KAI

The world was ending as I knew it.

A building was enveloped in fire, screams and loud shrieks erupting from both inside and outside the structure. This was the same building that had appeared in my vision earlier today, in the long montage of events. This discovery explained what I saw afterwards, though not completely.

A fifty-foot tall giant loomed over a version of me, the Kai in said vision carrying a chain in his left hand and Scorcher in his right. A fiery vortex surrounded him as this Kai began levitating above the ground. The cavern ceiling began to shake as chunks of rock were spun and thrown around the cave as if a tornado had appeared.

Then, a new highlight was added to the already overwhelming montage. Ginormous presences sat atop thrones, of which they were about twenty-one, each designed differently. There was no doubt in my mind that this was Olympus, though I wasn't sure how it related to me.

Olympus disappeared as I was now spectating a dark city, waves of zombie creatures fast approaching the five of us and Timmy. A sickly blond woman stood next to Rose as a giant presence loomed in the background.

A loud snipping sound traveled through my ears as I awoke.

I was presently in a long cell, one that was the size of an average room, with long metal bars that stretched from the top of the cage to the bottom.

Rose sat to my left, her head against the greasy wall of the cell and her legs crossed. She wore handcuffs around each of her wrists which were linked together by a spiked chain. She was facing towards the bars of the cell before turning towards me.

"You good?" Rose asked.

I shook my head. "Well it seems we're in a prison cell, so I'm gonna have to say no. Where even are we?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. I woke up like fifteen minutes ago and all I hear is people panting hard and footsteps clomping against the ground, like they've been exercising or fighting or something."

"Great. So we're trapped in Planet Fitness? I swear I've had a nightmare like this…"

"You have nightmares about everything, Kai."

"Touché," I muttered. "So, what do we do? What's our plan of escape?"

"I don't know, Kai. The last thing I remember was being tranqued when fighting Olivia and her GHOSTs. I presume we're at one of the many GHOST facilities across the world."

"Yeah that'd explain the fighting and panting you heard. The GHOSTs are probably training."

"Amethyst and the others are probably really worried," I added on after a bit of silence.

Rose nodded. "Mhm. They're probably looking for us as we speak, or they think we're still out for food."

"So-"

Before I could finish what I was about to say, Aldric, with his eccentric, pompous voice, interrupted. "Why hello there."

"Man, after all the stuff you pulled, you don't get to make that reference," I spat.

Aldric laughed. "Ah, I see you've both woken up. How are you guys feeling?"

"Where are we, Aldric?" Rose asked, not bothering to answer his question.

"In one of the most secure GHOST facilities, located in Venice," he answered. "In a few hours time, you two will be sent on the long trip to Athens. There, you'll likely be killed as a sacrifice so Erebos can rise."

I grunted in anger as I tried thrusting my hand forward to conjure a fire blast, only to realize that I was powerless.

Aldric chuckled again. "You really thought that we didn't try and disable your powers? Your handcuffs are made of a special element that disables demigod abilities. You essentially can't do anything."

"We'll see about that one, Nerd Boy," I said. "My friends are definitely on the lookout for us, so you got a world of hurt coming your way."

That sounded a lot better in my head, but I stood by what I said.

"I can't wait. In the meantime, enjoy the pleasantries of captivity. You won't be here long, so make the most of it."

With that, Aldric gave us a wave as he moved away from our cell.

"Gods I wanna punch that guy," I muttered.

"Same," Rose agreed.

I sat back against the wall, gradually going into a slump as I laid against the cold, hard prison floor. "What do we do?"

"You've asked me that question twice now, Kai, and my answer is still the same: I don't know."

"It wasn't directed to you, it was more of a rhetorical question," I said, taking a deep breath in and out.

I ran some scenarios in my head, trying to find some conceivable escape route. I had been locked into a few prisons in my time, but they had all been Capture the Flag ones, so that lessened any real credibility to my plans. My only idea so far was getting hold of a phone and calling Amethyst, but the GHOSTs were all demigods and likely didn't carry a phone with them.

"So, what did you see in your dream?" Rose asked, disrupting my train of thought.

"How did you know I had a bad dream?"

"Kai, you act differently when you have a bad dream as opposed to when you don't. Just tell me."

I relayed the visions I had seen to Rose.

"What does all of that mean?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know. The Olympus sequence was the only one I understood, and I don't feel good about how that was portrayed in the dream. From what it looks like, the battle to free Hecate will be pretty difficult, though I already knew that. The Olympus one might imply that we all make it through the Summer Solstice and beat Erebos. At least there's some hope right?"

