Somniphobia: Fear of Nightmares
Aurelia hated coffee.
And caffeine in general. There was a little cafe in New Rome that made some of the best coffee—but she and Reyna always ordered the hot chocolate. The one time she tried their very amazing coffee she was up for thirty two hours straight annoying Reyna into oblivion.
Coffee and caffeine made her jittery which made it hard for her to keep expression controlled. So ever since then she hardly ever drank it and when she did it was always more cream, milk and sugar than coffee.
But after a night of Aurelia laying inside a bed comfier than her own in the barracks back at Camp Jupiter, listening to the sound of the whistling wind against the windows, and seeing the light shadows of branches dancing on the ceiling, Aurelia needed coffee. Because despite the comforting circumstance, she had refused to sleep.
She refused to sleep because she was full of fear. Fear of what horrors her subconscious would conjure—what memories it would resuscitate. And fear of what her mind would fail to do when she relived those memories.
So when Hazel graced her friends with a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon, and roasted potatoes (she passed on the bacon, but enjoyed the rest), Aurelia served herself a thirty six ounce cup of coffee.
"Can you really call it coffee if you filled half the cup with sugar?" Percy wondered aloud as he watched Aurelia basically empty the sugar container. Percy had showered before the three of them settled around the table for breakfast. His clothes were newly clean—jeans, purple t-shirt, and Polartec jacket.
"It tastes disgusting otherwise," she mumbled, adding about a long stream of cream.
"You should put in some cinnamon," Hazel suggested. She had cleaned into nice clothes as well—jeans, a cream colored jacket, and a white shirt that made her skin look as warm as cocoa. Just like Aurelia, Hazel smelled of jasmine shampoo. "That's how my mom used to make hers ... before at least." To demonstrate Hazel poured a small cup of coffee and added a teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of cream and two spoonfuls of cinnamon. "Try it."
Aurelia took the small mug from Hazel's hand and took a tiny sip. "It needs more sugar." But she took the cinnamon container and poured a good amount of it in her coffee.
She took a sip of her gigantic coffee, much to the amusement of Hazel and Percy.
"Do you need more sugar?" Percy mocked.
"Maybe a bit more cream."
Both Hazel and Percy snickered as the daughter of Pavor poured more creamer into her oversized mug and began to drain it heartily.
"Has Frank come down yet?" Aurelia asked, trying to veer the topic of conversation away from her.
"Not yet," Hazel said. "I'm making him a plate though, and I'm gonna place a set of clothes in the bathroom for him. He'll probably want to shower."
Percy nodded. "Stopping here was a great idea. I think we're all clean for the first time in days."
"And it felt so nice to finally have a pillow," Hazel added.
"I slept like a log," Percy sighed. "Sleep well, El?"
"Fantastic," she murmured as she drained half of the thirty six ounces of milky brown coffee.
She wasn't going to burden her friends with the truth. Because if she says she didn't sleep, they'll ask why—which just leads to a whole other knot of her life unraveling in front of them. She's already revealed too much to let them see any more.
At least not within this week. Maybe someday they'll be in a better position to truly listen and help her.
Jason used to always joke around and say Reyna was Aurelia's therapist—mostly because there were so many things the two girls always talked about that Aurelia would never share with him. She didn't just share blood with Reyna. She shared trauma—and yet, there was still another level of pain and suffering Aurelia endured that Reyna has only recently learned about.
The dancing. The reason behind her being a vegetarian. Her habit of never using contractions. The multiple reasons behind her hatred of the ocean.
Despite everything that Aurelia has revealed to Percy these past days, there was so much she hadn't told him. There was so much she never got to tell Jason before he disappeared. There was so much of her past that remained untouched. She built a wall around it—keeping it at bay. She built a wall that had many security locks to keep it from opening.
And the security lock that had been her panic room may be permanently broken.
"Hey guys," Hazel said, coming back downstairs after dropping off a plate upstairs for Frank. "Frank's grandmother said to go up to the attic. Apparently they have a ton of weapons up there."
