#Ah--luke in his natural state of being an asshole

[jflashandclash]

Tales From Mount Othrys

Luke: Two Toned Memories

 Author’s Note: This  short takes place during the events of The Titan’s Curse, after Percy and Thalia lose Annabeth and pick up the Sol Angelos. Uh, warning… kinda creepy. References to abuse. Luke-transition-into-titan. You know. Like a normal Saturday.

           Luke’s fingers were so warm and moist, he feared that his sweat would condense on the other side of the one-way mirror.

         She was right there: her cute, blonde curls matted with grime, her grey eyes boring into the glass—too smart to be tricked by something so obvious. The others tried to give her a Camp Othrys shirt to get rid of the manticore blood on her front. She refused, as viciously stubborn as Luke remembered from their travels.

         They had lost the Di Angelo siblings to Artemis’ huntresses and Camp Half-Blood. Honestly though, Luke thought this was a better catch. Even Kronos’ angry mutterings couldn’t change his mind.

         “I could make her kill Percy Jackson,” Flynn said, rolling one of her hair stilettos between her fingers. “It would be pretty simple.”

         Luke didn’t like the way Flynn looked at Annabeth through the one-way mirror. Flynn held the weapon like she could pin Annabeth as a lab specimen.

         Alabaster tapped a pen against his lip thoughtfully. “That’s not a bad idea. Can you postpone the effects of your charm speak?”

         They were talking about this too casually. This was Annabeth. Not some random demigod. Annabeth. His Annabeth.

         Flynn frowned. Mercedes, standing beside the three of them, remained silent, listening, as their spy master tended to until the end of meetings.

         Flynn had become more powerful since Luke met her, but he didn’t know she could give commands with a delayed activation time. His stomach churned at the thought. Luke bit his lip, paranoid, again, that she might be manipulating him.

         Alabaster shifted forward, flicking the pen to the side. “Even if you could give her a residual suggestion, Lou Ellen and I could concoct a poison and imbue something with said poison. Perhaps a gift she could give him. Or, even better, give Chiron.”

         “No,” Luke said. Anger made him bite his lip until he tasted something metallic. He hated that old, foolish horse. “Selena told me the most recent prophecy—” –I—“—Kronos has every right to be the one to kill Chiron.”

         The door to their makeshift interrogation wing busted open.

         An enraged satyr bustled into the room, appearing ready to gore the first person that made a Disney reference.

         In the hallway behind him, Jack’s voice drifted closer. “Phil! Wait! This is a joyous occasion! We finally get to meet his Annabeth, the one of valiant tales! You mustn’t—”

         “This,” Phil snarled, pointing at the one-way mirror, “is why you don’t send a monster to do a goat’s job! You’re giving me hemorrhoids here! Does that look like two children of the Big Three to you? I spend months tracking down two children of Hades, and this is how you repay me? By sending Mr. Splinter—”

         “Dr. Thorn,” Axel corrected, hiding a smile as he stepped in after. With Mercedes, Alabaster, Flynn, and now Axel and Phil, this room was too cramped. It should have just been he and Annabeth. No one-way mirror was necessary.

         “Whatever. Mr. Spikey! Mr. Lionface! That a better name? You send Mr. Tactless, Tasteless Lionface!” Phil huffed, stomping his hooves up to Luke.

         Luke didn’t want to deal with this right now. Annabeth was more important, wasn’t she? And Phil could be so loud and obnoxious.

         “And even if you didn’t want to send me, we could have sent the Pax Extraction Duo. Why did you send a monster to recruit demigods? We have demigods that are willing to go.  Who do you think a teenage girl and her little brother are going to trust more? A really hot, mysterious guy and his disarmingly cute little brother that are here to rescue them from bad guys that the gods sent to track them down, or a fucking LION with a SPIKE problem!”

