Haunted || Leo Valdez

35 - We Meet the Crazy Cousins

As they trudged through the woods, the sun started to set. The camp's weather was magically controlled, so it wasn't freezing and snowing like it was in the rest of Long Island, but still Rebecca could tell it was late December. In the shadows of the huge oak trees, the air was cold and damp. The mossy ground squished under their feet.

"Can you sense him?" Piper asked Rebecca. "You're good with metals and stuff, so..."

"I can sense something small up ahead," Rebecca told him. "Might be Buford."

"This is literally the worst way to be spending Christmas Eve," Leo muttered.

Out of habit, Rebecca glanced in the general direction of where her present for Leo was. She'd enlisted Nico's help to set it up, and it had been ready for the past week.

Jason knelt at the banks of a stream. He pointed to some marks in the mud. "Do those look like table tracks?"

"Or a raccoon," Leo suggested.

Anne frowned. "With no toes?"

"Piper?" Leo asked. "What do you think?"

She sighed. "Just because I'm Native American doesn't mean I can track furniture through the wilderness." She deepened her voice: " 'Yes, kemosabe. A three-legged table passed this way an hour ago.' Heck, I don't know."

"Okay, jeez," Leo said.

Piper was half Cherokee, half Greek goddess. Some days it was hard to tell which side of her family she was more sensitive about.

"It's probably a table," Jason decided. "Which means Buford went across this stream."

Suddenly the water gurgled. A girl in a shimmering blue dress rose to the surface. She had stringy green hair, blue lips, and pale skin, so she looked like a drowning victim. Her eyes were wide with alarm.

"Could you be any louder?" she hissed. "They'll hear you!"

"Hello to you, too, Brooke," Rebecca muttered. She and Nico had spent so much time wandering around in the forest that they knew almost every nymph that lived here.

"Rebecca, you know this naiad?" Jason asked.

Rebecca shrugged. "I spend a ridiculous amount of time in the forest. Guys, this is Brooke. Brooke, this is Jason, Piper, and Leo."

"Brooke the brook?" Anne muttered. Rebecca swatted her.

"Shh! They'll kill us all! They're right over there!" Brooke pointed behind her, into the trees on the other side of the stream. Unfortunately, that was the direction Buford seemed to have walked.

"Okay," Piper said gently, kneeling next to the water. "We appreciate the warning. I'm Piper. We won't let anyone harm you. Just tell us who you're afraid of."

The naiad's face became more agitated. The water boiled around her. "My crazy cousins. You can't stop them. They'll tear you apart. None of us are safe!"

Rebecca froze. "You don't mean the--"

"Yes! Now go away. I have to hide!" Brooke melted into water.

Piper stood. "Crazy cousins?" She frowned at Jason. "Any idea what she was talking about?"

"This is bad," Rebecca said. "Brooke's right, if they find us, we're as good as dead."

"We have to follow the trail, right?" Leo said. "I mean...we're heroes and stuff. We can handle whatever it is. Right?"

Jason drew his sword—a wicked Roman-style gladius with an Imperial gold blade. "Right. Of course."