The Next Generation

Chapter 8 - Zara

I was too scared to move. My own father, a thief? No, that's not possible. I wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. The worst part is, he took both my siblings, his own kids! I tried to concentrate on Ethan's chest rising and falling. He lost his parents too, he must feel just as bad as I do. He must have seen tears in my eyes, because he slid his soft hands around my back, and pulled me into a hug. I actually hugged him back!

I picked up my cold hands and placed them behind his neck. At that moment I felt so helpless so broken I couldn't think about anything else. His warmth heated me. I could hear the others snickering at us. Ethan picked up his head from my shoulder, and stared at them worriedly. "Don't let them mess with you," I say softly. Then, I felt the air turn cold, Underworld cold. All I could remember is Ethan's face when he looked down at me. In pure shock. About what exactly? I didn't know until I woke up.

"Zara, Zara," I had heard a muffled voice say, "Are you okay?" The blurry picture in front of me turned into a face, Kas's face, "Zara," She shook my shoulders.

"Wh-what," I asked drowsily. The face in front of me switched. A boy with curly, black hair came into few. "Percy?" I asked weakly.

"No Zara, Ethan, Percy's son." He said. That was the boy I had seen for years. The boy that always tried to ask me out. The boy...I became friends with. I smile. By then all the blurriness went away. His handsome, thin face had bruises all over. One of his eyes was almost swollen shut.

"Ethan...what happened?" I ask.

"You, um, kind of just passed out."

"No, not me, you."

"I listened to you." He shrugged.

"I don't remember telling you to throw yourself into a fight." I say confused.

He laughed before returning to the conversation, "I didn't let them mess with me," He winked.

"So you wanted to fight with them to settle it?"

"Gods, no. You think I would throw myself into a fight?"

I giggle, "No. But, why did you do it?"

He sucks in air, "They got mad at me for sitting next to you without asking them first."

I laugh, "You're kidding, right?" He shakes his head no. I feel my eyes grow wide. "You,you-" My sentence was stopped by a hug. We hugged for what seemed like an hour, until Kas stepped in from behind us.

"Okay you lovebugs, I think that's long enough." Both our cheeks burned bright red. "I gotta check up on Zara now, Ethan. You'll see her later." He nodded and then left the room. I sat up. The itchy, white infirmary sheets covered my body all the way up to my stomach. Ethan's sweatshirt was still on, along with the outfit I had on earlier.

"Bye, Ethan." I tell him as he strides out of the room. "So, the thing with my dad was real, I'm guessing." I say to Kas. She looked like she wasn't paying any attention to me, but on Ethan.

"Here he comes," She whispers.

"What do you m-"

I got cut off by Ethan poking his head out the door. "Oh, and Zara, do you want to hang out later today. Ya know, when you feel better."

"Oh, um." Kas bumps my arm, "Sure." He nods happily, and then leaves for real. "How did you know he was coming back in?" I ask Kas.

"I read books, remember." She sighs, "Ah, but I do love some real love." I grumble and then smack her arm. "Oww!"

"I am not in love." I growl.

"Whatever you say lovergirl." I smacked her again, this time harder. She laughed. We talked more about what happened last night and what had happened while I was out. She was gaining my friendship again. She told me that she went to the library last night to see if she could find anything with prophecies.

"There has to be one," She announced.

"How do you know? Rachel Dare said there isn't a prophecy for demigods right now."

"I know, but it might be one of those old prophecies from the Ancient Greek. It has to be. Can you at least come and look with me?" she pleaded.

"I dunno Kas, we could get in trouble. You know that Chiron keeps the old prophecies in his room."

"Okay, so tonight at seven?" She declared.

"No, I'm not go-. What? Wait, what time of day is it?" I ask.

"About noon" She told me. I paled and then fell off the bed into the shadows. It felt like I was falling, but I couldn't have been, not, unless I was shadow traveling. But last time I tried traveling by shadows, I was whisked off to Wisconsin. But, this time, I didn't try. The lights from the infirmary were starting to fade. Everything around me felt dead, dead as in the Underworld. I tried to shout, but no one answered.

"No!" I screamed. I could sense the dead getting closer. I yelped as I hit the cold stone ground. "Leave me alone!" I moan.

"You don't want to meet your step-mom?" Asked a sweet voice. Persephone! She was in a floral dress that went down to her knees. She had black high heels and her dark hair...oh, it was perfect. It rolled down to hips, like it was just curled. I understood why Hades wanted to steal her. She was gorgeous!

"Why did you bring me to this awful place?" I ask her as I stand up unsteadily.

"I wanted to give you something."

"Why would I want something from you?" I groan.

"Because you will want it." She stuffs a scroll into my hands, and I woke up on the floor, panting like a dog. Now Chiron was in the room, in centaur form. Kas was explaining what happened. Chiron glanced in my direction. He didn't say a word, but just picks me up and sets me on my bed.

"Explain." He said impatiently. I told him about the minute journey I took, but left the part about the scroll out. "Why did she bring you there? Did she tell you anything about Hades plan?" I shook my head no.

"I have no clue why she brought me there." I lied.

"Well then, I guess you can carry on with your day." He told me. He knew I wasn't telling him something. After he left, Kas helped me up and together, we stumbled out the door. She asked me where I wanted to go, but I just said to my cabin. Halfway to the Hades cabin, we met up with Sammy, who I had heard stayed out of the fight. It was mostly just C.J and Ethan. I could tell there was something about those two. Was it that they liked each other? I wasn't so sure. Kas, exhausted from hauling me around camp, asked for Sammy's help. He is so strong, he could have probably picked me up and carried me all the way to my cabin without his face even getting damp, but he just helped me by supporting my drowsy body's weight. I could tell Sammy really liked Kas. Kas just walked beside me, keeping a blank face.

Once they had safely put me down on my bed, I unrolled the scroll. It had ancient greek writing on it. Thankfully, I'm a demigod, so I can read ancient greek. It was a prophecy of some sort. I was about to read it when Ethan knocked on my door. Just then, I promised myself I would not read it without someone else. We were meeting up at seven to search for the prophecy. Wait, what if this scroll is the prophecy? Soon enough, I would find out.