Percy was confused. Where did everybody go? He looked around the room he was now standing in yet had no recollection of getting in.
Percy was in what looked like a small office, there was a big wooden desk in the middle of the room and the walls were covered in bookshelves. The loud howl from earlier rang out in the room as a large hellhound stalked in from the open door.
Still having Riptide grasped in his hand Percy lunged forward, catching the hound in surprise, and stabbing it through the skull. Standing back up, Percy was tackled by a lizard lady who had her arms wrapped around his chest and left arm not allowing him much movement.
Percy impacted the wood floor hard as thunder shook the house.
He tried to maneuver Riptide in a way he could stab her but if he did he would stab himself with her. Percy tried to break her hold on him but her hold was too strong. As he moved his left arm to try and push her off his hand felt a handle to some kind of weapon just as she tried to bite into his neck.
Bingo!
Percy pulled on the handle, drawing what felt like a dagger, and stabbed the lizard lady in the ribs twice. The monster turned to dust as Percy stood up still clutching the dagger he killed it with, turning his gaze to the weapon it appeared to be made out of Celestial Bronze with a length of 4 inches.
So it was more of a brutal shiv.
Percy decided to keep the dagger as an off weapon for now before exiting the room into the hallway. The hallway was long and empty except for a few doors littered throughout it. Heading towards the end of the hallway Percy kept his eyes and eyes open while brandishing both Riptide and his new shiv in an icepick grip.
As he walked forth Percy heard what sounded like metal clashing and a grunt of pain coming from the wall next to him but there wasn't a door there. Before he could consider breaking through the wall the loud howl rang out again as two lizard ladies appeared in front of him. Thinking quickly Percy threw the small knife, embedding it firmly in the head of the leading lizard monster and turning her into dust.
Percy then met the other monster head on as his gleaming bronze blade clashed against the bronze spear of the second lizard lady. The lizard lady growled as she pushed him away and went to stab him but Percy was quicker and dodged away from the spear before responding with a slash that bisected her, turning her into dust as well.
Retrieving his new handy dandy knife, Percy continued his walk towards the end of the hallway. When he reached the first door on his right he pushed it open slowly searching for any kind of threats.
Percy was now standing in a dining room that looked like it had been attacked by a tornado, there were chairs thrown all over the place and the long dining table was flipped over. At the other end of the room sat the statue-still body of Grover, seemingly dead. Percy ran over to his goat friend and checked his pulse, nothing, so he reached up and closed Grovers eyes. Yet, he noticed something off about the satyr's horns.
One was slightly longer than the other which is impossible because Grover is very careful to keep his horns the same size.
This couldn't be Grover. What is going on here?
The dead body of not-Grover was still unsettling nonetheless to Percy as he forced himself to look away, trying to force away his sadness by focusing on his confusion.
Percy left the room as he tried to figure out what was going on. He entered a bedroom that looked like it had been ransacked, there were clothes all over the place and an open closet. There was a chair on its side by the door as he walked in. Percy immediately noticed the blood stains on the ground in front of the bed and the blood staining the blankets.
It was still fresh.
Percy left the room and searched for more blood, he needed to know whose blood it was. There was half a bloody handprint on the wall outside the room and it looked like it was heading back down the other hallway.
The loud howl rang out once more.
Percy turned to walk back down the corridor he saw something that made him freeze. At the end of the hallway was a man. Gabriel Ugliano was standing there, staring at him with that same pug ugly glare that's permanently stuck on his face.
"Hello Brain Boy" The fat walrus of a man said, cracking the belt he held in his hands, "Your report card came, and it's not very good."
Percy stared in horror as Smelly Gabe walked towards him. This was starting to become a nightmare, yet Percy knew it wasn't, after all this had already happened. This time, Percy wasn't gonna let it play out like last time though. Remembering what Chiron had told him about Celestial Bronze only working on beings from the Greek World he put away his weapons and backed up towards the destroyed dining room.
With every step Percy took, the monster of a man in front of him grew closer. As the distance between them grew shorter Percy couldn't help the flashbacks to everytime Gabe had hit him, which made Percy angry. Percy grabbed one of the broken chairs and ripped off its leg, effectively giving him a weapon to use on Gabe.
