Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
EIGHTEEN, haunted
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
"KEEP GOING, WE'RE ALMOST THERE!"
Aster's lungs were burning. While she was athletic, her young body was built for this type of endurance. Her legs had been hurting an hour ago, but Luke had grabbed her hand and dragged her along with him, telling her they had to keep going. She just wanted it all to stop; she wanted to sleep or take a break, but Luke kept telling her they had to keep going. Aster clasped Annabeth's hand tightly, the two seven-year-olds finding the barest comfort in each other as they fled.
"Come on! Keep going!" Grover shouted at them, racing ahead of them.
The monsters had been chasing them for hours now, the most Aster had seen since she had joined with Thalia and Luke back in Massachusetts. But after traveling up and down the east coast and having Annabeth join them, they were a huge magnet for things that hunted demigods. Especially with the first child of the Big Three in fifty years among their ranks.
The three leathery bats with fiery whips and an army of hellhounds were gaining on them, their cries and roars getting closer and closer to the five children.
Children. That's what they were. In another life, Aster would have been attending school, still holding her father's hand while she crossed the street. But this was their new life; running and running and running. Running from the beasts and gods that wanted them dead.
Aster's cheeks were wet with tears, and her body was covered in cuts and scratches. Though the tree roots they ran over moved to avoid her, she still had some cuts from the branches that had tried to help her along, but she was running too fast. Aster's dark waves were tangled together, thrown back in a ponytail that had long become packed with dirt. Annabeth was running beside her, princess blonde curls caked with mud and sticks, her gray eyes darting around for any sights of trouble, full to the brim with terror. Luke ran in front of them, sending the two young girls encouragement along the way. Thalia took up the rear, wielding her spear and fighting off the occasional beast that caught up with them. In the months that Aster had been with Thalia and Luke, she had seen the older girl best countless monsters, and she was a force to be reckoned with. But even Thalia couldn't fight off an army on her own. Grover, the satyr who had come to rescue them, was far ahead of Luke, constantly shouting that they were almost to camp.
Camp Half-Blood. The place of refuge for people like them. Somewhere that they could be safe, be fed, train, and actually sleep without the fear of being hunted. Grover had told them stories of the camp, his words weaving together the beauty of the strawberry fields and the tranquility of the forests. He talked so highly of the place that Aster had longed to call the camp home.
"Hurry, the patrol will see us!" Grove called out.
Aster could almost make out lights at the edge of the forest. They emerged, the roars of the monsters not too far behind them. In front of them was a large hill; it was daunting and Aster wasn't sure she could do it. She was about ready to pass out from exhaustion.
