Apollo Cabin Mishaps

She'd had enough of this! Austin, Will, and Kayla had been messing with her for the past hour! She was just trying to get a few runes and then preform a protection ritual on the Hecate cabin because the Apollo campers kept sneaking in there and playing pranks! She ripped out a page and slammed down the dusty book on the table; the three Apollo campers snickered, pleased to have her angry.

Now this had gone on for a few months now because Lou Ellen just had to put the whole cabin of Apollo in togas for a day, then the pranks began. The Hecate cabin retaliated when their whole cabin was lit up from orbs of sunlight for three days. So the cabins had traded tricks, trying to get the other to surrender. But she hadn't had anything to do with that! She practically lived at the Big House nowadays because that's where the library was, but they had found her!

Now Austin, a proud member of the Apollo Cabin, had not only been acting out of revenge for his brothers and sisters, but he had also been acting out of that nine-year-old way of telling a girl that they like her. That was why he was doing it, and Kayla and he had bullied Will into it.

Tara only wished that she would get a different kind of attention from the Apollo cabineer. She always thought he was cute, and funny, and kind of ridiculously stupid. Apparently all she would get from him were snide remarks, so she just resigned herself to being crazy for liking the guy who'd been torturing her.

Tara got up from her place in the library and stalked out of the comfort of the place she liked best. Her three tormenters followed her out of it, squeezing through the small doorway. They stalked her down the hallway and out into the bright sunlight of Camp Half Blood.

"Hey, Witch!" Austin called, and she froze. "Why don't you head over to Salem! I'm sure they'd give you a warm welcome there!" Anger surged through her. This was the last straw. She turned mechanically and looked at the trio. Her pupils became so large they swallowed her eyes and turned them completely black. The Apollo's took a step back. Even Austin knew he had gone too far this time.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY OF MY ANCESTORS WERE KILLED IN THAT?! NO!" She screamed, infuriated. Green light seemed to play off of her as she began chanting. "Goddess Hecate hear my call! Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!" She raised her arms and pointed right at Austin. Magic propelled Kayla and Will away from Austin. He sank to the ground as a rat. Tara whirled with a smile and stalked back to her cabin to do the protection spell.

Kayla and Will cautiously approached the pile of clothes that used to be their cabin mate. A small rat wiggled out of the fabric. Kayla screamed and Will went pale. Campers came running and Chiron galloped around the corner. Frantic asking's of what was wrong assaulted the two remaining of the trio. Will finally pointed at the pile of clothes on top of which was a rat.

"Tara… Austin! Spell—RAT!" He managed to spill out. At the mention of spell, Austin the Rat squeaked and ran through the gathering crowd. Chaos ensued.

"Where'd he go?!" "Someone catch him!" "What's happening?" "Where's Austin?" Everyone was shouting and moving about until Chiron took action.

"NOBODY MOVE!" He bellowed over the din. Everyone froze. Chiron pointed at the ones in the back. "You, you, and you. Did you see Austin get out of the circle?" One of them nodded and Chiron sighed. "Everyone spread out. Find him before something eats him. In the meantime everyone watch where you step!" All the Apollo cabineers paled and scrambled off at the mention of before something eats him.

In all the commotion, no one thought to find Tara to reverse the spell.

Now Tara had reached her cabin and stepped inside. A few of her brothers and sisters were seated in a circle around their magic casting circle. They all glanced up at her when she came in.

"Did you get it?" Lou Ellen asked. I nodded and completed the circle. "Okay." A brother began to spread salt, a very good magic conductor, around the edges of the cabin. He brought it to the circle and made a smaller one inside ours. When he was done he sat in the circle and each of them stuck their hands into the grainy crystals. The piece of paper was passed around read. That's one good thing about being a Hecate child, one has a great memory. A few scattered spellcasters were watching this simple, but could-be volatile spell. In fact the whole cabin was there to be part of the ritual, but only a few were needed to cast the spell.

"Goddess Hecate hear our plea. Help us to make this your own protected. Let these only through the barrier." Each person in the cabin found something sharp or had a pocket knife or even bit themselves and made a small incision on their right thumb. They approached the salt lines anywhere and squeezed out a drop or so of blood each. "Only these shall pass." Though only a few drops per person were given, the blood seemed to spread throughout the salt. A line of red crystals surrounded the cabin and flowed freely around the circle. Then the real chanting began.