"Yeah, I wish," Rose muttered.

I furrowed my brow. "What do you mean by 'I wish'?"

"No, it's-it's nothing."

"Really?"

"Look, you're probably right. I don't know how else we'd be at Olympus, so we'll probably be fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Anyone ever told you how bad of a liar you are?"

Rose shook her head in annoyance. "I don't want to talk about it, Kai."

"You refusing to answer won't make your problem go away, you know that, right?"

She sighed deeply, thinking to herself before speaking. "Fine. Tomorrow, er, when we're supposed to face Erebos - I'm… I'm…"

She stuttered on the last few words, taking a big gulp as she struggled to say what she wanted to.

"What? I'm what?"

Another gulp as she finally said, "I'm supposed to die, Kai."

"Wait, what?"

"There was one line in the prophecy that I never told you or anyone else about," Rose continued, getting choked up. "'The daughter of Hecate shall fall into darkness' midst'."

So there had been one more line in the prophecy. I had suspected she was leaving out info about the prophecy, but I didn't think it was something like this.

I felt terrible. Rose had just gotten off the streets three months ago and found a new family at camp, and now she was destined to die.

"Well," I said, trying to figure out how to put a positive spin on the situation. "That doesn't necessarily mean you're going to die. Maybe you fall into the Underworld, or-"

"No, Kai! It means I'm supposed to fall into Erebos' grasp, and his sole goal the last three months has been about killing me! There's no feasible way that I don't die tomorrow!"

I fell silent.

"It's over, Kai," Rose said quietly. She wiped the tears off her face with her sleeve as she stabilized her panicked breathing. "And there's no getting around it or stopping it."

Rose then buried her face in her hands, her statement ringing through the air as none of us spoke, it being so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I thought of some sort of hokey, inspirational speech to lift her spirits up, but I knew from experience that pep talks don't overcome the mental problems that impending death presents. It's just toxic positivity done wrong, and lacks any of the pragmatism a topic like this should be handled with.

So I dug deep into my own struggles with this, namely my curse.

As a young ten year old boy, I was told by my mom that I would die of my own powers all thanks to Hephaestus. The Tower of Pisa-looking volcano god had gotten into a squabble with my dad, Apollo, and as a result of this argument, I was cursed with immense fire power that would one day betray me.

This news saddened my young self, as I often spent days alone in my room and on the verge of tears. Amethyst tried so hard to help me by reassuring me of my future and all the stuff I would get to do, but none of it helped. In my mind, I would die before I got to do all that fun stuff or have a future. That behavior continued for a solid month, and I really felt at my lowest point. I felt alone, I felt worthless, and I felt as if I had no control over my life, that fate and destiny themselves had already decided how my life would go.

Then I went to Camp Half-Blood. That first day when Amethyst and I were dropped off by our mom was the best day in my life, period. I remember starting that day as gloomy and doomy as usual, then seeing the beauty of camp. The tour I had with Lee Fletcher was magical, and in that time, I had forgotten all about my curse. I was greeted by the Apollo cabin and quickly taken in, finding a new home. Of course, thoughts of my curse and death arose every now and again, but I was more than equipped to handle it.

Meeting Alexander a year later and spending so much time with him also helped me cope with the curse, as I now sort of accepted it. Demigods were supposed to die early in life anyway, so why care too much, right? I wasn't going to let some curse prevent me from having fun or most importantly, living life.

What I was going to tell Rose was something I wish my ten year old self had heard long before I went to camp. Advice that wasn't exactly inspirational or uplifting, but advice that was truthful and helped me through a really low point in my life.

"Rose, I know what it's like having your destiny tampered with and thrown around like some play toy, and I know that it's not easy to go through that. But you can't give up hope. I know you believe that you're gonna die tomorrow, but there's still a chance that you might not. It's not really over for you yet until you actually die. Don't let pessimism overwhelm and cloud your thoughts as it did to me years ago. If you truly do meet your fate tomorrow, then there is nothing you can do but use your time well, and spend your last moments with a smile on your face. Don't be the person who dies with the regret that they wasted their last few moments."

I continued. "When I was ten years old, I was ready to accept my fate. In fact, I remember having thoughts wishing that the curse would kill me the next day. But it took a visit to camp and some thinking to realize that if the Fates have wished this upon you, then there's nothing you can do about it. Life's not fair, especially not when you're a demigod. And I find that worrying about something you can't control is just detrimental in the long run. Have fun with whatever time you have left."

