[OPEN]Here we go again....

[Deleted]

Perhaps a zombie family reunion wouldn't be that bad of a thing! His dead brother was alive, perhaps he was actually happy to see Rayne! The thought washed away just as quickly as it had drifted up on the shores of his mind. His brother wouldn't be happy to see him. Not after Rayne stuck a blade through his stomach and let him die. No...His brother was a much better fighter than he was. Jaime didn't need the camp to survive, not like Rayne did. It was why he ran, but he didn't last. The smell of a son of Zeus was strong to monsters. He couldn't go through a day without being attacked. He had to come back...and regret had hesitated his every movement until he was inside the cabin.

Once the son of Zeus was inside his cabin, he stopped second guessing his every move. He took ten quick and easy steps to his bunk and, with a sweep of his right hand, he brushed all the dust and old junk off of the bedside table onto the floor. He didn't have much with him. He couldn't outrun Jaime if took too much. He didn't even bother taking his shield. Back in Sparta, he would have been considered dead once they saw his shield left behind. He had lost his old sword while he was away, and his spear had never been repaired. No...now, the only thing he had left with him was the pelt of the Nemean Lion and a knife he swiped from a restaurant. The knife didn't help in the least...It didn't hurt any of the monsters he ran into. It wasn't supposed to though. It was meant for Jaime if he had ever caught up with Rayne, and for shaving.

"Fu-" He swore at the ridiculous amount of dust on his shield and bed. He had been away far too long. Yet...not long enough. Dread filled him at thought of talking to anybody he had met before he left. He needed to lay low for a couple days, if possible. Quietly, the blonde placed his hand on the blanket that covered his bed, the soft fabric enveloped his hand instantaneously. A soft moan passed his lips and before he had even registered it, he was sitting on the dust covered bed. Why had no one claimed his bunk?

[Dakota King]

Rumors traveled faster here than anything else at this camp. Dakota was working in the infirmary when she got the whispers of Rayne being back. She had to take deep breaths and focus on her job or else the Hephaestus kid she was currently administrating a shot was going to be in a lot of pain. After that, Dakota couldn't help but find her brain all muddled up with thoughts of Rayne. He was gone for almost a year... if not more. She thought he was dead. She grew a fondness to him, since she nursed him back to health, but he stopped talking to her once he started dating Trell.

Trell... that was another person she hadn't heard about in a while. Dakota was wondering what was going on with this camp, since people were appearing and disappearing quite frequently now. These thoughts kept swarming around in Dakota's head until she managed to knock over a vase on one of the patient's bedsides. She swore underneath her breath as she was soaked and everyone was looking at her. The head Apollo kid told her to go back to her cabin and rest for the rest of the day. Dakota nodded her head as she quickly took off.

However, she didn't go back to the Aphrodite cabin. She kept walking past her cabin to one of the majestic white marble cabins at the end of the horseshoe. Zeus's cabin. Dakota didn't bother knocking as she just opened the door and crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she looked at the blonde in front of her.

"Well, well," she said in sickly sweet voice. "Guess who decided to show up at camp again."

[Deleted]

A mess of weird, dark, bright, paranoid, glum, regretful, and angered thoughts clouded Rayne's mind as he looked over the room, a memory reappearing before his very eyes as he sat there. The longer he sat, the more he sank into the hardened bed. It wasn't always such a hard bed. It could have been compared to sleeping on a boulder when he had first arrived and now it was just like that but, it got softer the more he used it. Still as silent as ever, he carefully reached under his pelt, and pulled out the knife he had swiped. A soft clatter filled his ears as he placed it down on the recently cleared bedside table and exhaled softly.

The blonde wet his dry lips and reluctantly pushed up from the bed to his feet. His eyes darted over to Daphne's bed and stopped. A small layer of dust had settled on her pillow and blankets as well? That meant she hadn't slept in it for a while. Her stuff still remained...So where was she then? Then came the creak of the door. His head spun quickly away from the other dusty bunk to find her standing in the door way. He tensed up, and pain shot throughout his body. He needed time to heal and rest, but that could wait.

The tone she gave him only hurt him more. The regret, pain, and loneliness he had felt while he was away only shot up at her words but he kept a straight face. He had gotten better at bluffing while he was away. He had needed to get better at his poker face to keep people away from him. Still...She was trying...so he would too. After he soaked up the sight of her. His eyes darted to the ground, almost shamefully for what he had done, only to look back up at her, slowly. He soaked up the sight of her like a sponge to water. It was nice to see her. "Yeah..." He mumbled softly enough for her to hear. The image of his brothers surprised face appeared in his mind, the face he had made when Rayne stabbed him. "Wouldn't happen to be me, would it?" He raised an eyebrow.

