I have come to this final conclusion:
My life is about as good as some rotting thing in the flaming pits of hell.
Let me introduce myself! My name is Kari Roberts, and I am the sole definition of a freak show.
Don't worry; I'm not some emo kid, though you might think it by looking at me. Currently my hair is bright orange, but if you had caught me last week you would have found it purple. Just to top all of that off, I'm now stood in a queue waiting to buy some red hair-dye. In the past my hair has been every colour from blonde to blue to pink, with dip dyes and ombres in between.
Now, to explain the hair thing. Before I gave up on families, my dad told me that I looked just like my mother. The woman that had abandoned us with an older sister dying from cancer and a pile of debt. When my sister Ariella died two years ago, I up and left my father. He was a thorn in my side, and it was obvious that he would have preferred me and Ariella to switch places. Anyway, my mom was an idiot, and I hated her. This meant that I didn't want to look anything like her, or have anything to do with her. Henceforth, I changed my hair as often as I could.
I bought my hair dye and left the shop, making my way back to the dingy hotel that I had been staying in. I managed to just about afford it by working two jobs and faking my age. The guys here thought I was 19, when my actual age was 16. My long legs and curves helped me there. As I entered the hotel the pervert doorman winked at me, and I held in the temptation to shoot him a one-finger salute; it would cause me more trouble than it was worth.
I think this was when my day, and life, started to go downhill.
"Evening, Miss Roberts, letter came for you today." He said, and handed me a sealed envelope. As I went to take it, his hand clasped my wrist. He smiled, "have a nice night, miss."
Weird, huh? I got this sort of paedophilic behaviour on a day-to-day basis. I pulled my hand out of his grasp, and took off up the stairs to get ready for work. My tiny hotel room stank, and I mean stank. It smelled as though the loch-ness monster had taken a dump under the covers. I was going to have to speak to the manager about the guy downstairs. I was sure he was smoking something completely out of whack. Spraying some floral thing around the room, I delved into the dinky wardrobe to find my work clothes. My night shift was at a bar in Queens, about an hour and a half from where I lived in Lower Manhattan. The men were jerks and the women were skanks, how joyful.
I'm not going to go into my time at work, it was incredibly boring. I was sat on the subway on my way home when things started to get weird. First of all, the guy sat opposite to me stared at me, like, nonstop. I'm pretty sure he didn't blink once. Second, the subway stopped dead just before I was due to get out. Third, I was pretty much alone, besides that creep opposite me and some guy sleeping halfway down the carriage.
Just as the carriage stopped, the lights flickered out, and the guy opposite me stood up, shrugging off his trench coat. His eyes glinted silver in the dim light. I sat very still, not wanting to have anything to do with the creep. He started towards me, and as he did his nose elongated, and claws stretched out from his fingers.
"Kari Roberts, child of the moon. I am Lycaon." He growled; fur sprouting out all over his face and body. I started to move down the aisle, buying time. My ADHD brain didn't seem to register the panic and confusion that should have been racing around my mind, much less why this guy was a wolf or how he knew my name. Instead I was calm and collected, analysing my situation. If I could get off the carriage, I could probably escape, but I didn't know how fast this guy could run.
"Hello, Lycaon. What are you doing here?" I tried to buy some more time, you know, chatting with the werewolf. A hint of confusion flickered on his dog-like face, but it was quickly gone.
"Lord Zeus sent me. If I can kill the child of the moon I can get my sons back, and be a man again."
"Sorry, mate, but I'm no 'child of the moon', I'm Kari. Nice to meet you." I extended my arm, and he lashed out, leaving three long gashes on my forearm. "Okay, you don't shake hands. That's cool."
Lycaon leapt forward, and I had nothing to stop him with. All that I could think of is that he really smelled bad, and that I really didn't want him to kill me. All of a sudden he jumped up, looking embarrassed.
"I am sorry, Kari Roberts. I will not kill you." And with that, he jumped out of the carriage, and ran back down the tracks. I sat down in the nearest seat in disbelief.
"What the hell just happened to me?" My eyes drifted down towards the guy sat at the end of the carriage. He had managed to sleep through that whole fiasco, but he was now beginning to wake up, and make his way towards me. I immediately crouched into a defensive position, waiting for another attack.
"Are you okay?" He said, holding his hands out in surrender. He slowly sat down next to me. He looked around twenty, with warm hazel eyes and curly brown hair. He wore baggy clothing, and held crutches on either side of him. "My name is Ash Creek, and you're Kari Roberts."
"Great. Another complete stranger knows my name." He looked slightly embarrassed, hanging his head a little.
"I guess I have some explaining to do. First of all, this." With that, he pulled off his shoes, revealing cloven hooves. Cloven freaking hooves. I started to freak out, my breathing quickened and I was becoming lightheaded. Ash looked momentarily scared. "Calm down, you're starting to hyperventilate!"
"Of course I'm freaking hyperventilating! You have hooves. What are you? Some kind of donkey hybrid?"
"Donkey! I'm half goat! Donkey!" Ash got angry, but calmed down quickly, looking at me sympathetically. "I'm a satyr, you know, from the Greek mythology? And that was Lycaon. He comes from the Greeks too. He was turned to a wolf after he fed Zeus children. His sons were all killed, so that's what he was talking about." I didn't believe a word that was coming out of his mouth. Ash was obviously some crazy mutant man who had escaped from some institute. Again, I started to move away.
"Don't go! I need to take you to camp!"
"Yep, you're definitely crazy. Please just go away." Despite my thinking he was crazy, a small part of my mind was beginning to believe him. As far as I knew there was no such thing as a goat hybrid, and the look in Ash's eyes made me consider believing what he was saying.
"Wait. You have to come, Kari. You could be in danger if you don't. See how the train has stopped? Something, or rather someone is coming, and when they get here it won't be pretty, unless we get out of here!" A loud crash came from the tunnel behind us, and a frustrated howl. "Lycaon just realised you used your mind to control him, and you won't be able to escape him this time! Come on!" He extended his arm, and this time I took it.
We ran down the length of the train, and out of the emergency exit closest to the front. We carried on running until we came to a station, where we climbed onto the platform.
"Well? What now?" I asked, and Ash pointed to the exit.
"Now we go to Camp Half-Blood."
So guys! What do you think so far? This isn't a fem!Percy story, the other characters will be introduced in the next chapter, also perhaps who Kari's mother is? (I think it's kind of obvious that she's a demigod). Anyway, the next chapter will be uploaded within the next few days! Please review, and tell me what you think! I'm sorry if the grammar isn't brilliant, I am British and I'm trying to write from an American point of view!
Disclaimer: The only things I own in this story are Kari and Ash. All of the other characters belong to Uncle Rick!
