(A/N) 'Sup guys? I've been working on his for a really, really long time and never got to post it because I'm working on two other stories. I decided that since it is my b-day I would post it now. Since I've been working on it for so long, I will be able to post at least four chapters this time! This book will be better than the summary, I promise. If I spell anything wrong or just screw stuff up I'm apologizing beforehand. This story will be serious and gory. Just telling you now. I should stop talking. You probably want to read the actual story and not the damn author's note.

Disclaimer: The PJO characters are RICK'S. Not mine, Rick's. Just putting that out there.

Chapter One: The Bite

Jason POV

"What the hell is it?" I asked Chiron as we stared at the thing in the cage. Nico and Percy accompanied us as well, for with their help we had captured this thing and brought it to Camp Half-Blood. I had no idea why Chiron had requested that we'd bring it back alive; this thing was a monster and I didn't understand why it was alive at all.

Chiron seemed worried. The monster had easily been brought through the barrier, which meant that monsters may have been becoming immune to the protective shield that Thalia's tree emitted. I wondered if we were going to somehow replace it. If all of a sudden there were new monsters that could get through the barrier, nobody was safe. Chiron seemed to be aware of this as he studied the thing with great interest.

"I honestly have no clue what it could possibly be." Chiron admitted. "It's not from any Greek myth I've ever heard of, and trust me; I was there when all of those 'myths' happened." I stared at the creature before me. It was somewhat humanoid; if that human had been snorting something and had had a terrible run-in with a chainsaw. It was a he, because it could talk, unlike other monsters, and scare the living crap out of you with his "I-haven't-had-any-water-since-three-years-ago" voice.

Speaking of water, the thing didn't eat or drink at all. It just sat there in the cage doing nothing. You could clearly see all of its bones greatly defied through his tattered clothing, as if his skin was stretched over sticks. On top of that, all of his veins were outlined in a sickly green color. He didn't even sleep, which explained the large bags under his eyes that made it seem like Nico had only missed a few minutes of sleep, and that was saying a lot. I was wondering how it was even alive. Then again, I wondered how monsters in general were alive if they only ate demigod.

"Dang, that thing is scary as hell, and I've seen a lot of freaky-ass monsters. I've even seen Tartarus for the gods' sake and this thing makes it seem like a park." Percy scoffed. The creature usually ignored us, but at Percy's comment it raised its head. I was greeted by a gruesome face that would've made the girl from the Ring run right back into the TV screaming for her mommy. He had no hair and one of his eyes had been gouged out by God-knows-what. I shivered as he looked at me with his one eye. His good eye, needless to say his only eye, was wild with a feral light that you only saw in the eyes of a cornered animal. His skin looked as if it had been bleached of color and was a milky white, vampire-style; again outdoing Nico. It's sad to say that I compare Nico to creepy things a lot.

"Hello." When the thing spoke, all of us leapt back. Chiron looked stunned. Even though we knew it could talk, it rarely did so. I didn't blame him; with that voice of his I wouldn't want to speak much either. It made a strangled sound in his throat and grinned as if it were a good thing. His teeth were serrated, for he spent his entire time in the cell sharpening his teeth with rocks until they were pointy and could tear flesh apart easily.

"He's a demigod." Chiron said hoarsely (A/N Ba dum bum tiss! Get it? Hoarse? And Chiron's a centaur? Never mind.) The three of us turned to him. What the hell is he smoking? That thing is certainly not a demigod, much less a human. I thought bitterly. Even though Chiron was wise and had trained the best of heroes, I had to admit that I'd question his judgment from time to time. Now was one of those times.

"How do you know?" Nico, who had been silent this whole time, retorted and rolled his eyes. He gave us a can you believe this guy look that Chiron either didn't see or didn't care that he'd seen it. The centaur trotted closer to the cage. His upper half donned a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt while his horse half was newly brushed.

"He has this aura to him. I can feel it. On top of the fact that he is humanoid, can talk, and was able to pass through the barrier unlike monsters and mortals, there is simply no other explanation. Besides, no new monsters can ever be created ever." Chiron murmured, almost in a trance-like state and took another few steps towards the cage.

"Are you insane?" I hissed. I knew I was being rude and utterly disrespectful. In the legion I would've been sewn into a sack of angry weasels and tossed into the Little Tiber for showing such insolence to a 'higher-ranking' officer. But he was actually going up to the monster? Who knew what it would do when someone came close? Rip their face off and eat it, that's what, though the monster didn't seem like the face-eating type. More like the attack you, stalk you until you die of blood loss (attacking you again if you somehow heal), then eat your remains type.

"Silence, Jason." Chiron snorted and turned to the creature. It tilted its head to the side and I thought his head was going to turn 180 degrees but the thing only seemed interested rather than hostile. Screw that, it looked totally hostile, it just didn't act like it. "What is your name?" Chiron asked slowly, as if he were talking to an animal, which he kind of was. I doubted it even remembered his name, an even if he had one I had no idea what use that would be in this situation.

The creature smiled, revealing his jagged teeth. I gulped as I envisioned him tearing my throat out. "I am Matthew." It giggled, which screamed insanity.

