Splitting a Soul~Chapter 19

I wish that I could say I had a pleasant few hours of sleep, but nothing ever seems to go the way you want it to; especially if you’re a demigod. I started to dream, but I wasn’t in one place and the scene would constantly change. I saw a tornado forming in the clouds and dropping down in the ocean, pulling up sharks and fish, I think I might have even seen a merman. Then the scene would change to a sandstorm blowing through some city I didn’t know. Plants would bury their roots deep into rocky mountainsides and a cloud of steam seemed to melt all the ice and snow on a mountain. I watched as lava seemed to run wild through a forest, burning it to the ground. Then I found myself inside the Collector’s ship. He was looking over some papers on his desk and would file them away inside.

“That’s enough of that,” he said as he closed the last drawer and got up out of his chair. He then turned his attention to an open door. “Is everything ready yet Palinurus?!”

“Almost Captain, I’m just checking the seal now,” I heard a man call from the room. The Collector sat back down in his chair and twiddled his thumbs for a bit. “I really should thank those kids. They allowed me to add a truly a priceless piece of art to my collection.”

After hearing that, I willed my form around the corner and looked through the door. I saw a man working on some display case. The guy must have been in his mid twenties with light brown hair. He didn’t seem and didn’t seem at all happy to be listening to the captain’s orders. However, he kept working on the case. I willed myself forward and saw what was in the case. The prophecy that we read in the library was now proudly being displayed in a case right next to the Elementals in their prison. While I hadn’t noticed them before, they slowly started to fade into my view and take form. They looked different from how I had seen them before. They looked weaker somehow, like being cut off from nature was causing them to fade; the same way gods fade when their realms are destroyed. I looked at Fire, who looked the worst out of all of them. She looked broken, sitting down in her cage with her legs pulled up to her chest and her head facedown against her knees. She looked like a scared child that had just run away from the monster in her closet. Only problem was that the monster had caught her and trapped her in his world.

“Who’s there?” I heard Palinurus shout as he turned around. His skin seemed pale, most likely because I don’t think I ever saw him leave the ship. His eyes seemed more cloudy than anything else, like there was some kind of extra layer his eyes had. His eyes scanned the room until they locked on me. He thrust his hand forward and it felt like I was being pulled away by some unseen force. The dream dissolved until I was left in darkness.

“Ash,” I heard faintly. Then it felt like I was in an earthquake and the blackness shattered like glass. I shot up out from under my blanket and then felt a sharp in my skull. “Dude, I think you broke my nose?!”

I looked around and saw why my skull hurt so much; Jack had been shaking me awake and I jumped up and hit him right in the face. I rubbed my head and looked around. Strangely the sun was up, but with all my time training I was normally up way before now. It must have been close to nine or ten in the morning.

“I’ve been trying to wake you up for about an hour now,” he explained. I looked at his nose and saw a trail of blood, forcing me to remember the events of last night. I couldn’t let Aisling see that or even be around it so I got up and grabbed a small ambrosia square; more like a crumb really.

“Hold on, your nose looks a little crooked. I’m going to have to straighten it out before I heal it,” I said and grabbed his nose. “Alright, on the count of three; ready?”

“Have you done this before?” Jack asked, almost frantically.

“I saw someone do it in a movie once,” I replied. “Ok, 1…*CRACK*…2…3.”

“What the hell?!” Jack said as he shook his head in pain. He grabbed the small square out of my hand and almost inhaled it. “You could have given me a little warning!”

“I did sort of; guess I just jumped the gun. You feeling ok?” I asked him and he took his hand away. He took in a few practice breaths through his nose and wiped off the dried up trail of blood from his nose.

“Ya actually, that stuff is pretty good actually,” Jack said, licking his lips. “Kind of tastes like your mom’s stuffing.”

“Just hurry up and get dressed so we can leave,” I told him and got to my feet. I was already in my clothes as if a monster appeared, I wouldn’t want to fight it in my pajamas. I changed my shirt and got on my jacket before unzipping the tent flap and heading outside. I zipped it back up and headed it, seeing Aisling asleep under the shade of a tree and Kimi trying to wake her up. “Good morning!”

“Good morning Ash,” Kimi replied back, but kept trying to wake Aisling up. “Do you want to give this a shot?”

