The Heroes Of Olympus & The Surrounding Darkness
Alright, this is my favorite chapter so far, so I really hope you all enjoy it(:
Remember to review!
Annabeth Chace P.O.V.
"I don't understand." I say, watching my boyfriend, completely horror struck.
"Lycaon bit him, remember?" Nico asks me, while holding me back.
I try to reach him, but they restrain me. I must reach Percy. Watching him in all of this pain is too much for me to bear. "Please, just let me go!"
"No!" Piper shouts. She also restrains me, her grip is so tight. "Annabeth, we need to leave now! Come on!"
I feel my will breaking. Piper must've been using charmspeak. I no longer need to comfort Percy, I just need to leave. I need to run into the woods to get away from these monsters. Now, my best friend is one of them.
I turn around immediately. "Let's go." I say as I run between them and into the swamp.
The mucky waters start at my ankles, then to my knees, and now reach my thighs. With every step, I sink further and further down, until finally, the waters reach my chin and I am swimming.
I look ahead and see Jason, so far away, placing Leo on the soft grass. Then appears Frank landing on his two talons. Hazel jumps off his back and runs to Leo's aid. Jason and Frank jump into the air again and start flying in our direction.
Then I hear Piper and Nico behind me. They're screaming, "Annabeth! Annabeth, come back!"
I can't stop now. I must get to the forest. I have to get away from this place.
I keep swimming, but turn around and shout, "No, both of you need to follow me!"
That's when I see it. Something that looks like a giant snake slithering through the water between me and my friends.
"Ahhh!" Nico shouts as he's tackled by Percy.
Percy still looks human, only somewhat different. Some of his features have changed. His eyes are a brighter shade of green, almost like they're glowing. And he looks somewhat hairier. His fingernails have turned to claws. But his teeth are what scares me most, they've become fangs.
Piper doesn't know where to direct her attention. She turns to me and shouts, "Annabeth, get out of the water! Come towards me!" She spins her body to face the boys, "Percy, get off of him!"
I feel the sudden urge to swim back to Piper. I start swimming towards her, but I'm stopped by the monster lurking in the same waters as me. It slides across my leg and I feel it's cold, slimy touch. "Oh gods."
"Annabeth, behind you!" Nico shouts as he tries to pry Percy away from him.
I spin around and the first thing I see is a giant monster swimming straight at me with it's mouth wide open, ready to swallow me whole. It must have hundreds of teeth, judging by what I can see.
I mistakenly scream when something grabs me by my armpits and lifts me out of the water just as the giant creature snaps it's mouth shut where I was only moments ago. I look up to see Jason, grim-faced and determined, but so pale. He looks so sick. I turn my attention and notice Frank is right behind him.
"What happened to Percy?" Jason asks me.
"He was bitten by a werewolf so now he's one." I answer.
He sets me down by Piper who still doesn't seem to know what to do. She watches in horror as the boys fight.
As if Piper's charmspeak just wore off out of the blue, I leap into action. I'm ready to try my best to separate the boys, but I don't need to. Nico finally kicks Percy flat in the chest, sending Percy sprawling onto the ground a few feet away.
Percy recovers immediately and jumps to his feet. He charges at Nico again but doesn't make it so far. Nico throws up his hands to block the blow like he did earlier with Circe and Lycaon, and Percy is thrown backwards ten feet. He lands and groans in a way I've never heard him. He tries to stand but finds that he can't. He screams out loud when he puts pressure onto his anckle, to discover that it must be broken.
"What do we do?" I ask anyone who's listening.
Piper steps forward and points at Percy while looking him straight in the eyes. "Percy, sleep!"
Percy seems barely effected by her words. He becomes somewhat drowsy but nowhere near ready to sleep. He turns to face me and looks me in the eyes with a sympathetic look to him. I just want to run forward and hug him so bad.
"Percy," Piper says again pouring every ounce of power into her charmspeak, "sleep."
He falls unconcious immediately.
I feel panick swell up inside me as I stare at the unconcious body of my boyfriend who is now a werewolf. That's a lot to take in.
"Okay, now that that's over, we should get going." Frank states.
Suddenly, the sky turns dark, full of storm clouds. We all look up. A streak of lightening almost hits Jason, and he jumps and almost lands on Piper.
