The Heroes of The Camps

Nox's P.O.V.


Darkness. A darkness so intense it hurts to look at it. It’s like.. It’s like it’s suckng the life out of me. All that surrounds me is darkness. Then, almost as if I’m next to a giant lightbulb and someone else has control of the switch, blinding light flashes in front of me. I cover my eyes, but it’s no use. The light is passing through my arms and eyelids. I can do nothing to escape it. Almost as fast as the light turns on, it’s off again. But this time, I’m falling, falling towards a dim light. The light seems to be the same distance away for.. wait, how long have I been falling? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Time was blurring together and I had no idea how long this fall has actually been happening. The light rapidly approaches and I crash through a ceiling landing perfectly on a chair while I was busy over thinking things.

I’m looking around and I start panicking. No! Not here! I thought, lacking the ability to scream. Shadows dance around me as they finally form the rest of this dreadful place. I hear my mom in the next room. She has no idea that this is the last time she’ll ever be cooking dinner for me. But.. Neither do I. This is the last time I’ve ever heard her laugh, hum, yell at me for not wanting to talk to Grandpa, or anything. This is the last time she does anything. I see four year old me walk into the kitchen with utensils I’m not supposed to have. I hear my mom yell at me and tell me to go to my room. Little me whines and stampers off rather loudly. This is where my memory begins to fade. Wait.. This must be when I blacked out. I thought to myself, desperately trying to get off of this damned chair. I see the shadow approach her and frantically try to look away. My head is locked into place and my eyes are forcibly open. I am crying to the point where my tears pretty much block what’s about to happen. I hear my mom, “Who!? What!? No!! No!” There’s a breathy gasp as she is about to utter her last two words, “Nox! Nox!”. The screaming abruptly stops as blood splatters into the room I’m in. I finally am able to look away and the tears won’t stop flowing. My Grandpa runs out of the kitchen after dialing 911. Apparently I wasn’t important enough for him to take me with him. After what feels like forever, I finally begin to regain my composure in time to hear little me wailing upon discovering her body. The scene begins to fade and I see myself walking alone in the streets of San Francisco by himself a month later. I have no memories of what happened during that month at all. My vision goes to black as I wake up in a cold sweat.

I roll out of my bunk and stumble around in the dark for a few seconds while I try to find my watch. Every morning I curse for forgetting to wear it to bed, and every night I forget again. I thought angrily. I find it as my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness. 4:44… again. I groan and crack my back as I stand up. I wishfully stare down at my bunk, hoping to be able to sleep peacefully, but knowing that could never happen. I groggily fumble over to the door, grabbing my journal and pen on the way, and walk into the moonlight. The night is where I did my best thinking anyway. I sit on the damp grass and write down the dream. Everything was exactly the same as the last time I had the dream a year ago, except for one thing. I saw more of that damned kitchen.

As I finish writing I look around. Not a single man made light is visible in this godsforsaken place. I sigh and return to my bunk thinking about the horrible dream and where I unfortunately have to reside. I don’t remember exactly how I got here, to Camp Jupiter, or the whole process of realizing I’m a demigod, but, with my luck, it was probably a terrible experience that will haunt me while I sleep.

Notes