Sorry I've been so bad about updating- I'm in my second year of uni and I have so much going on. I have a reflection due next Monday, an essay due next Wednesday, and an exam next Friday. Next week is really going to suck... so please forgive me. I promise I haven't forgotten about you!

Chapter Quote:
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that."
~Martin Luther King Jr.
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Chapter 33: I'm Housed By A Giant

Bryn

Being paralyzed and unable to do anything as you watched your friends die was the worst possible thing Bryn had ever experienced. Waking up to find two of her friends talking to a giant that epically dwarfed them and having her boyfriend passed out beside her was the second worst possible thing she'd ever encountered. Well, that was up until Bryn realized she could move. Derek saw though and was instantly by her side.

"Hey! You're up!" Derek exclaimed, rushing to her side.

"Wh- what happened? Where are we? Who's he? Why's Luke unconscious?" Bryn asked in a rush, scrambling up into sitting position. Silena made her way over to Bryn's side. The giant stood up, making the daughter of Zeus feel like an ant. She realized he was big but not that big.

"Easy, friend, I am not going to hurt you," the giant said.

"Who the Hades are you?" Bryn demanded.

"This is Damasen," Derek explained. "He's a friend. He helped Silena and Luke's parents when they were trapped down here."

"What about Luke? What happened to him? Why is he unconscious?!" Bryn cried.

"Hey, calm down, it's okay," Silena consoled. "He took on a lot of curses saving us. I don't know how but he destroyed all the arai."

"How do you not know how he did it?!"

"Well I was blind, and Derek was deaf and not facing Luke. You were the only one facing his direction so you're the only one who could've seen anything he did."

"But all I saw- he was on knees. He didn't do anything. He couldn't have... right?"

Silena and Derek shook their heads, but when Damasen remained silent, Bryn knew he was hiding something. She fully intended on finding out later when Silena and Derek weren't around.

"What curses did he take on?" Bryn questioned.

"Um, too many for me to name but a particularly nasty one is Boomslang venom. It made him bleed from different orifices of his body. I mean I can't tell you who cursed him with that one but they sure knew their torture techniques," Damasen remarked.

"Ryan London. It had to be. That was his specialty," Bryn said. "I would love to kill him myself."

"Once you get back to earth, you can have the chance."

"Oh I would love the chance, but I can't. Luke killed him... some time ago. I have no idea how long we've been here. Feels like forever though."

"At most a week. That's the best I can venture," Damasen replied.

"How are you feeling?" Derek inquired.

"Um, you three are okay. I can move. I can speak. So yeah, I'm okay."

He brushed a piece of hair out of her face. "You sure?"

Bryn nodded. "Yeah. What about you two? No side effects?"

"No, just tired. We wanted to stay up until you woke up."

"You two get some sleep. I'll stay up for a bit. I'll be fine." After a little bit of debating, Bryn won out. Silena and Derek crawled into Damasen's bed which easily fit the three of them. In fact it could probably fit ten more people of their size Bryn thought, but she didn't say that. Her brain was scrambled from everything that had happened so she decided keeping her mouth shut was probably the best idea for a change because she really had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth.

Bryn sat down in the chair Derek had previously occupied. Damasen sat across from her. Within seconds her friends were asleep. The giant looked at Bryn and said, "So what is on your mind young one? I can sense there are many questions you desire to ask me, ones you did not want to ask in front of your friends."

Bryn bit her lip. The giant had given her no reason to trust him but on the contrary, he'd also not given her a reason. If he betrayed them, she'd kill him. Bryn had no idea how she did that, but she would. She was sick of immortals bossing her around. Taking a silent, deep breath, she began her barrage of questions. "Who exactly are you first of all?"

"I am Damasen, the giant of Gaia and Tartarus to oppose Ares, or Mars I guess your brothers would call him. I guess you could call me the bane of Ares, but I'm more of a lover than a fighter. That did not settle well with my parents."

"How in Hades' name do you know my brothers?" Bryn growled. The air crackled with electricity. Her friends stirred but didn't wake up.

"You and your friends are well known not just on Olympus, earth, and Hades' realm but here as well. The monsters down here... let's just say they gossip. I overhear many things." Then, with a small smile, he added, "Also, your friends told me about everything you've all been through. That's mostly how I know. I asked for a story in return for my hospitality towards you."

"Where is the silver Titan? The one that brought us here?" Bryn questioned after a few seconds of calming herself down.

