Love the Impossible

Chapter 2 - Octavian's P.O.V.

My hands are shaking. I step back and the knife falls through my fingers. She swipes it up and points it at me.

"How are you here?!" she hisses. Her eyes are crazy in the night, like she's mad at me. Crazy, but still pretty "You died. People saw you die!" I wipe hair out of my eyes and take a step back, falling to the ground.

"I didn't ask to be here, Oracle! I didn't ask to appear in the middle of these stupid woods in your stupid camp! I was just trying to escape... Unless this is some twisted part of the Underworld... Unless I'm still there..." I mutter nervously. It must be. I didn't really escape, this is just one more punishment...

"This isn't the Underworld. How did you escape?" she repeated.

"I don't know..." I'm scared, but I'll try not to show it. Nope, nope, not working, I'm sure I look like a pathetic little kid. My hair falls in my eyes again and I brush it away with my right arm. As I brush my hair back with my finger's I notice a new wound on my arm. The hellhounds. No one is supposed to escape the Underworld, Greek, Roman, Mortal, all are bound to death. How'd I do it?

The hellhounds came after me shortly after I escaped. I don't know how or why I ended up here, it's the last place on earth I want to be. Well, it's better than the Underworld. But then so is everything, even math class or Reyna's lectures. My arm is bleeding and it isn't going to stop. I wonder if I can die again. I don't want to risk it. I'm not stupid, I need help. I scowl.

I don't like Rachel. I don't like that Camp Half Blood has an Oracle and Camp Jupiter doesn't. I don't like being here, although I can't exactly go back to Camp Jupiter. I'd probably be branded a traitor, and bad things happen to Roman traitors. But right now, I had to put those thoughts behind me as well as my dislike of the Oracle. I needed help.

"Rachel, will you help me?" I mutter. I'm not going to beg on my knees or anything, that's just not my style. But if I have to, I'll ask for help.

"What was that?" She asked and I was unsure if she was being sarcastic.

"Please, help me before my arm bleeds out" I say glancing around the woods hoping that the hellhounds didn't come back.

"Fine, because you said 'please', but you are leaving tomorrow and don't you dare try to pull a stunt like that knife to my throat again" I followed her. She keeps glancing around, but I guess I'm glancing around nervously too. If I won't be accepted at Camp Jupiter then, I definitely won't be accepted here. Leaving is a more than a welcomeing idea. We get to her cave (why does she have a cave?) and she bandages my arm. She seems so annoyed with me. Well, the feeling is mutual. I see something on her bedside table and grab it.

"You're searching for the Sibylline books?!"

"Hey, don't touch my things! It's none of your business!"

"I've wanted to go on a quest for those books since I was a kid! Ever since I learned about them... How... How...?"

"Well, the Spirit of Delphi is dead and there is really no other reason for an Oracle to exist so I was going to look for them"

"I want to help"

"No. You're dead, remember? No one else at camp is ever going to find out you escaped because in the morning, you're disappearing. Go live in Alaska, I hear it's a 'land beyond the gods'. Maybe you'll be safe there, maybe not, I don't care as long as you're far from here"

"The Sibylline books are my dream, my passion, I could help" Greek or not I wanted to get my hands on those books. Even if I was a nothing a traitor, practically a zombie, with no chance of ever having power again. I didn't care. If I had an opportunity to just look at those books, to just hold them... I would do it. Even if I had to cooperate with her.

"I said no. Tomorrow morning, as soon as you're awake, you're leaving. No one can know that you're alive! I helped you and you haven't even said 'thank you', so you can definitely forget about finding those books because it's never going to happen, not for you at least" She throws a blanket at me and points toward a corner. She's asleep before I am, but sleep finds me soon too.

Nightmares find me sooner. Horrible visions of the Underworld. Creatures clawing at my skin, fire burning me inside and out. Darkness that goes beyond just being dark. The darkness seems to eat at my soul and I'm dying all over again, except this is worse. This is 100 times worse. I feel myself spasming on the floor of her cave ,but I don't think I can wake up from this bitter nightmare.

"You escaped Octavian... You will not be alive for much longer though" A bone chilling voice calls in my dream. I wake up sweating and screaming and crying. My whole body jerks with each sob. I notice how thin I am, even thinner than I was alive. It makes me feel sick. I try to stop crying, but the dream is to real and I know it won't be long until I'm back where I belong in eternal punishment.