Rose got her head out of her hands as she listened more intently. I didn't stop there though. "Y'know, those feelings, those thoughts, they haven't left me. I have nights where I look up and think, 'I might die tomorrow', and spend the rest of the night feeling sad. But then I wake up the next day and think, 'screw it, I'm going to have fun today'. You got one more day left, Rose, and you have the chance to go out with a bang by freeing your mom and saving the world. I might have one day left, Geneva might have one day left, Amethyst and Alexander too. Until then, who cares, right?"

Rose took a shaky breath and smiled at me meekly. "Thanks, Kai. I-I really needed that."

For a brief moment, we locked eyes, before hearing footsteps close by.

We looked away quickly, diverting our attention to the GHOST member that stood in front of our cell.

"Aye, lovebirds," they said. "Wanna keep it down?"

Just as I was about to tell the guy to buzz off, I noticed something in his pocket. It was an old smartphone, one that would be capable of calling a person, namely Amethyst.

Rose gave me a quick glance, having spotted the phone as well, and we both nodded. Hopefully we were on the same wavelength.

"How about no?" I countered.

The GHOST member's face quickly scrunched up. "Oh, really? Need I remind you who's locked up in a cell?"

"Need I remind you that ophthalmologists exist? 'Cause if you think what you look like now is good, you must be seeing things incorrectly."

The guard angrily grabbed a spear from his back and held it forwards. "What'd you say to me, you piece of crap?"

"Nothing! I was just- I was just, playing jokes, y'know! It's-It's just a prank, bro!" I feigned panickedly.

The guard retracted his spear, though his angry expression remained.

"Look, I'm just really tired, I'm really hungry, and I'm really sorry," I said apologetically, trying to contain my laughter.

"Uh-hu. Anything else to add to that list?"

I desperately wanted to add something about being in need of a psychologist to stop his delusions, but I just said, "Yeah. I have this really big itch on my nose, and I feel like if it's not scratched in the next five seconds, I might explode."

"Fine," the guard groaned. He again poked his spear through the bars, this time lightly grazing the tip of my nose with his spear. This was when Rose needed to make her move.

"Now does that suffice?" the guard asked.

I nodded. "Thanks, man. Have a good one. And, uh, remember about the ophthalmologist!"

The guard walked away from our cell and down the hallway, as I looked at his pockets once more only to find that his phone was now gone.

I turned to Rose, who was now carrying the smartphone in her hands.

"Good job," I said, sitting right next to her.

The lock screen of the phone was this picture of an orange with a mouth and eyes. The time, which was 9:44 PM, was placed around the top of the lock screen, the date underneath. It was June 20th, a day before the solstice.

Rose swiped her finger up and the phone unlocked to a home screen filled with like, six apps total. She opened up the Phone app and went to the Keypad feature.

"Here, enter Amethyst's number," she said, passing me the device.

I nodded and quickly punched Amethyst's number into the keypad. The phone began ringing, and after about ten seconds of this, the call stopped, instead forwarding us to voicemail.

After the beep, I said, "Hey guys. Kind of locked up in a cell. You know, the usual. Right now, we're in a GHOST facility in Venice, so, uh, feel free to swing by. Y'know, before both Rose and I die at the hands of Erebos. No rush though. See ya whenever."

The voicemail ended there and I tucked the phone in my pocket.

"Man, it's really 9 o'clock?" Rose asked. "We've been out for hours!"

"Yeah, we really have. Those tranq darts got us good."

From afar, I heard a soft rumble of an engine as cold air blasted through the facility. Being a son of Apollo, I didn't really notice the temperature change, but I knew it changed when Rose began shivering wildly, her teeth chattering and goosebumps growing on her arms.

I took off my red jacket and handed it to her. "Here, take this."

She wrapped herself in my jacket as if it was a blanket and sat up against the wall, closing her eyes as she got ready to sleep.

I looked up at the roof of the cell, knowing I probably wouldn't be getting a good amount of sleep and therefore not trying.

Rose's head suddenly fell onto my shoulder and she began snoring.

A small smile came to my face, as I got comfy, figuring I'd need to get some sleep too.

As I closed my eyes, I made a silent prayer, hoping our friends would find us in time and that we could defeat Erebos tomorrow.