Merry Christmas! :D

I almost got tears in my eyes when I saw your reviews. You're too amazing, too adorable, too awesome to be real. 3

Here's the chapter!

Chapter 24 – Ghoul

LEO

Leo almost had stopped thinking of his dream. He thought the memory of it had finally faded away, with the fear and worry the dream had brought. He could sleep at night again without being afraid of seeing his mother's face and terrified eyes.

Leo didn't want to be reminded of the dream either. He had shoved it to the back of his head, and when he thought of it, he just wondered who the other enemy could be.

But, of course, he got reminded of the dream the worst way ever.

He dreamed a new one.

Leo was standing in the same dark space as in the dream before. But this time, his mother wasn't there.

Slowly, the fear started to crawl up his throat. What was he doing here?! Where was his mom?!

Despite that the fear was almost paralyzing him, Leo started to examine… Whatever it was. A room, maybe?

Suddenly, he heard a voice. Leo froze, sure that a monster would come and eat him or something.

"So… Is the plan going well?" The voice hissed. It was raspy and just the sound of it made Leo think of dead and ghosts, but he was pretty sure it was a female.

Another voice answered.

"Yes, actually it is. The puny demigods don't even know who we are, or how much we are playing with them."

Leo realized that he knew that voice. It was an icy, soft female voice. The voice of Khione.

"Tell me about the plan again." The raspy voice said.

Khione sighed unhappily and impatiently.

"Again?!"

The other voice didn't answer, but Khione started to tell her anyway.

"First, we play with or dear demigods minds. Tear them apart, turn them to each other. When they're unfocused, we show ourselves and kill them all. Then, they can't close the Doors or save their friends in Tartarus."

The raspy voice laughed. The laugh was horrible, it send a shiver down Leo's spine. He walked toward the voices in the dark, and suddenly felt eight years old again. Alone, scared, angry, worried, just like that night his mother died.

"It sounds perfect." The raspy voice said. "Are we done here for now?"

"Yes. But-" Khione started.

"Don't you have demigods to play with?" The raspy voice demanded.

To Leo's surprise, Khione stopped. She didn't usually let others boss her around, but she apparently respected this source to the raspy voice.

Next surprise was that he suddenly hit a wall.

"Ouch!" He whispered and rubbed his head.

"What was that?" Khione's voice instantly said suspiciously.

"Probably one of my ghosts." The other voice said, amused. "You're not scared, are you?"

"Of course not." Khione answered angrily. "I just don't understand why this has to be our headquarter. My palace-"

"Your father's palace." The raspy voice corrected. "And you know I can't leave the Underworld unless it's nighttime."

Khione muttered something that Leo couldn't hear.

"Do you have anything else to rapport?"

"Actually, yes. I've ruined that son of Mars and daughter of Pluto's relationship. First, I-" Khione started. Did she sound proud? This wasn't much like the Khione Leo had met…

"I don't need the details." The other voice said coldly. "But well done."

"You done anything lately?" Khione asked with a teasing voice.

"Well, I haven't done too much. But I actually made the son of Hephaestus dream of us right now. He is behind that rock." The raspy voice said, clearly very amused.

"What?! The fire boy?!" Khione screamed, her voice shrill.

Okay. They knew Leo was there. He was hiding behind a rock. Miss Raspy Voice had made him dream of them. Tricky.

"Er, pretty good time to wake up, please." Leo muttered.

"Mijo."

Leo turned so fast that he fell to the floor. His mother was standing in front of him. She was a ghost, but otherwise just as he remembered her. She was floating one inch over the cave floor and her face was just as warm and beautiful as always.

"M-Mom?" He stammered. "Mom, you have to leave, there are some evil goddesses-"

"Mijo, I know. I love you." Her voice was smooth, nice, but Leo felt a shiver down his spine when he heard it. It was his mother's voice, all right, but something was terribly wrong.

He realized that her eyes were cold, and that they didn't look directly at him. Her smile looked distant and kind of cold, an expression Leo never seen on her face.

"Mom?" He asked uncertainly. Slowly he rose to his feet and backed to the stone wall.

"It's me, mijo." She assured him. "I love you. Everything is going to be alright."

Leo felt fear crawl up his throat again. Why did he feel so terrified? It was his mother.

It dawned on him what's wrong.

"You're not my mom." He said grimly. "Miss Raspy Voice made you come here. How-How dare you pretend like you're my mother?!"

The smile melted of her face. Slowly, she started to change. She became more solid. The black pupil of her eyes started to grow, and after a moment the black color had taken over her eyes completely. Wait… Were there any eyes there at all or just empty voids?

Her right side started to become white and chalky. Now she was as solid as a human, but it looked like all blood had drained out of her. Her right side hardened and blackened, like a black mummy. The t-shirt and tattered jeans of Leo's mother morphed into a golden dress, and her hair transformed to a golden shawl.

Leo couldn't move. His mother had just changed into a scary ghoul. Was that normal demigod-stuff or what? Because if it was, Leo swore that he was gonna die of fear any day soon.

The only thing he could think of to say was:

"What the heck are you for something?!"

The thing laughed, and Leo realized that it was Miss Raspy Voice.