Percy had been watching Aurelia drain her mug, not even complaining about the heat from the drink—which was still steaming. "Maybe you should go to the bathroom first."
Aurelia merely ignored him as she finished her coffee and placed the mug in the sink. All of a sudden the house shook slightly and the table shook from the impact. Hazel glanced out the nearest window. "The giants are lining up the cannonballs."
Aurelia took a deep breath, trying to keep herself from shaking from the caffeine as she glanced at Percy. "Weapons seem better."
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A garden hose in the attic was a very strange addition to the collection of weapons. But Aurelia was thankful for the strange addition because it meant that Percy, the son of Neptune, was able to send a high-powered blast of water to detonate the cannonballs in midair every time the giant sent one up.
Aurelia had her sword in hand and watched out the window—counting every time they fired at the house. So far she was at five. They were loading sixth when she felt a fourth aura join them, a fourth set of emotions.
"Morning sunshine," she murmured, sparing Frank a small glance.
"Beautiful day, huh?" Percy said grimly as Frank took in the attic. His emotions were strange, like he was walking in a trance. He was clean at least—freshly showered in a nice pair of beige cargo pants and an olive green shirt (which Aurelia could totally see Hazel laying out for him).
Then Frank's trance disappeared as he looked at Hazel. Aurelia turned back to the window to hide the uplighting corners of her mouth. The emotions calmed her a little considering how tense the rest of the atmosphere was.
Hazel took a step closer to Frank, an ounce of concern from her feelings. She gripped her sword. "Are you okay?" she asked Frank. "Why are you smiling?"
Aurelia made eye contact with Frank from behind Hazel's head with a knowing look. Frank's cheeks were burning slightly. "Oh, uh, nothing," he managed, looking back at Hazel. "Thanks for breakfast. And the clothes. And ... not hating me."
Hazel was baffled. "Why would I hate you?"
Frank's face was flaming with embarrassment. "It's just ... last night," he stammered. "When I summoned the skeleton. I thought ... I thought that you thought ... I was repulsive ... or something."
Hazel was shocked. "Frank, maybe I was surprised. Maybe I was scared of that thing." Aurelia nodded at that, her hand going over the dark jewel on her sword. "But repulsed? The way you commanded it, so confident and everything—like, Oh, by the way, guys, I have this all powerful spartus we can use. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't repulsed, Frank. I was impressed."
Now it was Frank's turn to be confused. "You were ... impressed ... by me?"
Percy laughed. "Dude, it was pretty amazing."
"Honest?" Frank asked.
"Honest," Hazel promised.
"But right now, we have other problems to worry about," Aurelia murmured, gesturing to the army of ogres, who were getting increasingly bold, shuffling closer and closer to the house.
Percy readied the garden hose. "I've got one more trick up my sleeve. Your lawn has a sprinkler system. I can blow it up and cause some confusion down there, but that'll destroy your water pressure. No pressure, no hose, and those cannonballs are going to plow right into the house."
Frank was in deep thought as he decided the fate of his childhood home.
"Guys, I've got an escape plan." He described to his friends about the plane while waiting at the airfield, and his grandmother's note for the pilot. "He'll help us."
"But Arion's not back," Hazel said. "And what about your grandmother? We can't just leave her."
Frank choked back a sob. "Maybe—maybe Arion will find us. As for my grandmother ... she was pretty clear. She said she'd be okay." Aurelia could tell he was lying and on the verge of tears. "You'll have to risk it all ... and so will I." He looked at Percy. "By the way, we're related."
Percy almost stumbled off the roof. "What?"
Frank just shrugged, like it was common knowledge. "Periclymenus. Ancestor of my mom's side. Argonaut. Grandson of Poseidon."
Hazel's jaw went slack and Aurelia's lips parted slightly, both in shock. "You're a—a descendant of Neptune? Frank, that's—"
"Crazy? Yeah. And there's this ability my family has, supposedly. But I don't know how to use it. If I can't figure it out—"
Another massive cheer went up from the Laistryogians. They were staring at them, specifically at Frank, pointing and waving and laughing.
