This is pretty long, sorry. I wanted to finish posting chapter 7 though... so yeah. =) and still no title!! augh, if anyone has any idea.... x.x i'm stumped.
I tiredly turned to poke Deanna in the back like I always do, until I remembered that she was… dead.
When Ms. Gunther called my friends name for roll and no one replied, she kept repeating it until I wanted to scream SHES GONE YOU MORON!
But I didn’t. I managed to choke out the words “She’s not here” before spinning towards the back of the room, blinking away tears.
Kurt, a kid who sits next to me in that class gave me a sympathetic look as if he knew what I was thinking. I stared at him, not sure what he was trying to say with his eyes. The fact that Deanna and India had died wasn’t really something that had been made a public matter.
But I smiled back at him anyway, not wanting to be mean.
Ms. Gunther went through her normal routine of assigning millions of pages of homework, then making us stand up in front of class to talk about it. We did this every day. EVERY DAY. It was crazy. I hated it.
Today we were doing the same as always and I ended up having to remind my teacher that I wasn’t here every time she called my name to say something in order to get credit for it.
That class finally finished and I sighed with relief as we all filtered out. Zeeland has two schools, Zeeland East and Zeeland West. I am a student of west, but I have a few classes at east, just like some east people have classes at west. So a bell chimes early to allow the students who have their next classes at the other school time to make it before class starts.
Unfortunately for me, my second hour was also at east, so I had to wait three minutes for my bell to sound. A few other people were with me, including my friend Bailey, so we walked down the hall together talking. She kept asking where I had been the whole two weeks and I averted the questions with half answers.
My next class was dance. I quickly changed into my black leotard, booty shorts and white tennis shoes for hip hop class. My dirty blonde hair tied neatly back into a low pony tail as I let my bangs hang in front of my eyes unlike a some other dancers who pin them back.
Walking into the dance room was a cold affair. I shivered as I sat down on the cold floor, waiting for attendance.
Soon after that, we were on the floor warming up. My friend, kylie, came over next to me and settled into her splits while talking.
“Hey, I heard about India and Deanna… Your mom called my mom…”
I nodded.
“I’m sorry…”
“Its okay. I know that they are happier where they are now… I just… try not to think about it much.”
Kylie grimaced as she did our customary flat back exercise. “Yeah. I can understand that.”
And for the rest of the hour we silently practiced our routine.
I switched back into my regular clothes and walked out of east toward west. Automatically, I searched the area, making sure no hostile demigods or drakiana were hiding behind a bush, ready to do me in.
I walked swiftly, but Kylie managed to keep up. We still didn’t speak until we reached the doors to the building. She had to go a different way than me so before we separated down the halls she said “Bye”
I answered with my usual “See you in econ.”
After that I walked straight to my algebra class, without stopping at India’s locker like I did every day. As I did so, something clad in all black caught my eye.
I spun quickly, recognizing the figure. I almost pulled out my dagger, only to remember it wasn’t there. And then I realized I didn’t need it. The person was only Alex, on his way to third hour.
Huh. I never noticed that he went to this school. Strange. As a matter of fact I swore I’d seen him around India a couple times.
With that weird thought on my brain, I made it through algebra. Eli, another one of the people I normally talk to during my day, was just as silent as I was. Deanna had been just as much as his friend as she had been mine. I felt sorry for him. He didn’t have the feeling of peace that I did about it, because I knew they would be honored in death. He had no notion of what had happened, or even how they would be cremated. I wished I could have told him.
Bio passed by slowly with the empty seat next to mine sucking in all the happiness.
Though my table wasn’t empty, I ate alone. Abby Kate kept trying to start a conversation with me, but I just wouldn’t cooperate. Valerie, Trisha, Tyler and Jasmine all tried to get me to stop sulking, but today was not going as I had hoped it was. I wanted to be happy, because I knew that was what my friends would want me to do, but I couldn’t find the energy. I wasn’t happy here at school. I was happy at the Room. If only my friends could come with me. The people at my table would love to see our own personal sun and moon and a lake that seemed to have no boundaries
After lunch was economics.
I saw Kylie again, but didn’t have much time to talk. I was soon caught in the crowd heading to my Spanish class.
Enduring my Spanish two class was the worst. Usually I would be able to bounce ideas off India, and we would work together to get a good grade on assignments. But without her there, I wasn’t doing well.
All this made me grumpier than a hellhound covered with tar. I sat on the bus staring out the window with an expression of murder on my face. People knew better than to talk to me.
As soon as I got off the bus, I jumped in my dads car, snarling for him to go home. He did so, and I threw my back pack on the porch with out another glance.
I stormed up to my room and saw my duffle before I realized the only place I wanted to be was the Room.
