Work Text:
Harper’s POV:
I had felt off ever since we were at dinner, but Silena had told me I was fine.
“You’re just a bit homesick probably, it happens to all of us at some point,” She said all knowingly as if she was inside of my body.
She put a hand on my hair, and I prayed that she didn’t have some secret ability to clock something being wrong with me.
The bandages around my chest made breathing so hard, but it was easier than handling what was beneath.
So I pushed through, grimacing through dinner. For the first time since I arrived, I hadn’t felt bad for the piece of food I chucked into the fire for the Gods. They probably would enjoy the chili dog more than I would…
I slumped back onto my seat beside Silena. The autumnal night above was expansive.
Reminding me how small I was…how little I mattered.
I was jarred out of my thoughts by Lee Fletcher, the head of Cabin 7 who I had met right as I entered this camp, grabbing my shoulder.
“Campfire time, Harper,” he informed me and I slowly slumped over to the logs.
I got to hear some of the worst singing, ever I’m pretty sure, and then I was whisked off towards the cabin.
“Yo!” I whipped around, because someone had grabbed ahold of my shirt.
It was one of the Ares kids, a cabin full of really nice characters so I’d heard. He had braces on, though it looked like he hadn’t seen an orthodontist in a few years.
“This one of ‘em?” The shorter boy who was holding the back of my shirt asked the taller.
“Clarisse said Harper. Harper…R-R…Roosh.” The taller was apparently no better at reading than the shorter. Then again, all of us demigods apparently were dyslexic.
I mean, I had experienced reading difficulties, but was it really dyslexia? I didn’t think so. But Argus had scoffed when I had insisted I didn’t have it.
“Hey guys! Can ya let me go?” I asked, trying to charmspeak. My voice sounded like a stick was in there, not nearly the smooth, calming cadence required to convince anyone to do anything.
“Sound rough, Roosh,” Croney 1 informed me, his hands squeezing the back of my shirt, the neckline coming up dangerously close to my throat.
“Its Rush,” I corrected, my eyes widening as I saw the taller produce a burlap sack from behind his back.
I tried to put on a burst of speed, but the response to that was to grab me by both shoulders and yank me backwards, nearly sending me onto my butt in the mulchy path. While I was in such a compromised position, they yanked the bag down.
Clarisses pov:
I had been thinking of how we were going to win the baton race.
We keep losing to the Hermes cabin, if only we had a short cut….
I was looking over some random map I had of the camp and woods. None of our runners were fast enough, especially since they didn't like paying attention.
Continuing to look over it I noticed an area that would cut right through the wild zone, basically guaranteeing our win.
None of us were supposed to go through the wild zone and I know no one would wanna, thankfully we had a few new campers i could bug to do it instead.
Glancing around I notice a couple of my brothers trying to stab each other.
“Hey! Knock it off, I have a job for you.”
They immediately stopped attempting murder on the other after hearing what I said.
“I need you guys to go get the campers who just arrived and bring them here.” I pointed to the map. Right where the wild zone and our baton race areas met.
They nodded before dashing off.
“Make sure they aren't hurt!” I yelled before they left the cabin
Harpers pov:
I groaned quietly, my head was killing me and so was my stomach, like the world’s worst period cramps mixed with a killer migraine.
I felt all jumbled, and every step felt harder than the last.
“Ey! Clarisse, this ‘un’s slowin’ down,” the captor behind me yelled, poking my back with the spear for the third time since they had put the bag over my head.
“Well, if you’re so big and strong, Marshall, you should be able to control some prissy kid,” Clarisse—I guess—yelled back, she was a fair bit in front of me. The footsteps of my fellow abductees were getting further and further, my head was killing me…
I felt my knees buckle, and I tumbled down onto the forest floor.
“You better get up!” Croney 1 wrenched my head back, and I felt my stomach gurgle.
Chili cheese dogs do not taste as good coming out as they do going in, in case you’re curious.
I groaned, trying to breathe. The sack was soaked with the vomit, and I could feel my body shaking from the pressure building inside. Another round would probably come soon…
Air. Air. Croney one ripped the bag off my head at Clarisse’s orders.
“Sit the rest down here, it seems they have decided where we’ll do this little activity!” Clarisse said cheerfully, well, as cheerfully as any daughter of Ares could when discussing something that was not war or the effects of war.
Clarisse began a long winded speech, one I could not keep up with. I caught something about “oh crap, its Clarisse,” and “death in denim,” which sounded like a crappy metal band my older brother Rodger would listen to when Dad started screaming at me.
“No daughter of mine will dress so…unrefined! You’re such a pretty girl,”
I realized my surroundings again just in time to see Clarisse grabbing my chin and forcing my eyes up.
Someone had scrubbed at my chin, I could tell because it was worn raw and felt incredibly red.
Clarisse’s dark hair, mixed with the black sky above us, made the whole thing look much more ominous, like she was looming above me, judging me.
“So, Harper Rush, son of Aphrodite—,”
Another burst of chili dog—the last of it—blasted Clarisse in the face. She made an absolutely disgusting face and whipped around.
“You! Get out of here now,” Clarisse yelled, her hands flicking me away as if I was radioactive, which I might as well have been.
Croney 1 dragged me back through the forest by the bonds.
At least I didn’t have to do whatever Clarisse wanted me to do. That was nice…instead I laid on a hospital bed getting poked and prodded by a scrawny, tanned kid from the Apollo cabin.
The same boy who had smacked me on the shoulder after dinner, and the same one who had led us in singing about how terrible our parents were.
Clarisse's pov:
We were walking, working on getting to the wild zone when one of the new kids kept slowing down.
Usually not a problem, it only became a problem when he threw up.
We hadn't even made it where I wanted but I guess we'd have to go from here. I began my intimidation monologue.
I noticed Rush wasn't paying attention, then again he just threw up. It made sense but I'm not going to give him special treatment because of that.
I looked above him talking to him when he threw up in my face-
Fucking disgusting
“You! Get out of here!” I yelled, flicking the vomit and him away. I watched as my brother carried him away to the infirmary.