Chapter 30

-Djo.

The Oracle was terrifying.

An old, dead woman who woke up from her dead slumber to spit some scary wise words that were bound to come true.

Kayla didn’t like that, ironically.

Her walk away from the Big House was fuzzy. Nails digging into her palms, shoulders tense. She has no clue where to go. What was the time? Two fifty. An hour had already gone by procrastinating on a bench. She went to find Malolm first. Clarisse would have finished training, but she could be staying over time.

She checked the Athena cabin first. No one answered her knock, so they must all be out and about. She asked a few of his siblings, they all said no. He wasn’t at the mess hall either, or down at the sparring grounds training with Will. There wasn’t many places you would find Malcolm. He was a simple creature. Come on. Kayla rubbed her face.

Her moment of annoyance was disrupted as a rough hand placed itself down on her shoulder. It moved to her shoulder blade, almost like it was trying to twist her around. Then, Clarisse was infront of her.

“-Kayla? Hello? Why wouldn’t you answer me?”

“Wha- what? Hi?”

“Hi,” Clarisse stood, her hand moved back up to Kayla’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“What… uh, want to hang out? Let’s go to your cabin.”

Clarisse tilted her head. Her hand slipped from Kayla’s shoulder, both of them slipping into her jort pockets. “I need a shower, I just finished training. Where’d you go? I saw my brother passed out, but no sign of you.”

“Uh, Chiron took me. I had to dip. Can we… go to your cabin, and I’ll wait for you after the shower, I-

“Well you’re all stressed, aren’t you? What’s so important you have to wait for me in my room until I’ve had a shower? Want to see me n-“

“I have a really important thing to say.” Kayla cut her off, shaking her head frantically. God, of all times, now Clarisse decided she wanted to be a jokester?

Clarisse looked at her gone out. She adjusted her stance, stepping back to get a better look at all of Kayla. “Important… to say? Like what?”

“I need you in your cabin. I can’t say it out here.” She replied bluntly, attempting to get herself together. Clarisse raised her eyebrow. She went silent and sucked on her teeth like she was trying to grasp ahold of what Kayla’s motives might be. “Okay,” She flicked her eyes from Kayla’s face to over her shoulder before she started a slow stroll. “Let’s go.”

The walk to the cabin was somehow awkward. Maybe Kayla had worded it wrong? Did she sound mad? Angry? Clarisse was currently eyeing her up in the corner of her eye with an unreadable expression. Okay, Kayla must definitely have sounded mad.

“You gotta mind the mess, had a fight with Mark in my room. He was blaming me of something.” Clarisse opened the door to her room. There was a pile of clothes knocked off her bed. Some drawing sketches were ripped up. Others crumpled, or simply astray on the floor. There was a dagger neatly fitted in her wall just besides her window. God, Ares sibling fights were real hard-core.

“And forget my shower. Tell me now. I’m not waiting.” Clarisse closed her bedroom door and leant against it, crossing her arms. Was there any way to say this nicely? Kayla wasn’t good at not being blunt. “It’s really secretive, okay? Don’t tell anyone, at all.”

“I’m waiting…”

“Chiron is having me go on a quest.”

Clarisse furrowed her brows. She wasn’t happy, that was clear. More so confused on why Kayla was making it such a big deal. “Um, kay. Well, good job. I don’t… understand the secret bit.”

“To the Labyrinth.”

Now that really got Clarisse’s facial expressions to contort. Her blunt look dropped into a look of shock horror. The Labyrinth was the stuff of Demigod horror stories. Those late night stories maybe Connor and Travis would contort at campfires to sound funny. “You can’t go there, what do you mean? Why would Chiron send you down there?”

Kayla sat on the edge of Clarisse’s bed, rubbing her face once more. Clarisse was quick to move from the door, dropping her spear on the floor with no regards and also sitting on the edge of her bed. “For what? When? How long? With who?”

