The Bane of Olympus, Chapter One

I hate Visions, especially when an evil goddess pays you a visit in one.

Yo, I'm James McAim, son of Apollo, ghost of Camp Half-Blood, etc. Yeah, I'm dead. Deal with it. I've been dead for going on a year now. Ever since I helped save the camp from an army of DemiTitans and got stabbed in the back (literally), my spirit has been haunting the camp.

I was drifting between the Aphrodite and Hephaestus cabins, watching as the Hecate kids pulled a practical joke by making the Aphrodite cabin look like the Hades Cabin, and vice versa. I could hear the saxophone wailing from the Apollo cabin, and I saw one of those Hermes kids playing on a DS. The Nemesis kids were having a heated debate about the Kony 2012 issue, and the Hephaestus campers' buzzsaws were shrieking. A normal day.

Then I felt the chill.

I was drawn toward the lake, where a tall woman in a red dress stood atop the waves. Where her feet touched, the waves turned black, as if with oil. One side of her was covered in shadow, the other shrivelled and mummified like a corpse. In her hand was a black rod, topped with a glowing gemstone.

"Hello, James," the goddess purred, her black hand fingering the diamond. "It is good to see my latest..... subject." I got the feeling that she meant "possession."

I just stared, feeling revolted and drawn to her at the same time, as I always did. Yeah, I knew who she was. She was Melinoe, the goddess who had trapped my spirit here when I died. Ever since, I had been unable to move, eat, sleep, or talk to anyone. I just floated around, watching and spying for Melinoe.

I hated her. I wanted the gouge out those mismatched eyes of hers with my nonexistant hands and feed them to her. But I couldn't.

Melinoe smiled at me, as if I was an amusing kitten she owned.

"In time, James, everything that has happened to you shall make sense," she promised. "In the meantime, I will keep you here, and you shall continue to keep watch over this camp until I come for you again. When that time comes, you and Nolan Swift shall be my champions and I shall be your Queen." Her eyes glowed both glowed red, and her voice contained that of every lost soul who was in her grasp. "You shall go on the quest that is supposed to stop me, and you shall sabotage it. Make sure none of them survive, and in return, I shall give you what you most desire: a body." With that, she vanished in shadow.

I hate you, I thought with all my might. Ihateyouihateyouihateyouihateyouihateyouihateyou.

I was reminded of a song from Phantom of the Opera.

Past the point of no return....