I have a flashback of dead people and Annabeth has a theory
WILL: I was going to kill Frank Zhang.
The other day, my secret had slipped. So what? I'm gay. Who cares? I have many other traits that are far more interesting. Apparently Frank had cared. How else would other people know? Obviously, Susan wasn't the one who let it slip. She had told me her secret, that she fancied Hannah. There was no way she had been the one to tell other people in the house. Therefore, the criminal had to be Frank.
Of course the other girls in the house were talking about it. What else would they be talking about? They didn't know anything about my whole healing thing. Annabeth and Hazel were curious. How hard was it to understand that it wasn't their business?
Anyway, as I stood in front of the cabinet contemplating my greatest fear, I wondered which one would present itself first. Perhaps my fear of abandonment? Or maybe it would be my fear of vulnerability? I wondered, perhaps, it it would be my irrational fear of dragon flies. I'd always been a bit freaked out by those things.
When the cabinet door flung open, I was relieved to see that there was, in fact, no dragon fly. However, my relief was replaced with grief in an instant when I saw what was there instead.
"Hey, Solace." An injured boy was lying on the ground. His breathing was staggered,he was suffocating on his own blood. I could tell by how pale he was doing so quickly. He was bleeding internally in a number of places.
***
I find myself elsewhere, somewhere away from the room of requirement.
"Gods," I heard myself say. "Lee. Lee, stay with me. Okay? You're going to be fine." I stuttered. "I know I haven't finished my training yet but I can call on your dad. I can sing the hymn to Apollo and heal you, I can do it. You'll be fine."
It was like I was having a flashback I didn't even remember living.
Lee Fletcher coughed into his sleeve. He wiped the red away from his mouth.
"Will, it's okay." He whispered.
"No." I felt he tears coming on. I wiped them away. I began to chant the hymn of Apollo on Ancient Greek, my hands began to glow. Lee smiled to himself.
"You're going to go far, Will. It's only your first week here and you've done so much. Sorry you arrived at a--" he coughed, "bad time. I just knew you were a child of Apollo. Tell the Stoll brothers I won the bet."
When I placed my hands to his injuries, the glowing started to fade. Lee had taught me what this meant only a week ago. It wasn't good. It meant the injuries were too extensive. There was nothing more I could do.
"No...no! Come on, I can get some ambrosia and nectar! Somebody has to have some." I pleaded. "HELP!" I shouted. "Please, anyone!"
"You'll give us away, then we'll have two dead demigods." Lee coughed again. His breathing slowed. He looked calm, suddenly.
"Take my body back." He requested. "Tell Michael it's his time to shine. He can mentor you now, he's going to make a heck of a head counselor."
"Lee, no. Please! Only a few more minutes, somebody will come to help!"
"You will be okay." He looked me in the eye. "Make Apollo proud. Okay? And give the ares kids hell from me during the next capture the flag game. Last time Clarisse La Rue trapped me in a net. Not my finest moment." He sighed, then allowed a small smile. "Make Apollo proud." He repeated. "But not too proud, sometimes that guy's pride is enough for all of the gods and goddesses combined."
"Please." I said, one last time. As I said that, Lee let out one last breath. He looked at peace as I sobbed. I could picture it now. As I closed my eyes, I could see myself running back to camp with Lee's body in my arms. I lay him down in the infirmary, along with all of the other injured campers and counsellors.
"We need a healer!" I hear somebody shout. "Where's Lee Fletcher?" It was Connor Stoll. He ran past me then did a double take. He approached me as I lay Lee down on the infirmary bed.
"No." Connor mumbled. "Gods, no!"
We stared at Lee's body without a word.
Campers and counsellors piled in now to see why the room was so silent. Everybody was silent now as they stared down as Lee Fletcher, one of the last remaining Apollo healers, deceased.
At that moment, a golden symbol appeared above my head. It was the symbol of Apollo. Everybody stared at me as my hands started to glow.
"Hail, Will Solace. Child of Apollo." The silence became even more deafening as Michael Yew walked into the room. He acknowledged his brother's body with a heavy sigh. Everybody repeated Michael's comment, as people usually did when a camper had been claimed.
I stared down at my glowing hands.
"Connor. You said you needed a healer? Where?" I asked.
