The Gathering

Chapter Thirty Three

Isabella, Kat and I walked through the newly formed gate to the big shack. The black paint was peeling and there were several gaping holes in the higher parts. It was eerily quiet, almost like they were expecting us. This wasn't going to go well, I can already tell.

"I'm going to go through the front door, you girls check if there's a back entrance and go through there" I suggested. They both nodded with a serious tone, but Isabella looked saddened also for some reason.

I approached the front door and opened the screen door silently. I snuck in and went to the second floor stairs first. As I walked around on the second floor, I discovered that it seemed to be the sleeping area for them. I decided they wouldn't be up here if they knew we were here so I went back downstairs.

I found Isabella and Kat, and it looked like they hadn't found anything either. We all approached the door down to the basement and opened it. There was no light so Kat used some of her rainbow light to light our descent.

When we got to the bottom I looked around. It was cobblestone and there was roots growing all over the place that would make you think it was abandoned if it wasn't for the fact that this is where Demeter's children live.

That's when I heard the whimpering.
I went over to the wall that the whimpering was coming from, but it was covered by vines. I tried simply cutting through them but they were incredibly thick, so I set them ablaze with my dagger.

Behind the vines was two girls inside a cell. They looked like they hadn't eaten in days. They were both curled in a ball on the floor.

One had braided blonde hair and looked to be about 16. The other didn't look much more than 8 she was so small. That couldn't be right though, because the gods had been gone for 10 years. Kat approached and handed me a set of keys she had found on the wall. I turned around to see if Isabella was still with us. She was but she was intensely staring at the ground and she looked like she was about to bawl her eyes out.

When I unlocked the door and opened it, the girls cringed and hugged themselves tighter. "Whatever you're going to do to us, just do it. You've already hurt us past the point of feeling" The older one weakly said.
Oh gods, the same thing that happened to me is happening to them, except their friends are probably the ones doing it.

"We're not here to hurt you. Are you hungry? We have food if you need it" Kat said, walking past me. I was in a daze, remembering what had happened to me in New Orleans.

Both girls opened their eyes now, intrigued at our offer. "Here. Take an apple" Kat said, taking the apples out of her pack.

They graciously took the apples and began eating them. They attempted to thank us but their mouths were too full for it to sound like anything.

"Thank you. I'm Sam and this is Rose" The older one said.

"I'm Vande a son of Athena. This is Kat, a daughter of Iris and Isabella, a daughter of Apollo" I introduced.

"Do you think they're the ones?" Rose asked Sam. Her voice only confirmed the thought that she was really young.

"Yes I do" Sam said. "Sorry for the confusion, it's just you're the reason we were locked up"

Wait, what is that supposed to mean? "Excuse me for asking, but how are we responsible?" I asked.

"A man named Matalel came and tried to convince us that a group of rogue demigods was going to come and get some of us to join them" Sam explained.

Wait, Doug caused this. I know he was bad but he couldn't have done something like this.

"I didn't believe him, but because of my condition, no one except Sam believed me" Rose said.

"Rose was the last demigod born before the gods left the mortal world so she's always been a sickly kid and most kids just ignore her" Sam said.

So she was actually 10. That makes more sense.

"For defying Doug, he convinced Neville, our leader, to lock us up and we've been here ever since" Sam said.

"That's terrible. I'm sorry for whatever pain we caused you, and I don't expect you to trust us but we are apart of a demigod group. Would you come with us?" I asked.

"For now, yes. But if you prove to be anything like Doug and his friends were leaving" Sam, suddenly defiant, said.

"Well let's get a move on then. We need to get back to the others" I said. What I didn't mention was that I also needed to figure out if it really was Doug that has taken control of camp here.