𝐁𝐄𝐘𝐎𝐍𝐃 ━━ jason grace

01. cassie gets dumped, again

[ ACT ONE , CHAPTER ONE ]
CASSIE GETS DUMPED, AGAIN.

‧̍̊˙· 𓆝.° ｡˚𓆛˚｡ °.𓆞 ·˙‧̍̊

Cassie was cold. She hugged her shoulders, desperately seeking some form of warmth. The October evening was particularly chilly, unlike the previous few nights. Wind whistled across Via Praetoria, allowing the dark silhouettes of the trees lining the valley to sway back and forth. Even with the faint glow from the nearby Bay Area illuminating the horizon, the stars shone as bright as ever.

She took another glance at Jason walking beside her, who met her gaze with a warm smile. That just proved that Cassie was dreaming. It was impossible for any of this to be really happening: Cassie was nowhere near camp and Jason was gone.

The first time Cassie lived through this day was one of the best days of her life. It was perfect up until this one part that spiralled her life into madness. Being forced to relive it in her dreams was the worst.

Cassie couldn't understand why the dream gods were doing this to her. She had never done anything to make them angry in the first place. In addition to already experiencing this in real life, she's had this dream before – every night for the past month. She's heard about demigods who've had meaningful dreams that have foretold the future. It's not like she is even remotely special enough to have a dream that means something, but if she were, how is this considered to be significant?

There were more important things going on in Cassie's life. Jason wasn't actually there, smiling at her like everything was okay. Nothing was okay! He disappeared in the middle of the night and Cassie was running out of ways that she could make things right.

Jason cleared his throat, probably for the second or third time judging by his slightly irritated tone. "Cass? You with me here?"

She really wanted to say no, but this version of herself in her dream didn't know what was coming. "Yeah, what's up?"

He took Cassie's hand. She tried to pull her arm out of his grip and run away or even frown at him, though her dream wouldn't let her. It took her few moments to accept that she would have to live through this once again.

She looked back to Jason, who was opening his mouth to speak when she realized that his eyes were glowing gold; they were usually a pretty sky blue. It put Cassie on edge. She wondered if his eyes were like this during her other dreams or the first time it happened.

He sent Cassie a sad smile and took a deep breath. "We can't be together anymore. I don't want to hurt you, you know that. You're my best friend and I don't know what I would do without you. But I think–"

Cassie knew exactly what Jason was going to say. As far as she was concerned, she could recite the entire speech word for word. It wasn't only the result of having this dream so often, but also those words were the last thing she remembered Jason saying to her.

Though the next part never came. Cassie watched in confusion as Jason faded away along with the rest of New Rome. The dream shifted into a place she had never seen before.

The multi-tiered vast room was filled with gears of many sizes, pulley systems that could raise or lower sections of the floor and conveyor belts that circled the room. The room was like a machine. If she was the child of Vulcan, perhaps, she would feel right at home. But something in the air felt off. Something Cassie couldn't place.

Cages hung from the ceiling, some holding live animals and monsters, others empty. There were different sized crates stacked everywhere. It was like whoever owned this place was just moving in.

On the far end of the room, there were two of the biggest chairs Cassie had ever seen. They reminded her of the praetor chairs at Camp Jupiter, a part of her relaxing in the comfort of its familiarity. But another part of her wanted to draw her pugio and rip the cushions to shreds. In between the chairs was an enormous bronze jar.

She began calling out to see if anyone was around. There was something about this place that made her wonder if she really wanted to meet whoever lived here. She looked around the room and behind crates, checking for possible hints of where she was. There was nothing.

She decided to listen for something; no creature could stay quiet for too long. The sound of running water that came from somewhere behind the room's walls caught Cassie's attention. After listening to it for a few moments, she picked up some panic-stricken screaming coming from the same place.

Cassie willed her dream to take her towards the wall, but she couldn't pass through it. She settled for pounding a fist against it, hoping that would do something helpful. Cassie was counting on the people on the other side of the wall to figure out where she was. However, she didn't consider that these people could lead her right into a trap.

Thinking logically, the sound of water was supposed to reassure her. As a daughter of Neptune, water was supposed to be her element, something she could feel at ease around. She figured there must have been something wrong with her, considering she'd never felt that serenity.

To put it simply, Cassie was horrible at manipulating water. The extent of her abilities were swishing water around in a cup. It was useful for pranks and freaking people out, but it was barely any help in a battle, or the real world. Everything else she'd miraculously ended up doing happened by accident, and only led to more problems.

Cassie had come to terms with that a long time ago; she had always played to her other strengths.

Suddenly, the temperature in the room dropped about thirty degrees. Cassie could see her breath as she looked around for an explanation. She couldn't see or hear anyone else besides the people screaming on the other side of the wall, which was getting louder.

The room shook slightly and the screaming came to an abrupt stop. The room was quiet for a moment, then a humming feminine voice spoke.

"They cannot do anything to help you, Cassiopeia Jackson. Your friends are no help to you, they will all end up betraying you in the end. They were destined to fall, just like Rome. Only I am able to give you what you truly need. Bring them to this place and I will personally guarantee that you are spared until your time comes. Your blood will bring me back."

The voice was calm and soothing, in such a way that almost made Cassie want to agree. Though the unsettling cold in the room, the mention of death and just a gut feeling snapped her out of it. The voice was surely evil.

Just as Cassie was about to respond, the cold feeling went away. And just like that, the voice's presence was gone.

The voice was something that Cassie heard before, though it had never been as clear as it was just then. It would mumble incoherently to her while she was walking around and speak broken sentences to her in her dreams. But she didn't know whose voice it was or what it wanted with her.

When she looked up. Cassie found herself halfway across the room. Maybe she was too far away, but she couldn't hear the running water or the screaming people anymore. She looked over to the wall, but it was replaced with a doorway.

Multiple sets of wet footprints passed right by her, the people must have entered this room. She followed the tracks over to their owners. Three people stood in front of Cassie, facing away from her. She couldn't tell who they were. Further behind them, the bronze jar fell over. Cassie called out to the people, hoping they could help her.

"They can't hear you, Cassie." She didn't know that voice, but it spoke like it knew her well; she detected mocking undertones in those spoken words.

She spun around, narrowing her eyes to face the voice.

She didn't know the boy, but something about him was familiar. She wasn't close enough to see all of his features, but he was tall and had messy, black hair.

"Who are you?" Cassie demanded.

"It's time for you to go home, you'll find the answer there," he said urgently.

Cassie narrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

But the boy didn't answer her, he was gone. Slowly, the room began to crumble around Cassie.