***
The scene changed. I watched as a bridge began to collapse. Rubble flew everywhere. I heard shouting for a healer. I was older now, I new that much. I had gotten a lot better at healing. A girl stood beside me. She looked quite worried
"Kayla, I promise this isn't what camp is always like. This sort of this is just what we train for." I shouted over the noise. She nodded, understandingly. "You're brave for coming though. It's only your first week at camp, you're pretty brave. You're making Apollo proud."
"You're making Apollo proud." She stated. I chuckled. I liked this kid.
"WE NEED A HEALER!" Those words always struck a sense of urgency into my heart.
"I guess this is a good opportunity for me to teach you how to heal, follow me."
She followed me as we ran through the rubble of the bridge. Every injury made my stomach jump, but something about this made me feel uneasy. I wasn't even supposed to be Kayla's mentor right now, Michael was. He had asked me to keep her under my wing when he went off to a counselor meeting. Not even halfway through that meeting, we all got called to battle. In the chaos of it all, I couldn't find Michael, so I told Kayla to stick with me.
"I'm here, what do you need me for?" I asked. Travis Stoll had wide eyes as he stared at me. He then did something that a child of Hermes didn't often do, he presented a serious expression.
"It's Michael." His voice broke. He fought back tears. "He was on the bridge when it collapsed, he's barely hanging on."
"Gods," I said. Kayla broke down beside me.
"Michael?" She sobbed. He had been the one to show her around camp. He was her mentor, I couldn't let him die in front of her. I remembered what it felt like to watch Lee Fletcher, my mentor, die in my arms.
I called onto Apollo. After healing for so long, I didn't need to chant the hymn. Healing came naturally. My hands started to glow. Once I pressed them to Michael, the glowing faded.
I looked up at Travis and mouthed, "ambrosia, nectar?" Travis shook his head solemnly. We both knew what this meant, there was no chance. Maybe with one healer there was no chance, but with Kayla and I working together, we may have been able to take him some place to get proper treatment.
"Okay, Kayla. You're going to want to extend your hands, and repeat this chant until they start to glow." I told her the chant in Ancient Greek. She listened, her voice stuttering. We both carefully placed our hands on Michael. His eyes opened. The glow of our hands was so faint, there was still no chance.
"Hey, Michael." I said, calmly. My hands still radiated with a dim yellow. Kayla continued to repeat the chant.
"Will," he coughed blood onto his tattered sleeve.
"It's okay," I insisted. Kayla repeated the chant like a broken record. Even as she did so, the glow continued to fade. We both continued to try.
"I'm not glowing anymore, what does that mean?" Kayla asked. Michael and I held an understanding gaze.
"It means Will is going to make a hell of a head counselor."
Kayla began to sob. Travis took her away so she wouldn't have to see the rest of this play out.
"Gods, no." I whispered. "Michael, you're going to be okay."
"I can see Lee, you know." His eyes were starting to glaze over. "He's giving me a pretty unpleasant hand gesture, saying I should've lasted longer as a counselor than he did." He chuckled to himself, blood splattering his clothes.
"Gods, curse Luke Castellan. This was my favorite shirt, now I've got blood all over it." He complained.
We stared at each other as the light started to leave his body.
"Congrats, Solace. You're head counselor now."
"Not exactly the initiation I planned." I said, trying to keep calm.
"Take care of them, okay? Take care of the Apollo campers. You're a great healer, Will. You're a fantastic archer. And your rhyming couplet curses are the most long-lasting I've ever seen in any Apollo camper. You're going to do so many more great things. You've made Apollo proud." He coughed. "Lee agrees. He's nodding."
"Maybe I could haunt the Stoll brothers for awhile, make up for all of the pranks they've played on us over the years." He let out a weak laugh, "pass that message onto them, would you? Tell them to keep up the prank war between the Apollo and Hermes cabin. Lee and I Will be watching it with some afterlife popcorn."
"Gods." That's all I could manage to say.
"You're going to shine, Will. Keep shining." His eyes were opened, and a trail of blood trickled from his mouth as his pulse came to a stop. Kayla and I had kept him alive long enough to let him say his last words.
I looked over to see Kayla crying into Travis's arms. I approached them. The last bit of hope in Travis's eyes faded as he saw my expression.
"Michael wanted me to tell you to keep the prank war going. He said him and Lee will be watching with after-life popcorn." That's all I managed to say before I too started to cry.
Travis managed a weak laugh.
"Damn it, I lost the bet. We always said I'd be dead long before him. He said I'd probably go out accident tripping on one of my electric trip wires." Travis lifted a rude hand gesture towards the sky. "Damn it, Michael. You couldn't have stuck around to see us win this war?"