“Something about monsters, and I’m the only fit demigod. There was a letter, from a camper that turned to Kronos. He said he wants to come back cause he regrets going to Kronos and Luke. That there’s something defying death in the Labyrinth.”

“So he wants you to go and sort it out?” Clarisse scoffed, shaking her head. Kayla craned her neck to her, as did Clarisse. “No, no, you can’t do that. Get Thanatos, this is suicide.”

“He can’t. And- he won’t. He’s too busy,” It sent Clarisse into silence, her mouth closing. Had her throat just closed up? Instead, she put her hand on Kayla’s arm, shaking her head. “And it’s a solo quest.”

“Are you insane?!“

Ah, there we go.

“A solo quest, to the-!”

“Shush!” Kayla clasped a hand to her mouth, glaring into her eyes before giving her a second go.

“A solo quest,” Clarisse whispered this time. “To the Labyrinth. For monsters? Do you have any idea what you’re telling me right now? This sounds like you’re planning to kill yourself, you moron!”

“I already got a prophecy!” Kayla argued in a whiny, quiet voice, lifting her arm up from Clarisse’s hand. “It sounded pretty damn personal. You know I can’t tell you. But it sounded… very, very personal.

Clarisse placed her head in her hands, like she was trying to shake away her anger. That was a first. “You can’t go, not now– I-“

“I’ll be quick,” Kayla took her hand to one of Clarisse’s, pulling it away from her face. Her face mirrored Kayla’s. Worry, sorrow. A tiny bit mad. She led their hands to the bed, keeping her eyes focused on Clarisse’s face. “All I have to do, is go in there, get my scythe, capture them all, then try and figure out what is causing them to regenerate so fast. Maybe one of them will tell me. It’s like… Pokémon. Catch them all, you know?”

Unfortunately, that joke did not make Clarisse smile. “Except it’s in the Labyrinth.”

Kayla’s soft smile faltered once again. “I’ll get out. Chiron’s giving me the rest of today and all of tomorrow to practice some of my powers. I’m going to focus on shadow travelling, and using my scythe.”

“Can I help? You can use my energy, practice that aswell. It can help with the shadow travelling.” She suggested in a pleading tone. Gods, when did Clarisse start to care for her so much? The answer to that question was unknown for Kayla. Sometime this year. They had spent alot of time together. Kayla, too, cared for Clarisse.

That was the main reason she wanted to tell her about this secret quest. She couldn’t leave Clarisse hanging. Kayla knew what this bond between them had done for Clarisse. For the both of them. Clarisse really struggled with friends. Sometimes, Kayla saw in Clarisse’s eyes when they were hanging out just how happy good company made her. No one ever offered her that good company, so no one knew Clarisse could actually be capeable of kindness.

It was annoying to Kayla. Clarisse had too much shit on her shoulders to be dealing with friendship problems ontop of that. But, she figured that’s what being the one and only daughter of Ares at camp these days brung you.

“I- I guess, you could help like that. Make sure you eat a bunch though. And drink a lot. It’s really dangerous. Energy draining, and shadow travelling. I- i know how to drain energy alot more safely, thought. If I’m not careful with shadow travelling…”

Clarisse nodded in understanding, bumping her knee into Kayla’s. “We’ll get you there. Don’t worry.”

Kayla nodded in agreement, gazing over Clarisse’s features. She had a newfound cut on her lip from training this morning. That, and her knuckles were all bloody. Kayla could feel the lack of skin and the wet blood as her fingers traced over Clarisse’s knuckles mindlessly. “Go and get that shower, I’ll bandage your knuckles up once your out.” She offered quietly, pulling her hand away and shuffling further onto the bed.

Clarisse nodded, looking down at her knuckles herself. She stood up, gathered some clothes, and entered her bathroom. Kayla took that time to let her thoughts wonder about everything as she sat against the headboard of the bed.

She couldn’t leave, not now. The way Clarisse said it, like it was some sort of cruel joke. That made Kayla’s heart lurch, flip, then send itself right off to Tartarus. Gods, she really hoped she didn’t die.

