Opposites: The Staff of Light [Book One]

24. A Well to Neverland

Annabeth

If you think being judged was bad, I expect falling into a well was worse than that.

I had been teleported to the entrance of the cabin after taking fire form, looking somberly back at the ladder. I sighed miserably, reluctantly understanding that I knew that I was no match for Rebecca the Water Girl. She's got control of the universal solvent, if I must add, but me? I got the universal plasma—the least of the known phase of matter.

Seeing Alice completely injured left a crevice in my heart. How could Rebecca be so evil? One way or another, I knew I had to get back at her, but one thing: I didn't know exactly how. If I couldn't fight her physically, it isn't as if she can bow to my shrewd nature. Focus, I chided myself. I wasn't at all that close to Alice but the thing was—she was my twin sister. It broke my heart to lock myself in my room, refusing to speak to her back at home before we were recruited into camp. Everything I did when it considered the both of us was so wrong, even to my own speech, I couldn't explain—not brief, nor lengthy.

I sat down on the porch, looking at the empty lamp moving around with the winter breeze. It made squeaking and clanking sounds when the iron ring swung forwards then back gently until I've made my decision to be part of the candle. I thought about a little fire perhaps as small as my finger and when I released my energy, I felt my body melting, shrinking and teleporting into the glass lamp. I sat on the candle wick which had tuned black under my touch. It felt warmer being enclosed in a glass container, and it felt more preferable than being in the cold outside.

It had been a pretty crazy day, but I wouldn't say it was normal either. Professor Frank and I've hung out and the lesson in the forest was awesome. At that moment I thought he purposely wanted to make me stay in the midst of the woods, like that story Hansel and Gretel, for some cases I hated myself for nearly forgetting the title, and Professor had shown me a tree, presenting it as if I've never seen one before. "Sir," I snorted to myself, giving him a glance to find that he, too, tried not to laugh or chuckle, "you're kidding me."

"I am not," he said casually. "You see, Annabeth, you have to realize that logic"—the trees trunk opened like a door and he stepped in the hollow mass—"is different from magic. Come along, child." I expected termites to fall as of rain but when I stepped inside, the trunk behind us closed and when I stepped forward, the hollow extended like a dark hall. "Have the honor, Annabeth."

I lit up my hand as a fireball hovered in the air in front of me. The hall seemed endless—the professor was right. Logic was different than that of magic. I followed the end of the corridor with Professor Frank strolled behind me as if it had been his daily workout. "What is this place?" I asked defiantly. The walls were stone, so was the floor and ceiling. As we walked deeper into the lobby, I noticed that the ceiling was slowly getting lower. "I've never seen this before, not even on the map."

Professor Frank gave up a chuckle. "Who needs maps? They are only pictures—the flat kind—of objects to show direction. But this you're walking through right now, Annabeth, is nothing to the map. I've done this myself years ago before the camp was set up above us. It only reflects what a person wished to see."

"I-I don't get it, Sir."

I took a step forward and the ground cracked. Before I could even breathe, a split second later, I was grabbing frantically at the air, yelling at the top of my lungs. My night vision eyes tinted red in everything I saw there. It felt like falling down off a cliff with no limits. Suddenly, I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, I was standing on solid ground. We were back at the surface with a well in the middle of the woods. "I told you, Annabeth, the tunnel shows a person what she wishes to see. Now we're back on the surface of camp... but still, amidst the deep forest," Professor Frank remarked.

I approached the well, half ignoring the teacher. I stared at the water deep below, what could magical things be lurking beyond those waters? I reached out, meeting my reflection. "Annabeth, stop," the professor ordered. A chill went up my spine and I moved away from the well. "There are too many things hidden in these woods, Annabeth. Some things are meant to be hidden, they're meant to be out of our limits."

"Like, what?" I demanded.

For one moment, the professor's eyes seemed cold and desolate. "Forget it, Annabeth. It is indeed unsafe lurking beyond these trees. Come, we mustn't stay long."

I snapped back into reality. I stared at the woods, the line of trees that seemed to be a border line. The owls lurked among those trees, for some reason I felt safe there. I wanted to have one haven in my life and somehow it felt like that woodland across the camp was the safest place in the universe. The tunnel shows a person what she wishes to see. It was tempting to retrace my steps into the tunnel of no return. I could hide there, and never return to the surface. And the scariest part was—I didn't want to return at all.

I burned so bright the lamp popped. I had to go. Camp Haven was never a haven, but it had one inside, which wasn't itself.