I heard the dreaded words from a distance.
"WE NEED A HEALER." A boy shouted. Annabeth Chase collapsed in the distance. I saw a hint of silver in her back, she had been stabbed.
"Kayla, I have to go." I wiped away my tears. "Travis, take Michael's body back to camp. Kayla, you can stay back at camp if you'd like. I understand."
"I'm going with Travis," she said. "But, I'll be back. Like Travis said, we're going to win this war. I need to be here to see it." She wiped her eyes and I saw the hope within them.
***
I was brought back to earth when Annabeth Chase slapped me hard across the face.
"Ouch!" I said. I brought my hand to my cheek.
"Sorry!" She said. "I had to, you've been out for about ten minutes now. Hazel and I played a quick round of Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would get to slap you. I won." She helped me up.
The cabinet was closed yet again, with the lock and chain back around it.
"While you were out of it, we got to see Annabeth's fear. It was just how she had described it before. The spider woman, the boy named Luke...it was intense." Hazel explained.
The chairs reappeared, along with three cups of tea in the middle of a small table. I shakily took a seat, the girls watched me in concern.
"What all did you guys see?" I asked.
"A boy's dead body appeared. You shouted his name, Lee, I think it was. After that, you collapsed into a sort of trance. We left you alone, we assumed you were having a vision. After that, you woke up. Another body appeared, you called his name: Michael. You fell into another trance." Hazel explained.
Annabeth stared at me, her cold, grey eyes piercing through my own eyes.
"I recognized those boys. I knew their names before you said them. It was like Luke all over again." She shakily took a sip of tea and set it down. "Hazel didn't recognize them."
Annabeth then picked up a book and started to read in with a great interest. The book was titled: "ancient Greek myths and legends."
"No offense, Annabeth, but I don't think right now is really the time to be catching up on your reading."
"I'm researching." She said, as if that explained it all. I looked to Hazel, hoping she'd fill me in.
"All of the Boggarts had one thing in common, they spoke of things that Annabeth believes have to do with Greek gods. She thinks it's all some sort of code. Annabeth is writing down all of the words from her boggart that have to do with something relating to the Greek gods. She's being doing it since you collapsed. Her words so far have been Kronos, Tartarus, Athena, and Arachne." Annabeth slammed her book shut.
"Done." She spoke.
"What about the other kid? You said somebody else in your class had a similar boggart experience, who was it? Do you think that person could be part of this?" I asked.
Annabeth opened up her book again.
"I'm not sure. I'll talk to him tonight. I'll write down the words I can recognize from his boggart. For now, I don't think I should give you his identity. We don't know if we can trust him, and I don't want him asking questions about you guys. I want to keep you both safe."
Annabeth glanced at Hazel.
"What about your boggart, Hazel? When you collapsed and had the vision, were there any strange things said?"
"Pluto, Hecate, and Gaea. All of those words made me feel something." Hazel recited. Annabeth scribbled the, down.
"Pluto is the Roman form of Hades." As she said Hades, my head perked up.
"Hades, isn't he the God of the underworld?" I asked. Annabeth nodded. "Could that be why it feels like Hazel has died before?"
"What, you believe she's taken a visit to mythical place?"
I realized how silly the theory sounded.
Hazel, Annabeth and I stared at the locked cabinet. Seeing those boys dead bodies was definitely worse than seeing a dragonfly.
Hazel stared at the chains locking the boggart in the cabinet.
"Looking at these chains, I can't help but think of the visions I've been having. I told you guys about the woman in chains, calling for help. It's the same thing every time. Do you think she's calling on us for help?" Hazel asked. "And why is she calling me?"
Annabeth suddenly gasped.
"You said the name you had heard in your boggart vision was Hecate, right?" Annabeth asked. Hazel nodded to confirm it.
Annabeth immediately began flipping through her book.
"Hecate, there it is! In Greek legends, she is described as a beautiful woman with dark hair. She is often drawn holding two, lit torches! Think of it, guys! Think of the strange things that happened in the muggle world this summer! Left at each scene of destruction were two, unlit torches. At the final scene of destruction, where two muggle-born parents were found dead, the torches were finally lit. That scene is where Nico Di Angelo was found, then brought to Hogwarts. The torches are said to be a symbol of Hecate, and they stopped after Nico was found!" Annabeth theorized. "What if some sort of magical society was trying to find him for some reason? Hecate is said to be the goddess of magic, or sorcery! It would make sense that a wizarding organization would use her as their symbol."