         Luke didn’t remember making the motion. One second, Phil was shouting at him. The next, the back of Luke’s hand hurt. Phil was on the ground, clutching at his face. Jack was trying to help him up. Axel stood between Luke and Phil, facing Luke. No matter how much Luke wanted to avoid it, there was that look again: in Axel’s eyes, in Mercedes’ stillness, in Jack’s flinches.

Fear.

         Luke opened his mouth to apologize. The words that came out were, “Know your place, satyr.” Was that what he wanted to say?

         Maybe Luke shouldn’t feel bad. Phil had interrupted an important meeting about Annabeth. Why should Luke care about those pesky Di Angelos when he had—

         We needed them, Kronos hissed.

         For a breath, Luke was back in the closet. His mother’s old clothing—the cute stuff she had worn to impress Hermes—reeked of mothballs, so much that he kept one hand over his mouth and the other desperately pressed to bar the door. Green lights radiated through the closet’s slats as his mother screamed and shook the flimsy frame.

On an exhale, Kronos released the memory: Luke was back in the interrogation room that had too many people in it, too little air, and too much tension. It was just Kronos’ promise, a quick taste of the nightmares punishment Luke would receive when he laid down to sleep. Sometimes, it was easier not to sleep.

Supposedly, at some point, Luke agreed to let Kronos in his head and to enact such punishments for Luke’s failures. After Alabaster, Jack, and Axel dunked him in the River Lethe out of desperation, Luke couldn’t remember agreeing to that. It made reliving these nightmares worse when he couldn’t remember agreeing to such a deal.

         Phil scowled at Luke, wiping a streak of blood from the side of his mouth.  

         It was one thing to hit Alabaster in private or Jack when he was having an episode. It was another thing to hit Phil in public, in front of Luke’s friends. They were still his friends, right?

         Subjects.    

         Shut up and get out! Luke thought.

         Everyone flinched.

         Had he said that aloud? Luke’s hand was pointing to the exit of the interrogation room. He’d meant that for Kronos, hadn’t he? Not Phil?

         Or was Kronos puppeting him again without his even realizing it?

         This time, Luke carefully formed the words coming from his mouth, trying to prove to himself that they were his own. “Not now. We’ll talk about the Di Angelos later.” His finger shook. His voice shook. He couldn’t sound scared—Alabaster would take note if he sounded scared.

         Jack tugged at Phil’s arm. “Phil, not now, please. He’s stressed—”

         Phil shrugged him off. He spat blood at Luke’s feet. “I hope it feels good turning into thing you hate, kid.”

         Luke’s fingers closed into a fist.

         Axel’s gaze narrowed.

         Mercedes took a step backwards.

         Then Phil was gone out of the room, the door thumping shut after him. Jack bolted after the satyr. For a tight breath, Luke considered walking after Phil to make an example. We should kill him.

         Luke wanted the thought to alarm him. He liked Phil, right? Half the people in this room wouldn’t be here if not for that satyr. Phil helped Luke, back when no one else had. Back when no one believed in him.

         Even the sharpest tools wear down to uselessness with time.

         With the amount of blood forming in Luke’s mouth, he must have bit down on the inside of his other cheek. Begging Kronos to get out of his head would do nothing. Besides, what if those thoughts weren’t Kronos?

         We’re becoming the same person.

         His friends wouldn’t care that he hit Phil, not for long anyway.

         Jack would understand. Just like Jack “got confused,” he knew that Luke lost his temper. It wasn’t anything more than that. It was something that would be easy to control once he had Thalia here, once she reminded him of what he was before all he knew was Kronos.

         Flynn and Alabaster knew that you needed to use force to keep people in line. Axel had become desensitized to violence because of his father and Mercedes was a proper soldier: someone who took orders and saw actions without question.

         And Luke needed to focus on his plan for Annabeth. Phil didn’t matter.

