Chapter Text
I PLAYED WITH MY golden sun necklace as I waited for Percy to finish his audience with the Oracle or whatever. At first, we wanted to go together, but Chiron stopped us and said that we should go separately.
So here I am, standing on the other side of the green door, in the attic, waiting for Cy to walk out. I thought about calling out to Apollo. After all, prophesies are his area, but I stopped myself from doing so.
Maybe he got bored of me? I wouldn't be surprised, it's possible, he's a god and I'm a demi-god. I poked my tongue into the side of my cheek, I am a demi-god. Now that's a sentence I ever thought I'd say.
Finally, my friend came out, looking a bit pale and confused. "You alright?" I asked. He snapped his head to look at me, before looking away and scratching his neck, "I'm fine. You should go. I'll wait for you here."
I stared at him for a second, not for one minute believing his reply. Instead of confronting him, I just sighed, heading into the room behind the green door.
The moment I stepped foot in it, the door slammed shut, making me jump. I swallowed, breathing in when the smell engulfed my senses. The warm air smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. I almost immediately wanted to go back, but instead, I held my breath and walked further in.
The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armour stands covered in cobwebs. Once bright shields pitted with rust, an old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS.
There was also a long table stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things that made me shiver. In those jars I could see severed hairy claws, even huge yellow eyes, and various other parts of monsters. Safe to say I dreaded every second I had spent there.
By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome looking thing of all: a mummy. But not the wrapped-in-cloth Halloween kind, but a human female body shrivelled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, her eyes were glassy white slits as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles. By the looks of it, she had been dead a long, long time.
Just glancing at her sent chills up my back. Oh, and the smell coming from her was even worse. I felt the atmosphere change, before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from her lips, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes.
Safe to say, I understood why Percy looked so pale.
Then I heard a voice in my head, similarly like Apollo's, but instead of the rich, warm, honey voice that wrapped around my thoughts, it was harsh and croaky, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain.
I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.
I was scared. I could have lied to myself and say that I just felt uncomfortable, but my heart beated faster and faster. I realised something, I needed to calm down and usually Apollo helped me. So gods, where was he?!
I forced myself to take a deep breath. I was a big girl, I could take care of myself. I finally got the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?" I internally cringed at my choice of words, but my thoughts were distracted by the green mist that swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars.
My heart stopped. In front of me stood my mother.
She was in her hospital scrubs, her blond freshly done hair was tied into a lazy ponytail that she made look more classy than messy. Her makeup was done like always; it looked like she hadn't put on anything. She appeared like she was in a surgical show, rather than one of the most accomplished doctors in New York City.
Then my fist clenched and anger replaced other emotions. I remember how people complimented my mother at parties, saying how she had reached so much and still had raised a beautiful, and smart daughter. Fuck them, she didn't raise me, I raised myself.
I snapped out of my emotions as the mist started to slowly move towards my legs and my mother spoke:
In the fire of passion, amidst love's sweet swell,
A sacrifice awaits, a tragic farewell.
For in the heart of their beloved, a destiny's brand,
A true lover of Apollo will die by their lover's hand.
What? I thought as the figure began to dissolve. At first, I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried out, "Wait! What do you mean? What does Apollo have to do with this? What sacrifice?"
The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.
I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs too, and I wouldn't learn anything else. My audience with the Oracle was over.
I walked out, to see Percy fidgeting with one of his bracelets I gifted him for Christmas. "So?" He asked, the colour had now mostly returned to his face.
I bit my lip. I didn't think that Cy got the same prophecy as me. Because there was no mention of a feud between the gods or something stolen in mine.
"I'd rather sit near Mrs. Smith's table in her class again and breathe in her disgusting perfume than spend one more minute in that air again." My answer received a snort from my friend and he nodded, agreeing with me as we descended downstairs, where the rest were waiting for us.
"Well?" Chiron asked us the moment we entered the room. I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. Cy looked at me and I shrugged, pretending to let him tell what 'we' were told.
"She said we would retrieve what was stolen." Yeah, he and I definitely had different prophecies. Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"
"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."
"She... she said we would go west and face a god who had turned. We would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." I nodded trying to remember his words. "I knew it," Grover said. But Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"
I felt Percy glance at me, but I pretended not to see him as I looked out the window, where some kids from Cabin 7 were playing volleyball. "No," My friend said. "That's about it."
Chiron studied my face. "Very well, you two. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."
Oh, I hope so, because right now what I gathered from my prophecy is that someone is going to die and that somehow a lover of the god of the sun is tied to it too. But nothing made sense as I replayed the words in my head:
I didn't really understand the first part, In the fire of passion, amidst love's sweet swell. What could that mean, I had no clue.
A sacrifice awaits, a tragic farewell. Well, this clearly means that someone is going to die.
For in the heart of their beloved, a destiny's brand. This has to do something with destiny- Destiny. A moment from just minutes ago flashed in my mind; I finally got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"
No. Impossible. Chiron had said himself, Oracle's words have double meanings, maybe I'm just thinking too much.
"Bridget? You alright?" Chiron's voice snapped me out of my trace and I was greeted with three pairs of concerned eyes. "I'm fine, I just hadn't gotten a lot of sleep."
The older man nodded, but I felt him glance in my direction a couple of times during the rest of the conversation.