Sign of the Times

I love Dylan O'Brien

As a demigod, dreams are a funny thing. Scratch that, most of the time they are terrifying.

Like normal peoples' dreams, they hold truth. If you are dying in your dream, it could mean that you are under a lot of pressure. If you are falling in your dream, it could mean that you feel like you don't have that much control over your life. If you dream that you are dating Dylan O'Brien, it could just mean that someone showed you Teen Wolf for the first time and you fell in love.

Unlike normal peoples' dreams, they hold specific truths, they tell you things that are really happening. If you dream that the evil titan of time is rising, you aren't just scared about losing control or having to face an obstacle, no he is fucking rising. If you dream that your friend is dying, she is dying. If you dream that you are dating Dylan O'Brien, you are not dreaming that.

My dream tonight, after the god of fucking sunshine told me my mother was a fox and not the person I thought she was decided to bid me a goodnight, was not pleasant.

It started with me dying.

I felt the life slipping away from me, but I didn't know what was taking it. I tried to scream for help, but I couldn't. The pain was nothing like I had ever felt before, it was like my body was on fire but refusing to just burn.

I wanted it all to just end.

Then a figure came in front of me. He knelt down besides be and I recognized him as the man from the cave that Annabeth was in.

"Hello, Emelia. Your fate doesn't have to be like this. The pain, the death, the agony, none of it! You could live the rest of your life, breathe many more breaths, live many more moons, if you choose the right side that is." The man touched my face. "Your mother wanted that for you, you know. She wanted you to live, she tried getting you to join our side."

No! I wanted to scream. My mother wanted me to be on the good side, the side that isn't just killing people. The side that isn't taking kids hostage for leverage.

"Ha! But don't you see child? The gods may not be taking kids, warriors from our side, but they are doing something worse: taking kids from their own side. They are using you to their advantage no matter the cost!" I don't know if him reading my mind or me understanding and relating to what he was saying scared me the most.

I don't care. I have already decided to die.

"But you could save everyone you love! You could save Annabeth, Percy, Grover! Maybe even Thalia! You don't have to let all those people die just because you didn't make the right decision."

Their blood is on your hands, not mine. Every person you kill will seek their revenge against you when we kill the shit out of you and you end up in hell.

He snarled. "Well, you still have time to change your mind. Make it to the solstice, then give me your decision, in the meantime, how about I show you how powerful this side is. Maybe it will aid your decision."

He took a dagger from his belt and ran it down my forearm, leaving about a five inch cut. It hurt worse than it should.

This is just a dream, this is just a dream! I tell myself to fight off the pain.

"But haven't you guessed, child? It is never just a dream!"

His laughter fades off into the darkness.

I wake with a jolt, breathing heavy and sweating up a storm. I took me a few minutes to regain my senses and everything before I realize that my clothes were turning red. I looked down to my arm to see the exact cut that I got in the dream.

This can't be good.

I step out of the car to get a breath of fresh air, only to see Percy walking towards me.

"Mornin'!" he said with a smile. "Just coming to wake you up, we should be there in about- what happened to your arm?"

"It was the weirdest thing. It happened in a dream . . . "

His eyebrows furrowed. "In a dream? Like someone went up to you while you were sleeping, or . . . "

"No," I replied. "Like I was asleep and dreaming, and someone in my dream decided to take a dagger and then I woke up to this." I gesture towards my arm. "And I ruined my last bloodless shirt," I mumbled.

He dropped his bag to the ground and pulled out an orange camp half blood shirt. "I don't have any more bandages, but you could use your shirt as a bandage and wear this one." He hands me the shirt.

I sigh, pulling off my shirt and wrapping it around my cut tightly before pulling on the shirt Percy gave me. When I look up at him again he was looking at the floor and his face was redder than a hot pig's.

"No need to get flustered, fish face. I'm not naked under my shirt," I laughed and he rolled his eyes.

"Just being the respectful man my mother raised me to be." I smiled and opened my mouth to make some comment about Sally Jackson being my favorite person, but he changed the vibe really quickly. "How did they cut you while you were sleeping?"

"I don't know. He was trying to get me to go to the other side and wanted to show me how powerful they were, so he did this." I waved my arm a bit.

"Who is he?"

"The man who has Annabeth."

Percy swallowed and shook his head. "You can't join them. They are evil enough to take Annabeth and bring her to the point of near death! I saw her and she looked awful, and-"

"I know," I cut him off. "I'm not switching sides, don't worry. But about Annabeth being near death, I can feel it, and she isn't getting better. So, I was thinking-"

"Hey dweebs!" Thalia called. "We're basically there! Enough flirting, more traveling!"

Percy turned back towards me. "What were you saying?"

"Later."