Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

            It felt like her eyelids has turned to steel. With effort, she forced them to open. She couldn’t afford to be caught off guard. Her memories swirled within her head like a tornado. They flashed before her eyes. She could see the ominous shadow chasing her, and almost feel its teeth digging into her shoulder. Her body remembered the pain so vividly it almost felt real- the teeth, the claws, the spikes, the fire, the metal. As the various injuries came back to her in vivid detail, she felt her legs, arms, chest, neck, and head twitch as they seemed to recall their injuries.

            The room was coming into focus now. The memories were dissolving back into the depths of her mind. She could hear the boy before she saw him.

“Hey! Alex! I think something’s happening!” he called frantically to someone Emily couldn’t see. He was tall and strong with dark black hair and a golden tan, like he’d been in the sun a lot. All around him, it was fairly white with splotches of color on the walls. White blankets on top of her, soft and comfortable. It looked like a nurse’s office in any normal school, but the posters on the wall had mythological creatures instead of cartoon figures. Her head started to spin from her bewilderment, threatening to pull her back into her unconsciousness she had just tried to escape. She had been rescued, obviously. Otherwise, she would have been lying on the forest floor. The question was, who brought her here, and where was ‘here’?

            Another boy bent over her, checking her pulse and examining her state. He had brown hair and sky blue eyes, which were now examining every inch of her. She felt like a specimen of some kind and didn’t really appreciate it.

“Okay. She’s conscious now, finally.” The boy signed with relief. He put two fingers on her wrist and checked for a pulse. “She’s still lost a lot of blood though, and it looks like she’s lost a lot of body mass too. I’ve got some nectar and ambrosia; if we are sure she’d a demigod. Mortals have gotten inside the camp before, you know, one way or another. In the meantime, I think I’ll grab some stuff at the mess hall.”

“Already done.” A silky smooth voice cooed. In the doorway stood a very pretty girl with straight, long, white-blonde hair a little past her shoulder. She had deep blue eyes and fair skin. In her hands she balanced a tray full of food and drinks, which she set down on a table next to the hospital bed, if it really was a hospital they were in. She smiled gently and asked in a soothing voice,

“Hey sweetheart. What’s your name?”

“Emily” Her voice was quiet and dry, having been unused for so long, and with little hydration.  The boy with the dark black hair looked like he’d been shocked. He was frozen in surprise for half a second, then slowly strolled over towards Emily, like he was in a trance. He stared at her with his grey eyes, mouth slightly a gape. The other two teens looked at him with odd expressions: concern? Surprise? Bewilderment?

“A-Andrew? What is it?” the girl asked, studying him intently.

Andrew returned her gaze and stated simply, “Nothing, Lauren. Why?”

Lauren looked at him in astonishment, and looked like she wanted to protest, but then stopped herself; resigning to the fact that if he didn’t want to talk about it, which was his decision.

Alex looked between the two of them, his sky blue eyes darting from one to the other like he was watching a ping pong match.

“Um… you guys want to just let me treat the patient for now, while you two, I don’t know, go update Chiron on what’s happening.” Alex tried, attempting to break the awkward silence. Lauren broke her stare away from Andrew to focus on Alex instead.

“That’s alright. I think I’ll stay with her for now, make sure she eats something and all. You are Andrew can go update Chiron, I’m sure Andrew,” she gazed pointedly at Andrew, “will have plenty to say.”

The two boys walked out of the room without another word.

Emily had been watching all this intently, gathering bits and pieces of information until her thoughts swirled around and around in her head. Lauren, Alex and Andrew had all treated her like she was beneath them, like she wasn’t capable of doing half the things they could. This, of course, was understandable. She herself knew that she was weak, having used up all her energy on saving herself from that dreadful monster. She probably would have died, if someone hadn’t found her, not that this had been the first time she’d come close to dying. She’d had that sort of thing happen a handful of times, sometimes from escaping a fire, or nearly falling to her death, you name it.

Lauren bent down towards Emily, smiling reassuringly at the poor girl.

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Emily. You’re safe now.”

Emily felt a little more at peace. She gazed into the deep blue eyes examining her with concern.

“Thanks” Emily managed, trying to sit up. Her head spun from the loss of blood.

Lauren smiled and helped her to rest her back against the wall to which the top of the bed rested against. Emily couldn’t believe this small, mundane task was so hard, and energy consuming. She felt so helpless and weak. Pretty pathetic, she thought to herself, as she sat up in bed somewhere called Camp half-blood.

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