"Amerais das frilas cenqien merilas un poterro ken." More words came and went and each one chanting in the circle was caught in some kind of trance. The words came easily now; they knew them and what they meant even before they said them. Some sounded a bit Latin-ish, but then some didn't.

Outside Chiron knew what to do. Austin was caught just before he ran into the woods, and then there was the trouble of getting him back to human form. It was either risk calling on Hecate, who really didn't have a great temper, or cut the head off of the wit-GIRL who did it. Or just get her to reverse it. Something Will had said made Chiron rush up to the Hecate cabin in search of arrived at the intricately decorated cabin and rushed into… something strange. Some campers were chanting in the middle of the cabin. The ones that weren't rushed towards him.

"Chiron! You HAVE to get out of here! NOW!" They pushed him back outside. A thought flew through his head. What if Austin was trying to stop this and Tara turned him into a rat so he wouldn't tell?! The Hecate cabin was always so weird. He pushed his way back into the room. Red light was shining from the power center of the cabin.

"What's going on?!" He demanded.

"CHIRON GET OUT!" Three children yelled at him. He heeded their words this time and stepped out of the darkened house of Hecate. He waited for what seemed like ages until red light emanated from the windows and the door was opened by none other than Tara.

"Tara, what is going on?" He demanded to know. "And why is Austin a rat?" She chuckled slightly.

"That was just a protection spell; you don't have to worry." Chiron let out a sigh. "Austin is a rat because, well he is one. He's a dirty filthy no-good RAT!" She yelled. Chiron let out yet another sigh.

"Walk with me." He ordered. They began walking aimlessly and talking. "What did he do this time?" It was her turn to sigh.

"He called me a witch then told me to head over to Salem." She murmured. "Plus he, Will, and Kayla had been messing with me all afternoon. I wasn't doing anything to them!" She finished and stepped up onto the wooden planks of the Big House porch. "And now you want me to change him back." Chiron put both hands behind his head and leaned his human half backwards.

"That's the general idea." He answered. She sighed and stepped into the Big House. She gazed around the messy center of Camp Half Blood.

"So where is the little rat?" He didn't answer me; only walked inside the Big House, and she followed. He led her down to the extremely unsanitary Big House conference room which is just a ping-pong table without a net squeezed into the basement. On said table was a container turned upside down with a rat in it. Tara burst out laughing as he started moving the plastic tupper ware around the table from under it. Chiron shot her a glare, and she tried to sober up as best she could. It was pretty difficult.

"Can you turn him back?" Chiron asked testily.

"You doubt me, although you might want to go and get some clothes for him because he doesn't have any on…" Chiron's eyes widened, and Tara allowed herself another chuckle as he rushed out of the room. She sighed and turned back to the rat who was suspiciously scrutinizing her from under the clear plastic bowl. She pointed at him and murmured the incantation, "Goddess Hecate, hear my regret. Let the body of this boy reset!" Suddenly a naked Austin was standing in front of her.

Austin stood there thanking his lucky stars that he was short enough to have the table cover what would probably scar Tara for life. Tara was ignoring his current clothes situation and glaring at him in a way that can only be described as Tara.

"Tara?" He held his hand up in a defensive manner. "Tara, look; I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that stuff, and I shouldn't have been bothering you at all." Tara kicked up her chin, and narrowed her eyes, suspecting another prank. "The truth is Tara… I really like you. Like, like like you."

Tara stood there, stunned. He liked her? What? Did he know she liked him? Is that why he was doing this, to get back at her? He seemed genuine but… In spite of herself a warm smile lit up her face; Austin always loved it when she smiled.

"You mean it?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "I would hug you or something, but I'm kind of naked." Tara's gaze dropped to whatever she could see of his body. It was actually very nice. "Do you want to, I don't know, go on a date tomorrow?"

"U-um, sure," Tara said across the table. Chiron came in and gave him clothes. He swiftly put on his clothes meanwhile giving Tara a nice view.

"He's clear!" Chiron shouted and Apollo campers flooded the basement. Instantly the young Hecate daughter tried to blend in with the cheap white wall paint and made it out of there alive. Imagine, a roomful of Apollo campers and not one stopped to tease her! It must a world record…

.

