Chapter 20

POV Asher (Son of Athena, Head of Athena Cabin)

I feel bad leaving Amber and Jezebelle just sitting there like that, but it was necessary for them to be safe. And the first line of the prophecy is fulfilled. Well, so is the second, but that is very obvious. I step on something and it makes a sickening crunch. I almost fall over, it is a human ribcage, with a knife in it. I see a huge statue of something, wait, someone standing there. I take out my sword and I hear a voice, "A child of Athena. A friend of Hera's daughter no less. Why does the wisdom goddess hate us so much?"

"Excuse me?" I say angrily.

"A Greek." And two ghosts appear out of nowhere, wearing things like Romans. "That is even worse."

More ghosts were beginning to come across and one says. "You have disturbed Mithras' ancient rituals. Choose your death: Fire or dagger."

POV Flin (Son of Poseidon, Head Boy of Camp Half-Blood)

That night, when camp fire was just starting to glow softly, I saw a group of Romans ride in on horses. Janice whipped off a shawl that was wrapped around her head. "Praetor Janice. What do we owe to this pleasure?" I ask dryly, approaching her.

"We need a place to stay for the night, tomorrow we leave for Athens," Janice says, and I am left stupefied as to why she is going to Athens.

"You can stay in the Hera cabin. Jezebelle is gone, so you may stay there, the others may stay in your respective cabins." I direct and Janice nods. She goes toward the Big House and gets a glass of cherry juice and walks toward the Hera cabin. Willow and I are on for cabin duty, so we walk around the place once.

"Night Willow." I say and she grins at me once and then walks toward the Hermes cabin. Hermes? I just blink once and go towards the Poseidon cabin when I hear a glass shatter inside the Hera cabin when I am almost right by it. I walk inside, and I see Janice sitting on the floor, a piece of glass in her hand.

"Janice! Are you alright?" I say, running to stand right by her, kneeling and putting my hand on hers.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She says, and I carefully take the glass out. I put water over it, and it closes. Thank goodness.

"I'm not sure. Is something bothering you?" I ask her, she obviously just smashed a glass against her hand, and hurt herself.

"I thought I saw a man brought to life. He was warm, he came around like he was dignified. He showed me what it was to cry. Well, he couldn't be that man I adored now. He doesn't seem to know or seem to care anymore. But I don't know him anymore. There's nothing more where he used to lie! Nothing's fine. Nothing's fine, I'm torn. I'm cold and I am shamed by my peers." Janice says.

"Greene." I say in realization, she liked him, a long, long while ago.

"Yes. I wish I was just gone, then no one could criticize me." Janice says, tears in her brown eyes.

"Janice. You're great, you chose the right side, you did everything right." I say, smiling at her.

Amber's POV (Written by: so hard to chose usernames)

I open my eyes slowly, my head pounding in my skull as I look around and saw Jezebelle lying on the ground. "Schist." I mutter as I remember what happened. I take a sip of nectar and the pounding in my head goes down. "Why Asher?" I sighed, but I couldn't blame him. He had to do this part on his own and he knew we'd follow him, that's what I think at least.

That's what I hope.

I crawled to Jezebelle and gave her some nectar, almost instantly she sits up and start's coughing and groaning. "Asher?" She groans.

"It's Amber, Asher's gone." I said softly. "How do you feel?"

Jezebelle turned around quickly and looked at me, her eyes filled with shock and confusion. "He knocked us out. Why would he do that?"

"Wisdom's son walks alone." I said softly. "He knew that no matter what he said we'd follow him, remember the stories? The mark won't show up unless he's alone. He's a child of Athena, he figured it out."

"But . . . monsters?" Jezebelle said. "We could have died!"

I pointed to the piles of monster dust. "I don't think so." I said, then I looked at the dark hole in the ground and my throat constricted. Apollo was the god of the sun and light, I liked to be free so I wasn't ecstatic about this underground adventure.

"Amber?" Jezebelle asked, looking at me worriedly. "You okay?"

My face flushed a bit, no one knew of my secret fear. "Yeah, it's just . . . it looks really dark."

She laughed a little. "You're scared of the dark?"

I flushed from embarrassment. "Apollo's the god of the sun." I muttered, looking at the hole in the ground. "I don't mind night time because there are stars, but pitch blackness." I shuddered, I decided not to mention my slight claustrophobia.

"You don't have to go down there." Jezebelle said. "You can wait here."

"No!" I said, a little too quickly. "I can't, remember? Let the darkness take your light. Maybe this is it, besides, who is this other the prophecy is talking about? Maybe they're down there. It could be you, it could be Asher, or it could be a random stranger, and I don't really care. But either way, we can't let Asher do this alone. He could be hurt, he'll need help." I looked at her. "I followed you to Hercules knowing I might die because you're my friend and I thought you were going to die – no offence – and I didn't want you to meet your end alone. If Asher dies down there, he shouldn't be alone. No one should be alone when they die."

My throat closed up and I shook my head, trying to dislodge the memory. It had been a year since he died and I still had nightmares about it.

I looked at Jezebelle, determined to go after Asher, screw my little fears, he could be dying or dead right now. "He's my friend, I don't care that he knocked us out. I'm going after him, and the dark isn't going to stop me. The question is: are you coming?"

I didn't wait for an answer, I turned and hopped into the hole in the ground, letting the darkness engulf me.

I didn't look back.