The Arena Once More: Sequel to The Demigod Games

The Fifth Hour

When the 4th Hour is over, everyone is too tired to do anything. An entire 60 minutes of jumping on dead, carnivorous trees, followed by the mourning of our footless friend. ,The cannon boomed thirty seconds before the hour ended. Piper's crying her eyes out on the other side of the ring, and Percy and Leo are comforting her. Hazel and I have stayed strong so far.

Until now. "Wait, Annabeth...where's Frank?" Hazel asks me. "Is he still in the 9th ring?"

"No, 10th," I say. It's the truth, just not completely.

"10th?" Hazel wonders.

"During the 2nd Hour, Frank slipped and fell on the spikes. I pulled him into the 10th Ring."

"Oh. So, why hasn't he found us?"

"Well...he decided to stay in the ring. Forever."

"What are you saying?"

"I think you know, Hazel. And I am so, so sorry," I answer, and put my hand around her comfortingly.

"You didn't kill him, did you? Again?"

I take a deep breath. "No, sweetie. At the end of the hour, he bled out. I couldn't save him. I'm sorry," I apologize, tears running down my face now.

I pull her toward me, and eventually, we fall asleep in each other's comforting arms.

The next thing we know, a big body hits us, rattling us out of our sleep. "What the crap?" I stand up, and evaluate the situation. The body that hit us belongs to a girl about 13. Her arms are bleeding and covered with splinters. I'm about to help us when an axe comes flying toward us.

Hazel and I dodge the weapon, but it ends up in the poor girl's head. BOOM!

Our eyes widen. "Guys!" I yell. The other 4 members of our crew come running.

"What is it?" Jason asks. Then he sees the girl. "What happened?"

Hazel explains why everything that went on after the girl hit us.

"That makes no sense!" Piper exclaims. "How can one girl come flying out of nowhere?"

Percy asks,"Where'd she even come from?"

"I don't even know. I think it might've been the next ring over. I'll go check it out," I offer. I climb up the shelf, and survey my surroundings. I think something's wrong with my vision all of a sudden, because everything passing by in a blur. Every two seconds, I see one or two peach-colored figures spinning past me.

I turn around to tell the group when I stop in my tracks. Another Tribute is staring at me three shelves over. Before I can yell at Percy to throw me a weapon, the boy throws a spear my way. I duck, which results in me stumbling. I trip over my foot, and fall backwards. I don't have time to catch on the ledge.

I'm immediately disoriented. As soon as I land, I feel like barfing. The reason everything was blurry up there was because the whole ring was spinning. That's how the girl flew into our ring. She must've been trying to get out.

As the ring spins at nearly 150 miles per hour, my sickness gets worse. I barf, ducking as soon as my last meal comes up to avoid choking. A moment later, I hear the BOOM! of the cannon. I really hope that Tribute didn't choke on my puke, because I think I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life if he did.

I manage a loud "Help!" before throwing up again. I don't hear another cannon, so at least I won't have as much utter embarrassment on my shoulders. I assume a position where I'm lying on my stomach. If I get sick again, I don't want to be the one who dies.

Five agonizing minutes later, my stomach burning with acid, a hear a thud next to me. "Annabeth!" Percy cries.

"Seaweed Brain! Have you come with help?" I ask.

He nods. "Leo's dangling a rope down right now." A thin, wheat-colored object flies past us. "Which would be the rope that just passed us. Grab my hand!" he demands. "On my mark! 1...2...3!"

Percy takes hold of the rope, and we're yanked upwards. It takes a while since there's only four people pulling two heavy weights. When we hit the ground, I look past the pain, and appreciate the fact the room isn't literally spinning anymore.

"And that, Annabeth Chase," Leo says,"is why we don't see what's in any other ring but ours."

Unfortunately, as soon as the words leave his mouth, we all hear a chorus of five blood-curdling screams, followed by a chorus of five heart-wrenching cannons.

I meet everyone's eyes. "Looks like the hour's up."