Twisted Detonator

sweet dreams are made of blood

Disclaimer:

I do not own Percy Jackson or many of the characters in this story. I do however take credit for Kal.

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We all trekked back towards the house we were staying at, exhaustion steaming of off everyone with each heavy step that faintly echoed the crushing of dried leaves and twigs under foot. We were all tired.

A bunch of bloodied demigods clad in battle gear couldn't exactly take the bus.

Elsa had obtained a deep gash on her leg from her fight with Jenna and as hard as she tried to glare us down with her icy gaze she was forced to eat a square of ambrosia along with myself and Julie, who had apparently run into trouble whilst at the big house, earning her a deep cut that started at her shoulder and wound it's way down to her elbow. All of us took coaxing from the other demigods to consume the ambrosia, apparently the most stubborn of us had all decided to betray camp.

By the time we arrived at our destination the sky was scattered with glittering stars and the moon had been up for hours. Everyone was exhausted, even Julie who I'm pretty sure was 50% coffee by now, then again she was a Hypnos kid. Ass decided to go straight to sleep, still clad in her battle gear. She took off her belt and dumped it by the front door before walking to her room, lazily waving goodbye over her shoulder. Gabe shrugged and did the same, gesturing for Flora to come with him, probably to sort out a sleeping arrangement. Flora wandered after him and ran her hand over the walls, her eyes already scanning for anything valuable. Julie's eyes fluttered shut and she started to fall asleep for a moment before she jolted back awake and stifled a yawn. "Night guys." She said sleepily and flashed a tired smile before she wandered to the room we shared with Adri. Sleepy Julie was cute.

"Dibs on showering first." Adri said happily from beside me, even though her posture conveyed just how tired she was

I sighed and blew a stray strand of hair from my face. "Fine, but be quick and don't use all the hot water." I pleaded, adding in a pout. She laughed and walked to the room we shared then presumably to the bathroom.

I let out a tired yawn and looked down at my clothes. My armour had sure seen better days, the front had a scratch embedded on it from Crystal's sword while the side was completely ruined. Her sword had managed to slice from one side of my hip, across my side and to the start of my back, making the leather bindings holding it firmly in place fall apart. My pants were coated in dirt and blood, both of them were half damp and half dry. The black three quarter sleeved shirt I wore under my armour was also ruined, a slash on one of the forearms and of course one on the torso. It was also had blood soaked patches. Most of the blood on my torso was my own yet I knew that Crystals blood had managed to get all over me, accounting for more than half of the crimson substance that I was doused in. My hands were coated in a thick layer of flaky dried blood. The blood had soaked in the every line of my hand and had embedded itself under my finger nails. I bit my lip and forced the image of Crystals bloody eye sockets out of my head as I rubbed at the blood, causing it to crumble and reveal the skin underneath. I knew I had blood just about everywhere else, on my face too. I'd tried to wipe some hair from my face on the walk back and had smeared blood on my forehead, repeating the process when I tried to wipe the thin sheen of sweat off of my brow.

I walked into the room and smiled faintly at the sight of Julie's figure curled up on her godforsaken fold out bed with her head resting on that pillow she'd gone to so much trouble with getting out of camp.

I realised that there was no sound of water running in the bathroom, that meant that Adri had either not taken her shower yet or had already finished, I prayed for the latter. My prayers were answered when she emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later in a towel.

"All yours." She said, obviously happy to be clean. I nodded in thanks and grabbed a pair of underwear and a big t-shirt from my bag before heading into the bathroom. I noticed Adri's dirty clothes folded neatly in one corner of the bathroom. I peeled off my leather armour, it was significantly easier now that the strings were cut. I then tugged off my wrist guards and belt before stripping off my other blood soaked clothes. I shrugged before tossing them on top of Adri's neatly piled ones, not giving one slight fuck as I turned on the shower and hopped in. Almost immediately the water pooled red at my feet, taking its time to flow down the drain. I let out a tired breath and began furiously scrubbing at my skin, violently removing every speckle of blood that covered my skin. My skin burned a harsh pink after the scrubbing, almost as if the blood had left a stain. I then worked on my hair, knowing that blood had also caked its way into my golden locks along with dirt and god knows what else. As the water ran down my face and body in droplets, I thought about the thick tears of blood that had leaked out of Crystal's eye sockets previously that night. I wandered if she was alive. Probably. After all, the campers would have been aware of our presence by now and Jenna would be there with her. I paused. Jenna. The pure look of hurt and betrayal that morphed her features was now etched into my mind, leaving me wishing I had the ability to scrub that away too.

By the time I was done, dirt and blood had been completely erased from my body, leaving my skin raw and pink.

I got out of the shower and changed into my clothes, using the towel to dry my hair as I wandered back to the room. Adri appeared to be asleep already or at least on her way there. It was then that a wave of tiredness hit me, now that all the blood was cleared physically from my skin my brain was telling my body to sleep. I yawned again before collapsing onto the fold out bed that at that moment felt like the most comfortable thing in the world. Almost instantly my eyes fluttered shut and I was pulled into a deep sleep.

Unfortunately for me that sleep was plagued by nightmares. At first everything was black, an empty and cold back that felt like an abyss. I felt something on my face and out of reflex went to wipe it away, however I froze when my fingertips made contact with a thick liquid. I drew my hand back and suddenly everything went a fluorescent white, burning my eyes and washing out everything, everything except for the crimson liquid that coated my fingers. Blood. A shrill scream erupted from the back of my throat but it sounded foreign and I knew it wasn't my own, it was Crystal's. Suddenly blood dropped down from my forehead and into my eyes, pooling up slowly and in turn blocking out my vision. the screams got louder and louder as I frantically tried to wipe the blood from my eyes, to no avail. The screams sounded so close, like they were blaring straight into my ears, echoing inside my head along with the hammering of my heart. Then I heard another scream, this time it was Colette's. And then another. This time Jenna's. I dropped to my knees and pulled myself into a tight ball as the screams consumed everything, making my brain fuzzy. I tucked my head between my knees and let out my own ear splitting scream at the top of my lungs.

My eyes flew open. My heart hammered loudly in my chest as my frantic breaths disturbed the silence of the dark and still room. My entire body was coated in a thin sheen of cold sweat that left the sheets sticking to my skin. I swallowed thickly and closed my eyes again. before long I was thrusted into another nightmare.