Chapter 42

Then he woke up, almost as quickly as he passed out. There were no nightmares or weird visions like whenever his brain turned off, only a massive headache. Slowly, his senses returned to him as he realised he was no longer on the hard, grassy ground of the hill but lying in a bed, soft as a marshmallow. 

Alex gave himself a moment to take in his surroundings. Adjacent to his were similar types of beds, only they were all empty. The walls around him were a soft blue, and he could tell it was a rather nice place. 

Better than the apartment or cabin, that was for sure.

"And he's alive."

At the foot of his bed sat another person— a boy older than him. As he focused his eyes, Alex finally got a better look at his russet skin and black hair. His hair looked unkempt in a purposeful way like it took its shape due to a natural breeze. He met Alex with a bright smile that contrasted with his dark skin.

For some reason, he was wearing sunglasses inside.

"Well, it's not like you were dead," he said with a shrug and a hint of a smile. "But damn, were you roughed up. You just needed some rest. You pushed yourself pretty hard."

Oh, right, he had fought the Furies and lived... as you do. Alecto had been pretty pissed at him, but what could he do? Then he went over the hill... saw a centaur... and then- wait, where's...

Panic shot through him like a flash flood. Annabeth, Thalia, Luke, Grover— "Where are they?! Are they alive?! I should've gone with them instead of fighting! Alex, you stupid, son-of-a—"

Alex started rambling and cursing himself. His mind started to race as everything hit him like a truck. They had gone over the hill and faced an army alone! And where was he? Self-indulging in a fight he could've just run away from. 

The rage within him started to grow, and he didn't have any outlet to let it out. He tried to force himself back up and off the bed, but his body felt like it weighed a ton. He was blinded by anger... mostly at himself. 

Then, the black-haired guy spoke up. He didn't look distressed or fazed in the slightest. Instead, he gave Alex a look of sympathy, like a friend would.

"Easy," he softly spoke. "They're safe... and you as well. I promise we're here to help."

Help... right, they had finally gotten to the camp. He'd been so worried he'd forgotten the whole reason he held back the Furies was for the rest to get through the protections Grover said Camp had. 

That army of teenagers... that centaur... they were friendly. They wouldn't try to hurt them. 

Still, risking his life for a bit of adrenaline when he could've tried to run away...

"Your friends told me your name was Alexander, that right?" He said, breaking him out of his thoughts. "Minus all the swearing and self-loathing."

"Yeah."

"Well, nice to meet you, Alex. I'm Jacob."

There was something oddly nice about this guy. He guessed he was just one of those with a friendly aura. 

Alex nodded weakly in response. "Thanks... likewise."

"No problem," Jacob smiled in response.

There was a little awkward silence in the middle of their conversation. Then Alex's anger quickly turned into confusion as he began to ask some questions. A lot of questions. Jacob did his best to answer them. 

"I heard a Demeter girl almost had a heart attack when Grover rushed past the barrier with a kid under his arm," he said with a quiet laugh. "By the time your friend Thalia appeared with a boy on her shoulders, there was already a commotion forming by the entrance. Chiron gathered all the best fighters and was about to take us outside when you appeared."

Alex leaned his head back on the squishy pillow as he listened.

"Argus made sure whatever attacked you was gone. After that, we brought you to the Big House and I was assigned to look after you."

He probably had a dumb look on his face because Jacob gave an understanding sigh.

"Right, sorry," he continued. "I just threw some random names at you. Argus couldn't see what attacked you, ironically enough, but he could tell you put up a hell of a fight."

Alex felt the tingle of the fight come back to him for a second. The small shock that cursed through his body; the intensity which he chased for. Still, he quickly brushed that aside— there was something Jacob had said that bothered him. 

"What do you mean 'what attacked me'?" he quickly asked, knitting his eyebrows. "The Furies did. Hades sent them after Thalia because of some dry-spell pact. Didn't Grover say anything?"

Jacob winced at the name, and Alex rolled his eyes. 

"He did, but..." The boy looked at the trinkets on the wall, deep in thought.

The way he spoke, Alex could guess where this was going.

"You don't believe him; us."

"It's not that," Jacob let out, this time, a weary sigh. "But the campers would've preferred if you were lying. The Kindly Ones aren't exactly creatures we'd want to fight. Especially since they don't go to Tartarus..."

He seemed to be fiddling with something in his hands. For a moment, a breeze from the open windows washed over them, and Alex felt the warm air hug his body. 

"Where do they go then?" Alex asked. 

"The Underworld. And they regenerate much faster. If they're hellbent on killing you, you can expect to see them a few days later."

Regenerate? Did every monster do that? If so, did that mean the ones he defeated would eventually come back? How was that fair?!

He wanted to change the subject. "So... are you like a doctor or something?"

"More like a healer," Jacob answered. He opened his right hand and it started glowing with a soft light. "I'm a son of Apollo. We all have a knack for it, and Chiron makes sure we know what we're doing."

