Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟯𝟬. the executioner

gone girl.
━━━ chapter thirty

❀

Chaos. Discord. Strife.

Deena was nowhere to be seen. Everything around them turned to black and they could only see that they were still in the throne room if they squinted their eyes and tried really hard to focus. It was all dark, like the five of them were standing in the middle of an eternal void. Amaryllis felt her mind blur, any kind of rational thinking disappearing. She hadn't even realised that she had drawn her two swords until she saw that everyone else also did. Her thoughts were venomous and anger had taken over her entire mind.

Those weren't her friends. She hated them.

Apparently, everyone seemed as confused as she was. Percy, who had previously helped Annabeth get up, now looked like a cornered animal. He drew Riptide and swang it around like a mad man, trying to get the rest away from him.

"No!" he screamed in agony. "No, you're not here! You're dead! You're. Not. Real!"

Grover brought his pipe to his lips and started playing a song. It gave Amaryllis chills, but not in a good way-it was slow and scary, like a war hymn. The satyr's eyes had turned gold, similar to how Luke's looked like when he was still possessed by Kronos. She looked around and she realised that all of her friends had the same golden eyes. Something was wrong, but she couldn't understand what it was.

Too scared to attract any attention to herself, Amaryllis took a few steps away from them, until her back hit a wall. She turned around to face it and she let out a shriek when she saw herself through a mirror. She had golden eyes herself and a scar identical to Luke's. Behind her was a pile of bodies and a pool of blood reaching her shoes.

"It's you who killed them," she heard Annabeth's voice. Amaryllis looked around frantically, but now she was all alone and she couldn't see anything but black. She heard a scream and it sounded awfully a lot like Percy, but it was far away from her, almost as if she was inside a dream.

"Percy?" she yelled. She still felt anger towards him; A part of her believed that she should leave him to die. Percy, Annabeth, Grover-they were nothing. They didn't understand her, they only wanted the worse for her. She didn't just want them dead, she needed to be the one to kill them.

And yet, the other part of her called out his name concerned. "Percy! Where are you?"

"Kill them," she heard Grover whisper in her ear. It immediately changed to Percy. "Aren't you tired of fighting for your murderers?"

"W-What do you mean?" Amaryllis asked the void.

She heard footsteps running towards her way. Out of the shadows appeared Annabeth. Wielding a dagger-that looked much different than hers-the daughter of Athena attacked Amaryllis. She managed to dodge it successfully, but Annabeth didn't give up. Her eyes were still gold; she looked at her with such hatred that it felt almost hypnotizing. Amaryllis managed to knock the weapon out of the girl's hand and it landed next to her leg.

The dagger was indeed not Annabeth's. It was black, as dark as her surroundings. There was something special about it, something godly. Amaryllis had a flashback of one of her dreams; the knife was Ethan's. She had watched him stab Annabeth with it during his attempt to kill Amaryllis. It was the same weapon he was wielding when he coincidentally found her mortal point, her Achilles heel.

But if there was one thing Amaryllis had learned, it was that there was nothing coincidental in a war like that.

"It's you," she said. Annabeth sweeped her off her feet and threw her in the ground, getting the dagger back into her hands. For a split second, the Mist disappeared and Amaryllis saw who really was behind the illusion-Deena. Then it was Annabeth again. "I know who you are."