Chapter Fifteen: The Bloody Leather Necklace

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If there was one thing Clark hated more than anything. It was moving vehicles.

Most demigods were jealous of him because he didn't have dyslexia, but honestly, he would exchange his motion sickness for dyslexia any day.

Only very few knew about his tendency to get very dizzy riding in vehicles. It was embarassing actually.

Like if someone throws him into a moving vehicle, he's done for.

The Hecate cabin was always helpful, using their magic to keep his motion sickness at bay, but the spell wore off a few minutes ago, and he was back to his usual motion-sick self, which sucks.

They were sitting at the back of the bus,  and he got the window seat. Which didn't quite help his motion sickness and urge to vomit.

"Um Clark?",Fred asked, raising an eyebrow, at his pale face. "You okay?"

He wished he could say no, but that would make him look weak and vulnerable, and he didn't want that.

"I'm fine", he replied, though the weird sound of his voice said otherwise.

"Are you sure?", Gwen asked, looking concerned. "You look kinda pale"

"I'm fine", he replied, his voice a bit more convincing now.

He ran his hand through his light brown hair and wished he could sing a hymn to Apollo, to temporarily take away his motion sickness, but that would strip him of his energy, which he needed in case of an attack.

Basically, he had no choice but to roll with it.

"What are you guys talking about?", the ten-year old looking Chuck asked, standing up from his seat to look at them.

Chuck, Drake and Alexia were sitting in front of them. The two demigods were sitting in silence, Drake was looking out the window distantly, probably daydreaming. While Alexia was gripping onto her flashlight as if it was the most important thing in the world. She even refused to leave it in her backpack.

Judging from how less pale she was than before, she was slowly recovering from the wound on her forehead, that she said, 'Hurt like hell'

Chuck stared at him with curiousity in his dark brown eyes. He had been sleeping a few moments ago, passed out from hitting his head on the SUV's floor during their trip with Argus, but he woke up and was bored out of his mind because Drake and Alexia were ignoring him. Probably why he tried to have a conversation with them.

Oh, Clark forgot to mention that he had a hard time remembering that this small kid was twenty years old.

"What's that on your wrist?", Chuck asked, pointing his small hand to the bracelet on Clark's wrist.

It was a small rectangular shaped piece of jade attached to the black straps encircling his wrist.

"Oh that, it's just a bracelet", he replied, remembering that his mother had gave it to him on his first birthday. She said it was from her hometown in Shanghai, China.

Yep, he was half-Chinese.

Clark wondered how she and dad were doing at New Rome. He made a mental note to visit them.

"It's not one of 'em things that turn into a weapon?", Chuck asked, raising an eyebrow, curiousity flickering in his brown eyes.

"Nope"

He crossed his small arms over his chest and pouted , "Well that sucks"

Clark had to admit though, it did suck a little bit. Sure, a regular weapon was nice, but those that turn into a normal thing and then a weapon was awesome too, since it was more convenient and attracted less attention, but he had grown attached to his regular bow and quiver.

Which were currently hidden from the other passengers sight by the mist.

Unlike the Hecate cabin and the Apollo cabin, he wasn't really skilled much, being a legacy. But he learned a few basic incantations, a bit of archery from his dad and some basic medical stuff that was useful from time to time.

Suddenly he felt a familiar feeling in his stomach, a feeling his mother took months to make him familiarize.

"Guys....", he said, but they didn't seem to sense what he felt. "Guys we need to get off"

They sent him weird looks but he ignored them. "We need to get off now!"

Quickly they took out their backpacks and started running through the aisle.

"Stops the bus!", he cried, feeling both relieved and worried. Worried, because of the strange feeling in his stomach. Relieved, because he could finally get off this moving nightmare.

He felt like he would pass out of dizziness.

The driver, surprised by the sudden command, hit the breaks immediately, causing Clark to nearly topple forward and land on his face.

The doors opened and all six of them flooded out of the bus, the stares of surprised and confused mortals following them out.

Shaking his head, the driver closed the doors and the bus drove away.

"Clark!", Drake said, anger. "What the in Hades' realm was that?!"

"I sensed something coming"

The dark haired boy raised an eyebrow, "Uh-huh and you sure this isn't some dumb excuse to get off the bus?"

"No seriously, I sensed something coming. I felt the prescense of magic", he said, feeling uneasy at the memory of the strange feeling.

