The Third Camp Trilogy: The Chaotic End

Chapter two: Carrie

Breathe. I told myself.

I didn't know where I was, but I knew who I was with.

"I thought you were done with me." I growled at the cyclops from... I can't even say it.

"We haven't even started on you." One of them snarled, from past experiences I knew it was the leader.

Don't fall into a flashback, I scolded myself. Don't you dare lose consciousness, remember what happened last time?

I remember what happened last time, I blacked out and woke up a week later.

My eyes widened when they brought out the weapon I had learned to hate the most.

A whip, dripping with blood, the ends tied with sharpened stones and bits of bone, taken from past victims.

"Oh, you remember this one, don't you?" The cyclops smirked.

I let out a growl and struggled against whatever held me to the chair.

"But you know what would be better than torturing you? Torturing your girlfriend in front of you." He smirked and strode over to a rock spire.

Neptuna was gagged, her eyes wide.

"Don't you dare touch her." I growled.

"Ah, the little hero makes an appearance." The cyclops laughed. "Would you call this touching?" He readied the whip and whipped Neptuna.

She pressed herself into the rock spire, cringing away from the pain as her side began to bleed.

Was that what I had looked like all of the times it had been me?

I couldn't let Neptuna become the monster I am today.

I couldn't let Neptuna become scarred, whether those scars were emotional, mental, or physical.

Before I knew what I was doing, I had broken the chair and launched myself at the cyclops.

"Torture me all you want." I growled, tackling him to the ground. "But if you touch anyone near me then you will have the slowest and most painful death you can imagine."

The second cyclops came behind me and whipped me in the back, I let out a yell of pain and I fell to the ground. I heard Neptuna yell something into her gag, something like, "Stop it! Stop!"

"Oh, little demigod. You make things so easy for me." A familiar voice hissed from all around me.

The woman came from the darkness.

Wings dragged behind her.

She wasn't accompanied by her horses.

The whip of night was held loosely at her side.

Black hair.

Black eyes.

She was Nyx.

Goddess of night.

The worst thing I've ever made a deal with.

When I tried to get away the cyclops whipped me again.

Nyx walked around the room.

First, she stopped in front of Annabeth and Percy.

"You two have been spared once before by me, but only because of this boy, this foolish demigod that would rather die than watch others suffer even a fraction of what he has. You both tried to fool me, to convince me that there was some brochure." She snarled the last word.

Next she stopped in front of Apollo.

"You, you've posed. The pain I could inflict on you is endless. You are brightened day, I am darkened night. You live in a palace of shining gold, I live in a palace of dull stone. I have already fooled one of the all-powerful Olympians, shall you be next? Or shall I choose someone of importance? You should be rallying against your Olympians. They cast you down, stripped you of your power, stripped you of what made 'the great Apollo' so great."

"Don't listen to her—" I tried to yell but I was whipped again.

Nxy ignored me and approached Neptuna. Nyx smirked.

"Whip him again." She ordered.

I grunted as the cyclops whipped me again and again. Then I saw why Nyx was having them whip me; With each crack of the whip Neptuna would struggle more and more. She wouldn't look at Nyx, her terrified eyes were focused on me.

"I-I'm used to it." I tried to tell her, but that just made her struggle against her bonds more.

"Take off his shirt and take away the mist." Nyx ordered.

The cyclopses ripped my shirt away from me and I could feel the mist leaving, like a blanket being ripped away from my skin.

"Turn him around."

They did so, my back was forced toward Neptuna.

Oh gods, she saw the scar, I could tell by the way she stopped struggling. I could no longer hear her fighting her bonds.

"Would you like to see something, little daughter of the sea?" Nyx strode over to me. "This, this is my best work. Pure darkness. Would you like to see how I made it?"

There were footsteps, I fought against the cyclops' firm grip, I knew what was about to happen. Nyx was getting into position.

"Carrie," A different woman's voice echoed around the room. "I can stop this, I can save you and your friends. All you have to do is not fight in the coming war."

"Kiss my ass, Geia." I shot.

And I prepared myself for the whip.

CRACK!

I fell to the ground, struggling to breathe, pain clouding my vision.

Neptuna screamed through her gag.

I pounded my fist into the ground, trying not to cry out in pain.

I wouldn't give Nyx the satisfaction.

My chest heaved up and down.

"That didn't hurt so bad, did it?" Nyx came over and patted my back.

I could no longer hold it in, I yelled and writhed on the ground.

"Whip him until he passes out. Make sure that the girl watches." Nyx ordered, motioning to Neptuna. "It will make the plan go down better, don't you think?"