[2] 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐘 , p. jackson , j. grace

xx. we dive into the ground

CHAPTER TWENTY ───────────
✧₊˚｡({  WE DIVE INTO THE GROUND  })

" if we have each other ALEC BENJAMIN "

{ JASON }
JULY 18TH, 2010
────────────

SOMETHING ABOUT THEM IS OFF. Jason will be the last to admit it but still. He ignores it in the hope that he's just imagining things but every time he sees Elora stiffen in their presence or Reyna cast them curiously suspicious looks when she thinks they aren't looking, it further cements the idea in his head. Something isn't quite right and it's making a load of people uncomfortable. Elora hadn't changed as much from Tartarus. She was a little off sometimes too, a glint of odd emotion that seemed out of place in her doe brown eyes. Usually, it wore off after a few moments and he could breathe again. But it's been a few hours and they're sailing through the sky gradually towards Athens while Nico rests for the long journey ahead and Percy and Roma are still . . . unnerving people.

          Jason frowns in the direction of the door leading to the cabins. They hadn't been on deck since they'd left picnic. He had a sneaking suspicion one of them wasn't in their own room either. He's sure no one really cares other than Coach.

          Images of what they look like now flash in his mind. At the picnic, he'd noticed the distasteful picking they'd done with their food━something so completely out of character for both of them that it actually creeped him out. They had looked awful. They had this sort of sickening look about them, skin marred with dirt and blood and hardship. Roma's hair had a depressed quality to it━drooping and beginning to thin dramatically. And Percy's hair had stuck in odd places, blanketed in muck and sweat. Their clothes were in tatters, clinging to them like a second skin.

          But moreover, Jason had been better focussed on the scars. The large, gaping, barely-healed scars that spanned almost every inch of their skin. At least, that's what it looked like from his perspective. He couldn't really tell with all the dirt.

          It makes him sick thinking about what could have happened to them down there. If anything, the experience might've been significantly worse than Elora's and Nico's. Not that he even knows the extent of that.

          "I think they did it." Elora's fresh accent buzzes in his ear. They're sitting against the mast on deck, legs sprawled out before them. He turns slightly, acknowledging her with raised eyebrows. She looks almost sad. "What Antevorta said to you back in Bologna━I think they did it."

          Jason thinks over this for a moment with a pang of uncertainty. He can't very well blame them for something that might not have happened but . . . it's hard to determine whether it did. "Why . . . do you say that?"