It seems to me that the dead only return for love or for revenge.

who did you come back for?

HELEN OYEYEMI, from "White Is for Witching"

Black.

That was all she could see.

Cher didn't know how long she'd been here.

Cher didn't even know where here was.

One second she was standing in front of the gods and the next she was being pulled up.

Pulled higher and higher yet she couldn't see anything.

She tried to move her head but she couldn't.

She kept being pulled straight up for Aphrodite knows how long.

Then she stopped.

It was abrupt considering how fast she was going, her head snapped up and her body jerked.

Time slowed and it felt as if she were underwater, her body suspended in empty space. She felt like she was enveloped by a silvery substance. Not water. No, this was thinner and seemed to coat her body completely. Cher couldn't breathe but she still felt alive, it was as if she wasn't supposed to breathe.

Her hair floated around her face, her entire body paralyzed as though in fear. Cher didn't know what was happening but she couldn't feel anything. It felt like she was locked away at the back of her mind, watching through the windows that were her eyes but all she could see was darkness.

And fear flooded her subconscious, the part of her that was alive was so afraid, Cher thought she might shrivel up and die of fear.

Fear. The word had lost its meaning for Cher once. When she was eight and arrived at camp, bruised and bloodied, the satyr sent out for her guidance nowhere to be seen. Blood on her hands, blood soaking her shirt. Some of it hers, some of it not. She had gone to hell and back, fear was too weak to face her.

Not anymore it seems.

Halted there, frozen, Cher doesn't know how long she was there, it felt like years, and she wanted to try and claw her way out of this darkness. To will her pink fire to her fingertips but it did not come. Her powers were iced away in a different part of her body, far away from her. Cher's body was no longer hers to control, it had taken her captive and didn't seem to be letting her go any time soon.

When Cher used her pink ice, it felt thrilling, to have those cold chills climb up her spine and for her enemies to tremble at the mere sight of her power. This was nowhere near that feeling. This ice was colder, and so much crueler.

Cher had tried screaming but every time she opened her mouth, nothing came out.

And then she waited and waited.

Tears stream down her face as if they were the only mercy granted to her, so she won't explode from her emotions.

She wept and she wept, endless iridescent tears that glowed in the darkness and were her only comfort.

Cher remained stuck for hours that seemed like years.

Until finally her hair stopped floating and dropped down, her arms and legs previously suspended in the air were now free to move, only her waist still as rigid as previously.

Cher blinked, she still couldn't see anything. She felt a tug at her waist.

And then she fell.

Cher couldn't bear to close her eyes, after so long in the darkness even the sheer velocity of her fall couldn't stop her from gazing at her surroundings with tears in her eyes.

Cher's body twisted and turned in the air, darkness turning into white.

Clouds, she realised, and Cher was finally beginning to realise what it was that had been done to her.

Her body flipped over from the force of breaking through barriers and Cher screamed at the sight of land getting nearer and nearer and her fall getting faster.

She could hardly hear her own scream that high up.

Cher could feel the heat. White-hot heat, ripping through her body.

Her surroundings faded away and all she could focus on was the searing pain.

Cher writhed in the air, still free falling but she couldn't focus on anything but the pain spreading through her body. She felt like she was on fire.

Cher hadn't realised that land wasn't so far away now and before long, she'd gotten a face full of dirt at lightning speed and a bright pink light blasted all around her.

Cher didn't have the time to think much about it but she was sure the bright pink light was her mother trying to help because all the burning pain had dissipated and miraculously Cher hadn't broken any bones from her grim fall.

Cher's ears were ringing and a dull throbbing pain formed at the front of her forehead. Her body was sore. Everywhere. Cher could hear faint gasps, footsteps and shouts.

Get the fuck up on your feet Cher Delacroix, you are not weak.

Get up.

Her mind shouted at her but her body wouldn't co operate.

Make it cooperate.

Get.

UP.

She gathered the strength to blink and opened her eyes, her legs finally obeying her command to work.

She looked around and found herself in a deep crater, made by her fall she realised.

Cher struck a hand onto the ledge, dirt lodging itself underneath her fingernails and onto her clothes. She climbed out as if she were climbing out directly from the pits of Tartarus.

 Cher Delacroix hauled herself to her feet surrounded by demigods right in the heart of the camp.

And her power crackled under her skin, begging to be used after being left dormant for so long. Cher finally relaxed as the warmth of her fire filled her fingertips and the kiss of her ice froze her heart once more.

Cher Delacroix looked a horrified Chiron straight in the eye as if she'd just taken a nap and now she was ready to kill all those who wronged her.

The earth practically trembled as Cher Delacroix stepped onto it once more and the sky let out a breath of relief as if it could not have been more relieved to know she was finally out of it. The breeze stopped, and all went deadly silent. One sound and it would set her off.

"Impossible..." The hero trainer's words died in his throat as he looked at the little girl he once knew, who had finally emerged from the ashes like a Phoenix ready to catch on fire again.

This time, she'd take them all with her.