Before The Mist

3.5K 47 22
                                    

PIPER

"OH MY GODS! Annabeth! Percy! Oh Gods, oh gods, oh gods, OH GODS!" I wrap my arms around Jason's neck on the deck of the Argo II.

Hazel and Frank embrace on the upper deck, and Leo was nowhere to be seen. The ship must be on auto pilot. "It's gonna be okay. Sh, sh, sh," Jason says stroking my hair. I glance at Hazel, and see that she is now embracing her older (younger?) brother Nico. I let go of Jason.

"I'm gonna go check up on Leo." I say to him. He nods.

I run down the stairs to the cabins. To the one person who I can really talk to without getting nervous, awkward, repressed, or lovesick. Apart from Annabeth... I almost laugh at the thought of talking to Annabeth at the moment. 'Hey Annabeth. No, I just wanted some comforting after you and Percy just fell to almost certain death in Tartarus to go close the doors of death...' Yeah, I need help. I open the door to Leo's cabin, and find him pacing the room with his hands running through his hair. The desperate wild look I see in his coffee brown eyes when he turns to me is surprisingly a huge turn on for me. Thanks Zeus I'm not a guy. Without a word we wrap our arms around each other tightly. We hugged for such a long time I didn't notice it until I realized I'd been hugging him a lot longer than I hugged Jason. I pull back, embarrassed.
"How are you holding up?" I ask him, breaking the silence.
"Not well. I feel like I did when my cousin Petra crashed a car-"
"That she stole from a Toyota dealership and wrapped it around a pole. And you had to stand back helpless against the cops as they cuffed her and locked her up for theft and destruction of property. You never felt responsible for her arrest, just you wish you would've done something or could do something to make the cops believe she was innocent." Leo stands there dumbfounded.
"When did I tell you that again?" He asks scratching his head.
"Um... Probably before the mist." Whenever one of us remembers something from before Jason came along, we always say 'before the mist'.
"What if one of them makes it out, but he other one doesn't?" Leo says, taking me by surprise.
"That won't happen. If Annabeth made it out and say Percy didn't, she would kill herself so that she could whip his butt back to life in the underworld. Annabeth wouldn't allow him to die." Which is totally true. Annabeth would kill Percy before he could even think about sacrificing himself to save her. "If you fall, I fall."
"Together or not at all," He finishes. A white hot burning pain behind my eyes hits me like a thousand lightning bolts as a series of images flashes before my eyes. A twelve year old me with a twelve year old Leo repeating that phrase back and forth to each other, in different places and settings with different clothes each time. The slide show continues until it shows a sixteen year old Leo, and sixteen year old me. Then right before I pass out, it hits me: Those weren't images. Those are memories.

LEO
"Piper!" I exclaim as her limp body falls into my arms.
I kneel down, her head hanging with her neck on my thigh. I press two fingers underneath her jaw and let out a sigh of relief as I feel a good sharp pulse. Just then, the door opens, revealing Jason who drops down next to me when he sees Piper knocked out. He starts stroking her hair.
"What the Hades happened?" He asks, looking up at my face, into my eyes.
"She fainted. We were talking, and then she just doubled over in pain, like someone had just taken a chainsaw to her head." I say flustered.
Hazel, Frank, and Nico come running down in and screech to a halt at the doorway.
"I heard Leo scream Piper's name, what happened?" Nico asks, his dark eyes darting from me, to Jason, to Piper.
"Pipes just fainted. She looked like she had a brain freeze times twenty seven before she passed out." I tell them. They nod and walk away.
"C'mon lets get her up on the bed." I suggest, breaking the awkward silence.
"Let's? I'll take her."
"Jason! You're needed on deck!" Hazel calls from above.
"Great," he grumbles. "Just great."
He gives me a responsibility look, which means that if Pipes isn't treated like Madonna, I'm burnt and buttered Leo toast.
He takes to the stairs, skipping steps until his footsteps mix in with the other four, plus one pair of hooves.
I carefully lift up Piper. Where Jason would carry her wedding style, I throw her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I plop her down on my bed, and conjure up some nectar, ambrosia, Advil, and mints from my belt.
The ambrosia is in a flask, and since she can't actually gulp while unconscious, I take her to the bathroom, and splash her face with cold water.
A slight burning sensation in my head arrives with an image of a fourteen year old Piper and fourteen year old me waking up Pipes with what looks like a sprig if rosemary, lavender, sunflower seeds, cinnamon, and a dewy rose petal. The image fades quickly, so I quickly conjure up the stuff before I forget.
"Here goes nothing," I say, and put the spices/seeds/dewy petal under her nose.
Her head shakes like in those horror movies where one of them is having a nightmare, right before they bolt up in bed. Her colorful eyes flutter open. They turn icy blue, to cool mint green, to buttery amber.
"Valdez." She says weakly.
"Sh. Drink up." I say, and lift the flask of nectar up to her lips.
She takes a few sips. Then looks at my all wide eyed and had a look that said "LEO! For serious?" All over it.
"Whiskey? Really Leo? You gave me WHISKEY?!" Whiskey?
"What? No! I gave you nectar! So you love whiskey, huh? Tsk, tsk Piper. Man, I thought you were better than this. Beer, maybe. But whiskey?" I mock lecture her.
"Oh shut it," she says as she hits me. "It was my Grandpa Tom's special homemade whiskey that my dad accidentally poured me when he meant to pour some coke, and himself some whiskey, and didn't catch his mistake until after I finished the whole cup. The downside of being drunk, is that you can't serve anything, cause it'll always stunt your growth no matter what." I nod.
"Now ambrosia. Please don't tell me this is your grandpa Tom's special recipe for cocaine or something." She laughs, then takes a bite.
"Nope. Melted chocolate and gooey melted marshmallow."
Okay then. S'mores are better than whiskey.
"Hold on a sec. I'll be right back," I say and run up the stairs to see Jason stabbing a monster in the neck with his imperial gold sword coin. It vaporizes and a liger transforms back into Frank.
"Jason! She's up." He flips his sword back into a coin and runs down the stairs to my cabin.

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

Like it? Please do not steal my story! I came up with it and sacrificed a lot of beach time to write this! So thank you! If you see it anywhere else please tell me! Thanks!
Vote, comment, and next chapter coming up shortly!

Shatter my heart but please don't break itWhere stories live. Discover now