         He gave them one of his charming smiles, unrolling his fingers from fists. He raised his hands in an open gesture. “Annabeth was more important than the Di Angelos. We need someone to trap Artemis—”

         Alabaster snorted. Throughout Phil’s outburst, he appeared unfazed. He folded his arms and leaned against the wall. There might be a spell pouch in his hands. Maybe Luke would need to start disarming people before they had conferences.

         “Any girl. Any young demigod female from Camp Half-Blood or New Rome would be adequate to get Artemis under Atlas’ burden, but it had to be Annabeth. Do you want Thalia to hate you?” Alabaster asked. He sighed, and Luke got the distinct feeling that Alabaster wanted to sound annoyed. Annoyance was better than fear.

         For once, Luke had a response to Alabaster’s insubordination. A smirk twisted his lips. “We need someone that will willingly help me with Atlas’ burden. She will help me.” Annabeth hadn’t lost faith in him, not like the others.

         Luke hadn’t liked this plan at first, but it was all part of the test. Part of Kronos’ overall plan. Prove yourself to me. Take Atlas’ burden. Show me you are worthy of the next world. He would. He was worthy. He had to be worthy. There wasn’t a choice anymore, and Annabeth and Thalia would pull through for him in the end. He’d given up so much for them…

         “They don’t need to be willing,” Flynn said. She rolled her hair stiletto again. Her dark eyes bore into him, the scars on her face distorting her expression. Although he’d been working with her for a year and a half, Luke still hated looking at her face.

         Annabeth would do it without Flynn’s interference. Pain shot through his cheek as he bit deeper into the pierced skin. “I’m going in to talk to her.”

         Mercedes cleared her throat. His little half-sister had done what she did best—faded into the background when she didn’t want to be noticed. Now, she lifted her head, the tan fabric of her hijab blending too well with her skin. He wondered if she wore the greys and tans to blend easier into the background. “Would you at least let me or Flynn talk to her first? Either one of us could get some useful information out of her and we might be able to put her at ease.”

         Luke glared. “What are you saying?”

         Mercedes swallowed. Although she stood her ground, the spymaster began to shake. “That she’s a thirteen-year-old girl tied to a chair, gagged, and probably terrified.”

         Axel hadn’t relaxed. He took a few steps to stand beside Mercedes, folding his arms. His jaguar tufts were low against his black hair. “And you, her captor, are an older male.”

         Luke stared past the two of them, at the one-way mirror. Annabeth’s curls were tangled in sweaty clumps against her temple. Her eyes looked defiant, but she must have been scared: kidnapped by a monster and mercenaries, misunderstanding her situation as one of danger instead of opportunity. He could comfort her and usher her into this new world, show her the potential of what it could be.

         He remembered the way her cheeks reddened when he teased her at camp, the way she looked up to him without hesitation, the way she knew he could be trusted when everyone else suspected him of fault. She always fell to pieces when he flirted with her. Luke never needed to think of her like that—no, not when he had Thalia. Thalia may have looked younger, but she was really nineteen now. Annabeth was just Luke’s little sister.

         When he closed his eyes to exhale, he could still see her face. Her curls darkened to black, the grey eyes swirled to green, leaving her youthful smile and all of its brilliance. “Rhea, my beautiful little sister.” Kronos’ hand—Luke’s hand—cupped her chin to kiss the redness of her cheek.

Luke’s little sister.

Rhea was Kronos’s sister. His wife.

Luke shook his head, feeling sick and woozy. He needed to get in there to talk to her. “No one talks to her but me. She trusts me.” His voice cracked.

Alabaster rolled his eyes. “This is true. For being a daughter of Athena, she is pretty dumb.”

         Flynn shrugged. She reinserted the hair stiletto into her bun, the charm at the end swaying gently. “Fine. If you’re going to waste such a good opportunity for information and the potential to kill Jackson, you might as well make use of her in other ways. Torrington, you have some Lethe water, right? We need to make sure she’ll still save him from Atlas’ burden when he’s done.”

         The room felt colder.

