Trapped | ✓

Chapter 11

Emily's POV

"Wh-What?" was all I could muster.

"Emily!" Piper cried and rushed over to me. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I think."

"What happened? You know, with Phobos?" The expression on my face made her add, "If you're up for it, of course. You don't have to tell us now."

"No, honestly, I'm fine." I struggled through the recount of my experience. Annabeth was squirming and generally extremely uncomfortable with the whole idea.

"Holy Hephaestus! I can't even imagine that...if it was me..." Annabeth shuddered.

"Where are they?" I asked. Frank shrugged.

"They just disappeared after you blacked out. Percy and Jason ran after them but, well they were just gone. Sorry, Emily." Hazel told me.

"Well, that was nice and embarrassing, wasn't it?" I stated, almost laughing. "But never mind me, what were you talking about earlier, Annabeth? Was it important?"

Annabeth told me of her dream, and then Jason said what he was going to before I woke up and interrupted him.

"Me too. Zeus spoke to me."

"Really? He told you how to find them?" Frank asked.

"He said they'd be near where they like to hang out often, obviously." He rolled his eyes; he was quoting what his father had said.

"Which is?" Frank asked.

"Ares' temple?" I guessed.

"Bingo. Ares' temple. Idiots. Ready to go now, or-"

The air shimmered, and an iris message from camp formed. It was Clarisse.

"I wouldn't call if weren't absolutely necessary. Everyone else go away, except Nico and Emily."

"What?" Leo asked.

Nico shrugged, but sighed and said, "Just do it."

So the others stood, they walked out onto the street and down it a little so they couldn't hear the conversation.

"Will got attacked, and he keeps calling for you, Nico. Says you're in danger."

I saw the worry build behind Nico's dark eyes.
"Let me see him!"

Clarisse took a step to the left and we couldn't see her, and barked an order. A girl walked over, supporting Will as he stumbled over to us. I recognised the girl as Katie Gardner from the Demeter cabin, dating Travis Stoll (or maybe that was just fanfiction? I could hardly differentiate between the two.)

"Look, here's Nico. He's okay!" Katie reassured Will as they came over.

"Will!" Nico called.

"Nico?"

"Yeah, I'm here! Are you alright?"

"I think. You're not dead? I..I saw you. You were dead."

"No, I'm alright. And so are you."

Will nodded, and suddenly he looked much more sane again. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Yep, completely good now. Yeah."

"Awesome." Nico smiled, and I suppressed a grin.

Will hurried off to go and see to the other patients still in the infirmary, where the call was taking place.

"Why did you need me?" I asked of Clarisse when she returned. She sighed. She somehow managed to turn the 'camera', and said, "Because of this." Travis and Connor Stoll were lying on hospital beds in the infirmary. Travis was asleep, but Connor was hugging his legs and sobbing. He wasn't the only one. There were many campers in the infirmary doing the same thing, and it pained me to see the camp I grew up with so broken, so defeated.

"Most people seem to be seeing people they care about dead. That seems to be most people's fears. A couple of campers have been attacked twice; over different things. Everyone fears losing people, I guess," Clarisse told me.

"Connor's been asking for you and Travis. Showing them the people they're worried about are okay seem to be a cure." I nodded slowly. "And, well, Travis is-" she gestured to an unconscious Travis. "-Like that. That doesn't really help, does it?"

Connor was asking for me? Why would my going scare him? We'd only just become friends, pretty much. I didn't even belong at Camp Half-Blood.

"Connor?" Clarisse called. She tried to sound gentle, but wasn't very good at it. Connor looked up, and Clarisse beckoned him over.

"She's here," she told him. His face lit up. Then it fell.

"But she's dead." His voice sounded like a small child's. "So's Travis."

"No she isn't. Phobos made you believe that. He made you see that. It's not real. Come here. She's here to see you." Connor stumbled over.

"See? Look."

"Hi Connor." I said. "Everything's okay. We're all alright. No one's dead."

"Emily?"

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm alive. I'm okay, and.." I glanced at Nico, choosing to mirror his words. "I'm okay, and so are you. So's Travis. He's alive, I promise."

"Yeah." He took a deep breath, and seemed to calm down, almost coming out of a daze. He looked normal again. His voice was his own.

"Hey, Emily."

I smiled. "Hey, Connor."

"So both Travis and Emily are okay, yes? You all good?" Clarisse asked Connor, slightly impatiently. He grinned. She took that as a yes.

"Right, we gotta go now. See you." And the iris message disappeared. Nico gave me a weak smile.