Renegade

Emily's POV

Okay, so I think I need to explain what all happened while Griff was shooting up the place. When I woke up, Griff was still asleep, so I went out for cup of coffee. Nobody was out except for Xavier. Literally no one else was out for breakfast. So, when he saw me, he proceeded to punch in the face so hard that it knocked me out. After that I don’t know much. All I remember thinking was,

Damn, did he notice me sneaking around last night?

Anyways, when I woke up, I had a gun to my head. Obviously I was scared out of my mind, so I did what I was told. Xavier ordered me to walk with him to Cabin Three, but Griff stopped us on the way out. But Xavier was smart, he knew how to get out of there. Then he tied me up in Cabin Three, and slapped me so hard I almost blacked out again.

“You had to ruin everything, girl!” He yelled at me as I struggled against my bonds.

“You shouldn’t slap a woman,” I reminded him groggily. I realized in horror that the chloroform was making me drowsy, and would eventually make me pass out.

“It doesn’t even matter,” he realized, calming down and drawing a dagger, “you’ll be dead soon anyways.”

Then, carefully, like he was stroking my cheek, he brought his dagger across my face. I could feel the blood start rolling down my cheek as he brought the knife up, satisfied with giving me a four inch scar across my face.

“Goodbye, Emily,” He said, almost wistfully. Then everything else happened. I must have blacked out, because when I woke up, I was in the Infirmary, and there were two faces staring at me. I recognized them as Apollo campers, and I figured that they must have been the medics.

When I opened my eyes, the medic to my left said, “Thank the Gods. Hey Mike, she’s awake.”
The medic to my right, who must have been Mike, turned around and smiled at me. But not to flirt. He wanted me to feel happy that I was alive.

“Thanks for sticking with us,” He said calmly, yet with cheer, “how do you feel?”

I had expected to feel horrible, like I had just come out of a room filled with hazardous gas and been cut with a knife (which I just had done). But I felt fine. I touched the skin where Xavier had cut me, and I couldn’t feel anything.

“Yeah,” Mike confirmed, “the ambrosia does a lot. You’ll be fine.”

Suddenly, a massive rush of people stormed into the Infirmary. Or rather two people. My family. My mom rushed up to me, and the medics tried to stop her. They must not have met my mother yet. My mom gave them a look so withering that Mike’s jaw actually dropped. He moved aside, and my mom wrapped me in a massive hug.

“Oh, sweetie,” she said, trying to control tears, “you’re okay now, okay?”

“Are you guys okay?” I asked as my dad hugged me tightly, “Where’s Nico? And Percy? Annabeth?”

I didn’t want to ask about Griff yet. I knew that my parents, especially my dad, would still be angry if I acted all lovestruck about Griff. So I waited. Besides, Griff would be fine, right?

“We’re fine,” he assured me, giving me a look like he knew I was avoiding talking about my boyfriend. For the first time in a very long time, I was glad to have the warmth of their presence near me. Right now, I needed my parents.

“Percy and Annabeth, the workhorses they are, are currently in Cabin Three with gas-masks trying to air out their cabin and clean up the mess. Nico is one of the beds down the hall.”

I whistled in admiration and surprise.

“Gods, how do they have the energy?” I asked, and my parents smiled at each other.

“You’ll understand soon enough,” my mother said knowingly, and my dad gave me another look.

“What?” I asked, my cheeks starting to feel hot.

“Come on, Emily,” My mother admonished, “I’m a daughter of Aphrodite. Who’re you in a relationship with?”

“Dam,” I said, “Well, you guys would have found out eventually. I’m…I’m Griff’s girlfriend, Mom.”

My mom tried to look like she was contemplating whether or not she liked Griff, and then cracked a smile.

“Good choice,” she said philosophically, and we both laughed.

“Did you know?” My mom asked, and my dad grunted disapprovingly, making her laugh again.

“Well, with the complications your father and I had in our story, I sure won’t get in the way of you two. And I’m sure you won’t either, right Jason?”

“Fine,” he replied after a few seconds, making me smile.

It was good to be back in a normal family. The thing about demigods, though, was that nothing stayed normal for too long.

Suddenly, a machine from down the hall started beeping rapidly, and multiple medics rushed over to the bed where the beeping was coming from.

“Oh, Styx,” my dad said, rushing over to check out the commotion. My mother looked over to the bed in question, and rushed over with my dad. I was suddenly all alone. I couldn’t see who was in the beeping bed, and I could feel my heart rate start to rise. Even though the medics had motioned for me to rest, I needed to get up.

Slowly, carefully, I sat up, and what I saw almost made me wanted to faint again. Five or six Apollo campers were working frantically on Griff. His chest, legs and face were covered in red lesions, like he had scraped up his entire body. His eyes were rolled up in his head, and he was going through some sort of seizure.

“Heart rate’s through the roof!” One medic read from the monitor as he was trying to keep Griff still, “BP’s rising, too, and he’s going hypoxic again. Someone call Chiron!”

One of the medics, a younger kid, sprinted out of the Infirmary, yelling for the centaur. Exactly ten seconds later, Chiron was in the Infirmary and trying to save Griff.

“This isn’t supposed to be happening,” I murmured, unable to move, “Griff is going to be fine, right?”

I didn’t even know who I was asking at this point. I was just asking the world, I guess. To add on, none of the medics turned around to listen to me. They were too busy trying to fix Griff. Then, Chiron went to work. He applied a salve and whispered some words over Griff, and he stopped fidgeting. I breathed a sigh of relief, but Chiron’s eyebrows were still furrowed in concentration.

He gave a few scattered instructions to the medics at Griff’s bed, and they went around the bed adjusting everything from the monitor to the medicine in Griff’s IV. Then, the beeps that the monitor had been giving out at a very high pace started to slow, and Chiron breathed in deeply.

“His brain is back to normal,” Mike, who had joined the brigade of medics, said, “heart rate’s slowing. Come on, Griff!”

He seemed to be calmly encouraging him, and something in Mike’s voice made me want to smile. He knew what he was doing, and that calmed me down. Then, the monitor slowed even more, and all of the blood drained out of my face.

“Heart rate’s slowing too much, Chiron!” Mike said, his face slack with worry.

But the centaur just stayed silent. He closed his eyes for a few breaths, and seemed to sigh. This couldn’t be happening. Chiron had let him go.

“Do something!” I screamed, and the centaur looked me in the eyes.

He looked like he was about to cry, but also like he had been in this situation before. He knew that he couldn’t save Griff. But he also knew how much it hurt to lose a friend.

Then, Percy and Annabeth showed up. They had sprinted to the Infirmary, and when they saw the series of looks going back and forth between Chiron and me, Percy shouted,

“No! C’mon, Griff!”

He ran over to his son, shaking his shoulder, trying to wake him up. Annabeth just sank to her knees and started crying. Then, the monitor flatlined. Mike bowed his head and let go of the monitor, tears streaming down his face. Mike reached over to Griff’s face to cover his eyes, and then to cover him with a sheet, but I said,

“No. Wait a second.”

Tears streaming out of both of my eyes so hard I could barely see, I walked over to Griff’s now lifeless body and placed one last kiss on his lips. They were cracked from dehydration, but I still felt the old softness in them. Then, Mike pulled the sheet over his head, and Chiron gently pulled Percy away. The poor guy was still staring, staring through the sheet, through Griff’s eyes, and into his soul. He could see his son already on the flight to Hades.

Notes

This was actually one of the hardest chapters I've ever had to write. Unlike Alec (That_Dam_Persassy), I hate killing off characters.

Enjoy,
Grafon