Percy felt the moisture in the air and commanded it to harden into a sort of blade on the broken chair leg, immediately feeling how hard to was to solidify water but he kept going, once it was solidified Percy ignored the painful tug in his gut as he demanded the water start spinning like a buzzsaw.
Gabe was in the room now. Just staring at Percy, coiled belt in hand.
Thunder rumbled above once more as a flash of lightning shot by the windows, in that single second of lightning Gabe was gone. He simply disappeared like he was never there in the first place. Percy didn't know what to do but the pain in his gut became too painful and he had to let go of his hold on his spinning water weapon. The water splashed on the broken remnants of the chair he smashed. Percy dropped the chair leg he was holding as he caught his breath.
Percy shook his head as his heartbeat calmed, he needed to focus. Percy returned to the hallway where Gabe had appeared very carefully. Following the very, very faint blood trail Percy came across a door that was still half way open, as he pushed it open the loud howl rang out once more.
Entering the room Percy found another horror, his mother's ghost was standing there. It was his mother exactly as he remembered her, the same wounds from when the camaro crashed and she was killed by the Minotaur.
"Mom?" Percy asked carefully as shakily held up Riptide towards her. The ghost of his mother slowly walked towards him and as he got within arms reach, she turned into the same golden dust just like when the MInotaur killed her.
At this point, Percy was feeling a lot of grief and sadness, but he had to find his friends so he pushed aside his emotions and exited the room. Taking a shaky but deep breath Percy continued onward and went to the next door in the hallway.
Opening it slowly Percy was greeted with a happy surprise this time. Grover was in the room! At least he hoped it was Grover. It sure looked like Grover, same clothes and hooves, even length horns and the rasta cap he always wears. Except he had some blood on his arm.
"G-man?" Percy asked while pointing Riptide in Grover's direction," Is that you?"
Grover spun around quickly from the desk he was searching through, "Percy?"
"It's me Grover." Percy responded quickly as he lowered Riptide and hugged his goat friend.
"What happened dude?" Percy asked Grover as he pulled some ambrosia out of his backpack and passed it to the injured Satyr, "Did this happen before or after we all somehow teleported away from each other."
"I, uh, after we were separated." Grover responded lamely as he finished the small portion of ambrosia given to him. The cut above his eye sealed up along with the bruises on his cheek fading away. Percy inspected his friend, noticing that he was missing both fake feet and his pants. Grover had some dried blood on his hands and face but the bleeding had stopped due to the magical healing food that is the food of the Gods.
"I was chased by those Dracaenae that surrounded us after you guys disappeared, I found an old Celestial Bronze knife that I killed one with but the other one that was chasing managed to throw me pretty hard against the wall before I killed it." Grover explained as he turned back to the desk he was rummaging through. Percy looked over Grover's shoulder to see what he was looking at and saw what looked like a map of the house sitting on the desk.
"Hey Grover, have you seen Luke or Tom yet?" Percy asked as he looked around the rest of the apparent office he found Grover in. Grover shook his head no before rolling the map up and sliding it into a side pocket on his backpack.
"Well, let's hope we find them soon."
Luke let out a growl as he cut down his third Dracanae in the last 10 minutes he's spent searching the manor's first floor for any sign of his friends. With no sighting of them on the first floor Luke scaled the rickety old stairs with his Enchanted Longsword out. As he was ascending the stairs he heard what sounded like a grunt of pain coming from the end of the hallway he now found himself in.
Luke scanned the hallway noticing 5 doors, three on the right and two on the left. Keeping his unnamed blade in a defensive position Luke treaded forward cautiously. The third door on the right at the end of the hallway slowly creaked open as Luke heard a voice that sent shivers down his spine.
One he had thought he would never hear again.
"Luke, honey? Is that you? I made you sandwiches." May Castellan asked as she walked into the hallway.
Luke froze.
This cannot be happening.
Luke had watched her die.
He even held her hand in the hospital as she passed due to the tumor in her head. A tumor that was part of the reason he held disdain for the Gods. A tumor caused by the Gods when the cursed Oracle of Delphi tried to find a host in his mother. Only for the cursed spirit to drive her mad.
Luke realized he had stopped breathing for a minute too long. The edges of his vision were starting to go black before he gasped for air. He vaguely registered that he was hyperventilating even after gaining his breath back. With a shaking grip on his sword, Luke took a step back as he inspected his mother for the first time in years. Her blonde hair glinted in the shallow torchlight as her gray eyes stared into his very soul. She looked healthy again, as if she was somehow brought back to life.
