Chapter Thirteen

                                    

                                          
CASSIDY DIDN'T KNOW WHEN EXACTLY THEY'D PASSED OUT. They recalled stumbling through the forest, using the low-hanging branches as handrails. They'd placed Apollo on Fluffy's back. Branches and twigs snapped. A woman with tinted glasses and a silver and gold tiara in her dark braided hair appeared accompanied by two lions. Their memory failed them from there and faded into a dream.
"Something’s moving above us" Annabeth whispered. "Gather up" She, Cassidy Bob and Percy closed ranks, standing back to back. Cassidy strained their eyes, trying to spot movement in the dark. They couldn’t see anything. Not until the first minster monster dropped to the ground only five feet away. The first thing Cassidy thought of was Percy's former demon grandmother math teacher. They'd never had the pleasure of meeting Alecto as Mrs Dodds but they'd heard a lot from Percy and the time the furies tried to kill them in a bus when they were twelve left quite a lasting impression. 
Whatever this thing was looked almost exactly like a fury. A wrinkled hag with bat-like wings, brass talons and glowing red eyes. She wore a tattered dress of black silk, and her face was twisted and ravenous. Every bit the demonic grandmother the furies were. Bob grunted as another one dropped in front of him, and then two more in front of Percy and Cassidy. Soon there were half a dozen surrounding them. More hissed in the trees above. They were clearly demon grandmothers, just not furies because there were only three of those.
"What are you?" Annabeth demanded. "The arai. The curses!" A voice hissed. Cassidy couldn't locate the one who'd spoken. The problem was that none of the demon grandmothers had moved their mouths. Their eyes looked dead, their expressions were frozen, like a puppet's. "What- what do you want?" Annabeth asked, her voice wavering as she tried to maintain a tone of confidence. The voice cackled maliciously. "To curse you, of course! To destroy you a thousand times in the name of Mother Night!"
"Only a thousand times?" Percy murmured. "Oh, good… I thought we were in trouble" The circle of demon grandmothers closed in. A voice that didn't belong to the arai called out Cassidy's name as the first one lunged. He reacted quickly, charging them with a dagger in each hand.
Tartarus disappeared. A wooden floor replaced the red ground. The sun shone in through a nearby window, covering the room in pleasant light. Cassidy struggled to catch their breath, their heart pumped wildly in their chest. It wasn't an arai they were attacking. The arm with the raised dagger fell to their side, the weapon clattering to the ground. Cassidy felt two sets of hands latch on to them, pulling them away. They spoke to him but their voices seemed distant and incoherent. They buried their face in their hands and pressed their legs against their chest, curling into themselves. It wasn't the arai themselves that had scarred them that day but the taste of the madness that they inflicted on others. Specifically the madness they had inflicted on their stepfather. 
The worst part? Even after they had felt the agony they caused him they didn't regret it. They never truly would. What sort of monster did that make them? Cassidy didn't know how much time had passed until they finally calmed down. Realistically it could have only been a few seconds or minutes but it felt like hours. They slowly raised their head, forcing themselves to meet the others' eyes. Will and Nico stood on either side of Apollo. All three of them looked at him with concern. It made their stomach turn knowing they didn't deserve it. Apollo had a cut on his neck, Cassidy knew that was probably their doing. "Sorry" they muttered.
"Cass, what happened?" Will asked gently. Cassidy tried a casual shrug "Nightmares, you know how it is" They decided to change the topic before Will could ask any more questions. They hadn't spoken a word about what happened in Tartarus to anybody, including Percy and Annabeth, and they sure as hell weren't going to start now. "How long was I out?" They asked.