𝙩𝙪 𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨 - p. jackson [₂]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒙𝒙𝒊𝒙.

―✧―

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐏.

she'd changed the color of his hair dye from red to orange and forgot to tell him. now he looked like a creepy version of the lorax.

riley weaved her way through the basketball court, theo trying his best to keep up... but man, was she fast. behind them, he heard aurora yell curses about her despise for running and another person laughing at her complaints.

theo slowed for a second, his brain sensing something wrong, but unable to place it.

suddenly, riley backtracked, avoiding theo, and hiding behind aurora and the person who was laughing at her.

theo's heart panged at the sight of cayden, alive.

his eyes widened as he shook his head slightly. why was he surprised cayden was alive? all this war preparation was getting to him.

"no, theo, i'm sorry," riley was saying. "i thought i told you. i swear, i didn't do this one on purpose."

"see, i'd believe you," theo told her, "but your laughter is telling me otherwise."

"and it only took you three and a half years to pick up on this," cayden grinned.

theo had to blink at the sound of his voice. did cayden always sound like that? theo was pretty sure his voice was a little more high pitched.

"at least silena didn't steal theo's shampoo this time," aurora commented, fixing her heels. "that would not have been pretty."

"silena," theo repeated slowly, his brain feeling fuzzy.

"silena," aurora repeated. "you know, our oldest sister at camp? girlfriend of beckendorf? lover of candy?"

"silena's not... she's..." theo took a step back, his hands flying to his temple as he tried to remember what was wrong.

"theo?" cayden stepped forward. "are you okay? do you need something?"

theo stared at his brother, at aurora, at riley, his brain desperately trying to click the pieces together.

he slowly looked at aurora, "silena's dead."

"what?" aurora gave him a look as if he was crazy. "okay, i think you somehow suffered brain damage from too much running? is that possible, riles?"

"riley," theo looked at her, his throat closing up as memories flooded him. "you're not here. you're not riley."

"what the hell are you on?" not-riley asked him. "are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"riley's in tartarus," theo got out. "she fell in, with annabeth and percy. you're not her. you're not my sister."

"okay, i think we need to get you to chiron," cayden tried.