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chapter xxvi.
( sea of monsters )
❝ not all monsters are bad! ❞

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     I WISH—I JUST WISH!—that for once this quest, we could travel on land. I feel like I've vomited twice already just this one day on Clarisse's ship. It was really embarrassing. I could just feel how much Clarisse wanted to punch me, but she didn't. Instead, she gave me a great big glare before making her confederate soldiers get me another sick bag.

      That was another thing. Clarisse's ship was run by dead confederate soldiers. Their skin was pasty grey—almost like they were zombies. They would just stare at us. They liked Annabeth and I because we told them we were from the South. Virginia and Florida. They liked Percy at the start, because his last name was Jackson—like the Southern general—but he ruined it by saying he was from New York. They hissed and cursed him, muttering words about Yankees under their breaths.

      At dinner, the atmosphere was tense. None of us liked eating with Clarisse in an old war ship with dead soldiers, our appetites were completely gone.

     "You are in so much trouble," Clarisse finally said.

     I shared a glance with Percy—yes, we most likely were in a lot of trouble.

     "Tantalus expelled you for eternity," she went on, rather smugly. "Mr D said if any of you show your face at Camp again, he'll turn you into squirrels and run you over with his SUV."

     "Did they give you this ship?" asked Percy.

     "Course not. My father did."

     "Ares?"

    Clarisse sneered. "You think your daddy is the only one with sea power? The spirits on the losing side of every war owe a tribute to Ares. That's their curse for being defeated. I prayed to my father for the naval transport and here it is. These guys will do anything I tell them. Won't you, Captain?"

      The captain behind her stood stiff and angry, his eyes were narrowed on Percy. "If it means an end to this infernal war, ma'am, peace at last, we'll do anything. Destroy anyone."

     "Destroy anyone," Clarisse smirked. "I like that."

     Tyson swallowed nervously.

     "Clarisse," Annabeth said, "Luke might be after the Fleece, too. We saw him. He's got the coordinates and he's heading south. He has a cruise ship full of monsters—"

     "Good! I'll blow him out of the water!"

     "No!" I was quick to disagree. "Clarisse, you don't understand. We have to combine forces. Let us help you—"

     "No!" she slammed her fist on the table. "This is my quest! Finally, I get to be the hero, and you three will not steal my chance."

     "Where are your cabin mates?" Percy asked. "You were allowed to take two friends with you, weren't you?"

     "They didn't ... I let them stay behind. To protect the camp."

     "You mean even the people in your own cabin wouldn't help you?"

     "Shut up, Prissy! I don't need them! Or you!"

     "Clarisse," Percy continued. "Tantalus is using you. He doesn't care about the camp. He'd love to see it destroyed. He's setting you up to fail."

     "No! I don't care what the Oracle—"

     "What?" I frowned. "What did the Oracle tell you?"

     "Nothing," Clarisse's ears turned pink. "All you need to know is that I'm finishing this quest and you're not helping. On the other hand, I can't let you go ..."

     "So we're prisoners?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes.

     "Guests. For now." Clarisse propped her feet up on the white linen tablecloth and opened another Dr Pepper. "Captain, take them below. Assign them hammocks on the berth deck. If they don't mind their manners, show them how we deal with enemy spies."

*

      I WAS HAPPY THAT Annabeth and I were bunked in the same room. Sleeping in hammocks next to each other with the waves softly rocking the boat making he hammocks swing might make some people fall asleep easily, but not me. But the fact that Annabeth was here with me, it made me feel a little better, and talking with her gave me a well-needed distraction, and not just from the water.

     I know Annabeth was upset about Luke, perhaps more than me. But instead of hiding her emotions by shutting them away and completely ignoring them (like me), Annabeth fuelled them into anger. She cursed Luke's name more than she cursed Hera's, and it was sad to see. I knew Luke hurt her, like he hurt all of us. The fact that he poisoned Thalia's Tree wasn't just a shock to me, it was a betrayal for the both of us. Annabeth and no one, and then she had Luke. It seemed that Luke had that affect on the all of us; he made us feel wanted when we had no one else.

     And he manipulated that.

