I'm Alive

There were so many bugs in the jungle. I put my hand over my mouth as a giant spider landed on my shoulder and remained still there. I was definitely not going to move. I really hoped that the other three would figure out that I wasn’t walking with them anymore out of shock.

Luckily for me, the other three stopped at the sound of something massive rustling through the bushes. Derek, Percy and Layla all looked to each other, and as Layla looked to me she aimed a crossbow in my direction and shot the spider off of my shoulder with extreme accuracy. After that, she screamed. A huge vine slithered out of the bushes like a snake, wrapped itself around her ankles and dragged her into the bushes.

“Layla!” Percy shouted, running up to slice the vine but it was too quick for any of us. Layla shot a few of the crossbows at it but it just angered the vine even more, throwing her in the air as it was still constricted around her ankles. It wove her around like a flag, and she managed to bring her sword down to the vine just as it released her and tossed her into the air, Layla flying with a loud shriek until she was out of sight and her last scream was just an echo.

“In the name of Hades, what the hell was that thing?” Derek immediately panicked.

“That is definitely not a Greek monster,” Percy’s eyes were wide; he was obviously freaking out just as much as Derek was, but was able to keep himself composed since he knew that someone would have to be after Layla’s disappearance.

"Layla!” I shouted and ran to see if I could find her, but Derek stopped me. "Let go, I need to find her! She could be hurt; she could have a concussion; or worse, not breathing!" I started to panic.

"She can take care of herself, and I hope to gods that whatever that was isn’t after her anymore" Derek said to try to calm me down, but failed miserably.

"I don't care what you say, I need to help her!" I screamed, putting up a fight. "She is my best friend, one of the only girls that I talk to; she is like my freaking sister! I need to find her!" I began to breathe heavily since I wanted to find her but Derek was keeping a really tight grip around my waist.

“She’s right,” Percy made eye contact with me, an intense moment that I doubt Derek noticed. “It can’t hurt to look in that direction. Just have your swords ready.” Percy was clearly very wary of our surroundings, but occasionally sent glances in my direction.

Derek let go of me and then I felt my way through the jungle first, hardly cutting anything since I was small and could easily maneuver my way around the wildlife unlike Derek and Percy. After a while of walking, we had no luck; Layla was nowhere in sight. I was out of breath and sticky from sweating. I sat down on the ground, not caring what was under me anymore, and I saw another spider. I stabbed it with my sword out of frustration, but the spider still lived and managed to scurry away from under my blade.

“Hey,” Percy soothingly called to me, kneeling right in front of me. Derek stood awkwardly behind him. “It’ll be alright. We’ll find her, okay?” Percy tucked some of my dirtying hair behind my ear, which caught my attention. He smiled warmly at me, trying to boost my mood and morale. “I have a feeling that the sooner we find the key, the sooner we’ll find Layla, and vice versa. Come on,” he gently urged me, getting back up and holding out a hand for me.

I smiled softly with a nod and took his hand to get up. "You’re right," I looked into his amazing eyes and we had a moment, an extraordinary connection that seemed to suddenly redefine our relationship. It was almost as if we had both crossed a milestone after all that we had been through and knew that we were there to support each other. Despite all of the crap we had put each other through before that moment, we couldn’t deny the sudden tension that was between us.

Derek clapped his hands, interrupting our moment, and I pulled my hand away from Percy's to look at Derek. "Are we ready to walk... somewhere?" he asked.

"Yeah, you ready?" I asked Percy.

Percy nodded. "Ready when you are," he smiled. "We've got a lot of jungle to explore."

He was right; the island was so vast and tropical that it was hard to tell where to begin. The place was crawling with monsters and a lot of the plants had been enchanted to be vicious predators with us as their target. Birds of Paradise had tongues like snakes. Hibiscus flowers would swell and try to trap your hands inside of the petals. The bushes and shrubs were thick and dense, most of them dangerous to the point where even Percy was cautious when cutting them down with his sword so we could safely pass through. Various plants and flowers had spikes on them even though they appeared beautiful. All of the wildlife here was deceiving, and throwing various monsters from Greek mythology in the mix didn’t make things very easy.

