Annabeth's pov:

I skipped through most of the pages, only looking to find the pages about memory. To my horror, the pages were completely blank, there was nothing to do with memory, the pages a crisp white.

"What?" I said aloud, blinking a few times to see if my eyes weren't working. That didn't work, and I spent five minutes trying to conjure up the words, but to no avail.

The door swung open, and I turned towards the sudden noise. Malcolm, and a bunch of other Athena kids came rushing in here. Right, I thought. It's bedtime.

"What's with that book?" Malcolm pointed at the now mostly scrunched up book.

"Nothing," I put it under my pillow, shaking my head for reassurance. The book was of no importance to Malcolm, so I figured showing him would be wasting my time.

Malcolm raised his eyebrows at me, though I merely shrugged. "Right well, g'night."

I didn't say anything, lying on my pillow and wincing as my head met the hard cover.

. . .

The next day, I opened the book again, expecting to find the essential pages blank, though to my horror, a dark red liquid oozed out of the page, and I screeched loudly, knocking the book out of my hands and letting it skid down the floor. It didn't make it any better though, the crimson liquid had crawled across the floor and it darkened the wood around it. I felt like throwing up my insides, and the door burst open after my outburst, a very panicked Malcolm looking inside.

"What the hell happened?" Malcolm asked me, just noticing the blood-streaked books. "Are you hurt? Oh Gods, look at the blood!"

I kept myself fixated on the bed, staring at the book disgusted. Who would do this? Maybe the book was cursed, a daughter or son of Hecate could have come in here and bewitched the book . . . but why? I had no grudge against any of the campers and now . . . it felt like I was going to be assassinated.

"What did you do?" Malcolm asked, as he called for a camper to bring a mop. My eyes widened, they would need to bring a big mop to clean this mess up. I knew I wasn't to blame, though somehow, it felt like it was my fault. "There's been no attacks for about four weeks Annabeth- we were on a good streak too." He shook his head. "Four more days till we broke the record as well."

For the first time in my life, I really didn't know. There were times where I felt clueless yet I could still think, yet now I felt completely useless. Paralysed in a state of fear as Malcolm mopped the blood, cursing as some of it spat back on to his shirt.

"We have to tell Chiron," Malcolm decided.

I shook my head. "No, he'll cancel the games."

"And?" Malcolm snapped. "Who knows whose blood this could be. It could be one of ours, Annabeth. Someone could've been killed here."

The very statement made me shiver in fear. I blindly touched my face-

"No don't do-" Malcolm tried to say, though the warm substance was already stuck on my face, and I yelped in surprise.

"It's warm!" I cried. I had the blood of another freshly marked on my cheek, the temperature of the liquid had just confirmed my thoughts. Whoever died- whoever died had been killed recently. The pace of my heart pumping quickened at a faster rate, one that I thought was much too fast for any normal teenage girl. Then again, was I normal?

I looked down at my hands, each and every bit of skin on those two body parts had the marks of another on them, the sickly smell of iron wafted into my nostrils and the rush of bile hit my throat. Gods, everything here just made me want to throw up.

"Come on," Malcolm said gently. "Let's go get you a washcloth."

"No," I whispered. He -of course, didn't hear me and opened the door, the wind making me shiver and I took a huge intake of air.

"No," I repeated my voice stern and firm. I didn't need him to get me anything. Whoever was signalling me this, managing to hurt me emotionally- they were after me, not anyone else here. I caught my breath, realising what I had just thought. My very existence was hurting others, not right now, but I knew it would be bound to happen and I didn't want to wait and see who else would be harmed in this trap.

"Don't tell anyone, alright? It'll be a secret between me and you and no one else, you hear me?" I was beginning to like this new side of me.

Malcolm, surprised at my sudden change gave a frown. "You can't be serious, can you?"

"There's blood inside a book I was just reading yesterday, and it's warm." I pointed at the marks on my face. "You think I'm joking?"

Boom! The door burst open and I jumped in alarm, nearly slipping on the now clean, wooden floor. "What is the meaning of this?" Chiron's voice boomed, and I winced at the volume. He'd never shouted that loud till Percy told me about the fight he had with Thalia when I was missing about four years ago.

My eyes widened.

He never told me that, I thought. Am I delusional, is this whole thing becoming so unbearable that I'm slowly turning mental?

"Annabeth, speak up." He turned over to me, his eyes demanding answers, though I wasn't sure I'd be the one to know. "I want to know everything that happened here, and I want to hear it now."

