The ocean would have probably been really pretty if it wasn't full of things that wanted to eat her.
Percy and Annabeth had questioned her for what felt like hours (it was probably only ten minutes) until they were satisfied that she wasn't a spy for Circe trying to bring them back, or whatever the fuck they'd thought she was.
They seemed to believe her now, or at least enough for Annabeth to go to bed and leave her alone with only Percy.
He seemed to be in his element, literally. He waved his hand around his head and a wave of water that had been about to crash into the ship made a wide arc over them instead. Mari could see the little fish swimming around inside, and it reminded her of a school trip to the Aquarium when she was six. The teacher had taken her whole class through a tube under the water to see the fish up close.
Mari had named one of the fishes Fin (because she'd thought it was clever) and followed Fin around instead of filling in her sheet. Then she'd tried to jump into the tank to play with Fin. An employee ended up having to fish her out with a mini crane, and the trip was ended early (and Mari wondered why she'd had no friends). She was smart enough not to try and jump into the Sea of Monsters to play with the fish this time around, though.
The Sea of Monsters.
She'd wondered how much conspiracy theorists online would pay to hear what the Bermuda triangle really was. Probably a lot. Either that or she'd be blocked. It didn't matter, it wasn't like she could use technology without sending out a signal to every hungry monster in the vicinity, anyway. That and the fact that the gods would probably murder her.
But sailing through it on a death quest to find an evil cyclops? Not the top of her to-do list. At least she'd get back to camp... if she survived. It was the 'if' part that was freaking her out. But what were her other options? Make a raft and sail back on her own? That was an easy way to get killed by a monster, or just drown. And what would she make a raft with, anyway?
Even if by some miracle she managed to get back to camp, camp wasn't safe anymore. Luke Castellan had gone crazy (well, crazier) and poisoned Thalia's tree.
Well, according to Percy he'd done some other stuff in between the going crazy part and the poisoning Thalia's tree part. Like joining Kronos. And trying to kill Percy. And stealing Zeus's lightening bolt (Seriously, how did he survive?). Not to mention kidnapping her and dumping her to rot on Circe's island for five years.
Five years.
Five fucking years.
There wasn't any time on Aeaea, she'd known that. Part of her had been scared that when she finally escaped it would be the year 3056 and everyone would be flying around on hoverboards, but a larger part of her had hoped she'd only been gone for a few months...
Mari still didn't understand why Luke had had Circe train her and not just imprison her in a dungeon or something. Maybe she never would. Mari squeezed her eyes shut. Thinking hurt, she needed to stop thinking.
She shivered and glanced at Percy. He wasn't paying any attention to her, caught up thinking about something. She didn't know what but he looked sad.
Mari lifted one hand and collected the mist around her. She closed her eyes. Then, she warmed it up as best she could. It felt kind of what she imagined a sauna would feel like.
The more she'd practiced, the less using the mist hurt. Kind of like a muscle. If Circe had sewn a muscle onto her without anaesthetic. Which might actually be accurate. Either way, she could almost forget she was doing it if she focused hard enough (which was rare). The deck was splintery, and the Chiton was sweaty from running around Aeaea. But she could make do. If she could just close her eyes for a few minutes...
"What are you doing?!"
Mari jumped and the mist dissipated around her. Annabeth was standing at the door, staring at her with narrowed eyes. Her hand was on the knife at her belt.
"I'm just keeping warm! I said Circe taught me some stuff with the mist, remember?!" Mari put her hands around her neck on instinct. That might have looked weird but her brain apparently decided that if they couldn't see her neck they wouldn't try and point knives at it.
Annabeth frowned. "That's not how the mist works."
Mari pursed her lips. "I told Circe that when she started teaching me. She threw me across the room with magic and then taught me anyway."
It wasn't like Mari could explain how it worked. Circe had said something about 'hidden power' that Mari had never quite understood.
"What's that?" Percy diverted both of their attention to some kind of zit on the ocean. It had lava falling out of one side and the air was hazy and red around it. If Mari looked at it for too long she started to sweat and her hands felt clammy.
"The forges of Hephaestus. Where he makes his metal monsters." Annabeth's face was pale.
Mari cringed. "There are metal monsters?!"
Annabeth nodded. "Yes. Go around. Far around."
Percy wasted no time in doing exactly that, and the ship gave the ocean zit a wide berth, until it was a tiny red dot on the horizon, just like Circe's island had become.
Percy looked at Mari. "Can you give us a minute?" he asked her.
