Gnossienne (Book 1)

Chapter 8

That night, I slept in Luke's bed, still shaken up about what had happened.

The next morning, Chiron moved me and Percy to cabin three. We had plenty of room and didn't have to share a bathroom considering the cabin had three, leaving us with one spare. Me and Percy sat at our own table, picked our own activities, call 'lights out' whenever we wished to and not have to listen to anybody.

And we hated it.

I had just started to feel accepted, like I had a home in cabin eleven and now we'd been separated from everyone as if we had some deadly disease.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I gathered that they talked about it behind our backs. The attack had scared everybody. It sent three messages:

One, me and Percy were the children of the Sea God.
Two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill us.
Three, there was a traitor in camp, who was willing to summon monsters into a camp that had been considered safe.

The other campers steered cleared of us as much as they possibly could. Luke, Lucy, Grover and Annabeth were the only ones who stood beside us. Cabin eleven were even nervous to duel against me and Percy after they had seen what we had done to the Ares cabin, so my lessons become a one on one with Lucy. It turned out she had been claimed by Apollo a few years back. She was a good healer, but was rubbish with a bow. She found a sword easier to handle. Luke had trained her since she had arrived at camp three years ago so she was an excellent opponent.

She pushed me to my limits and didn't seem to mind giving me the odd few bruises.

Annabeth still taught Percy and me Greek in the morning, but often seemed like she was miles away. After lessons, she would walk away muttering, "Quest... Poseidon?... Dirty rotten... Got to make a plan..."

Even Clarisse managed to keep her distance, although that didn't stop the deadly looks she was giving us. Percy became more agitated over time saying, "I'd rather her fight me then everyone ignore me."

I knew someone at the camp resented us, because one night, when I was asleep, someone snuck into our cabin, leaving behind a mortal newspaper. Percy shook my awake, interrogating me if I had placed it there. It took almost an hour for us to read it as Percy got angrier. We managed to read through it, stopping each time the words began to muddle.

MOTHER AND CHILDREN STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

By Eileen Smyth

Sally Jackson and children, Percy and Cassie, are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred metres before exploding.

Mother and children had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Traces of blood were found inside the car and near the scene, which has now been confirmed to match Cassie Jackson, 13. There were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.