Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS!
Word Count: 5,292
AN: Read. Enjoy. Review. Be happy. :)
"Sometimes, the line between reality and dreams are blurred until you're left standing alone, trying to sort out the mess you call life."
-A Very Wise Person (A.K.A CookiesCream333)
Chapter 3: NIGHTMARES
Where Nightmares Come In Different Forms, During Both Night And Day.
She ran faster, not daring to look back.
Jaz put her arms up to shield her face from the snapping branches. She stumbled slightly on a root of a tree but quickly repostioned herself. She willed herself to run faster, every touch of the ground shortened until it seemed like she soaring through forest.
Every muscle strains in her body, screaming for her to stop, her throat was parched with thirst, sweat blinded her eyes, and any second she was sure her lungs were going to implode.
But she pushed on.
Run, run, run. Run, run-
She made a mistake of stepping in a puddle of water.
It rippled, but not the way every other ordinary water was suppose to. More like jello. Slowly and sluggishly, it rippled, clinging on to her leg. Full of panic, Jaz tried to pull her foot out, but instead of letting go, it sucked her in it.
Her vision on the dark forest turned into a blurry view of water and a flurry of precious bubbles of oxygen escaped her mouth. She choked on the water, it's usual tasteless flavor, suddenly a burst hot, burning gasoline searing her throat. Every pore on her body popped and, seemingly, burst in flames. Her eyes throbbed with a mixture of this hellish water and tears.
Suddenly, she fell out of the water and tumbled through a free fall of a large cavernous pit. Wind whistles in her ear and loose flyaway strands of hair whipped around her face. She flipped a few times and slammed into the rocky, cold walls. She desperately tried to grab chunks of protruding rocky to stop the fall but the only thing she got was bloody fingers.
Jaz skidded against wall again, scraping her shoulder.
BAM!
Without warning, the breath was knocked out of her lungs. She slammed against the ground to a painful crunch, jarring every bone in her body. She gasped -and groaned-, shakily getting up her feet like a scared newborn horse.
She was placed in a gray room, its cavernous walls stretching upwards as far as the naked eye could see. There was no roof, just a never ending black abyss, with no light at the end.
Across the room, red drapes were lavishly adorned above a bumpy area of the wall.
Maybe an exit.
Desperate to get out of this unsettling room, she ran over to them and threw them open. Instead of a door she had expected, there was a silver, full-size mirror. It was simple and plain, with its's smooth straight panes, but elegant.
The surface of it rippled, looking suspiciously like the puddle of 'water' she fell into.
She gasped.
In the mirror, was a shapshot of her younger self.
Jaz was small, barely a toddler. She still had baby fat clinging to her body and small, chubby fingers with an aura of innocence around her. Her hair was short and messy with strands of hair sticking up like she just gotten out of bed. Which she probably had, judging from her floppy nightgown. One hand was up rubbing the sleepiness out of her green eyes. The image was see seemingly shivering and shaking, showing two of the same pictures.
The image rippled and when it stilled, her present day image look its place.
Her hair was now much longer and in a braid. She still had a little rebellious baby fat, much to her displeasure. She was bundled in jeans and a big coat but there was a large grin stretching across her face, showing off the pearly, bright look. In her gloved hands were the familiar Mythomagic cards.
Before she had enough time to inspect herself, once again, her image rippled but instead of one picture there was three pictures.
The one furthest to the right, was her in a Hunter of Artemis outfit. She looked almost the same but her eyes were wiser and older with a more serious sheen to it. It was the same color and shape but her eyes were sharp, cutting through her soul as she stared at herself. She looked lean and wiry, leaving behind the baby fat. In her rough, calloused hands, she held a notched arrow in the bow. Jaz took note of the jagged scar on her left temple and the brown stains of what suspiciously looked like blood splattered on her silver parka.
The image in the middle depicted her as at least 25. Older Jaz was dressed casually, a T-shirt, jeans, and worn-out sneakers, although her finger gloves didn't quite fit the outfit. Her hair was cut jagged above her shoulders, the ends curling slightly. She was smiling, the corners of her mouth lifting just enough to show a bit of her teeth. She had little dimples on both of the upper part of her cheeks. Her smile was sweet but it didn't seem natural, more of the type of smile you practice over and over in front of a mirror. Something about the her cold smile and how the warmth didn't quite reach her eyes, unsettled her. She seemed more mature, but that Jaz still looked happy. She was in the middle of brushing a strand of hair out of her face. A cold, surprised pang shot through Jaz. There was a ring on her finger. Actually, she had mulitple rings littered on her fingers, but her ring finger was adorned with a fancy, thick gold band covered in too many jewels. Her ring finger on her left hand.