Mari looked between Percy and Annabeth, then shrugged and nodded. It probably wasn't her business. Unless they were plotting to throw her overboard, then it definitely was her business. But they weren't doing that, right? She didn't have any bad feelings...
Mari went below deck and shut the door so that Annabeth and Percy could talk about... whatever they were talking about.
There were three rooms. One was full of dirty hammocks pressed together, probably for the crew. The second was full of five cleaner hammocks with more space between them, Mari guessed for the head pirates, or whatever the head pirates were supposed to be called. The third was full of barrels of what Mari assumed was rum. There was a rough wooden table in the middle of it.
Mari chose the room with the five clean hammocks. One of them had some kind of cap resting on the fabric. Mari assumed Annabeth had claimed that one, so she picked a hammock at the side of the room. The wall that ran alongside it was missing. That sounded bad, but it was actually really pretty and not at all scary or dangerous. Probably thanks to Percy, the water acted as if the wall were still there, like some kind of invisible force was holding it back.
The hard part was that the hammocks were not made for ten-year-olds. They were way too high. Mari ended up dragging a barrel of rum from the other room and using it as a stool to scramble onto it.
Mari yanked off her bracelets and carelessly tossed them onto the floor. It didn't take her long to fall asleep after that, watching the fish on the other side of the not-wall.
Mari woke up to hissing.
She shrieked and fell out of the hammock and onto the hard floor, toppling over the rum as she went. It spilled and Mari gagged at the smell.
She felt something scaly wrap around her ankle, like it was trying to squeeze her foot off. She kicked at it but it just squeezed harder, hissing at her again. Another slithered over her hands and she yanked it away, scrambling backwards.
How had she not anticipated this? The snakes hadn't bothered her on Circe's island. But she wasn't on Circe's island anymore, and snakes could swim. Well, some snakes could swim. How could she be so stupid?!
The door burst open to reveal Annabeth. Behind her was Percy, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"What's happening?" Annabeth had her sword out already, but there was nothing there. The snakes were gone.
There was a bruise forming on Mari's ankle.
"Nothing. I had a nightmare and fell out," Mari said quickly.
"Was it a demigod dream?" Percy asked.
Mari shook her head, but neither of them looked convinced. "It was really scary, there were clowns. And spiders."
Annabeth shuddered. Her voice was slightly high-pitched as she spoke. "Noted. We were about to wake you up, anyway."
Mari frowned. She could have used the help when there were actually snakes in her room. "Why?" she asked.
Annabeth had a gleam in her eyes as she answered. "We need to prepare. We're about to reach the island of the Sirens."
Mari followed them above deck, where she could make out a tiny black pinprick over the horizon. The sirens were the ones who tried to lure Odysseus to his death by singing, right? Mari wondered what they'd sound like for her. Maybe Taylor Swift? Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to want to find out.
"I need both of you to do me a favour," Annabeth said as she looked across the sea. Mari's heart started beating a little faster, and she swallowed. This didn't feel good. "The sirens..." Annabeth continued. "We'll be in range of their singing soon."
Mari nodded absent-mindedly.
"No problem," Percy began. "We can just stop up our ears. There's a big tub of candle wax below-"
"I want to hear them," Annabeth said.
Mari choked on the air. She'd thought Annabeth was a child of Athena? Weren't children of Athena supposed to be really wise?
"Why?" Percy sounded incredulous.
Annabeth looked like she was possessed as she answered, to the point where Mari nearly thought the sirens had already gotten to her. "They say the sirens sing the truth about what you desire. They tell you things about yourself that you didn't even realise. That's what's so enchanting. If you survive... you become wiser."
"If you survive?!" Mari crossed her arms. She really hoped she wasn't the only one who thought this was a terrible idea.
Annabeth gave her a look, then continued. "I want to hear them. How often will I get this chance?"
"Annabeth... how are we going to get around without you trying to drown yourself over the side?" Percy asked.
Mari nodded along with him. Thank the gods Percy agreed with her. It wasn't just that she'd be stranded in the middle of the ocean without them. She really didn't want them to die.
Annabeth smiled tightly. "I have a plan. In the Odessy, Odysseus had his crew tie him to the mast of his ship as they sailed past the sirens, and he made it without any harm. If both of you tie me to the mast, there's no reason the same thing won't work a second time."
Percy sighed, looking out at the island. Mari hadn't realised that the ship had been moving so fast, but the island was closer now, about the size of her thumb in the distance. It could have been some kind of natural aura the place had, or just her instincts playing up, but the thought of it filled her with dread.
"Okay. I'll help you," Percy said.
Mari grimaced. "Is this a good time to mention that I have a bad feeling?"
