*
I cleared my throat. My parents stared at me, waiting for an explanation. Wait, when did Artemis and Dionysus get back? I avoided eye contact.
"Well? Get on with it girl," Hera growled. How long was I gone? I looked out my window. The starry night shined with luminescent light. It was afternoon when I left, right?
I sighed. "I went to meet Hades," I confessed," I needed to talk to him."
"You couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Demeter asked. She looked pretty upset. She must really not like Hades. I shook my head.
"Katherine, what you did was terribly wrong. You could of gotten hurt or lost and we can't let that happen," Athena said.
"All I did was visit him. I didn't run into monsters or anything," I mumbled.
"It doesn't matter, Katherine. Hades may be your dad, but he can't be trusted. Not completely," Poseidon paused. He looked straight at me. "How did you even get to the Underworld?"
Everyone looked at me. I popped my fingers and pursed my lips. "I shadow traveled," I stated simply.
Zeus and Athena exchanged glances. "You're kidding, right?" Hermes asked hopefully.
"Uh, no. I definitely shadow travelled there. Why is that so hard to believe?" I asked raising my eyebrows.
"To start with, we never taught you how to shadow travel. That's not our forte. Second, how did you even make it to the Underworld in a straight shot without crash landing somewhere first?" Artemis asked me. "Have you shadow travelled before? And what did you have to say to Hades that you couldn't say to us?"
I fumbled with a loose thread on my jacket. I looked down. Should I just tell them now?
Don't tell them. We can't trust them with this, Hades' voice reminisced in my head. Maybe I could just tell some of the story.
I took in a deep breath. "Honestly," I said exhaling," I don't know."
I looked up at them. They had a look of confusion on their faces. Well, besides Dionysus. He looked like he could care less.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Hephaestus asked, breaking the silence. I looked up and shut my eyes.
"What I mean is I really don't know. I'm missing three years of memory. That is what I had to tell Hades. I didn't want to tell you because," I paused, "I didn't know how you would react."
Everyone was quiet again. "How do you know for sure that you don't remember three years?" Athena asked. Her brows were furrowed. I could almost see the gears turning in her head, trying to figure out the puzzle.
"I woke up in an alleyway in Manhattan. I looked at a newspaper stand and it said 1990," I said still looking up.
"Yeah, so?" Ares asked. Artemis elbowed him in the gut and motioned for me the continue.
"Well, when I was first knocked out, the year was 1987. 3 years earlier. What I did in those three years..." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Why didn't you think to come to us with this?" Zeus asked timidly.
Because there is more to the story. "Because I didn't think you'd understand," I said ignoring my thoughts.
I opened my eyes and looked back at my parents. They all looked at me with the same expression on their faces. Concern.
Zeus nodded. "We will get to the bottom of this. I promise you we will." He said. Everyone agreed. "Now good night, Katherine. Never do that again. You could of gotten seriously injured, or worse."
All my parents said their good night's and walk out my room, shutting the door behind them. I sighed and sat on my bed.
That didn't go as bad as expected. I didn't tell them everything, and that was killing me. I had to trust Hades though. I believed him when he said they can't handle it. I nodded my head with satisfaction and stood up to get changed.
Suddenly, pain exploded down both of my legs. I fell to the floor. The pain didn't stop there. Two bolts of pain jolted up my spine and in the back on my head. My vision started to go black. I couldn't take this unbearable pain. I let out a sound splitting scream. Black dots took over my vision.
•Athena's Point of View•
We ended the conversation with Katherine. Everyone walked down the hall back to our doors to our temples. Hephaestus and Ares went back to theirs, while Dionysus flashed back to Camp Half-Blood.
The rest of us stood in the hallway, trying to make sense of what Katherine told us. It didn't add up. I had a feeling she was telling the truth, but I also knew she was hiding something. I'm not sure what it is, but I intend to find out.
We all were leaning against the walls of the hallway. We made an effort to go back to our doors when we heard an ear piercing scream coming from Katherine's room.
Everyone remaining in the hallway bolted down the hall into her her room. Katherine was on the floor shaking, and clutching her head. Her eyes were shut tight. She had tears streaming down her face and she was muttering something. Blood began to come out of her nose.
We ran to her side and tried to figure out what was wrong and how to help. Apollo was at her side with his hand on her head. His eyes were shut and his brows were furrowed. Suddenly, he jolted back hand held his hand like it was burned. He had a sense of worry across his face.
"She's being attacked by a spirit," He said.
"How do we stop it then?" Aphrodite said fanning herself. Apollo looked at Zeus.
"We don't. We have to wait until the spirit leaves her body to help her."
"Why do we have to wait? Can't we just lure the spirit out of her like we normally do?" I asked frantically.
"I don't know. This spirit is different. It's not possessing her and it is not exactly harming her. It seems as if it is showing her something."
"That she forgot," I finished. Apollo nodded his head. I put the pieces together. She must of lost her memories because of the water from the River Lythe. That would explain why it seems to be attacking her.
Katherine stopped muttering and shaking. She let out a sigh of relief and relaxed her body. Katherine opened her eyes. They were bloodshot. She swallowed. Zeus went to help her up onto the bed, but Katherine shrieked and scooted away from him.
"Get away from me!" Katherine wailed. She still was holding her head.
"Katherine, I'm trying to help—" My father began.
"No! I don't need your help," She snapped. Katherine took a few deep breaths, then buried her face in her hands, starting to cry again. Her entire body shook as she bawled her eyes out.
"I'm sorry," She sobbed into her hands. "I'm so, so sorry."
We looked around at each other in confusion. What was going on? What exactly did she remember?
Katherine put her head up again, the blood now trailing down her throat. Hera bravely walked forward and wiped some of her tears. Katherine let her, but she stiffened up when Hera's hand came into contact with her face. Artemis walked out and came back with a wrag. She handed it to Katherine.
Katherine took it reluctantly and wiped the blood coming from her nose. Hera and Zeus sat by her side. The rest of us stood in front of them. Hera squeezed Katherine's hand.
"So," Hermes said with uncertainty, "What happened?"
Katherine swallowed and looked at the ground, still holding her head.
"I remember."
We sat in silence. Katherine tried to even her breathing. She hiccuped a couple of times, but she did. Katherine took in a deep breath and exhaled. She stood up and started to speak.
"At first, I only saw brief flashes of my memories. But further into it they became clear." Her voice cracked in the last word.
She paused and turned around. When she turned back, she was straight faced, lacking any emotion. I exchanged a glance with Artemis. Where did she learn to hide her emotions so fast?
"I was pushed into a pit. I was falling in darkness for days. Maybe even weeks. I landed in a monsters cave and barely escaped with my life. Inside, the pit was hell. I saw all of my worse fears, and felt my humanity being smashed. Even worse about it, though, was that a voice was haunting me the entire way. It commanded me to do certain things. Kill monsters. Vaporize souls and demons. Sometimes to kill prisoners locked away deep in the pit. If I refused, they drove my brain to insanity until I agreed and obeyed. At the time, I had no idea were I landed. But now it's obvious." Katherine said flatly. She rubbed the back of her neck, as if she was remembering something painful.
"I was in Tarturus. The voice haunting me was there the whole time. Somehow, they managed to sprinkle me with Lythe water to forget my time there once it was satisfied. I've never been so scared to live in my entire life."
I was stunned. Of all the places she had to be brought to, it was Tarturus. It's all our faults.
"Will you be alright?" I said finding my voice. Katherine wasn't crying now, but her face was still red and blotchy.
"I don't know." Katherine walked out the room and left us in stunned silence once again.