So I walked back down the stairs, informed my dad I was going to head down town and hang with a couple of my friends.
Hurriedly, I ran down my drive way onto the side walk, where a few weeks ago, Deanna, India and I had been ambushed. The blood was all gone off the cement, but I didn’t know if it was just the glamour Hestia had used, or if it had really been scrubbed off.
The house loomed up in front of me, looking different than I had expected. I mean, I knew what it looked like, but it looked… more foreboding than I remembered.
I knocked on the front door, expecting Sam or Qatir to be on guard duty, but no one opened the door.
The big golden knob turned easily, so I hefted the great block of wood into a position where I could enter the house.
It was strangely silent. I looked around, hoping to see a friendly face, but I saw no one.
I inched closer to the entrance to the Room, not sure what to expect. This house was never silent. Never.
And then the door opened of its own accord, slamming open so fast I hardly had time to jump aside.
“Holy mother of Zeus!” I yelped.
Someone darted out of the opening and I was forced to duck aside yet again. It was Valerie, a daughter of Apollo. I didn’t know her that well except that she was one of the best people in the room with a bow. I was good, but nothing compared to the Apollo group.
“Hey Iris” She panted, her golden blonde hair whipping around as she pulled another arrow out of her almost empty quiver and notching it in her bow.
“Uh… hi Val. What in the underworld is going on right now?” I said as an arrow flew over our heads, and we both ducked.
“Some rogue demigods found their way in. We still can’t find where their coming from, and there are more of them this time. A lot more.”
“As in… how many?”
“Gotta be at least 300. They’ve got fire salamanders. So watch out” She said as she raced back through the door and back into the crowd of fighting demigods.
I had no idea what she meant by fire salamanders, but I had a vague memory of Sam telling me about them. This could be nothing good.
It was more than not good. It was bad. Fires were sprouting up everywhere, assumingly from the fire salamanders, and no one was free to put them out. Several demigods were fighting three or four enemies at the same time.
I stormed over to my tent in order to grab my bow before I remembered that I left it at my house. Really? Of all days.
I was about to stomp over to the armory and grab a quiver when I noticed that the corner of my tent was smoking. Smoking…aw snap. Those dumb as dirt salamanders set my tent on fire! OH NO THEY DIDN’T!
Anger roared in my ears, and suddenly the fire was out. Water seeped up from the ground and drenched the eager flames, putting them out immediately. I stared around for the kid of Poseidon to thank him or her when I realized no one was around me.
What the heck?
But then I noticed Jordan a few feet away fighting sword on sword with some no descript enemy. He must have done it. Jordan was the co-leader of the Poseidon group. His best friend James worked with him.
Sprinting to the armory turned out to be harder than I thought. Arrows were flying every where, and I had to do a nose dive into the mud to avoid being hit several times.
A few feet away from the stone building, an arrow zipped straight for my head. I spun to the side and was forced to watch it slam into the back of someone from the Hephaestus cabin. He moaned and crumpled in the dirt. I stumbled in horror then, ran to him as quick as I could. He was dead before I got there.
I picked up his sword with cold fury boiling in my veins. How dare these people invade my safe place, the home of all my friends?!
Someone approached me from behind, trying to be sneaky, but I heard their movements as loud as if they were on speaker. I suppose that was from the adrenaline, but I didn’t care.
I swung the heavy object as hard as I could, connecting solidly with his outstretched arm, nearly cutting it off.
Trying not to throw up, I beat him over the head with the bronze sword, and watched him fall.
Then a girl with bright red hair came out from around the building and immediately I was frozen.
She moved closer and smiled. “This may hurt a bit.”
“Who are you?!” I snarled, amazingly, my mouth worked.
“Caroline. Daughter of Hecate” She stared at me as you would stare at a pig ready to go on the chopping block.
But unfortunately, in the split seconds that she answered my question, her concentration slipped. I stabbed clumsily with the sword and she fell, hitting the earth with a barely audible Thunk
I let the sword droop in my grasp. It seemed like it weighed 100 pounds. Letting the celestial bronze fall to the ground I stiffly stepped forward and over the bodies. It was almost like I was out on the pavement again, seeing Deanna and India.
I promptly leaned over a bush and threw up.
The battle raged around me, but I was oblivious to it. I didn’t realize
until later, but my shirt gained holes in it from where I narrowly missed being run through like a shish-ca-bob.
I made it to the dining hall and crawled behind the serving counter. I have no idea how long I sat there.
By the time someone came looking for me, my butt was numb, and I didn’t know if I could speak for how dry my throat was.
Valerie crept up around the corner and screamed when she saw me, pulling her bow out.
“Wait, no its me! Iris!” I protested. As I suspected, my voice was hoarse and hard to hear.