The furthest to left and final picture was the most depressing. Jaz, as a teenager, looked like she given up on life. She was sitting in a corner of a dark room, her knees bundled against her chest. She wore the typical dark, brooding clothes of a teenager with a goth phase: black jeans, black sneakers, and a dark olive green jacket over a black shirt. Her hair was short and curly just like the previous but it looked limp and sad like it given up, too. The most despondent thing was her eyes. Broken, lifeless, and bloodshot like shattered glass, like she was already dead. It seemed hollow and empty at her first, but buried deep in the end of the bottomless pits of her murky green eyes was pain. The type of pain that shows you seen too much in a too short time.
Jaz leaned forward and reached out her arm as if to comfort this forlorn image of her, but the moment her fingertips touched the mirror, the pictures changed.
She stumbled backwards, nearly tripping on her own two feet, and gasped.
The new imaged seemed to be some sick cross of an emaciated person and a monster. It was tall and dressed in a ripped black T-shirt and jeans like a normal teenager. That was the only thing normal about it.
Its deathly white skin was stretched painfully across its wounded thin body. Even the smallest flicker of movement was restricted and painful. Covering its chthonic body was millions of cuts and scrapes, varying in size, shape, and gruesomeness. Instead of oozing that normal red blood with gold specks that demigods had, it had black blood. Foul black blood that was thick and abhorrent, the color, texture, and smell of gasoline. Its hair -if you call that hair- hung sparsely and limply from its skull. Several chunks of hair was missing. It had an unpleaseant hue, much resembling hair that had been dyed to many times until it was muddy and discolored. Its right shoulder, ribs, and legs was completely clawed up with the skin ripped out so you could see its severed veins and bone. It's bottom lip was so scratched up, it only looked like a ragged tissue hanging from its mouth. And its eyes-
Oh my god. Its eyes.
Its eyes were nothing but empty sockets filled with black twirling power. Like thick black mist if there was such a thing. A whirling power that be decribed for no word could accurately decribed what it inflicted.
Fear coursed through her. That type of fear that froze your heart in terror, that made your back cold and princkly and so, so unprotected. The fear that reduced you into sniveling child lost in the woods. Fear that made you feel your heartbeat in your fingertips for you think those precious heartbeats will be your last.
Black power oozed out of the sockets like evaported tears, disappearing and sharing its fear with the world.
CLOSER.
She felt her heartbeat thumping in her fingertips. Her legs were rooted in place.
CLOSER, MY DEAR MERGE.
Its lips didn't moved. It appeared the sound was coming from its eyes. The voice of a thousand chilly, heartbroken souls echoed from it. It soothed and scared her at the same time, pushing her terror level back and forward.
Her right foot step forward, clumsily, its sound reverbating off the wall and through the room.
"Wh-" she started and faltered.
Who are you?
What are you?
CLOSER.
She didn't move. It did not say anything.
Hesitantly, she dragged her left foot forward.
GOOD. CLOSER, NOW.
"N-No." she stammered, trying to sound brave. "Wha-who a-are you?"
ALL IN GOOD TIME.
It didn't clarify.
Jaz stepped forward, unwilling.
She didn't want go near this thing. She wanted to run away and escape. But her instincts and conscience told to go forward, contridicting her mind.
Her brain and all sense of logic screamed for her to get a grip and stop but this nagging, nagging feeling beckoned her forward.
She slowly and tentatively walked over to it until her nose was nearly touching the smooth surface or the mirror.
Jaz suddenly realized how much its body structure resembled her. They both shared the same long nose and jointed knees. Almost like if-
Faster than lightning or the speed of sound, its hand ripped out of the mirror until it was clenched around her throat.
Jaz choked and gagged, her hand clawing its hand, fruitlessly.
"Wh-What?" she said.
In result it only squeezed her airway stronger.
The blood pounded in her skull while her lungs screeched for oxygen. Yellow dots danced in her vision. They steadily grew darker and bigger until it covered her vision completely black. She felt like she drowning in an ocean. A hollowing, dark ocean. Its silence too loud for her ears.
Too much.
Too much.
Then, a bright light came, accompanied by a loud sound.
"Jaz!"
She gasped.
Jaz doubled over the bed, her screams filling the room.
She felt someone shaking her, their lips moving rapidly, making blurred noises.