"He disappeared after he brought you here, but he will be back before you leave. He is mentally connected to Luke and Silena because of their dad and mother." Damasen glanced over at the Jackson kids. "They remind me much of their parents. Silena, she looks like Percy, but with Annabeth's eyes. It's the opposite for Luke. Funny how genetics work."

"Earlier when we were talking about what Luke did to destroy the arai, and I said Luke couldn't have done anything in the position he was in, Derek and Silena agreed but you stayed silent. Is there a way he could've destroyed the arai without touching them?"

Damasen nodded. "Yes, but I think deep down you knew that. Therefore my question to you is: why ask me if you already know?"

A cold feeling settled in her stomach. "I knew he'd changed after what I did, but I don't think I realized how much. The Luke I knew before, he never would've... he couldn't have even thought about the possibility of what he did, let alone actually going through with it. I'm scared for him. I'm starting to believe I'm also scared of him."

"I have not personally met him, only healed his wounds, but when he was brought to me, all he was murmuring was one word: Bryn. Your name. Despite your fear of him, I do believe whole-heartedly he would never hurt you. Not intentionally at least. You should fear his power more than him. The power he has discovered, it could have... dangerous consequences."

"What kind of consequences?"

"Luke has a light in him. You all do. You're all good. But sometimes that light can be taken over by the dark. You have messed with darkness in your life before. I could feel it."

"When I was working for Hannah, at times I felt myself slipping into her spell, believing that maybe she was a better decision than the gods, but then I remembered my family and it knocked me to my senses. I'm not proud of the things I've done in the past year, but I did what I thought was necessary to save my friends. Unfortunately, I did not account my friends' loyalty into the equation or else I would be the only one down here. They would be safe up on earth. But that's not important anymore. We can't change the past. I do want to ask though, you felt that I'd battled darkness before. Did you feel that with Luke?"

Damasen hesitated, which Bryn took as a bad sign. She was right. "With you, I felt that you'd experienced before but no longer are. With Luke, I sensed him battling it currently, and it's been going on for a while. Not too long, but longer than he's been in Tartarus."

"He was destined to die when Hannah cursed him but I took the curse off of him, but never told him. I wonder if his battle with darkness began when he was cursed..."

"It does not matter when it began, only that he can fight it. I'm sure you've figured out that the darkness makes you evil. Your acquaintance, Ryan London, was full of dark. I could feel it just through the stories."

"You think Luke is becoming evil?" Bryn squeaked, her heart racing at the thought of him becoming someone she had to fight. The thought petrified her.

"Evil is not born. It is made. Luke is surrounded by light, not to mention his morals keep him on a relatively straight path. But his loyalty to his friends, it will sometimes make him blur the lines between good and bad to save you. His encounter with the arai is an example of that."

"What do you suggest I do? I can't have him going around making people's blood go so fast that they spontaneously combust!"

"No, you can't. Talk to him about it, privately. He will listen to you."

"How do you know that?"

"Because in all my life as of being in Tartarus, I have seen many a demigod get trapped down here, but I've only ever seen your situation twice. Once when Percy fell down with Annabeth because he swore they would never be separated again. The second is when Luke willingly took his curse back from you so you would not have to endure this. The loyalty of your boyfriend and your friends will be the reason you survive."

"Damasen, the prophecy said one of us must fall. I'm pretty sure it wasn't referencing the fall to Tartarus."

"Could it be one of the other three? Your brothers or Hallie?"

"They're on earth, we're down here. What do you think the chances are of all four of us surviving everything down here?"

"I think they're higher here than they are up there. You, Luke, Silena, and Derek have fought together for years. How long have you four been fighting with those three? Not near as long. You can do it better since you've been with them longer but your friends down here haven't. The equilibrium is thrown off. You are in more danger fighting as seven than as four."

Bryn let that settle in. Damasen was right. When it had been the seven of them, the group had been thrown off. There was too much debating and arguing. When she was in one of the groups, it wasn't near as bad. Brady, Bradley, and Hallie had never really fought anything without Bryn by their side. Perhaps they really were in more danger than she and her friends were down in Tartarus...

And then with Luke, she had no idea when she could talk to him about what he'd done, but she needed to soon. She needed to get that darkness out of him.
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I have a massive spider problem in my house and I tried to get this done the other night after I had a spider the size of a golf ball crawling on me and my neck and I stayed up all night because of it but then I was too upset to really write anything so I'm sorry this wasn't posted sooner! Hope you enjoyed :)