The Beast of the Sea~Chapter 22

When I woke up, I didn’t really understand what was going on. I was standing up, no longer tied to the ropes that had kept me from jumping off the side of the ship to see the Sirens. However when I looked over to where I had been tied, I watched as the last pits of rope burn up and the bench was nothing but ashes as well. Even the metal rail looked slightly melted. I then turned to look for Joe and Angel, who I saw but not how I expected them. Joe looked like he had been launched into the siding of the ship and appeared to have been in a serious fight, as his clothes were ripped in places and he appeared to have a nasty burn on his shoulder. Angel, who was still standing at the helm, looked absolutely terrified as she held the wheel. If her skin didn’t have that weird bluish tint to it, I could have sworn her knuckles were turning white.

“What happened, were we attacked?!” I asked almost hysterically. I didn’t see a monster around so maybe they fought it off or it ran away. Maybe it was circling the ship as we spoke, but Joe looked like he was hurt pretty bad.

“Angel, go and heal Joe quickly,” I told her, but she didn’t seem to be able to snap out of her trance. “Angel!”

“Right,” she said as she shook her head. She ran over to Joe and laid him down on the deck. She began to chant in a language I didn’t understand and water rose up from over the side of the ship. The water began to mold to his body and I watched as his wounds started to heal. Even that burn mark seemed less noticeable as Angel worked her magic. “Ok, he should be fine now. He is just going to need some rest.”

“Alright, I’ll take him downstairs,” I told her, but that uncertain look appeared again and I was getting a strange feeling from her, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was. I lifted Joe up over my shoulder and carried him down the stairs. I took a quick look at everything as I passed to make sure there wasn’t any damage below deck, which thankfully there wasn’t. I got to Joe’s bunk and kind of dropped him into it the bunk as I had problems holding him up. I started walking away but I felt something grab my arm. It scared me and I almost screamed, but I calmed down when I saw that it was Joe’s hand.

“Hold on a second,” he said as he shakily sat up in his bunk. Even if Angel had healed him up some, he still looked terrible. He took in a few long breaths and then turned to me with a serious look on his face. “What happened back there?” “I don’t know; I was under the spell of the Sirens. I heard their song and I wanted to get closer. Then I saw them and…” I trailed off, thinking back to that dream they had made. I had heard that the Sirens show you your fatal flaw, but I had never really believed it.

“And what?!” Joe half yelled which shocked me, but he calmed down a little. “This is important. The Sirens’ song can’t do what I saw. Tell me what you saw.” So I did, I talked about how the world has grey, how my friends all seemed to be turning against me. It took some prying from Joe, but I eventually told him about that other me. How he destroyed the Sirens and then did something to me, but I didn’t know what.

“Well at least we know about your fatal flaw,” Joe said as he thought about what I told him.

“You do, I don’t get anything about all that,” I told him. I couldn’t think of only one flaw that explained everything I saw.

“Fear obviously, or more specifically you fear that your friends are going to turn on you,” Joe explained. As he said it, it seemed to click in my head. It worried me, but Joe seemed relieved. “You have nothing to worry about there. I mean demigods with a fatal flaw like loyalty or bravery are usually more dangerous because it is a flaw based on good intentions. Fear is one of those flaws that pops up all the time. I mean demigods have plenty to fear after all, and usually it isn’t a flaw that is too hard to overcome.”

“Usually?” I asked him and he took on a more serious look, as if remembering something that had happened long ago, something he didn’t like to talk about.

“Well obviously some flaws are more dangerous depending on your godly parent. Nightmares aren’t normally dangerous in the waking world for example, unless you are a child of Hypnos. Some of his children are able to bring their nightmares into reality and can’t always control them. There was another child of Zeus I know who is scared of heights,” Joe half smiled.

“So is fear dangerous for someone with my abilities? I mean without my sword I’m pretty much useless,” I said as I patted the switchblade in my pocket. Joe stiffened a little at my comment.

“Hard to say for sure. Your father is a relatively new god to most of our knowledge. Pretty much any myths about him is lost to time and the Olympians don’t talk about it, like they’re hiding something. Your father’s realm of influence is also very abstract I guess you could say. I mean my father controls lightning, storms, and the air, but your dad controls belief which is harder to define. I’ll admit, I don’t even know what exactly your ability is as I’ve only really seen you fight with a sword. Only a few demigods actually know about Pisteuo past and from what I understand, they made a promise on the River Styx not to reveal it to anyone without permission,” Joe explained.

I listened to him talk about my father and it reminded me of how little I knew about my father. He even reminded me that my own abilities were somewhat abstract. There was the time before I left for the quest and my flames seemed to react instinctively to Kimi’s pain, making her feel better somehow. I saw that version of me in my dreams caused Greek fire to destroy the Sirens. I needed to ask Joe something.

“What happened while I was out? Please tell me. Were we attacked by a monster or something?” I asked him, but he tried to keep quiet. “Joe, what did you see?”

“I’m not sure,” he finally responded. “Something happened that I can’t explain and I have this feeling I’m not supposed to be able to understand it. I need some time to think over some things,” Joe said before lying down on his bunk and going to sleep, ending our conversation.

I went back above deck and found that we had escaped from the island of the Sirens and it was far behind us. Angel was still driving the ship, but she seemed to be much more at ease now. I tried to get her to tell me what had happened, but she just told me that she was going to follow Joe’s lead on this one and if he hadn’t said anything, she would wait until he was better.

“We should be at the island in a few hours,” Angel called to me. “If you want, you can rest up or something.”

“It’s ok, I’ll just stay up here in case a monster attacks or something. I’ll get some sleep once Joe comes up,” I told her. I walked over and took a seat on the bench. Despite my best efforts however, I slowly felt myself drift off to sleep and in a few seconds, I was out like a light.