𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

𝐕𝐈 ; down bad (waking up in blood)

title from 'down bad' by taylor swift

౨ৎ･ﾟ:*

𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄𝐍 by leo's muttering and piper and jason's heavy breathing.

"stupid... ugly... goat," leo muttered.

"where did he go?" piper asked.

leo pointed straight up. "never came down. please tell me he didn't actually save my life."

"twice," jason said. "camille did too, but she needs some healing."

"i should be okay," i tried to say, but it came out as nothing more than a mere whisper. my head pounded violently.

leo groaned even louder. "what happened? the tornado guy, the gold sword... i hit my head. that's it, right? i'm hallucinating?"

jason picked up a golden sword and in a hunch he flipped it. midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.

"yep," leo said. "definitely hallucinating."

piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "jason, those things—"

"venti," he said. "storm spirits."

"okay. you acted like... like you'd seen them before. who are you?"

he shook his head. "that's what i've been trying to tell you. i don't know."

the storm dissipated. the other kids from the wilderness school were staring out the glass doors in horror. security guards were working on the locks now, but they didn't seem to be having any luck.

my forehead itched, but when i reached up to scratch it, my hand came back covered in bright red liquid. my breath hitched as i realized the pain i was in.

"oh jeez, camille," piper said. "you're going to need to go to a hospital."

my heart thumped. i was grateful i didn't have a mirror because i wouldn't be able to stand the sight of my head bashed. "is it really that bad?"

"yeah," leo said. "it'd make a sick halloween costume though."

"not helping," i groaned. my face itched, my eyebrows were crusted with dried blood, my vision was twinged red.

"we'll get you medical attention," jason assured me. "i think we are supposed to be taken somewhere or something. coach hedge said he had to protect four people. i think he meant us."

"and that thing dylan turned into..." piper shuddered. "god, i can't believe it was hitting on me. he called us... what, demigods?"

leo lay on his back beside me, staring at the sky. neither of us were anxious to get up. "don't know what demi means," he said. "but i'm not feeling too godly. you guys feeling godly?"

i wanted to scold leo that we could never possible feel godly because there was only one god, but there was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.

"we need to get off this thing," jason said. "maybe if we—"

"ohhh-kay," leo interrupted. "look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."

at first i thought leo had possibly hit his head harder than me and it was seriously starting to affect his brain. then i saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird.

as it got closer i could see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses—except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. and they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.

"reinforcements," jason said. "hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."

"extraction squad?" i struggled to my feet, knife in hand.

i pulled leo up. he brushed off his jacket. "that sounds painful."

"and where are they extracting us to?" piper asked.

i watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. the flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blond girl maybe a year or two older than me, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. they both wore jeans and orange t-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. the girl leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. she pulled a knife and ran toward our group while the bulky dude was reining in the horses.

"where is he?" the girl demanded. her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling. i tightened the grip on my sword.

"where's who?" jason asked.

she frowned like his answer was unacceptable. then she turned to leo, piper, and i. "what about gleeson? where is your protector, gleeson hedge?"

leo cleared his throat. "he got taken by some... tornado things."

"venti," jason said. "storm spirits."

the blond girl arched an eyebrow. "you mean anemoi thuellai? that's the greek term. who are you, and what happened?"

jason did his best to explain. about halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. he stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. he had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual.

when jason had finished his story, the blond girl didn't look satisfied. "no, no, no! she told me he would be here. she told me if i came here, i'd find the answer."

"annabeth," the bald guy grunted. "check it out." he pointed at jason's feet. jason was missing a shoe. then the bald guy then redirected his pointing to my face.

"the guy with one shoe," said the bald guy. "and the girl covered in blood. they're the answer."

"no, butch," the girl insisted. "they can't be. i was tricked." she glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. "what do you want from me?" she screamed. "what have you done with him?"

the skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.

"annabeth," said the bald dude, butch, "we gotta leave. let's get these four to camp and figure it out there. those storm spirits might come back."

she fumed for a moment. "fine." she fixed jason and i with resentful looks. "we'll settle this later."

she turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.

piper shook her head. "what's her problem? what's going on?"

"seriously," leo agreed.

"we have to get you out of here," butch said. "i'll explain on the way."

"i'm not going anywhere with her." jason gestured toward the blonde. "she looks like she wants to kill me."

"i'm with jason," i agreed.

butch hesitated. "annabeth's okay. you gotta cut her some slack. she had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe and a girl covered in blood. that was supposed to be the answer to her problem."

"what problem?" piper asked.

"she's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing three days," butch said. "she's going out of her mind with worry. she hoped he'd be here."

"who?" jason asked.

"her boyfriend," butch said. "a guy named percy jackson."

౨ৎ･ﾟ:*