𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐔𝐄𝐋. pj & ac

IV.

𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖊𝖋

ONCE PERCY LEFT THE SPOT BESIDE PHOENIX TO STAY AT THE POSEIDON CABIN WHERE HE BELONGED, he was avoided by every camper as if he were diagnosed with the plague.

Something Phoenix didn't have to try to actively do, considering she hardly left her Cabin for anything but chores and only the most mandatory cabin activities of the week.

But when she did see the boy in passing, She noticed that he was being completely shunned. The other Hermes kids refused to train with him which left him training alone with Luke and the occasional Phoenix if she felt like it. Phoenix was the only one besides Luke who didn't treat him any differently, still quite annoyed by his constant questions and overall existence.

She didn't know what it was about him, but he knew how to provoke something within her.

Regardless, he seemed to become comfortable with her. Something Phoenix had no intention of causing. She simply knew how it felt to feel isolated from the rest, and didn't care to treat him any different knowing he was a child of the big three.

As the days passed Phoenix's schedule remained as boring and repetitive as ever. When she was awake, she spent most of her time drawing. When she was asleep, the nightmares came.

It always started with the one she always had, her skin felt like it was being flayed off, terrible overlapping voices rang in her head, and she felt an ache within her entire body.

The second one she had the night before her life would be forever changed, and it was not recurring. It was something she could hardly understand. Which wasn't new for her Nightmares.

Two men were fighting. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked, and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

Phoenix wanted to stop them, but she couldn't. She could only make it worse...

The scene got bloodier and bloodier. More deadly as the lightning flashed and seawater became wild, like a growing, lethal, tropical storm.

Over the roar of the storm, She could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying Phoenix with water.

She wanted to yell, Stop it! Stop fighting! But white smoke spilled from her lips instead. The men in the robes became more wild.

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth.

Come, little hero.

Another voice emerged, overlapping that one, a voice so deep and evil she almost felt afraid. It's time, Phoenix...

The sand split beneath her, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. Her feet slipped, and darkness swallowed her, when she woke up, she still felt like she was falling.

Phoenix did her best to disregard her dream the next day, which led her to ignore Luke the entire morning. Refusing to leave her spot, she didn't do anything but draw and draw. She didn't even look up when Bella offered her brownies. Nothing interested her, she only wanted to spill out whatever weird emotion the dreams generated within her. After a while, when she realized she was drawing a scene of four figures and a satyr, she paused. Her blood ran hot, and her eyes started glowing red.

That's when Luke came in, she tried ignoring him again. Until he told her that she was being called to the Big House.

"What the hell?" Phoenix grunted, shoving her sketchbook under her pillow. "W-Why? Chiron never wants to speak to me..."