Children of Olympia: Apocalypse

Imprisoned

Alabaster's dream was entirely a new level of nausea. It was full of blurry images and echoing sounds, a lot of people speaking a lot of things at once, Alabaster wished it to end as soon as possible. But it went on for what seemed like eternity. The voices included his mother's, who said she won't intervene between him and Lamia. Then, there was Dr Claymore, who told him that he has tasks to complete. Then, it was Lamia, laughing bitterly at his weaknesses.

With almost fifty different people speaking hundreds of things in his mind, all Alabaster wished was to wake up in his hotel room, alone and undisturbed. But the day was maybe the unluckiest one, because when he woke up: a) he wasn't alone and, b) saw the faces he never wanted to meet again.

First person his eyes went on was Alexander Jackson, sitting calmly at a corner of what obviously looked like a prison cell. Alexander Jackson, the very guy who led him into this! He first attacked him, which enabled Lamia to track him. Then the boy didn't even seemed to be much of a threat to Lamia. And now, Alabaster was at Lamia's mercy because of some Jackson boy! Was it the Jacksons' family hobby to ruin people's lives?

"Good morning, l'il brother!" Lamia walked into the cell. She was disguised as a middle-aged woman who looked like she wasn't familiar with terms like 'cosmetics' and 'parlour'. She made a fake worried face which made her look even more ugly. "Took you long enough to wake up? I thought you were dead, I was worried. You know, if you died too early, I'll not be able to torture you."

Alabaster had learned numerous spells to defeat monsters, but Lamia established the fact that monsters have achieved a human anatomy and were not just black sand. That meant, his master spell, the one that could trap monsters as black sand without letting there essence escape to Tartarus, was useless. And Alabaster knew no spell to kill a human. He did tried "Avada Kedavra" a few times, but then realized it was ridiculous.

Lamia removed his remaining doubts. "And don't try to perform magic. Those chains on your hands are enchanted to drain all your magic once you start. And to make sure you don't escape out of here, I have a good friend to take care of you."

Alabaster's eyes widened when a viper-like hiss echoed in the room. Wait, not one! It appeared as if hundreds of vipers were hissing in chorus.

"Who have you recruited?" Alabaster asked, visibly horrified.

"You'll get a chance to meet her if you tried to run." Lamia said with a smirk. "Believe me, you won't want to meet her." With this, she walked away.

The cell had no bars, but both Alex and Alabaster were chained to prevent them from escaping. However, Alabaster's chains were long enough for him to reach Alex and slam him on the wall.

"This is your fault!" Alabaster hissed.

"Yeah!" Alex replied curtly. "I was supposed to know about your overprotective sister, ain't it?"

"If I can't use weapons or magic on you, then I'll just strangle you to death!" Alabaster growled, grabbing the collar of Alex's jacket.

Instead of replying, Alex kicked Alabaster's stomach, followed by an uppercut on the face and another kick on the chest that made the son of Hecate fall on his back.

"Strangle me?" Alex asked. "Who do you think I am? The Nemean Lion? This is not the Labours of Hercules, it's the entirety of space and time on stake! And I came to you because your mother asked me to give you a second chance, assured me that you could be a help! But now, I don't think you'd be able to do anything other than sulk in a corner!"

"My-my mother sent you?" Alabaster asked. His mind was complete numb. He was supposed to be mad, he was insulted disgracefully by the Jackson boy, but listening about his mother, Alabaster had a complete change of attitude. The enraged teen suddenly looked broken. "Mother sent you after me, knowing that Lamia could find me that way. Why?"