Heroes of Olympus (The Throne of Stone)

Chapter 10 Zeus's Armpit

Chapter 10

Zeus’s Armpit

Piper

 

“WHY IN THE HECK IS EVERYONE DISAPPEARING?!” Emma screamed in disgust. She paced through the Athena cabin. News of Annabeth’s disappearance had spread like wildfire. I was helplessly watching Emma  rip out her own hair, “You should stop doing that.” I muttered.

“Stop doing what? Worrying?”

“No. Pulling your hair out, you should stop. It’s your best feature.” I grinned picking up Emma’s hair in wads.

“I’m just worried, that’s all.” Emma shrugged. I ran her finger through Emma’s hair and it grew magically back, “How did you do that?” Emma said running her fingers through her hair marveling at how smooth it was.

“It’s an Aphrodite thing.” I shrugged. I tried to hide it but it was clear as day that I was sad.

“How’s Jason?” Emma guessed. I had never exactly been good with boys but Jason clearly meant alot to me.

“Same old, same old.” I shrugged. By the way my shoulders tensed this was a very touchy subject for me.

“Have you seen him lately? I mean since the urm…….incident.” Emma urged. I seemed to shrivel up like a deflated balloon. There was a drawn out silence and it was so quiet I heard the monsters in the woods snarling. There was even a clinking of silverware, the harpies must be setting up for breakfast. I slumped and I gave Emma a miserable look,

“No. He’s not speaking to me apparently.” I sighed. In her head I saw that day at the Grand Canyon where Jason had caught me as I fell over the edge of the skywalk. He was my own personal superman. Now my own personal superman wasn’t speaking to me and he had even failed to show up for meals recently. I couldn’t muster enough courage to go to his cabin and ask him what was up. Since the incident I was scared of him. I knew I shouldn’t and it was completely irrational but when he zapped Percy….he lookedscary.Normally scary wasn’t in Jason’s vocabulary but in that instant I was mortally terrified.

“You should go and see him!” Emma smiled cheerfully, “He’s your boyfriend after all!” She giggled like a 6th grader normally would. But that happy sound was so out of place in my gloom. When I didn’t move or even acknowledge her words Emma pulled me off my bunk, “Come on! Seriously!” Emma shoved me out of the cabin and giggled, “Go!”

“Fine JEEZ!” I giggled back, finally smiling. I half walked half skipped to Jason’s cabin. When I reached for the door knob I ran into a wall. Not a literal wall but a mental wall. What was I going to tell him? What could I possibly say to make things right between us? I heard my dad’s voice in my head, “Just take a deep breath and take the plunge.” His voice made me  smile. He was always saying encouraging things like that. I took a deep breath, straightened myself up and was about to turn the knob when I heard someone groan loudly for inside. I quickly opened the door. I ran inside hoping that my boyfriend wasn’t the victim of a kidnapping like Annabeth and Percy.

“Jason?” When I opened the door the room was completely empty. For a moment I thought my nightmare had come true before I heard his voice,

“Piper?” I looked closer. Still no sign of my boyfriend anywhere. Was I hearing things? It was Jason’s voice though...

“Where are you?”

“Um………..” I tracked the voice and looked straight up to see the statue of Zeus that was planted in the middle of the cabin. For a moment I thought that I was hallucinating and that Zeus was speaking to me with Jason’s voice. The statue was pointing at the door. Almost as if Zeus was personally asking me to leave. One of the statue’s arms’ was suspended and Jason was………….