[Dakota King]

Dakota just stood there and tightened her arms across her chest as she stared down Rayne. He was a sight for sore eyes, that was for sure, but this was not the time to reminisce about the good old days. He was in trouble with a lot of people, mostly her. Dakota really didn't forgive Rayne that easily for just tossing her to the side when Trell came into his life.

"You're a pretty good guesser, aren't you?" she spit out as she pushed herself off of the door frame and walked a little bit more into the cabin. She pressed her lips together as she carefully picked out her next words. "So where have you been?" She asked as she walked a little closer to him while raising an eyebrow. "Been off exploring the world with your darling Trell, have you?"

But something was off, Dakota could sense it. She looked at Rayne and noticed how he was a little stiffer than usual, like he was in pain. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she asked, "You're hurt, aren't you?" She swore underneath her breath again as she looked off to the side and bit her lower lip. She mentally debated with herself. After a couple of moments, she finally sighed loudly as she looked over at the blonde.

"Let me help you," she insisted as she walked over to him and reached out to hand towards him.

[Deleted]

He scoffed quietly when she briefly played along with him. Good guesser? He was definitely back at camp. Then the awkward niceties broke. Stances shifted, tones got darker, and facial expressions changed when she pushed away from that door frame. He tensed up more and pulled the pelt tighter around him. The skin automatically obliged by connecting where two ends touched, like he was wearing a cloak. His eyes darted from the mysterious wet cloth that covered her front, to her shining hair, then, finally, to her hardened eyes.

He didn't have an answer for the first question, but the second? The second caused him more pain. When the words left her lips he had straightened up as much as possible. He knew he had wronged her but it was horrid to even have to hear this. His eyes hardened on hers and his jaw tightened as he spoke. "I haven't seen Trell in over a year. Not since we-" He simply stopped. He couldn't finish the sentence. There were already too many emotions wreaking havoc inside him. He didn't need to go through with that specific conversation topic.

Then her second question came. But he gave her no answer. Instead he kept his mouth shut. She didn't need to know that answer, it wasn't any of her business. He ignored the cussing under her breath, it didn't bother him, and he continued to stare her down until she did that. Her words lit his mind up like a fire, and suddenly he remembered where he truly was. With another flex of his jaw, he pushed the pain from his mind and watched her carefully. The second she took a step forward, he took a step back, moving into an arms length of the knife. He knew Jaime, and he knew how he got to people. If Dakota hadn't known Nyx when he had woken up in the hospital then it was possible that the true monster had gotten to her. His brother was not one to underestimate.

"I'm fine. Thanks." His words were ice cold now. He made sure to keep the knife on his left side. He didn't want to hurt her. If he had too, he would try to scare her away with lightning first, and he wanted his right hand for that, considering the condition he was in.

[Dakota King]

Dakota raised her eyebrows when Rayne said he hadn't seen Trell in over a year. What was going on with this camp? She knew about the Primordials and stuff, but none of this actually made sense. There had to be something in the water... that's the only way Dakota could describe it. Something was going on with this camp and she didn't like it one bit.

"No, you're not fine." What Dakota really didn't like was how Rayne was avoiding all her attempts to help him. She took a step forward towards him, but he took a step back, keeping the distance the same between them. She also noticed that he looked on edge... like something was about to attack him. That wasn't her, that was for sure, but she might if he didn't let her help him. She let out an annoyed sigh as she took another step towards him.

"What the hell, Rayne?" she spat out as she stopped and glared at him. "You are hurt and you need treatment. Don't deny it, I've been seeing you flinch." She pointed at his bed as she sternly looked at him. "You are going to sit your butt down and show me where you're hurt. I have a duty to fix the wounded and you happen to be one of them. SIT!"

[Deleted]

He had caught the raised eyebrow glance at him, but he had ignored it. It didn't matter all that much to him at the moment. What mattered was safety and until he had some rest and a good weapon, he wasn't going to trust anybody. He had seen firsthand what Jaime could do to a person. He had every reason in the world not to trust anybody in or out of camp. He was scared of his brother. Jaime was dangerous. The son of Hephaestus was the reason he was staying away from Dakota.

"I will manage." His voice got darker as she took another step towards him. She wasn't leaving him many choices with this stubborn attitude. His eyes darted from hers down to her feet then back up to her eyes. He watched as she began to shout at him in an extremely annoyed tone and pointed to his bed next to him. Carefully, he took an extra step back and to his side until his fingertips were touching the top of the bedside table, inches away from the knife.

"I'll treat myself." His voice lightened a bit. He really didn't want to hurt her or even scare her. He desperately tried to swallow the lump in his throat and a small part of him noted how his fingers were shaking. He was scared, to the point he feared Dakota because of the possibility that she had spoken to Jaime. "You don't have to do your duty today." He tried to assure her as he focused his mind to gather up a gust of wind to push her back if she moved to him too quickly.

