Score for Leo Valdez

Chapter 28- Dead or Alive?

ACACIA P.O.V

'Is she dead...?' Leo's voice rings through my ears, along with the constant buzzing that followed. At, first, I thought they were talking about me. But if I was dead, why did it hurt so much? I try to move my arms and wriggle my feet, but my body refuses to respond. I feel like I'm rooted to the ground. Is this my funeral?

'If you say that one more time,' Thalia yells, 'I'm going to send you to Hades.'

'Oh cool,' Leo says, though I'm sure his heart wasn't into the sarcasm, 'I heard they have hot saunas there.' I was almost sure Thalia had rolled her eyes. I heard the door creak open slightly and someone made their way through the room.

'Is she awake?' Ash asks.

'What do you think?' That cranky, sarcastic voice could only have belonged to Bristle, Ash's sister.

'Yeah... right, sorry. Um, just lemme check her pause again.' I heard Ash kneel down and place a hand warm hand on my wrist, sending a motionless shiver down my arm.

'Her heart's still beating,' Ash concludes, standing up and brushing the dirt off her pants,'barely, but she's still alive.' Slowly everyone adverts their gazes towards me, even with my eyes shut I can feel the intensity of their gazes push me firmly onto the bed. Wake up. Wake up, Acacia. I will myself to try and make the slightest movement. All that comes to mind is Leo. How could he think I was dead? Isn't he supposed to have faith in me, In us? Then I remember the empathy link, maybe I could speak to him with telepathy and tell him that I'm not dead. I barely have enough energy, but I try to test my theory. Nothing happens. The empathy bracelet must broken, either that or I'm just too tired. I groan with frustration.

'I think she said something.' Bristle says, ready to challenge anyone who questions her opinion. If I wasn't seriously injured, I would have jumped out of bed thanked her.

'Are you sure? It sounded like a squeak.' Leo determines. My cracked lips form a quiet word

'I-'

'She spoke again!' Ash squeals. Suddenly I know I'm in the spotlight, everything falls silent. Someone grabs my hand and clings onto it as if it is the only thing between life and death.

'Acacia-' Leo starts

'I-I hate you, Leo.' A small smile plays on my lips. I can hear Thalia laughing, Ash trying to hold back her giggles and Bristle must be staring at me with sudden dismay.

'Are you going to open your eyes?' Bristle demands. I struggle to gasp enough air to finish my next statement.

'I can't-'

'What, why not?!' Bristle yells

'Shut up, Bristle!' Ash hisses

'She needs to have a valid reason! She's just pretending to be sick so that she can get some attention. I mean, just look at her, that tangly brown hair looks like a birds nest, her attitude is sickening, she has no personality and-'

'JUST SHUT UP!' Ash screams. Someone jumps with fright and Bristle effectively shut up. At that moment I change my opinion about Ash. The moment I met her, I knew she'd been hen-pecked all her life and was merely a follower to her sister, I've never heard her shout, much less oppose Bristle, the power hungry ''leader''.

'Bristle,' Thalia starts, 'you are a shameful image.'

'I could say the same to you... Hunter.' She says the last word like it is the most insulting word she can think of. Bristle must have hit a bomb because I felt little shocks of electricity charge through my veins, making every hair stick on end. I squeeze Leo's hand tighter and he grips my hands with so much force, I'm sure they are going to crack.

'You two can fight later,' Leo says, 'I'm sure when the world ends they'll have plenty of unoccupied buildings for you two to knock down. And Thalia, if you keep doing that electricity thing, I'm going to be as fried as a potato chip,' he thinks for a moment before adding 'a hot potato chip, if you know what I mean.' I laugh, but I'm pretty sure it came out as a croak or a burp of some kind.

'Will that ego ever quit?' Thalia asks, but she lets the electricity slowly die down.

'Yeah, it quits sometimes. Only when it does, it gets replaced with insanity.' Leo chuckles. I don't know what it was, Thalia's electricity or Leo's scrawny humour, but my eyes wearily open and I push myself up into a sitting position. I almost wish I hadn't because now black dots are dancing in front of my eyes and I feel like the earth is trying to throw me off it's surface. Thalia notices how sick I look and quickly shoves me down again, unfortunately for me, she used too much force and my legs flew up into the air.

'Ow...' I groan

'Sorry.' Thalia murmurs. I'm too tired to speak so I just nod in her direction. I examine the faces around me and to be honest, everyone looks sort of... what was the word...? Dead. Even with blurry vision I can recognise the thick black bags that loop around Thalia's electric blue eyes. Green slime was drooling down Leo's curly brown hair, Ash looks like she had been trampled on by a herd of elephants and Bristle... well, Bristle always looked a bit dead in the first place.

'Someone please fill me in on what happened.' I ask after my voice box had stopped making desperate gasping sounds. Leo is the first to speak, it's as if he'd been preparing it even before I asked the question.

'You got stuck by an axe, you fell down from a flying boat, giant snake woman who eats children, spits acid and has a funny accent tried to kill us,' Thalia glares at Leo and he adds, 'she also picked you up with her scaly foot and dropped you on the head, we then destroyed her eyeballs and Artemis magically teleported you to the Argo II, she also helped you recover.'

'Wha-' I start

'I know right, you got a free ride.' Leo interrupts.

'No not that,' I laugh, increasing the intensity of my headache, 'I was dropped on my head? That must explain why my brain feels like gel,' I look around, silently doing a head count. I stop dead in my tracks, a finger still hovering above Ash.

'Wh-Where's Summer?' I glance around, expecting her to be hiding under the covers, ready to surprise me with some sort of clever trick...

'She's dead.' Bristle explains, no sympathy in her tone.

'Well that was... straightforward.' Ash mumbles

'No, she- Leo, tell me this is all a joke.' I laugh nervously

'Acacia-' He says, loosening the grip of my hand, I had completely forgot that he was still holding it.

'But- This... it-it can't be,' I croaked, surprised at how dry my voice sounds, 'No... I don't believe it.' I choke on the growing lump that stuck itself on the sides of my throat. Leo grabs my shoulders and gives me a firm little shake.

'Acacia,' He says, his voice suddenly going up like a tightened violin string, 'she died a hero, I think that's what she must have really wan-'

'No!' I slap his hands away. 'She didn't want to die! Not for me.' Hot tears prickle down my face

'We all knew we someone had to die, Acacia. It was part of the deal of coming on this quest.'

'But- Summer-'

'Summer only wanted one thing, do you know what that was?'

'No, but-' Ash charges in before I can finish my sentence.

'Summer wanted to be remembered for doing something brave, you know, I bet she's going to end up in "Party Central" of the underworld.'

'I think I need to get some fresh air.' I say, ignoring Ash's terrible attempt at humour.

'I'll come with you,' Leo offers, 'you know, to make sure someone catches you when you fall off the edge of the boat again.'

'Real smooth, Leo,' Thalia says disapprovingly, 'Real smooth.'

'Leo,' I say, struggling to stand up out of bed, 'I want to be alone.' I turn my back to him and walk sluggishly across to the door.

I am so so so sorry, I got so busy with school I forgot to update. Thanks so much for being patient with me and I promise I will spend at least 30 minutes per night writing a chapter. (Approximately 1 chapter per 1-3 days) Sorry again. Also, give this a like/thumbs up/what-ever-they-call-it-now-days. :D