Daughter of Apollo

Chapter 34

Sierra

The girls brought Connor and Miranda's corpses to the camp.

A crowd began gathering around where Annabeth and Sierra placed them. Sobs could faintly be heard.

Travis and Katie ran to where their siblings lay. Travis buried his face in his hands and started sobbing. Katie cried into his shoulders.

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After the funerals

"Sierra, you can't!" Sumaya begged.

"How much longer must we endure this before Jasmine is caught, Sumaya?!" Sierra said fiercely. "How many more friends must we say goodbye to if i don't do something?!"

"But go after her?" Sumaya stammered. "That's-"

"I'm not afraid, Sumaya." Sierra told her. "After what she's done, she ought to be scared of me."

Tears rimmed in her eyes. "You could die, Sierra!

Sierra sighed. "I know. And if i do, you must be the one to kill Jasmine."

"Kill her?! But... I can't do that!"

"You can, Sumaya." Sierra said confidently. "I need to trust you to see this through." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I need to trust you to avenge me."

"Sierra..." Tears streaked her mud-smeared cheeks.

Sierra hugged her friend. "See you on the other side." She ran towards the woods, faintly hearing her friend calling out her name.

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Sierra approached Zeus's Fist. A couple pebbles fell down from the top. Jasmine would be up there.

Sierra scaled up the huge rock, almost falling a few time.

"If I'd fall here, I'd break my neck." Sierra muttered to herself. She shuddered at the thought.

Once she reached the top, sure enough, Jasmine was waiting there.

She looked terrible, with chalk-white skin and jaundice yellow eyes. Blood and dirt were all over her skin, along with what looked like at least a hundred scrapes and scratches all over her. Her eye looked worse, mud, dirt, and blood all over the wound.

"I knew you'd come." She said.

"Why have you been doing this, Jasmine? Can't you see what this killing spree is doing to you?"

"I don't care what it does to me!!!" She screamed. "They insulted me. They deserved it."

"Jasmine, no one deserved to die like Lou Ellen did. Or Chris Rodriguez. Or-"

"Stop! Stop it!!"

"Or Clarisse La Rue." Sierra spoke quicker. "Or Miranda Gardener. Or-"

"Stop it!!!" Jasmine screamed.

"Or Connor." Sierra finished softly.

"They- they deserved it!!"

"You sound like you're still trying to convince yourself."

Jasmine was silent.

"It isn't right!" Sierra spoke again. "Can't you imagine how it feels for everyone else at camp?? They've lost too many of their friends!!" Sierra remembered Travis and Katie. "Too many of their family."

Jasmine suddenly drew a knife and held it to Sierra's neck. Sierra didn't flinch. "I could slit your throat right now."

"But you won't do it."

"Why?" Jasmine challenged. "Why am I even listening to you right now? Why won't i just kill you?"

"Because deep down, you know I'm right. You know you've done terrible things, and i know you regret them." Jasmine's eyes widened. "That's why you looked so mourful at Lou Ellen's funeral. That's why you disappeared after Clarisse died and Chris killed himself. You only wanted revenge on her, not for him to kill himself. Only then did you understand the toll your murders took on the people at camp. But you didn't stop. You thought your guilt would go away if you kept on killing. But it didn't work. The guilt just grew. And here we are now."

"You might be right." Jasmine's shoulders sagged. But then she looked up and straightened her posture. "Or you might be wrong. I'm not going to listen to you anymore. You've only been avoiding the inevitable. You came here to die."

"I know that." Sierra said calmly. "I knew if i came here, i would die. It wasn't a matter of stopping you."

"Then what?!" The knife pressed on her throat.

"I had to talk to you. To see if you were really the coldhearted ruthless merciless killer we all thought you to be."

Jasmine's eyes flickered. Then her gaze hardened. "I guess they thought right."

"I don't believe that."

"Then you'll die a martyr."

Jasmine lowered her knife and stabbed her in the torso.

"It's a long way to fall, Sierra." Jasmine said with a taunting tone of voice. "You said it yourself. Why don't we see if your guess about breaking a neck is on the money? I'd be excited to find out."

Jasmine shoved Sierra off Zeus's Fist.