Equilibrium

Chapter 46: Luka's POV

I was on the bus again and feeling more anxious than I ever had in my life before.
Jackie hated me but I loved her and I just needed to save her and tell her how sorry I was. She wouldn't care, or maybe she would, ugh I don't know but I just had to gEt to her! I was headed over to Wyoming of all places. This quest really was touring us around the country.
One more hour and I would be there. Just one more hour. I paid the bus driver extra just so he would drop me off at the exact spot that Jackie was at.
Some strange warehouse that seemed to be abandoned and falling apart. Scary times. I swear my life is a horror movie.
Pulling out my poetry book, I tried distracting myself by reading some of my favourite poems, ones my Mom had written, ones I had written, some classics, a bit of Shakespeare.
It didn't work.
I just couldn't put my mind anywhere else except for Jackie.
Is this the right time to say that I'm whipped?
Yes.
The next hour was probably the most antagonizing out of all of them. Being so damn close to Jackie but not quite there frustrated me so much.
Screech
The bus halted to a stop on an empty road, and the bus driver looked back and called for me.
I was surprised that he had even agreed to drop me off here in the first place, but I did pay him more than he probably made in a month as bribery. Jackie for some reason had LOADED her bag with cash. I don't know where the girl got it all from but I wasn't complaining. I was just slightly concerned that maybe she'd stolen it, being a Hermes kid and all. Picking up my stuff, I stumbled out of the bus, letting my eyes adjust to the light.
"Thanks," I muttered to the bus driver before rushing out of the bus and onto the open road.
The bus started up again and made its way to wherever its next destination was.
To my left, a little ways off the side of the road was a big warehouse, so old that it looked like the roof might just cave in.
That's where she was.
I ran as fast as I could through the weeds and wilting, yellowed grass, all the way over to what looked like the entrance.
"JACKIE!" I yelled, banging on the door. UGHH that wasn't going to do anything! If she was trapped no one was going to open the door for me. Get on your game, Luka.
Dropping my bag behind a bush so I could move quicker, I grabbed my bow and quiver and jogged around the sides of the building. It looked so close to falling in on itself that I was scared that it would happen at any minute and Jackie would die if she hadn't already.
DAMNIT LUKA stop thinking.
There were many more doors, some had been sealed up, some opened up to a brick wall or something of the sort.
But then bINGO! One of the doors opened up to a narrow hallway.
I may have needed the relics to help me, and oops, I forgot to grab the Aphrodite relic so I could check to see the exact place Jackie was being held.
Sprinting back over to where I left my stuff, I swung Jackie's bottomless backpack that held all the relics and my bag and made my way back to the hallway entrance near the back of the warehouse. Taking a deep breath, I ducked into the pitch black, praying to the gods for the first time in my life.
I took the mirror out of the bag and looked into it.
It wasn't showing anything anymore. Just pitch  black darkness.
What?
Where did Jackie go? I shook it, maybe it was broken? Wait no, a relic of the gods wouldn't break that easily.
"Luka Del Rosso...?"
I swung around, waving the mirror in front of me for protection. Nice going Luka, really nice going. A mirror is definitely going to save you.
A girl stepped out of the shadows and into the pale sunlight that was shining into the small room that the hallway had led me into.
"Your little bitch of a girlfriend is unfortunately not here." At a closer glance, I noticed the clothes she was wearing. A lot of purple. Ew. I don't like purple. But what stuck out to me was that they were tattered and there were cuts all up and down her arms and legs.
This was very obviously not a human female. She had purple eyes too, ew x2, and there was no blood coming out of those cuts that looked very fresh.
Also did she just call Jackie a bitch?? No. Only I was allowed to do that.
"Who are you?" I asked, slowly slipping the mirror back into the bag and taking out an arrow from my quiver.
"I'm Clara, and I'm going to kill you!" She said in a sickly sweet voice, apparently taking no notice to what I was doing.
"Where's Jackie? What have you done with her?!" I frantically asked, trying not to sound agitated but failing.
CLaRa or whatever the duck her name was, snarled, "She was taken from me, but now that you're here with all the relics, I no longer need that girl anyways."
Taken?? Nuh uh. But why wasn't the mirror showing me where Jackie was then? If she wasn't here, WHERE WAS SHE??
Deciding that I was probably not going to get anything out of Clara and her purple dump of sadness, I knocked my arrow and shot her straight in the heart.