"Zhang!" they yelled. "Zhang!"
Hazel stepped closer to him. "They keep doing that. Why are they yelling your name?"
"Never mind," Frank brushed it off. "Listen, we've got to protect Ella, take her with us."
"Obviously," Aurelia murmured. "The poor thing needs our help." Aurelia genuinely liked Ella. The torture the harpy suffered through was something Aurelia could relate to. Aurelia sees another version of herself in Ella—a version that broke down long ago. How easily Aurelia could have allowed everything to burst out of her and become that high-strung, terrified of the world and weak. So very weak.
"No," Frank said. "I mean yes, but it's not just that. She recited a prophecy downstairs. I think ... I think it was about this quest. To the north beyond the gods, lies the legion's crown. Falling from ice, the son of Neptune shall drown."
Percy's jaw tightened. "I don't know how a son of Neptune can drown. I can breathe underwater."
"For all we know, the prophecy is not even talking about you," Aurelia tried easing his fear.
Percy gave her a look. "Who else would it be about?"
"Arion is a son of Neptune," Aurelia shrugged. "There are many things this could be. So calm your tits until you have something to worry about." Percy gave her a look of outrage, which she pointedly ignored. "But the crown of the legion—"
"That's got to be the eagle," Hazel finished.
Aurelia nodded. "And Ella recited something like that, in Portland. It sounded like a prophecy too."
"The Old Great Prophecy," Percy agreed.
"The what?" Aurelia asked.
"Tell you later." Percy turned his garden hose and shot another cannonball out of the sky.
It exploded in an orange fireball. The ogres clapped with appreciation and yelled, "Pretty! Pretty!"
"The thing is," Frank said, "Ella remembers everything she reads. She said something about the page being burned, like she'd read a damaged text of prophecies."
Hazel's eyes widened. "Burned books of prophecy? You don't think—but that's impossible!"
"The books Octavian wanted, back at camp?" Percy guessed.
Aurelia had gone completely still. She felt cold. And it took all her willpower to keep from shaking. "The lost Sibylline books outlined the entire destiny of Rome. If Ella actually read a copy of it, and somehow memorized it—"
"Then she's the most valuable harpy in the world," Frank said. "No wonder Phineas wanted to capture her." A weapon. A sword for someone (Octavian) to wield against anyone perceived as an enemy. Like Aurelia was.
"Frank Zhang!" an ogre shouted from below. He was bigger than the rest, wearing a lion's cape like a Roman standard bearer and a plastic bib with a lobster on it. "Come down, son of Mars! We've been waiting for you. Come, be our honored guest."
Hazel gripped Frank's arm. "Why do I get the feeling that 'honored guest' means the same as 'dinner'?"
"Probably does," Aurelia shrugged, bracing herself for the small stab of pain from Frank's fear. It didn't come.
Frank looked at his friends. "Any of you can you drive?"
Percy raised a brow. "I can drive Why?"
"My grandmother's car is in the garage. It's an old Cadillac. The thing is like a tank. If you can get it started—"
"The sprinkler system?" Percy offered. "Use it as a distraction?"
"Exactly," Frank said. "I'll buy you as much time as I can. Get Ella, and get in the car. I'll try to meet you in the garage, but don't wait for me."
Percy frowned. "Frank—"
"Give us your answer, Frank Zhang!" the ogre yelled up. "Come down, and we will spare the others—your friends, your poor old granny. We only want you!"
"Lies," Aurelia said.
"Yeah, I got that," Frank agreed. "Go!"
They ran for the ladder and the garage.
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The caffeine kicked in as they ran—and Aurelia's hatred of running outweighed her hatred of coffee. She took Ella with her as they went to the garage.
"We are going to leave," she told Ella, in a soft comforting voice.
"I got the keys," Percy said.
"Shotgun," Aurelia called, hopping into the front seat. Ella joined her, curling up on Aurelia's lap, hiding behind her wings.
Hazel rolled her eyes but got into the backseat as Percy started to the engine.