Several whoops and exclamations of joy were heard from the Big House. Austin was instantly smothered by his siblings, and he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Tara or to even acknowledge her existence after all the Apollo cabineers jammed themselves into the tiny space Camp Half Blood called a meeting room. Austin briefly wondered: how in Hades did they all fit?

After much consideration he chose NOT to tell his siblings about his 'date' with the Hecate girl. No need for them to know. None at all. He knew they would just ruin it for him.

.

Tara waited, twisting a piece of hair back and forth relentlessly under her thumb and forefinger. Her foot nudged the sand around as she waited for her date. She looked out over the sound and bit her lip. What if it really was just a clever ploy to make her look stupid? She frowned and stopped torturing her hair. Five more minutes, she thought. No sooner had five minutes come and go several times before she spotted Austin making a mad dash towards her. She perked up immediately and waved. He stopped in front of her and doubled over, heaving breath after breath.

"I *breath* know *breath* I'm *breath* late!" He gulped in a few more buckets of air and turned with a smile to Tara. "Sorry." She punched him lightly in the arm.

"Maybe next time I won't wait as long," she warned. He smiled brightly and saluted.

"Yes, ma'am!" He barked. Tara let out a series of short giggles and started walking. He fell into step beside her. "So what kind of… magic can you do?" He asked tentatively, knowing it was still a touchy subject for them.

"I can do all sorts of stuff. I can levitate stuff, conjure two out of four elements, and as you can attest, when I'm extremely angry I can turn people into rats."

"So how come you could turn me back? I mean, you couldn't have still been that mad at me!" She laughed at waved her hand.

"Reverse spells are so much easier than regular spells. It's turning you from an unknown form back into yourself. I've got more to work with."

"I think I get it," he nodded. "You wanna see something cool?" He asked Tara excitedly. She warily nodded in return and he grabbed her hand. "Let's go!" He dashed towards the forest, and she inwardly groaned. She was wearing flip-flops for gods' sake!

The couple dashed through the woods; Tara trailing behind Austin. Soon enough (Although it didn't seem like it to Tara), they broke through the throng of trees into a small, not a clearing, but more a niche in the foliage. Two trees curved together to make a small loveseat on the forest floor. The roots intertwined around a large flat rock. The trees met overhead and blocked out any stray rays of sun that just so happened to be passing by. Entranced by the magical qualities, she floated over to the small thicket and took a seat on the weathered stone. She glanced down and noticed that several names with hearts around them were etched into the rock.

"Popular Apollo hangout?" She asked, recognizing some of the names. He smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"It's where all the couples go. I thought we might try it. If you don't like it, it doesn't matter. I mean there are always different place we could go. I know how girls like to walk on the beach and stuff…" He looked like he would rather listen to Percy singing opera, but he was willing to do anything she wanted to do.

"Austin!" She sputtered. "Shut up! It's perfect!" A broad smile bloomed across the Apollo's face as he sat down next to her. An awkward silence lasting two minutes followed.

"So…" Tara started.

"Ummm… I want to… try," He began and for lack of a better word continued with a, "something." Tara tensed, knowing. Women's intuition and all. Austin's sweaty teenage boy-hand crept up to lay on top of Tara's as he leaned in ever so close to her face. Tara's eyebrows twitched, wanting to lean in and connect their lips. With every millimeter, she grew more impatient.

"Austin," she panted, staring past his nose to those lips. "Hurry up and kiss me." Austin blushed profusely before he closed the space in between their heads. Their lips connected, and Tara's heart exploded in a rapid beating mess.

To say that their first kiss was perfect, would have been an overstatement. But neither of them were quite experienced in that area so it was all the same to them. Just the fact that both of them, rivals to begin with, were sitting in a magical niche in the forest kissing was good enough for sparks to fly.

And oh, sparks flew.

Tara's lips, Austin noted, were rough and dry. She picked on her lips a lot in anxiety. But, he also noticed, he didn't mind. He actually thought it was kind of a turn on because it was such a contrast to his own perfectly cared for lips and he liked it! Their heads turned further, deepening the kiss ever so slightly to where Tara could feel his heavy breathing splash across the left side of her face. His lips were just as soft as they looked, she discovered and very much liked. Somehow Tara found Austin's hand pawing at her waist, her own hand sliding through his hair.

And their peaceful little bubble would only last for another fraction of a second.

