Son of the Rivers (Wattys 2015 Entry)

Ch 17 Monsters

It had been seven days since they met the goddess of the Phlegathon.

They had so many questions but the goddess refused to answer them, only giving them a direction to follow and a scarce message.

He will come

Not much to go on but they wisely didn't argue much, even though Annabeth and Clarisse had to be restrained from physically assaulting river goddess.

With the Phlegathon healing capabilities helping them manage somewhat, they continued their grueling trek, unaware of the dangers ahead.

And none of them caught the glare that the Lady Phlegathon shot at Annabeth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jake Mason was a walking dead man.

They assumed the worse as soon as he collapsed.

But it was much worse than that.

The endless walking for days on end pushed each hero to their breaking points, even the Stolls had stopped making jokes every two seconds to control their labored breathing.

Jason tried to rush to his side but with him practically carrying Piper, he could only stumble and kneel at Jake's side.

"Jake, speak to me, come on, we don't have time for this," pleaded Jason despairingly, reaching out to shake the son of Hephaestus awake.

"Don't touch me,"

Jason recoiled as if struck.

Somehow, impossibly, Jake slowly picked himself up and faced the exhausted heroes, his head tilted towards the rocky ground.

"Dude, are you okay?" Connor asked nervously.

Jake looked up or what was left of him.

His previously well-built form used to tower over all of them. Now he was a hardly a human being.

His gaunt features, covered in blood and ash only brought the term desperate to mind.

But more so than that when he fully looked up and they could see the literal decay of his eyes.

Before their very eyes, the entire left side of his face started to decay and crumble to dust, his skin turning black as if he were infected.

He managed one last word before his body went rigid,

"RUN!"

Katie turned into Travis' shoulder and sobbed, both in fear and in sorrow.

Rachel froze up and glanced at Annabeth in fear, "We need to go now!" she screamed

Annabeth broke from her stupor and was about to speak when the words died on her lips.

It started slowly but built to a crashing roar, pummeling the heroes, surrounding them in a fury of anguish and hatred, pure malice freezing them in place.

It was laughter.

Cold, harsh laughter.

The laughter of a killer who seeks out his victims for amusement and slaughtered the innocent.

And it came from Jake.

His body lurched forwards, his skin darkening faster and faster, the crimson blood that covered his body turning black.

"What the Hades!" shrieked Piper only to wake up to see an inhumane copy of Jake.

Leo lit his hands on fire, "I don't know what you have done with Jake but I can assure you, if you don't leave his body now, we will have blowtorched monster chow for dinner,"