The whole house shook from the impact, and the noise was loud. Aurelia covered Ella's ears and face to shield her. "Percy, we gotta go!"
"Yikes. Yikes. Yikes," the harpy muttered into Aurelia's dress.
The door of the garage started to open and Percy revived the engine, the headlights flashing on. Frank burst into the garage. "Get in!" Percy yelled.
Frank dove in the backseat beside Hazel. Percy gunned the engine. The shot out of the garage before it was fully open, leaving a Cadillac-shaped hole of splintered wood.
The ogres ran to intercept but Percy shouted at the top of his lungs and the irrigation exploded. A hundred geysers shot into the air along with clods of dirt pieces of pipe, and very heavy sprinkler heads.
The Cadillac was going about forty when they hit the first ogre, who disintegrated on impact. But the time the other monsters got over their confusion, the Cadillac was half a mile down the road. Flaming cannonballs burst behind them.
Despite all the chaos, Aurelia sat with her legs crossed in the passenger seat, watching the mayhem unfold out the window like she was just watching cars pass on the highway. She was freaking out on the inside, but she hid it well, choosing to gently brush her hand over Ella's wings to calm down the harpy and try to calm Frank's emotions as he turned to look back at his childhood home.
The mansion was on fire. The walls collapsed inward and smoke billowed in the sky. A large black speck—maybe a buzzard—circled up from the fire.
"Grandmother?" he murmured, a small fleck of hope filling his emotions. Aurelia latched onto that hope, allowing it to grow and fill all the members of the car. The worst was over.
Right?
"About three miles!" Frank said as they drove through the woods and headed north. "You can't miss it!"
Behind them, more explosions ripped through the forest. Smoke boiled into the sky.
"How fast can Laistrygonians run?" Hazel asked.
"Let's not find out," Percy suggested.
The gates of the airfield appeared before them—only a few hundred yards away. A private jet idled on the runway. Its stairs were down.
The Cadillac hit a pothole and went airborne. Aurelia, who had her seatbelt on, held tightly onto Ella to keep the harpy from flying up. When the wheels touched the ground, Percy floored the brakes and they swerved to a stop just inside the gates. Aurelia slid out of the car, holding Ella on her hip like she was holding up a toddler.
"Get to the plane!" Frank said, drawing his bow. "They're coming!"
The Laistrygonians were closing with alarming speed. The first line of ogres burst out of the woods and barreled toward the airfield—five hundred yards away, four hundred yards ...
Ella was calm, still attached to Aurelia but the second she saw the plane she began to shriek. "N-n-no!" she yelped. "Fly with wings! N-n-no airplanes." Aurelia now had to grasp onto Ella's arms to keep the harpy from darting away. Hazel and Percy tried helping but that just made her scream even more.
"Ella, it will just be for a little bit," Aurelia tried calming her, her voice not rising and keeping its patient edge despite the urgency of the situation.
"We'll protect you," Hazel added.
The harpy made a horrible, painful wail like she was being burned.
Percy held up his hands in exasperation. "What do we do? We can't force her."
"No," Frank agreed. The ogres were three hundred feet out.
"I could try and put her to sleep," Aurelia suggested. "Otherwise, we would just leave her."
"She's too valuable to leave behind," Hazel said. Then she winced at her own words. "Gods, I'm sorry, Ella. I sound as bad as Phineas. You're a living thing, not a treasure."
"No planes. N-n-no planes." Ella was hyperventilating.
The ogres were almost in throwing distance.
Percy's eyes lit up. "I've got an idea. Ella, can you hide in the woods? Will you be safe from the ogres?"
"Hide," she agreed. "Safe. Hiding is good for harpies. Ella is quick. And small. And fast."
"Okay," Percy said. "Just stay around this area. I can send a friend to meet you and take you to Camp Jupiter."
"A friend?" Aurelia repeated as Frank unslung his bow and nocked an arrow.
Percy waved his hand in a tell your later gesture. "Ella, would you like that? Would you like my friend to take you to Camp Jupiter and show you our home?"
