Percy Jackson: The Light Bringer

Neon Shenanigans

   "Crap crap crap crap" I kept repeating in my head. This was bad...this was very bad. No matter how much I wanted to, I knew that there were some rules even I couldn't break. Seeing the future and altering it is one of them.

   "We are so going to have a talk about that later" I heard a voice in the back of my head say, a voice that I recognised and had come to respect. 

   "Get outta my head Lucifer! Now's not the time!" I whisper-shouted to myself, trying to keep what little of privacy I had. I felt his presence retreat, leaving a strange feeling that involuntary made me shudder.

    "Got people stuck in your head? Me too! There's Margo, Elizabeth and Dwayne. Elizabeth is kinda weird though; she doesn't ever stop talking!" Olivia said in a rapid fire pace, not letting me answer. 

   Great, I broke her.

   "This is not right...no no no" I said, louder this time. Olivia rolled her eyes and spoke in a carefree tone. "Oh please, there are many uses of this ability. You will thank me later" she said, leaving me confused about the last part.

   "Why would I thank you?" I asked in a puzzled tone. Olivia raised an eyebrow and smiled a mischievous smile. I had a feeling that I would find out soon enough. Besides, never mess with a person who can see your future... it can get messy.

   Olivia looked about to say something but I suddenly fell forward to the ground. Olivia had to jump sideways to avoid being pushed down along with me. The room started spinning and Olivia sighed like she knew this moment would come. 

   "Goodbye for now... we'll meet again, that much I know." She said and my vision started flickering. I saw...something. Flashes of battle, a white horse, a warrior summoning lightning. The last was the most 'peculiar' one. I saw shades of white and blue, a constantly changing mixture of colours that would be awe inspiring to a sober mind. And it formed the figure of a...person?

   And then, it was followed by darkness...something I was getting quite used to in these dreams.

   I woke up to a sharp pressure on my chest. I took in a deep gasp of breath and coughed up water...wait water? Last I checked, sulphur doesn't turn into water. It's chemically impossible. 

   "Thought I lost you there" I heard the voice of Danwer from beside me, "The entire chamber collapsed and turns out, there was a reservoir of water above it, causing it to flood in. You were too exhausted to swim so I had to carry you. And let me tell you...you are heavier than you look" 

   'That explains the water' I thought. I looked around to see myself in a huge puddle, almost a pool, of water. We were in some kind of elevated land, the rest of the cavern being flooded. From a distance, I saw a multitude of tentacles of the monsters, but where the bodies should have been, there were huge boulders in its place.

   Danwer followed my gaze and gave out a small laugh. "I doubted you for a second when you said that you wanted to blow the cave , but well done. Getting crushed by a rock...man, that's pretty gruesome" he said, still laughing. I looked at him, regarding him weirdly for his reaction, and looked back tiredly at the monsters one last time.

   Well, at-least that's a job well done.

   After a few failed attempts, I stood up straight and stretched my arms and legs. I blinked a few times to clear my vision and felt Danwer pat my back. I looked at him, to see him point at one of the walls. The wall had a large crack on it, acting like a sort of doorway. 

   I nodded and we both made our way towards it. The entire path was covered in water, with the exception of a few rocks that acted as steps on the water. We used them, almost slipping from the wetness of the stone multiple times, to reach the end. 

   I had to squeeze through to reach the other side for the gap, despite being huge in length, was narrow and this limited our manoeuvrability. As I crossed through, I had to squint my eyes as a bright light filled my vision. As I slowly adjusted to the sudden increase in luminosity, I took in my surroundings. 

   This room, unlike the last, appeared modern and well kept. Surprisingly, the floor was covered with solid tiles and them light was artificial — emitted by long fluorescent bulbs in various shapes. It was kinda beautiful but caused a glare if you looked at it for too long.

   What's the point of having art if your eyes burn everytime you look at it?

  The whole room gave out a 'Newly-refurbished-but-limited-budget' aura. Might as well put a sign that said 'We're cool, but not really'.  I sighed and walked forward, Danwer tailing close behind. 

   The whole cave, with all its lighting, seemed to point towards a general direction: forward. Lacking better options, we both silently agreed that doing as the cave says, wow, is the best course of action. 

   We walked and boy, did we walk! Hours and hours. We walked for so long that I lost track of time after some point. It had been around 20:45 when we had first started walking. Surprised that I knew the time? Me too. Apparently, I have a sort of sixth( ninth? ) sense that tells me the time, like how the sea tells me the geo-coordinates.

   But as I walked, for some reason, I couldn't decipher the time. It's like trying to remember something that you very recently forgot. You know it's there, somewhere, but it's just at the edge of the unreachable; just outside your grasp.

   The first hour was...tolerable. I walked for five minutes straight before growing in boredom. The cave patterns were repetitive and in no way entertaining. My ADHD, which I wrongly assumed had stopped, did nothing to make things better. 

   Somehow, the minutes turned to hours. To be perfectly candid, it did involve a lot of annoying comments, one fight and many many many thoughts of cannibalism.

   Turns out, thinking about eating your companion is pretty entertaining.

   Both of us were highly tempted to just turn back and take our chances but we both somehow knew that this was a test and passing the test was the only way we're getting out of here. Have I mentioned how much I hate this celestial stuff? Cause I do.

   So as I said, minutes turned into hours and hours turned into...well, more hours. It was pretty exhausting. And no, I didn't mean 'I-want-to-watch-a-movie-cause-I'm-tired' exhausting. I meant the 'If-something-interesting-doesn't happen-right-now-I-will-gut-you' kind of exhausting. 

   And something interesting happen it did. The repetitive pathway opened up to a much bigger 'chamber' of sorts. Two things were the most noticeable in the chamber: The hi-tech door which was the size of a skyscraper, and the guardian standing steadfast in front of the doors, bigger than the doors itself.

    I rubbed my forehead, the new discovery annoying me more than surprising me, before speaking in a hollow tone.

                               "Et Tu Brute?" I sighed, quoting Julius Caesar from Shakespeare.

<Remember to vote>