The Darkness Is Coming

Beauty Is Power

Third Person POV

Piper fell to her knees when her body solidified again, retching at the sensation she had just experienced. 

"What the Hades!" She heard someone snap. "Percie, what is this?"

"Trust me, Torrington, we need her." Percie spoke. Piper began to notice her surroundings.

A fire burned a few feet to her left. Despite it being quite warm and the middle of the day, the burning logs were piled high. A few books were similarly stacked a safe distance from the fire. A brown haired boy stood next to the books, looking irritated.

Percie pulled Piper to her feet roughly and shoved her towards the boy.

"What the Hades am I supposed to do with her?" He demanded.

"The spell! Do the spell, we need her and to get her to help we need to use the spell!" Percie said it like it was completely obvious.

"I can't do the spell without a life source. It's taxing and you know I can't do it on my own." The boy argued. Piper tried to run, but felt herself freeze in place through Percie's water molecule magic. 

"Anchor it to a tree or something!" Percie snapped.

"A tree? Are you kidding me? You want me to try to anchor a spell that usually requires an entire human life to a tree?! One without a tree nymph, no less, since there are none of those here? You're mad!" 

"Well do you have any other suggestions, Alabaster?" Percie sneered.

"Wait until we have another body to use, then cast the spell on her. Or better yet, kill her off and just be done with it!" Alabaster snapped exasperatedly.

Piper whimpered and both teens turned and told her to shut up.

"Fine, you want a life source, I'll get you a life source!" Percie disappeared and Piper stumbled forward as the magic holding her in place disappeared. Immediately Alabaster turned to her and muttered an incantation of some sort. Piper found herself frozen again.

"What are you going to do to me?" She asked fearfully. Alabaster didn't answer, grabbing one of the books from his stack and flipping through it slowly. He didn't seem to be looking for anything in particular, just distracting himself until his crazy partner in crime returned.

"Who are you?" Piper tried.

"None of your business, daughter of Aphrodite." Alabaster snapped, waving his hand.

Piper's voice disappeared. She couldn't make a sound, and angrily tried to scream at the boy in front of her.

"Here." Percie appeared, dumping a blonde girl down in front of them. "I just grabbed someone. Will she work?"

"Lacy!" Piper yelped, her voice suddenly returning to her.

"Yeah, she'll do." Alabaster grabbed the blonde girl and pulled her to her feet, maintaining a iron grip as he began to chant quietly.

Piper couldn't hear what he was saying, but Lacy slowly paled and sagged in the brown haired boy's hands. Her head lolled to the side and her eyelids fluttered closed slowly.

"What are you doing to her?!" She screamed.

"He's killing her." Percie said cheerfully. 

"No!" Piper screeched, trying to reach her half sister.

Lacy dropped limply from Alabaster's grasp and onto the ground. She was pale as death and Piper could tell she wasn't breathing.

"Lacy!" She wailed.

Percie laughed, obviously thrilled with what was happening.

Piper turned to her, glaring through her tears.

"Quick, use the spell before she breaks out the charmspeak!" Percie ordered Alabaster.

The boy barked an incantation in another language and pointed at Piper. The other daughter of Aphrodite also sagged to the ground, but unlike her half-sister, she was only unconscious.

"Wonderful. Now we have a body to dispose of." Alabaster poked Lacy's corpse with a look of distaste on his face.

"Oh please, that part's easy." Percie picked up the dead girl. "I'll just drop her off at the camp border. No one will see me and they'll find their little friend whenever they find her."

"Well, you go do that, I'll keep an eye on our new friend." Alabaster said.

Percie disappeared with Lacy's body over her shoulder.

Alabaster frowned down at Piper for a moment, then went over to his stack of books, taking the one he had set down on top when Percie appeared with Lacy and flipping open to a marked page.

Sitting down on a log, he picked up reading where he had left off.

"Why are you so boring?" Percie asked from behind him, having reappeared.

"You got rid of her body?"

"Dropped it right on the border. Had to be far enough away from Thalia's Pine so the dragon didn't see me, otherwise I would have tossed her up into the branches and left her there for them to find."

There was a soft groan behind them.

"Hooray, the Pied Piper awakes!" Percie cheered.

"That was a horrible pun." Alabaster told her frankly.

"Coming from the boy who had absolutely no social life when he was in the real world!"

"Will you two shut up." Powerful waves of charmspeak rolled over them and they snapped their mouths closed, turning to face the daughter of Aphrodite, who was picking herself off the ground.

"Okay, who're you two?"

"Percie and Alabaster." Alabaster motioned to the daughter of Poseidon, then himself. "And you are?"

The Native American girl smiled. "I am Pelipa."

Percie smirked. "Well, Pelipa, welcome to the game."

[A/N DUN DUN DUN!]