Lost In Paradise (Discontinued-please read A/N)

XxChapterSevenxX

Hey guys! I know the wait for each chapter is very long and I apologise for that, but for those who have kept commenting and voting, thank you! 

I wrote this chapter in, like, an hour so sorry if it's rushed, but personally I quite liked this chapter, especially the first bit, because it's building up to the real problem. 

Okay, so please comment+ vote!! Love you guys! 

A N N A B E T H

I was standing waist-deep in the lake, black water brushing its silky tendrils against my skin and enticing me to stop fighting the gentle yet insistent swells pushing me from side to side.

There seemed to be no land nearby or any sign that suggested that anything else existed apart from this cold, silent and unyielding water that swished unrelentingly against me.

I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, fighting back panic and nausea. I opened my eyes and stared at the lake, trying to think.

I could see the outline of a body under the water and my stomach twisted with shock and horror.

Driven on by some Athenian instinct, I held my breath and plunged under the water, the liquid immediately cooling my skin. As soon as I saw the body, I screamed soundlessly, bubbles spewing out my mouth as water was sucked into my lungs.

Because the body in front of me was Percy Jackson.

He was pale; deathly pale. He floated calmly in the water, his eyelids closed and his raven black hair drifting in the current, framing his face. His mouth was loosely open, like it did whenever he slept. But his chest did not rise and fall like it normally did.

My head was spinning from lack of oxygen, but I didn’t care. I was staring in shock at a dead Percy Jackson.

“NO!” I screamed, although I know that it just sounded like a choking sound in the water as more bubbles poured out my mouth.

I sunk deeper into the water, unable to move because suddenly the liquid was much like black, oily syrup; thick and heavy and impossible to swim in. The black substance found its way into my mouth, nose and ears and I was trying to scream again in vain.

No, no, no, no, not like this, oh gods…

It slithered into my lungs and I was choking and crying, all shame evaporated with the fear of incoming death.

I stopped struggling. I was going to die. As simple as that. I didn’t want to die thrashing and crying in the depths of this black lake, desperate for an escape that wasn’t there.

So leaned back and relaxed, closing me eyes. I would see Percy in Elysium.

The pressure in my lungs became almost unbearable.

But before I became unconscious, I found myself on the bank, soaking wet and on my knees, facing the black lake.

A huge ripple, deadly and silent, swelled lightly from the middle of the lake, and suddenly the whole earth was shifting.

A gigantic hand erupted from the dark water, gripping the bank, hefting its body out of the lake.

A swarm of memories overwhelmed me: a dark, swirling face; Bob’s creased face and Damasan’s kind but sad eyes; the ground a thin membrane, blood and acid and lava winding under the surface like veins.