Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

2.03

The thing about experiencing moments of precognition where you knew that something was about to happen but not knowing what was terrible and Kassandra would have gladly let her siblings keep that little tidbit of power and keep her usual penchant for enhanced battle reflexes.

Having a warning that something was going to happen wasn't useful in the life of a demigod as much as one might like to think that it was. Kassandra was already prepared for shit to hit the fan at any given moment, so knowing it was about to happen only made her much more nervous, much more anxious.

The words kept repeating in her mind like a whisper that she could just barely ignore and she could hardly keep herself from glancing to Annabeth every other moment as her dream voice kept whispering.

"Better me than you. Better me than you. Better me than you."

Because she was very much aware that a fight was bound to happen at one point in the night, now, and even as she had whispered a warning to the others, paying special attention to Annabeth to tell her that she had to be careful please, they didn't seem to pay much attention to what she had said -- as if the warning from the daughter of the god of prophecy was something that could be so easily ignored.

She observed the half-blood siblings where she stood leaning against the wall letting herself be talked to by a couple of the older teens that were stood awkwardly against the wall. It was something that was much easier than dancing when you were supposed to be keeping an eye on people -- and as she kept getting odd looks from Annabeth and Percy, she wondered if perhaps she was fitting in a little too well as she laughed brightly at whatever the boy said, letting all the natural charisma and knowing that she was attractive play out on her features as she felt as though she was glowing in the darkened room.

The girl, Bianca di Angelo, wore a floppy green cap, like she was trying to hide her face. The boy, Nico, was obviously her little brother. They both had dark silky hair and olive skin, and they used their hands a lot as they talked. The boy was shuffling some kind of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him about something.

She kept looking around like she sensed something was wrong.

Her eyes flit over to Dr. Thorn briefly, asserting his location easily as she kept her hearing tuned into him the best that she could with so many sounds.

(She might be able to hear better than others, might be able to pick out a specific sound from a distance away, but it was hard when everything was designed to be so muffled and crowded. She wasn't even sure she could keep full focus on the siblings, the monster, and the rest of the group with the full help of her siblings even if she wanted to.)

(But she tried, she always did, because she wasn't going to be proven as lesser than anyone, let alone some monster.)

Sound echoed around her and she dampened the music as much as she could, drowning out the distractions as though she could toss them away into the oceans, could throw them--

The image of the cliff zapped in her mind, blinding her for a moment, and she nearly staggered, nearly fell into some strange boy that was growing closer, antsy, saying something about geography, but all she could think of was the cliff that was beside the school.

"Better me than you."

No, it's not, she whispered back angrily, skin on fire as she watched Dr. Thorn usher the siblings through the door that he had entered through beside the bleachers. You aren't going anywhere near the cliff if I can help it.

She let out a sharp whistle, drawing the attention of the other half-bloods before she took off after them -- pulling upon all the little tricks that she had learnt over the years spent in cabin 11.