Or where the human heart was supposed to be, I was not sure what was in there for her. Stunned, she disintegrated on the spot.
Litty, that was easy.
Now Jackie. Where was she? How could I get to her? I yawned, completely exhausted. I hadn't slept in so long.
It was late, too. If I was going to encounter more monsters by myself, I needed sleep.
There was no freaking way I was going to sleep in this warehouse, though.
None at all.
Wait...I can't believe I was even considering sleep.
Someone else took Jackie. They took her and now the stupid mirror wouldn't show me shiT. She could be dead for all I knew.
Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop thinking about her being deAD.
You know what?
I do need sleep.
Leaving the warehouse and soaking up the last bit of sun as it set, I found a patch of grass that was less dried up than most of the grass surrounding the building a little ways off. As soon as my sleeping bag was out and I was inside it, and I fell fast asleep. Hopefully I would have a dream?? That would tell me where Jackie was??
Oh, guess what, I did have a dream! Wow! It was so insightful!
Catch me being sarcastic as hell, because I was so salty about that dream. It really did not do me, or anyone else, any justice.
Now you may be wondering, 'what happened in that dream Luka? Did you find out if Jackie was okay or not?'
Fun fact: I found out who the anonymous Adrestia was AND I found out that she was holding Jackie hostage!! Wow x2!
Here's how the dream went, justttt for a little more information:
I woke up in the warehouse, which was strange because I swore I'd left it and gone outside. Lying on the cold concrete floor I could see Jackie a few yards in front of me, knocked out and bleeding from literally everywhere.
Holy shit. This was not a vibe.
"Jackie!" I yelled, scrambling up to my feet to run to her, but I found that I couldn't move. It was like my feet were glued to the floor.
"HAHAHAAA!" I heard a woman's voice cackling from somewhere behind Jackie's limp body in the shadows.
"Luka, my sweet boy, you really thought it would be that easy?" She said, her voice getting nearer.
When she came into the light I could finally see her. She had shoulder length black hair and was wearing a plain white dress with long sleeves that flared out at her elbows.
When she smiled, my stomach churned.
"I guess some introductions are needed." She exclaimed walking right through Jackie's body, as if she were a ghost and coming up to face me.
"I am Adrestia. The goddess of revolt and equilibrium between good and evil."
EqUilIbrIum.
There was that godforsaken word again.
She stepped closer to me and into the brighter light. In one hand, our fine friend Adrestia was holding a sword, and in the other she was holding what looked like the last two relics. Hermes's key and Ares's helmet.
Shoot stickles, this was not good.
"I am on my way to your beloved Camp Half-blood with an entire army to destroy it. And after that, the Roman Camp will be next to go. The girl," she said, gesturing back over to Jackie's lifeless body, "Is with me, and I plan to slaughter her in front of everyone as an example of what happens to those who threaten the force of equilibrium."
She was alive.
For the time being, Jackie was alive, and I still had the opportunity to save her and apologise, and just tell her that I loved her.
Adrestia tilted her head to the side, "Goodbye for now, Luka Del Rosso. When our paths cross, be prepared for your death. Oh, and I'm going to need those relics at some point. She laughed again, walking backwards into the shadows, disappearing.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is when I woke up in a pool of sweat, still outside of the warhouse, snuggled in my sleeping bag. It was the middle of the night and the crickets were chirping away as if there was nothing wrong with the world. As if a psycho goddess hadn't just come to me in my dreams to tell me she was going to kill me and everyone I loved.
But Jackie was alive.
Chiron already knew there was going to be a battle, the demigods at camp were already getting ready, but I needed to get back there right now with all the relics, hopefully managing to save Jackie.
Standing up, I stuffed the sleeping bag into Jackie's backpack. How do I get there though? A bus would take days.... Think you Italian ass bitch, THINK!
Didn't Percy have a pegasus? I racked my brains trying to remember. Ahh yes, Jackie had told me something about Percy having a horse that loved donuts once.
I needed to contact Percy again and get him to send me his freaking horse so I could get back. WhY haven't I done this before? Oh right, because I decided not to tell anyone that Jackie and I had split up.
Gods Luka, you're such a CLOWN.
Anyways, it was time to get me a donut loving horse so I could yeet back over to Camp Half-blood and save the love of my freaking life.