Mayday, Mayday!

006. Vanilla / Ocean Breeze

......
AELLA-MAE WANG. Knife to the back. (1)
MARIE SANTOS. Dagger to the throat.
THALIA GRACE. [EXCLUDED: Hunter of Artemis]
JASON GRACE. Spear to the back.
AELLA-MAE WANG. ▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2)
End of List.

✸

  Percy stepped out of the showers, (thank god they'd added individual ones to each cabin, having to run outside just to wash his hair was his least favorite part) hair still wet and his shirt practically soaked from the water. A glimmer of light remained outside, casting parts of the cabin with a lazy golden hue. "Gods, I didn't expect you to be so quiet. Where's the music?" He saw her figure lying one on of the upper bunks, trembling ever so slightly.

  " . . . Aella-Mae?" he asked tentatively, as if he didn't want to hear the answer.

  Hoisting himself up on the rungs, careful not to drip water everywhere, Percy nudged her every so slightly. He was about to ask again, when she made a strangled, choking noise, hands reaching for her own throat. Percy leapt forwards, almost bumping his head on the ceiling in the rush, taking her hands in his. She clawed at his hands, nails digging into his calloused palms, but he held on. 

  "Let go of me!"  Her eyelids flew open, not quite looking at him. She twitched, one palm facing upwards, and for a split second, Percy swore he saw something trickling down the side of her mouth. Something dark, spilling onto the bedsheets. Her hand twitched again, trying to reach for whatever was erupting out of her mouth.

  Whatever it was, it vanished in moments. 

  She flailed around, searching for something he couldn't see. "It's in my throat . . . get it out! Please, please." Percy slowly lifted her chin up, peering at her neck, expecting something to be sticking right out of it. There was nothing. Aella-Mae shrieked, eyes rolling back into her head.

  Her hands went limp as the the tremors stopped and Aella-Mae's eyes closed again. Percy held his breath.

  Aella-Mae grasped his hand impossibly tight as she squinted at him, so tight he felt she was cutting off his circulation. "Aren't you, uh, supposed to be showering?"

  "Already finished," Percy said. "You were screaming."

  "I was?" Aella-Mae feigned ignorance. Percy gave her a look. She sighed, "it was just a nightmare. I'll be okay. You know, dying and all that." There was the forced smile he'd seen so many times.

  "Sure you will," he replied, not buying a word of it.

  She slowly let go of the hand she hadn't realized she was holding, propping herself up in a sitting position, and reaching for her throat. Her fingers trailed up and down, eyebrows furrowing. "It's . . . there's nothing there."

  "Is there supposed to be something?"

  Aella-Mae turned to look at him. "There was something. I could feel it."

  "That's, it's a nightmare. What you said, right? You were just remembering it. Someone, um, killed you with a knife. To the throat, I guess," Percy reasoned.

  "I didn't die by a knife to the throat," Aella-Mae felt her neck. "It was to my back. Or I would have seen them coming."

  "Well, your mind twists things."

  "It wasn't a knife. It was . . . I was drowning. In something." She looked up to meet his eyes.

  Percy saw a sort of subtle apprehension that sent a chill down his spine. "I promise not to kill you?" he tried.