Alex almost felt bad for who Jacob had as a father, but then realized he wasn't locked away in a decrepit mansion for saving someone. He really hoped that wasn't a normal punishment for when Jacob and his siblings messed up, no matter how much of a douchebag Apollo was. 

A small voice at the back of his head told him they were lucky— they at least knew who their godly parent was. 'And Apollo didn't let their mortal parents die'.

Jacob probably saw the deep frown Alex had and looked like he was about to say something before stopping. He gazed at the door before his sunglasses-covered eyes came back to Alex. 

"Alex, I'm guessing things have been a bit weird lately," he started, a friendly smile returning to his face. 

Oh, he guessed? What a comedian. Things had far surpassed weird the moment statues became alive. Still, he nodded furiously. 

"Well, I was told you already know one thing or two about our world, but it's gonna get even weirder from here on out," Jacob said with his best attempt at a reassuring smile. "I've learned that the best thing is to just keep calm and breathe."

As if right on cue, a tall, lumbering figure stepped through the doorway of the infirmary. 

Oh yeah... he was covered in eyes.

The way the figure crossed his arms when Alex leaned as far as he could in his bed told just how many times he'd seen the very same reaction. He proceeded to roll his eyes, all one hundred of them, which looked very strange.

"He's a friend," Jacob raised his hands to calm Alex down. "His name is Argus, our head of security. He helped save your life."

Right, he was one of the people Jacob said found Alex. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a man covered in eyeballs.

"Alex," Jacob gestured towards Argus. "What do you say to someone who saved your life?"

The towering man just stood there. Honestly, he looked a bit too 'surfer-dude' with his golden hair to be a security guard, but he was still imposing. It looked like he was just waiting for this ordeal to play out. Also possibly amused. Alex, on the other hand, was still creeped out. Nevertheless, he managed to muster some common decency. 

"Thank you," he said shyly. "Argus."

He simply nodded. Then he turned towards Jacob, who nodded back.

"Yeah, he should be good to go."

Before he let Alex go, he reached into one of his pouches and pulled a small cube of Ambrosia which Alex quickly took, enjoying the taste of a freshly made batch of cookies. Immediately, he could feel some strength returning to his body as he slowly began to shift out of the bed. 

"Argus will take you where you need to go," Jacob said. 

"What about you?"

"I got some stuff to take care of here," he put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "And remember, it only gets weirder."

Alex shook his hand and started to head towards the door where Argus waited patiently, arms still crossed. The security guard waited for him to step through before following closely behind.

"See ya around, Alex!"

==========

That was the last thing Alex heard before he exited the infirmary and into the hallways of what he assumed to be the aforementioned Big House. The walk turned out to be very silent which he found to be pretty crap because he'd just start getting lost in his thoughts which was not a good idea at the moment.

Not keen on getting stuck in his own head for too long, Alex tried to strike up a conversation with the hundred-eyed man.

"Sorry about the freak-out earlier, by the way, I didn't mean to insult you or anything. I'm just more used to see less-eyes than more-eyes if you know what I mean?" he said, hopeful. Argus, in the most minimal way possible, just responded with a friendly thumbs-up.

"So, Jacob said you're like the head of security of this place, probably really good at it too because you can... you know... see everything."

He didn't respond.

"Actually, can you see everything? I'm assuming you see better than most but can you like, see through walls?"

Not a word.

"Hey we both kinda got similar names; A-lex, Ar-gus... okay, maybe not that close. Do you have a nickname, Argus? Like Arg or Argie? - no, that's dumb. It just makes you sound like a pirate... do you want a nickname?"

Complete silence.

"I'll take that as a maybe."

Somehow it got quieter.

"I like talking to you. You're a good listener... are you a ladies' man, Argus?" Wow, this walk felt like an eternity.

It was at that moment that Argus brushed past him, leading him towards a door. Alex watched as he turned the knob, giving a view of a clear sky and vast green fields. It was hard to see but the entire valley surrounding the house was littered with clusters of what looked to be cabins and other unique architecture in the distance.

There were groups of people that occupied various spaces and, from where he was standing, looked like small black specks. He stood on the deck of the Big House that gave way to a pretty sweet view. All kinds of lawn chairs and tables were delicately set along the deck to make the place feel more homey. This seemed unlike any camp he'd ever been to.

"Mr Sinclair," a voice said to his left. "I see you're up and rising with the sun."

Standing before Alex was a man who looked to be middle-aged, definitely on the older side. His brown hair and gruff beard gave him the impression of a teacher or professor. He was even dressed like one. Yet, his gaze also struck Alex with an underlying presence of strength and status. 

Now, his bottom half was a little harder to explain. Okay, maybe not that hard. It was a horse. The dude was a centaur. The same one from before. Jacob had seriously underestimated what Alex thought was weird. 

"Now, Mr Sinclair, take a seat," he continued. "There's much for us to discuss."

**********

A/N: So this Arc doesn't drag out too much, after we're done with the introduction to the camp, the pacing will be divided into small time-skips until we reach the event that will mark the end of Volume 1. 

See ya on the next one!