Chapter 4: A late hour visit

Leo

Flashback

A loud blast wakes me up in the middle of the night. I shoot up, still half asleep, in order to find out what just happened. Fortunately, my bedroom is still intact. For a moment, I consider going back to sleep, but a fatherly feeling inside me urges me to get up and see if the ship is alright. Correction – to see if MY ship is alright. I slip out of bed, put on my T-shirt and a pair of slippers and set out into the night. I check every room on the ship, as well as every corridor and even every hidden storage room there is. But I cannot find the source of the loud noise that woke me up earlier.

"Maybe Frank turned into an elephant during his dream and fell out of bed," I tell myself. It's a stupid explanation, but I have no idea about what the real explanation could be. I start to ponder a little as I make my way back to my room, until I bump into someone. I fall backwards, hitting my head against the wall.

"Watch where you're going, will you?" an annoyed voice says.

It's Nico.

"Sorry," I say, while rubbing the back of my head. I hear a door opening behind me. I look around and notice that Hazel's woken up to. Her hair's all messy, and she looks mad.

"Ever heard of the word 'quiet'?" she asks angrily.

"I already said I'm sorry," I reply.

"What in Jupiter's name are you two doing outside at this hour? Can't you two hold your little meeting at a more decent hour?" Hazel ask sleepy.

"I'm not having encounters with him!" Nico whispers fiercly, "I heard footsteps, so I wanted to know if there was an intruder on the ship. But it turns out he was just sneaking around." Nico nods at me.

"Easy guy! Didn't you hear it? There was loud blast, about fifteen minutes ago. I'm 'sneaking around' because I wanted to know what had caused it." I look at Hazel and Nico.

"No," they say in unison.

"Never mind," I sigh, "maybe it was nothing. I checked everywhere, but I didn't…" Wait – I did not check every place on this ship. I struggle to my feet. "I forgot to look upstairs!" I say as I make my way to the stairs. Hazel tries to stop me.

"Leo, is it a good idea to go outside all alone - in the middle of the night?" She sounds worried.

I give her a glare: "No, you're right." So I grab her hand, as well as Nico's. "As you two are already awake, you can join me." I pull the both of them towards the stairs. Hazel follows without struggling, but Nico starts to protest: "No, Leo, I want to go back to bed."

"Don't be such a pussy!"

Nico snorts, "Fine, but if nothings there, I'm gone."

"Alright, alright…"

Together, we head to the deck. A cold breeze strokes my hair and sends a shiver down my spine as I step outside. I suddenly get the feeling something is terribly wrong. Apparently, I am not the only one. "Let's go back inside, there is no one here," Hazel croaks. I ignore her, and walk further away from her and Nico. Then I see him – Hazel was wrong. There is someone here.

"Lord Hermes!"

The man standing at the helm of the ship greets me with a smile, although it's not a very gentle one.

"Good evening, my dear demigods. Finding me took you a while, I must say."

I give him an annoyed look: "You could have visited us at a more decent hour. Normal people are asleep right now." Behind me Hazel clears her voice. "What?" I mouth at her. "Be polite," she whispers. I sigh, "I'm sorry for my rudeness, my lord. What brings you here, at this hour?"

"I've got a message."

"A message, for whom?"

"Anyone on this ship who will take it. But as it comes from Lord Hades himself, I guess I'll give it to his children." Hermes searches his pockets and pulls out a black envelope. He tries to hand it over to Hazel, but she refuses to take it. "I'm a daughter of Pluto, so maybe you should give it to Nico." Hermes makes an impatient gesture, "Fine!", and gives the letter to Nico. Nico takes it and rips it open. Hazel and I walk up to him, so we can read along over his shoulder.

"I owe you one."

That's all it says. What does that even mean? Hades owes us one? Nico flips the letter, in order to look for further explanation, but there is none.

"My lord, what does this mean?" Hazel asks, still staring at the four words written on the paper. When she gets no answer, she looks up and gasp. "What's wrong?" I wanted to ask, but when I look up from the letter as well, I already know what's wrong. Hermes has disappeared. Right where he stood, is lying a person. Although it's very dark, I can see his clothes are tattered and soaked in blood. I can see several scars and burn marks on his arms and face, and I can also see the SPQR tattoo on his arm. Even though his eyes are closed, I can tell exactly which color they have. Better yet – I know who those eyes belong to.

Nico is the first one to unfreeze, "How…?"

Hazel runs towards Percy, looking in shock. "Get help!" she shouts. But I can't move, I'm too shocked. "Hazel, is he dead? He looks terrible… There is so much blood!"

"Get help Leo!" I still don't move. The sight of Percy lying there is hypnotizing me. It really looks like he's dead…

"LEO!" Hazels voice sounds so desperate, that it makes me move. "Right - help!" I run towards the stairs, but before I reach them, Nico grabs me by the arm. "Don't wake Annabeth," he whispers grimly.

"Why?"

"She does not need to see this. His aura's fading, Leo, I don't want her to watch him die."