Chapter Thirty-Five

Moon

We decided that it would be better to try and leave in the morning. Or what was considered morning in this place. Mutt took the first sleeping shift this time. Not that anything really bothered us anymore. Seems like they all decided that since we had no real will to fight back we weren’t worth the fight.

I was humming to myself softly when I heard footsteps. I leap up and spin around. Clato was grinning at me.

“Still alive I see,” she says with a huge grin.

“What do you want?” I ask, sword in hand. “Come to kill me?”

“Honestly, as tempting as that is, no. I haven’t come to kill you,” Clato says. “Though it wouldn’t be that hard. Considering you’re already dead inside.”

I mask my face, trying not to let her see how close she came to the truth. Well, she actually was spot on.

“Then what do you want?” I question.

“What I’ve always wanted,” she replies. “Revenge. And you. You’re going to help me get it.”

“No, I’m really not,” I say.

“Yes you are my dear,” Clato says. “It’s really simple actually.  I had this marvelous plan.”

“And I bet you’re going to make the mistake of telling me all about it, right?” I ask.

“Oh no, you’ll find out soon enough,” Clato says.

“What?” I ask.

She grins and suddenly there was a stingy in my neck. I reach up and pull out a dart.

“What?” I whisper.

My vision goes blurry. I fall to the ground.

“Nighty night,” Clato says, leaning over me.

۝

I woke up not even ten seconds later. Groaning I sit up, placing a hand to my head. Looking around I see someone sitting in front of me.

“Clato,” I growl.

She turns to face me, and that’s when things got weird. Because instead of looking into the dead green eyes of Clato, I was looking into my sky blue eyes. Golden blonde hair mirrored her face, my face.

“What did you do?!” I demand.

The voice that left my mouth wasn’t my own.

“Well, Moon,” Clato says, crouching in front of me. “I had a brilliant plan. Therefore I switched our minds.”

“What?” I ask.

“Your mind now inhabits my body. Whereas mine inhabits yours,” she says.

Finally things clicked into place, if she had my body, that means everyone will think she’s me.

“No!” I shout, lunging forward.

Seconds before my hands could wrap around my neck Tartarus fades. And instead I was standing in a room.

“Ma’am?” a women says. “Ma’am? We’re ready to attack Olympus. On your word.”

I open my mouth, then close it. I give a nod. Clato hadn’t told anyone about her body swapping. Which meant now I had access to the enemies palace. All I had to do was correctly play this out.

“Sooo,” someone dragged out. “How did the visit go?”

The person talking was a girl, she had short red hair and hazel eyes.

“Fine,” I say.

My blood freezes when she frowns at me slightly.

“You feeling okay?” she asks.

“Naturally, why wouldn’t I be?” I demand, glaring at her.

She shrugs, “Guess I just kinda figured that with seeing Matt again and everything you would need a few minutes.”

“His name is Mutt,” I correct.

“Well yeah,” she starts. “But you’ve never cared about that before. What changed?”

“I suppose I’ve just been given a new perspective on everything,” I reply briskly.

The less I talked the less time she had a chance to figure out what was wrong. She goes to say something else when she was interrupted.

“Ma’am?” the same women says.

“Mhmm?” I say, turning to face her.

“We have an incoming call from Nykole,” she says. “She claims Hypnos wishes to speak to you. In person.”

“When?” I ask.

She looks slightly taken aback and I chide myself for asking that. Of course Clato was more of the type to make the time, not let others boss her around.

“He says in three hours, ma’am,” the women says.

“Wonderful, I’ll go see him now,” I say, turning and walking towards the nearest door.

“Helga,”the women says, turning towards the red haired girl. “Jen needs to speak with you ASAP.”

“Right. Thank you Libbie,” Helga says.

Well, at least I knew the names of two of the people on the evil side! Now all I had to do was hope that they were the only two people that bothered to talk to me. But when had I ever been that lucky.

I go out the door, and immediately I see someone that made made my blood boil. Waverly stood down the hall a ways, leaning against the wall, still in her silver dress. Her silver eye was watching me, while her golden one was closed. Almost like she was winking at me.

“Come along then,” she says, waving her hand.

“What?” I ask.

“We’ve got to get going. Hypnos is expecting us you know,” she grumbles.

