Slight angst warning

Virgil's POV

Over the next few days, I began to fall into the routine of the Hermes cabin and the activities we went through each day.

I discovered that I was a bit of a natural at sword fighting, even if none of the swords felt quite right in my hand, and I wasn't too bad at arts & crafts activity with the Hephaestus cabin. But when it came to pegasus riding, I was terrible. The horses seemed to actively dislike me, for some reason, and backed away from me when I got close. No big deal anyway. I'm sure that if someone actually got me on a winged horse, I would end up falling off and breaking my leg or something.

As for the other campers, they had thankfully stopped staring at me. Well, everyone but the girls from the Aphrodite cabin. I had managed to avoid them for the most part, but one day, an Aphrodite girl with blonde hair and blue eyes cornered me to ask me out.

I had to awkwardly tell her that I was gay, but she only deflated for a second before flirtatiously saying that she found gay guys hot. I just rolled my eyes and slipped away to avoid the rest of that conversation.

I wanted to go talk to Roman again, since every time I caught a glance of him he seemed to grow more and more stunning, but every time I saw him, he was surrounded by a group of campers hanging on to his every word. I decided to leave him alone.

I didn't want to burden him with my presence.

So I hung around with Patton and Logan in my free time and we had started to grow pretty close.

At that moment, I was lounging on a counter top in the infirmary as Patton took inventory. I picked up and examined a glass bottle of brown liquid.

"What's this?" I asked

"That's Essence of Dittany." Patton answered as he took the bottle out of my hand and placed it in a cupboard. "It heals minor injuries."

"Huh. No offense Patton," I began, jumping off the counter. "But I low-key hope I'm not an Apollo kid. I would never be able to remember the differences between all these things. And I definitely should never be responsible for saving anyone"

Patton just looked confused.

"Low-key? What does that mean?"

I stared at him incredulously. Sometimes I forget how half-bloods weren't allowed to use any type of technology unless they wanted to become dinner for a hungry monster.

"Demigods!" I exclaimed, waving my hands around. "You're all hopeless!"

"Virgil, you do know that-"

"That I'm a demigod too? Yeah, I remembered that right after I said it."

Patton just chuckled, finished putting the last flask of nectar in the cupboard, and adjusted his glasses.

"I'm all finished up here, kiddo." He said. "What do you say we walk back to our cabins together."

The Hermes cabin was further than the Apollo cabin, but I appreciated the offer.

"Sure, Pat."

We walked together to the Apollo cabin, joking and laughing as we did so. A couple campers called out greetings to us as they passed us, and we'd wave back.

Before we knew it, we were standing in front of the golden building that was Cabin 7.

"See ya at dinner, Virge!" Patton said with a smile as he stepped in the door. I gave him a two-fingered salute, and turned in the direction of the Hermes cabin. 

But as I passed the small gap between the Hephaestus and Hermes cabin, I felt a wave of cold shadow wash over me. It caused me to shiver.

I straightened up quickly and looked around for the source, but there wasn't anything that could've cast a shadow long enough to reach me.

I shook my head, telling myself that I was just imagining things.

Feeling slightly more paranoid than before, I reached Cabin 11 and went inside to wait until dinner.

******* 

The campfire that night started out pretty normal.

I sat down with the Hermes cabin, made a couple s'mores, and sang along with the rest of the campers. We all laughed and cheered as Patton strummed the last couple notes of a fast-paced song, dancing around happily.

Everyone clapped loudly as Pat and the Apollo kids performing took bows with smiles spreading across their faces. Chiron smiled fondly from the side and joined in with the applause

"Thanks everyone!" Patton called cheerfully. "Now for our final song, I was thinking-"

He was cut off by surprised gasps as the campfire turned bright green and shot up as high as the trees in the woods, cords of flames encircled all of us sitting on the benches.

I jumped back as one of the cords came close to singeing my hoodie.

"Chiron!" I yelled over the roaring flames. "What the hell is happening?"

Chiron was standing on guard, looking around warily like he was searching for something. Or someone.

"Everyone just stay calm." He said loudly, but his attempts were in vain. Almost all my fellow campers were freaking out. The girls from the Demeter and Aphrodite cabins were running around in hysterics looking for a way out, and Roman was trying to calm down his siblings.

A hissing laughter cut through the panic, silencing everyone.

That laughter sent a shiver through my body. It sounded oddly familiar...

Before I could contemplate long enough though, the emerald blaze that used to be the campfire began to whirl around and take the shape of a creature. Before I knew it, there was a huge fiery serpent glaring down at all us demigods and hissed. I covered my ears to try to block out the horrific noise.

As the Aphrodite and Demeter girls backed away further looking horrified, the Ares and Athena cabins reached for their weapons that weren't there. Why would they have thought to bring their weapons?

It was just a campfire.

My breaths were coming faster and faster as sweat began to pour down my face from the heat gathering. I was about to use the breathing method Patton taught me to calm down, when the emerald serpent turned towards the Apollo boy. He was frozen in fear.

I darted forward as the huge snake launched itself at Patton.

Aly made a grab for my arm to pull me back, but I was too fast.

"Virgil!" I heard Roman and Logan scream as I closed the distance between me and Patton faster than I thought possible.

I shoulder checked Patton out of harms way and raised my arms over my face as if I could absorb the snake-like inferno.

