Down in Flames [OC Demigod Fic]

Chapter Twenty-Six: "Tick, Tock, Truth"

"Were you able to know what Zagreus' fears are?" I ask Pearl, my weary eyes focused on the road ahead of us. Her feet propped up on the dash, she drums her fingers on the window pane. Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap.

"No. Too busy erasing my own." The girl beside me sits quietly until a few more miles down the road. I've never been the best with maps, but Pearl is a good navigator. We are nearly to New York, and I would almost feel safe, if the destination ahead of me wasn't so daunting.

"You know he's going to follow us," she states, tapping her fingers again. I nod. A true hunter wouldn't have given up so easily. She asks, "Do you think we'll see Dennis again soon?" I nod again.

The drumming of her fingers abruptly stops. I turn on the car radio to fill the silence, a well-known alternative song playing. Pearl hums along until I say, "Hey, Pearl... Thank you for saving my life back there."

She laughs amusedly and looks out the window, and I get the feeling she is surprised by my gratitude. "It was nothing, really. You know I've got your back." I glance at her quizzically for an instant. Am I really hearing modesty from Pearl?

All jokes aside, I am actually glad Pearl came with me, and hopefully I'm able to keep her friendship and trust. Regrettably, my judgement of her was a bit too harsh in the past. But it seems that the gap between us has finally been bridged.

"...Your friend Amaryllis seemed nice."

"She's a devoted friend, one I don't deserve," I reply, wondering if she is worried about me now. The last thing she heard through Iris Message was someone threatening me. Lissa is very protective of me, and for good reason; I'm always getting myself in some sort of trouble. Yet, despite her loyalty, she is geared towards resolving conflicts peacefully whenever possible. I have a feeling my current conflicts are impossible to overcome without violence. Soon I will arrive and camp and she will understand what I know; that might shake up her defense mechanism.

"Friendship is a funny thing," Pearl says in a reflective, thoughtful tone. "People meet people, they choose to trust some more than others. Two human beings, whose paths cross by design or accident— I still have yet to figure out which— and a bond develops between them, one that causes a person to act on sentiment rather than reason." She shakes her head dismissively, as if trying to connect her rambling ideas together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Turning off the radio, I tell her, "I believe every relationship has a purpose in someone's life, even the broken ones."

"Hmm. Maybe you're right. But what if the broken, betrayed, forgotten friendships are the ones that weren't supposed to happen? And the true friendships, like the one you have with Amaryllis, are destined to occur?"

I ponder her questions carefully. The answers of life are too complex for me to solve. Yet I believe this to be true: fate is a far stranger thing than friendship.

"I don't think I'm the right person to ask about friendship."

She hums, seeming discontent with my answer.

"Truett and Lissa are definitely destined to be together," I remark after I've determined Pearl isn't going to reply. She nods, remembering what I'd told her about the couple.

"What about you and Rhodes?" Her voice edges more towards suspiciousness than genuine curiosity. "At Camp Jupiter you two were lovesick, and today you stabbed the dude."

"Well, a lot's happened between then," I reply in a defensive tone.

"You can chill, Sab," she softly says, and I attempt to loosen up. I shouldn't be tense, but I can't stop picturing his face after I plunged the knife into his torso.

"I just want to know what's going on. He's working with Pluto, his father, who's kidnapped Vulcan, your father, and your mom. I have to say, your boyfriend must be pretty messed up in the head."

"Rhodes... isn't my boyfriend," my initial thought comes out of mouth, but I recover quickly. "Though he could have been, if circumstances were different. I choose to believe Hades is brainwashing him or something. He was supposed to killed me, but didn't."

Pearl scoffs. "Oh? He would have killed you if it weren't for his undying love you? Now that's what I call a healthy relationship."

"You don't understand," I reply, frustrated. I turn my focus away from the conversation to switch lanes on the highway. After the action is done, I ask, "Have you ever been in a relationship, Pearl?"

She doesn't answer me.

"I take it that's a no?"

"No. I haven't," she finally answers in an indignant tone.

I really should shut my mouth, but my pride gets the best of me. "Then you certainly don't know what it's like to be in a complicated relationship, especially not one with the stupid god of peace in death, for that matter."

"What did you say?" Pearl sounds astounded. I glance over to catch her wide eyed expression and mouth gaped open.

After muttering to myself how much of an idiot I am, I tell her, "Rhodes' mother is Persephone, Greek goddess of springtime if you don't know." For a Roman, Pearl knows most of the Greek gods; she knows I mean Vulcan when I refer to my father as Hephaestus.

The pieces click together quickly, and she blurts out, "You were dating a Greek god?" Unsure of how else to explain the situation, I simply nod. I hope Rhodes doesn't kill me, now that I've told Pearl his true identity.

Pearl tilts her head back and forth slightly, as if weighing ideas on two sides of a scale in her cranium. "Okay, I see where the complications come in."

Tick, tock, tick.

"I seriously can't believe it. Rhodes didn't look like he anything godly about—"

"Shhhh," I shush her loudly, my ears straining themselves to hear what had just resonated my ear drums.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

I ask Pearl, "Do you hear that?" She shakes her head in confusion.

"Hear what?"

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick...

I keep my eyes on the road, but my ears are desperately attempting to figure out the source of the ticking. It seems to be coming from my brain itself— it is indiscernible.

"A ticking of a clock," I tell Pearl with an anxious expression.

Tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...

Hurry, Sabine, time's almost up.