Petals on The Moon || Reyna Ramirez-Arellano x Fem!OC

XXXIV

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Dear Diary,

We ran as long as we could, which wasn't very long. Suki was lightheaded and shaky, which we all attributed to low blood sugar, dehydration, over-exhaustion, and general trauma. Sebastian is strong, but he wasn't able to run while carrying Juventas indefinitely. He could do one or the other. Jason and I were likely in the best shape, with Suki clearly in the worst. She couldn't even seem to look at any of us.

"Are you alright?" Juventas asked kindly, peering down at Suki as she rested her head on Sebastian's back. We walked at a steady pace, with Suki telling us which ways to turn or when we needed to stop. So far, we hadn't run into any monsters or traps, which felt suspicious. But as I remembered Suki's story, everything added up.

The Titans' forces had pulled out of the Labyrinth. They were gearing up for attack.

"I'm fine." Suki's hollow voice echoed throughout the dark corridor. It reverberated off the walls like a mocking imitation of our situation. "We just need to get to camp." Her steady voice betrayed her uneven gait- something that'd never affected her before. Her face was entirely blank, refusing to show any sign of pain or even any emotions. Just empty. Just monochromatic. Just dead.

I couldn't look at her. Seeing someone so apathetic twisted in my gut like a dagger. "Suki, are we close to the surface?"

"Yes," she answered. "We need to move faster." She limped ahead of us, somehow moving faster despite her injury. The four of us shared wary looks, but none of us asked to stop and check her leg. I don't know about the others, but I think I was scared to do it. Maybe I was scared to lose time. Maybe I was just scared to see Suki hurt.

But we kept pace with her.

"Left." We followed her direction. My feet began to tingle. "No." All of us froze. Jason pulled his sword. "Yes." We shared confused glances. For once, Suki knit her eyebrows. She looked all around, moving her body slowly, like she was afraid to move fast- like she was afraid to alert something.

She froze. Her eyes began to shake. She raised her hand slowly, pressed her fingers to her lips, and looked up.

Nobody moved. We waited, wondering what Suki was reacting to, but then we heard it; the marching, perfectly uniform, without a single voice. I recognized it well. Romans didn't adopt battle cries until later in the Empire; much later, in fact. More towards the adoption of Christianity. But during the pagan times, Romans were silent; deathly silent.

That is how it is when war is real. The calm before the storm. The beating of feet, spears, shields, armor... maybe hooves or whatever those monsters use to amble around with- all accompanied by a pristine silence. The marching rose in volume like cicadas in the summertime, making the hairs on my neck raise. A shiver ran down my spine as I considered the implications of such sinister silence, but almost as quickly as it came, it passed.

"They are coming," Suki said quietly, staring at Juventas. The goddess's kind, youthful eyes widened, and she began to shake. She truly looked her age- at least the age that I saw her in. "They are going to kill everyone."

That settled over the group like any news of death. That's the problem with being a demigod. When you hear the news of death, you imagine the death that's already happened. Your grandma passed away. A distant aunt died in a car crash. But to us, the news of death could be a prediction- or a near certainty- of our own deaths. In my eyes, I could see flashes of Camp Jupiter in flames, bloodied bodies scattered about the Field of Mars, children screaming for their parents.