"I'm not going to let you touch me if there is a chance that he's seen you." His paranoid thoughts bubbled up closer to the surface and continued to the longer they stayed together in that room. He couldn't fight long without rest but he would try.

[Dakota King]

Dakota knew that Rayne was a butt when he stopped talking to her once he started dating Trell, but Dakota was finding out just how big of a butt he actually was. "No, you're not going to manage," she spat at him as she kept pointing at the bed. She watched him as he slowly made his way to the bed. "You aren't going to treat yourself. You might actually hurt yourself more. I'm trained in this kind of stuff, let me handle it."

She slowly put her hand down as she glared at him, watching him and trying to diagnois what was wrong with him. She couldn't get past that he was pretty messed up in the brain. That was for certain at the moment. Then he started going off about something and her eyebrows narrowed. "What are you talking about? Who the hell is 'he'?"

But then it hit her. All the symptoms were there and Dakota widened her eyes. "Oh my gods..." she muttered before she looked at him and almost shrieked. "You're taking drugs! Dear gods, Rayne, you are an idiot. I thought you knew better. They are so bad for your health." She took a step towards him as she started, "What have you been...GODS!" She screamed as she felt a force push her back. She stumbled backwards into a dresser as she winced a bit from the impact. "The hell..." She muttered as she reached behind to rub her back before she glared at Rayne. "What is the matter with you. You better be smoking crack or something because that's the only reason I can explain your idiotic behavior."

[Deleted]

She was really stubborn, he noted as she told him how he wasn't going to manage. She was wrong. He was a spartan. He could deal with the pain until ambrosia and nectar did the job for him. He had managed to keep himself alive for a year. He could keep it up for a couple more days or weeks. He didn't bother paying any more attention to her hand pointing at his bed. Instead he kept his focus on her and her words. She was definitely trying to get closer to him. He just couldn't tell if it was to actually help out or not.

"He..." Rayne paused to blink a couple times. He was having immense trouble keeping himself awake. He had a moment to feel at ease and now it had messed with him. Annoyed, he quickly shook his head before looking back at her. He would have to deal. His vision blurred ever so slightly but he pushed past it. "He's hell." Was Rayne's simple reply. He couldn't think of anything else that fit the man so well. Then she came to a conclusion.

"What?!" Now she had confused him. Drugs?! How did she come up with drugs?! "No! No, I'm not on drugs!" His brow furrowed in annoyance. How could she think he was on drugs? "I'm ju-" He started to explain until she moved forward again and he reacted. A knot formed in his stomach as he lifted his arm and forced the air in the room against her, pushing her back away from him. The force of the blast pushed him back as well, his feet clumsily stumbled around until he managed to get a good stance.

The effects of his powers hit him like a truck. The bags under his eyes were more evident, his shaking increase so it was no longer just his fingers but his forearms now too, his legs were weak, and he felt nauseous. He angered words fell on deaf ears as a sharp pain shot up his thigh. Not a tremendous pain...just like he had bumpe- His eyes looked over to the bedside table which was now lying on the ground, the knife had skittered a good distance away like some bugs on water. No...He needed that knife...The thought passed through his head as he turned to run towards it only to have his feet crumble beneath him. Before the blonde knew it, he was on the ground and hypnos was nearing closer. He was tired.

[Dakota King]

Her back hurt, but Dakota couldn't focus on herself quite yet. She was in the room with a person tripping out on drugs who was being quite insistent that he didn't need any help even though that was quite far from the case. He had to be tripping as he was describing this "he" as hell. What was he talking about? The devil? Hades? Dakota was pretty sure that the god of the underworld had better things to do that stalk Rayne.

But everything cleared her mind when Rayne took a step and stumbled onto the floor. Dakota didn't care that he didn't want her help, her training was kicking it. It was almost like she had a blinder on as she rushed over to his side and stoop down. "Rayne?" she asked as she moved to lay him on his back. "You okay? Anything hurt?" She studied his eyes before she decided he was definitely out of it because of the drugs. She reached down to grab his wrist and take his pulse as she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Your pulse is normal..." She muttered underneath her breath as she looked at him. "What the hell are you on..." she wondered as she looked down at his legs and back up at him. "I'm going to remove your clothes to make sure you're alright, okay?" she warned him before she started working on his pants.

[Deleted]

Pain shot through his body the second he hit the floor. It was like being stabbed or cut all over again. Each wound that had been somewhat dormant before now burned like acid on his soul. Then again, he didn't exactly have his soul with him. Some part of him, in the back of his mind wondered if that little necklace was barely glowing green at that moment. The blonde couldn't stop himself from desperately gasping for the air that he had lost when he hit the ground. He knew he hadn't been stabbed by anything he had thrown on the ground because of the pelt, but it still hurt.