“Us?” I say. “Why us? I am perfectly capable of going to see him BY MYSELF. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Do you think that I want to be doing this? Cause the answer is NO. In fact, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Waverly hisses.

It was then that I understood, Waverly and Clato didn’t get along. At all. I couldn’t help the wicked grin that spread across my face. Waverly growls slightly when she notices this.

“Let’s get this over with,” she says watching my every move.

“You don’t have to accompany me,” I reply.

Some part of me wished that she wouldn’t, so that I could corner Nykole and try to explain to her my situation. Mostly so that I wouldn’t have to find Nikki. Because I knew that there was no way for me to convince her that I was being honest.

“If only that were true,” Waverly says with a dramatic sigh. “Then we would all live in peace.”

“I don’t want you to accompany me,” I restate the sentence.

“And I don’t want to have to. It seems that we’re reaching an agreement but have no way to settle it,” Waverly says.

“Fine,” I say stepping back. “You go meet Hypnos.”

“WHAT?! NO WAY! YOU GO!” Waverly shouts, and then she turns around and walks away.

Huh. That was easy. Shrugging off the sense of accomplishment I casually skip towards the door that apparently would take me to Hypnos’s Castle. How I knew this, I wasn’t entirely sure. Clato’s memories guided me through the maze of hallways. It was like I had always been here. Like it was me that had always been evil. I knew that this is probably due to the body swap. But it was still weird.

Cringing slightly when I throw open the door, not knowing what to expect, I breath out a sigh of relief when I wasn’t immediately blasted to death. I sigh again when I step through the threshold. The scenery changes, and then I was standing inside of a castle.

Nikki was standing in front of me, like she had been waiting. She was alone. Knowing that it was a leap of faith, since she had gone evil, I rush towards her.

“Nikki!” I exclaim. “It’s me! Moon! You have to believe me! Clato did something when I was in Tartarus with Mutt! She swapped our bodies!”

Nikki’s face remains stoic. She doesn’t move from where she was standing. She gives no sign of ever having heard me.

“Nikki?” I ask. “Say something!”

“You know Clato, you can’t try and trick me again. I am loyal to Hypnos and this cause,” Nikki growls slightly.

“What? No!” I cry out.

“I’m not Clato! Please you have to believe me! Olympus is going to get attacked!” I exclaim.

“Hypnos will meet you now,” Nikki says, turning and walking away.

۝

Alex

It was very boring being stuck in If I was out there I wouldn’t be bored. I mean sure, a few people would lose their life. But on the bright side I wouldn’t be bored anymore. It was a small price that they had to pay so that I could live ‘normally’.

Rolling out of bed I jump up and head towards the door. Knocking on it twice before remembering that it was my room, and that I was already inside it.

“Damn isolation,” I mumble. “It making me go nuts.”

Casually I throw open the door, and am met with the face of a guard.

“Hi,” I say, reaching out for a hand shake.

He jerks back and takes off running.

I shake my head, “People these days. Absolutely no manners. What a shame. What a shame indeed.”

Whistling slightly I head down the hallway, a small skip in my step. Entering a room that looked like a training room. Everyone present in it froze, eyes wide as they stared at me.

“Hallo there,” I say with a bright smile. “Wonderful weather we’re having is it not? Perfect day to die if I must say so myself!”

They all take off running, looking like baby chicks crowding to get out of the nest. At least, I thought so. I didn’t really know any better.

“Huh,” I say. “Was it something I said?”

Shrugging off the fact that I seemed to scare everyone, had yet to see a downside to that, I walked on.  I turn a corner, thinking that everyone had already left. But the minute I felt myself slam into someone else I knew that I was wrong, oh so wrong. The other person gives a small yelp. I squeeze my eyes shut so that I didn’t have to see them die.

“Ow my head,” the person moans.

My eyes snap open, because people usually died instantly. Not over time. But there the girl was, holding her head in her hands.

“You okay?” she asks me.

“Am I okay?” I exclaim. “You’re alive!”

“Yeah,” she says, swallowing. “See, the thing is, I haven’t died yet. Which is why I’m alive. You know?”

“No, of course,” I say, wide eyes. “But this is amazing! It means that my curse is gone! It was temporary!”

Without waiting for a reply I run down the hall, throwing open a door that I just knew led outside.

my room. Phobos had said that it was best that I didn’t leave, since I killed everything and everyone. I was beginning to wonder why I listened to such stupid advice.