"Hello, Matthew." Chiron was still talking in that slow, soothing voice of his. "Why did you try to attack one of our campers?" Matthew shakily stood up. His clothes were in tatters and some of his fingers were missing. There were gashes on his body that showed bone, but Matthew didn't seem to be in any physical pain.

"The Shadow's Song." Matthew said quickly, like lunatic villains do when they're explaining their evil plans. His eye darted around as if it had a mind of its own. He was still wearing that freaky grin of his.

"Excuse me?" Chiron asked. His tone was curious. How could this "Shadow's Song" drive a regular teenager to this sort of insanity and appearance? I certainly wanted to know, and it looked like Percy and Nico wanted to find out as well; Nico was peering at Matthew curiously and Percy's eyebrows rose like they did when he was interested.

"The Shadow's Song infects them all. The children of Zeus will crumble and fall. They'll go insane and kill the best, while the shadows rebel and destroy the rest." Matthew chanted. All of us gasped. That sounded like a prophecy. It was a very dark, creepy prophecy but still a prophecy. How could a demigod of this sort of insanity memorize lines of a prophecy, much less hear some? Had he consulted Rachel or overheard one of Octavian's auguries back at Camp Jupiter? Was he a legionnaire gone mad or a lone demigod that somehow survived in the harsh outside world without getting killed? All of these questions rattled inside my skull as we stood in an utter silence.

"Is there any more, Matthew?" Chiron questioned. He had taken out a notepad and scrawling the words to the prophecy to give to Rachel. The Oracle needed to hear this, because if she hadn't prophesized this, then the so-called prophecy might as well be made up. Or Rachel might've been hiding something from us...I swatted that thought from my head. Rachel would never hide any prophecy from us…unless she shared it with Chiron and they were just concealing the information to not cause panic. I had to question the centaur later. Matthew nodded but then shook his head.

"Is that a yes or a no? Are there more lines or not?" Nico scoffed and crossed his arms. Despite his sassy comment, his brown eyes revealed that he was terrified of this deranged demigod. The main question was how he became so insane? Did he get captured and tortured by Gaea or the titans? Why would children of Zeus quote unquote 'crumble and fall'? And what the hell was the freaking Shadow's Song?

"It is a yes; there are more lines, but only the shadows know that part." He snickered. This kid was insane. He began to laugh, a petty cackle that sent chills racing up and down my spine. It was probably the scariest thing I've ever heard, besides the Giants' war cries as they charged into battle against us.

"Can we ask the shadows what the rest is?" Percy asked. He had picked up on the whole calm-the-crazy-creature-down thing that Chiron was a part of and was talking in a reassuring manner.

"Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope! One of you needs to hear the Shadow's Song." Matthew chortled and clapped his hands. It was an uneven sound, for Matthew here didn't have all ten fingers.

"Um…how do you hear the Shadow's Song?" I inquired in a gentle way. I stepped closer to the cage than I can give myself credit for, and Matthew's ugly face was staring at me right through the bars, his one eye gleaming in the relative darkness.

"I can help you hear it!" Matthew chuckled. Before I could even respond he grabbed my wrist and pulled it into the cage. Nico and Percy drew their weapons and tried to yank my arm from Matthew's hands, but even for a demented, sickly teenager with only seven fingers instead of ten; his grip was like a vice. I shrieked as he drove his jagged teeth into my wrist.

"Let go!" I howled and tried to pull away. Matthew didn't seem to be trying to hold onto me anymore and he let me recoil. I cradled my hand against my chest and glared at the sickly creature.

"You said you wanted to hear the Shadow's Song! Now you can!" Matthew laughed. "You get to hear the last lines with me!" I didn't want to do anything with Matthew. Not now, not ever. This demigod was reduced to nothing more than a monster. It deserved to die.

"We should kill it!" Percy growled and twirled his sword. The laid-back son of Poseidon was tenser than he usually was. Behind the hostility was fear, and I knew it. Percy knew that Matthew could provide us with information, but he was fearful that he would somehow escape and kill a few campers.

"No need!" Matthew tittered. "The people who hear the Shadow's Song are usually going to go bye-bye!" Matthew made a petty little waving gesture. "But we get to hear the last line when we are dying!"

"You mean the last line of the prophecy?" Nico asked quizzically. His Stygian iron sword was still in his hand and Nico was gripping it so hard his knuckles were turning white, which didn't really appear on his pale skin.

"Yes, the one only the shadows know!" he snickered. "Forty days! Forty days! Forty days until he hears the Shadow's Song!" Matthew pointed to me with a little stump of a right index finger. I shrank back. Matthew had said that people who hear the Shadow's Song usually die, and he had claimed that I would hear the Shadow's Song in forty days.

(A/N) Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is it so bad that I should stop it? Do you have any suggestions for what should happen in the story? I have no idea where this story is going; I just wanted to write a fanfiction about a…. JK I'm not telling you what the Shadow's Song is! You'll have to damn read the next chapter, since I'm not truly revealing what it is until the end of the second chapter! *evil laugh* Forty days, my friends, wait and see! *giggles as if high on weed*