The Mark of Athena [Discontinued]

Chapter 3

Sorry it's taking so long but my "imagination" isn't exactly working right now so...Chapter 3!!!

Leo

Leo ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Your quest is to no avail, young hero," the voice cooed, "you can not hide from me. It does not matter where on earth you go. I am the earth. You may want to fight, but in the end you will fail."

"Stop!" Leo could feel the hot tears streaming down his face. He saw all his friends, Jason, Piper, Annabeth, just standing around him. Then he turned and saw his mom, still dressed in her baggy overalls and her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail: the way she looked the night she died.

"Why Leo?" His mother asked. "Why did you do this to me? You didn't save me!"

"No!" Leo shouted. "I wanted to protect you! It was her! I-I-"

"It's all your fault," his mother said.

"All your fault. All your fault," his friends repeated. Leo fell to his knees and felt himself sinking into the ground. He tried to escape, but it was like quicksand.

"You can not escape," the voice chuckled with delight, "Join me and I shall make sure you are rewarded greatly." Leo was sinking deeper and deeper into the ground, and all his friends were all disappearing, one by one. Finally, only his mother was standing over him as he the earth reached up to his chin. But, his mother's eyes weren't dark brown anymore, they were pure white, and she spoke in the evil voice Leo so oftened heard in his dreams, "You cannot win. You shall fail and your friends shall die in vain." Leo screamed, but no one was there to hear him.

Leo snapped his eys open and fell to the ground with a loud thwack! He found himself gasping for breath. He checked to make sure he still had everything. Two arms, two legs, head is still attatched, not hopelessly sinking into the floor. Okay, Leo thought, get yourself together Valdez. It was just a dream. But, deep inside Leo knew that nightmares were never a good sign for a demigod, let alone a demigod like him. Suddenly, he heard a knock at the door and he jumped.

"Leo?" A familiar voice called. It was Jason. He'd probably heard Leo so gracefully fall out of bed and was wondering what had happened. Perfect, Leo thought. He climbed up off the floor and stretched out his back, which really hurt now no thanks to that little episdoe he'd just had.

"Yeah, hang on-I-" but Leo tripped over something in the dark and for the second time in 30 seconds, was on the floor again.

"Leo? What's going on?" Jason now sounded concerned. Leo stood up again.

"Be right there," but he stopped himself before taking another step. Turn the lights on, stupid! He thought. He felt the wall for the light switch, but when he couldn't find it, he just summoned a ball of fire in his hand big enough to let him see his whole room. He fiddled with the lock on the door and swung it open a little harder than he meant to. The door slammed against the wall and Jason stood there, eyes widened.

"Oops," Leo tried to sound as awake and calm as he possibly could.

"You okay, man?" Jason asked, his face full of concern. "I was in bed and you were, well, screaming and I heard a loud noise like something fell-"

"That would be me, " Leo interuppted.

"So I  came down here. Seriously man, you okay?" By the look on Jason's face, Leo could tell there was no way he was talking himself out of this one.

"Yeah, fine, just a bad dream," Leo shook his head and rubbed his eyes. His head started pounding.

"Not a dream, Leo, your destiny!" Gaea's voice was full of fake sympathy.

"Go away!" Leo thought.

"Leo? Leo?" Jason tried to get his attention.

Leo, still rubbing his eyes and trying to rid himself of the pain in his forehead, said, " Look Jason, I'm fine really, You shoud get some sleep, we're landing tomorrow and we need everyone to be ready, okay?"

"Okay, I just-" But jason couldn't finish the sentence before getting a face full of door. Leo locked the it and sank to the floor, putting his arms around his kness. He felt awful about treating Jason that way. He'd been acting a lot like that around everyone lately and they didn't seem to appreciate it too much. "Don't worry, it will all be over soon," Gaea sounded even more confident and powerful this time.

"Leave me alone!" Leo thought as he collapsed back onto his bed. He had a dreamless sleep the rest of the night until he woke to the smell of freshly cooked pancakes. Leo's stomach grumbled in anticiaption. He didn't remember the last time he'd had a decent meal since the nigtmares started happening. Leo slipped on his jacket, some worn jeans and attempted to perform the feat of brushing his hair. The halls were empty excpet fpr the echo of his footsteps. When he arrived in the dining hall, everyone was already seated and eating breakfast.

"Leo!" He heard Piper call. She was seated at the far end of the hall at a table with Annabeth and Jason. He grabbed a fresh stack of pancakes, a cold glass of milk and seated himself next to Jason.

"Glad to see you in a better mood," Jason told Leo. Leo figured he was remembering last night's encounter.

"Um-yeah, look I'm sorry about-" Leo stuttered. But, Jason held up his hand.

"It's okay, Leo," he reassured him. "So when are we landing this bad boy?"

"Yeah," Piper began, "Why didn't we just land when we got here? Why'd we have to wait? I don't think I can take another night on this boat. No offense, Leo."

"None takin', Beauty Queen," Leo responded, "right after I sent that video parchment I got one back from this stiff name Ocatgon, or-"

"Octavion-" Jason corrected.

"Yeah, saying we couldn't land until we got permission from one of the preators or something like that," Leo finshed as he stuffed the last bit of pancake in his mouth. He gulped down the rest of his milk and stood up. "So, who's ready to land a boat?" Leo felt almost normal again. Like everything was going to be okay because he was surounded by his friends.Jason, Piper and Annabeth all got up to go help in the operation when all of a sudden, Leo felt light-headed. The room began spinning and Leo's ears were ringing.

"Leo?" He heard Annabeth say, but her voice seemed so tiny and far away. then he heard a familiar, dreadful voice.

"You may have made it this far, Leo Valdez, but the end is drawing near."

Then Leo felt his knees buckle, and everything went black.

I know, I know cliffhangers suck, but i promise i'll write tomorrow.