Val relaxed and lowered her bow. “Oh thank the gods…We were hoping you weren’t taken captive… or…”
She trailed off and I knew that she didn’t mean dead. She meant they were worried I had joined up with the other demigods.
“Just because I’m a descendant of Hermes, and not a demigod doesn’t mean I hate the gods.” I reassured her.
She nodded, as if she didn’t believe me and told me to follow her. I didn’t move.
The questioning look I got back was almost comical in the silence.
“I think I’m just gonna stay here until everyone’s cleared out. I mean, like the bad guys” I answered.
She smiled understandingly, and then with a shock I realized something. This was Valerie. Not some random person that I just happened to meet up with in the Room, but this was the girl who sat across from me at lunch every day.
Holy crap, glamour was so much better than I thought.
Val must have noticed my sudden expression change and said “What?”
“Your… Valerie… from…school?” I choked out.
She laughed. “Oh. Yeah, I guess Sam forgot to mention that a lot of us are demigods. Come on, I’ll introduce you to some people who you might know”
I stood shakily and successfully took a step forward before I almost toppled over onto my face. Val grabbed my arm right before I hit the tile and hauled me back up.
“You okay?” She asked.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. Something was wrong. I hadn’t realized it until now, but the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach was not disgust or fear. It was foreboding. The same sense I had when I first walked up to the house today.
Feeling nervous, I stepped out into the bright sunlight, and immediately ducked, pulling Val with me.
“What is it?’ She said
“Shhh…” I shushed her.
She sat silently for a few seconds before repeating her question.
I pointed and she immediately understood what I was trying to get across.
There were two girls riding a chariot, one with blonde hair, and one with brunette. With a jolt, I realized that I recognized them. They were the girls I had dreamed about when I passed out on my first day in the Room.
And then I felt the coldness on my neck again. This was the same sensation I’d had right before I’d seen the discussion between the girls who were currently racing towards us.
I slipped quickly into the darkness. I didn’t even know how to try to resist. The cold black swept me away with in a few seconds.
The first thought in my mind after my eyes slid open was that I really needed to figure out what was going on.
My hand was again in a puddle of water, in the same place. I saw the stalagmites and stalactites all around me. It took me another second to sit up and see that I had returned to the cave.
The cavern where blondie and brunette were talking last time I saw them.
I shivered, creeped out by the shadows and oppressing darkness that the space held.
Staring around in the darkness made me feel slightly blind. Just like before, two girls walked into the cavern. One was blonde, and the other was brunette. They looked about the same as before, but with subtle differences.
Violet now had her nose pierced, and she was wearing heavy eyeliner with lip-gloss. The brunette, had died her hair a more reddish brown, and she had a darker tan.
I shuffled behind a rock nervously, hoping not to be seen.
Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed. The brunette, saw my shockingly shiny pale hair flash as it flung away from my head when I stepped over.
She snarled and I was reminded vaguely of something I couldn’t quite remember.
Blondie rushed forward, calculating exactly what the brunettes expression meant.
I made a nervous squeaking noise and tried to find somewhere to run. But, just my luck, I was in a circular cavern that only had one exit. An exit that was currently being guarded.
Screeching to a halt earlier than planned, I stopped just short of brunettes out reaching hands. I flipped away, landing a kick square on her shoulder. She hissed angrily and made a mad dash for me. I side stepped, then yelped as her now angry red eyes turned to me and froze me with terror.
My heart pounded with fear and I desperately prayed to Lord Hermes to grant me quick feet. I promised him I would believe in him if he would only let me live.
Their glare apparently paralyzed someone with fear. Or at least that was the case with me, because I couldn’t move. Didn’t want to move.
I bit my lip trying to figure out how to maneuver away from the two girls, but my brain was clogged with various thoughts of how I was about to die.
Violet walked towards me, enjoying the expression on my face as her forked tongue flicked between her lips. I flinched as brunette grabbed my arm and placed her fingers on it. I was immediately released from my horrify day dreams when her gaze was diverted, but yet I still couldn’t move because of how tightly the brown haired girl was holding onto my wrist.
“Make it good Giselle.” Blondie encouraged, and I flinched away from the sound of her voice.
It took me a few minutes before I became conscious of the growing burn in my forearm. The section Giselle was clasping.
All at once the slow ache turned into and agonizing burst of pain. The brunette had slashed her claws through my skin like it was butter, causing my blood to pour out onto the ground.
I groaned in distress, and them bam, I was gone.
I woke up next to Val again. I was disoriented, and a little dizzy, but other than that, I felt fine. Until I glanced at my arm.
Blood was making a puddle at my feet, but this time, I wouldn’t let myself lose consciousness. I wasn’t about to go back to the lair of Violet and Giselle.