         Mercedes took a step closer to Axel. If he thought the two liked each other more, Luke might have guessed that she’d disappear behind Axel, much like Pax did.      

         Luke should have asked what Flynn meant or been offended. All he could do was watch Flynn’s curves as she exited their small interrogation room. “I’m going to check on Jack and Phil,” she called before the door silently shut.

         Alabaster’s knuckles turned white on his spell pouch. “We don’t have enough River Lethe water to use it recreationally,” he said, his tone slow and even.

         That made sense. If Luke remembered properly, Mercedes had petitioned to use their Lethe water for spy operations, a sensible proposition.

         “I won’t need any,” Luke said. He needed to get in that room. Everything would make more sense when he was able to talk to Annabeth, when he didn’t have their stares. He could dismiss Axel, Mercedes, and Alabaster. He just wanted things to be like old times, even how they were at the start of Camp Half-Blood, when it was just he and Annabeth. Before he realized how full of shit Chiron was.

         He stepped towards the cell’s door.

         Axel stepped into his way again.

         This time, Luke felt his fingers snarl into a fist before he lashed out. He held it. Jack wouldn’t want Luke to hit his surrogate son. No. And, Jack’s surrogate son would hit back. What would Alabaster and Mercedes do if a fight broke out between the two of them? This spoiled upstart of Hecates’ and Luke’s mysterious little sister. Luke’s hand tensed until his nails dug into his skin, Backbiter’s hilt chilled against his knuckles. Would they betray him? Would they all turn on him? They had too much power. We should have never allowed them that kind of power, that kind of trus—

         “I’m keeping the promise I made to you,” Axel whispered. His lips barely moved, looking more like sheets rustled in a summer breeze.

         Axel was a friend. He walked Luke through breathing and meditation exercises to help keep Kronos out of his head. There had been a promise—or a talk. The memory was fussy. Maybe Axel saw an opportunity to manipulate Luke after the River Lethe dousing.

         Iciness clenched Luke’s chest. Pain spread there, compressing inward. Someone who wants to help me stay me.

         Maybe Kronos wanted to isolate Luke from people who wanted to help him.

         Jack and Alabaster were the first two clear memories he had after the River Lethe. They said Axel had saved his life, plunging his arm into the River Styx to save him.

         Luke exhaled his clogged breath in the form of a laugh. He forced a smile at Axel, one that hurt his cheeks. “Yea, dude. Of course. Why are you all acting so serious?”

         What promise? What promise had Axel made? To keep Annabeth safe?

          Alabaster cleared his throat, reminding Luke that there were two other people in the room. Luke broke eye contact with Axel and broke the line of sight from Annabeth. He hadn’t realized how intently he had focused on her until the green of Alabaster’s gaze startled him. “The shock of seeing you might be the best thing to trigger Annabeth’s aid with Atlas’ burden. You still get vibes after a River Lethe dousing. For your plan to work, it would be best for Annabeth not to see you beforehand.”

         Mercedes nodded. Her acne flecked cheeks were pale. She looked nauseous. “Witchboy is right. We don’t understand its application well enough yet to use it yet for someone so important. We should just keep you separated.”

         Luke put up his hands and took a step backwards. “I can wait. Besides, it’ll be better when we have Thalia on our side. Annabeth has been brainwashed for years. She’ll come around once Thalia does.”

         This felt like a script he had repeated too many times. They didn’t need to be worried though. He would never do anything Annabeth didn’t want him to.

         Does someone who worships Zeus know what she does and doesn’t want? Does she know what’s good for her?

         Luke swallowed, his mouth tasting poignantly of blood. He rolled his tongue along the gouges he’d chewed into his lip. He trembled. Was there something wrong with him?

         “I’m going for a walk. And to apologize to Phil.” The words were hollow, a continuation of a script to make them happy, like when he told his mother that his dad would come back home and make everything better.

