It Started With a Game

22. Do this Before the Blood Moon Sails

"Oh gods," Sybil moaned, "Oh gods." She stuffed her face into Drew's unmoving stomach, silent tears falling down her face. She hated seemed vulnerable, but she obviously was. Drew just died. Drew just made her their leader, something she knew nothing about.

Sybil had never once been a leader. It was always her older half sister, Annabeth, standing in the spotlight and being the person everyone looked up to. But now she was under Piper's spell.

Drew was counting on me, Sybil thought, trying calm down, I need to be strong. For me and for them.

But she didn't want to do that, not really. She wanted to give up. Everything was hopeless, wasn't worth it. There was no point in any of this. That's when she felt something on her shoulder. A hand.

Sybil sniffled, looking up. It was Dani's hand. Sybil craned her neck to look back at Dani. Dani has a single tear falling down her cheek, but nevertheless, her eyes were warm and comforting, and she wore a small smile on her face.

"I believe in you, Sybil," Dani whispered, just loud enough for Sybil to hear her. At that moment, a few of the broken pieces inside of Sybil were put back together. She had someone with her, she wasn't alone. They could do this.

Sybil smiled, a genuine smile, tears continuing to fall down her face. She launched out, tackling Dani in a huge hug and burying her head into her shoulder. "Thank you," Sybil murmured, her voice breaking, "Thank you so much."

She wasn't alone, she never was. Dani and all her friends and family were here for her. They would all get through this together.

-

It was now a few hours later and everyone was a bit calmer about the situation. Still extremely upset, but they were in a better mindset. "So," Sybil began, her voice low and avoiding eye contact with anyone and everyone, "I found a calendar and apparently it's two days before this all began. So we just need to find Piper and find a way to stop her from doing anything crazy. The blood moon is also in nine days so we have plenty of time before we 'certainly fail.'"

"That sounds way easier then it is," Marcel grumbled.

"We just need to chain Piper up and make sure she doesn't do anything crazy or whatever," Chandler said.

"And how long do you plan on having her chained up? Forever?" Dove raised her eyebrow.

"We should just go spy on her and see what's happening," Darrell said.

"Yeah," Sybil said quietly, biting her lip, "Good idea."

Everyone looked at her sympathetically. They knew that out of everyone, she was having the roughest time with this all. But they didn't say anything. Dani did squeeze her hand assuringly though.

"To the Aphrodite cabin!" Adele said. She tried to sound cheerful, but she was pretty quiet and her voice wavered at the end, much different then her usual chirpy self. She still seemed just as ADHD and fidgety as usual though, so at least that didn't change.

"Yup," Everyone said weakly.

They began their short hike to the Aphrodite cabin, stopping when they reached the Barbie doll house-like cabin. "Let's look in through the window? Chandler suggested, though he sounded uncertain. "Unless that's weird or something. I don't want to seem like a perv."

Everyone chuckled slightly at that, but it ended quickly. "Uh, yeah. Let's look in through the window," Sybil said quietly. Dove snuck a quick glance at Sybil and saw that Sybil and Dani were discreetly holding hands. Dove bit back a smile, looking away.

They all walked up to the windows, peering in through them (and getting weird looks from a lot of passing campers). And what they saw was truly... astonishing. All the Aphrodite campers (except one) were unmoving, as if they were frozen. Some were frozen in the position of putting on makeup, others reading gossip magazines, some puckering their lips at their reflection, etc. All just... frozen.

But that wasn't the weirdest part. Standing in the middle of the cabin was Piper, looking extremely uncomfortable and even a bit scared, with a certain angry looking love goddess standing across from her.

Aphrodite.

One more chapter! One more chapter! I honestly had so much fun writing this, and I'm both sad yet excited that there is only one more chapter until this book is over! I hope you guys have enjoyed it.