Wow. I think this is my least favorite chapter, ever. I hate it. I'm probably gonna end up deleting it and re-writing it, but I felt bad that I haven't updated in forever and I just worked with what I had :P So sorry if you hate it.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJaTO, it's plotline, characters, or any of that stuff :P

"What do you mean she was there?" I snapped. Without realizing it, I had grabbed his shoulders and was squeezing them tightly.

He grimaced, and I let go. "What I mean is that I saw her. She was there, right alongside you and some other kid. She was the one with the cut on her face." He explained like as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I swear to Hades, if you're messing wi-"

"Why on earth would I joke about something like this?" he interrupted.

I looked back at my bed and sighed, knowing I wouldn't be getting any more sleep that night. Then, I walked outside and faced Nate.

"Alright, listen up." I lowered my voice to a whisper, "Last time I checked, Jill was lying on a hospital bed completely paralyzed. If you're here telling me she's gonna get better, and she doesn't, you'll find yourself asleep for a very, very long time." A satisfactory smile tugged at my lips when I saw him gulp nervously. His eyes flickered towards his cabin, and I knew he was silently wondering if he could make a run for it. After a moment, he shook his head, and then continued,

"No, I'm positive it was her!" he shouted.

"Are you sure? There are tons of blondes at camp. After all, how many times have you seen her? Hades, I'm surprised you've seen her at all! I bet you just mistook her for some other girl." I tried to argue, but I knew it was pointless.

"Why won't you believe me? For the thousandth time, it was her!"

When he saw how unconvinced I looked, he put one hand up and the other on his heart, and said "Scout's honor." I rolled my eyes at how ridiculous it sounded, but I figured he wasn't one to lie about something this serious.

I sighed. Shutting the door behind me, I grabbed his arm and started walking away.

"Where are we going?" he asked. He nearly ran to catch up with my long strides, and his eyes darted around our surroundings nervously.

"The Big House," I said, "obviously."

(I bet these line's annoy you, eh?)

After all the rumors I've heard that Chiron wears his tail in curlers at night, I was slightly disappointed from the lack of feminine hair stylers.

He slowly paced around the room, while Nate and I sat in extremely comfortable chairs. It took all I had not to pass out right then and there; Chiron's hooves clomping made a strangely relaxing lullaby, and sitting next to Nate was like gulping warm milk and hearing a good ole' fashioned bedtime story.

I'm serious, not even Hercules would have made it out of there conscious.

"So," said Chiron, temporarily breaking me out of my trance. "What you're saying is a group of campers go out to find the cure, and somehow Jillian is with them?"

I shrugged, while Nate nodded eagerly. Unfortunately for him, Chiron looked just as convinced as I had felt.

"Child, are you sure this wasn't just a very realistic dream? It seems unlikely tha-"

"No!" for a smaller boy, his voice came out loud and strong. I guess he was tired of people telling him he was just dreaming. If it were me, I would've snapped 15 minutes ago. "I'm sure it was her!"

Chiron sighed. "Not to sound rude, my boy, but I've maybe seen you around camp five times. And I just can't help but wonder how you can be so sure this girl is Jill? Have you ever gotten a good look at her?"

The boy nodded slowly, blush flooding his cheeks.

Chiron still looked unconvinced. "How?" But Nate just mumbled something in response.

"Huh?" I asked. I was right next to him, and I couldn't even try to make out what he had said.

He mumbled again, this time a little louder. It sounded vaguely like "I biker", but I was fairly sure that wasn't the case.

"Excuse me?" asked Chiron politely.

"I like her!"

…

…

…

Now it was me who was blushing.

Nate?

Liked… Jill?

Just a crush, obviously. I mean, he was what? Ten? Eleven? But thinking back on it, he was about her age. Maybe 13. Children of Hypnos tend to be on the smaller side, considering they do literally nothing to promote their growth. No exercise, healthy eating habits, or anything for that matter.

But… Jill would never go for him. Right? I mean, he was Nate for crying out loud! One time he walked into the dining pavilion with dinosaur pajamas on. If that didn't scream "weirdo", I don't know what did. (Then again, I'm one to talk…)

And she was Jill.

I didn't quite know why, but I was getting redder by the moment. I suddenly liked Nate a lot less, and had the urge to push him off his chair.

"Oh… I see." remarked Chiron. He was looking down to, as if this whole situation was just as embarrassing for him as it was for Nate and me.

The boy, who was at least 10 shades redder than me, looked away, embarrassed.

"Well!" Chiron fiddled with a tiny figurine, and then put it back on a shelf. "That clears things up. I would be a fool to not believe you." I thought he was over exaggerating things to make Nate feel better, but I wasn't complaining. I really hated hearing bad news at 3 in the morning.

Nate smiled at Chiron, but he was still blushing as if someone had just read his diary aloud.

"Alright, thank you. Now, I'm really tired. I think I'll just go back to my cabin and get some rest…" mumbled Nate. He pushed himself up out of his chair and walked towards the door.

I stood up, too. If I didn't have to be up at 3 am, I wasn't going to be. Hopefully I would be able to fall right back asleep once I made contact with my bed, and sleep peacefully until noon or so. I knew there was a one in a million chance that that would happen, but a guy can dream, right?