         No one moved when he backed up to the exit. Everyone tried to look casual: Axel stayed in front of the door with his arms crossed, Mercedes tilted her body towards him, Alabaster flipped open the spiral notebook that he kept with him.

         When Luke left, he made sure the door didn’t latch and waited.

         “I suppose we can send in Lucille or Mercedes to make sure she’s comfortable,” Alabaster said.

         “We need to set up a guard.” Axel’s voice was much harsher. “Who do you think we can trust and will be capable? Prometheus and Morpheus—”

         “Pax One,” Mercedes cut him off. Luke didn’t hear her footsteps before the door latched shut. Leave it to a child of Mercury to consider eavesdropping.

         Luke clenched his fists. They didn’t need to set up a guard to protect Annabeth. Or, maybe they did, to protect her from other people and monsters aboard the ship. Kelly would certainly love to get her hands on her. They were looking out for Annabeth’s best interest.

         The ship’s corridor listed. The piece of flabby skin protruding from his cheek ached, and yet none of it felt real. A world where his friends set up guards to protect his little sister from…

         He just wanted it to be how it was. Hadn’t there been one point in his life where things were good? When Thalia and he had been on the run?

         Luke exhaled. He didn’t need to worry about any of this: the changes overcoming him, his friends’ odd behavior, or Kronos’ plans. He would just be the head of Kronos’ army once Thalia killed the Ophiotaurus. He wouldn’t need to worry about Kronos being in his head after that. It would be fine. Everything would make sense.

         Thalia would come back and she would help him. She would save him. She always did.

  Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned next week for Ajax’s The Birth of The Triple A Chimera.

[bianca-warriorwriter]

Midnight Terror - part 1 - S.M  ft L.H

guys this is just the start, but I have a different perspective on this one. a different way of writing for this. so please give it a chance.

I bawl my fist into my eyes as another wave of anger floods my nerves. The angry tears burn my cheeks as they slide down them. I’m not a 100% sure why I’m so mad, but I know it’s at the other person that’s just outside of this house.

“Belle can you wash the dishes” – the dishes I haven’t even created for the 24 hours I’ve been here.

“Belle can you wash this pan” – as he kept filling the sink with the shit he had used.

“Belle you want food? No? are you on a diet” – his snide remarks that I’m fat are getting old.

“Belle can you hang my washing” – I did it already. Even though nothing in it was mine.

And then he dares asks me why I’m mad? Especially when he asks what are you cooking me for dinner?

Me? I am a 17yr old who is simply trying to do her assessment due to it being the last fucking week of school – but I’m only in this house for the next 28 hours. At most. 

I’m in out in the next 2 hours I can’t stand to be in this house anymore – to much rage and resentment built in its foundations. But I don’t want to go to my other home either. To, where the other parental figures I hold close to my heat fight. I don’t have anywhere to go. Well I have one place that’s on tonight. It’s the after party of the game that will start in a couple of minutes. But until then I have an hour to get rid of. An hour I deicide that I will stop by my fighting family and get ready. I walk into the house and greet them – no one else is here but them, one is situated in the tv room and I know the other is a sleep from the look I get from step dad. I stay quiet. I move to my side of the house and into the bathroom where I was wash my hair and do all my other girly things for 15 minutes. Once I’m out I wrap myself in my baby pink bathing robe and enter my room. I sit at my make-up desk and start my make-up. My make-up isn’t out there, it’s natural except for the cat eyeliner. I’ve got silver eyeshadow on and just lip balm on. I’m wearing a black flowy skirt and a black floral mesh shirt that just covered my breasts. I wore it all with just strappy sandals that gave me a bit of a gladiator look. I had to half braid pinned to the side of my head, one on each side almost like walls for the untied flowly Raven hair. When I looked at my phone again I had realised that it was half an hour after the party had started and I had missed a message from Oliver – my best friend. He was wondering where I was at and why I missed the game. He doesn’t play but he still would have gone. I ignored it.

