Tortured: Percy Jackson's story (Betrayal)

Not what we expected

Artemis p.o.v:

"Shields!" Thalia yelled. The hunt answered by raising their shields, me included.

With everyone on guard our pace decreased substantially, it was that or risk getting hit by an arrow.

The shooter, who might be Perseus, could now take his time to prepare an attack or to look for a way out. The least likely of all would be that the shooter was waiting for an opening to strike someone down, but even so the risk was too high.

The small cabin inched closer, and when we finally started to let our guards down an arrow struck Zoë's shield. The shot had been taken from our right, but that should be impossible, for there was no one there and we hadn't seen anyone move in front of us. There were no trees, everything was in the open so nobody should've been able to sneak to our right.

CLANG! Another arrow struck a shield, this time it knocked Athena's shield out of her hand. She quickly went to pick it up, two hunters covered her. And yet as soon as she touched the shield an arrow, this time from our left, knocked the shield a bit further from the goddess.

"Hunters on your guards! This can't be Perseus, most of us know how terrible he is with a bow." I said out loud. A few girls laughed at that.

"Oh really? I think I'm quite handy with a bow." Someone said.

I looked ahead of me and there he was standing, a bow in his hands and a quiver on his back. No emotion was displayed on his face.

The cabin was behind him, but it wasn't that far away. We had reached the lake, it was now about 10 feet to our left.

"Percy, how are you?" Thalia said as she rushed forward dropping her shield to the side. Just as she passed me I grabbed he shoulder and held her back.

Because, faster than most humans could imagine. Perseus had nocked an arrow and pulled back the string. His stance was perfect, but in its own way. I could instantly see that if he released that arrow, it would go straight for Thalia's forehead.

"Don't make me do it, you are not welcome here. I made it clear enough." Perseus said.

"Perseus please! We just need to talk, we swear we mean you no harm." Athena said.

"Hmpf! As if! You're in Alaska, you should be worried that I mean you no harm. And honestly I would very much like to harm you!" He said angrily.

Athena, now eyes wide with shock, backed down and looked at me. I hadn't expected this either, but I had to talk to him so no was not an answer that I could leave with.

"Perseus! We need to talk! A lot has happened and we can't waste any of the time that we have left!" I demanded.

His bow changed from targets, the arrow was now focused on my head. He looked at me, then at the hunters and then back at me again.

"Did you read the note that I left?" I nodded as an answer. "Then you know that I won't hesitate to hurt any of you, right?" Again I nodded.

"Good, then you can't say that you weren't warned." He said as he let the arrow fly.

Everything went in slow motion, Athena yelled my name, Thalia looked at me in shock and the rest of the hunters yelled out in panic and fear.

I closed my eyes and waited for the impact, which never came. I felt the arrow fly past me, not more than an inch from my ear.

I opened my eyes and looked at a smiling Perseus. "Very well," he said, "please follow me inside." He turned around and walked to his cabin.

"Athena, Aphrodite, Zoë, Atalanta and Thalia, you are with me. The rest of you set up camp." Nobody had recovered yet, it took a few seconds before everyone started moving.

The small group joined me and we followed Perseus to his cabin. He stood at the door with a cup of water in his hands.

"Before you enter I will pour a little bit of water on your clothes." He said.

"Why?" A puzzled Atalanta questioned.

"Otherwise you'll die." He said nonchalantly.

"WHAT!" Everyone yelled, effectively getting the attention of the rest of the hunt.

"I'm not serious, but I will kill you if you try to come in without the water." He said.

I went first, he poured a small amount of water on my shoulder and the clothes soaked it up. He quickly did the same for the rest and opened the door.

"Welcome to my residence, keep your thoughts to yourself, this is strictly a 'urgent meeting'." He said as he sat down on a black leather couch.

We stood in the living room, there was only a huge carpet on the ground and three huge couches. Everyone took a seat and looked around.

"Why is it so boring?" Aphrodite said.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself, last reminder." He said.

"Perseus, we are here because of a problem on Olympus." I started

"Who would've guessed? That is literally the only reason that you could possibly have for being here. Stop with the obvious stuff, get to the point." An agitated Perseus said.

"The big three are dead, Ares has taken over. Nico is ruling with him. We fear that The Big Three will come back and start World War 3. We want you to join us, to try and stop Ares." I quickly said.

"And then what? Hand the throne over to Zeus, no thanks. I'd like to see what Ares can do as a ruler. Furthermore, I'd like to try it myself." He smiled.

"What do you mean?" Zoë jumped in.

"Ares has already contacted me, I already know everything. And he made me a deal that I can't refuse."

"How dare you!" Athena stood up angrily, this was about to get out of hand, "we came all this way for your help and you won't even think about it! Go to Tartarus!" She yelled.

Perseus was relaxed, he looked at Athena uninterested. She, on the other hand, was fuming. Her spear appeared in her hand and she pointed it towards him.

I was about to say something, when Athena dropped her spear and fell to her knees.

"Please stop! Perseus I'm sorry." She cried out.

"What are you doing to her!" Atalanta yelled.

"It's the water, he has cut through her skin and is now able to attack her vital organs." I said.

"True, but it wasn't a vital organ, I was messing with her nociceptors, in other words her pain receptors." He said and Athena relaxed.

"It's not really harmful or damaging, it just feels that way." He stood up and grabbed Athena's arm, he gently helped her to her feet.

"And now I will ask you to leave without saying anything if you want to be spared."

And that's what we did.

Is it so that when people really enjoy a story they tend to get wrapped up in it, so they forget or don't leave a comment? Or is it just me?

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