The Rise of Chaos [ONGOING | UNEDITED]

8. Annabeth

As I tore through the halls and into Amos' study, I found that everyone was there already.

'Hello, Annabeth.' Percy looked up, but his voice was flat, and his eyes held no expression. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was possessed. I dropped my head for a second, blushing then I looked up. Thalia and Apophis were more than me and Percy's argument right now.

'Guys, this is seriously important!' I collapsed into a chair, ignoring Percy's glum mood.

'What is?' Considering the fact that Zia didn't blow me up, we were okay, for now. She leaned in, listening hard.

'Thalia, she——'

'She what?' Walt asked. Everyone bent forward, their chins resting on their arms, waiting impatiently.

'She's hosting him,' I said, unable to say any more.

'She's —— what?' Zia shouted. She stormed out of the door, no doubt in search to kill Thalia or execrate Apophis, which might seriously hurt her.

'Zia, come back!' Carter yelled, and paced after her.

'Calm down. Listen Annabeth out,' Percy called after her, but there wasn't any reply. Percy was actually fascinated and he looked back at me, wanting more.

Thirty seconds or so later, Zia and Carter were back. Zia was grumbling about 'unstable demigods', not that she wasn't unstable herself.

'She told me, then Apophis controlled her and threatened to kill me if I left the room to tell you guys,' I explained.

'And what did you do?' Zia asked, curious.

'I knocked her out,' I replied, regretting my actions. 'With the butt of my knife.'

'Nice. Now I'm going to go and kill her, and execrate Apophis in the process.' Zia stood up again, but Carter held her down.

'Er, let's listen first, shall we?' Carter said uneasily, glancing at the others as if he was holding a chunk of dynamite that was about to explode.

'She did what?' Percy thundered. Standing up. 'She threatened to kill you?'

'Yep,' I replied, very calmly.

'Did she hurt you?' Percy replied, and it seemed our argument was forgotten.

'Nope. Not a scratch, just maybe a few bruises that'll heal later. No need for ambrosia or nectar or what not.' I held my arms up to show him. Percy relaxed slightly.

'Hello? Has anybody heard a word that Annabeth said? Thalia is possessed by Apophis. A-p-o-p-h-i-s.' Zia might as well have shouted that last word. The magicians startled.

'So? She's still Thalia!' Hazel stood up and faced Zia. 'She is still our friend. We can't just go up and kill her.'

'So you'd rather save Thalia now but let the world die later? Great. You guys have an amazing sense of logic.'

'Like as if you'd care about people dying.'

'Both of you, we're not five-year-olds,' Sadie exclaimed. 'We'll just need to sit tight and plan it all out.'

'And plan about what?' Apophis's reedy voice reverberated around the room. Thalia opened the door and stepped in. Her eyes were red.

'Why, hello. We've met.'

The magicians stood up, their weapons raised. But I could tell that they weren't sure of what to do. They looked hesitant, but stayed standing up.

Zia's eyes hardened and she raised her staff, but I could tell that she wasn't so keen to kill Thalia now. 'Ya kalb,' she snarled in Arabic, 'you——'

'Language, miss,' Apophis hissed. 'Look who's the dog here.'

But I realised Zia wasn't talking to Thalia. She was talking to Apophis. And then it all washed over me. Sadie had told me one before that Zia's village was destroyed by Apophis himself.

'Zia, how nice to see you again,' Apophis said. Zia's eyes blazed with rage, and for a second, I thought I saw flames in her irises. The end of her staff exploded in a flurry of fire.

Without realising what was going on, I had stood up too, my dagger in hand.

'Get out of her!' I yelled. Instead, Apophis merely laughed. Well, if you call it a laugh. Instead, it was more of a screech like a tortured frog. We all covered our ears in surprise. Zia's fire momentarily flickered, but renewed its powerful blaze in a matter of seconds.

Zia reached for something in her pockets, but Carter intervened.

'No, what if it backfires on Thalia?' Carter put the item back in Zia's pocket. Thalia — well, Apophis — grinned.

'Well, I——' But Thalia changed. Her eyes flickered, and stopped blazing red.

'Guys.' Thalia appeared to be back to normal, but she was clearly shaken. 'Leave. Now! Go!'

She looked at us, fear in her eyes, before fleeing from the study to her room.

'She's right.' Zia glanced at each of us, and I totally swear that flames were dancing inside her pupils. The thought made me shiver. [You are creepy sometimes.]

'Yes, she is.' I didn't know why, but I spoke up. It was as if someone else was speaking for me. Then I realised that Athena was guiding me to talk.

'Even as we speak, Apophis is growing stronger,' Zia said. 'We don't have much time anymore.'

'Exactly,' I replied. 'We need to leave.'

'But we need Thalia.' Hazel looked hurt. 'What'll happen to her?'

'That's not it.' Now I finally understood why Zia and I had an argument. Now I finally saw why she had a point. If we rescued Thalia, we would be sparing Apophis.

'Apophis isn't going to waste a host when he can't even change to a different one,' Carter pointed out. 'Therefore Apophis will have to go wherever Thalia goes.'

I nodded, shook my head, and nodded. Honestly, I had no idea what I was supposed to do! At least, I trusted the Egyptians to what they were doing.

'Come on, we don't have much time.' Carter stood up, beckoning to the others to follow. One by one, we left.

Looking back on it, I should have told them to stop. I should have grabbed their shoulders and shook the souls out of them. I should have warned them of what was to come. But all through that, all through the packing, the meet-up with Amos, I stayed silent, not saying a word.

Now, sitting here, speaking on a recording, I knew I should have said something. Even just let in on a hint. Just something.

Because I had another dream I didn't tell them about. I thought it was unimportant, well, I knew it was of some importance, but I just passed it off as a nightmare. But as the day progressed, I regretted it further. But I couldn't tell them. I just couldn't tell them. They had enough to worry about.

[Yeah, I know! You've given me this lecture about ten million times, Zia. And don't get me started on you, Sadie!]

What am I fussing all about? You may think I'm just worrying about nothing serious. But I'm not going to tell you about that yet. Not yet.

[English Translation of 'ya kalb': prounounced 'ya ka-lib', in English this means 'you dog', uttered to degrade someone as being filthy, dishonest, or immoral.]