snowfall // percy jackson x OC

chapter 12

Eira's heart beat erratically in her chest. She watched in horror as the scene of her same nightmare materialized in her view once more. The stone walls were slick with water, the dripping sounds echoing across all parts of the chamber.

The sky remained in view, but the beauty of the constellations was long lost. The sky shone with a dark, powerful hue. Annabeth no longer sat in the center of the room with her arms raised. 

Eira was alone.

She gasped as a horrible creaking sound overwhelmed her senses. Wind blasted her face and her ears popped with the sudden power as she struggled to stay standing. The entire room threatened to collapse under the weight of the ceiling.

"So... much... power."

A strong, shrill voice filled her ears.

"What is happening?"

Eira yelled out, her hands cupped tightly against her ears as she desperately called for an end to the noise and pressure threatening to crush her soul entirely.

"You will know soon enough.."

The voice called out again. Instead of coming from one source, the words seemed to fill her very being, the consonants ringing in her veins and stinging her head with every syllable.

Eira began to run towards the center.

Rocks fell from the ceiling, blocking her path as she so desperately tried to stop her world from collapsing. She pushed through despite the ongoing earthquake, brought about by the failing interior of her best friend's captor.

She reached the pedestal.

The voice around her laughed. A loud, horrible sound. It laughed as if it knew what all of this meant. As if it is testing her- watching, waiting for her to make a decision as if she were some kind of experiment.

She stepped up and reached her arms out, compelled by some force to touch the sky above her again.

Her muscles began to scream, a crack erupting from around her as the damage was held up in her grasp. She struggled to lift her head, her neck craning from the struggle and her eyes transfixing on the tiles below her.

"So young... so naive." The voice sounded. "You have the potential to turn against them just as he did."

The train continued to move at incredible speeds across the countryside as the demigods woke with the onset of the sunrise. Eira stirred slowly, sluggish in her sleepiness from the day before. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, shock lacing her face for a quick moment when she glanced to her right to see Percy asleep in the seat beside her.

She had no idea what time she ended up asleep last night, nor did she know where this train had taken them in the meantime. She shook off her nightmare, trying to forget the crumbling scenes from her dream and the voice that startled her to her core. She felt a tingling up her spine and ignored the creeping fear by grasping the door handle and stepping out into the cool morning.

After exiting the train, they ended up in a quaint ski town. Noting their location on a sign as Cloudcroft, New Mexico, Eira breathed in the scene. Mountains traced the entire skyline and snow nestled into the cracks along the roofs of the small buildings, smoke diffusing into the winter air from the chimneys.