"Annabeth," Hazel mumbled.
"Yeah! I interrupted, not meaning to. "I suppose it is a bit far-fetched, but what else could it mean?
"Annabeth," Hazel mumbled once more.
Annabeth must not have heard her.
"What words did you hear in your vision, Will? I think I'm onto something."
"I heard the name Luke Castellan in my vision, I remember. You said he was your boggart! Additionally, I remember hearing something about Apollo. Isn't that something relating to Greek gods?" I asked.
"Yes! He's the Greek god of healing, Will. That makes sense! You can heal people. Ana Hazel can manipulate people's sight, like sorcery. It's similar to the powers of Hecate and Apollo!"
"ANNABETH!" Hazel shouted.
"Yeah Hazel?" Annabeth finally acknowledged her.
"You described Hecate as a woman with dark hair. What else does the book say about her?" Hazel said, impatiently.
"Uh, shoulder-length black hair, a green aura, transfixing eyes, dark clothes..."
"THAT'S EXACTLY LIKE THE TRAPPED WOMAN IN MY DREAMS!" Hazel exclaimed. "What does any of this mean?" She pleaded. Hazel looked on the verge of tears she was so frustrated. I felt for her.
"So, we're not theorizing that Hazel is dreaming of some ancient god, I'm somehow connected to Apollo, and Nico Di Angelo is a target of this Hecate cult?" I summarized.
Annabeth shrugged.
"It's a theory." She shut her book. She set it down on the small table where it vanished, along with our empty cups of tea. "All of the greatest discoveries start with theories."
Annabeth and Hazel stood up. The cabinet in the corner vanished. Our chairs did as well. We had made enough discoveries today, I had a feeling the girls agreed.
"I have tutoring I have to go to. If any of you find out anything else, please share. We need to keep each other updated." Annabeth said.
"Annabeth, you need to find out more information on the other person, the person you said had a similar boggart experience. Once you know you can trust them, they can be an addition to our trio." I advised.
"Same goes for you both. We don't know how many other people are going through this. Once we get it narrowed down, we can all join forces." Hazel spoke.
"Huh. We can we like the X-men. Nah, we're cooler than them. We're like the avengers."
Hazel and Annabeth stared at me, blankly.
"Come on! You seriously don't get my references? I'm not the only nerd here. How have you not heard of the avengers?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Will, you can be wolverine. Because, you know, the healing thing. Hazel, you can be the Hulk. You're feistier than you look." Annabeth replied.
"Wolverine isn't an avenger, but I'll accept it," I said, pleased. "And Annabeth, you can be Tony Stark because you feel like you're entitled."
Hazel and Annabeth both scoffed at me as I packed away my things. They followed me as I left the room, cautious to make sure nobody was in the halls. Once the cost was clear, I beckoned them towards me. The door faded behind as, like it had never been there in the first place.
"Well, I'll see you guys soon." I said. Annabeth saluted me. She turned around and walked off to her tutoring.
Hazel pulled on my sleeve as I tried to turn around.
"What?" I asked.
Hazel had a concerned look. That made me nervous.
"You know, if anyone at the house says anything at all, I'll tell them off." She says.
She locked eyes with me. In that second of eye contact, we seemed to have an entire conversation.
"You know, don't you?" I felt myself blushing. "I knew it! Everybody in the house is talking about me. Gossip at Hogwarts spreads like wildfire. I'll bet half of the school knows by now!" I complained.
I fell against the wall and put my head in my hands. She sat beside me and leaned her head on my shoulder.
"If anybody says anything negative I won't hesitate to pop their heads like spots."
I heard myself laugh.
"It's alright, Hazel."
I sat up.
"I shouldn't have told anybody to begin with. God, I'm going to kill him."
Hazel smirked. She stood up and extended her hand towards me. I took it.
"Forgiveness is key, Will. Though, if you decide you don't want to forgive whoever this person is, I'll be here to help you hide the body."
I laughed as she pulled me upright.
"Thanks, Hazel. Really."
She patted me on the shoulder and went off her merry way, back to the Hufflepuff house. I was going to follow her, but I didn't really want to be in there right now. I needed a place to think, so I went to the place I'd been going to all week.
I decided to visit the library. Who knows, maybe Di Angelo would be there.