"Wait!" commanded Chiron. We both stopped in our tracks as the centaur trotted over to the door, cutting in front of Nate.

The child of Hypnos looked like this whole thing was much too exhausting for him, and he was about to pass out. He leaned against the door frame and his eyes were starting to droop.

"If you said Jill was in the quest," Chiron started, "then she must have been cured. Maybe we're missing something; some kind of evidence. We need to go down to the infirmary and check the campers again."

As much as I wanted to sneak away to my cabin and collapse on my bed, I knew I had no choice but to follow Chiron. He walked leisurely, as if he had all the time in the world (he technically does, considering he's immortal) while Nate and I dragged ourselves after him. It was a good thing the infirmary was just a few yards away from the Big House, or I'm sure Nate would've passed out along the way.

The camp was deathly quiet and still, and shadows loomed over the cabins ominously. Almost everything was covered by darkness, except the moon's light and a few lamps lit in the Apollo cabin. Since Apollo was the god of light, some of the younger campers were still terrified of the dark. Their cabin was illuminating those around it, and causing the tree's to cast eerie shadows against the ground.

A distant growl was heard from the woods, and I heard Nate gasp. Even though he was a demigod, he was never truly exposed to the demigod world. I doubt he had ever battled, much less seen, a monster. I guess he was so cushioned by the fairytales of his dreams that he wasn't used to how harsh the world can really be.

When we reached the infirmary, Chiron slowly eased the door open as if he was afraid to wake those inside. We walked in, his hooves clomping loudly against the wooden floors, and passed bed after bed. The campers looked terrifying in the night, and even as a son of Hades I was frightened. The moonlight shone on their faces, dramatizing their ghostly white skin and glassy eyes.

One of the bodies – er, campers – had their arm extended with their hand reaching out, and it looked as if he was trying to grab us as we walked by. I could hear Nate's teeth chattering as we walked, which was understandable considering this was the first time he'd seen the campers in this state.

One of the beds looked strangely empty in the night. I racked my brain trying to think of who was lying there before, and I finally remembered it was a younger girl. I dismissed it, told myself it probably looked empty because she was so tiny, and continued walking.

Suddenly, Chiron stopped. He had reached Jill's bed, and had walked next to it. I really didn't want to see one of my only friend-ish people looking like a zombie for the second time that day, so I just cast my eyes down to the floor and counted the boards of wood.

33, 34, 35… I counted.

"Oh, my." said Chiron.

"What? What?" asked Nate curiously.

"It seems," he paused, "well, it seems…" he sighed.

"It seems, what?" I asked rudely, but he didn't seem to care. He just kept looking at her bed with his eyebrows scrunched together and his mouth frowned.

He looked up at me. "It seems she's gone."

Without realizing it, I pushed Nate out of my way (causing him to fall and shout out "Hey!" loudly) and made my way to her bed.

It was depressingly empty, with the sheets crumpled up in a pile at the foot of the bed. The pillow was lying on the floor, but there was still a slight body imprint on the mattress. I had a sudden fantasy that this whole thing was just a mistake, and she was really back in her cabin with all of her siblings.

Maybe she had just fallen into a really, really deep sleep, woken up here in confusion, and walked back to her own bed. Maybe tomorrow morning she would be at breakfast, eating buttered toast and eggs like usual. Maybe she would say "hi" and wave to me when I passed her during the day. Maybe I would even go to archery, just so I could tell her how crazy this whole situation was. Maybe she would laugh about it, and in a few years she would tell it at the campfire as a funny story.

Maybe I'm just deluding myself.

I ran my hands across the bed, hoping that maybe she really was there. Just invisible, or something. But, no such luck.

"Hey, Chiron!" called a voice from behind. Nate was pointing to the bed I was looking at earlier. "This one's empty too!"

He read the name tag at the foot of the bed that said which patient was staying there. "Isabelle Pizara," he said, "daughter of Athena."

The only two missing campers were both daughters of Athena.

Coincidence? I think not.

My life was really worthy for a soap opera. There are twists and turns, the plotline is constantly changing, and just when you think things are going back to normal, BAM!, someone gets attacked. Or dies. Or, in this case, goes missing.

Thank you, Jill, for providing more drama in this already packed life of mine.

Randomly, I had a flashback of last summer when I shadow-traveled to Hades. I remembered how Jill went off to find me while Percy and Annabeth just sat and waited, and I remembered how good that made me feel.

When I was missing, she went after me. So if she's missing, it's only right for me to do the same.

I silently vowed that if she really had disappeared, I would personally find her.

Considering I had been in Nate's dream, it was already decided that I would go on the quest. Now we just had to get it started. I had begun to think of strategies to locate her. We couldn't just put flyers up across the country, or put her picture on a milk carton. It was gonna be a bit more difficult than that.

Even though it wasn't said I would be the leader, I had started to think who I would bring. Not Percy and Annabeth; they weren't allowed to go on camp quests anymore since they had technically graduated. The other people didn't necessarily didn't need to be my friends; they just needed to be useful.

Chiron interrupted my thoughts, breaking the silence.

"Well, I think it's obvious." he stated. I knew what he was going to say before he said it. "Nate's dream has come true. A quest is in order."

Review even though that chapter was horrid?