《 son of neptune - mark of Athena 》
《 oc x jason grace 》
Chiara was thinking for the first time
in her life that
she could have a normal year
without a
family member dying or someone
wanting h...
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🇨 🇭 🇦 🇵 🇹 🇪 🇷 🇪 🇱 🇪 🇻 🇪 🇳 ༄⁂
CHIARA FELT LIKE A ROBOT. She walked, she was aware of her surroundings and she malfunctioned perfectly. Everything would be normal if only her mind worked too, her brain did but her thoughts didn't correspond with the rest of her. She had shut them off and the absence of her comments every now and then would be very noticeable if everyone around her wasn't focused on their own issues -whatever these were-.
They were twenty yards from the porch of the shop when something hissed in the grass behind them, switching the on button of her subconscious back on.
"Go!" Frank yelled.
Percy stumbled. While Hazel and Chiara helped him up, Frank turned and nocked an arrow.
He shot blindly. She thought he'd grabbed an exploding arrow, but it was only a signal flare. It skidded through the grass, bursting into orange flame and whistling 'WOO!' Chiara kept observing Frank when Hazel shook her and gestured for her to follow them up the steps.
"Nice creepy reptile," Chiara heard Frank say as she climbed -something she would normally laugh at-. "Nice poisonous, fire-breathing reptile."
"Frank!" Hazel yelled infront of her. "Come on!"
Frank eventually dropped his bow and ran for the porch. Percy, Chiara and Hazel pulled him up the steps. When Chiara turned, she saw all three monsters circling in the grass, breathing fire and turning the hillside brown with their poisonous touch. They didn't seem able or willing to come closer to the store.
"We'll never get out of here," he said miserably.
"Then we'd better go in." Hazel pointed to the hand-painted sign over the door: RAINBOW ORGANIC FOODS &LIFESTYLES
Chiara had no idea what that meant, but it couldn't be worse than flaming poisonous snakes. She followed her friends inside.
As they stepped through the door, lights came on. Flute music started up like they'd walked onto a stage. The wide aisles were lined with bins of nuts and dried fruit, baskets of apples, and clothing racks with tie-dyed shirts and gauzy Tinker Bell-type dresses -the kind hippies wore and Chiara was jealous they didn't suit her-. The ceiling was covered in wind chimes. Along the walls, glass cases displayed crystal balls, geodes, macramé dream catchers, and a bunch of other strange stuff. Incense must have been burning somewhere. It smelled like the incense Chiara would normally burn when her mother was absent from home.
"Fortune-teller's shop?" Frank wondered.
"Hope not," Hazel muttered.
"Hope yes," Chiara said. "I've lost the lovers card in my tarot collection back in October, maybe if I'm lucky they'll have a spare here."
"Chiara, Percy’s over here dying and you're thinking about your cards?" Hazel gave her a funny looking, screaming 'not the time' with her eyes.
