Callie Jackson; The Return

Chapter XXIV

Callie's POV

   I sat on the couch between mom and Percy. Mom kept hugging me. I could see the tears brimming in her eyes when I looked at her. I laid my head on Percy's shoulder. We were watching a PG rated movie on marine biology. Every time a school of fish would appear, Percy would cover my ears. I swatted at him. Then I noticed that what they were saying wasn't very PG, and slowly raised his hands to cover my ears again. I heard moms muffled voice, then Percy's, and mom hurried over and covered his ears also. Soon the documentary ended, I took Percy's hands off my ears and stood up, rubbing my eyes. Mom grabbed my hand.
"Let's go get you a pair of pajamas. Then tomorrow we'll go get you two some more clothes and your school uniforms. Alright?"
"Ok." I said. "Let's go." We walked out of the car and got in moms Ford Explorer. We drove to a 24 hour mall and got out. I went in.
"Get anything you want, ok?" She said. I grabbed a gray sweatshirt and some floral and teal pants.
"Alright." I told mom. "I'm done."
"Already?" She said. "Alright. Let's go." We paid for the clothes and got back in the car. We rode in the car, listening to music and trying to dance while sitting in a seat. We got to the apartment, still singing songs, and walked in.
"Night sweetie." She said, hugging me for the millionth time tonight and kissed my cheek.
"Night mom." I said. I went to the bathroom and pulled on my pajamas. The bandages had been removed. I didn't have many scars, but I could see the ones that I did have. There was one where I was stabbed in my stomach, and on my side. There was one on my face, even though it was small. It counterpointed the right side of my jaw. There was one on my leg too. I took the braids out of my hair and put it back it a ponytail. I went to Percy's bedroom. He sat up and went scrambling on his nightstand for his ballpoint pen.
"Percy it's just me." I said, slowly shutting the door so it wouldn't creak as much.
"Sorry." He said, rubbing his eyes. "Force of habit. Your bed is over there." He said pointing. It was a twin sized cot. I walked over and plopped down on it. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

  "Idiot girl!" Yelled a voice. "We will return! Bigger and better than ever! Your stupid camp will have no match to us!" It laughed a high pitched cackle. I felt a cold hand on my chest, then the slamming of my back against the wall. I slummed down, then tried to focus my eyes on the owner of the voice. But instead I saw Noah, lying in a crumpled heap on the far side of the room. And Kat, lying in a pool of blood. The monster walked over to Kat and laughed again. It picked her up and threw her.
"No!" I tried to scream, but instead it came out as "ausjr." Then it walked over to Noah.
"You." It spat. "Get over there. With her." He crawled over to me.
"Sacrifices. Beautiful sacrifices. You will wake him." It said. It unsheathed a knife and-

  I sat upright in bed and screamed. I had woke Percy at that moment, but I didn't care.

"What happened?" He asked gently.
  "N-nightm-mare." I sputtered. I buried my face in my hands and started crying. Percy sat on my bed and pulled the covers over us. He hugged me.
  "You'll be alright." He whispered. I could hear mom's footsteps banging against the hallway floor. She turned a sharp corner and stood in the doorway.
  "It's ok mom." Percy said.
  "Ok. I heard her and came." She left the room and Percy hugged me again. He climbed back into his bed and rolled over, then repeated the rolling motion to look at me .

"Callie?" He whispered.
  "Yeah?" I said.
  "What was your dream about?" He asked. I looked at him, bewilded. "If you don't want to tell me it's fine." He said quickly.
  "Oh. It-it" I wanted to tell him, but it was insanely hard. I took a deep breath 'Just tell him! My mind shouted. I exhaled. 
  "It was Noah, Kat, and Me in a dark chamber. I was in a lot of pain, but I don't know why. Someone- something threw Kat across the room. He was demanding things from Noah. Talking about someone rising-"
  "No. No this isn't happening. Callie, did it mention a name?" He said seriously.
  "No." I said. 
  "Ok. We have to get to camp. Tomorrow we're going to school. Forget uniforms. Mom bought us one yesterday anyways. Paul also got Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Kat, Noah, and Malcolm into school too. We were going to surprise you, but not now. Tell your friends immediately. Let's get some sleep." He said. I glanced up at the alarm clock. 4:13 AM. We had to get up in two hours and face what a normal teenager had to face: school.