Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

Circe Treats Me To A Refreshing 'Lemon Soda'

POSEIDON'S POV

  "So, sweetie, what brings you to the island?" Circe asked as she let me take a seat. Wait, let me take a seat? More like she sat me down. Everything I was doing felt so forced, it was like Circe had complete control over me.

  Oh, I totally didn't just stumble into the Sea of Monsters in hopes of finding the needle of a super important prophecy in this gigantic haystack, stopped on your island just to take a rest but get turned into an animal by you instead.

  Tongue-tied, I tried to avoid her gaze and she seemed to want me to look at her instead. Every action of hers was giving me the creeps. I needed to run as soon as possible, but with Circe standing over me looking like she was ready to kill me with her bare hands, I doubt I was going to go very far.

  "Oh, uh, A-Amanda and I came for a quest and we got lost here." I tried to be as vague as possible because who knows what this lady could do. As a powerful sorcerer, detecting if I lied or not was probably a piece of cake for her. Lying about the name probably wasn't a good idea, but it was something small that I could get out of easily.

  "Hmm, that's a vague answer. Care to explain more?" Circe was really pushing. I bit my lip and tried to think of ways to say it that didn't involve spitting out the entire situation and giving her a potential chance of taking over the world like all the bad guys want to.

  I must've had a really long break of thinking, because Circe started to get impatient. "It's okay if you don't want to speak of it just yet, Peter. I'm pretty sure you'll be happy to step out of your comfort zone after a nice, relaxing treatment. Now, I'm going to prepare a delicious drink for you! Look into this mirror. Do you see yourself?"

  I almost rolled my eyes. What kind of dumb question was that? Was she seriously trying to turn me into a guinea pig by starting out with a lame question?

  Oh well, might as well play along with it. "Yes," I whispered, almost in a tone indicating that I was already disorientated by the mirror. Which I actually felt a little bit like, but since I knew what was going to happen, I wasn't about to give in.

  "Good! Now picture a better version of yourself. How amazing it would be to have those little marks and imperfections off your face. And as you do so, shape a better version of yourself mentally in your mind - are you too shy? Too cowardly? Do you feel like a higher self-esteem?"

  I was pretty sure that Percy didn't go through that conversation. Maybe Circe had changed over the years. Nevertheless, she still hated men as much as she did before, maybe even a little more. I felt like I was having meditation lessons with a rude instructor.

  I gulped and found myself saying the same thing. "Y-yes," I whispered again. My voice felt like it was floating. Screw that, my entire body felt like it was floating. Was that the feeling people had after taking drugs? (A/N: Don't you dare do drugs, whoever you are. Or you'll make this author really sad :( be a good person and solve your problems the good way. Then this author will be happy :) ) My vision seemed to blur a bit and go back to normal again. The image in the mirror shifted from the better version of me to who I actually was.

  The sorcery was actually working in my head. Maybe not as well as Circe pictured it, but even though I knew what was happening, I couldn't stop myself from having these illusions.

  I looked over to the side for a second and went back to the mirror again - I couldn't let her take control of me. I seemed to see Wilbur in the metal thing I saw a bit of when I was waiting outside the curtain. A few seconds of figuring out what it was with my blurred vision brought me to the conclusion that it was a cage with a guinea pig wheel thing inside. And I didn't see a guinea pig inside, I saw a tiny Wilbur inside. The size of a guinea pig. Curled up in a corner, shivering in terror as he watched Circe prepare my 'delicious drink'.

  I looked again when I was sure Circe couldn't see me. My vision became clear and this time I saw an actual guinea pig. In the same spot, doing the same thing as tiny Wilbur I saw a few seconds ago.

  Oh, so Circe still did the same thing.

  She was finally done. "Alright, Poseidon dear. Time to turn you into that version of yourself. The better one."

  Did she just call me Poseidon?!

  She handed me some strange liquid that looked a bit like cream soda in a wine glass. "But first, sip this nice lemon soda. You'll be able to clear your head a bit as we begin the treatment."

  Lemon soda? More like transforming potion or whatever it was called. I glanced at the liquid and immediately felt sick.

  "What's the matter? Go on! Take the glass. Just-"

  I didn't know what was making her so persuasive, because for some reason my arm obliged and took the glass, holding it up to my lips.

  "Yes! Nice. Come on, chop chop, I still have Tristan and Elijah to take care of," she said hurriedly. 

  I was glad that I took control before my mind really malfunctioned. The next few seconds seemed to happen in a blur as I snapped out of the strange trance and slammed the glass at Circe's head, causing her to scream in alarm and shock. "Mist-" a nervous female voice stopped in the middle of her sentence and gasped at the sound of the shattering glass.  

  THUD!

  Another loud sound sent a collection of chills down my spine. I was about to reach to the curtain and draw it open when I heard Circe holler something that made me freeze in place and completely lose control of my body.

  I didn't have to draw the curtain open anyway. It opened before I could register what was happening, and standing in front of me was the annoying but relieving face of Athena, the former goddess of wisdom herself.

(A/N: Well, well, guys, look who's finally updating on time again! I can't guarantee this will last, but I promise to try my best and update at least once in a week on either Saturday or Sunday. If I miss one time, I'll try to do a second chapter in the next week. Thanks for reading and don't drink suspicious looking 'lemon soda'!)