The volume of her yells achingly went up in a haze of fear.
Slowly, as the panic levels dropped, she started regonizing the features of the person. Small nose, long hair, dark eyes.
Nico.
Her screaming trickled to a stop.
Nico.
Her fingers unconsciously curled around his arm.
"Nico."
The said person stopped talking for a moment.
"Jaz." he breathed her name before pulling into a crushing hug.
She obliged and buried her face into his shoulder, trying to stop the tears scalding her eyes.
"Oh my god." Nico said. The tone of his voice sounded like he was starting breath again after a very long time. "I woke up and you were shaking and choking. I tried to wake you up but you wouldn't -you couldn't- wake up. You started to scream. To scream. Travis had to carry you -drag you because you kept fighting- to the infirmary but you still wouldn't wake up. You wouldn't stop choking. Then, your heart stopped. It stopped. They started pounding your chest and feeding you nectar and defibrillators and everything." His voice broke for a second. "But you still didn't breathe. You weren't breathing."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"You died."
She blinked.
"But-But I-I'm awake now. Right?"
She lifted a hand to feel her face.
Nico nodded, his watery eyes stopped panicking for a second.
"They were about to give up but you just woke up. You just-"
Chiron and Zoe burst into the room with a panicked child of Apollo by their side.
Jaz suddenly realized her surroundings. She sitting in an white infirmary bed with Travis and Connor Stoll, Nico, and probably the entire Apollo Cabin crowded around her. Which as a grand total of seven people.
"What happened?" Chiron asked.
Nico retold his story in his shaky voice. Chiron nodded gravelly every now and then.
"Do you know the cause of this?" he asked one of the Apollo kids.
They started shaking their heads as Jaz said, "I had a dream."
Zoe stiffened.
"A dream?" she inquired.
When Jaz nodded and confirmed "Yes", Zoe said a very loud, authoritive voice, "Everybody out."
Grudgingly, everyone cleared the room, but nobody said anything when Nico didn't budge.
"Explain." Zoe said.
As Jaz started recalling her dreams, Zoe's face immediately showed obviously relief but as soon as she barely mentioned the mirror her expression became blank and unreadable. Chiron and Nico showed blatant worry, especially Nico.
"So?" she said as she concluded her story. "Do you what happened?"
"The mirror." Zoe said. "Describe the mirror again."
She re-explained it again.
"What?" Nico asked Zoe, curiously. "What's wrong?"
"Hmm." Zoe said, either ignoring Nico or not hearing him. "Jaz, was thy neck like that earlier?"
"What?" Jaz said, her hand flying up to her neck, instantly. "What do you mean?"
She grew more and more scared and concerned for herself every second more everyone stared at her neck. Even Nico as he rummaged through the medical supply closet and slowly handed her a small compact mirror. He never once took his eyes off her.
Nervously, she opened up the mirror to what all the fuss was about.
She dropped it.
There were purplish and yellow-brown bruises and red markings on her neck. Red marking resembling fingers. Long, skinny fingers. Fingers that resembled the monster that choked her.
"That's not possible." she said. "That can't happen. My dream couldn't choke. The only resonable explanation is that I accidentally choked myself or someone choke me in the middle of my dream or-or-"
"Calm down." Chiron said.
Jaz took several deep gulps of air to satisfy him, then looked expectantly at him to continue.
"Have you ever had any dreams like this before?"
Jaz shook her head as Nico nodded his.
"Remember?" he said. "Remember when we were little and you would have dreams of something chasing you or something dark always lurking out the corner of your eye?"
"But that's all they were!" Jaz insisted. "Dreams! They were random little nightmares! Everyone has them!"
"No," Nico said. "Yours were different! They were always coming back! The same dark thing in your dreams!"
"I probably-"
"Enough." Zoe interrupted. "Jazmine, check thy shoulder."
"Check thy shoulder?" Jaz said her hand now moving towards the said area.
She pulled her shirt collar down, her eyes widened drastically.
It was scraped and red, blood leaking out of its wound.
"That-that-"
"In thy dream," Zoe explained. "Thee scratched thy shoulder falling down the pit. Thee also scratched thy fingers."
Jaz glanced down at her fingers. As Zoe said, they were bloody and scraped.
"I don't understand. I-I can't get injuries in my sleep. That's impossible!"
Zoe shook her head. "Do not dwell over this situation. Sleep. We shall discuss this later on."
"But-" Jaz protested.