     I wanted to talk to her about it, to ask whether she was okay, but I was scared that she'd snap at me. Annabeth wasn't one for talking about her feelings with anyone. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I'd get the end of her crisis when she was finally getting over it, because then, Annabeth wouldn't feel like such a burden because she had managed to fix her problems herself. This time, Annabeth couldn't fix it, and that was frustrating her as well as angering her. It would take her a while to get over this, and I wasn't sure whether I could ask her how she was going without her letting out a storm of anger and emotion--and I wasn't good at handling complicated emotions (blame the ADHD).

     But it all honesty, I'm pretty sure Annabeth wasn't good at it either.

     I decided to be brave, "Hey..."

    "Mmm?" Annabeth glanced over at me from her hammock, her blonde princess curls were no longer princess curls, but more a scraggly mess. "What?"

     "... Are you okay?" I could tell her shoulders tensed, Annabeth was already going into defence mode. "With Luke? I mean, how are you going--feeling, or whatever."

     "I'm fine." Her sentence was short and stubborn, and she turned back around. Annabeth gripped her thin blanket Clarisse had given all of us. "Don't worry about it."

     "Annabeth ..."

     "Look, we're gonna find Luke, and we're gonna stop him. That's all I want, that's how I feel--how I'm going. That's it."

      I pursed my lips, but decided not to say anything more. I wanted Annabeth to talk to me, because I wanted to have the one person who understood me and knew Luke as I did to be on the same page. I wanted us to be there for each other like we always have been, and it seemed that what was happening with Luke was slowly making us distant from each other, and I didn't like it--at all. Annabeth was my best friend, since we were young, which has to mean we'll get through it! We get through everything ... right?

     I couldn't sleep that night. Recently, my dreams haven't been full of monsters or predictions, but instead the ghosts of my past. After everything that has happened with Luke, I don't think I can relive another moment where he wasn't who he was now. They were a terrible reminder that I couldn't save him, I couldn't bring him home. He was too far gone ... Luke was dead, and I don't know why, but it feels like it was my fault.

     But I must've managed to in the end, for when I woke up, I was not in the hammock onboard Clarisse's ship. Instead, I was back at Camp Half-Blood back home in cabin seven. I could smell the perfume that Kylie always sprayed the bathroom obnoxiously with. The flowers Will spent half of his time watering and making sure they'd stay alive instead of hanging out with the younger campers were blooming by the windowsill. I rubbed my eyes with a frown, feeling the familiarity of my bedsheets underneath my fingers and legs.

     I glanced over to Jay's bed across the room on the boys side of the cabin. He slept on the bottom bunk, underneath Michael Yew. His sheets were neatly tucked in and his pillow freshly 'fluffed'. Jay was always a neat freak. His chest on the end of his bed was neatly closed without a dust speck on it. He kept a photo of his mother and grandmother on there; always sitting to the left facing his bed so he could see them most of the time. It gave him comfort, for Jay always said he suffered from bad nightmares--even as a kid, and his mother would always lie with him until he fell asleep. But it wasn't like that. It was facing face-down on the ground a little away from his chest, as if it had been knocked off. Broken shards of glass scattered around it.

     "His mother told him that she didn't want him back for the school term," I jumped at the voice. I didn't look, but I didn't need to when I felt the warmth radiating from behind me as if the sun had decided to jump in and join the conversation. "Apparently she doesn't like the idea that her son liked sitting on the fence."

     I pursed my lips. I always knew that Jay was bisexual. I figured it out myself about three years after I came to camp when wouldn't stop talking about how amazing Dean from the Demeter Cabin was, and it had confused me because recently he had told me he liked Katie Gardener instead. And then he told me; he went both ways. At first, I remember being shocked, but then I settled down with the idea so much that it was normal--so normal that the idea that he hadn't told his mother until recently, and that she wasn't supportive seemed like a terrible smack to the face.

     "Oh," I managed, my shoulders falling. "Is he okay?"

     "I don't know," sighed Apollo. "I haven't ... well ... I'm not good at talking..."

     "Yeah, I know." I gave him a sharp glare. "Communication isn't exactly your thing."

     A silence fell over us, and I crossed my arms, glaring down at the shards of glass with a clenched jaw. Finally, I managed to swallow my pride and ask, "Why did you bring me here?"

     "I need to talk to you," said my father and I scoffed.

