Broken || A Riordan Universe Story

Hazel POV~ "For Once, You Saw What Was Right In Front Of Your Eyes."

I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of something familiar, someone familiar. It was my mother. She was standing in front of me. Right next to Magnus, and Alex's turned backs. Her eyes were empty, and her clothes were in tatters. They were the same clothes she wore the last day I saw her. Her sleeveless red dress was stained with blood. She had a purple shawl around her arms that had holes dotting it. Her skin was pasty, and lifeless.

"My darling daughter," my mother began with a devilish smile. "How are you?"

"M-Mother?" I was in disbelief.

"I see you're still cursed. It has been in the cards since the day you were born. You brought this upon yourself. Yet, you blame me. You were the one who raised Alcyoneus, and almost killed everyone with your foolish idea." She spat.

"It wasn't my fault." Although I could hear the lie in my tone.

"You know that isn't true. You've known it since day one." And with that my mother disappeared.

"Hazel!" Frank shook my shoulders.

"What?" I asked dazedly.

"You stood there talking to air for a solid five minutes." Magnus explained.

"We were worried. I was trying to get you to snap out of it." Frank added.

"You looked like you had seen a ghost." Alex said.

"I'm fine." I shook off everyone's comfort.

"Well, then what was that all about?" Frank asked; he was not at all convinced. "Because I'm sure that you are not fine."

"Just drop it already!" I snapped at Frank.

He looked taken aback by my outburst. I could see the hurt in his eyes.

His facial expression hardened. "Fine."

I didn't know where that outburst came from. I felt like all the anger and sadness that I had buried deep inside about my mother finally surged out, and I was taking it all out on my friends.

"Sorry." I apologized in a shaken tone. "I-I saw someone. Someone from my past." I took a deep breath. "It was my dead mother."

Frank put and arm around my shoulder. "Oh Hazel, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I'm fine." I smiled a small smile. The best I could do.

"You're not the only one who's been seeing things." Alex was looking at his feet. "I-I saw Loki once, my mom."

     Magnus was staring at Alex in disbelief. "When did this happen?"

     "It was when we were fighting the Trolls." He replied. "Loki was saying some stuff that really threw me off. That's why I didn't see the Troll coming." Alex let out a sigh.

     "My mother did too." I admitted.

      "Why do you think this is happening?" Asked Magnus.

     "I bet they're just toying with us." Alex suggested. "Trying to get us distracted."

     "Makes sense." Frank accepted.

     "We should find the Trolls fast and get back to the beach, so that we can ask the others if they've seen anything off." I said.

     "Speaking of Trolls." Magnus crouched down. "Look at this."

     His gaze was on a footprint. It had two toes with pointed ends. The footprint was right next to a lot of other ones. They were going across the path we were on, and straight into the woods. The prints were barely there. Water was washed onto them; blurring them in the dirt. It was a surprise that Magnus caught them.

     "Nice job." Alex smiled. "For once, you saw what was right in front of your eyes."

     "Thanks." Said Magnus with heavy sarcasm in his tone.

     "Let's go, we finally have a lead guys!" I smiled.

     We entered the woods as we started jogging in the direction of the footprints. The sun was barely streaming through the leaves of the massive amount of trees. There were thorns and vines splattered all across the dirt background. My eyes were focused of the ground. An occasional flower or berry bush would pop up, but other then that the landscape was brown and green.

     I bumped into Frank.

     "Why did we stop?" I asked.

     "Don't move." He whispered.

     I looked up from the ground and saw a massive, unmoving shape. It had the face of a human, the body of a lion, talons, and wings. It's eyes were closed, and it's chest rose and fell with every breath. Next to it was the dead body of a Troll. Yes, it was dead and not dissolved into tiny specs of gold. There was a slit across its green throat which was weird because it shouldn't have stayed in its form.

     "Guys! The Sphinx has feathers!" Magnus whisper-yelled.

     "Well, duh." Alex rolled his eyes.

     "Doesn't the shape look familiar?" He asked.

     I was hit with a wave of realization. "Oh my gods."