She shot a look of warning to Jaz. "The Apollo children will nurse thy wounds before thee goes to sleep. Thee shall stay in the infirmary overnight and stay until the Apollo children deem thee fit to leave."
She promptly turned on her heel and pompously marched out the door as if she owned this place.
Jaz threw Chiron a helpless look. "She's not the boss around here, right? Can't I go back to my cabin?"
"I believe, Ms. Nightshade is right on this." Chiron said. "The Apollo children should monitor over you tonight and in case your dream happens again, you'll already be in the infirmary, surrounded by expert medics."
"All of them are teens, Chiron!" Jaz argued. "None of them even pasted high school yet! The Hermes Cabin is filled with even more teens!"
"But the Hermes children have less knowledge over the medical field than the Apollo children. Even though they know little, you are in better hands with the Apollo children."
Jaz sighed in defeat.
"Okay." she said, glumly. "But can I at least have Annette and my blanket with me?"
"Of course." Chiron said before saying to Nico, "Mr. di Angelo, may you do Ms. di Piante a favor and fetch her elephant and blanket?"
"Sure thing." Nico said before giving Jaz an unreadable look and dashing away to the Hermes Cabin.
It never occured to her how Chiron knew Annette was a stuffed elephant.
...
"Okay." Michael said, wrapping up the last of her bandages. "Try sleeping on the other side tonight and don't put any pressure on your shoulder. In a few day, with proper care, you'll be as good as new."
"Is there an chance of me being as good as new by tomorrow?" Jaz asked.
Michael let out a good natured laugh. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I don't think so. But don't worry, you'll still get to participate in most Camp activities."
She nodded.
"Kayla!" Michael called. "Can you give Jaz her things!?"
A girl around her age with blonde hair and bright blue eyes, almost the younger girl carbon copy of Michael, bounced over and gave her Annette wrapped in her blanket.
"The boy who gave you this told me to tell you, 'boon-non-noth-thay?' and 'Slep strayto?" Kayla said, her eyebrows scrunching together in determination to pronouce the words.
Jaz smiled. "'Buonanotte' and 'slepp stretto' means 'Good night' and 'sleep tight' in Italian."
"Ooo!" she exclaimed. "They sounded familiar! My friend was trying to teach me Spanish for months but I never got it. I guess Italian and and Spanish are similar! I heard-"
"Okay," Michael broke in. "Time to hit the hay, little linguists!"
He pulled the blanket up for Jaz and ruffled her hair before ushering Kayla out of the room.
"I'll try to teach you Italian!" Jaz not-so-quietly whispered to Kayla. "Maybe I'll have better luck teaching you!"
"Sure!" Kayla un-discreetly whispered back as Michael switched off the lights.
"Buonanotte, il mio amico!" Goodnight, my friend!
"Um, boon-non-noth-thay to you, too!"
The door shut.
Jaz smiled to herself snuggling deeper into her blankets, clutching on to Annette.
The next day, she was bombarded by well-wishers. Some people were genuinely concerned for her but others were just curious what happened. Her standard reply was usually something on the lines of, "I had a bad nightmare that gave me injuries and I died and came back to life. Thanks for your concern" or something like that.
She spent most the day hopping from one activity to the next. In the morning, she excelled at archery and had a stomache due to excessive laughter of Nico almost impaling his body parts in the most hilarious ways but later he got back by her by disarming her in Swords under a few seconds. She claimed he cheated and she had tripped over shoelaces, but nobody mentioned her shoes were tied.
After lunch, much to Nico's dismay, they had pegasus lessons. Much to Jaz's dismay, they barely even got to get on to the pegasi. Two minutes into the lesson, Silena had a heated argument with one of the Hunters of Artemis which ended with a piccolo, a dead bird, and two kumquats smeared in dill oil.
Soon after what Jaz dubbed 'THE UNSPEAKABLE' incident, they had javelin practice...which they both utterly failed at. Jaz and Nico could barely pick up a javelin with their combined strengths, much less throw it twenty feet. They just didn't "have the guns for it", as their instructor kindly put it.
Then, they had track. They were no where near the nymph's speed but they managed to out run most of the older kids, which gave them back some of their lost pride for javelin practice.
Afterwards, during wrestling, Jaz ran pleasantly ran into Kayla again while Kayla was holding her in a chokehold. Their conversation went something like this:
Jaz: Um, what exactly are we suppose to do?
Kayla: I'm going to take you down!
Jaz: Excuse me?
Kayla: You're going to cower under this wrestling champ!