    "Talk to me?" my arms fell to my side. "You shouldn't be talking to me. The person you should be talking to is Jay. He has no one now." When Apollo sighed sadly, I continued. "Have you ever asked how Lee's life is going? Oh, how about taking an interest in Will's growing healing abilities? Michael split an arrow the other week, oh, and Jenna and Kylie have both gotten into the Colleges they wanted, incase you wanted to be a supportive father and congratulate them. But I forgot!" she added sarcastically. "You don't like talking."

     Apollo's eyes seemed to turn dark for a second, and I knew I had gone too far. I awaited him to curse me or something, but he just took a deep breath and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. It was strange to think that this god was my father. Of course, it was hard to think that a god was my dad, but Apollo didn't look that much older than me. He looked like those popular guitar freaks from every school that everyone is in love with, with a charming smile and golden blonde locks, not a greek god that's been alive for eons.

     I let out another sigh and crossed my arms again. "What do you want to tell me?"

    He looked pained, and I felt something spark in my chest. I knew what it was: fear. Whenever a god looked pained, it wasn't good. I knew that something bad was going to happen. Either to me or to someone I cared about. I shifted awkwardly. "What?" I asked again.

     "I know about the talk you had with Luke Castellan..." he started hesitantly, and the anger flared up in me again.

     "Yeah," I cut him off. "My purpose is to die. When did you think was a good time to let me know that I was being raised just to die. That the only reason you saved me all those years ago in that alley was so that I would risk my life for you and every other god. Because that's all I am to you, a pawn on your stupid big chess board."

      When he didn't say anything and just looked over to the bright yellow flowers, I felt the whole defiant and angry posture I had before just disappear. "I'm right, aren't I?" I asked softly, feeling my words scratch against my throat. "Luke's right."

     Why did I want to cry? Why did it have to take my dad's silence to let me know what I already knew? Why did it hit me so hard? I felt a sob rise up in my throat. "Luke's right," I said again. "He's right. You don't care about us. You just use us and throw us away like paper, only to be reused again and again whenever you need us."

     "Claire..."

    "I wanna wake up," I told him. "Wake me up, now."

He obliged, and when I woke up and found I was back in the hammock on Clarisse's ship, I covered my face with my hands. I wish I was back at Camp, not here on this quest. I want to save Grover--more than anything--and save our Camp and Thalia, but I wanted to be there for Jay too. Jay's been there for me since the beginning, and yet here I was, away on a heroes quest when he needed me the most.

Luke was right. The gods don't care about us, they never did. What hurt me the most was that I knew that, and yet it took to see the look on my father's face to really make me realise: I was nothing to him. I was just a piece on the gods chess board, a pawn ready to die to save the gods' lives. I was nothing more.

Luke said he knew how to save me. Kronos said he knew how to teach me to channel my powers so they wouldn't kill me. Luke wanted to save me, he didn't want me to die. He cared about me.

And not only that, they knew where my brother was. They knew where Timmy was.

"Claire? You awake?" Percy's voice echoed down from the stairs. "Come on up, we've reached the Sea of Monsters."

Emerging up on the deck, I found it hard to navigate through the rushing confederate soldiers and reach the edge where Annabeth, Tyson, Percy and Clarisse all stood, looking out at the ocean in front of us.

I couldn't see much of what they were looking at. The sky was overcast, hanging over our heads in a humid, hazy mess like the steam from an iron. I came up behind Percy, squinting over his shoulder and it was then I could just see some dark fuzzy splotches in the distance.

"At last!" Clarisse grinned. "Captain, full steam ahead!"

The engine groaned as we increased speed. Tyson glanced nervously behind him, and he muttered, "Too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."

Percy and I shared a glance. The both of us had no idea what that meant, but it made us equally nervous.

After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead came into focus. On one side, to the north, rising out of the sea stood an island of cliffs at least thirty metres tall. On the other, about a mile south, was a storm. It brewed dangerously, and it looked as if the sky and the sea were boiling together in a roaring mess.

"Hurricane?" Annabeth asked.

"No," said Clarisse. "Charybdis."

Annabeth paled, "Are you crazy?"

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla," the daughter of Ares pointed up to the top of the cliffs.