Annabeth looked too determined to be swayed. "Do your 'bad feelings' usually end in death?" she asked.
"It's not that simple..." Mari trailed off.
Annabeth nodded, unchanged. "Will you help?"
Mari wanted to bury her head in her hands. If she said no, they were just going to do it anyway, weren't they?
"Fine!" She scowled at both of them.
Percy found a length of rope... somewhere, and they all waited for the island to get closer. Mari shuddered and turned to both of them. "If you still wanna, we have to start now. There's not enough time otherwise. We'll be enchanted by the music before we get the wax in our ears. I think."
Without a word, Annabeth walked over to the mast and stood against it. Percy just looked at the rope, and it tied itself around Annabeth's waist, with the knot far away from her hands.
"Don't untie me, either of you. No matter what happens or how much I plead. I'll want to go straight over the edge and drown myself." Annabeth told them.
Mari cringed. She didn't need any reminder of how stupid this entire plan was...
"Are you trying to tempt me?" Percy joked.
"Ha-ha." Annabeth mock glared at him.
Mari snapped her head up, an idea entering her mind. "Hey! What if we just film the sirens and all of us block our ears?" she asked.
Annabeth cocked her head to the side speculatively, before her shoulders sank. "No. That wouldn't work. Monsters would flock towards the camera, and the sirens only sing if someone is in range to hear them. And that's if we even have something to film with."
Mari slumped against the deck, fists clenched around the two little balls of wax she'd nabbed from the container. These people were her only chance of getting back to camp, and they were going into a near-death situation with no reasoning. She was already going to have to follow them once. Why did she have to do it twice?!
Annabeth smiled at her. "But... disregarding those variables, it wasn't a bad idea."
Mari hadn't expected that to make her feel any better, but somehow it did.
She gave a tiny smile back, and stuffed the wax in her ears, cringing. They made a gross squelch sound, and they felt squishy and sticky.
Mari looked out at the island. It was scraggly, misty and surrounded by jagged rocks. A child's backpack was floating in the water, with a suspicious red stain on the front pocket. The beach itself was made of black stones, and Mari could smell... rot.
It was refreshing. Circe's island looked like a paradise at first glance. It was only when someone stayed there for more than an hour that they realised the shithole it really was. This place got people killed and didn't hide the fact that it got people killed. It was honest. She still hated it, though.
Annabeth started lurching against the ropes, which could only mean that the sirens had started to sing. She screamed and started to cry, and Percy had to eventually look away. Mari glanced back at the island. She couldn't see where the sirens were, but she didn't want to know what they looked like. She was imagining evil mermaids, but given how fucked up the gods and their entire world was, she wouldn't be that shocked if they were bird-human hybrids or something.
"It's probably not even a very good song, anyways," she muttered. Annabeth stared at her, then shouted something which was probably meant to be insulting. Mari couldn't hear either way. She furrowed her eyebrows. Annabeth was technically under control of the sirens... did that make them divas?
Mari tapped the edge of the boat with her hands to make a tune to pass the time. She wished she could hear what it sounded like. She was just getting to the chorus when her instincts told her to turn around. She frowned and looked over her shoulder.
Annabeth was nearly done untying the ropes.
Mari sprinted across the deck to Percy, and was about a metre away when an arm wrapped around her neck and yanked her back.
"Percy! Percy! She's escaped!" Mari yelled at the top of her lungs.
He didn't turn around. Gods, it was like being in a bloody horror movie! Annabeth started dragging her towards the deck, and Mari's heart nearly stopped.
"No. No, Annabeth, snap out of it!" She yanked a hand free and slapped Annabeth across the face. She barely even reacted. "Please, Annabeth, I can't swim! I can't swim!"
Annabeth jumped off the boat with Mari in tow.
They hit the water and Annabeth very kindly used Mari as a springboard to get further out. Mari was slammed across the side of the boat and somehow managed to wrap her hand around a piece of rope... the anchor. She took a breath but the boat rocked and she got a mouthful of saltwater.
Oh gods, what if some of the sirens swam out and got her? Or another monster decided to take a nibble off the side of the boat? "Percy!" her voice was lost in the wind.
"Annabeth, come back! Please!" She screamed and screamed, but her voice was hoarse.
Then something vaulted over the side of the boat.
Or, someone. She caught a glimpse of an orange shirt.
Percy.
Oh, she was fucked.
That was it. She was going to die. Percy was going to go and try to rescue Annabeth and the sirens were going to get both of them. And then she was going to die of thirst, or hypothermia, or some kind of monster thing (oh gods, please could it be anything but a snake). She was never going to make it back to camp. She was going to die, and as far as anyone was concerned, she'd have been dead for five fucking years...
