𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

xv ━━ the blood was gushing (but i can't forget the way you made me heal)

03. chapter fifteen

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

I WAS SHAKEN AWAKE WHEN THE SHIP suddenly tilted sideways. i rolled off into the wall with a thud.

another ram into the ship again sent me rolling in the opposite direction and off the bed. i hit the floor painfully, but had managed to protect my head. no head injuries today.

it felt like i had just fallen asleep before i was awoken again which made me a little grouchy. what was hitting the ship? whatever or whoever they were, they would have to deal with an angry me first because i desperately needed rest yet they were preventing that.

i managed to my feet, but it was a struggle with the ship lurching sideways paired with the fact that i was still woozy from whatever had happened back in charleston.

i scoped the walls to find my way to my cabin door and pulled it open. i clambered my way out of my room and found the others making their way to the stairs.

i joined them and we stumbled up the stairs to find leo, hazel, and hedge on the deck.

when i saw the monster surface, i forgot how to move.

the thing was the length of their ship. in the moonlight, it looked like a cross between a giant shrimp and a cockroach, with a pink chitinous shell, a flat crayfish tail, and millipede-type legs undulating hypnotically as the monster scraped against the hull of the argo II.

its head surfaced last—the slimy pink face of an enormous catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, making the bushiest nose beard i had ever had the displeasure to behold.

percy yelled, "what's going— gah! shrimpzilla!"

the monster rammed the ship again. the hull groaned. annabeth, piper, and jason tumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard.

leo was at the helm, hands flying across the controls. i managed to stumble over to his side.

"how did it get so close?" i shouted, using the rigging to keep myself upright.

"i don't know!" hedge snarled. he looked around for his bat, which had rolled across the quarterdeck.

"i'm stupid!" leo scolded himself. "stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"

the ship tilted farther to starboard. either the monster was trying to give us a hug, or it was about to capsize us.

"sonar?" hedge demanded. "pan's pipes, valdez! maybe if you hadn't been staring into hazel's eyes, holding hands for so long—"

"what?" frank yelped.

my heart dropped. "...what?"

"it wasn't like that!" hazel protested.

i wasn't sure if i could believe her which made me feel terrible. hazel was basically my sister, i should believe her. also, leo isn't my boyfriend, why did i feel so upset about this? i also knew hazel wouldn't do that to frank. that didn't settle the way i could hear my heartbeat in my ears.

"it doesn't matter!" piper said. "jason, can you call some lightning?"

jason struggled to his feet. "i—" he only managed to shake his head. summoning the storm earlier had taken too much out of him. i doubted the poor guy could pop a spark plug in the shape he was in.