Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

I Hallucinate Twice

POSEIDON'S POV

It wasn't long before chaos attacked us again.

I found myself completely dry and cleaned up on my bed after going unconscious for what seemed like forever. Was getting our boat devoured by Scylla and being on Circe island all a dream? If it has, I need to warn Athena not to steer us there. That brought me to the second question - how long had I been asleep? How long had Athena been making sure autopilot wasn't bringing us to doom on the top deck of the ship?

The thoughts got me paranoid all over again. What if we were about to reach Circe's island right now? I shot up in my bed instantly at that thought. I needed to let Athena know that the island was the place we should be least going to right now.

As I was about to step out of bed, the door creaked open and Athena stepped in, her hands on her hips like she owned the place. "Ahem...Poseidon, where do you think you're going?"

I turned to meet her eyes, expecting them to be angry. Instead, they were filled with genuine concern. Was this really the Athena I had stumbled into the camp with?

"A-Athena," I exclaimed urgently. "Where are we heading right now?"

"I don't exactly know, but-"

"Listen, there's this awfully beautiful and luxurious tropical island in these seas. You can't miss it - they have tons of big boats and ships there! However amazing it might look, don't go there. It's only going to waste our time and potentially-"

"Are you talking about Circe's island?" Athena looked confused. "We've already been there. Has turning into a guinea pig made you delusional or something?"

"I-" It took me about a split second to realise that I was being delusional. None of what I experienced just now was a dream - we were leaving that beautiful but deadly island. I let out a sigh of relief and Athena's expression turned to amusement. It wasn't long before she started to laugh.

Like, really loudly.

So loudly that she probably didn't hear the faint singing behind us.

"Athena...do you hear that singing?" I asked, slightly frowning to show her I was serious.

A moment of confusion flashed in her eyes but her smile didn't go away. "What? No! Poseidon, looks like being a guinea pig is still making you delusional. There is no sing-"

At mid-sentence, I impulsively stood up and covered her mouth to shut her up.

There was silence between us for a while, but soon the singing got even more audible. It started giving me a strange alluring feeling over me, making me nauseous. My head started spinning so fast that I felt like I was losing control.

I barely saw Athena's eyes widening and then slowly closing as the scene in front of my eyes shifted.

I was no longer on the same boat, but I seemed to have been teleported to another boat that had the exact same structure, in the exact same position. Everything was placed where it was in my original boat, but of a different colour or maybe different embroidery and shapes. I wasn't nauseous at all - in fact, I felt the most amazing way I had in a very long time. My sight seemed to blur every second or so as I slowly got up to wander around, maybe look for Athena because she was for some reason nowhere to be seen.

I headed to the front of the ship. The sky was clearly visible above me and the metal handle glistened under the sunlight, but I only had one purpose. I still couldn't see Athena anywhere.

Desperate, I went to the side and looked over the handle. To my horror, Athena was barely holding on to the side of the ship, her hand slipping away as every second passed. She was screaming in fear and struggling to survive, her neck slowly sinking into the water. Without a second thought, I jumped into the water to save her, feeling a strange tuck on my back. Assuming it was nothing, I launched myself into the sea and returned to the spot I saw Athena.

But she was gone.

Horrified, I dove under to find her but the water was murky and nearly impossible to see through. She was still unseen in the dark collections of silhouettes that I had to strain my eyes to see...

I heard a loud splash behind me. Crawling back to the surface, my arms and legs moving as fast as they possibly could, I looked back but couldn't see a thing. Was someone else on the boat attempting to through a life buoy to save Athena or maybe even me? I dismissed the splash and kept swimming forward, looking around in utter concern for even just a glimpse of Athena.

  I tried to swim forward, arms flailing vigorously, but it felt like a hand was pulling me back as I swam forward with almost no progress at all. There was still no sight of any shape that looked like a another human, let alone Athena. It wasn't long before I started feeling tired.

  I felt myself sinking as the hand kept pulling me back, but this time it felt more like the hand was trying to save me. The grip wasn't strong, but I felt the tug directing towards the surface. I turned around again, but there was absolutely no one behind me.

  I turned back forward and saw an island with a ground made of...black...broken bones? A strange black force field seemed to be wrapped around the inner contents of the island, completely opaque to the point that it made the island look more like a black blob.

  I couldn't care less - the weird tug restraining me and attempting to save me at the same time wasn't helping and I needed somewhere to stop and take a rest. To make it worse, my main mission to find Athena didn't feel like it was anywhere near successful.

  Am I hallucinating?

  I suddenly felt a rough shove in my ears...and the scene changed 360. "Yes, Poseidon, you are."

  I didn't realise I said that out loud...

(A/N: There you go, managed to finish this on the bus! Thanks for reading this book :) Love you guys!)