Resurrected

Charlie's POV

When I got out of Bunk 2C, the sun was just starting to set, sending rays of warm orange energy over the entire campground. I thought that it would be nice to sit outside, enjoying the warmth of the summer afternoon, but that was soon cut short by the figure of Tommy, storming towards the Ares Cabin with Silena hot on his heels.



“Oh great,” I murmured to myself, still sleepy, “What’s happened now?”



I dropped my eyes from the window across from Bunk 2C and slipped to the floor, landing on the polished oak boards. I grabbed an extra sword from a rack on the wall and slung it into my belt, walking briskly out of Cabin Nine, shutting the door quietly behind me. Tommy was only a hundred feet from the Cabin 5 door now, and his sword was drawn. Silena was working hard to catch up with him, and she was reaching her hand out to touch his shoulder. I jogged to intercept Tommy before he picked a fight he couldn’t win.



When he was about 25 feet from the door, we both reached him. Silena grabbed his shoulders and I stepped in front of him, blocking his path to the Ares cabin. For the first time, it looked like he noticed we had been following him. He wrenched his shoulders free from Silena’s grip and pointed his sword at her, but by turning on her, he had turned his back on me. I looped both of my arms under his shoulders, knocked his sword out of his hand, and grabbed him, pulling him into a combination head-lock and full-nelson. He tried to wriggle free, but I was much stronger than him.



“Let me go!” He shouted, his voice full of anger, “Don’t you see? Don’t any of you see? I want revenge on the girl who killed me, and now, thanks to Ethan, I know who that is. So, if just excuse me for a moment, I’ll be on my way.”



“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that,” I said, my voice calm, “because if we do, than you’ll either get someone in Cabin 5 hurt, or, more likely, get yourself killed. You are picking a fight with the wrong cabin, Tommy.”



“I don’t care!” He whined, souding like a spoiled brat, “I want revenge!”



“Now it’s my turn to ask if you see or not,” Silena said, with controlled pleading, “Tommy, don’t you see? Kronos brought us back for one reason: to see if we could redeem our souls. He is so confident that we are going to fail that he wants to use our souls returning to bring back Luke. If you go off looking for revenge with gods’-knows what superpowers that Kronos gave you, you’re just letting him win. Tommy,” Silena said, with a different voice, more powerful, and resonant, “you can’t let him win.”



Tommy’s shoulders relaxed a bit, like a hypnotized person’s might. I thought Silena’s words had worked, and her eyes looked into his hopefully, like she was pleading for them to have worked, but then something went wrong. It was like she was trying to tame a wild animal, had thought the animal was calm, but in reality, the animal was poising to strike. Tommy’s shoulders tensed, and, in a raspy voice that had become all too familiar, he said,



“But I will win, Silena Beauregard! I will conquer everyone before me and retake the world once again! Nothing can stop me, not even you!”



Then, Tommy ripped his arms free and kicked me in the shin, forcing me to fall to my knees. He picked up his sword and sprinted past us into the Ares Cabin. He slammed the door behind him, and when we tried to open it, it wouldn’t budge. But that didn’t matter. Tommy/Kronos brought the fight outside. After fifteen seconds of crashes inside, the door exploded open, spilling out an enraged Tommy, grappling with Clarisse. Clarisse, unlike her usual self had tears in her eyes, and no mad-dog, daughter-of-Ares fighting rage in her eyes. She didn’t want to kill Tommy.

They forced each other apart, and Tommy went to work. Whoever had trained him had done their job to the fullest. In twenty different fighting styles from tae kwon do to pub-fighting, Tommy combined punches, kicks, headbutts, knees, and elbows, connecting with an opening in Clarisse’s defense with every strike. She already had visible bruises, and Tommy was just adding to them. She looked flabbergasted, like she had never met a stronger opponent before. Every time Clarisse tried to throw a punch, Tommy didn’t even have to touch her to block the strike. He just thrust out his hand, and like some kind of the Force from Star Wars, her strike was blocked. I tried to help her, but he pushed me back with more of the Force.