"What do you mean the only way?" Percy frowned. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" I suggested. "Jason sailed through that to get to the Sea of Monsters."

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand ..."

"You are crazy."

"Watch and learn, Sunshine," Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

The engine groaned even more, and Tyson let out a small whine. The iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed.

"Clarisse," Percy began, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"What about Scylla?"

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and stark plucking sailors off the ship."

I shivered. Snakes.

"Choose Scylla then," Percy said. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she'll pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannon can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the centre of the whirlpool. We're going to steam straight towards her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

She said it with such relish it was hard to not believe her.

The engine hummed. The boilers ere heating up so much that I could feel the deck get warm beneath my feet. The smokestacks billowed, and the red Ares flag whipped in the wind. As we got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder--I winced at the horrible wet roar. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ship lurched forward, and I wrapped my arms around the bars of the ship to keep myself steady. I could feel myself getting sick, and I tried to look anywhere but the water below us. But that was no help, for every time she exhaled, we rose in the water and were buffeted by three-metre waves.

"Oh, god," I could feel myself swaying. "I hate this! I hate you! I hate everything!"

"You still have your Flask full of wind?" Annabeth asked Percy over the raging wind.

He nodded, "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirlpool like that! More wind might just make things worse!"

"What about controlling the water? You're Poseidon's son, you've done it before?!"

Percy closed his eyes and concentrated, but nothing happened. "I-I can't," he said miserably.

"We need a backup plan," Annabeth said. "This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth's right," said Tyson. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?"

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Before Tyson could explain, Charybdis flushed with a mighty roar. The ship lurched forward and I was thrown. I screamed, reaching out for something before I'd fall over the deck and into the thrashing water, but Percy and Annabeth both grabbed me before I could. We were in the whirlpool.

I decided to hold onto Percy from now on. I knew that if I had a chance of surviving this, I would need to stay with Poseidon's son. Percy hadn't even let go from before either, keeping a strong grip on my elbow. He knew, I realised. Percy knew how terrified I was, and like always, he was there to grab me and rescue me. That thought made me frown and squirm away from him.

"Full reverse!" cried Clarisse above the noise. The sea churned around us, waves crashing over the deck. The plating was so hot now that it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"

Percy grabbed me again and pulled us away from another wave crashing over.

"Stop it!" I shouted at him.

"Oh, sorry for making sure you don't go overboard!" he replied back.

"I can look after myself--I don't need you saving me all the time!"

"Well, next time, I'll let you fall, then!" his sarcasm made me want to clench my hands around his neck.

Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinned in reverse, trying to slow the ship, but we kept sliding towards the centre of the vortex. A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse, his grey uniform smiling. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporising in the heat!"

Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"

"We're going too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."

"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it!"

Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"

"He's a Cyclops," said Annabeth. "He's immune to fire. And he knows mechanics."

"Go!" yelled Clarisse.

"Tyson, no!" Percy grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"

He patted his hand. "Only way, brother," his expression was determined. "I will fix it. Be right back."

"No, wait--!" Percy went to run after him, but I pulled him back. "Tyson!" he struggled, but the ship lurched again--and then we saw Charybdis.

She was only a few hundred metres away, shrouded in a swirl of mist and smoke and water. It was a strange sight, since at first, all I saw was a reef of black coral with a fig tree clinging to the top. But all around it, water curved into a dangerous funnel. And then, I saw her: an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats just below the waterline. The entire sea around her was sucked into the void that was her mouth--sharks, schools of fish, and a giant squid. I then realised that we were next.

"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.

Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor, another disappeared into her gullet, and the third one bounced off and shot back at us, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.

"Again!" Clarisse shouted. The gunners reloaded, but it was hopeless. It would take hundreds of bullets to do some real damage, and we didn't have the time for that. We were being sucked in way too fast.

Then the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine was suddenly stronger and steadier, and the ship shuddered as we started pulling away from the mouth.

"Tyson did it!" I grinned, turning to Annabeth with a hug of relief.

"Wait!" Clarisse cried. "We need to stay close!"

"We'll die!" Percy shouted back at her. "We have to move away..."

He fell short when the mouth shut. The sea died to absolute calm, and water rushed over Charybdis. I glanced over at Percy, the both of us sharing a oh no ...

