THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES [J. GRACE]

THIRTEEN

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES ༉‧₊˚.[THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS]

L E O
chapter thirteen: sleep deprivation, and hallucination is not fun, even for demigods. so, get your sleep, children

__________________________________________

LEO WAS totally buzzing.

his mind just kept taking him back in the moment over, and over again. the expression on everyone's faces when chandler flew festus directly into camp? absolutely priceless! leo was absolutely sure that his cabin mates were going to bust a lug nut once they'd noticed who'd been riding the dragon.

festus had been awesome, too. he hadn't blowtorched a single cabin or eaten any satyrs, even if he did dribble a little oil from his ear. that was a minor complication, and most likely the smallest of the problems that could have taken place with the malfunctioning dragon present.

though, what did disappoint him was a conversation with his sister. chandler had mercilessly threatened to end his life then, and there. and for those of you asking, how did she threaten to kill you, leo? faster than his eyes could follow, she slid her knife from its thigh holster, and pressed it at this throat casually. he'd prayed to greek gods above, which he'd just found out actually exist, that the blade she was carrying was solely for show.

leo he was dead wrong. she promised to gut him like a fish, and leave his remains in the woods as snacks for monsters if he even considered squealing about the location of bunker nine, or the flying boat design to the other campers, though leo suspected all the important people, the blonde chick, annabeth, and the horse-man, chiron, already knew.

part of leo thought maybe his sister was bluffing about the whole murdering him, and hiding his body plot, but he wasn't completely sure. the gleam in her eye, and the mildly concerning smile that curled on her lips was more than enough to assure him that chandler was not playing around with him. deciding tattling wasn't the way to go with chandler, he thought, why not try and convince her when they returned from the stupid quest? after all, he'd seen that design before, and it was really important.

a more pessimistic part of his brain didn't think leo would make it back at all. usually, he'd try to rein that side of him in. after all, if he pretended that there was no side of him doubting himself, then it was easier for him to feign confidence.

the lack of sleep made it troubling. it filled his brain of people like jason, and his sister didn't have to fake it, confidence that they just seemed to have along with that air of heroic perfection that never seemed to vanish. he tried to brush those thoughts away, he had more deadly things to worry about, more life threatening, deadly things.

he'd come back, leo tried to assure himself. thinking positively was all that he had fueling him at that point, and even that was starting to fail. as he tried to think of good things going in his life at the moment, a little voice somewhere dark always whispered something back to him. he'd scored a sweet magic tool belt from his big sister, but in the back of his mind, he heard i bet it belonged to her dead brother who she wished was actually on the quest.

another plus was a lot of cool supplies safely stowed in his backpack, and the voice whispered finally something you could do without a doubt, backpack boy. leo just couldn't escape the sound of his own voice in the back of his head, always twisting, and turning around his thoughts, and making him feel worse about himself.

"shut up, me," leo bursted out finally, frustration high in his tone as he tried to shake away all those horrible thoughts that followed him endlessly, never letting him go on for long in a good mood.