Cameras wizzed, popped, and flashed. Sons of Apollo jumped out of the green obscurity. Laughs and yells erupted from the foliage around them, and they instantly broke apart. The Apollo campers swarmed them, throwing laughs Tara's way and haphazardly chucking around comments on how 'easy' Hecate Cabin girls must be.

Slowly the look of shock on the young spell caster's face turned to one of utter horror. Adding a dash of anger and a hint of hysteria, she turned with tears in her eyes to the one person she thought she trusted. Austin was still staring with a grim look of knowing on his face.

"A-Austin?" She asked, afraid to hear what would come next. The sun was setting on Camp Half Blood, shining an orange light over the scene but everyone was too high on emotions to stop and look at the sunset. Austin turned to her with a look of utter dread. Oh gods, what had happened? How did they find out?

"I-I," he croaked. Another cabineer butted in.

"Caught you with starry eyes for my bro here," he held up with camera just enough to let her see the photo of them kissing. "So we developed a plan to win this prank war on your cabin. What would you do to have this thing NOT circle around camp?" He grinned mischievously while a chorus of laughter was heard in the background. To Tara the laughter was hollow, just more noise. Her attention was then focused on the other person in the compromising picture.

"So this was all just a prank?" She asked timidly. When Austin was too stunned to answer, her anger spiked. "A FUCKING PRANK?! Why did I ever listen to you, you damn APOLLO!? I TRUSTED YOU! I LIKED YOU! PAST TENSE MOTHER FUCKER!" She screamed. The cheers and jeers silenced. All eyes were on Tara and Austin as the former turned and glared at all the campers in her way. Immediately a path opened for her and she bolted into the forest, not a second thought.

Silence reigned for a minute before Austin's mind caught up to speed. The rest of the other Apollo campers just stood awkwardly like they were just then realizing that yeah, people DO have feelings.

"I think we took it to far…" A random voice said. A girl.

"YOU FUCKING THINK!" Austin screamed, his face turning red. "FOR FUCKS SAKE WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING!" His siblings took up an intense study of the dust at their feet. "And she gone to the forest, she could get hurt!" Austin said in a lower tone, still mad as hell. He stalked to the edge of the mass when a hand grabbed his arm.

"Let me go with you," one of his siblings implored. He ripped his arm out of her grip.

"Haven't you done enough?" He spat and stalked into the trees.

The search for Tara lasted all night and into the early hours of the morning before Chiron dragged Austin to the mess hall to get some food. Austin insisted that he wasn't hungry; that he just wanted to find Tara, but Chiron also insisted. Chiron had deployed everyone in the camp (minus Mr. D) to look for the lost camper.

And as time passed the search became even more desperate.

They tried using Iris messages to call her to no avail. Her siblings tried to track her down through magic they didn't care to explain to Austin. They were at a loss of what to do.

.

Tara didn't know how long she stumbled before her tears became too much for her. She sat down, letting her tears fall. Her hands bunched up the hem of her dress in frustration and anger. Why? Why her? Why then? Her balled up fist came down over the rotten log she sat on.

"Oh, why did I have to wear a white dress!" She exclaimed. Her dress was smeared with dirt, torn in some places and her hair! Oh gods, her hair! She sighed and looked around. Screw Austin. What did he know? She wasn't going to be a crying puddle of magic because he decided to make an ill-timed joke. She sighed and wandered back to way she came.

The sun slowly rose over the horizon, but this time someone was there to enjoy it. Tara sat for a few minutes on a high branch just admiring the universe. She didn't realize how much time had passed. Really how much.

.

He was determined not to cry as he straightened his tie. It suddenly felt like a noose. He couldn't stand how long it took for Chiron to get to the makeshift podium. He couldn't stand the shimmering green sheet meticulously arranged over wood and hay that served as her body they never found. He couldn't stand how the smoke showed images of her, courtesy of the Hecate spell casters. He couldn't stand funerals. Not even Tara's. The Apollo cabin was rightfully forced to sit in the back, and Austin had hastily declined the offer to speak; he didn't deserve to defile her last remembrance with his filthy words. The rest of the camp resented the Apollo cabin. It was their fault. They did it.

After three weeks of fruitless searching, messaging, and asking Rachel, they didn't want to accept the facts. No one wanted to believe that nice, quiet, bookish Tara was gone. But they had to face the truth of the matter. Tara was dead.

Or so they thought.

.

