This is an oral recount; all names from the Percy Jackson series rightfully belong to Rick Riordan.(This story happens after Heroes of Olympus series)

Chapter 1: Dark

It finally really happened: the dark days of my life I had dreaded. From that day onwards, I knew I would find the truth of my powers as well as my brother's, our true selves and our background. It was also the day when I finally found the reason as to why our lives were consistently in hazardous dangers.

The name is Geoff, just plainly Geoff. We had no sir names as we were orphans since young. As far as we knew, our parents had died after the day we were born, though I was oblivious to their causes of their deaths. My brother's name is Arvin. Since that day, we had no prior knowledge of our parents till that day arrived.

We had been staying in a rented home in New York. Every month, we had to work in the afternoon after returning home from our boarding schools to pay off our debts. It was hard work, but we dared not complain for it ensured our survival. We stayed in the seventh avenue of New York streets, behind a couple of garbage chutes. Yeah, it was a silly thing to do, but it really did help in masking the smell of us from monsters who 'loved' plotting ambushes.

These monsters loved disguising as humans, attempting to lure as into conversations before grabbing the chance of pouncing at us. Surprisingly, we managed to recognise most of them despite never really coming across any of them. They are a gruesome lot, varying from Cyclops, Hyperboreans, Minotaurs, Empousas and many more. There is a thing we found it strange too: they were all of Greek mythology. Nevertheless, I thanked our powers for without them, we would had been in their hands.

I had vividly remembered that day when our lives changed. I was on my way back from boarding school when I bumped coincidentally with my best friend, Damien. His name, in my opinion was really strange for his true 'self'. He might looked like an ordinary teen in a red cap, white shirt, brown hoodie, dark blue jeans and walking around with crutches. However, I managed to 'see' through him. Underneath his jeans he had a pair of goat legs and under his cap a pair of medium-sized horns. Unmistakably, he was a satyr in disguise, though I had no idea how I got that term.

Wondering how I saw through him? Well, that was one of my powers of course. If I concentrated on things or people really hard whom I was curious or suspicious, my vision could expand till I could see their identity. It was strange, because whenever I tried that my vision would lose its colour and turned grey; sometimes, I could not even pick out things. I knew his name was not Damien, judging from who he really was. Honestly, I knew his real name: Grover, Grover Underwood. I knew he came from Camp Half-Blood, whatever that was, and was friend to Percy and Annabeth, whoever those were.

This was one of my other powers: shifting through thoughts. It was not nearly I could do that all the time, only during circumstances when someone was thinking deeply. Their thoughts usually brushed against my consciousness, enabling me to grasp a faint glimpse of their thoughts. I happened to pry these information from Damien when he was pondering about something. There was one thing I was worried though. He was plotting on how to convince me and my brother to come to the camp of his. That undoubtedly aroused my awareness. How did he know about Arvin?

That day, my suspicion was no difference."Um, hey,Damien,"I managed, trying not to sound nervous. Damien raised a brow at my behaviour. Till that day, he did not know I had discovered his true identity." What brings you here?" I asked again.

"Uh, I thought about sending you home." My heart started to feel uncomfortable. What did he want? Taking this chance to send me and my brother off to that unknown place? "What for? I can walk home myself," I queried him.

"I got a feeling," he hesitated, "you may face dangers." That set me off thinking. My brother and me had faced dangers countless times. Did we ever see Damien helping us? I tried to act surprised."What? Dangers?" I pretended to look around the alley. I saw nothing but a fat pot-bellied balloon seller at the far end, blowing up his balloons."Everything seems all right," I told Damien.

"You do not danger is masqueraded."Damien shifted uncomfortably before saying again," Let me walk you home, at least till your doorstep."I pondered about what he said, though I could think of all sorts of monsters that we could be facing. My see-through power did not work during that time, because I had no mood to immerse myself into deep concentration. Finally, I made my mind."Fine by me."

We started walking towards my house. We did not pick up a conversation and the only sounds were his crutches on the ground. Damien seemed to be in deep in thought. My curiousity aroused, I concentrateed on the spot right above his right ear. However, no thoughts came to me. I was just not in the mood.

Suddenly, we bumped into someone. It was totally unexpected; standing before us was the fat balloonseller. I was amazed that he could approached us that quickly and stealthily. Then, I became suspicious. Glancing at Damien, I saw he was also cautious.

Grinning, the man held two green balloons, as big as footballs."Want some balloons, kids. Its free for you guys, just to cheer you up,"he said.I figured out we might have held our breaths for his breath stank like rotten meat and , Damien leaned towards me and whispered,"When I said go, you run with me." I was uncomfortable with his idea but I kept silent.

As I turned my gaze back on the man, my vision blurred and switched. It had become grey and distorted. My muth hung open when I saw the man. He had beefy arms covered in hairs, three times larger than me and a face featuring pointed teeth and malicious eyes. He was no balloonseller but a Lastrygonian.

"Go!" I had not the time to react when Damien shouted. The monster had thrown a fist at us . Damien raised one of his crutches to block the blow, giving me time to escape. There was a deafening crack and the crutch broke into half. The fist continued towards the ground, smashing it apart. In the meantime, I had started running. Behind me, Damien threw down his other crutch and with three light steps, caught up with me. Not surprising, I guessed.

We ran and hid behind a group of trash cans, jus as a trash cart flew over our heads and landed a metre far from us. Then, there was a whistling sound and Damien shouted,"Duck!"We moved away from the cans just as it exploded into flames, spilling trash everywhere. The monster threw another roaring fireball in our direction and we dodged again, now hiding behind a pile of crates. Behind us, the monster bellowed,"Come out now, tasty food!"

"That is a Lastry-"

"I know, a Lastrygonian. Man-eating cannibals who live in far north,"I interrupted instantly. I did not know what I was saying during that time; the words just blurted out of my mouth."How did you know-"

Too late, the pile of crates exploded. Just then, a thought for survival hit my panicked thoughts. Almost instantaneously, I could feel my body vibrating and a huge tug at my gut. There were the sounds of crates crashing but none of them hit us. Then, I could hear Damien's voice.

"Geoff,how did you-"I looked up and was awed. A large , black, holographic hemispsere had enveloped us , providing a shield. The tug at my gut was still strong and my arms were trembling. At the far end, I saw the Lastrygonian's look changed from snickering to surprise. This was one of my powers I had never known I had.

"Look, I know this is insane but I have to tell you,"I spoke to Damien urgently. I then told him how and what I know about him or his motive. As I pronounced every word, I saw his expression was a daze. When I had finished, he was speechless. Finally, I released the shield, letting it dissolved into nothingness. My arms and head were throbbing and I was gasping for breath. Sweat beaded my forehead.

Three metresaway, the monster held another fireball. Growling, he prepared for the next throw. I glared at it with hatred. Since my brother and I were young, these monsters had been taunting us. Now, I was determined to end this once and for all. Standing, black smoke curled from my both hands. My whole body was radiating with heat. The tug came again, this time even greater. Clasping both my twitching hands, a ball of dark energy coalesed between my hands, my vision flickered and turned red. I tried to focus on the monster.

Just as the monster hurled his flaming ball at me, I released the energy sphere into his direction. Everything happened in a split second. The dark energy nullified the fireball before slamming into the monster. It then exploded, disintergrating the monster with a loud bang.

I had no time to admire my work. My legs were wobbling and my body was sizzling. That was the first time I had used those powers; it really sapped me thoroughly. I collasped onto the ground, gasping uncontrallably. I saw stars around me and heard Damien calling my name and rushing to me. The last thing I heard him saying,"Gosh! I assume its Hades's-" before darkness enveloped me.