It almost worked ✸ Apollo ¹

XXXI. Stop bringing the past into new experiences

After getting some sleep, Lydia woke up to the sound of the ship. "Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the poolside mambo party! Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our special guests, disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"

"Hold on, what?" Lydia blinked "Disemboweling practice?"

"Yeah, that doesn't sound too good." Annabeth said.

Once they were all dressed, they ventured out into the ship and were surprised to see other people.
A dozen senior citizens were heading to breakfast. A dad was taking his kids to the pool for a morning swim. Crew members in crisp white uniforms strolled the deck, tipping their hats to the passengers.

Nobody asked who they were. Nobody paid them much attention. But there was something wrong As the family of swimmers passed, the dad told his kids: "We are on a cruise. We are having fun."

"Yes," his three kids said in unison, their expressions blank. "We are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."

They wandered off.

"Good morning," a crew member told us, his eyes glazed. "We are all enjoying ourselves aboard the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day." He drifted away.

"Percy, this is weird," Annabeth whispered. "They're all in some kind of trance."

Lydia agreed "Or maybe they just really like this place, but are too tired to actually sound excited."

"Definitely not." Annabeth sighed.

Then they passed a cafeteria and saw our first monster. It was a hellhound-a black mastiff with its front paws up on the buffet line and its muzzle buried in the scrambled eggs. It must've been young, because it was small compared to most-no bigger than a grizzly bear.

The weird thing was: a middle-aged couple was standing in the buffet line right behind the devil dog, patiently waiting their turn for the eggs. They didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

"Not hungry anymore," Tyson murmured.

Before Lydia or anyone could reply, a reptilian voice came from down the corridor, "Ssssix more joined yesssterday."

Annabeth gestured frantically toward the nearest hiding place-the women's room-and all four of them ducked inside. Percy was so freaked out it didn't even occur to him to be embarrassed. But Lydia could tell he usually would've been. Soon Something-or more like two somethings-slithered past the bathroom door, making sounds like sandpaper against the carpet.

"Yesss," a second reptilian voice said. "He drawssss them. Ssssoon we will be sssstrong." The things slithered into the cafeteria with a cold hissing that might have been snake laughter.

Lydia's blood went cold, even with Apollo's golden necklace around her. She recognized that voice. She knew it was a snake woman (she's not spelling out the actual name because it's really hard.) But she's met this one before.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, that voice was there. Annabeth looked at them . "We have to get out of here."

"You think I want to be in the girls' restroom?" Percy said.

"I mean the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship."

Lydia put her hand on one of her throwing knives "Yeah, but i might need to do something before we leave though."

Percy and Annabeth stared at her "What? No! You can't!"

Before Lydia could tell them how she recognized one of the snake ladies, Tyson spoke. "Smells bad," Tyson agreed. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and ship."

Lydia wanted to get out of here, but this snake woman she remembered was not getting out of her alive. She'd never felt so much rage in her veins before. She never felt so ready to stick her knives into a monster's neck.

This snake woman had been there when Lydia was a kid. She worked for Lydia's aunt to help her disabled cousin, Lucas. She was so close with her cousin even if he couldn't walk or talk that well. Lucas was her best friend no matter what. But he died because of Lydia.

All because Lydia was a demigod, and she hated herself every day for that. The snake woman disguised herself as a normal human taking care of Lucas. Yet in the end he died because of her. Their family believed he just passed on like the doctors believed he would years ago. But In reality, Lucas was murdered.

"-only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!" Another voice spoke from the hall, and Lydia knew it was Luke Castellan.

"I'm not pushing you!" another guy growled. His voice was deeper and even angrier than Luke's.
"I'm just saying, if this gamble doesn't pay off-"

"It'll pay off," Luke snapped. "They'll take the bait. Now, come, we've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on the casket."

Lydia saw her friends eager to get to Luke, but her mind went back to the day where she fell apart herself. She was only eight years old, just one year before she ran away to camp half blood.

The snow was just melting off of the grass as March revealed itself, and Lydia was back in school for the rest of the year. The school bus had just dropped her off when she walked home with her pink hello kitty backpack bouncing on her back. Her mom and aunt were home waiting for her.

Lydia smiled "Can i go and see Lucas now?"

Her mom laughed "You don't even want to tell me how your day was?"

"No" Lydia shook her head "I made him a picture today. I colored it in his favorite color. Red!"

So Lydia ran to her cousin's room. Her smile instantly faded when she saw the snake woman by his bedside. "What- what are you doing?"

The snake woman laughed "I'm sorry, little demigod. But your life will not be happy. This prophecy will not happen."

The aura of death filled the room, and Lydia's lip trembled as she realized what happened. The snake woman was gone. And her best friend was dead. Tears streamed down her face, and she screamed so loud the room started to shake. Papers went flying everywhere, and her family came running. Yet Lydia wouldn't leave.

Now, in the present. Lydia's mind was filled with hate and everything else. Before her friends could truly make up a plan. She grabbed her throwing knives before walking out of the door.

"Lydia no!" Annabeth yelled.

Lydia's eyes met the snake women from across the hall, and they turned to her. One of them was about to grab her walkie talkie when Lydia's knife broke through the snake's head. She cried out before disappearing into dust.

"Oh? How interesting." The snake woman laughed "I knew you'd catch up to me eventually, but your little imagination won't let you win. You won't kill me."

Lydia didn't care, and a frightening smile moved onto her face. Annabeth looked horrified as the whole ship started to shake. Luke castellan came running from the other side. Guards ran towards Lydia, but they exploded into dust before they could touch her.

The monsters still came at her, but Luke and his demigods stayed back. They knew If they got closer to Lydia they'd turn into dust too.