I was getting fed up at not being able to help my friends as they were beaten senseless, angry at feeling useless in a fight. I was supposed to be big, scary Charlie Beckendorf, who could bend celestial bronze with his bare hands. I channeled that anger into something I had never felt before, a weird sense of regret, and shouted,

“Tommy, stop!”



Amazingly, it worked. I smiled, reaching for Tommy’s hands to restrain him. But he backed away, he face going slack and his eyes filling with fear. His eyes darted around in every direction, as if they were looking for something, for anything.



“I can’t see!” He wailed, “I can’t see!”



“Tommy?” I asked, confused.



“Dad?” He asked, like a lost little kid, breathing fast and shallow, “Dad, where are you? Dad, I can’t see you! Dad, I need help, I can’t see!”



“No, no, this is wrong,” I murmured, scared out of my mind. Tommy’s eyes had paled in color, going from bright blue to translucent blue. Now, they were milky white, blind as a bat.

Yes, laughed a voice, Kronos’ voice, Charles, you have discovered your power. You have been blessed, or cursed rather, with the Vision of the Arai, making your victims see their worst nightmares. Your delicious ability is extremely powerful at unlocking a victim’s worst fears, scarring them permanently. I hope you like it, because you’ll only get to use it for a month!

Then, the voice faded, and Tommy fell to the ground, writhing in pain.



“Tommy, listen to me,” I said, my voice shaky from fear, “Tommy, you’re okay, everything’s going to be fine, you’re going to be fine.”



“Dad?” He called, not hearing me and still hyperventilating, “Dad, I’m lost!”



Then, Clarisse, getting up from being knocked to the ground, walked over to Tommy and grabbed his shoulder. Instantly, his eyes regained a little color, snapping onto her face.



“You!” He rasped, “You killed me! You had no remorse, no regret! You shall pay! I shall have revenge!”



Clarisse was crying again, but she said, still looking into Tommy’s eyes,

“I know what I did as wrong, Tommy, but you have to forgive. Revenge is for the weak-hearted, and you know that. Tommy,” She said, with more control, “look at me.”



His eyes regained more of their color, and he said, as if he were fighting the words,

“Forgive…I…I…I forgive…you,” He breathed, looking into Clarisse's eyes.

Then his eyes closed, and he began to breathe normally again.



“Infirmary?” I asked Clarisse.



“Yeah,” She replied, “Infirmary.”



After Tommy got settled in, I decided not to stay at the infirmary, and walked back to Cabin 9. I was feeling drained after that episode, and even though I had just rested, I wanted to skip dinner and go straight to sleep.

Walking past Bunk 1A, my old bed, I saw that Leo had a pile of square pieces of paper, bound by a rubber band, sitting on a collapsible shelf. They looked like photos. Without meaning to, I reached for the photos and unwound the rubber band.

The first five or six were of him, younger, and a woman that must have been his mother. But after those, I found twenty or thirty photos of…of…me. And it wasn’t just me. It was me and…Silena. We looked happy, young, in love, even. But looking at those photos, waiting hungrily for any memories to come flooding back, nothing happened. It was if I was looking at a different person when I was looking at myself in those photos. That wasn’t me. I wanted so desperately to remember being in love with Silena, but I couldn’t.

I started to breathe in shallowly and fast, like I was hyperventilating. I was trying so hard to remember anything, a scrap of a good time, a piece of a romantic moment, but something was fighting against me. I concentrated hard, forcing my brain to remember.

After about five seconds, I realized that I was beginning to black out, but I didn’t care. I had to remember. Right when I was on the edge of losing consciousness, something popped into my head. I saw fireworks in front of me, and Silena to my side. I had asked her to the fireworks, so, so long ago. But that didn’t matter. I remembered.

I smiled, laughing at my success of forcing that memory to return. The ice-grip of amnesia started to crack like glass, the memories like water trying to push through. I suddenly became exhausted, still staring at the photos. I realized that it must’ve taken a lot of strength to produce that memory. Finally, I gave in and passed out. Leo, who I hadn’t noticed was standing behind me, caught me as I fell. He was stronger than he looked. He dragged me into 2C and fell back into another round of dreamless, blissful sleep.

Notes

RE-Upload after a mistake I made