Resurrected

Silena's POV

Even though Charlie had come back from the Forges at almost three o’clock in the morning for the past six days, I hadn’t really cared. Because every morning, he would be half-dead, sitting in his chair at the Cabin 9 dining table, and then I would walk by, and his eyes always filled with the most adorable light ever. The fact that I didn’t even have to say anything to him to make him happy made me feel like I was floating three inches off of the ground. And every morning, he would stop whatever conversation he was in, walk over to me, and wrap his arms around me from behind, and just hold me for a few seconds. He was the best boyfriend ever. But, today, he looked different in two distinct ways.

Firstly, he looked like he had gotten a full night’s rest, awake and smiling. Secondly, he was wearing a go-bag around his shoulders, like he was going on a quest. Both of those things scared me. I dropped off my breakfast at the Aphrodite table and walked over to the Cabin 9 table, a question already on my face.

“Charlie,” I called to him, “why are you wearing a backpack during breakfast?”

“Styx,” He muttered, slapping himself on the head like he forgot something, “Silena, I forgot to tell you. We’re going on a quest.”

My heart sank five feet. That meant that unless he wanted me on the quest, I would be separated from him again.

“Where are you going?” I asked dejectedly, “Who’s on the quest?”

Charlie stood up and walked towards me, and even though I should have felt fine, I started to cry. Deep, painful sobs came out of me as he wrapped his arms around me, and I cried into his chest. I realized how unstable I still was, even though I had Charlie back. I had held back so many tears over the last few years, and since coming back, hadn’t had any chance to let go. We must have been making a scene, because Charlie gently put his arm around my shoulder and walked me away from the Dining Pavilion. When we were out of earshot from the rest of the group, he faced me towards him and looked deep into my eyes.

“Silena,” He murmured shakily, like he was on the edge of tears, “I know I should have told you, and I know this seems so sudden, but I have to go. I’ve been keeping track, you know, and this is day 12 of 31 I have to redeem myself. If I don’t go now, figure some things out with Leo and Percy, I get sent back to Tartarus forever.”

That made me feel worse, but I kept eye contact. Charlie seemed to regain some of his composure, and took a deep breath. Then, he said,

“Silena, I think I know how to beat Kronos, but I’m not sure. I think…if this quest goes well, I might be able to try and overcome him when I get back.”

“How do you know you’ll be back before it’s too late!” I sobbed.

“Sweetie, I…well, frankly I don’t know. All I know is that if it’s the last thing I do, I will come back to you, okay?”

He put his hand under my chin and I looked into his eyes again, and I saw his old determination. The old fire that kept him going, day in and day out. And I believed him. He must have seen that, because his eyes twinkled again. Switching topics, he said,

“Besides, I have a surprise for you when I get back. It’s going to be awesome!”

I smiled half-heartedly and he walked me back to the Dining Pavilion. We ate quickly and Charlie got the rest of his things ready. I felt like I was being dragged to my own hanging, but I forced myself to walk to the Camp pier on Long Island Sound. Charlie walked over and told me that they wouldn’t be leaving for another half an hour, so we sat down on a bench and I slumped over and put my head on his shoulder. His lifted his arm and put it around me, pulling me in closer. I felt sad that he was leaving, but I couldn’t get over the fact that he was one of the sweetest guys I had ever met. We didn’t even need to talk, all we needed to do was be together.

The blissful cuddling lasted for only about twenty minutes though, because we were interrupted by a clear and bright voice from behind us.

“Aww, you guys are so cute!”

I sat up from Charlie’s embrace and turned around, seeing the smiling face of Alexandra Rodriguez walking towards us. She was one of my newest friends at camp, seeing as she was new to the Camp herself, only coming to the Camp two months ago in June. She had fiery red hair and emerald green eyes, and almost every time I saw her I mistook her for Rachel Dare, our oracle. They could have been carbon copies of each other. The one thing that Alex had that Rachel didn’t was a sense of vitality, of fiery energy about her that made her feel like she was there. Like she was living in the moment, all the time. I guess that trait comes from her mother, Hebe, the youth goddess. Maybe she seems so in the moment and full of energy because her mom always looks so young.

Alex walked towards us from behind the bench and realized the mood was low, so she did the natural thing. She picked me up from behind the bench and dropped me in front of her. For a thin girl, she was much stronger than she looked.

“How come everyone’s so down in the dumps! This is a quest we’re talking about here, isn’t it?” Then her face went slack, as she asked frightened, “Or…are you guys breaking up?”

“NO!” Charlie and I shouted in unison. Charlie had stood up when Alex had grabbed me, and was glaring at her, annoyed.

“What do you want, Alex?” He asked, obviously not in the mood to talk with someone so chipper and happy.

“Nothing,” She responded with a smile, “just wanted to say hi and, uh, talk with Silena.”

This piqued my interest, so I asked, “Oh yeah? What about?” She put her arm around me and pulled me away from Charlie to hide our conversation. When we were way out of earshot of Charlie she asked,

“Who is the guy that’s always in the infirmary nowadays?”

“Tommy?” I asked. Tommy had been spending a lot of time in the Infirmary with Ethan, and I was starting to get an idea of where this was going, but Alex responded,

“No, the other one, the sick one?” She asked it with a little tinge of disgust, which made me discard my first idea that she liked either Tommy or Ethan, and made me think she was investigating the two boys for another reason. I responded with,

“His name’s Ethan. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason, I just wanted to know.” I caught a quick glance at Alex’s face and saw the smallest tinge of a blush, and my original idea was confirmed. Then, I realized what that meant, and I was confused.

I didn’t mean to, but I blurted out, “You like him, don’t you?”

“Shut up, Silena, you know I don’t—”

“Alex, I’m a daughter of Aphrodite.”

She looked at me with a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and annoyance, “Ugh, all right, I’ll admit it.”

I smiled and giggled a little. It was fun to be back in the happenings at Camp, especially with a new friend.

“Silena, I swear if you tell anyone—”

“My lips are sealed. Now, back to the quest…” I looked over at Charlie, who was waiting patiently at the bench, and I brought myself back into reality.

“Alex, I have to say goodbye to Charlie now, okay? I’ll talk with you later.”

She looked into my eyes with her bright green ones, and realized I was sad, so she patted my shoulder lightly and walked back towards the Dining Pavilion. I walked back towards the bench, but before I got there, I was bumped into lightly by Annabeth, who was walking towards the pier as well. Charlie was now getting onto the Argo II with Percy, so we looked at each other and ran for the pier. Both boys stopped climbing the ladder and came down to say their final goodbyes. Both Annabeth and I had tears in our eyes, but we let the boys board the ship. Leo was standing at the helm with something that looked like an automaton table, looking out to sea as if he was plotting a course, even though he was blind. In his hand was the bronze astrolabe Charlie had shown me, glittering with the crystal they had worked so hard to attach.

We watched the Argo II sail into the morning breeze, and then Annabeth and I sat down on the bench. When the ship wasn’t visible anymore, Annabeth spoke into the silence, saying,

“He’s a great guy, you know. Charlie, I mean.”

“I know, Annabeth, I know,” I said, not even looking towards her. Then, I remembered that I hadn’t been around for her and Percy’s relationship, so I turned to her and remarked,

“So…you and Percy, eh?”

She turned towards me with a sly grin, “Yeah, I mean, it was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?”

I grinned and nodded, and we got into all of the crazy stories about our boyfriends, laughing all the way up to lunch, three hours later. I realized how lucky I was to have a friend like Annabeth, and, for this quest, as a companion, patiently awaiting the return of our boyfriends.

Notes

Enjoy! This one should be kinda cute.