swear...I thought my life would never end..." she grumbled quietly to herself.
Astrid stared at the phone screen as she waited for it to ring. She hoped that Aeson would be able to help her solve the problem. She just wanted to be back at Camp Half blood. She missed her friends. Well she didn't miss them exactly, but she would definitely miss being surrounded by kids her age. She wanted to hang out with the children of Jupiter and spend hours talking with them. But now she wouldn't be able to do that. She needed Aeson for that.
"Hello?" answered Aeson's voice, startling Astrid slightly, "Where are you now?"
"In Svätopluk's car," she replied.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Okay good, I just want to warn you that I may not always be able to come up with answers fast enough for you. But don't worry, you'll figure out the rest."
"Okay. Thank you," she murmured quietly.
"So, what did you need me to tell you?" he asked curiously.
Astrid bit her lip nervously.
'This is probably going to be difficult to explain,' she thought to herself, 'but at the same time, I need to help him. Otherwise, everything will end up as horrible as last time. If you can help me fix things, I'd better tell you what I need your help with, otherwise, it'll be impossible to find any clues. You're the only person I trust. This time, please don't fail me."
"We need help, Aeson," she began hesitantly.
"Help with what?"
She cleared her throat awkwardly.
"With my mother."
She waited anxiously for his response, but he didn't say anything for a long time. She was beginning to doubt his reaction, but after a while, she heard a familiar voice on the other side of the line: "I understand, Astrid."
Finally, he told her that he would arrange it somehow, and they disconnected. As soon as the call ended, Astrid let out a sigh of relief. For a moment there, she thought that he wouldn't even listen to her. Fortunately, he agreed to help her. Astrid didn't care if she was going to become a fugitive for the rest of her life, at least he wouldn't abandon her like her father did when she was younger. Hopefully, she could stay hidden among his relatives for a little longer until her mom found her.
As soon as she stepped inside the cabin, she immediately felt overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol. The place was pretty clean too, considering the state it was. She assumed that he only had about twenty people staying here. But that was more than enough to make sure that the place was empty. After closing the door quietly, Astrid took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She still remembered the nightmare from the other night perfectly. No matter how many times she tried to forget the image of her mother lying dead on the cold ground with the knife buried into her chest, she could never erase it entirely from her mind. Even worse, she couldn't bring herself to look at Annabeth's face after she realized she had been killed by someone in her dreams.
The thought of killing the girl made her stomach churn uncontrollably, but Astrid knew that it had to be done. She had to protect the mortals from those monsters, no matter who they might turn out to be. Annabeth had proven herself capable to defend herself, and she wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her again.
Slowly approaching the bed, Astrid kneeled down beside it and sat down cross-legged. She placed the photograph down next to her and reached out to gently touch the woman in the photo. The woman looked almost identical to the picture of Annabeth's mother, except that her eyes were open, staring straight ahead, as if she were looking forward instead of gazing at nothing, but Astrid couldn't be sure since she couldn't actually see the woman's expression clearly.
Astrid swallowed hard. She didn't know how to begin to explain to Aeson what had happened. He had to understand that she had been possessed by Kronos' shadow. There was no way he would believe her. Maybe he already suspected something was wrong with her when she showed up alone the first time. After all, he had known her father.
Her train of thoughts was interrupted when the photo fell off of its stand and rolled across the floor. She frowned slightly, then reached out a hand to pick up the frame, but as soon as her fingertips brushed over it, the picture fell to pieces. Frantically, she searched for the piece she had dropped, hoping that she hadn't damaged the one that she had held earlier in the night. She didn't notice that she was squeezing the frame tightly until the edge broke. Groaning loudly, she dropped the frame as it went flying across the cabin until it landed against the wall near the table.
Annabeth groaned softly, running a weary hand over her face. She felt like crying, but she quickly wiped away the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes and put on a fake smile. It wouldn't do any good to cry right now; she had a lot of work to do tonight and didn't want to let any stupid problems ruin that. Besides, it's not like anyone was really gonna care about her sad story anyways.
She pushed the images of her dream away from her mind as she picked up another photo from its original place on the table. She held the photograph in front of her and examined it carefully. It looked like an old black and white photograph. It appeared to be a family portrait or something similar. Her dad and her mom both wore matching smiles that looked just as genuine and genuine as the one her parents had used whenever they looked directly in the camera.
Suddenly, she felt something bump against her legs and looked down. There, laying on the floor a few feet away from her was Annabeth's phone. She quickly knelt down to pick it up.
Before she could unlock it, however, the door suddenly swung open revealing a young boy with blond hair and green eyes. He walked in the room casually, as if he didn't realize the state of his surroundings.