As the sun began to set, we could hear rustling in the bushes right behind us. “Amara,” a familiar voice called out from behind the three of us, and I hoped it was Layla even though I knew it wasn’t. The voice called all of us to turn, and saw Melinda Flores standing in the depth of the dangerous flora. “Don’t even bother coming at me,” she turned to the boys, “I’m protected right now, but it’d be interesting to see you try,” she winked with a light giggle, the innocence behind it as deceiving as the rest of the jungle. “You know, Amara,” Melinda turned to me, “what you and Layla did to me back at Camp during Capture the Flag,” she paused briefly, pretending to search for the right words, “it wasn’t very nice, don’t ya think?” she shook her head. “It was very impolite, and I figured I’d give you guys a taste of your medicine,” she winked. “So, my mother – Eris, the goddess of hate, so you probably don’t want to get on her bad side – and I are going to keep Layla all to ourselves. She’s a sharp little one, isn’t she?” Melinda laughed.

“Where’s Layla?!” Derek demanded, pointing his sword at Melinda and going to attack her, but the plants revealed a small Chimera that charged at Derek and whammed him in the stomach, sending him back with Percy and I.

Melinda only gave another giggle. “You all saw what she did, so you should know how to find her, correct?” Melinda nodded, clasping her hands together. She was so fake and mockingly sweet that it was disgusting. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go. People to go to, places to see, monsters to control, you know, the usual,” she winked again. Before we could ask any questions, she was gone in a flash.

"I really hate her and I'm not the one to really hate people... most of the time," I frowned.

"Shi-" then I cut Derek off.

"-taki," I finished for him and he gave a small, sarcastic smile.

"That really hurt," he finished what he was going to say.

"We need to find Layla and fast, but the sun it setting and most monsters are active at night if I'm correct. We need to find a base, somewhere high just in case it rains so the water won't flood us, we need a clear area," I said to Percy and Derek.

"How do you know all of this?" Derek asked while holding his stomach.

"I watched a lot of TV when I was home and most of it was the Discovery Channel, I loved to watch Bear Grylls," I gave them a sheepish smile since that was the first thing that they heard about my life at home and what I liked to watch. Hopefully they wouldn’t judge me for it.

As Derek gave me a teasing look, Percy just began laughing. “Bear Grylls has taught you well; just don’t drink your own urine.”

Derek suddenly placed his hands over his ears, as if he was trying to drown out other noise. He then started walking in a certain direction and instructed us to follow him. We trekked through the island only to suddenly stop. Derek pointed his sword towards what was a staircase, relatively out of nowhere, which led up to a tree-house. “There’s our high base.”

“How did you know to come here?” Percy asked him.

“I could have sworn I heard Layla talking to me,” Derek smiled. “I was starting to daydream a little bit – I do that often, actually – and it was like she knew I was and invaded it and led us here.”

“If we want to settle there for the night we might want to check it for traps. It can’t be that easy,” Percy suggested.

"Okay, well since I'm girl and you two are the guys, you can go and see if there are any traps inside," I smiled at them, hoping that they would go instead of me.

"No way are we leaving you," Derek stated.

“Are you nuts?” Percy suggested. “Do you want to be left here alone and in danger? Come on, there’s only three of us. We’re not just going to leave you here by yourself.”

"I don’t want to go in there! It looks like a death trap waiting to happen! I've seen all those scary movies!" I shouted and pointed to the place that we would be staying.

"Those are movies Amara, this is for real life," Derek said.

“And your point is..? Exactly, you don't have one; you won't change my mind. I'm very stubborn, even ask my mom... well that's if you could - ya know what I mean, like it would be so weird if our moms popped out of know where and... Okay, I'm getting off topic," I pointed out.

