Haunted || Leo Valdez

65 - Do Masts Grow on Trees? Discuss

Rebecca saw only darkness. She could tell it was Tartarus by the subtle thrum of Chaos magic all around her like a heartbeat, matching the evil pulsing of the Malignant Spirit inside her. She shuddered as she drew her swords as she had so many times before. It was always smart to have a weapon at the ready when you were in Tartarus. You never knew what kind of evil monsters would come lunging out of the shadows, ready to slice you to bits.

Sometimes, the less-threatening monsters would leave her alone when they sensed the Malignant Spirit inside her. They thought she was one of their own and wouldn't give her a second glance.

It was the greater monsters, the really evil ones, who could sense that she was an alien force, one that they needed to destroy.

She walked on, expecting something to come darting out of the shadows any second. It was this paranoia, along with her quick reflexes and skill with her weapons, that had kept her alive this long.

She heard a voice. "Rebecca?"

Rebecca's spirits lifted. "Percy!"

"Rebecca?"

"I'm here, Percy!" She called. "Where are you?"

"Over here!"

Rebecca followed his voice, calling out when it faded. Finally, she saw a figure ahead of her. She was about to call out again when she realized this thing was too big to be Percy. The thing turned around. It was a massive humanoid with one big red eye in the middle of his forehead. His mouth was rimmed with something red. When Rebecca looked closer, she realized with horror that it was holding a person, wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt drenched in blood. Her eyes drifted up to the camper's face.

It was Percy.

Rebecca woke up, her face slick with sweat.

Another nightmare.

They were getting worse. The most terrible part about them was that Rebecca had no way of knowing they weren't real. For all she knew, Percy had been killed and he was too far away for Rebecca to sense it.

Rebecca took a shaky breath and climbed out of bed to get dressed. She wasn't going to get any more sleep that night, so she might as well make herself useful.

She left her cabin, quietly padding down the hallway, trying not to wake anybody up. Of course, that was stupid, because if she didn't wake them up, the shouts from Hazel, Nico, and Leo and the crashing and bellowing coming from the numina probably would.

The ship listed to the left, and Rebecca scrambled to stay on her feet. She grabbed at the wall for a handhold but came up empty-handed and toppled over.

There was a very loud CRACK! Rebecca figured the foremast must've collapsed again. Leo was probably the most pissed off with the numina, because he was the one who had to keep replacing the mast.

Rebecca arrived on deck and tried to take in the scene as she ran to where Leo was manning the helm.

"Hey, Querida," Leo said, wrestling with the helm. He looked at her and frowned in concern. "You look tired."

"I know," Rebecca said. There was no point in trying to cover it up. The whole crew knew she blamed herself for Percy and Annabeth falling to Tartarus. They'd all tried to reassure her that it wasn't, but nothing they said doused the fiery guilt that was building up inside her. "I can't sleep."

"You can ask Anne for one of her sleeping potions," Leo suggested.

"No, I'm up already. I want to help."

She looked carefully over the railing. The clouds parted just long enough to reveal the top of the mountain below them: a spearhead of black rock jutting from mossy green slopes.