest, a sword grasped in her hand and a silver horn grasped in the other. Burning cities, screaming people, the smell of death, sadistic laughter laughter.….
Rachel fell backward onto her bed gasping for air. Her heart rate jumped exponentially. A vision, now? Nervous sweat formed on her face. What was happening? Castellan, she thought. Like Luke Castellan? But he's dead… and who was the girl?
"You okay?" Kelly asked, looking only vaguely interested. "You look like you just had a stroke or something."
"I'm fine," Rachel lied. She rolled over and pulled the blankets over her still clothed body. "And be quiet when you're coming in. You'd better not invite this one in, I still have nightmares about the last time you brought a random guy back here." She heard Kelly snicker as she swung the door open.
"Yeah, I'll do that." The door closed, and Rachel waited. Usually she'd think she was just being paranoid, but now that she was having visions at the mention of this guys name, she had to investigate, just to be sure. After ten minutes clicked by, the oracle leapt into action. She fell to her knees and pulled from beneath her bed a golden box, intricately carved with the images o gods, monsters and heroes. Slowly she opened the lid, and carefully withdrew a plastic blue hair brush.
Of course, this was no ordinary hair blush. On the base of the handle was a tiny button, which transformed it into a celestial bronze dagger. Apollo had given it to her for emergencies, someone with prophetic powers could never be too careful. She tucked the brush into her knee length tie-dyed sock, and pulled her disheveled ginger hair into a ponytail out of her face. If she was going to go out she may as well make herself a bit presentable.
Quickly she slipped out of the dorm and tiptoed down the hallway, constantly looking in several different directions to make sure she wasn't seen by anyone. Most students were out this time on a Friday, so it was easy to get out of the building undetected. Campus was huge, but Rachel had a few ideas about where to search. Pulling out her cell phone, she rapidly sent out texts to every friend she had at school inquiring about her roommates location. Most of the responses were useless, but one gave a definitive answer, 'The Club', a dance club only a few blocks from the school with a very obvious name. Casually she strolled through campus, following the small groups of students already headed in the direction of The Club.
As she approached The Club's full to bursting entrance, someone called to her.
"Hey Hippy!" Rachel groaned. She'd hoped to spy on Kelly's date inconspicuously, and slip out unnoticed. She turned to see Kelly waiting in line hand in hand with a tall sandy haired boy with large baby blue eyes, and an enormous smile. Glaring, she stomped over to where the couple stood in line.
"Hi!" Ian said enthusiastically, offering Rachel his hand with a ridiculous grin on his face. "I'm Ian, Ian Castellan, are you one of Kelly's classmates?"
"Yeah," Rachel said, examining him closely. He really did look like the descriptions of Luke Castellan she'd heard. "I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare." Ian's eyes visibly widened, and his goofy grin became a malicious smirk.
"Oh really? Well, that changes everything." Violently he shoved Kelly aside, knocking several of the others in line over in the process. His fists slammed together, and in his hands formed a long glowing scythe. Golden light emitted from his eyes, and cold laughter echoed from his mouth, though his lips were not moving. Everything froze, literally. The screaming people in line, the birds in the sky, even the fog coming from the Club's open doors remained frozen in place. Time had stopped. "Thank you for coming, Oracle. It's so much easier when those I'm looking for come to me, so I don't have to look for them."
Instinctively Rachel went for her hairbrush, but she found herself being lifted from the ground. No longer could she control her limbs, her body was now Ian's puppet.
"Now," Ian whispered, lowering her to his eye level with a wave of his hand. He placed the blade of his scythe to her throat, and his palm on her forehead. "Show me what is to come, o Oracle of Delphi." Green light burst from Rachel's eyes, and a burning sensation shot through her body. There was nothing she could do now, there was nowhere to run.