The Gaelic Prodigy: On the Stranger Lands

Chapter 30: Steph Comes Back From The Dead

Leo

Day 11 of Doomsday (9:00 pm)

There are a lot of emotions stirring up my mind; irritated that Steph ignored my statements about doing the ritual; kind of happy that Steph chose my shirt to cry on but mostly angry to myself that I haven't tried enough to stop her. Everyone in the room seems to be feeling like we're attending a funeral. Everyone looks like they're grieving. I wanted to do something; something better than waiting and looking at their half-dead bodies float in the steel tubs. Why am I not the one who's drowning right now?

It has been 10 hours since Steph, Zac and Paige went into the tub. And for the past 10 hours, the only thing I did was sit in the infirmary or kept myself locked up in bunker nine. I kept myself distracted. I keep assembling electric circuits for some reason for it to be disassembled again. I keep pulling out screws from my tool belt and I don't even know what to do with them. Finally I just give up. I walked outside kicking rocks thinking what is happening to Steph right now. There were so many possibilities passing through my mind all of them bad and deadly. Call me a pessimistic but in a situation like this, you can't stop thinking the negative things that would happen.

The conch horn blow as I pass through the cabins. Jason walked out of his cabin and sprinted towards me. Jason has this expression plastered in his face as he sees my oh-so-happy face (note the sarcasm). You know that expression that your mom gives you after she knew that you wanted this monster truck toy so badly. Yeah, he has that expression on his face. That frowning, devastated expression. I still don't know how he can pull that off.

"How's it hanging?" apparently his worry expression face is not the only thing Jason needs to work on.

"How's what hanging?" I said this because I really don't want to talk to anyone right now. Jason seems to not get the signal.

"Don't man, I know what you're feeling." He sighs.

"Did your girlfriend die for 10 hours?" I sarcastically say.

"Don't rub your attitude on me. I'm just trying to help."

I kept my mouth shut just to keep the words from spilling out. I don't want to stay something bad right now. It's bad enough that I get rejected. It would be worse if Jason would be pissed at me. "Whatever man." as I slowly turn around Annabeth walks out of the infirmary. "I think they're waking up." She says. I immediately run towards the infirmary doors.

Just as we enter the room Paige and Zac got out of the water breathing hard. "We know where it is." Zac starts. "It's in a convention center. They use the convention to disguise themselves. Right Steph?" but when Paige turns around. Steph lays still; unconscious and barely looking alive. She was bleeding pretty badly. Blood starts to flow down her head and his knees. "What's happening to her?" Nico rush to Steph aid. Cernunnos and Caer enters the room. "She's trap in there. We need to get her out." Caer says.

"Get her out of the tub now." Cernunnos instructed. My feet started to feel heavy like I was the one who has a glass pierced in my leg. I want to just lay down a wallow. This is what I get for being such a coward. I finally met a nice girl and I ruined it. I couldn't even save her. I forced myself to walk and helped Nico carry her cold lifeless body. Steph lips turn purple and her skin's colder than ever. Paige stood beside us crying. "Steph no. You were just right behind us." She sobbed.

Buster transforms into his pucca form. Robb and Bert runs and lights up Steph head. I couldn't really tell what they are doing but from the looks of it, they are somehow contacting her. "Yeah, she's definitely trap. Something is pulling her out. I don't know what it is." Robb says.

"We need to see what she's doing and help her. Can the dream catcher project what she's seeing?" Annabeth asks. Bert nods and pulls out a dream catcher from her robe. He positioned it right above Steph's head. Steph was barely even breathing. Her heart beats are barely audible. And image project right above us.

There's Steph walking around a house. Her right feet bleeding but she was still able to move it. Steph hissed every time she steps. The house was too familiar. Almost as if I have lived there. When I saw the toy car lying in the couch, it hit me. This is my house. This is the house that my mother and I lived. This is the house that burned down and the house that ruined my life and Steph was inside it. I look around the house and notice the clock. Oh gods. It's the day. She's in the day where the house burned down. "We need to get her out now! The house is going get burned." I say and I start calling her name.

"What do you mean it's gonna get burned?" Piper ask.

"She's in my house. She's been transported to the time my house got burned."

But Steph isn't alone. There was something behind her. She started walking fast and tries so hard to get away from whatever that things is. Then out of the corner of our eyes, we all saw what is behind her. It was huge, it's eyes bloody red, the fangs in its teeth can kill you in one bite. "Is that?" Annabeth and Percy gasped. It was a huge spider but it wasn't just a spider. It wasn't Arachne either. It was way scarier. Annabeth fainted at the sight of it. I thought I was going to faint.

"Steph! Are you hearing me? Steph!" Nico shouts. "Steph get out of the house right now!"

' "Leo you know the way out of the house. Tell her." Austin says.

I nod and draw my mouth near her freezing ears. "Steph if you can hear me please, please listen." Steph stops in the screen and hides under my mom's working table. "Leo?" she says and her voice seems to soothe me. "I'm scared." She says and tears runs down her eyes. "I don't know what that things is." She cries.

"Hey, hey, me too but it's going to be alright. I'm going to help you get out. You just have to go out of the main door okay?"

Steph nods in the screen. A huge explosion travelled around the house. It's happening. For a moment my heart stops. Just as I thought that I have forgotten about this memory, the fates have tested me again. Steph scoots backwards hugging her knees really tight and crying.

"Steph get out of there now. The front door is right in the corner." Steph nods and force herself to crawl out of the table. She looks at either side of her to find the monster out of sight. She turns towards the corner and find the wooden door. She twist it but it was locked. "It's locked."

Stupid. How stupid of me. How could I forget? Gaea locked the house. I lost my mom there in that house and now I'm going to lose her. The creature starts to approach and Steph tries to jab the door knob. And I was just here mentally cursing myself to die because any minute now I'm going to witness her die. The creature screech behind her and Steph couldn't stop sobbing and punching the wall. Everyone in the room is quiet and couldn't let themselves watch the scene in front of them. Steph suddenly stops and sat on the wooden floor. The image in the screen starts to fade until there was nothing left. And Steph's body in my arms feels totally dead already. I cried and cried.

"Please don't die. Please don't die." I say repeatedly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry that I couldn't say it to you."

Nico kneels beside Steph's body and this is the first time that I ever saw him cry. Nico starts to pull something from his jacket. He pulls out a bracelet with a bow in it. "From Bianca." He whispers and kiss Steph forehead. Suddenly something moves. I look down at Steph's fingers and saw it moving. A smile suddenly forms in my face.

Steph eyes open. She sit up and threw up a lot of water. She coughs and take a huge breathe. "I never want to die again." She smiles and then everything was back to normal. Paige runs toward her and hug her really tight. "Don't do that again!" Paige scolded.

I just stood there watching as everyone hugs Steph. Annabeth was back to her consciousness and run towards Steph, joining the huge group hug. The Steph eyes landed on me. She smiles and she mouthed, "Thank you for saving me."

Just then Travis and Connor barge into the room, "Something is attacking the camp." They all said together.

f'y