Just as it was about to clamp its burning jaws down on me, my hands began to burn icy cold, like I was facing a massive snowman instead of a wall of fire. The snake had slowed as if it sensed danger, when from my hands expanded a dark shield-like web of darkness.

The darkness pushed the serpent back away from everyone as it screamed and thrashed. I had no idea what I was doing, but my body seemed to know for me. I extended two fingers and pointed then at the fence of fire that had penned all of us in and, drawing from the shadows out of reach from the light of the fire, forced it to break apart.

 I turned back to the snake and twirled the darkness around it faster and faster, enclosing it in a dark cocoon. It gave one last screech, and disappeared.

All the campers had been either stunned or scared into silence, staring at me motionless.

Most of them had soot on their faces and their hair was damp with sweat. Patton had been dragged to his feet quickly by his siblings and even Logan seemed surprised by the ordeal that just happened. Before I could say anything, my knees buckled and I fell towards the ground.

Roman's POV  

As Virgil collapsed, I lunged forward and caught him. I slung his arm around my neck to keep him on his fate. He gave me a tired smile in thanks.

My mind was still catching up with what had just happened. The fear as the serpent trapped us, the panic as it targeted Patton, and the cold terror as Virgil took Patton's place. I never felt more scared as I did when that fiery snake lunged closer to the purple haired boy. I had no idea why.

Well, maybe I did. But that's a problem for another day.

Virgil looked up at me through his messy bangs, the glow that had illuminated his eyes as he used his abilities had faded. 

"I-I don't know what happened." He stuttered out, and I realized that he was scared. Scared of my reaction, or scared of himself, I didn't know.

I smoothed down his soft hair soothingly to calm him down.

"Hey, it's okay Virge." I told him quietly, only for his ears. "Everything is going to be fine."

Virgil seemed to relax for a moment, before tensing up and looking away as Chiron called his name.

"Virgil," He began, stepping closer. "Do you have any idea how you did that?"

Virgil shifted to steady himself on his feet, but I didn't let go.

"No, I don't." He answered. "I swear."

That was when all of the campers behind Chiron gasped in surprise. Chirons eyes widened as a black and purple glow shined on our faces. I took his arm off from around my neck and followed everyone's eyes to a symbol floating above Virgil's head.

A black glyph like a cross with curved arms and a head-like dot between them.

The symbol of Hades.

"What?" Virgil asked, looking around for what had given them that reaction. "What is it?"

"Virge..." Patton trailed off, pointing at the symbol.

Virgil looked up, his face paling as it dawned on him what the shape meant.

"The bloodline is determined." Chiron delared. "Hades-- ruler of the Underworld, the dead, and all within the earth."

Chiron's face turned sympathetic.

"Hail Virgil August, son of The King of The Undead."

Everyone but me, Logan, and Patton backed away from Virgil like he had a disease. They all had either scared or disgusted expressions on their faces. Virgil whipped his head around, realizing their reactions. Whispers began to break out in the crowd, and if I could hear them, so could he.

"His eyes were glowing-"

"Looked like black magic to me-"

"Probably evil-"

"Shouldn't be allowed here-"

"Virgil?" I said, still shocked to the core but trying to keep it together. 

I felt the urge to breakdown when he made eye contact with me.

He had a broken, and almost numb, look in his violet eyes. 

I went to go reach out to him, but a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me harshly away. 

"Remus!" I exclaimed tugging at his grip, but it was too tight. "What are you doing? Let me go!"

My twin didn't let go.

As he dragged me away from Virgil, I looked over my shoulder. And what I saw made me double my efforts to escape from my brother's iron grip.

Virgil was standing alone.

The other demigods had cleared a radius of at least three metres around him and were looking at him fearfully. Logan was being pulled away by his siblings, but he was protesting much like I had. Patton however, had to be nearly carried away by his brothers. 

"Put me down! Put me down!" He yelled, thrashing. "He's having an attack! I need to get to him!"

He was right. Virgils breathing had sped up fast enough for it to be concerning. His hands were shaking by his sides.

"Remus let go!" I demanded loudly. "I'm serious!"

"You should really stay away from him."

His face remained stony, but a gleam of something I couldn't name shined in his iris.

"Virgil!" Logan called. "Remember the breathing!"

But it was almost like Virgil couldn't hear him.

"Virgil?" Chiron questioned. "Are you alright?"

The panicked boy jumped back as Chiron stepped closer.

"Stay away!" He begged with a single tear slipping down his cheek, nothing like the sarcastic boy that had made himself home at the camp over the last week. He had a desperate look in his eyes, as if he was seeing someone other than our mentor. "Please. Please, just don't touch me."

Virgil looked up at the demigods around him. Patton still struggling to get to him, me tugging against Remus' hands, Logan frozen in place but struggling to keep his footing, and everyone else staying as far away from him as possible.

"Just stay away!"

"Virgil, wait!" I called.

But he had already dashed out of the light of the fire, concealing himself in shadows and leaving my chest feeling heavy.

AN- All comments are read and appreciated <3

Hey everyone! Woah... there's quite a lot of you now. Thanks for enjoying my story so far! All of your sweet comments made my heart melt and I appreciate every one of you more than you know 

Just a heads up: On August 3 I'm leaving for an overnight summer camp until August 17th. I'll try my very best to post an update during that time, but no promises. Sorry :(

I hope you enjoyed!