Jaz: What?
Kayla: Gargh! *Charges her and puts her in a chokehold*
Jaz: Non può respirare! Can't breathe!
Kayla: Jaz? I didn't recognize you speaking English!
Jaz: Let. Go.
Kayla: *Lets go* Oh. Sorry.
So, that's how Jaz ended up choking in less than 24 hours. Turns out Kayla was just really excited she met someone scrawnier than her so she could finally win a wrestling match. Jaz had no comment on that.
Finally, dinner came and past until it was time for the most exciting part. Capture the Flag.
Which Jaz couldn't participate in.
"What!?" she exclaimed. "Why can't I!?"
Chiron sighed before kneeling down. Jaz wondered how he accomplished that with his horse legs. He laid his hand on her uninjured shoulder.
"Teenagers can be vicious and I think it's best you're out of harm's way. You can't fight, especially with your injuries. You're throat is already giving you trouble breathing and after the wrestling chokehold and overexertion during track, it's worse. And look at your shoulder and fingers! I don't think it's going to work, Ms. di Piante."
"But I've been doing activities all day!" she remonstrated.
"There's a difference between shooting arrows and shooting arrows in battle."
After that she morosely stood by Chiron as he retold everyone the rules. Though, getting to ride on Chiron's back and make tiny braids in his hair while rattling off what his attack points would be, kind of made up for it.
Once the Hunters of Artemis added a few dents in the Stoll brothers' head, they also got to join the Chiron Express. She had a fun time bandaging their heads.
The game concluded as Zoe Nightshade crossed the boundary with their flag.
Finally, Chiron let her regroup with the others.
She slid off his back and ran over to the forming crowd by the lake.
"What going in?" she huffed to Nico.
He craned his neck to see what's going while she stood on her tippy toes.
"I think Thalia and Percy are fighting." he said.
"No way!" she gasped as she tried to find a hole in the crowd to worm through.
Squirming through the mass of people, they finally got to the front to see Thalia get up, angrily, her hair and clothes stuck to her sopping wet body.
Percy said something indistinct and almost immediately, Thalia shot something right back, making Percy contort with rage. His hands flew above his head, making slow gestures. Her breath caught in her throat as she watch with wide eyes Percy levatating the entire creek into the air. At least a hundred gallons of icy water funneled over his head. He tensed, ready to hurl the entire mass of water and he...dropped it.
The look of anger slid off his face and his eyes lost its blood-lust as it refocused on something behind Thalia.
Jaz whirled around and with a shot of terror, she immediately clenched onto Nico's hand.
"What," Nico said, breathlessly. "Is that?"
Even though she was only at Camp for a short while, even she heard bits and scattered pieces of rumors about the Oracle.
An old hippie.
A crumbling woman dying with age but still living.
The phantom in the attic that sent you to your doom.
Like she was doing this every second.
A terrible hissing voice spoke in her mind, it's hollowing voice echoing through her skull. Jaz moaned and covered her ears, trying to block out the creaky voice, with no avail.
I am the Speaker of Delphi. Speaker of Prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.
It's raspy voice and dead eyes zeroed in on Zoe. Zoe Drew and a shaking breath, asking the dear question of her Lady.
Slowly, the oracle drawled out the prophecy, spewing green mist.
With the clunk, it sat down on the dirt, whatever life it had draining out of it.
...
Jaz shifted in her sleepy bag.
The last time she fell asleep she died and she really didn't want to die.
After the Capture the Flag fiaso, all the head cabin counselors went to a 'top-secret meeting' which meant they were going to discuss the prophecy. Everyone in the Hermes Cabin tried to stay up for Connor and Travis to come back with juicy news but later, after at least two hours, the honory second-in-command, an unclaimed girl named Hanna who stayed in the Hermes Cabin so long she was practically a Hermes kid, decided lights out. Almost everybody immediately passed out when they hit their respective beds and areas of floor. It was an exhausting day.
As Jaz tried to fight off sleep, the door of the Hermes Cabin slowly creaked open. Bleary eyed, she sat up in her sleeping bag, her hand raised to her face, trying to stop the onslaughter of light from flooding to her eyes. Two almost identical boys stepped into the room, quietly shutting the door behind them.
"Travis?" She said, slurring his name. "Connor?"
Surprisingly, it wasn't her who said Connor's name. Nico sat up in his makeshift bed bed, rubbing sleepiness out of his eyes. Almost like a chain reaction, several other Hermes inhabitants got up, tiredly murmuring Travis's and Connor's names.
