ELECTRIC TOUCH | PJO

chapter seven

WE WERE PRETTY MISERABLE after we left Medusa's place if I was being honest. We camped out in the woods, a few hundred yard from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had been using for parties. Much to Grover's dismay, fast-food wrappers littered the ground but he volunteered to snack on the soda cans, even if they were flattened. 

Grover. had managed to find some food at Aunty Em's that we were able to take on the road. Annabeth had found blankets in a storage closet when we were leaving. We didn't dare to light a fire to keep ourselves warm throughout the night, we had enough enjoyment with Medusa, Alecto and her sister. 

We decided to sleep in shifts, and Percy volunteered himself to take first watch. Annabeth and I were in the ground, cuddling to keep ourselves warm with my body heat. It didn't take for her long to fall asleep, snoring as soon as she pressed her head on the found. I closed my eyes trying to fall asleep as I heard Grover trying to practice quietly with Luke's shoes.

"Go ahead and sleep," I heard Percy tell his best friend, "I'll wake you up if there's trouble."

"It makes me sad, Percy." Grover replied back to him and Percy asked him, "What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"

"No. This makes me sad." Grover's voice was low and even with my eyes closed, I knew without a doubt, he was gesturing to the wrappers

"And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist." I rolled my eyes at Percy's words but settled down with a remainder that he was new to this world 

"Only a human wouldn't be." Grover's voice was slightly on the edge, "Your species is clogging up the world so fast...ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. I'll take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."

Before Percy could protest, I could hear Grover start to play some Mozart, soothing me. I tucked my head closer to Annabeth's back, my eyes stinging as the soft and sweet tunes got to me. It didn't take long for me to doze off.

I stood in dark cavern before a gaping pit. I could see spirits of the dead surrounding me, whispering but I couldn't hear a thing. The spirits and I seemed to have different opinions, they were trying to drag me away from the compelling pit. 

I narrowed my eyes and tensed myself as I made my way forward, to the very edge of the chasm. I couldn't help but shiver as I looked into the pit, it was completely black but from the stories Chiron had told camp, I knew it was bottomless. However, I had a feeling that someone was trying to rise from the abyss, something huge and evil. 

"The little hero." An amused voiced echoed in the darkness, "Too weak, too young, but perhaps you'll do." 

"They have misled you, girl." The voice felt ancient-cold and heavy, "Barter with me. I will give you what you want."

A shimmering image hovered above the void; Thalia, laying down horizontal, frozen at the moment our father turned her into a tree. Her face was distorted with pain after the run in we had with the cyclops and the attacks from the furies, her yes were glazed with tears that trailed down her cheeks. Her head slowly turned to look at me, and her mouth parted;

"Run!" 

I tried to do as Thalia commanded, but my feet wouldn't move. Cold laughter erupted from the chasm and I could feel my heart racing. An invisible force tried to pull me forward but I stood firmly, digging my shoes into the floor. 

"Help me rise, girl." The voice cooed, laced with hunger, "Bring me the bolt. Strike a blow against the treacherous gods! To your father and uncle for what he did to Thalia! To your step mother for what she did to Jason!"

The spirits of the dead grabbed a hold of me, tugging me further away from the pit and I let them. As the image of Thalia faded away, I could hear the spirits trying to wake me up. I was jolted forward, a grip held tightly on my hand before one of the spirits tugged it away. 

"Help me rise, girl!" The voice yelled out from the pit with anger, "We will get justice!"

At that moment, I realized that the pit wasn't trying to pull me in. It was using me to pull itself out. 

"Wake!" The dead murmured to me, "Wake up, little hero!"

I sat upright with a jolt, a hand on my chest as I panted heavily. I opened my eyes wearily and was greeted by daylight causing me to sigh in relief. I looked around me to see Annabeth shaking Percy awake.

"Well," Annabeth said, glancing between the two of us, "the zombies live."

I hoped that she couldn't see that I was trembling. I could still feel the grip of the chasm monster on my body, around my chest and hang. 

"How long was I asleep?" Percy asked Annabeth, rubbing his eyes tiredly as his eyes adjusted due to the sunlight

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed him a bag nacho-flavoured corn chips and she tossed me another, "And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend."

Grover was sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap. Apparently his friend was a dirty, dyed pink, stuffed animal. Nope, I corrected to myself when the stuffed animal moved its head, it was a pink pool, still dirty. 

The poodle yapped at Percy suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not."

"Are you...talking to that thing?" Percy blinked at their direction

"This thing," Grover warned him, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored his question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy. Rhea, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Rhea."

"Hello Gladiola." I greeted the pink poodle, weirder stuff had happened and on my scale, this is on of my least weird interactions 

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle." Percy said, "Forget it."

"Percy," Annabeth said, "I said hello to the poodle. Rhea said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled at Percy.

Percy said hello to the poodle.

Grover explained to us that he came across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover. 

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked

"He read the signs." Grover said, "Duh."

"Of course," Percy said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her she-knows-best voice, "We get money, and buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

I thought back to my dream--the whispering voices of the dead, the thing in the chasm, and Thalia's face. If we go west, all of my dreams might come true. I wasn't sure if I was happy or not about that, but Thalia was worth it. 

"Not another bus." Percy said warily

"No," Annabeth agreed

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks I hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. 

"There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west-bound leaves at noon."