Mostly Normal: Hearts and Spades

Chapter Eight: Przeklęty

When she reopened her eyes, all she could do was stare. She was wearing a bright pink dress with perfect blond hair hanging at the side of her head. She was sitting on a bed in a cabin that smelled of sickly sweet perfume.

Maxine scrunched up her nose and then stood, taking a deep breath through her mouth. When her lips connected back together, she noticed that they were rather slippery.

She walked over to one of the many mirrors of the cabin when she finally got into view, she saw that she was wearing makeup. Not the normal makeup that she wore either, this was rather the opposite.

She had on bright pink eyeshadow as well as long, fake eyelashes. She never wore anything more than black mascara on her eyes. Her lips were painted with bright pink lipstick as well. She cringed and turned away from her reflection.

Maxine bolted for the door, to complete her nightmare, she saw that she was wearing six in stiletto heels. She gasped and then finally made it away from all of the pink and posters of the shirtless male models.

Another blinding light appeared and she was again on a bed. Though this time, there were weapons. She smiled and then lay back on the bed. Her eyes widened as she felt something sharp digging into her back.

She stood up and placed her hand on her back, Maxine's over shirt was soaked in rich, warm blood. Her mouth gaped for a few moments before she stood on shaky legs. 'I only need to make it to the Apollo cabin,' she thought as she tried to make it to the door.

Her feet dragged and she felt as though she was still being stabbed. She gasped and grabbed for the door handle, missing it several times before it slid open and she fell into the cold, blinding white light again.

She kept her eyes closed for longer this time, not sure if she wanted to open them. Maxine slowly opened a mascara covered eye and looked around. There were bright yellow flowers sitting on the window sill. She glanced around, the cabin looked almost unused.

"Where am I?" she asked, speaking for the first time since this began. No one answered her. She began to grumble profanities as she looked around the room again.

There was a tube of syringes and a half rolled pile of Ace bandages. "So I'm in the Apollo cabin," she said as she continued to look around.

After she was done snooping, not that there was much to snoop through, she tried to exit the cabin and head to her own.

She was surrounded by another flash of white light before she found herself wrapped in blankets, soothing voices talking all around her.

"How are you feeling?" a calm, rather collected voice asked.

Maxine looked up, a questioning looks to the speaker before she doubled over and expelled all she had eaten onto the floor.

The voice came again, still collected but a little less calm. "Are you okay?"

Maxine finished vomiting and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She groaned. "I--I don't know what happened," she muttered.

A hand, warm and gentle, rested on the daughter of Nemesis' shoulder. She lifted her head and found herself staring into the eyes of Will Solace, a counselor for Apollo. He looked concerned. "What happened?" he asked her, "You were moving around and...and saying stuff."

Maxine lowered her green eyes, anxiously tucking a strand of blue hair behind one ear. "I don't know," she said, "I was...dreaming or something. Nero cursed me."

Will's eyes widened. "Curses are bad," he said with a small smile, "Well, most of them anyway. I remember this curse my cabin mates and I put on the Ares cabin years and years ago, during the Second Titan War. They couldn't stop rhyming couplets for a week!" he chuckled, and Maxine tried to join in but ended up vomiting again.

"Get it all out," Will said softly, patting Maxine's shoulder, "and then do you think you can keep some ambrosia down? Perhaps some nectar?"

Maxine finished throwing up and wiped her mouth again. "Maybe," she said miserably. Will left her to empty the rest of the contents of her stomach and grabbed a few squares of ambrosia.

"Maxine, what did Nero do to you?" said a voice from the doorway. Maxine breathed deeply and looked up, finding herself looking into the eye and eye-patch of Ethan. He looked worried. "You were out for the whole day and night," her half-brother whispered. Maxine managed a smile and reached up to adjust the strap of Ethan's eye patch. "He tortured me with dreams or something," she said offhandedly.

Ethan sighed and then walked over to hug his half-sister. "I'm glad you're okay," he said before turning on his heel and going to find his best friend.