“No, she had a long night. I’ll just put her in the car and we can get going,” I told Kimi. I picked her up and began walking to the car. I walked out from under the tree and I was somewhat blinded by the light, but Aisling started smoking.

She let out a pained yell and thrashed around in my arms. She almost flew over my head and leaped back into the shade of the tree. She gave me a wicked look that was obviously anger, but her eyes soon fluttered close and she passed out. This was getting serious.

“I’ll go get the blanket out of the car,” Kimi said worriedly and scampered off. Jack emerged from his tent and pressed a small button on it, causing the entire thing to fold into a small cube. He then went and did the same for the other tent before popping to trunk and tossing them in. Kimi opened the back door and pulled out the blanket before rushing back. Jack asked her something I couldn’t hear, but just brushed it off when she didn’t answer. She rushed over and draped the blanket over Aisling before giving me a concerned look.

“Don’t worry, we can fix this,” I told Kimi, giving her a reassuring shoulder hug. Kimi didn’t have many friends, a boat I was very familiar being in. So I also knew how hard it was seeing a friend slip away. Kimi seemed to cheer up just a tiny bit. I picked up Aisling and carried her to the car, Kimi making sure that the blanket never came off for Aisling’s own protection.

“Jack, get the car ready. The Gateway Arch is only about four hours away so we need to get moving,” Kimi ordered before opening the back door and I gently placed Aisling on the seat. “The sun will set early today so we can’t be late for the tour.”

“Alright, how about you drive Ash and I’ll catch a few more Z’s in back,” Jack said. Before I could even argue, he tossed me the keys and jumped into the backseat opposite Aisling, covering his eyes with a blindfold. I wasn’t even sure where he got it.

“I guess I get to sit up front,” Kimi mused before walking around the car and sitting down. I got behind the wheel of the car again and I guess Jack trusted me to drive at this point. I turned the key and slowly pulled out of the area we had parked in before getting back on a main road.

Kimi pulled out a map and directed me where to go. I did a lot of listening, but after my talk with Aisling the night before I didn’t know what to say to her. I couldn’t look at her without getting this feeling of fear that I would one day loose her. That maybe I couldn’t protect her no matter how strong I was. After we got on I-70, it was pretty much a straight shot to St. Louis and Kimi didn’t need to direct me anymore. As we sat, an awkward silence filled the car.

“I have something to tell you,” we both said at the same time. We looked at each other and laughed a little.

“You go first,” I told her and gave her a nod.

“I’m sorry for ruining your vacation,” Kimi apologized as she lowered her head. “It was going so well for awhile and it was my fault it went south.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I told her. “The Elementals are the ones that are causing trouble and they are only doing that because the Collector is messing everything up.”

“No, it is my fault. I don’t know what it is but I feel drawn to the other Elementals somehow and in turn they are coming to me,” she said sadly. “I knew that leaving the camp to join your family on Thanksgiving was selfish, but I wanted to see what having a family was like.”

“You could have visited Aisling and her family,” I joked. “From what I hear her dad sounds pretty cool.”

“She had offered,” Kimi trailed off. Aisling inviting her was something that I hadn’t known until just now. Kimi seemed to blush slightly before turning her head a little. “But I wanted to spend some more time with you.”

“Oh,” I said, it was all I could say. Kimi then messed with her hair quickly before turning back to me.

“So what did you want to say,” Kimi said quickly, as if trying to change the subject.

“Just that…” I began, still trying to get the gears in my head to start moving. Maybe one of the Hephaestus campers could split my head open and take a look inside to make sure I was all there. Then it felt like someone gave my brain a quick smack and words came out before I knew it. “It’s just that I really like having you here with me is all.”

Kimi brushed a strand of hair away from her face and gave me a genuine smile. It was a look I loved to see, but now it made me feel even worse. I had once again missed my chance to tell her the truth, but now wasn’t a good time anyway, not when she seemed so happy. At the very least, we were able to talk to each other again. We talked for almost an hour before Jack woke up and started telling embarrassing stories about us from grade school.

“You should have seen him,” Jack joked. “He punched that bully right out. No one thought he had it in him.”

“Just for the record, I have no memory of any of that,” I pointed out.

‘But I do…’ I heard in my mind.

“Hey, we’re almost there,” Kimi pointed out as we passed a sign that said we were only about 30 miles outside St. Louis. At the rate we were going, we would be at the Gateway Arch within the hour.