[2] 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 ― p.jackson

012.

「012. in life we shine, in death we burn 」

THREE GHOSTS trailed back to camp- all alive and breathing but drained of their souls. two by foot, another carried on a stretcher, staring up at the world with a hurricane of confusion.

it did not get better for them.

people trickled to the entrance like sand in a timer until it felt like the whole camp was there- viewing three kids with ashened clothes (and faces), blood, sweat and tears covering them.

three returned, one had not.

"where's percy?" everybody seemed to ask.

"what happened?" they seemed to chorus.

"what happened to cadie?" was the unspoken line.

the three of them only had one answer out of the three- one and a half if they really thought about it.

where was percy? they had no idea. in the labyrinth, perhaps, just a day or so behind them? at hephaestus' workshop, maybe, wondering where they where? at mount st helens where... where the explosion happened.

was he six feet under, or just in the labyrinth below?

what happened? a half answer. an explosion, screaming, crying and running. lots of running. nothing seemed right to them- all they knew was survival. they were wide eyed and fragile, ready to crack and break like porcelain. what hadn't happened? that was a better question.

what happened to cadie?

she hadn't died, which saved the apollo cabin a lot of grief. she'd woken up looking around with weak limbs and a confused expression on her face. cam and annabeth were the ones to explain it all to them (and cadie herself). they'd been running from the explosion- running all the way to hephaestus with no clue if they were going the right way. a loud boom had sounded from behind them and cadie had... frozen.

she'd collapsed to the floor, fainting out of pure shock or maybe exhaustion, nobody was sure. but she hadn't been hurt, she hadn't sang her song, she hadn't done anything damaging. she was ok, sort of.

they were all huddled into the infirmary for a whole two days- with the entire apollo cabin relieved of training to make sure they were fine. perhaps it was dramatics, but cadie had six of her siblings fussing over her furiously.

"you never should have gone on that quest," lee said to her, frowning as he wiped some ash off her forehead. "you've got burns on you- how big was this explosion?"

cadie's lips tingled. beside her, she saw layla fixing up cam- laughing gently but looking drained too. the blue from her hair had dulled and she looked subdued and tired. annabeth had a newer apollo girl (kayla, cadie thinks) hovering over michael yew and mitchel, trying to help out as much as she could. other campers came in and out, practically at the apollo kids' beck and call for supplies.

"we managed to er... get these from the shop," connor said as he and travis walked in, hands full of puzzles, games and a few snacks. "we know it's not much... but it's the hermes cabin's contribution to you guys. we hope you get better soon-" connor grimaced as he stared at cam's prosthetic leg (which had been taken off and was laying at the foot of his bed) broken with wires hanging out of it. whatever had happened, it must've been after they'd visited hephaestus. "... yeah."

"i'll set those down," lee said. he turned to will, "can you put the burn salve on cadie's arms for me, andy?"

"sure, lee." replied will. "do you want me to sing the prayer too?"