The Extinction of Heroes

Chapter 17: I Get Told Off By the Nicest Person Ever

Brace's POV:

"Get out of my head.

Get out of my mind.

Whatever you put me through,

I'll come out alive."

"Nightmare" ~ Arshad

The guy snaps his fingers and two guards come and grab my arms, roughly dragging me down a hallway. He follows, but turns around.

"Take her to room four. I've got to go take care of something." They nod and continue down the hall.

I do what they say. There's two of them as one of me, so the odds of me getting away are slim. The closer we get the worse the smell gets. It reeks of blood and sweat, and that makes my heartbeat pick up. My feet involuntarily start to drag, and one of the guys yanks me to get me going again.

They rip open a door with a number 4 spray painted on it. They throw me in, and I slam onto the concrete floor. I put my hands by my side to push myself up, but a foot kicks me back down. I look up, to find myself face to face with some dude with glowing skin.

The light is harsh, and looks hot to the touch. He's tall and muscular, and his muscles practically rip through the armor he's wearing. I'm sure he wears the armor all the time, it's practically grown into his skin.

I recognize him almost immediately. Mason told me all about him. He is a Titan, and his name is Hyperion. Apparently he's like the most powerful one besides Kronos, who is the king.

"Tell me what you know," he speaks, and his voice literally sounds like bones being crushed. I shiver.

"I don't know anything," I say through gritted teeth. Before I know what's happening, a whip collides with my back, ripping through my already worn out shirt.

"Lies! Tell me the prophecy!" he bellows.

"I don't know- ah!" I cry out as the whip lands on my back again. Twice more he does it. The stinging sensation is overwhelming. Not to mention my ribs are already injured.

"I said I don't-" I say but his foot nails me in the throat. I fall forward, grasping at it. I can't breath for a few moments. He brings the whip down on me several more times and I don't have enough air to yell out.

I don't know how much longer I can lie. I honestly don't even know if I can talk. Blood drips down my back onto the floor.

"I'm giving you one more chance," he growls.

"I'm not telling you anything," I spat. He kicks me in the across my face, and I fall to the floor. The last thing I see before I pass out is a whip coming down on me again.

+++

I feel myself slipping in and out of consciousness. I catch bits of conversations, mostly between Mason and Percy, but I don't wake up for a while.

When I do, I'm in a world of pain. My head hurts so bad I can't force myself to open my eyes. I'm laying on my stomach, and my head is resting on someone's lap. My back aches and has an intense burning feeling. My throat feels thick and sore, like I swallowed broken glass. I'm sure I've got bruises everywhere, I can feel it.

"Uhhmmm," I whimper. A hand reaches for my hand and holds it. I grip it back.

"Brace, how are you?" It's Mason's voice. I slowly open my eyes, but my left one is swollen shut.

"Head hurts, back blood, ow," is all I manage to get out. It's got to be some kind of head injury, because I can't speak in anything besides sentence fragments. My voice sounds weak and shredded. It sounds and feels like I swallowed broken glass. I think I got my point across though.

"We cleaned you up as good as we could, but we can't take you to the healers. Elena's already there. That Carter dude said we had to wait until she got back," Mason says, running his other hand through my hair.

"You'll be okay," he says quietly, reassuringly. I'm not sure who he's trying to reassure, though.

"Better be," I attempt to joke, but I feel so weak when I say it that it's more like I'm the joke. He continues stroking my hair, and I feel myself fading.

I drift off again. And even with the circumstances, I feel comfortable in Mason's arms.

+++

I'm shaken awake, and I look up and see Mason with my good eye. I feel considerably better than I did yesterday. I'm still in a lot of pain, but it's not unbearable.

"Get up, we've got secret training," he urges quietly.

"What?" I ask, taking his outstretched hand and getting up, with his help.

"Percy and I are going to train all of the warrors secretly, so when the time comes we can rebel," he explains better.

"Okay, but I'm injured," I whine, not really up for the training at one in the morning thing.

"Well we need to do this, plus there won't be much you can do so you get to sit out most of today."

"Okay," I sigh, following him to the training area.

"Mason, why are we even doing this?" I ask, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"You'll see," he says grimly.

We get to the training area and Percy comes over to us. He pats both Mason and I on the back and starts talking to Mason. I don't pay much attention until I hear these words come from Percy's mouth.

"Should we tell her?"

"Yeah, she'll find out eventually," Mason says, looking down. He looks exhausted, and I realize he and Percy are the ones that everyone is looking to as leaders. They're the ones that have to have answers, and they just don't have any.

"Find out what?" I ask.

"Look, Brace. Elena... She was hurt pretty bad when you left. She- she's dead," Percy says, shaking his head grimly.

"No! She's not dead! She was fine when they took me, she's fine!" I yell looking to Mason for back up. He just shakes his head, looking down. I feel tears prick my eyes.

"Mason," I plead, begging him to tell me that Percy is lying.

He looks at me with sad eyes and says,"She's gone, Brace."

"No- she was good! She was in the prophecy with me! I can't do it by myself-" I cry, collapsing into Mason's arms. All the pain has been replaced with a different kind of pain, but it hurts more than my wounds ever did. People have gathered around. Some of my siblings (including Frank), Jake, who is Elena's brother, and several other demigods.

"I can't do it, and she's dead, she's gone, I can't do it alone, I can't, I can't!" I cry, but an angry voice makes everything silent.

"I don't care if you can't, you have to! My sister died for this war, you don't have a choice! If you can't do it for yourself, then do it for her," Jake yells, and his voice is so angry and upset that it shocks everyone. I can see that his eyes are red and his cheeks are wet.

Jake is usually someone who talks a bunch, but he doesn't yell at people. I've never seen him look so angry. I instantly feel horrible. He lost his sister, and I'm the one who is crying so hard. And the fact that I said I couldn't do it was horribly weak, I have to, people are depending on me.

But Elena was a good person, she deserved to have people mourn her, to cry over her. She was a good friend.

It occurs to me that I never really told her Mason and I were together. She may have figured it out, but I never admitted it. She died and I kept this secret from her.

I choke back my sobs. I pull myself out of Mason's arms.

"Well, we should get started with this training," I said, gesturing to him and Percy.

"Right, we're doing this so that we can fight back, because either way we're gonna die. We might as well try and stop it, some of the others in strategy and healing are making plans, trying to get medical equipment and, if we're lucky, weapons," Mason calls out.

"Let's get started," Percy says.