She shivered and nearly let go of the rope. Her chiton offered absolutely no protection from the cold and water was splashing her face every five seconds. "Ugh..." she coughed again as she swallowed more salt water.
Her hands! She couldn't feel her hands! Or her feet. She wondered if her lips were blue...
She needed to do something.
Mari closed her eyes and let go of the rope with one hand. A wave splashed over her face and she screamed as she nearly lost her grip on the rope, but managed to keep hold of it. Her wet hair dripped over her eyes as she stretched her free hand out in front of her, and managed to flex her fingers. They were tingly and numb.
She gathered the mist around her and thought about warmth. Any kind of warmth. The air around her grew thicker and it began to feel like she was in a sauna again. Her legs were underwater where the mist couldn't reach so she couldn't do anything about that.
How long could she hold this for? An hour? Two hours? If her nose bled into the ocean, would she attract monsters more quickly, the way blood attracted sharks? She didn't have any free hands to defend against monsters. At least she wouldn't have to worry about the cold that way...
Something brushed against her leg and she shrieked. She lifted it up to see... seaweed. A piece of seaweed brushed against her leg. Mari started to cry (how she had the energy, she had no bloody clue) and the saltwater from her eyes mixed with the ocean. Maybe they could be friends...
Mari had no clue how long she was in the water for. Maybe half an hour? The ship started moving again around a quarter of the way through. Probably the only thing that kept her from falling unconscious from the cold and drowning was the mist thing, but she started to develop a headache.
Her instincts told her to scream.
"FUCK!" she screamed as loud as she possibly could.
A huge wave lifted her up and in her shock she lost her hold of the mist...
"Ah!" she squeaked as she was unceremoniously plopped onto the deck.
Annabeth was shivering too. Mari cringed as she gathered the mist around the other girl to warm her. Eventually, her shivers turned to sighs, and Mari thought she might even be asleep but then she mouthed a single word. Safe.
It took Mari's half-frozen fingers longer than it normally would have to yank the earbuds from her ears and throw them overboard. Maybe the monsters could snack on her earwax or something.
Mari managed to prop herself up against the side of the boat and sighed. The island was a pinprick again, and the voices of the sirens were long gone.
"Never again." She coughed, and was surprised she could speak with all the salt. "Never..." she trailed off. Okay. Now she was done talking.
"You both okay?" Percy asked.
Mari shook her head miserably.
"I'm sorry, Marion. I didn't realise how powerful the temptation would be." Annabeth shivered.
Mari's headache was getting worse. She couldn't keep them both warm anymore. Percy chucked them each a blanket.
Percy turned to Annabeth. "I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan. And Luke, and your parents."
"That's nice," Mari said. "I saw lots and lots of saltwater." Maybe she was a little delirious. That would explain a lot.
Annabeth's face went red like a beetroot. "You saw that?"
"What Luke told you, on the Princess Andromeda, about rebuilding the world from scratch... that really got to you, huh?"
Mari had no clue what they were talking about so she zoned out for a while, wrapping the quilt around herself. She didn't really take in what they were saying. Something about hummus and possibly communism? But she might have misinterpreted that last bit.
She wondered how her siblings were doing. If they even remembered her...
She vaguely recalled Amber saying she wanted to move in with Lizzie... Lizzie something, the head Hermes counsellor, and go to university together. Or was it college in America?
Sammy... they'd always been talking about music. She could easily imagine them running off and starting a band somewhere sunny. Or maybe a solo act. It had been five years, right? Sammy was talented, they'd lead most of the campfires. There was no way they'd stay at camp. There was too much opportunity out there for them. Mari wondered if Sammy ever paid a visit to camp.
Mason would probably still be at camp. He always seemed to care about his siblings more than anything else. Maybe he'd taken over leading the campfires from Sammy. Or maybe he'd started some kind of music club, she remembered him mentioning that...
Lee would be fifteen by now. Gods, that was surreal. He'd been her age last time she saw him. He would probably be into the music right along with Mason. Or he'd be mentoring some kind of archery class. He was too young to leave camp still, but Mari remembered him saying he wanted to be a musician...
Michael would still be spending every waking moment at the archery range. Nothing else needed to be said.
She didn't know about Viti. Viti hadn't talked much to her. She'd always seemed shy and more reserved than all the other Apollo campers.
What about Sean? Sean has been so young... how old was he now? Six? Nine? She didn't even remember anymore...
They were all teenagers. She... wasn't.
