A Frozen Heart - Leo Valdez

13- I am Cursed

It is the next night when they report Celia as missing.

As Chiron paces back and forth in front of the campfire, I can’t stop my hands from shaking. Leo notices this and intertwines his fingers in mine, assuring me they will find her.

But they won’t. There is nothing left of her but a single puddle of water in the middle of the woods.

“If anyone has any information of Celia’s location, please inform me or Mr. D. We are beginning to fear the worst, that a monster attack has taken place.”

The whole camp is quite. A kid behind me raises his hand.

“I heard screaming in the woods last night. It sounded like an argument between another girl. You don’t think anyone would- would-,”

He has trouble saying the next words so I twirl around to face him, my face blank. “Murder her?”

The young boy turns pale and he nods. Murmurs break out throughout the campers and Chiron shushes them. Annabeth, we sits two people down from me, breaks out in tears. Percy is holding her in close and whispering something in her ear.

“Campers, I don’t think anyone would murder young Celia. We are all friends here, I don’t believe any of you are capable of doing something so wicked.”  Chiron’s tail is flicking back and forth, and it happens so fast I almost think I imagined it. His eyes flash a glimpse of doubt. Then, as if nothing ever happened, the look is gone and his head is down.

The Apollo campers are in one giant huddle in front of the campfire. They look like they haven’t slept all night and some are crying.

A brave blonde girl steps out from the group. “If any of you mother fu-“

“Liza!”

The blonde girl, Liza, takes a deep breath. “If I find out any of you  hurt her, you are going to wish you were never born.” She says this with such a straight angry face, I believe her instantly, and a part of me is actually scared.

Leo’s hand suddenly leaves mine quickly. I look at him in confusion and notice how his eyes are wide. “Chase, your hands are covered in blood,” He whispers in a rush.



I feel like throwing up as I look down to find his statement to be correct. My hands rise to my face and I let out a sharp scream. Heads dart to my direction, but I don’t dare to take my eyes of my bloody fingers. Every inch of my hands are covered in a thick layer of bright red blood, it begins to drip down on my white shorts.

I dart out of the crowds of demigods and run into the bathrooms, locking myself in a stall.

My breathing is increasing again and I can’t seem to get oxygen to my lungs. Just like when I was on the  Ferris Wheel, I feel the beginning of a panic attack about to arise.

I sink into a fetal position, the room swirling under my body. Black splotches over take my vision and my hearing gets disoriented. I think somebody else has entered the stall.

Annabeth, I think, slides under the door and brings me into a hug. She rubs my back as I gasp for air and whispers encouraging words in my ear.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You need to calm down. Please, Chaselynn. Please calm down.”

I’m able to let in small gaps of air and my blurry vision clears. Tears form in my eyes when I see I have stained Annabeth’s shirt with my bloody hands.

“Blood-,” I gasp. “It won’t come off!” I rub it on my clothes, the warm liquid should be fading off, but it stays piled on my palms.

“I know,” Annabeth whispers. “I don’t know why. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

I feel completely utterly embarrassed as Annabeth takes a paper towel and cleans the blood off my face. She tells me it’s no big deal, and not to feel bad about it, she’s also had them before.

“Once Percy and I got back from Tartarus, I’ve been getting panic attacks a lot lately,” She says as she cleans my forehead. “I have these vivid dreams, and-… I just wake up not being able to breathe, the room is spinning, and my siblings usually have to get Percy  to get me to calm down.”

My face shows sympathy. “You and Percy have been through a lot together, haven’t you?”

Annabeth smiles and nods. “Yeah we have…”

“And you really love him, don’t you?”

She nods again. “More than anything.”

The door to the bathroom flies open and Liza, the blonde girl from the campfire, steps in with two of her siblings and the boy who was sitting behind me.

They all have their arms crossed except for the boy who looks terrified.

Annabeth stands up and steps protectively in front of me.  “What do you want, Liza? Chase isn’t feeling good and would like to be left alone.”

Liza shoves the boy forward and clears her throat. “Say what you saw,” She demands with a sneer.

The kids eyes are wider than tennis balls as he begins to stutter. “I-I saw you run into the woods last night,” He says looking at me. “Then I saw Celia enter. I heard bad language… And fighting… Then only you came out.”

My face was emotionless. I look at Annabeth who wears an angry expression.
 
“As if!” Annabeth yells. “Chase would never do something like that, she was with Leo all night anyway. Way to go, Liza, hire some poor boy to lie about the whole thing.” She then stares down the kid, who looks like he is about to faint, until he runs out the bathroom.

Liza rolls her eyes. “He wasn’t lying. Why would I make up a story like that? I don’t want to blame Chase, but seeing the blood on her hands confirm it.”

I look down and sure enough, the blood is still there.

Annabeth shrugs and flies her arms in the air. “I have no idea why there is blood on her hands, but she did not kill Celia! She would have had the blood on her hands all day, but it just randomly showed up at the campfire.”

One of Liza friends step forward. “Ever heard of the curse of Ambrodea?” 

Annabeth’s face falls.  She looks at me with a horrified expression then back of Liza and her siblings. “There’s no way…”

“What curse?” I ask in a small voice, my heart beats rapidly.

Annabeth is the one who answers. “Over two-thousand years ago, there was this young girl named Ambrodea. Long story short, she went psychotic and ended up killing every member of her family. She was covered in blood and a spirit named  Alastor came and visited her. He said how despicable the scene was and cursed her and anybody else who were ever to kill. The curse was that they would never be able to get the blood off them.” Her eyes trail to me and my hands.

“Annabeth  I-“

“Don’t worry, I believe you.” She looks at Liza. “The story was proved to be a myth.  Now stop accusing my friend and get out of my face.”

Liza’s nostrils flare but she turns on her heel and exits the bathroom along with her siblings.

I stand up shakily and give Annabeth a hug. “Thank you for believing me. You’re a good friend.”

Annabeth pulls apart and lets out a sigh. “Listen Chase, I believe you.  I don’t know why we can’t get the blood of your hands, but Liza is right. Something is off about you.”

I shift to one side and stiffen up.

“Are you going to tell me what it is?”

“I don’t have anything to hide.” I lie.

Annabeth nods, defeated. “Okay, whatever. I’ll be here if you ever want to tell somebody.” She leaves without saying goodnight.

I kick the stall door and scream once again. Stains of my bloody hands are all over the bathroom as if it were a murder scene.  I rush to the sink and begin to furiously scrub my hands with soap, for the tenth time tonight. But just like before, the blood stays.

“No, No,” I repeat, scrubbing harder.  Could this really be Celia’s blood? There’s no way, I froze her, not bled her to death. “Come off! Please! You have to come off!”

I cry, well more like sobbed, uncontrollably. My insides twirl and I have the same feeling I did when I killed Celia. My powers are on the edge of breaking free, it’s as if they have a mind of their own.

I give up holding them in and set them loose. The room explodes in a white powder puff then goes back to normal. I go back to crying.

When I believe I cried out all my tears, I stand up and notice how the room feels colder than it did an hour ago. I open the bathroom door and step out into a foot of snow.

Yes, snow.

As far as I can see, snow lays in perfect clumps all around camp. Snowflakes fall in heaps from the sky, instantly covering my red hair in ice. A few yards away, the canoe lake seems to be frozen solid and naiads laugh and play, sliding across it.

And just like that, I go from feeling like crap to falling face forward into my favorite thing in the entire world, laughing my head off.