The young demi-god walked through the deserted camp, wondering where everyone was. Green smoke rose to the West so that was where she headed. As she got closer to the amphitheater, the green smoke began to resemble pictures. Of her. Her eyes bugged out, and her heart stopped. The only other smoke-like ceremony held in the Greek form of a theater was Percy's funeral.

Okay. Her breathing sped to hyperventilation. Everyone though she was dead. How? It couldn't have just been one night ago that I stormed off, she concluded. I must have been so mad and hurt that I tore a hole in time and stepped forward maybe, three weeks, she figured. Oops. It wasn't hard to imagine either. So many spells probably wore down the fabric of existence over time, and with her sudden outburst of energy, it must have collapsed. She was just lucky it wasn't 2075 or something.

Her mind began reeling. She couldn't just walk into her own funeral! When Percy showed up at his… all Hades broke loose. Annabeth, like, punched him! She briefly wondered if Austin would smack her, but then dispelled the idea almost immediately. He wouldn't even get close enough to look at her let alone touch her. So what was she to do? She couldn't very well just wait for the Hecate cabin in their room could she? Just then it dawned on her how fun she could truly make this. How cool would it be if she could make Camp Half-Blood believe they were seeing a ghost? Oh the best and final prank in the prank war was about to begin. Oh yes.

Austin let the few tears that had gathered in his eyes fall to the sheets. She was gone. And he couldn't handle it. He let loose a few wild punches to the wall and bent his head low. A strangled sob came out of his throat, and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned with grief-stricken eyes to his brother Will.

"I'm sorry. No, we're sorry. We all feel terrible about what happened. We know you really liked her," he said softly before he couldn't take the look in his brother's eyes. His gaze drifted until it picked up on something white outside the window. "Dude…" he whispered before darting to the window, and only then catching a fleeting glimpse of a figure dashing away in a white, albeit raggedy, dress.

"What is it?" Austin asked. Will shook his head.

"S'nothing," Will answered, trouble by what he saw. He could have sworn he just saw Tara dart into the trees.

.

"Chiron we have to do something!" Will insisted. "Everyone is seeing Tara everywhere!" Austin was sitting in a small plastic chair, holding his head in his hands.

"Tara is dead!" Katie hissed.

"We know! That's why we're all so afraid!" Will hissed back at her. "And far worse she seems to have targeted the Apollo cabin! We haven't gotten any sleep in three days—ever since the funeral!"

"Tara can't target anyone because she's DEAD! No one could survive three weeks in the forest! Not even Percy or Annabeth!" she insisted.

"Okay, sure. But something is targeting us! We'll wake up and we'll see Tara in the mirror and when we look back, she's gone! Or we'll see her out our windows at night, and Austin even saw her standing over him, watching him in his sleep. Then she just smiled and slowly backed out of the room like she knew something he didn't," Will explained. Chiron paled and brought his hand to his head.

"I've seen her too," he said. "I thought it was just grief, but now I think it might be something else." He turned to the few puffy-eyed Hecate siblings. "Does this have something to do with magic?" They wearily shook their heads in a wordless no. "What are we going to do?" He asked to no one.

.

Tara dusted her hands off, pleased with her work. While she waited for darkness to come, she pondered what she had learned over the past few days. She smiled when her mind crossed the fact that Austin really liked her. Warmth spread through her quickly, and she smiled brightly. Turned out it was the Apollo cabin after all that tried to blackmail them and shit. Oh what she had I store for them!

She gutted the squirrel and watched the blood pour just so over her dress. The little bastard tried to eat her dinner that she swiped from the Camp's mess hall. It played perfectly into her plan though. She tightened the rope one last time. This one was for Austin.

.

Austin just couldn't sleep. The freaking love of his life was haunting him! Yes. He was sure he was in love with her now. He knew it didn't matter anyhow, with her being dead and all, but he thought he'd make it official. He loved her. He shook his head and got up. He couldn't sleep. He padded out into the night, realizing it wasn't as cold as he had anticipated. His steps took him down to the beach.

He could almost hear her saying 'next time I might not wait as long'. She sure would wait a long time now. Forever. Waiting on the beach for him to come and apologize for being such a bastard. He sighed and dropped his head into his hands.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered. "I'm sorry!" He yelled to no one in particular. Actually, yes, it was to Tara. He waited for a moment and stared at the round, plump moon.