Drake blinked, "Magic? What do you mean?"

"I mean, I felt someone who uses magic. I sensed the presence of their magic inside them. Which I knew meant trouble"

"Woah", Alexia said, eyes wide. "Magic exists? Does that mean Hogwarts does too?"

Drake snickered. "Yer' a half-blood, Alexia. Not a wizard"

"You mean 'witch'", she corrected, making him mutter 'whatever'.

"What in Hades is Hogwarts?", Chuck asked, confused.

"You haven't read the books yet?", Alexia asked, frowning.

"Well have you?"

"Of course not, I'm dyslexic, it's hard to read. But I did watch the movie"

"Do you think it could be Hecate?", Gwen asked,  cutting them off from their pointless and unrelated conversation, Clark mentally thanked her.

Clark felt his head throb, "Maybe....."

Suddenly the familiar tug in his gut tightened.

"Guys we need to leave, now!", he said and started to run towards the woods beside them.

"H-hey! Wait up!"

Quickly the rest of them followed him as his figure darted among the trees.

Darkness clung to them and the cold night wind made them shiver, the stars beamed down at them from above, the curtain of city lights hiding most of the stars from their sight.

'I know this place',  he thought as his eyes scanned his surroundings and a feeling of familiarity spread inside him.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream echoed throughout the forest and they all stopped dead in their tracks.

"What was that?", he demanded, feeling dread and fear bubble up in him.

Fred pulled out a flashlight from his backpack and his eyes widened when he turned it on.

There stood Alexia, paralyzed in fear as she pointed to a large rock, with dried blood splattered on it. Beside it was a tattered backpack that was similar to theirs, supplies spilled from it, the same supplies that were given to them.

A wallet (now empty) , a bag of drachmas (with only two drachmas left) , a ziploc of Ambrosia, a flashlight and an half-empty canteen of nectar

What made it worse was there were claw marks on the ground beside it. As if something had dug their talons into it. Slash marks were also evident on the rock, including an abandoned dagger, with dried blood on it's glittering blade.

Drake knelt down and picked the weapon up with caution.

"What happened here?", he asked, eyeing the rock and backpack suspiciously.

Clark felt dread spread through him as he saw a leather necklace lying a few feet away. It had five clay beads on it, and symbols we're etched on it's leather.

It was a Camp Half-Blood necklace, the one given to each camper at the end of every summer. Meaning, that the owner of the destroyed bag was a half-blood.

He picked it up and saw that it had dried blood splattered on it, but never less, he recognized it immediately. From the faint scent of blood, strawberries and Nutella coming from it, he could have never gotten it wrong.

"Clark?", Gwen asked, staring at him as he put on the necklace. "What are you doing?"

Clark shook his head and tried to keep his voice firm, almost failing. "This necklace.... it belonged to a friend of mine"

"Wait what?", Fred said, staring at him in astonishment, the faint light of the moon caused his auburn hair to slightly have a silverfish hue.

"This is were it happened", Clark stated, standing up from his crouching position, and he shook his head, trying to shake off the feeling of dread and the tenseness of his shoulders, but to no avail.

"What happened?", Alexia inquired, golden eyes as curious as ever.

Clark ignored her and started moving forward, hoping that they didn't see the tears threatening to fall from his eyes.  "Come on, we're almost there" he said, eyeing his surroundings anxiously. Afraid to have what happened before happen again.

Not this time, not ever.

"Where are we going?", Fred asked, shining his flashlight forward.

The legacy of Hecate and Apollo gritted his teeth and moved forward, and he felt pain stab him in the heart as he noticed the familiar places they passed.

"Um Clark? Did you hear Fred?", Drake said, pulling out his own flashlight. "He asked where are we going"

He turned to them and surpressed a smile, hoping that the darkness around them hid the sadness in his eyes.

"Hope you like garden gnome shopping"

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Author's Note:

Clark isn't a demigod btw, he's a legacy of a Chinese daughter of Hecate, and a half-Malaysian son of Apollo.

Sorry for the boring chapter.  ;-; school isn't exactly helpful.

I'm jealous of the other people who are having their vacation right now while i'm trapped, slowly dying in school.

So .... Yeah.

I honestly have nothing to say, but.... um... thanks for reading!

And er, happy birthday to those who have birthdays today!

Goodbye and may you have a weirdness filled day!

~That author with nothing to say.

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