The Godly Pursuant (A Percy Jackson fan fiction)

7 - Maggie Crowberry

Capture The Flag today had been great. Everyone talked about their own freakish encounters, about how the Apollo girl Helia lost her nose and found it sitting under a tree, how Butch almost died a death by devilish vines, and how Percy exclaimed that I single-handedly saved the Blue team.

And all that Blondie Annabeth had to say was, “What went wrong?”

I would be lying if I say that I didn’t find that annoying.

“What do you mean, what went wrong? We just won the game, Annabeth,” Percy reasoned out.

She shook her head worriedly. At first I thought she was just jealous over my efforts for the team because Hades knows that I would never take any credit, but she wasn’t. There was something that happened during the game today, and she was very worried. Her mind was like a good-luck greeting card went wrong.

“What is it, Blondie?” I asked her with concern, “What do you think went wrong?”

“I don’t know…” she shook her head again. “But there was something wrong. I watched as the Hecate and Demeter cabins curse. Lou Ellen threw me curses, I was just lucky I could dock before they hit me. They all acted like they were possessed. I thought it was just Hecate but I doubt that it’s her. There’s something more to this…” Her sentence ended with a deep thought.

“Yeah, well, Katie Gardner was about to get me that time when I saw her eyes. They weren’t very, uhmm, Katie… if you know what I mean. Her eyes were empty and blank. It’s like someone is taking over her body,” Jason said and sighed. “She almost killed me.”

All of us snapped up, except Annabeth and Leo. “Killed you?” asked Percy.

“She was going to stab me on the chest. I was gonna block it when vines sprouted from the ground and held me. Then Leo came”–he nodded at Leo—“and pushed her aside. Katie fell on the ground hard. When she did, she’s back on being Katie again. She roared at Leo and asked why he did that. She looked like she didn’t know what happened.”

My forehead crumpled. “I thought killing isn’t allowed?”

“Exactly,” answered Jason.

I slowly shook my head in disbelief. “Things like this happen? I mean, demigods acting weird and stuff? Who could do something like this?”

None of them answered. I figured that nobody will answer that question forever.

And for the first time, I felt that Camp Half-Blood wasn’t safe unlike how I thought it would be.

“Demigods, as our Capture the Flag concludes, only one team emerged as the winner. The Blue Team,” Dionysus announced over dinner. A round of applause went up. “Alright, alright, enough of that,” he scolded lazily. “Members of the Blue Team, you are now welcome to enjoy your privileges. You know what your privileges are, so I assume I don’t have to go through them again.”

I glanced at Percy beside me. He had this worried pout on his face.

“Blondie’s gonna be fine, don’t worry,” I assured him.

He pursed his lips, like he was going to say something, but then he shook his head, “This isn’t about Annabeth. Or Jason’s near-death experience. This is about something else.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know if I can tell you, it’s not mine to tell. Though…” he appraised my expression and said grimly, “I think you know already.”

 My eyes never left his as I continued to read what’s on his mind.

“Who’s Gaea?” I finally asked.