LUNACY; percy jackson

chapter 2

[act two; chapter two     -     first and last]

    She was melting from the inside out. She could feel it. Feel her heartbeat within her chest, and the way it slowed. Feel the churning of her gut, and the way it toppled and turned at every step she took. Feel the pain radiate through her legs as her feet hit the ground, one at a time, left then right, left then right. She avoided looking over her shoulder as she led them all to the Big House. She didn't need to look to know who was watching. Or how. Or why. She knew it, and she knew that he knew it, too.

    Along the way, Tyson, the cyclops, would point things out and ask questions like: "What's that?" or "Who is that?"

    They quickly found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags. Andromeda did not answer any of Tyson's questions.

    As soon as they saw him, the cyclops froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.

    Chiron turned, looking offended. "I beg your pardon?"

     Annabeth ran up and hugged him. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not...leaving?" Her voice was shaky. Shaky as if she were standing upon the walls of the Grand Canyon, staring down at the bottom as it grew closer and closer and closer until suddenly she was one with the dirt.

    Chiron ruffled her hair and gave her a kind smile. As if nothing was wrong. (Everything was wrong.) "Hello, child. And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"

    Percy swallowed. "Clarisse said you were...you were..."

     "Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

    Andromeda felt the bile in her mouth, felt the way Annabeth's eyes flickered to her in questioning, silently asking why the subject hadn't been brought up sooner.

    "Besides himself, you mean," Percy growled under his breath, fists clenched tightly at his sides.

    "But this is crazy!" Annabeth cried in defiance. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"

    "Nevertheless," Chiron sighed, "some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."

    "What circumstances?" Percy asked.