a story as endless as the ocean . pjo / allie jackson

0.5 first impressions

0.5 I Wake Up Feeling Like Setting Fire to Rain and Watching it Pour as I Touch Your Face

I had many dreams, most of which were nightmares that I couldn't wake up from. A lot of laughing coming from a pit and then the feeling of a force trying to push me in, but during those dreams, I'd fight back and then wake up super disoriented.

I knew I woke up many times, but it was never for long. The longest I'd stayed up was a few seconds, during which I'd only managed to check my head. Luckily, it didn't have any blood gushing out of it anymore, but it also didn't have stitches, so it confused me. A chuckle distracted me and as soon as I realized that it was the dude who'd caught me, I passed out again.

Most of the other times I woke up I'd hear things, but none of what I heard made sense. Mr. Brunner was there a few times and the blond guy was almost always there, too.

Another time I woke up, the blond guy was feeding me something that tasted like chocolate-covered strawberries; specifically, ones that came from a bakery close to my apartment. I always got them whenever I passed by and had the time. The owner was an older Mexican lady who enjoyed my acting and tried to give me treats for free. I never let her.

"Hey there, Angel," he smirked beside me. "I love getting to see those pretty eyes of yours, but I'm not too sure you're ready to get up yet."

"I— what?" I managed to mumble. "Where's... ugh."

"Sh, pretty girl... you don't have to get up yet," he assured me, and then put the spoon in my mouth. I didn't try very hard to keep myself from falling asleep again.

Another time I woke up the first thing I heard was arguing.

"But Chiron! I know something's going on! I want to know. The gods are mad about something and I want to know why!" a girl cried.

"Annabeth." I recognized that name. Mr. Brunner had said it last night. "I know you want to know what's going on. You mentioned it enough times, I just can't. You will find out when everyone in camp does. And that won't be until the time is right."

"Just drop it, Beth. He's not going to give in," the blond guy said.

The girl, Annabeth, huffed and walked out the door, slamming it behind her. I didn't hear if Mr. Brunner and the blond guy said anything else because I fell asleep again.

After what seemed like too many times of waking up and passing out right back after, I woke up for good. I wasn't in the soft bed like before. Now I was sitting in a chair outside on the deck that I'd collapsed on. A girl walked out of the door and I turned my attention to her.

"Hey, uh—" I croaked and her gasp interrupted me.

"Allie's awake," she called into the house. As a thumping sound came from inside, I took a few moments to familiarize myself with my surroundings.

There was nothing weird about it, but it felt unnatural. I was used to big cities and skyscrapers. This was the exact opposite. There wasn't a single building in my line of sight that was bigger than three floors and most of the surrounding area was either forests or hilly meadows. I saw a strawberry field close by, which is probably why the breeze smelled of freshly grown strawberries.

A blanket covered my legs and in the summer heat I felt like I was suffocating, so I shook it off of me. My mouth felt super dry and just saying 'hey' had been a lot of work.

Gover came shooting out of the house and only stopped once he saw me.

"Allie!" he bleated. He was still the goat boy from the night before. I let my head fall into my head to rub away a quickly forming headache. "You're awake!"