Just as quickly, the mouth erupted back open, spitting out a wall of water fifteen metres high; filled to the brim with everything inedible, including our cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.

We were all thrown backwards. Water pushed itself down my throat, and I coughed to try and breathe as my back slammed up against the metal wall. The world around me spun, and I was still trying to get my bearings when I heard someone shout, "The engine's about to blow!"

"Where's Tyson?!" I recognised Percy's voice, and I tried to get up. The ship was still spinning, and I wasn't sure whether that was me or Charybdis.

"Claire!" Multiple Annabeth's grabbed me. "Hey, I got you! I got you!"

"Still down there," said the sailor that had spoken before. "Holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

The captain said, "We have to abandon ship."

"No!" Clarisse yelled.

"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already cracking apart! She can't--"

He never finished his sentence. As quick as lightning, something brown and green shot down from the sky and snatched him up.

"Scylla!" a sailor yelled as another reptilian arm shot down from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast that everyone was still a bit confused. But Percy uncapped Riptide anyway and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand, but he was way too slow.

"Everyone get below!" he yelled.

"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames."

"Lifeboats!" Annabeth shouted. "Now!"

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," said Clarisse. "We'll all be eaten."

"We have to try. Percy, the Flask."

"I can't leave Tyson!"

"We have to get the boats ready!"

Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of the soldiers uncovered one of two emergency boats while Scylla's heads rained down from the sky in a meteor shower of teeth, picking off soldiers one after another.

"Get the other boat," Percy threw Annabeth the Flask. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" I managed to say, pulling away from Annabeth and grabbing Percy by the shoulders. "The heat will kill you!"

He didn't listen. He pulled away and ran for the boiler room hatch. I yelled out after him, and went to follow, but Annabeth wouldn't allow me. She dragged me to the boat, and I struggled, still calling his name in hope that he'd listen and come back. We dropped down to the ocean with a great big splash not far from Clarisse.

I screamed when Scylla grabbed Percy by his bag, lifting him high up into the air. The Son of Poseidon threw his sword over his shoulder and stabbed the beast in the eye. Both Annabeth and I called his name as he fell. As he did, the boat exploded--

KABOOM!

Waves pushed us away from the ship, and away from Percy. I kept on shouting his name, trying to claw away from Annabeth and into the water so I could try and find him. Annabeth told me I would only put myself in danger, for I couldn't swim, but I didn't care. I had to get to Percy...

Annabeth opened the Flask, and we skidded away from Scylla and around the wreckage towards where Percy had fallen. When I saw his body floating amongst his backpack and sword, we paddled the boat towards him and together, Annabeth and I heaved Percy onto the lifeboat.

As Annabeth grabbed his stuff, I turned Percy over and prayed to all the gods that he was still alive.

"Percy?" I shook him. "Percy, come on, wake up! Percy!"

When he wouldn't wake up, I felt my throat tighten. I shook him again, turning his pale face from side to side. He was the son of Poseidon, he had to be alive. He had to be.

A wild thought crossed my mind, and--without anything else to waste--I placed my hands on his chest. Closing my eyes, I prayed to my father: let me save him. Help me save him. If I mean more to you than you let on, help me save him.

Nothing happened. When I opened my eyes to still see Percy out cold, I started to cry. "He's not waking up!" I said to Annabeth. "He's ... he can't be--I can't--no."

I tried again, begging with everything I had, Dad, please! Please save him!

I made a promise. I swore on the River of Styx that I would keep him safe. Annabeth and I both did.

"Please Percy," I whispered. "Come on, wake up."

The impossible happened. My hands--from where they sat on his chest over his heart--started to glow. Annabeth's eyes widened from beside me as the gold stretched around Percy's chest and up his neck, twisting around like vines. When it reached his mouth, his eyes suddenly shot open and Percy shot up. He coughed, as if his body wanted to heave water out, but none would've gotten in for he couldn't drown. But I watched as the golden threads continued until they covered up a weltering bruise on the side of his head. Once they disappeared, he was completely healed.

When he composed himself, Percy met my eyes with a fearful sea-green gaze. All he said was, "Tyson."

I couldn't stop myself, I reached forward and hugged him.

*

not edited. Whoops