Chanel Hastings & The Treasures of Aphrodite Book 1: The Magic Girdle

Chapter 8: Rachel Gives Me A Deadly Assignment

OOTD: I'm wearing a camp hoodie over a pair of dark jeans and some light brown hiking boots

Makeup: Skin tint, eyeliner, and my nude pink lip gloss

Hairstyle: My messy bun

Fragrance: 'Orange Blossom' by Jo Malone

Dear Diary,

The stains on Valentina's hands and jacket were scary enough. The blood on the steps into the infirmary? Terrifying.

The infirmary was a smaller building set up right next to the Big House, I could tell it was new, with its fresh blue paint and modern porch lights. The lighting was dim, but it was just bright enough for me to gag at the sight of blood on the porch steps.

The door to the infirmary was wide open when Chiron arrived. He set me and Valentina down before he leapt up the stairs, with the two of us close behind him. When we entered, there was a small crowd of campers gathered around a bed near the back of the room, who I recognized as my siblings. I spotted Drew and Derek at the sides of the bed. Derek was softly speaking soothing words to who I assumed was Aulani, and Drew was shouting at different people to get out of her way while she tried to help the Apollo and Hygeia kids with medical supplies.

Chiron swiftly moved to the back of the crowd. "Make way, make way!" he called out.

The crowd of campers parted for him and he moved towards the bed, with me and Valentina at his tail. I craned my neck all over the place trying to see what was happening. When we finally got to the bedside, I let out a loud gasp.

There was a demigod girl lying in the bed who looked like she had been in the worst fight of her life. Her clothes were ripped to shreds, her Camp Half-Blood shirt a tattered mess. She was decked head to toe in cuts, scrapes, scratches, and bruises, with the worst being a large gash across her belly. Her right leg was twisted into a position that definitely didn't look normal. Both of her eyes were black and swollen, and her breathing was shallow.

The healers were scrambling around, cleaning and disinfecting all the wounds, and trying to bandage them up. A pair of kids were working on placing a supportive brace on the broken leg. Small bowls of nectar were being given to Derek, who was trying to coax Aulani to drink some. Unfortunately, she could just barely open her mouth even just for small sips.

"In the name of Zeus," uttered Chiron, taking in the sight of the girl. "I've seen my fair share of terrible injuries over the years, but this is just......what happened here?"

A slightly older girl with fiery red curls stepped out of the crowd, her green eyes puffy and red.

"I found her on the side of the road on my way towards camp," the girl told us. "Before she passed out, she told me that a few weeks ago, she'd come across some cynocephali with Aphrodite's girdle. She was able to sneak into their camp grounds and snag the girdle to bring it back to camp, but it seems like they'd set up some kind of trap for her."

Chiron shook his head sadly. "She must have been badly outnumbered."

"Aulani said there was only a couple of them," stated the redhead. "But I'm guessing they caught her off guard."

The girl glanced down at Aulani. "Oh, you should have seen her, Chiron," she said, her voice cracking. "I wasn't sure that she would even make it to camp!"

"It's okay, Rachel," Chiron soothed the girl. "You did the best you could getting her here to safety. Let's just hope our healers can pull her through."

As they shifted their focus back to the chaos near the bedside, I wandered over to my siblings.

"This is insane," I whispered to them, my hands trembling. "I've never seen anything like this."