I retold the past events without a single stop, for I knew if I had paused a second later, my mind would go on overdrive and I would think unforgettable thoughts.

"Show me the book," he demanded, and I pointed at the tattered pieces of paper, all closely stuck to each other due to the dried blood. I was too scared to go closer to it though, the very object gave me visions of death.

"And you got this where?"

"From the library," I said nervously. Come to think of it, I hadn't even remembered going there, just knowing it was from a library.

Chiron frowned at me, knocking the end of the book with one of his hooves. "There is no library here, child. Tell me again, where did you find it?"

I scrunched my eyebrows. "It was from the library, I swear."

Chiron gave a sigh, whispering to a nymph, then left the cabin without a word.

. . .

I stared back at the ceiling as night time approached, the other campers already asleep and their light snoring filling the silent atmosphere.

This was it, I thought to myself. I'll leave tomorrow and everything will be normal again. Call me a coward, but this was enough. The fear of getting myself hurt -or worse, getting others hurt due to my brash decisions had drove me to insanity. It has been two weeks since the little bloodbath occurred and I still couldn't sleep without getting the same nightmare. It was as if I was cursed, the sickening smell of iron had stayed deep in my nostrils every time I went into dream mode, and now -now I was too scared to sleep.

My bag had been packed since two days ago, and I was to leave at dawn. Where I was going? I didn't know, though something told me I had to leave. Maybe it was the dark atmosphere that had crawled itself into my mind, or maybe the fact that sometimes, sometimes I felt like I didn't belong here. Being confined to a cabin in fear of being found by ones I used to love was not a good way to live.

"What is wrong with me?" I whispered aloud, fiddling with the ends of my comforter. There was no answer, though that didn't really help my miserable state, and with a shaky breath, I closed my eyes and prayed that there would be no nightmares.

They didn't answer my prayers.

The same nightmare, the same deaf screams as I tried to get out of the pool of dark red liquid had engulfed me yet again. I remember a camper telling me once that demigod dreams, demigod dreams meant something, and that one sentence had paralysed me in fear.

Though now, the time was precisely four am and I checked the window, peering to see if the harpies were on the lookout. To my fortune, they had finished their shift and I carried my bag and left the room without a word. No small goodbye to the place that took me as their guest for a couple of months, just a forlorn expression as I made my way past the border and into the dreary monster-filled forest.

No roars, no sudden movements, no moving of the bushes, I thought with a small smile, for the first time in aeons, fate had been kind to me.
The wind brushed against the tall eerie trees, giving a small whistling sound as if they were whispering to me. This whole thing was giving me horror film vibes and I shivered at the thought.

Right then, I thought. How the heck do I get out of here? Immediately, flashbacks of me running through the woods rushed through my mind. My head hurt and I foolishly shook it to try and stop, that only made the headache worse.

Around ten minutes of me walking blindly across the forest, my dagger held tight in my right hand, I finally found the exit, and on the plus side: no monsters except an unfriendly squirrel had taken the same path as me. Seriously though, who knew they bit so hard?

With a content sigh, I left the woods and trailed down a long gravelly path, the crunching of my soles against the somewhat soft ground satisfied me as I ventured to who-knows-where.

From the distance of the sun and the small still-there streaks of darkness against the late dawn sky, I had realised it took me nearly two hours to get out of there. It felt like ages though, and my legs ached in agreement, my throat parched though I didn't want to waste any more water. There was a river a couple of meters behind me, though it was in the forest and who knows what kind of monsters were lurking in there.

It was until the sounds of birds tweeting in the distance, that I had then realised that there was no one here. The silence frightened me, maybe I was making a lot of noise for such a silent place that more monsters would be attracted to me. Then again, I was just a girl with a dagger in the middle of a deserted road, at a time where most people were sleeping. Forget monsters, I would probably be snatched by a serial killer at this state.

This is an island, I thought. I kicked a stone in frustration, in fear of getting found if I cursed. I didn't bring a foldable boat -is that even a thing? - with me and swimming was not an option. I was so exhausted I decided to just walk around, waiting for the morning to try again. If they don't find me, my pessimistic part of me thought, and I tried to bide my time by throwing stones at the body of water and seeing if it would work -one hour later, and I figured out I was horrible at skipping stones.