Were there any new campers? Probably. If she ever made it back, what would they think of her? What would her old siblings think? Mari could strangle people with the mist, which was supposed to be a protective force. Would they hate her? Make her leave? What if she'd messed this all up, just like she did with her old foster families—
"Marion. Look."
Mari turned and shakily sat up.
Her limbs felt sore and stiff, but she was half god. Hypothermia didn't linger for as long as it did a regular mortal, apparently.
They had stopped in front of an island.
It was beautiful. But it was the same kind of beauty that Circe's island had possessed. Like it was hiding something sinister behind it.
It was one huge valley with a huge hill on either side. There were sandy beaches and a beautiful meadow full of grazing sheep. There was a creepy rock bridge crossing between the hills which looked anything but safe, but it probably took more that a fall to kill a Cyclops. Annabeth and said it was guarded by a Cyclops, right? Polygon or something. Gods, she sounded like Mr. D.
"It's the island of the Cyclops," Percy whispered.
— SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE —
Adela almost laughed at the white picket fence outside of the house. It was too on the nose.
The neighbourhood was one of those safe ones where everyone knew each other and the doors were left unlocked at night. That made it easier. She was horrible at picking locks.
The family was upstairs, so she had to be quiet.
She hefted the bag over her shoulder and zipped it, standing from her crouch. She didn't need to be careful about what she took since she never went to the same place twice. She'd tried that once and been caught. The cops called a nice lady to take her to a foster home for the night. She'd killed the nice lady and escaped.
"Hello? Is someone downstairs?"
Styx. She hadn't been careful enough.
She stepped onto the polished kitchen counter, mentally apologising to whoever was going to have to clean dirty boot marks, and got one leg out of the window before the door opened.
"Mom! Dad! There someone breaking in!"
The girl had one earbud dangling free and was holding a fork with a pickle on it. Not a very good weapon.
An older voice called out, "Beatrice? Don't move, sweetie! Wait for me to get there."
Adela jumped out of the window.
The door would have been quicker but then she'd have to run through the huge garden. The window led to a path around the house, which looked like it connected to an alley. That was good. She could lose anyone - or anything - who chased her there.
She hit the pebbled ground and rolled to avoid impact. The pebbles dug into her skin. She glanced at the window and saw the teenager - Beatrice - was joined by two adults. One of them was already reaching into their pocket, probably to call the cops.
Her padre used to read her stories about noble thieves, who stole out of necessity and left something behind to replace what they took, like medicine for a sick child. She didn't have any of those things. And nobody who met her would describe her as noble.
Thanks to her demigod hearing, the mother's voice was clear in Adela's ears. "I'd like to report a break in... uh, maybe eleven? Long dark hair and black gloves. Yes. Okay, thankyou."
Why was she just standing there?
She took off, down the path, ignoring the shouts behind her. They looked like a rich family. The house had three floors. She needed the food more than they did.
She kicked the white gate open and sprinted across the road into the alley. Sometimes, when she was caught, members of the families tried to follow her. It had happened a lot more when she was younger. One of them even tackled her to the ground. She killed him.
The alley wasn't dark but it cut off into a separate path, which was probably old. She could just about squeeze through if she held her breath, but an adult wouldn't be able to fit. She sidestepped along the path until it led her to an entrance to a forest. There was a heart with the initials B.L. and D.F. inside carved into a tree, which made her think maybe the alley path was more deliberate than she'd thought.
A siren sounded in the distance.
She darted into the woods, until she couldn't see any houses through the trees anymore. She paused for a breath and kept running until the sound of sirens faded away completely.
She opened her bag and rifled through. Dried mango slices with lime flavouring, corn nuts, glazed pecans of all things, trail mix, and four bottles of water. She hadn't had time to take much before she was caught. At least she wouldn't have to drink from another stream.
She zipped up her bag again. She had money but she needed to keep it for bus tickets. And occasionally motels, but that was only during the summer and winter solstices. There were always more monsters roaming around then. It was better to be indoors.
A branch snapped behind her. She sprang up and turned. Nothing.
It was better to be on the move anyway. More monsters had started coming for her since her last birthday, she couldn't make it easy for them. She couldn't make it easy for him, either.
Another branch snapped. Maybe it wasn't nothing, then. She broke into another run.
AAAAND THE LAST OC IS INTRODUCED! SHE HAS BEEN MENTIONED ONCE ALREADY, BUT IT WAS MORE OF A BLINK-AND-MISS-IT HINT. I'M VERY EXCITED FOR WHAT I HAVE PLANNED FOR HER. :D