I was fully consumed by the agony by the time we eventually managed to arrive back at Percy's apartment. I ground my teeth and tried in vain to think of something else, anything else.

"Can you walk?" Leo asked, getting out of the car.

"I hope so." I muttered, ducking through the door. I managed to stay on my feet, even if I was swaying slightly.

Leo grabbed my uninjured arm to steady me and led me up the winding staircase. When we reached the apartment, Annabeth opened the door and ushered us into the living room where I promptly collapsed on the couch.

Nico was the first to rush to my side and prop me up against him. "Are you okay?" He asked softly.

I nodded as best I could without moving my arm. "Yeah, fine."

He noticed my bandage that was now mostly soaked with blood. "No, you're definitely not fine. Callie!" He called out to Calypso and the healer came rushing out of one of the numerous doors.

"What has happened?" She asked, panicked. The sight of me and Leo's grubby faces probably wasn't a comforting one. She rushed over to Leo first to check him over for injuries but he shrugged her off.

"I'm fine. But Kimmi's messed her arm up pretty bad." He said.

Callie set herself down on the sofa beside me and carefully removed my bandage. She winced at the sight and left to grab her medical supplies. When she returned, she started dabbing alcohol on the wound to clean it. The sting seemed to bite into my arm and I arched my back in pain. I cried out in agony as my arm began to burn and boil.

"Stop it, you're hurting her!" Nico shouted at Calypso.

From behind my tear-blurred vision I saw her pull out a needle and stick it into my arm. For the second time that day, everything went black.

---

I woke up to faces looming above me, their features obscured by a weird mixture of blinding light and overbearing shadow though I could still make out their expressions. All of them were grim as if they were attending a funeral, and their silence gave me the feeling that the funeral was mine.

Notes

Seemed like a great place to end it! :)

Sorry if the updates become less often, I'm going back to school tomorrow and Echo's still got laptop issues! We will try to write as often as we can though!

Thanks for reading, you guys are amazing!

- Phoebe :)