Laying down did not help, for the grainy sand irritated me and some even went in my eye. Crap, I thought as I tried to take it out, only successfully succeeding to add more sand into my teary red eye.

Yeah, I thought. This was going to be a long couple of weeks.

. . .

I opened my eyes carefully, praying that somehow, somehow the water was all gone and that I'd be able to cross to wherever the hell the next place was. Though to my demise, and also being pretty logical, the long, wide body of water was still there, and I gave my thanks by throwing a tall stick as hard as I could at it.

"Ow!" A very high voice said, their tone of voice obviously laced with irritation. Then again, it wasn't every day you got hit with a stick by an extremely deranged girl.

"Sorry?" I called out, as the person muttering curses was concealed in the water. Maybe I hit a nymph, in that case, there was no way I was getting past here. I knew that if I went east I'd land into the Atlantic Ocean, which was a big no-no.

"Stop throwing things in the water!" She screamed, and the stick was thrown back at me, only managing to duck as it swiftly went over my head, narrowly missing me by a second. That nymph knew how to throw.

The nereid briskly jumped from the water, landing on the ground but still close to the water so much as her feet were dragging across it. She had on a sour face, it looked like people picked on her regularly.

"What do you want?" She spat out, I was shocked, normally nymphs were kind and sweet. This one definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed. "Come to pick on me, huh?" She crossed her arms. "Well I won't have it, do you know what I do for you? You'd expect people to be grateful but oh no -sending rubbish down my home." She stood up, shouting at a can of diet coke. "Well I'm not trash!"

"Don't you seem a little lost?" I tried to say gently without angering her. "You're supposed to be in the Aegean sea, with Nereus, you're father."

"Oh don't say his name!" She snapped, the island rumbling as if agreeing with her.

The island rumbled? She must've been Neso, the nereid that governed -well, islands.

"Banished me here, to your awful camp!" She looked back at the forest.

"Would you mind telling me why?"

"If you want it so badly, then no, I don't mind telling you."

I waited, though she never said anything and looked back at me strangely.

"Well . . .?" I asked, and I don't know how -but to me, her pale baby blue skin seemed to change to red in fuming anger. Her long flowing hair stopped moving, hanging limply by her side.

"You didn't tell me when, you idiot!" She bellowed. "Patience is a virtue!"

"Sorry, I'm so sorry -" I tilted my head to the side. " . . . Neso?"

She turned her head to me, a small smile on her face. "You know my name?" She had a very quick temper, I noted.

"Um . . . yes," I said nervously.

She returned back to her calm state (or as calm as a nereid like her could go), and my eyes widened at her beauty. She had a very pointy face and ears, making her seem like an elf, a simple light blue chiton dress, with possible Greek markings on the side of it. With her dark blue flowing hair so long and gorgeous, I wondered how anything so mesmerising could turn so spiteful.

"What did they say about me?"

I scrunched my eyebrows. "What?"

"Well, obviously you must've heard about me from someone." She laughed timidly. "Now spill."

Frick, I thought. I knew if I gave her the wrong answer, I'd probably insult her somehow and send her into a rage, possibly so mad she'd drown me.

"Oh I heard about you from camp," I replied, pretending to be in awe. "Chiron would always speak about you like a hero -"

"I am a hero!"

"-yes yes, yes of course." I quickly replied. "How could I forget? We were all amazed by your stunning beauty, did I mention how beautiful you are?"

She frowned. "And what about my sisters?"

"Oh, them?" I faked an uninterested laugh. "We only cared about you, Neso and -"

"WHAT?!" She screeched so loud. "YOU DARE INSULT MY SISTERS?!" The water around her started to boil, and she aimed some of them at me.

"I didn't finish!" I shouted over the noise. The noise died down, though the splashes of water were still dangerously shot at my way. "-and every other day we spoke about how amazing -your siblings are!" I cursed inwardly, remembering that insulting a nereid's siblings was one of the only ways you could fully anger her. You insult a nereid, and she could manage to get her whole family against you, sometimes even including Poseidon.

"Really?" She stopped being a psychopath (when was she not?) and sat down on the sand again, giggling though nothing was funny. "You're so kind."

I smiled. "Uuh, thank you."

"So," she smiled sweetly. "Want to know how I was banished?"

To be honest, I didn't think it was much of a question. More of a yes or die.

After a long long wait, it's finally here!!!! Hope you guys didn't forget about this book and no-

This nereid isn't fake, had to do some research before writing lol.