"Well if Layla sent us here, it can't be that bad," Percy reasoned with me. "We just need to be careful. Besides, you know I'll protect you if anything tries going after you." Percy made eye contact with me as he said that; I wasn't sure what inspired the sudden shift in him, but I wasn't going to complain. It just made me swoon even more.

"I would, too," Derek quickly joined in, "absolutely, yeah."

"Um, fine I'll go in, but you better keep to your word, guys," I looked away and felt my face heating up.

"Let's go," Percy smiled at me, and we began the trek up the tree. We climbed our way up to the treehouse only to find that there was nothing to worry about, which was a huge relief.

"See, nothing to worry about," Derek beamed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I gave him a nervous smile and shrugged out of his arm as I looked around.

“Yeah, that's good," I sighed in relief.

"We owe Layla big time," Percy laughed. I noticed that he sent a glare in Derek's direction; the last thing I needed was a love triangle.

"So guys, who gets the first watch?" I looked back at them while setting my bag down.

"Hmm, I guess the least tired," Derek yawned.

"Well I'm not all that tired so I don't mind taking first watch," I smiled at them.

Derek settled his things and mumbled what sounded like an, "Alright, be safe," but he had already fallen asleep before he could finish. Percy lightly laughed at this and gave me a nod, giving a similar sentiment that Derek did but I noticed him tossing and turning in his sleep. It hadn't even been half an hour when I heard him stop his tossing and turning and whisper my name, trying to get my attention.

I looked behind me and saw Percy up; I smiled at him. "What's up; can't sleep? Love the tossed bed hair," I giggled a little bit. His unruly hair made him look both cute and sexy all at the same time... what the hell? I shouldn't be thinking that! "You should get some sleep, Percy, I mean you need your rest and Derek is sleeping like a log," I gave a glance towards Derek whom was still sleeping and then back to the hero.

"I'm not tired," Percy smiled at me and leaned up on his arm a bit. "Listen, um," he scratched the back of his neck, "I just wanted to apologize for how I acted towards you before we got here. Actually, I think I should apologize on behalf of the whole group," he let out a light laugh. "It really wasn't right. You're really proving yourself," he winked.

I felt the blood rushing to my face. "Its fine Percy, really; I was probably, like, a real downer. It just seemed to rush, that's all, but everything is... no that's a lie. Everything is not alright with Layla not here and that… that grrr person," I frowned at the thought of Layla and Melinda and I pushed my hand through my hair to try to calm myself down. "I have no clue what the hell I'm doing really, it feels like I'm walking on unstable rocks and any minute I'm going to fall and die... that was too dramatic; ya know what I mean," I gave a nervous laugh.

Percy released a sympathetic laugh and nodded. “Yeah, I do. You’re going through a lot. Been there, done that. It sucks.” I could tell there was something he was holding back on; there was nervousness about him that I hadn’t seen yet. It was almost as if I had finally seen his gentle side. “I’m sure Layla is okay. She’s sending us messages in our sleep so she’s probably fine. She’s tough, she’ll figure it out.” I desperately wanted to ask him what he was hiding, what he wanted to say, but I never did. Percy and I just looked at each other for a moment, our eyes glancing to the others lips on occasion. After what felt like years of just sitting there in a comfortable silence, Percy leaned over and left a kiss on my cheek by the corner of my lips. “Get some rest. You need it more than I do.”

I put my hand where his lips were and looked at his amazing sea blue eyes; I could feel my face heat up. "Bu-but who i-is going to watch?" I asked him. I felt happy that he would be brave enough to kiss me... well, more or less. "I'm okay, and you still need your rest," I said. I had this urge to run my hand through his hair again and kiss him - not on the cheek but on the lips this time. But who was I kidding? I'm not brave enough to actually do so.

“I’ll watch; I’ve got a lot on my mind, I can’t sleep anyways,” he shrugged with an adorable little smile. As I laid to rest, I saw him sitting there, aware of our surroundings, twirling Riptide in its pen form between his fingers.