The Choice of the Augur {ON HOLD}

Chapter Thirteen: Guilt

Octavian walked away from the campers who were gathering by the hill to look at the damage Medusa had done. He kept his head down as he pushed past people, moving quickly.

Luckily, the Apollo cabin appeared empty when he got there, and he opened the door and shut it quickly, letting out a sigh.

"I was right, wasn't I?"

The voice startled Octavian so much that he flinched and fell to the floor. He looked to see Marium standing there, leaning heavily on her staff like she had injured her foot. She looked tired and expression seemed blank.

Octavian remembered Marium warning him about the scream he heard being one of Terra's traps. And it was. Medusa had been there, and had almost killed him.

"Yeah," Octavian choked out. "Yeah, you were right. Is that you wanted to hear? That you were right about this? Well guess what, you've got the satisfaction. I was almost killed, and two people and a dragon were turned to stone." Octavian marched right up to Marium, slightly angry. Not necessarily angry at Marium, just frustrated at himself.

"Octavian, I was worried about you, I‒" Marium winced suddenly.

He narrowed his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...uh, after you left I got up to follow you but I...tripped and twisted my ankle," she shook her head sadly. "With everything that happened, I decided not to go to the infirmary and so I came here instead to find some medical supplies."

Octavian sighed, letting his anger cool down. He felt heavy, and tears blurred his vision. He sat on a nearby bunk, his hands shaking and his heart pounding. His breaths were shallow, yet he didn't know why he was acting like this.

"Uh, are you okay?" Marium asked, sitting by him.

"I...I..." he stuttered, him chest feeling tight. "I just...it's my fault. My fault that this happened, Medusa came for me, she came here because of me...and people got hurt because of it."

Marium steadily stood up and raised her staff. Octavian paid no attention to her, he was too busy shaking and crying.

He saw a flash of sky blue light and he suddenly felt calm. He stopped crying, his hands didn't shake and he was breathing normally. He looked up at Marium, whose eyes were drooping and she leaned heavily on her staff now.

"Uh, what did you do?" Octavian asked, not even slightly worried about the spell Marium just performed.

"Oh, just a simple calming charm," Marium said, lazily waving her hand. "You were having a panic attack, and I don't like dealing with emotions much so I do that sometimes." She then promptly collapsed onto one of the bunks, the spell obviously weakening her.

Octavian just sat there, quite content with himself. It felt strange to feel so calm after the terrible ordeal with Medusa, but calm and happy thoughts were the only things that filled his head. The image of being in a peaceful field full of strawberries laying in the grass and feeling the breeze in his hair was set in his mind. It was like he was in a trance, forced to feel a certain way.

A lazy side thought occurred to him. What if this was how Marium dealed with all her emotions? He glanced over at her as she lay there barely awake. Octavian stood up and walked over to her, just standing by her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm good. I'm just going to...lay here for a bit," she mumbled.

"Sounds like a plan," Octavian sighed and laid down on his bunk, feeling slightly tired. He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to escape the real world as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.