"Austin…" he heard in a soft whisper carried by the wind. His head whipped towards the woods. It dragged on for a bit longer that time, "Austin…" He stood up, and took one step towards the woods. "Austin!" He was sprinting then. His swift, strong bounds took him towards the soft voice he was hearing. The voice he knew couldn't be there. The voice he knew sounded in pain.

He came upon their little niche, but it was anything but that peaceful place they had gone on a date to. Tara laid, with a pained expression, on the stump with the Apollo couples names carved in it. Blood seeped down her front and covered the lovely stump. The blood pooled in the crudely carved names, highlighting them.

"Austin, please…" she whimpered, playing her part out well. Austin tripped over himself to get closer to her. This was real… he could feel it. Suddenly his foot caught on something and he was pulled upside down. He let out the loudest, most girly scream he could muster, but only half of it came out before bloody hand came down on his mouth.

"T-Tara?" He stuttered, scared shitless. Adrenaline was racing through his veins. This was straight out of all those horror movies Chiron told him not to watch.

"Shhhhh, Austin. Be quiet," Tara whispered. She rested her forehead on his. "Shhhhh." Suddenly Austin started laughing. Laughing hysterically. Tara sighed and let him down. "Austin, you're beginning to act crazier than me!" He stared up at her with a dazed expression.

"How'd you do it?" He asked. She snorted.

"You made me so mad that I ripped a hole in time with magic and stepped into three weeks in the future. Then I figured if I'm dead to you, might as well have some fun so I reenacted scenes from like, six different horror films, and we ended up here," she shrugged. Austin wrapped his hand around hers and leaned his head on her knees.

"The blood?" He asked.

"Passing squirrel unlucky enough to try and steal my food," she said. He let out a short laugh as Tara let him down. He whispered her name once before crushing his lips to hers. His hands roamed up and down her body, making sure she was all the way solid. This was really real, he told himself. They broke away, panting.

"Tara, I love you," he blurted out. She let out a shaky laugh and pecked him on the cheek.

"Maybe I should die more often; it certainly seems it does wonders for our relationship," she joked. Austin's face darkened, and Tara was backed up against a tree.

"Never. Ever. Do that to me again, you hear?" His hands never left her body as he slid them up her waist, up her torso, and down her arms to hold her hands. "I don't ever want that to happen again." She sighed.

"Then don't make me bloody furious!" She exclaimed. He blushed.

"When did you get all British?"

"When did you get all blushy?" She retorted. She sighed. "Time for the real scary part." Hand in hand, they walked back to Camp Half Blood. "By the way, I wouldn't go back to the Apollo Cabin until dawn."

"Why?"

"They'll likely be wetting their pants."

"What did you do?"

.

Will rubbed his eyes sleepily, wondering what time it was. That's funny… where was his clock? And there was an odd eerie red glow in the back of the room. He glanced over and froze. Every single one of the cabin's digital clocks was tied in a ball, hanging from the ceiling.

"What the… Kayla!" He hissed. "Do you see this?" A groggy Kayla rubbed her eyes and sat up, her hair a raggedy mess.

"What are you whining about now, Austin?" she slurred. "Go back to sleep." Will received a chill up his spine and was thoroughly awake.

"No, no… wait. Do you hear that?" A crackling noise came from the general vicinity of the ceiling. A child's voice floated down from the dark.

Can't even shout and won't cry

No one else is coming by

Looking in windows and locking the doors

They gotta have voices so they're taking yours

Can't call for help and you can't say a word

You're gunna die screaming but you won't be heard

All the campers were awake by the second line, murmuring questions. As soon as the song ended, Will felt a tight hand close over his throat, and he screamed. No sound reached his ears. He panicked and swung his leg over the side of his bed. Light came on in a sudden motion, and through the windows ghastly faces could be seen.

The faces were deathly pale, grey almost, and their eyes shone black. Their skin was wrinkled and pock-marketed with decay. The left cheek of one face was green and rotting off. The mouths curled up in cruel smiles, but they were sewn together with black thread. As each Apollo camper jumped up and ran silently screaming, their mouths opened up further, the black strings stretching across their mouths until they snapped. They were laughing.

The campers frantically tugged on the doors, staying clear of the windows. They couldn't get them open; they were locked. They all ran for cover, screaming but not making any sound.

Outside, Tara and Austin were peering in through a magicked window, laughing.