Everyone looks down to the spot where the lightning struck to see a man in purple robes standing in the center of our attention. He's the same man from earlier in our cell where we were chained up. He'd entered the room with Lycaon and Lamia. I'd completely forgotten about him. In fact, I forgot about Lamia too, and she must not be too far behind this guy.
"Who are you?" Nico asks the man.
The man doesn't reply. He only turns his body to face Nico. He begins to chuckle under his hood.
Nico thrusts his hands towards the man as if to push him away like he had with Percy and our other wonderful hosts, not even needing to touch them, but nothing happens to the man. He only grins bigger at the foiled attempt.
"I will not cause any harm to you." He claims. "I've only come to give you something. A gift."
The robed man reaches into a compartment within his robes and pulls out a jar. It's only a common jam jar, but nothing inside. He steps forward and gives it to Nico. "Open it." The man says, and in a puff of smoke, he is gone.
Nico looks to the rest of us. "Do I open it?"
We all exchange glances. Piper is the first to speak up, "I think you should."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." I say. "I mean, we have no idea what could be in that. It could be another monster waiting to devour us."
"But it might not be." Frank states. "It could be our ticket home."
"I'm with Frank and Piper on this one." Jason says.
Nico contemplates for a moment. He makes a decision and says, "Alright, I'll open it."
He pops the lid off and, honestly, the most unexpected thing happens.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
"Well, that was a waste of time." Jason says.
"Yeah, let's just forget about it and get going." Piper says. "We should really move. Those reinforcements could get hear at any time."
As if on cue, a freaking missile lands somewhere nearby, sending us sprawling. I stand with difficulty, and search for where the missile had come from. I easily spot a tank driving towards us. "Crap, guys, we need to move now."
"Jason is out cold." Piper says.
I think for few seconds. "Umm.. Frank! Can you fly across the swamp and get Hazel and Leo? Then fly them as far away as you can until you're released from the dream?"
"Got it." He nods. He transforms into an eagle again and flies off.
"Okay, Nico, can you carry one of the boys?" I ask.
"Sure thing." He grabs Percy off the ground and lifts him into his arms as if he weighed nothing. Seeing Percy, he looks like himself again. Not a werewolf, but human.
"Piper, you and I will get Jason." We lift his body into our arms. Wow, he's heavy.
"Where do we go now?" Nico asks.
I turn to see the tank is getting closer. It's barely the length of a football field away. "The cliff!"
We begin running. After about a minute of this we reach the edge of the cliff. I look over and see the shore. It looks like the ocean is down there, but this is just a dream, so I know it's not real. I also see the rocks at the bottom.
Nico speaks up, "What if it's not far enough? What if we hit the rocks, or land in the water and get smashed into pancakes?"
"We have to try." I answer. I look back at the tank just as it fires another missile at us. "Jump now!"
We all jump over the edge just as the missile shoots over our heads. Just before we all hit the water, the world goes black.
The next thing I know, I'm laying in a cot in the infirmary at Camp Half-Blood.
"Oh, thank the gods!" Chiron says and canters over to my bed. "What happened? Please, explain everything."
To my left, I hear Piper gasp as she sits straight up in her bed. On the other side of her, I hear Jason coughing as he wakes up in his own cot. Past Jason, I see Nico stand and walk towards Chiron.
To my right, I spot Percy. He blinks as he wakes. He lets out a groan, but it sounds like him this time. He turns his head and sees me. "Annabeth?"
"Percy!" I shout, filled with happiness. I jump out of my bed and grasp him in a big hug. "I'm so glad to see that you're yourself again!"
"What do you mean?" He asks in a melancholy tone.
"Uh..." I don't know how to answer this question delicately. "I'll explain everything later."
He smiles as he looks me in the eyes. I stare back into his beautiful green eyes, but all I can think of are those glowing, evil eyes that were once his.
"I'm so sorry to rain on your parade," Chiron says. "But why aren't these three awake yet?"
I look past Percy and see that Frank, Hazel, and Leo are still asleep.
Leo has been wrapped up around his stomache to stop the bloodflow from that horrible slice Circe had at him.
"Something must've gone wrong." I answer. "They should've been back by now."
A/N So, this is seriously my best chapter I've written so far. I really like it and I hope you do too! Please review and I would really love it if you would give me some ideas on what to do next because I'm stuck between a few ideas. I'll have the next chapter up soon :-)