Then Dakota was by his side and the pain had dulled, but fear had come back. He failed to hear anything she was saying, but he was reading her lips fairly well. Or at least he would have been if it weren't for his blurry vision. His blue eyes darted quickly to her hand as she took a hold of his wrist and looked up at the clock. Weakly, he dragged a finger on her thigh as she stooped down next to him. He needed to get away from he- Wait what? Remove his clothes? How would that help him?

"He's...." Rayne barely managed as she began working to try and take his pants off.

[Dakota King]

"Hush," Dakota commanded Rayne as she removed his pants. It was hard with him mainly being dead weight, but she was used to bigger animals that were not cooperative at all. But she finally got his pants off and she was disgusted by the sight in front of her. Cuts, bruises, and scrapes decorated his body and she was pretty sure some of them were infected.

"Gods," she said as she looked at him as she reached into her pockets. "You must be really hurting." She was still in her work clothes, meaning that she still had the supplies that she usually had on her. She pulled out a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a couple of things of cotton balls. She soaked the cotton before she started applying it on his cuts. "Stay still," she told him as she went on cleaning his cuts, especially the more infected ones. "It'll only hurt worse if you move."

Once she got done cleaning his legs, she bandaged up most of his cuts before looking up at him. She took a deep breath as she reached up to grab his shirt. "I hope this wasn't your favorite," she said before she ripped open his shirt. "Gods," she said as she flinched a bit and almost threw up from the sight. She grabbed more of her peroxide and cotton balls as she went onto cleaning his chest as well.

[Deleted]

He could feel the sweat on his brow gathering the longer he laid there. He knew she was speaking, and her words were likely commands that were shouted at him, telling him to shut up, hold still, and stay off drugs. But he couldn't focus on listening to her to help himself out. He needed to leave. He need to not be in that cabin. He needed to...

His eyes slowly began to drift shut until he felt the stabs of the wounds again. His eyes shot open to find himself watching her apply some liquid to his wounds. A soft groan of pain left his throat only to be muffled by his lips. This groan was quickly followed by a shaky exhale and then a word...a name.

"Jaime..." He whispered. His large right hand grasped at Dakotas thigh and squeezed tightly as more of his wounds were re-lit. The worst wound that put the cherry on top was the gash down his chest. It started at one pectoral muscle and went down to the bottom of his abdomen. When that wound was re-lit, the spartan couldn't take anymore and passed out.


ff! ----------

His dazed mind barely registered he was still a part of this world when he awoke. He did not register whether or not he was alive or breathing. He had been to see Hades and pain was no way for him to tell whether or not he was living. Instead, he strained to open his eyes and check, stopped only momentarily by his own fear.

[Dakota King]

Dakota wasn't an idiot. She knew from looking that the gash on his chest was the one that probably hurt the most. She tried to be gentle about cleaning it, since it looked like it was the most infected. She hand to stop herself from flinching from the grip on her leg as she cleaned his gash. She heard him mutter out a name, but didn't really think about it until she noticed that he passed out from the pain. She couldn't help but wince a little bit as she quickly cleaned and bandaged him up. She waited by his side for him to come around.

It only took a little bit, but Rayne was finally stirring. Dakota fished some ambrosia out of her pocket as she moved to put Rayne's head in her lap and positioned the medicine by his lips. "Here," she said softly. "Eat this. You'll feel better." One thing was bothering her since he passed out and she had time to think about what he said. "Rayne... who's Jaime? Is she your girlfriend?"

[Deleted]

He didn't get all that much sleep. The constant feeling of being unsafe lingered over him in his dreamless rest. It felt hot. He couldn't breathe, or feel most of his body. He was uncomfortable, like he was sleeping on a rock, but one thing to his side felt comfortingly warm. That was it. When he did come around, he felt tight. Constricted. When he managed to get his eyes open he discovered the bandages were causing that. His hair felt damp, likely from sweat. His soft blue eyes glanced around the room only to land on Dakota. The one who had taken care of him, yet again. Perhaps Jaime hadn't gotten to her then?

The scent of a roasted ham with a pineapple glaze filled his nostrils. Slowly, he looked down to find himself staring at a piece of ambrosia. Eat it? Even if she hadn't proved herself mostly trustworthy by now, he didn't have much of a choice in his condition. Quietly, his lips parted to take the ambrosia when she spoke up again. Even though she had spoken and he had just taken a bite out of a piece of ambrosia the only thing he could focus on was how cool her lap was compared to his pillow.

So...to give her a reply, he simply shook his head. No. Jaime definitely was not his girlfriend. When he finally finished eating the piece of ambrosia he had only one thing to say to that. "No..." Raynes hoarse voice barely managed the word. "He is hell."