A Little Different iii || Clarisse La Rue x OC || PJO: TTC

VII

The sounds of swords clashing filled the room, Luke was one on one with Clarisse while Ciara fought Nicole and James. Which was hard as they had an advantage of actual swords and an extra person, James swung and jabbed his sword at ciara giving her small cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs.

Nicole then caught her off guard kicking her in the back of the leg, giving her a jelly leg. Ciara falling backwards into the water, james grabbing her holding her underwater. Ciara wasn't ever a good swimmer, as she'd never learnt how to. The most she could do was float and doggy paddle, neither of which would be useful in this case.

she felt her breath running out, she felt the pressure building up in her lungs and throat. she then saw a small bar of gold next to her along with other shiny but ancient treasures, she grabbed the bar of gold which felt heavy in her hand. swinging it across his head leaving a big cut bleeding down his face.

Ciara gasped as James fell unconscious into the water. Blood seeping into it, she'd never done that before and felt guilty as the realisation that she may have killed set in. Though she didn't get time to think about it as Nicole pounced on her out of anger trying to punch ciara. Ciara grabbing her fists dodging them off.

Ciara shoved nicole off and grabbed her sword which had fell into the water when she tackled Ciara, "Luke, Nicole, James. Come on, we will be late" a man at the door said, he was...tiny. Barely 3'0, and..he didn't have any hands. Ciara didn't want to be rude but she couldn't help but stare at the man.

Luke grunted as he fell back into the water by clarisse who looked pretty beat to, he glared at ciara and clarisse thinking for a moment. "Dammit...Forget the gold, we don't need it we have something better ..this isn't over, I will be back. Just remember that" Luke said darkly standing up, he then left getting out of the door, Nicole seeming unsure.

"But james!" she exclaimed in a pleading tone with tears in her eyes, Luke turning to her in frustration like he was worried of something. "Forget James! he knew what he got into, so did you. Now, LETS. GO" he said firmly, Nicole looked at her late twin brother one last time before turning away and heading out with Luke and snow whites dwarf.

"You okay?" Clarisse said looking at Ciara, ciara felt a heat rise to her face not being able to help but think about how attractive clarisse looked with a bloody nose and a cut on her face with scraped knuckles. "Yeah..yeah i'm fine" ciara nodded.

"Let's get out of here" She said, Ciara then looked at James as he laid in the water. Ciara didn't exactly want to leave him there, she could barely deal with the guilt as it was. "Hey, it was either you or him" Clarisse said. Which Ciara knew was true, she knew James would've killed her with no guilt or regret. But...Ciara wasn't like that.

She grabbed James' body pulling him into the hallway, feeling his wrist. There was a pulse, but it was weak. It was very tiny chance he'd live, she went back into the Fountain of Youth grabbing some of the golden Drachmas and put them in James' pocket. "Just in case" Ciara said, clarisse nodding a bit.

As they shut the door to the youthful garden and fountain, the ruins and markings on the door disappeared.

As they left the Lotus Casino + Hotel, they checked the date. The time hadn't gone that fast, thankfully. "We should go back to Arizona and get Chris, then we should go back to Camp and inform Chiron" Clarisse said, Ciara couldn't help but notice how Clarisse looked a bit shaken. Scared, she sort of flinched and jump a bit at every loud noise. It made her wonder what it must've been like when her mum was drunk and had yelled at her.

She also wondered what she had seen in the Labyrinth when she'd found Chris in it. Though, these thoughts didn't last long as Clarisse pulled her into the Taxi. The Driver playing Marilyn Monroe on the radio, and the seatbelts broken and worn out. Clarisse was quiet as she stared out the window.

They finally got to Arizona, they explained everything to Clarisses mom and told her that they needed to get back to camp with Chris to inform Chiron what had happened in the Labyrinth and the encounter with Luke at Hebe's Fountain of Youth.

She agreed and drove them in her car, the car was super old and worn out. It was an old overused Toyota, Ciara watched through the crusty windows at the trees and cars passing by as they drove into New York.

As Ciara turned her head to Chris' whimpering and muttering she saw Clarisse staring at her, which made her hope she wasn't blushing. "What?" she asked, clarisse shook her head, "Nothing.." she said looking away awkwardly. Bouncing her leg on the car floor.

"Why were you starring at me" Ciara pushed further, she liked annoying Clarisse like this, pushing her for answers. It was funny seeing Clarisse get all mad and upset. "No I wasn't" she replied looking straight ahead through the windshield.

"Mhmmm, sure, sure" Ciara smirked, clarisse rolled her eyes she was used to Ciaras teasing and annoying her.

"So...what's something you really wanna do in life?" Clarisse asked, Ciara furrowed her eyebrows at the random question, it didn't take Ciara to think much thought to know her answer. "Probably find my mom, see who she is I guess" Ciara shrugged. "Why don't you?" Clarisse asked as she looked at Ciara.

"Because I don't know how? It'd be super hard" Ciara said, as if it was obvious. Clarisse looked at her, placing a thought for a moment. "Just search her up on Facebook, you know her name right? search up your last name with it. See if she has a profile, see what state she lives in. Then see if she has any other social media that give clues where she lives and just connect the dots" clarisse said, as if it were that easy. As Ciara had already tried that, there was over 203 Francine Showalters in America. Ciara knew clarisse was trying to help and be supportive and she didn't want to bring her down, so she just gave a small nod in response.

As they finally reached camp, Ciara couldn't wait to get to bed and just sleep. That's all she wanted, just sleep. Sleep and never wake up, sleep until the point she was dead. Then wake up, eat and then just sleep even more.

They entered camp, Clarisse having a dog leash with Chris on the end, as he kept trying to run. He looked like those two year olds when you go to Disney land and the parents are to tired of chasing after them when they wander off.

"You go to bed, you're tired. I'll talk to Chiron" Clarisse said as they entered camp, going pass Thalias tree. Ciara was glad, as she could just imagine the look on chirons face as he lectures her about sneaking out of camp.

With the typical upset dad look, 'I'm not mad...i'm just..disappointed', she hated that look and with those words made her want to shrivel up like a old raisin.

She went back to the Apollo cabin, flopping down on her bed. It was empty, Lee probably and gone home or something. Or he was with Chiron or whatever stuff he did.

Ciara felt her eyes go heavy as she immediately fell asleep, peaceful and calm.

word count - 1318