(UnNamed For Now)

Flashback and...Him

Chapter 2 ___________

     Melissa threw her backpack over her shoulders and blindedly searched for the creaky door. Melissa sighed in relief as her hand grazed the cool metal of the doorknob, but then blanched and stopped dead in her tracks as an eerie voice called out.

  "Meeellliissaaaa...come out, come out, wherever you are... I will find you, and when I do..." the voice rasped, allowing the threat to linger in Melissa's mind.

 Melissa started fumbling with the doorknob that just-wouldn't-budge! But Melissa froze as she heard the bronze doorknob fall to the floor outside the door. Melissa cursed aloud in Greek, giving up in defeat. Knowing it was just a matter of time before it came for her, the demigod slid her back down the door. Melissa's eyes began to fill up with tears as she recalled the last memory she had of her best friend and camp before she...disappeared.

     Everyone was sitting around the bonfire, including heart broken Melissa. She was sitting right next to her best friend, Dimitri, who had his arm thrown lazily around her tense shoulders, laughing with his guy friends. Melissa just stared intently down into the fire, giving her grey eyes a metallic silver sheen. She just didn't get it! Why her, why not one of the stronger demigods? Why must she be the one to- 

 "Right Melissa?" Dimitri said, turning to his best friend. She forced a smile on her face and nodded, not letting the confusion she felt show on her face. Flashing a dazzling smile, Dimitri continued with his conversation with an Apollo kid, Sonny. A bit ironic, don't you think?

  Melissa still wasn't sure the oracle, Apollo, or...her... were in their right minds when they decided this. How was she going to- a few screams interrupted Melissa's frantic thoughts. She turned her head to where everyone's attention was directed: the fire. At this moment, she knew it was time; this was what they had to have meant when they told her she would know when. This was for her. 

    Jumping to her feet, Melissa stealthily slipped away from the panicking campers and growing fire, dashing toward one of the twenty kits she had prepared a put in random places. Swiftly scrambling up a tree, she grabbed her backpack and jumped out of the tree, landing in a somersault. 

The fire was growing even larger, signaling that it was almost time to go. Darting back to the campfire, Melissa wiped a few stray tears and braced herself as the fire began to pulse. By now, most of the campers were either out of the arena or were trying to get out. The pulsing was more rapidly increasing and Melissa was beginning to have second thoughts. She heard shouting, much louder than the panicky screams of the other campers, and then her eyes snapped open. Melissa recognized the deep voice that was calling, over the screams, her name. The torn girl began to turn as she heard the urgent calls of Dimitri. But she wasn't having any of that.

     "You must do your duty. This is your destiny!" she told Melissa in her mind, also controlling her legs to stay in place next to the fire. Said fire was pulsing much more [rapidly] and brighter, almost a blinding white. Melissa let out a blood curdling scream as the fire [began] expanding, [starting] to engulf her. Melissa heard a scram of despair and turned her head just as she disappeared to a sight that broke her very heart on the spot. 

     Dimitri had dropped to his knees and let out a high pitched scream of anguish upon finding his best friend reaching for him through the fire. Then Melissa, along with the fire, vanished with an explosion.

     Melissa's body shook with miserable sobs that wouldn't take a form of sound, tears streaming down her face. That was the last time she saw Dimitri; him on his knees, shouting for her, weeks ago! Melissa heard faint ticking and shakily scrambled to her feet, ignoring the fact that her legs were going to give out on her, and pulled out her dagger from her boot. The ticking quickly accelerated and Melissa realized what it was and that it was coming from the wall opposite of her after a few moments of frantic thinking. Quickly pressing her stomach and body to the wall to somewhat protect her, Melissa braced herself for the explosion she knew was going to come at any momen-

                      

                                            BOOM

    

 Melissa fell to the floor, surrounded by small pieces of rubble from the wall across her. The shocked teen began coughing violently; dust and cobwebs occupied the air in the room, making it near impossible to see. Squinting through the dust that's air-borne, Melissa spotted a faint outline of a person. She had almost fainted at what had happened next, completely ignoring the nickname.

   

"Melly, are you here?!" his desperate voice echoed throughout the room.