"Camp," Ella muttered. Then in Latin: "Wisdom's daughter walks alone, the Mark of Athena burns through Rome." Aurelia stilled. She's heard something like that before.
"Uh, right," Percy said. "That sounds important, but we can talk about that later. You'll be safe at camp. All the books and food you want."
"No planes," she insisted.
"No planes," Percy promised.
"Ella will hide now." Just like that Aurelia released Ella, and the harpy was gone—a red streak disappearing into the woods.
"I'll miss her," Hazel said sadly. Aurelia nodded in agreement.
"We'll see her again," Percy promised, but he frowned uneasily—troubled by the last bit of the prophecy. The part about Athena. And from Aurelia's memory of what happened at Circe's Island, he was right to be.
An explosion sent the airfield's gate into the air. Frank tossed Aurelia a letter. "Show that to the pilot! Show him the letter from Reyna too! We've got to take off now."
They all nodded before bolting for the plane. Frank stayed behind, covering them from the incoming cannonballs.
Aurelia did just as Frank instructed—she showed the pilot the letters. The chaos behind her rang in her ears—the yelling ogres, the thumping of the ground, the revving engine of the plane.
Now they just needed to wait for Frank.
"Frank!" Hazel shrieked. "Come on!"
The ogres were now in throwing distance. A fiery cannonball hurtled towards the plane in a slow arc.
Fear was such a strange thing. When it came to life and death, most people tried to react in one of two ways. Flight or fight.
And Aurelia wasn't one to run away. She has danced on the line between life and death her entire existence and moments in like this—a cannonball hurling towards her about to kill her, her friends, and destroy their only means of escaping—Aurelia didn't shy away from fear. She embraced it, and allowed it to fill her.
That was the biggest difference between Aurelia and her mother. That trait—Aurelia's ability to stare her fears in the face and fight against them—was the reason she had managed to survive for so long. So many times she could have gone the same path as Martina. She could have followed that cycle of trauma and destruction. And so many times she almost did ...
But never because of fear. No. Aurelia would never run away from fear.
Frank nocked an arrow and let it fly. It intercepted the cannonball midair, detonating a massive fireball that lit up the hazy sky in a beautiful bright red.
"He should really start running," Aurelia murmured.
As if he had heard her, Frank bolted for the plane. Two more fireballs were fired. The Cadillac exploded. He dove into the plane just as the stairs began to rise.
The pilot understood the situation. There was no safety announcement, no pre-flight drink, and no waiting for clearance. He pushed the throttle, and the plane shot down the runway. Another blast ripped through the runway behind them, but then they were in the air.
Aurelia stared out of one of the plane's windows. The airstrip was riddled with craters. A few miles to the south, a swirling pyre of flames and black smoke was all that remained of the Zhang family mansion.
Frank's emotions were a mess. Aurelia wasn't that surprised when Frank buried his head in his hands and started to cry.
Vancouver was beginning to disappear into the cloud below.
The plane banked to the left.
Over the intercom, the pilot's voice said, "Senatus Populusque Romanus, my friends. Welcome aboard. Next stop: Anchorage, Alaska."
Percy had stood next to Aurelia, and he nudged her shoulder, nodding towards her hands, which were shaking slightly.
"You scared of flying too?" he joked.
As soon as he said it, Aurelia felt another dark mark appear on her arm. It seemed like the son of Neptune didn't believe he'd have good misfortune while in the territory of the Lord of the Skies.
"No," she murmured, closing her hands into fists to try and get them to stop shaking. She felt a small stabbing pain in her palms from her nails digging into her skin. "That is just the after-effects of the coffee."
Percy studied her with concern. He stared at her face, which in the morning light around the breakfast table in Frank's mansion had looked rested, clean, and relaxed. But now, in the slight darkness of the cloudy, shadowy sky, he could see the slight bags under her eyes.
"You didn't sleep well, did you?"
Aurelia pursed her lips, staring at the clouds below.
"No nightmares." No nightmares because she refused to sleep. And she knew she was going to regret it later.