Patching up Clarisse’s knuckles was a quiet job. The girl didn’t even feel her knuckle bones anymore, Kayla knew that. “You know it’s bad when the ambrosia you take doesn’t even heal your knuckles properly anymore.”

Clarisse huffed a chuckle, watching patiently. “Not my fault they cut easy.”

“Well, it is, if you think about it. You made your knuckles so prone to busting.”

Clarisse let out a lighter chuckle, nudging Kayla’s shoulder with the hand that was already bandaged up. “Shut up.”

“Do not kill the medic, here. I’m just stating facts.”

“Mhm, stating facts.” She hummed, staring at Kayla, who looked up while bandaging. She grinned. “What?”

“What what? I never said anything.”

“You looked like you were about to start fighting me for fun.”

“…I most definitely wasn’t going to start fighting you,” Clarisse flicked her eyes away, shaking her head with a longing smile. “You better be careful out there. Can’t have my favourite gremlin go to waste in the Labyrinth.”

“I won’t.” Is what she forced herself to say. She knew in her head however, that the real answer might differ. The conversations that followed were dull. Dare Kayla say Clarisse sounded terrified. Disappointed, unhappy. You name it, Clarisse’s face and tone of voice held it all. They weren’t dull in the sense of being awkward. Just… dull in the sense of these newfound, caring conversations not quite hitting their intended areas.

“I need to go back to my cabin, I think for tonight I should read up on the files Chiron gave me about the Labyrinth. Then tomorrow I’ll train with you all day.”

“What? Bring the files over here, do them here. Or I can come round, it’s no-“

“I can’t afford distractions, Clarisse. I need all my attention on these files. If not, it could cost me, okay?” Kayla stood up from where they had been speaking on her bed, pausing to stare at Clarisse once more. “What?”

“Why do you keep asking me what? Nothing! Am I not allowed to look at you?”

Kayla analysed her looks once more. Clarisse kept giving her such an odd look. A mix between being mad at her and… Kayla didn’t even know what else. Looking up at her through her eyelashes, that thing. “Look, I’ll see you around eleven tomorrow morning, okay? Tidy your room or something. Goodnight.”

Yet again, Clarisse opened her mouth in protest, but Kayla had gone.

Back at her cabin, she read through the files she picked up from Chiron before returning back. She scratched her back with a grunt, peeled her top off, then released her wings gently. Ah, that was better.

Her bag had been packed; a decent sized hiking bag. No useless things this time. Three pouches of ambrosia, a Swiss army knife, some ready cook meals, powdered water, vitamin tablets, a few changes of clothes, a med kit, some daggers- aswell as a few things that hadn’t been put in yet. Like the files she planned to take, and her water bottle. That bag was shoved under her bed for now.

She had a simple plan; take out any monsters she saw, reap their souls, speak to them from the dead to ask why they keep regenerating so fast in offer for their soul to be taken to Asphodel and not be trapped in a Stygian Iron Scythe for the rest of eternity. Simple!

Except, there was the big thing Clarisse had mentioned earlier; this was the Labyrinth. And looking at these files, getting lost was very, very easy. Rejection didn’t sound too fun, either. Or losing her mind.

She pushed all that to one side, slipping the files into the back of the backpack before shoving it back under the bed.

That night, Kayla got to sleep with music from the Walkman and a bunch of energy drinks form the camp shop. Energy drinks were good for knocking demi-gods out. With their ADHD, energy drinks had an opposide effect. most kids here get super tired if they drink enough of one in a single sitting. Thankfully, that was the case for Kayla.

Or, maybe she drank too much, cause she did not wake up for what happened afterwards.

Please vote!!

I had so much fun with this chapter, as im re reading it im just grinning and I hope it has that effect for you guys😭 the angst im cooking up 24/7 tho is making me grin even more mwahaha

Had the amazing idea earlier of doing Ares inspired nails as I do nails, I may show the final result whenever that may be ahhhh