The Blood of Olympus

Chapter 7: Piper

Here's chapter 7! Hope you all enjoy it!

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Chapter 7: Piper

Piper's ears rang, and her head fell limply back on the pillow.

"W - what?" she choked. Hazel shook her head sadly, and Piper's heart sank down to somewhere around her feet.

"No," she whispered, "no, it - it doesn't make sense, it's only been a day since Epirus, and she was fine then...how...?" Her mind wandered back to her conversation with Aphrodite. I"m afraid you're in for a nasty shock.

Piper's hand curled into a fist.

At that moment, Jason burst back into the room. His electric blue eyes were watery,

"Hazel...Piper..." he choked, "you have to come. Now,"

Piper leaped out of the infirmary bed, and sprinted up to Annabeth's cabin behind Hazel and Jason, trying to push down her rising anger and think clearly, where the other three were grouped around Annabeth.

Oh gods...Piper turned her involuntary gag into a cough, and fought down the urge to throw up. Hazel hadn't been kidding, in fact, she had been downplaying Annabeth's condition.

Lying on the bed, what was left of her blond curly hair bleached white, Annabeth's skin was completely transparent, which in itself, was enough to turn Piper's eyes sore. To make it worse, Piper could actually see the thick, dark mist coursing through her veins, could see the cloud of it around her heart, which had turned a nasty black color...

And wasn't beating. Neither were her horribly visible lungs expanding, and when Piper groped for a pulse at her wrist, she couldn't feel anything. How could this be happening? Just yesterday morning they were rejoicing over closing the Doors of Death, and now...

Tears stung her eyes, and she turned to Percy, Frank, Leo, Jason, and Hazel. Frank's face wasn't exactly visible - for some strange reason he had turned into a puppy and was pawing gently at Annabeth. Leo's hair was predictably on fire, and he was holding a screwdriver in one hand, and a hammer in the other, as if he was about to start trying to take Annabeth apart to fix her. She couldn't see Percy's face though, it was in shadow. And Piper wasn't sure if she even wanted to see Percy's face. Fresh tears were running down Hazel's face, and Jason just looked shell-shocked.

No one spoke. It might have been a couple seconds, a few minutes, but to Piper it felt like several hours before, unbidden, a small voice whispered, in her head, How could they have just let her die?

"How could this happen?" Piper screeched, turning on the five miserable demigods in front of her, "how could you guys have let this happen!"

Predictably, Jason stepped forward and tried to comfort her,

"Pipes, please calm down, I swear we tried everything - " but Piper shook him off,

"Oh, of course, I'm sure you tried everything you could have!" she screamed sarcastically through hysterical laughter, "I'm sure you, did everything you could! I' sure, even with a child of the god of the dead among you, there's no way the greatest demigods of the age could have stopped, or at least delayed, Annabeth's death,"

"Piper, calm down," Frank said firmly, apparently back in human form, "you're just distraught, and - "

"DON'T YOU DARE -" Piper was brought up short by the sight of Percy, who stepped forwards so she was able to see his face. And it didn't hold any of the anguish or tears that she expected. He was looking at her like a lost child, his eyes imploring,