"You don't know me? Well, I'm not that famous in… what you call 'Greek mythology'. I believe I've met one of your friends, Percy Jackson, the boy with no ghosts. Luckily for me but unfortunately for you, you have ghosts. Your mother, for example."

For a second, her form flinched and she became Leo's mother's ghost again.

"Who are you?!" Leo asked with a trembling voice.

"I'm not going to ruin the fun, am I? You have to find that out! Unfortunately your real mother's ghost reached you in a dream and warned you for a new enemy, and you were smart enough to suspect Khione quite soon. She doesn't like you either, Leo Valdez. But I'm not holding grudges, so I'm not going to punish you for coming here. It will only make it more fun."

The ghoul-woman sneered in a way that made Leo think: "Oh-oh." He didn't understand a thing of her rambling but that she was a friend of Khione and that they together was planning on ruining their quest to close the Doors of Death. And she liked ghosts.

"Just don't tell anyone about this dream, will you? Don't you want this game to be fun?"

Leo had a strong feeling that this ghoul and he had very different definitions of fun.

He felt his eyes slowly open, the cave faded away…

Suddenly his eyes flung open.

"Ghosts!" Leo said instantly.

"Leo?"

His eyes darted forth and back in the cabin before he saw that Hazel was standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, I should have knocked-"

"No. No, it's okay." Leo said. He was breathing sharp and fast, and his heart was almost leaping out of his chest.

"Can I come in?" Hazel asked nervously.

Leo just nodded.

Hazel slowly walked to his bed and sat down on the edge of it.

"Are you okay? You don't look too good."

You don't look too good? His head was throbbing, his heart was pounding faster than it should be possible for a human and he almost couldn't breathe. Yeah, you could say that.

Despite that, he managed a weak:

"I'm fine. Why are you here, by the way?"

"I-" Hazel didn't finish. She looked like she had been crying.

Leo suddenly remembered Khione's words: I've ruined that son of Mars and daughter of Pluto's relationship…

Did that mean Hazel was available?

"Is it Frank?" Leo blurted.

Hazel put her head in her hands.

"I've done something terrible."

Leo sat up and rubbed his eyes. He realized that he probably looked like a mess, but right now he didn't care.

"Hey, it's okay. Just tell me what happened."

Hazel started to tell him everything, how Frank sent him to be with Hazel (Leo felt kinda' guilty there, he could have chosen not to listen to Frank) and how she had found out and this voice that told her to break up with him…

In other words: Khione had spoken in Hazel's mind and made her break up with Frank. She maybe even taught Frank to do these things.

Carefully Leo put an arm around her. Under the entire time she had been speaking, she hadn't raised her head. Leo didn't know if she was crying or what.

"It's okay." He mumbled. "Its' okay."

Hazel looked up and managed a faint smile.

"Well, enough about that. Why did you scream 'ghosts!' when you woke up?"

Leo opened his mouth, meaning to tell her about the dream, but the ghoul-woman's words echoed in his head: Just don't tell anyone about this dream, will you? Don't you want this game to be fun?

Without really knowing what he was doing, he just said:

"It was nothing. Just a nightmare."

Then, he felt an explosion of guilt and shame in his stomach. If Hazel didn't get to know about Khione and the dream, she would continue to blame herself for the break-up with Frank. And despite how much Leo liked her, he wanted her to be happy, and having Frank as a boyfriend had made her that.

But when he opened his mouth to tell her, it was like cold hands curled around his neck. If he told Hazel, he would maybe never get her. And maybe she needed time without Frank, time to get to know Leo as more than a friend. Then she could decide.

Deep inside him, Leo knew these thoughts weren't his. It was ghoul-woman, or maybe Khione, playing with his mind. But he couldn't fight those cold hands.

The hands disappeared, and Leo didn't mention the dream.

"So, why did you come here? I mean, Death Kid is down the hall-"

"Don't call him that."

Leo may have grinned if he wasn't so shaken up because of the dream.

"Whatever you want, Miss Metal Detector."

Hazel was quiet for a moment, but then she said:

"I needed someone to speak with. As a friend." She added hastily.

"So why not Piper? Or Jason?" Leo asked. He knew it could be dangerous to push too far, but he wanted to know.

Hazel shifted, but then smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"You're not going to stop, right?"

Leo almost grinned.

"Nah. I'm too good for that."

She laughed, but it was a pained laugh.

"You're so much like Sammy."

The tension in the air became awkward. It never made Leo feel good to speak about Sammy, his great-grandfather, who had been Hazel's crush.

Hazel was looking down at the floor, a small smile playing on her lips.

"He would never give up either. He always played with me, joked and kidded around. Just like you. But do you know what makes you different from him?" She suddenly turned and met Leo's eyes. It sent a tingle in Leo, like he was going to catch fire. "You are everything good in Sammy, and the… darker things that are only you."

Leo didn't really know what she meant. He felt his cheeks get warmer.

No fire. No fire, he demanded himself.

Hazel sighed and gave him a pained smile.

"Well, I have to go. Thanks for listening to my rambling."

Leo didn't even stop her when she walked to the door, gave him a last forced smile and left. He felt like she had taken out his brain, injected it with more problems and thoughts, and put it back. It wasn't a good thing.

A little long, a little boring, I know XD But next is going to be better… I hope. See you and merry Christmas!