Stupid Cupid

~Stupid Cupid - Chapter 24

Everyone is gathered by the river where Chiron stands with a bow and quiver of arrows. He wears a golden breast plate for armor and he stands in all of his half horse glory. I go to find Riley as Chiron's hoof hit the floor to silence everyone. The crowd quiets down and everyone turns toward the camp director.

"As most of you know, the rules are quite simple. Each team has a flag in which they hide and guard. They opposing team must find the flag and take it back over to their side. The river is the boarder line and there will be no purposeful maiming or serious injuring. The game ends as soon as one team gets their opponents flag on their side. I will be patrolling so I can easily get to any injured campers and I've pulled some Apollo healers aside as well. I will give your team captains fifteen minutes to explain their strategies and hide your flag. Go."

The teams split from the large crowd that had formed and ran to their respected sides of the forest. Percy grins from in front of our group and begins to explain the battle plan. I'm one of the guards for the flag and so I weave my way through trees and mossy ground to the hidden spot of the flag. In the mist of twenty clumped trees is a shimmering blue flag with a glowing green trident - hidden in plain sight as Percy described. I climb to the top of a neighboring tree and create a thin sheet of ice around my space so any enemy that tries to get past will find themselves in a messy situation.

The distant sound of the conch is heard and then the clank of metal. The games are on. Within minutes there's a rustle of leaves directly in front of me. I pull out my bow and notch an arrow. Silence fills the air. Just as I move my foot to get a better view, a dagger whistles by my ear. I let my arrow fly in the same direction as the dagger came. An ares guy stumbles out of the bushes, his arm bleeding. I jump down and switch my bow for my sword.

"Look at. Prissy's sissy," says a rumbling voice that could only belong to Clarisse La Rue. "You know, I remember you freezing someone in the last game. Are you going to wimp out this time too?" I shift so I can see both of them clearly. My eyes dart around for water but the only thing is my layer of ice which couldn't help either way.

"No, are you going to talk or fight? Or is wittle Clary scared that she might get a wittle hurt?" I mock.

She doesn't reply. A spear shoots towards me before I can blink. The edge grazes my arm and suddenly it goes limp useless at my side. Watch out for Clarisse's spear, it's electric, rings a voice in my head. I hear another rustling of bushes and then I'm surrounded by five Ares campers. They move forward and I step back. They're leading me farther away from other flag defenders and the only water around.

"What? Not so tough now, are you?" taunts Clarisse. That's the key. She doesn't think so if I can just keep her talking and them moving I'm sure to find water.

"I don't know, but are you going to keep hiding behind your little friends? Or how about that spear?" She sneers threateningly and steps back with the others who are still moving too interested in Clarisse and I too realize their doing exactly what I want.

"You have an even bigger mouth than Prissy. Watch your words, blondie." I laugh at her nickname but it's tight and forced; that's exactly what Zach used to call me before he ditched me. "Oh, did I hit a nerve? What, was that the name your friends used to call you? No, maybe a wittle crush you had that turned bad."

"Shut up," I warn. That's the one thing she can't talk about. Not now, not ever.

"Did blondie get her heart broken by someone who knew they could do better? Did they realize that you were just a pathetic little girl?" The others around her laugh along. They're taking to long and I can feel the blood running through my veins boiling and a ringing starts in my ears.

"I said, shut up."

"See? Pathetic and weak." The ringing reaches a deafening volume and my vision goes blurry. A sudden surge of power and strength runs through my veins and into my fingers. There's a weight pulling at my gut just like when I freeze a large amount at once. When my eyes refocus, I see a sight beyond words. Clarisse has her arms bent at an awkward angel and her legs are slowly moving to a kneeing position as though she being forced. Her face is contorted in one of pain, confusing, and the slightest traces of fear and panic are imprinted in her features.

It takes me a second to realize that with every motion she makes my hands move along. The pulling a my gut is due to me controlling the blood running through her and making her bend to my will. The power terrifies and confuses me but what scares me most is the dull throb of twisted and maniacal pleasure that shots through me at first. My hands drop and Clarisse is sent to the floor in exhaustion and pain. I step back.

"What the Hades? What in Zeus's name was that!" yells an Ares kid as they go to help their cabin mate stand up.

"Don't ask me, bro." The words leave my mouth without processing. My voice is calm and monotone as if I didn't just control someone's movements with the flick of a wrist.

A rustling of leaves comes from behind me and Annabeth's brother Malcolm appears. The words, "You won" leave his mouth before he disappears behind the bush to spread the word to others. I grab my weapons and attach them to the chain around my neck before moving towards the sound of celebration leaving the small group of Ares campers behind me. I'd have to talk to Percy about this new power.

***

Percy clears his throat after I finish explaining my new discovery. He reaches back to rub the back of his neck - out of nerves or awkwardness, I don't know. I stand there in front of him still calm and collected as though this was a totally normal occurrence. Maybe it's because I'm way too done with this whole demigod thing to actually care, maybe it's shock. Whatever it is, it can't be right.

"So, you discovered that power." My eyes lift off the floor to see him smiling tightly at me.

"You say that as though..." I trail off from my sentence and wait for him to tell me I'm wrong but he just stands there. "You have this... Ability.... too?" My brother nods his head in an almost ashamed way.

"Before you ask why I never told you, it's because Annabeth hates the power and, frankly, so do I. I've never used it but while I was... Down under, I had to control some pretty powerful poisons and I almost killed a goddess of Tartarus. Annabeth and I were able to figure out that if I can control something with even the smallest bit of water than I'd be able to control someone who's seventy two percent water."

"I never want to do that again. Especially because a part of me actually enjoyed it. A very twisted and sick part of me but part of me none the less."

"Yeah, it's going to be harder to control when you get angry like you did so you might as well work on your temper and any-" Percy's words are cut off from my mind when a sharp, shooting pain races through every nerve in my body. Keeling over only makes the pain worse and soon a strangled sounds escapes my lips and it doesn't take long for me to realize I'm having a vision. A very vivid, very real, very painful vision.

"Sky, what are you doing? How are you do-" Nico gasps as his entire body goes rigid. We were in his cabin and there was another person there but I couldn't tell who they were. I could tell that their body was just as rigid as my boyfriend's and I knew I was the cause of it.

"How could you? I thought you... You know what? I don't even want to know." My wrist snaps up and the nameless, faceless person drops to the floor possibly unconscious. Nico's eyes flare red and a vein in his neck starts to become more noticeable. I can feel the urge to make him bend to my will become more tempting but I can't feel any part of me want to stop it.

"S-k-y." Nico's strangled attempt at saying my name barely makes it out before I flick my wrist again and he's lying out cold on the floor a small line of blood trickling out of his mouth.

I come back to reality screaming.