“I’m staying at Ollies tonight?” I called to my step dad as I chose to leave. They never questioned this- we were child hood friends. Nothing was ever going to happen there, not to mention Ollie was gay. He was an in the closet gay though, so for his family I was his cover and I hadn’t minded because it was my idea. I got a goodbye and a be safe but nothing more. The good news about the party was that it was across the road from Ollies, bad news was Eva was hosting it. Eva is that bitchy mean girl that nobody likes but will do anything to get in her good books. I got out of the car, In the back seat was spare clothes in case I was actually sober enough to get changed if not Ollie knew where they were. I may be a nobody. But I am a nobody that become somebody once someone hands me a tequila shot. I give Ollie a call so he can come and get me from out the front. His bright blonde hair makes him stand out amongst the rest once I spot him heading towards me.

“’bout fucking time Belle?” he shouts and crushes me into a hug. “parents are watching” he whispers into my ear.

“please I’m fashionably late” I say pulling back from him and I take his hand as we walk into the party.

As I enter the party, people stop. Like I said I may be a nobody but hand me a shot of tequila and I’m a somebody. Before I knew it I was shoved to the kitchen and I was already doing a line of shots. I had a gift: I could become invisible when I wanted to… be the life of the party and then a nobody when the school day rolled around.

I don’t remember much after the second round of tequila shots. I think a fight happened, an argument between someone and me, 2 hot guys hitting on me and someone kicking me out after another argument – I was thrown over a shoulder and hauled off. When I awoke the next day, I was laying on my stomach my hair splayed out across the pillow. I groaned and when I fully opened my eyes, my headache registered and I groaned again, and not to mention I was severally uncomfortable with something digging into my ankle. When I finally sat up I realised I had slept on a couch. I rubbed my back and groaned a little bit more. I was in the same outfit as the night before, only with a jacket thrown over me to keep me warm.

“ah someone’s sore” a voice crooned from the kitchen.

“because someone slept on a couch” I bitched back.

“aye we both offered our bed, even for one of us to sleep on the couch and you said no” another chirped in.

“it’s probably riddled with some sort of disease” I rubbed my eyes.

“or talent” one replied. I looked up from where I was sitting and in the kitchen one leaning against the kitchen table and the other sitting on it was: Shawn and Luke. Shawn Mendes- musically talented, sweet heart, good at hockey. Luke- musically talented, asshole, good at soccer. Roommates since they decided it was better to be friends then enemies and out from under their parents rooves. Shawn was smiling sipping from a mug, Luke was smirking at me.

“why am I here?” I said standing and wrapping my arms around myself.

“because you were being a nuisance? And we live across the road to Eva’s next to your friend Oliver’s house” Shawn said putting his mug down.

“okay then why am I not at Ollies?” I asked walking into the kitchen.

“yeah I’m not stepping in-between that fight” Luke said hopping down from the kitchen bench where he had been eating cereal.

“oh fuck. Okay at least what time is?” I asked ripping at my hair.

“um, 11?” Shawn looked at his phone.

“shit, shit, shit” I said turning back to the lounge room. “where are my keys?” I said to no one in particular.

“on the bench. I grabbed them off you after your fight with Oliver and when you through your drink onto someone, we got you out” Shawn said as Luke left the room and went to some room.

“thanks, I guess?” I questioned heading for the front door with him trailing after me.

“hey, I know I don’t know you that well but do you want to go do something later today?” he asked as I walked out the front door. I laughed at the odd request. “what?” he said at my reaction from the request.

“look, I’m a nobody. I’d prefer to stay that way. You would draw to much attention to me. Plus, you don’t even know my name, handsome” I said and went to turn around.

“Belle” he stated.

“great you know my name, you don’t know much else” I spun fully back around. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow, handsome” I yelled out. “preferably not though”

“see you in English” he yelled out before I could get in my car and I did wonder if I he was in that class.