Chapter 16, Rose's POV, Conflict
I didn't know where to run after I put the hat on, but I ran as fast as I could. I didn't know which way I was going, but all I knew was I couldn't let Annabeth catch me. I needed to be alone. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth in the first place, that way they wouldn't be after me right now. If they caught me, I could ruin everything.
Once I knew for sure I was alone, I sat down to catch my breath. I looked around to make sure I wasn't followed, and it was clear. I was so shaken and paranoid, looking over my shoulder to make sure I hadn't been seen even though I was invisible. I figured that was what my sister was doing right now.
We were so far apart, but it felt like I was still right beside her. I wondered if she saw me in her dreams like I saw her in mine, or if she even slept at all. I almost considered running away to find her so we could be together and escape all the suspicion that surrounded me, especially now.
I kept finding brilliant ways to mess things up for myself. I wished my sister was here to assure me that they are all wrong about me, but instead I was alone. The one friend I had on my side I figured still might suspect me a little. I felt so lonely and tired; I could just fall asleep and cry. However, I figured if I lay down then the hat would fall off and then Percy and Annabeth would find me, and they wouldn't be too happy with my evasive behaviour. So instead I sat and stared off into the distance while I started to daydream.
I wondered what it would be like if my sister and I had left together. We were always the perfect team. When we were together nothing could stop us. It hurt now that we were apart. What hurt even more is that she would leave me purposefully. Why would she leave me? I felt a hole in my soul when she wasn't there, we had always been together. Being apart now was a terrifying experience, especially since my sister was in constant danger and the gods felt the need to give me updates on her situation. I wished she was here, or that I was there, or the two of us were back at home still. The point was, I missed her.
I figured I wasn't making my stay at camp any better by stealing Annabeth's hat. I probably wasn't doing the outcome of the future a service either. I figured I should probably return it, maybe talk about things with Percy and Annabeth. Nothing too serious, just apologize so they can move on, or strike a deal with them about staying away from me. So I got up and left my hiding spot to go find them.
I didn't know where they would bother to look for an invisible person or if they would bother to look at all, but I was determined to find them and sort things out. I ran around camp, looking for the duo. After stopping to catch my breath a couple of times, I continued looking. I finally found them together in the cabin's area. As I got closer, I could hear what they were talking about. They were talking about me.
"She could be anywhere with that hat." Percy said,
"Well, we have to find her and get that hat back." Annabeth reminded him,
"How can we, Annabeth? With that hat on she'll be impossible to find." Percy retorted,
"Maybe she'll leave footprints on the ground for us to follow." Annabeth suggested. I looked down behind me and sure enough, I was leaving foot prints in the grass. Luckily, they were hard to see.
"You tried looking for footprints when she first ran off, but you lost her." Percy reminded her,
"Well, she'll have to turn up at some point, and then we'll get the hat back."
"Until then, we have someone going around unnoticed by all the campers and watching everything they do."
"Right, with the hat she has the perfect weapon to spy on everyone around camp." Annabeth concluded,
For the one millionth time, I am not a spy! How many times do I have to say that to get it through these people's thick skulls? I thought angrily, then Percy and Annabeth turned and I realised that I had said it aloud.
"Rose! Where are you?" They said trying to grab me as I danced out of their reach.
"I'm not telling you." I said, and they didn't look happy about that,
"Rose, give me my hat back!" Annabeth demanded,
"The way you said that makes me regret coming over here to give it back to you." I told them, with that information they calmed down a little,
"Why did you take it in the first place?" Percy asked,
"Because you guys were chasing me, and I was scared out of my mind! I realised I wasn't going to get a chance to be alone unless you guys couldn't find me and you know the camp better than I do."
"How did you know the hat would make you invisible?" Percy asked,
"I saw Annabeth take it off." I lied,
"Why don't you just give me my hat back, you were going to anyway?" Annabeth asked calmly,
"I was going to give it back to you so you could forgive me for taking it in the first place, but if I do, then the two of you are going to go right back to chasing me again, and I don't like to be chased." I confessed,
"We just want to know what you meant when you said that thing to me last night." Percy confessed,
"I just meant..." that was a tough one, how was I going to cover that one up?
"Doesn't unexpected stuff happen to you guys a lot?" I said playing dumb,
"Sometimes." They admitted,
"Well, there you go. That's what I meant." I told them,
They looked at each other for a moment, as if considering it, before shrugging and saying, "Okay," I had a feeling that I still wasn't off the hook.
I took off Annabeth's cap, and took a few steps forward, I was about to hand it to them, when I asked, "So, if I give this to you, you won't chase after me again?" I asked,
"Sure," They agreed, I was about to hand it over again, when I stopped myself,
"I hope this proves to you that I'm not a spy." I said before finally handing it over,
"Perhaps," They considered it,
"Please don't be mad at me." I begged them,
"You were scared, but Rose, you have no reason to be scared of us."
"Unless you really are a spy." Percy said,
"Percy!" Annabeth scolded, Percy shrugged his shoulders.
I gave out an exasperated sigh, "I told you I am not a spy, what do I have to do to prove I'm not a spy!?" I said angrily,
"Well...you could swear on the river styx." They thought aloud,
"What does that mean?" I fibbed. I knew that's what they did for binding contracts, but I didn't know why they did that, the books never explained that part.