Val gave a little scream as her eyes flashed in my direction. “Iris! Oh gods, what happened?”
“I was… attacked…” I murmured weakly.
“No you weren’t.” Valerie sputtered. “You were right next to me the whole time. You blacked out for maybe two minutes and when you woke up, there were these… cuts on your arm.”
“Wait… they just… appeared?” I said, not able to concentrate. It was hard enough trying to stay awake without having to talk.
Valerie turned and yelled for someone, but I couldn’t hear who. Everything was muffled, and I took that as a bad sign. I pinched myself, but that turned out to be a mistake because it just sent new twinges of pain though my body.
I stood up unsteadily and the person Valerie had called over grabbed onto me, trying to steady me. I shook them off, not wanting to seem needy.
Making it to the infirmary wasn’t as hard as I had originally thought. After a while, the blood stop flowing as freely, and I was able to concentrate.
Hestia came over from her office in order to bandage the wound. She shook her head in exasperation when she saw me.
“It would be you.” She said.
“Well…” I answered, unable to come up with a good reason.
Shotka rushed in from what ever part of the battle he had been in, with Qadir in tow.
“How come every time I leave you alone you get hurt?” Shotka growled.
“Sorry, sorry…” I sighed.
“So what’s the story this time?” Hestia pulled gauze out of the drawer next to the bed along with a needle and thread.
“Uh… well…” I stammered.
“She was walking with me back to see you Hestia, when two girls, one blonde and one brunette came riding up on a chariot. We hid as best we could and with in a few seconds they left. When I looked back over at Iris to see if she was ok, she was out like a light. I shook her a few times, and then she woke up. I thought she was okay, but she made this strange sound, which caused me to look at her again. And this time she had these gashes in her arm. Five of them. Like fingernails.” Valerie interrupted me, much to my relief. But she was prying into the nature of the furrows in my arm, which did not settle well with me.
“I think maybe I slipped on the steps we were running down to hide and got hurt.” Even making a lame excuse would be better than staying silent and letting their imaginations get the best of them.
Hestia put into words my exact feelings. “Lets fix this, shall we?”
I nodded and she pulled out a syringe. “Okay, this is going to make you sleep.”
“No!” I shouted and immediately went to jump off the bed.
Qadir moved to quickly for me and stood in my way. “Where do you think your going?”
“I… I don’t want to be put under…!” I protested.
“So your going to get stitches while awake.”
“Fine. If that’s what I have to do, I will.”
He stared skeptically. “This aught to be interesting.”
“I can do it. I’ll be perfectly quiet too.”
“You’ve obviously never had stitches.”
“Can’t be much worse than the pain in the butt theses cuts have been, right?”
“Yeah… sure Iris.” His grin made me snarl. I wouldn’t made a sound.
Hestia shrugged. “Whatever you want…”
She stuck the needle in and I winced, biting my lip. It wasn’t too bad, just kind of like a bee sting.
And then she moved to the other side. The needle entering skin wasn’t so bad, it was just the feeling of my skin being pulled together, and then having the walls of the grooves touch each other. It felt like Hestia was pouring liquid fire on each slit.
But yet I was silent.
Yes, I did bite my lips so hard it bled, and yes, I was gripping the table with enough force my knuckles almost broke, but I didn’t whine once.
Qadir’s smile changed from mocking to concerned. “Are you ok?”
I glared at him, not trusting myself enough to make a comment back.
As soon as the stitches were done, I relaxed and let out the breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“Ouch.” I grimaced.
Shotka glanced over at me, and I immediately tried to convey the message that we needed to talk.
Giving him the eye was easier than I thought. Almost within seconds he touched the pocket of his jeans, the place I knew his stone was located.
So he wanted me to give him a ring when I wanted to talk. Hmm… very clever.
Our stones let us communicate with each other, and I knew that they could contact only one person. For example, if I wanted to let Shotka know we needed to talk, I would just send him a distress ring. My name would scroll at the very top of his rock to let him know who it was from.
Hestia wrapped my arm in a thick layer of gauze and I grumbled a little as she did so.
My right wrist had been injured.
That was also the hand that held a sword.
No battling for me until I was healed.
Qadir looked about as happy as I felt as I stood up.
“I’m good now. Lets get out of here.” I began to walk out of the hospital.
“Is there anything you need to tell me Iris?”
I sighed inwardly. Of course Hestia would pick up on the falseness of my excuse.
“Nope” I said, and walked away without a backward glance.
maybe give more description of the Blondie and the brunette (-ey) girls. just a suggestion. It would be good either way, one makes them more mysterious and vague and one makes you closer to them. well, i cant ramble on this time, lol, i have a time limit ;P I cant wait until you post more!