Before the Barrier

Chapter Two

         The first thing I heard was myself. I was screaming for Luke. Screaming for help.

         But the thing was, I wasn’t speaking.

         My head was spinning and I couldn’t move. I opened my eyes and the world was blurry. I heard my voice, but I didn’t move my lips. What was going on? I saw a giant blurred mass looming above me. I felt nauseous, and had one heck of a headache, a throbbing pain in my skull that wouldn’t let me think straight.

       I tried to move, and I realized I was tied up. The ropes hurt against my skin, and my skin felt hot and raw . . . almost as if I had been burnt.

       Then I remembered, I had been. Everything came rushing back, making the throbbing worse. I remembered the cyclopes knocking over the cauldron, the boiling water rushing over me, and then the huge, very solid cauldron ramming into my forehead.

       How long had I been out? Why hadn’t the boiling water killed me? Or the cauldron? How was I still alive? But, I thought, as my eyesight gradually sharpened, I probably wouldn’t be alive for long, considering at this moment, the cyclopes was tying me to a rotating spit above the fire, the cauldron had rolled off into the corner of the room and I guess the cyclopes decided he preferred charred demigod to boiled half-blood.

      So I kind of just hung there, useless, my weapons still on the ground. I sighed inwardly, hating myself for being such an idiot. I was going to die here. Unless. . . unless Luke and Annabeth found me, but no . . . I didn’t want that. They’d get caught by the monster and end up with the same fate as me. It’s better if two demigods escape than none. They should focus on getting out, and ignore the cyclopes and its ability to mimic voices.

       Gods, why hadn’t I remembered sooner? These types of monsters use their voice to lure people into their trap, pretending to be a loved one. I should’ve known better. Annabeth and Luke are smarter than just shouting for help when there it is guaranteed that there’s a monster nearby. But, like an idiot, I fell for it. I came to save my friends and I end up getting barbequed instead. My typical luck.

       “Luke!” The cyclopes screamed, eerily identical to my own voice. “Annabeth! Someone! Please!”

       I hoped they didn’t fall for it like I did. I prayed that they were smarter than me. I prayed to every god I could remember. Even the ones Luke and I often scorned, like our parents. But . . . there was no way that I could have survived the boiling water and the cauldron attack, so maybe Zeus was looking out for his daughter. If only he could help me now. But I didn’t see how he could.

       But a little, tiny, selfish part of me wished that they did find me, even though I knew if they did that they’d end up right beside me, roasting on a spit. But that’s better than dying alone. Together. They’re my family, or the closest thing to it. Maybe they could save me. But the smarter part of me knew that I was just giving myself false hope. Even if they did make it through the maze and run across this room, there was no way they could kill the cyclopes. It was huge, bigger than any monster we had faced, and even with the three of us together, I doubted we could bring this beast down. We hadn’t had any formal training, and the closest thing to a mentor was our satyr friend Grover who hadn’t even gone in this maze in the first place.

       In the end, I was outsmarted by a goat. I sighed.

       I tried to recall all of the weird events that had led up to where I was now, tied to a spit, about to be devoured by a cyclopes, who I thought, just a year ago, was the stuff of myth. I had been on the run for a while (I tried to block out what had happened before that, so I didn’t dwell on that too much) when I ran across Luke. He was two years older than me, around 14. Sandy blonde hair, mischievous smile, and great company. He was a son of Hermes, and my best friend—my only friend. He had run away too, something about his mom being a bit off her rocker. We headed across the country, fighting monsters all the way, with no specific destination in mind, only ‘away’. Away from our pasts. Away from our old lives. Away from our secrets.