The House of Hades

Chapter VIII: Hazel

Hazel's POV

Everything was going great up until the moment Jason woke up. It was quiet almost to quiet for me to feel comfortable but it was nice; for once I was able to just relax and rest up from the eventful journey so far. So far my day just consisted of walking on the deck, sleeping in my room, and talking to Frank. I was walking back to my room after getting some crackers from the kitchen when I heard Jason scream out for Nico.

From there I sprinted through the halls searching for Nico, I whipped open every door earning myself a complaint from a very annoyed Piper, until I came to the last door on the hall, Percy's room. I pushed open the door and was hit with the smell of sea salt and found an unconscious Nico laying in the ground. "Nico?!" I yelled running over to my brother's limp body.

As I knelled beside him I saw his eyes fluttering open and he sat up gasping for breath. "Oh my gods, Nico are you alright?" my voice was as tight as a spring as I reached for his shoulder. He held up his hand motioning for me to stop and he began to cough and wheeze, in between his coughs I heard him mumble, "What happened?"

I ruffled his overgrown mane of black hair, I'm gonna have to cut this soon, ignoring this I replied, "I have know idea." Slowly he began to stand up and his jacket slide slightly revealing red marks on the back of his neck. "Hey Nico are you sure you're okay?"


"Yeah Hazel. I already told you that I'm fine," he huffed, rolling his eyes as he continued out the door. I stayed in Percy's vacant room after Nico. Memories of him came back to me as I sat there on his dirty carpet floor, our victory at the war games and our guest up to Alaska. It was so great with him around and now he's just... gone. It felt like part of me was missing without him here.

I began to stand up when I saw some flakes of something on the ground right next to where was had just been sitting. Oh god the crackers. I pulled them out of my pocket to my hoodie to find them in a crushed mess in my hands. "Dang it!" I whispered and I knelled back down to pick them up.

On the ground I realized that the flakes weren't my cracker crumbs but flakes of metal. Brass to be exact. How did these get here? It wasn't anything of Percy's the only really matal item he had was Riptide and that was made out of Celestial Bronze. "What is this from? I muttered.

"What is what from?" A familiar voice replied. I jumped up and turned around only to find Leo leaning against grinning cheekily down at me. His curly black hair was a tangled mess and his paints were stained black with long-dried grease. I felt my face flush as I grinned at him, "Leo!" I squealed as I jump into the air with excitement. Running over to him I nearly tackled him to the ground with a hug. "Oh my gods you're okay! I was so worried!" All I heard after that was shallow breathing. "Leo?" I asked worriedly as I looked up to see his face turning bright red. I say him mouth a word that I couldn't decipher and then in a short outburst of air I heard him squeak the word 'go'.

"Oh god!" I said as I immediately released him from my hug. He gasped for air and placed his hands on his knees bending over trying to catch his breath. "Aw much better," he said breathlessly, There was a few moments of awkward silence that were soon filled in, when Leo leaned toward me, "So... 'sup?" My heart fluttered inside my chest with pleasure. I scolded myself Hazel you can't feel this way you're with Frank now. But that didn't stop my heart from doing a full aerobic workout inside of my chest.

Before I knew what I was doing I started bombarding him with questions so quickly that I had know idea what I was saying, and by the look on Leo's face he didn't either. Soon he grabbed my shoulders and said in a soothing voice, "Hazel child. Try talking slower... like... this" I wasn't really paying attention to him because for some reason I was caught on the fact that, he was touching me!

Soon Leo was snapping his fingers his fingers in my face, "Hello. Earth to Hazel someone is talking to you. Are you gonna answer my question or star at my face like an idiot." he paused before adding, "Not that I'm complaining,"

Realizing how much of a bimbo I was acting I cleared my throat and asked the first thing that came to mind, "How's Jason doing?"

"He's still in the infirmary, asleep." His energetic voice had taken a solemn tone as he continued, "What happened to him?"

"Long story short there was a battle and Frank accidentally shot Jason with an arrow," I saw Leo's face flash with something probably anger at the mention of Frank. To make up for it he yawned and stretched his arms back behind his head, "Well Hazel I'm going to go to the control room so I can study my scrolls. So see ya!" He waved as he walked out of the door and out into the hall. I felt my heart sink and again I scowled at myself, what is wrong with you it's not like he's Sammy or anything... right?

I wandered out into the hall to thinks about this question and the next thing I knew the smell of bleach and disinfectant burned my nose. I looked up and found my self in the white walled room that was the infirmary. I shivered not from the cold, but from the fact that this place reminded me of a hospital. I hate hospitals. Out of the 7 beds that occupied the room only one was taken. Jason laid on the bed so still I could of taken him as a corpse if it weren't for the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor. His face was as pale as a ghost and his blond hair was plastered to his face with sweat, and every so often his eyelids would twitch or he would groan in pain.

I walked a little bit closer to his bed and sat down in the chair that Piper usually occupied day in and day out. Jason's hand hung limply over the side of the bed, probably where Piper had placed it from her last visit. I picked it up gingerly and noticed that his palm was wet and clammy, as I lifted his hand higher Jason cried out in pain. I set his hand back down and stood up to leave. Get well soon Jason. I turned to head out the door when I heard his heart rate increase slightly, so I turned back around to see if he was all right. His eyes were open a tiny bit just far enough for me to barely see his electric blue irises. "Hazel is that you?" he croaked.

"Yeah it's me Jason. How are you feeling?" I replied as I sat back down.

"Like crap. W-What happened to me?" he whispered weakly as he winced in pain as he reached for my hand.

"You were shot."

"Oh," he muttered his eyes were slowly closing once more, "Well then...," All of a sudden his eyes snapped open. "Hazel?" his blue eyes were wide with fear as he stared blindly at the wall. "Look out for... for," as fast as his eyes opened they closed and he slumped back down into his pillow.

"Look out for what?" I voice rose with urgency. "Jason what do I need to look out for?!"

"Hey cupcake stop yelling at him!" I turned around to see Coach Hedge standing in the door leaning on his baseball bat. "Me?" I asked pointing to myself. Hey everyone look at how I am.

"Yeah you, or is there another girl in here that is screaming at a catatonic blond!" Why is Coach does it look like Coach is smoking two cigarettes? Oh my god those are his eyes! Anger and annoyance was rolling off of coach in waves.

"Okay sorry sir. I was just leaving."

"You better be or else." he lifted his bat and swung it like he had just hit a baseball, as he walked down the hall. I gulped getting the picture, and scurried down the hall. "Hey Cupcake! Don't let me catch you in that room any time soon. Am I clear?'

"Crystal!" I yelled over my shoulder as I ran down the hall in the opposite direction. I stopped suddenly and felt an ominous presence. Something's wrong. I continued down the hall until for no reason I stopped in front of the spare bathroom. If there was a reason for a spare bathroom, I didn't know what it was; I knew better than to question Leo's madness. I knocked on the door in urgent beating. "Hey is anyone in here?"

I heard a bang against a wall and was followed my soft scratching at the door. "Hazel?!" I heard Nico's voice whisper weakly, "Help me,"

"Nico?!" I cried slamming my fist into the door. "Nico open the door!" My only reply was eerie silence from the other side. I stepped back and readied myself, for what I was going to do next. Leo's never gonna let me here the end of this, I slammed foot into the door. It splintered but didn't open, so I kicked it again this time there was the sound of wood cracking.