"Mom?" Luke asked shakily, sounding so much like a lost child to himself that he flinched. May reached a hand out to cup Luke's face, her thumb tracing the bottom of the deep scar carved into his face. Luke could actually feel her hand touching his face, erasing the possibility that this was a ghost. May Castellan actually stood before him, his own mother, back from the grave.
Somewhere, in the very back of his skull his demigod instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. Deeply, deeply wrong. But Luke could barely hear it over his blood pumping and his heartbeat sounding like a drum. His breath was coming out faster and faster as he stared at her, his hands were shaking, sweat was quickly encompassing him, and there was a tingly feeling in his arms.
"It's really me honey." May said as she got on her tiptoes to place a kiss to his forehead. Luke could feel the flush of warmth that spread through his body, the sensation reminding him of when he was younger, before the oracle changed her, before she lost her mind, and before that insanity causing tumor took his life. The scream of his demigod instincts slowly died out as he realized this was really happening, this was his mom.
There was a loud bang from one the doors further down the hallway that made Luke jump and tighten his grip on the Enchanted Longsword of Hermes. May quickly stepped back from him with a look Luke couldn't quite decipher as he spun towards the noise.
And the house shook down to its foundations as if an earthquake had just occurred.
Tom shook his wrist in an attempt to stop the cramping from using his new bow. While he was grateful that Lord Apollo took him under his protection and granted him this bow, Tom was not a fan of bows. He much preferred getting in close with his shamshir though a part of him craved to pull out his spear and put it to good use. He sighed as he remembered the warning from his grandmother to only use it as a last resort but that he needed it or he would die, not that he knew when he would really need it.
Tom threw the bow over his shoulder and secured it before drawing Akamptos as he approached another door in this labyrinth-esque house. He winced as the string of Light Bringer pressed into his bandaged stab wound before adjusting it to not cut into it anymore. He paused again as the creature he was hunting howled again. It sounded closer than the last howl giving him hope that he could end this soon and find the others.
Once again kicking open a door, Tom moved through the doorway slowly with his shamshir raised and eyes moving throughout the hallway he now found himself in. Only to freeze yet again at what he saw at the end of the hallway.
Lying in a pool of her own blood was Clarisse La Rue.
His mind was screaming that this was fake.
Screaming at him to remember the fake Luke he saw in the last room.
However his heart was screaming louder.
Tom sprinted towards his fallen friend. The first friend he made in Camp Halfblood. A friend he thought of as a sister. Though now, after reaching her prone body and seeing the image of Clarisse with a 4 inch dagger shoved between her ribs and her choking on her own blood, did Tom realize that maybe she meant more to him than just a sister.
He dropped to his knees uncaring at the splatter of blood from the impact. He lifted her slightly to rest against his chest as he checked her over for any other injuries. Panic fueling his mind, still not registering that this could be fake. As Tom held Clarisse there in his arms watching the light slowly leaving her eyes and not knowing if she could even be saved, he felt something deep within him snap. A feeling he felt before back in Medusa's diner, a pressure that was building up in his skull.
A pressure that finally snapped.
Thunder boomed overhead and a bright red flash shone in through the windows.
He could feel the lightning impacting the ground around the house as whatever mental lock that was on his father's powers left by his grandmother broke. The Temple of Lyssa shook down to its foundation as he let out the rage and grief that had been building up since his grandfather died, which only worsened after seeing someone else he was close with, someone he held more dear in his heart than he had originally thought, die in front of him.
Tom looked back down at Clarisse's lifeless brown eyes before closing them and then slowly lowered her to the ground. As he reached into his backpack to use a jacket to cover her up, he watched her slowly disappear which finally broke through his panic filled haze that this was fake.
Yet, he could not get the image of Clarisse dying in front of him out of his mind.
The image was stuck in his mind like a photograph and Tom realized he would never forget that moment.
He ripped his gaze away from where the body once was and stood up, now even more determined to reach whatever is causing these visions and kill it.
With rage coursing through his veins Tom marched forward towards the only door in the hallway, somehow knowing the monster behind this was in that room. And he was ready to end this horrible nightmare of a side quest.