"Sshh," Connor said, putting his finger to his lips.
"Gather, young children," Travis said in a goofy whisper. "We bring news from the wonderous meeting of the Big House."
Drowsy whispers laced with excitement crawled their way over to the counselors.
The brothers re-enacted and enthusiactically re-told the meeting down to almost every little detail from the clips in Silena's hair to the different shades of anger on Zoe's face. At the point of Travis and Connor giving Phoebe a T-shirt, in the dim light, their triumph smirking faces looked unsettling, almost scary.
"Connor?" someone said hushly. "Who was the last member of the quest?"
"Yeah!" some else piped up. "Zoe, Phoebe, Thalia, Grover; that's only four!"
Travis frowned. "Well..." a hint of uncertainty rang in his voice.
Maybe it was her imagination but, for a split second, Travis and Connor's eyes darted in the direction of Nico and Jaz.
"Well...um, you see...um, I.." he stammered.
"Spit it out!" someone shouted from the back.
"Its just one of the Hunters." Connor said quickly, "Its no big deal."
"No big deal?" anoter person yelled out. "We want to know who's on one of the DEADLIEST QUEST OF THE CENTURY!"
"Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" People chorused.
Connor's eyes shot to them again.
People turned around, tracking his gaze. Once they realized who his eyes darted to, they quiet down for a second. Hush murmurs swam through the crowd, people covering their mouth as they spoke and eyes shooting back and forth to Jaz and Nico.
A cold wave of fear and realization crashed into Jaz's system. Her breath got caught in her throat as she realized.
"Travis?" she whispered.
The talking plummeted to the stop as everyone stared sympathetically at them.
Nico's arm shook violently on her arm as she spoke.
"Travis?" she repeated again when he refused to look up. "Travis? Is Bianca g-" she choked on her own words, too scared to continue on.
"Is it Bianca?" Nico's voice quavered as he spoke.
He hesitated for a second -for one tiny miliseconds- and she knew.
Nico stood up, Jaz following him in tow.
"Guys?" Connor said, uncertainly.
"I'm going to bed." Nico said, his voice stiff and stoic.
Jaz nodded, inaudibly.
She climbed into her sleeping bag, trying to ignore her cabin mates' burning stares. Their burning stares and the burning feeling of her sister leaving her again.
...
Jaz tried to keep her heavy eyes open but between the warm smell of Annette, the soothing coolness of her sleeping bag, and Nico's rhymetic breathing, it was a lost cause.
The world blurred as her eyes fluttered shut.
...
She was running through a maze.
Jaz took a sharp turn left and after a few more sprints through the dusty halls she paused in front of a glowing blue delta.
She reached out her hand and pressed her index finger against it. Instantly, she was sucked into a world of colors whirling like a spinning wheel mixed with bits of odd sounds and voices.
"You both grown so much."
"Darling, we're unstoppable. It's you and me against the world and, boy, the world is cowering in fear."
"Please, Bianca, please."
"I'll save you the search and tell you the truth: there is no cure, no saving grace, no way out. Just pain. Pain and suffering until the very end."
"Stop it!"
"Just admit it! Once you accept it, it'll go away!"
"My name's Sadie and this dork here is my brother, Carter."
"Do you have any idea where he is? Please, do you know anything? Anything?"
"Please. Please. Just go."
"Never call me that. You shall address me by my name or My Lady. Understand?"
"It's our secret, okay?"
"You could've of died!"
"So... I'm guessing you root for the Red Sox and not the Yankees?"
"Help me. Please."
"Where have you been!? Four months! Four months!"
"Oooooooh! Nico and You-Know-Who sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"Oh my gods! I couldn't find you and I- Oh my gods!"
"You shall rid the world of this curse, my Lady."
"Welcome to the the 21th century."
"It's a place that sucks out all joy and happiness before choking you with grief and demands you worship it."
"You're different."
"Hello, my name is Jazmine Marcelo."
...
Jaz gasped, sitting up.
She was in Camp Half-Blood. In the Hermes Cabin. Far away from mazes and voices.
She sighed and instead of going back to sleep, she crawled out of her sleepbag and to the door. Two days, two nightmare and she didn't want to make it two days and three nightmare. Jaz couldn't stand it if she woke up again with her heart racing with panic and feeling of spiders crawling up her spine. No, she couldn't stand it.
Her hand met the cold doorknob of the Hermes Cabin and as quickly and silently as a fleeting shadow, she slipped out.