The Blood of Olympus

Chapter Thirty Four: Hazel

Helloooooo!!!! Another update!! XD

I looked at the official cover for Rick Riordan's Blood of Olympus and then felt a flood of inspiration, which then helped me write this chapter. But then I saw all of your feedback and I was like, "Extra long, exciting chapter for you guys!!!" I hope i managed to do that. 

And guys (and girls)? How are you so awesome? Over a thousand comments? Over a thousand votes? Holy Hades!!! XD

Thank you so much! I love you all!!!

 (unedited...again)

Hazel

Hazel should have been completely devastated; screaming at the world.

Maybe she should have been kicking the ground and cursing Gaia, absolute furious at the loss of one of her best friends.

But the truth was that over the last few days, Hazel’s emotions had been so unpredictable and sudden that her mind, just recently, had decided to stop feeling anything at all. She had been feeling angry, hurt, betrayed, tired, hopeless, annoyed, guilty, and ashamed and pretty much every single bad emotion there was in the world. Her brain had had enough of all the pain and the anguish and everything else. It said, Look, I get it: you’re having a bad time. I’m sorry but I can’t handle very much of this. I’m gonna back out for a while and just let you get on with it.

So, when Piper said those words that Hazel had been expecting, she had felt like her world had been swept from beneath her feet. But instead of the stabbing, blood-curdling pain that crashed against her from every direction, she experience her brain just shut down. Numbness flood throughout her senses, and she found herself staring at Piper in…no, not shock; but in a kind of dead, empty and hopeless way.

The world around her seemed cold and bleached of all colour. Sounds, smells and sensations failed her, and for that one moment, she stood in absolute and desolate silence. 

Hazel found that she was able to speak. “I-okay.” She croaked.

Piper nodded in sympathy. She understood. But the moment of empathising was over. The daughter of Aphrodite’s eyes flickered up to the battle scene around then, and she shook Hazel’s shoulder urgently.

“We need to help your boyfriend!” Piper urged, grabbing her arm and pulling her insistently. 

Hazel snapped herself out of her empty state of mind with the thought of her boyfriend in danger. She swallowed thickly and looked up at the two dragons, fighting high in the sky. “How are we going to get up there?”

Piper glanced around them, frantically looking for something. Then her kaleidoscope eyes glinted and she grinned at Hazel.

“You can control metal?” She asked.

Hazel nodded. “Yeah. And any gems.”

Piper smiled. “Can you perhaps, oh I don’t know, hurl a car at the dragon which isn’t Frank?”

Hazel gaped at her, her mouth hanging open. “What?”

Piper drew her knife which gleamed prettily in the sunlight. “Good. I’ll try and distract Peri.”

“Who?” Hazel demanded, but Piper had already disappeared in the crowd of paramedics, firemen/women and (human) police officers, all of whom not seeming to notice the two writhing and fire-breathing dragons right above their heads.