"It means that you are absolutely telling the truth, and if you are lying that means something bad will happen to you." Annabeth explained,
"So...it's like saying 'may I be struck by lightning if I'm lying'?" I said, immediately the sky rumbled,
"Okay, let's give this a shot." I said nervously,
"I swear on the river styx that I am not a spy for Kronos' army, and I never will be." I said slowly and clearly,
When I was done, the two of them nodded with approval, before walking off and leaving me alone. Finally, peace I thought happily. With Percy no longer chasing me to learn more about the future I don't have to worry about messing up the future.
I went to go find the rest of the Hermes cabin and found them in the dining hall for supper. Luckily I got to the table before it was time to go get our food. I found a seat next to Travis and Conner and they looked happy to see me now that the curse had worn off.
"Hey Rose, we heard that you stole Annabeth's hat during free period." Travis said,
"Oh yeah, that...that, I'm not proud of." She admitted,
"Nice!" Conner said,
"I just did it because they were chasing me." I quickly added,
"Rose, stealing from someone isn't going to get them to leave you alone. Trust us, we know." Travis added,
"It was a pretty good escape plan." I finally said,
"Are you sure you're not our sister?" Conner asked me,
"I told you guys, I don't know."
"About that, we came up with a list of possible parents for you out of all your results in training this week." Travis said, Conner pulled the list out of his pocket and began to read from it,
"There's Hermes, since you tend to steal things; then, there's Athena since you like to plan things; or Apollo, since you have good archery skills; and finally, there's Aphrodite, because you have lots of charm."
"Oh no, please not Aphrodite! I would die if my parent was Aphrodite!"
"Actually, you would have a lower chance of dying since monsters tend not to go after Aphrodite kids, which is something to consider since you've made it this long without running into monsters." Travis pointed out,
"Please, no!" I cried, Travis and Conner laughed.
After we got our dinner, I sacrificed my biggest chicken leg and a roll with butter, I used one sacrifice to wish for Amanda's safe passage, and the second one to wish for my godly parent to speak up about who he or she was. After that, I went back to sit with Travis and Conner.
"So when can we cash in on our rewards for not telling?" Conner asked,
"No way, guys, Annabeth and Percy found me, so you don't get anything."
"What?! But we lied for you!" Travis said accusingly,
"It's not like you haven't lied before." I told them,
"One of these days, Thomas, one of these days." They said,
"Good luck with that," I told them, and we all laughed.
That night was the happiest night at camp I had experienced. Aside from my sister not being there, I didn't feel alone anymore. I sat next to Greg at the campfire grinning like a madman. "Why are you so happy?" he asked me,
"Well, I managed to get Percy and Annabeth off my trail, so for now I'm home free. I can just relax and enjoy camp."
"Okay, at least you're happy. I wonder where your sister is?" he asked,
"You were thinking about her?" I asked,
"Yeah, she was the other person I was supposed to bring to camp, and I failed. Of course I would think about her. You haven't told anyone about her have you."
"No one knows except for butch."I confessed,
"That's great." He said half-heartedly,
"It's not your fault Greg, she ran away." I said reassuringly,
"I know, but..."
"I've got your back." I told him,
"Thanks." He said smiling,
That night I sang all the camp fire songs. I had made friends, for like the first time ever. I wasn't completely useless, Amanda was safe. All that made me the happiest in the world. For the moment, I didn't care who my parent was. Things were looking up.
Of course, I might've spoken too soon. While I went to bed grinning that night, I got another vision in my sleep. Again, it was of Amanda. She was in a city; it didn't look like a Canadian city. That was confusing, why would she be in the states? This must've been of the future, since it would take her a few days for her to get to the states by bus, or taxi, or even longer on foot. She looked frantic, constantly looking over her shoulder and around the corner.
As she passed an alleyway, with a tight grip on her bag, she passed a group of girls. To be more specific, these girls looked like cheerleaders. At first, I wasn't sure because we didn't have cheerleaders at our school, except the ones without uniforms, but then I was positive with the letterman sweaters and the pom-poms. Of course, both me and Amanda knew who they really were, and we were thankful we were girls, since empousai didn't kill girls. They obviously could, since they tried to kill Rachel many times.
Of course, the Empousai smelt her, and followed her. Amanda pretended not to notice them, but I could see she was scared. Instinctively, one hand came off her back pack and to one of the knives on her belt. As soon as they came to the next alleyway, Amanda ducked into it planning on losing them, but of course, with smell it's hard to lose someone.
She ran down the alley and climbed over a dumpster to jump over a wall. Once she was out of sight from pedestrians, she started to fight the Empousai that followed her over the wall. She grabbed her celestial bronze knife and turned to fight them. She slashed at a few, but without the proper training she was soon overwhelmed. They knocked her knife out of her hand and then they grabbed her arms.
"Come with us, sister." They hissed, as she struggled in their grip. When she did, they dug her talons into her arm and she let out a grunt of pain.
"The more you struggle, the more pain you'll feel." One of them told her, and with that she stopped struggling.
I screamed at the sight, "Amanda, where are you? Tell me where you are!" I demanded, but I knew she couldn't hear me. Suddenly, I got flashes of signs in my dream; first the Boylston street sign, and then a sign that said welcome to Boston. I woke from my dream with a start, and in a panic rushed out the door.
A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been so long, but I've been writing other stuff. Do you think Percy is going to leave her alone now? Again, who do you think her godly parent is? What's going to happen to her sister Amanda? All good questions, tell me what you think in the review section, and stay tuned to find out more.