Annie's PoV

All I can think about as I stormed away from the woods was how she slapped me. I get that I annoy her, but that didn't give her the right to hit me. All I wanted to do was pull a prank with my new friends... wait, brothers, that could make some people laugh. That was the point of dumping the paint on everyone and not just a few people. No one was meant to feel like they were being singled out, yet Ari had taken it to heart because gods forbid anyone get paint on her clothes. Seriously, what was her issue?! It was only a bit of paint.

Anyway, as I entered the Hermes cabin, I found Connor and Travis standing by a bunk with my pile of clothes on it. I looked at them in confusion. "We figured since you're actually our sister, we would give you a bunk. It's only fair." Travis explained.

"Thanks, Travis," I said with a small smile. I put away my clothes as my siblings got ready for bed. By the time I was in pajamas, there was a knock on the cabin door.

"I'll get it!" A kid named Cecil said. He opened the door and looked at the person in surprise. "You're Gabrielle, right?" He asked.

Gab winced slightly at the name. "Please just call me Gab. Is Annie in here?"

"Yeah, I'm here," I said as I walked to the door. Cecil walked away to let us talk.

Gab looked at me like ze was analyzing my entire existence in that moment. Finally, ze said, "You know, Ari didn't mean to actually hurt you. She may not want to admit it, but I can tell she's pretty upset that she upset you."

"Well she should have thought of that before she fucking slapped me," I replied irritatedly.

Gab sighed. "Look, can you please talk to her? I know she's not easy to get along with, but I think she needs some friends to support her right now. I don't know what happened to her before we met, but I don't think it's anything good. Also, her dad is missing. We're pretty much the closest thing she has to friends even if we only met yesterday."

I nodded slowly. "Fine. I'll talk to her tomorrow. I'm still mad right now, but I guess we can try to talk things out if she promises not to lay a hand on me again."

Ze nodded with a small sad smile. "I'll talk to her. Meet us at the dining pavilion for breakfast?"

"Sure," I said.

Ze made to leave before ze suddenly turned around again. "Good night, Annie."

"Good night, Gab." I couldn't remember the last time someone wished me a good night. It felt good to hear those words again.

I got into bed, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep. Unfortunately, I fell straight into a nightmare.

I was in a really dark cavern with the sound of a vacuum cleaner that has something stuck in the suction thing bouncing off the walls. Behind me, I could hear wails of pain in the distance. In front of me was a huge pit that seemed to go on forever. I felt like the pit was trying to suck me in. Almost like it was breathing. Then I realized it was breathing. The vacuum cleaner sound was the thing itself laughing, and I had a terrible feeling that I was standing on its face.

"Hello, my little demigod," the pit said. Its voice was deep and vibrated with the vacuum cleaning noise. "I guess you're as good as any to send the message along."

I felt like I was about to melt into a puddle of Annie goo. I have never in my life felt fear this intense. Not even when I was facing the lasgna giant. I had a feeling this was only a fraction of the fear it could give me. I shuddered at the thought.

"Who are you? What are you?" I asked. My voice came out as a timid squeak.

The pit laughed again. "You shall know me soon enough. Tell your friends that I will be arriving shortly. The world shall be swallowed in darkness, and my enemies will suffer eternal tortures worse than that puny god, Hades, could dream up in his 'Fields of Punishment'."

I trembled harder. How can this thing call a god puny? If it had more power than a god... Let's not think about that right now, Annie.

"Oh, and before you wake, make sure you say hi to Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Nico Di Angelo. I have missed their company, and I'm sure they wouldn't want to forget me." The pit added as an after thought.

It then laughed again, and in the distance, I heard another, more familiar voice calling, "Annie! Annie wake up!" It steadily grew louder. "Annie!"

"Annie! Wake up!"

I sat bolt upright in bed, still shivering slightly. My siblings, Gab, Ari, Nelson, and Piper, along with a few others, were standing around my bunk. My friends looked as white as a sheet even Ari. "Oh gods, you wouldn't stop screaming. Annie what happened?" Nelson asked.

Before I could answer, a voice shouted, "Out of the way! Give her some space. Hello, medic coming through!"

Will and Nico pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Will started giving me a check up, but I pushed him away. "I appreciate it, Will, but I'm fine. There is something more important I need to tell you guys. We need to have the meeting. Now."

Hi guys! I hope you liked my chapter. I'm honestly really excited that things are actually moving along. Anyway, I hope you guys had a good day!