Katie:
"Katie, why are you always at camp?" my mortal friend, Nikki, whines, putting on a puppy-dog face. We were walking on the streets of New York. I was on break from Camp Half-Blood, the only safe place for demigods, like me. Yup. I'm a daughter of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, and of course my mortal dad, Jim Gardner. He caught my mom's attention by winning the National Garden Competition, or NGC, a while back. Anyway, I was staying with my dad, step mom, and little stepsister for a while.
"I really like it there," I reply, "It's like my second home." Nikki looks glum,
"Why can't I go?" she asks.
"I told you," I lie, sighing, "It's only for dyslexic and ADHD kids." She huffs and we approach her apartment building. "See ya later, Nikki," I say.
"Bye-bye, Katie-Kay," she calls back and walks in. I roll my eyes at the nickname and start to head to my building, a few miles away. I put my ear buds in and fire up my iPod. I jog to the beat of Adele's latest hit. I get so into it that I don't notice the tall man until he jerks my arm back. He wheels me around so I'm facing him and grabs both my wrists.
"Going somewhere, Sweetheart?" he growls. I try to pull away, but he's too strong.
"Get off!" I shout, hoping someone will hear me. Then I realize there is no one around. I struggle harder.
"Ooh, you're a resister, ehh? Well, you won't be for long," he says, dragging me away. He shoves me through the door of a closed building and locks the door behind him. He starts towards me and I stumble back against a display window. He pressed his body against mine and his hand starts to inch up my shirt. I whimper. He holds up a knife to my throat and says, "Just in case."
Travis:
Conner and I were on break from Camp Half-Blood. We were staying with our mom, Carrie Stoll, and just cruising around good old New York. Connor was driving and I was chilling in the passenger seat, looking out the rolled down window.
"That's weird," Connor says, "Where is everybody?" I look around and don't see any cars or people.
"Hmm. I dunno. What happened to the city that never sleeps?" I reply, snorting. Connor just frowns. I roll my eyes and start to look at the display windows. Mostly boring things like purses and clothes, but then I see something that should not be in a store. A guy is pressed against a girl and...yeah. Ugh I really ha- wait. I realize that the guy is holding a knife at his side and the girl…the girl is Katie!
"Connor! Pull over!" I yell. He does.
"What?" he asks. When I start to get out of the car he asks, "Travis, what the hell is wrong?"
"Katie," is all I can say. He looks at me like I'm crazy and I jump out of the car. What the hell? Who is doing that to Katie? At least, I think it's Katie. Even if it isn't, I still need to help her. I'm 99% sure it's her. Katie Gardner is the biggest crush of my life and I can recognize her any way, anywhere. I charge into the building and see that the guy has one hand in her shirt and the other inching down her pants.
"Hey!" I yell, "What are you doing?" He whirls around moves his hands from Katie to his knife hilt.
"T-Travis?" Katie stammers. She is shivering and I see tears running down her cheeks.
"I got this, Katie," I assure her. "I think you should leave," I tell the guy with my best death-stare.
"Not until I get what I want!" he replies, "And to do that, I think I'm going to have to take care of you." He starts towards me, knife drawn, and I grab my backup Celestial bronze knife and try a stab. It passes right through. Tartarus! He's mortal. Okay, I'm just going to have to work with what I've got and not die. There's a broom to my left and an easel to my left. Great. I grab the broom and go in to combat. We fight: broom handle against knife blade. He's pretty good, slashing at everything he sees and I realize that I have to catch him by surprize somehow. I act weak, only tapping his sides, and then, when he least expects it, WHAM! I whack him as hard as I can on the head with the handle. He crumples to the ground. To make sure he's unconcious, I kick him in the side (a little harder than nessasary). He's unresponsive. I stand there panting and turn my attention to Katie. She has slid down against the window, has her head in her hands, and is shaking violently. "Katie?" I venture, "Are you okay?" She looks up. She is not okay. The buttons on her shirt have been crudely undone, exposing her underclothes, her usually luminous eyes are now bloodshot, she has small gashes on her forehead and her right arm, and has a nasty bruise on her jaw.
"H-How did you know I was here?" she asks.
"I saw you through the window. Connor and I were...around the neighborhood," I reply. I outstretch a hand and pull her up to her feet. She takes a few trembling steps towards me and then falls. I catch her in my arms, she looks up, and for a moment, we stay like that, staring in each other's eyes. I never noticed just how beautiful they are.
"Thanks," she whispers, dropping her gaze. Connor walks in.
"What the Hades happened?" he demands.
"Uh. Katie got... you know," I say hestitantly. His face fills with surprize.
"Gods!" he says, "Are you okay?" Katie nods and stands up right. There is an awkward silence and then I say, "Um. Do you want us to take you home?" She nods again and we take her to the car. I've never seen Katie so fragile. She's always been so full of energy, especially when she's angry at me. Like that one time I somehow shattered one of the greenhouse windows of the Demeter Cabin with an arrow (being a son of Hermes, that kind of thing happens frequently). She was so angry she-okay, I don't really want to talk about what she did, but the bottom line is that she's never like this and I hate to see her when she is.
I go ahead and sit in the back of the car with her transferring her directions to her building to Connor. When we get there, I offer to take her up to her apartment and she agrees.
"Katie, how long were you even in there with him?" I ask in the elevator. She swallows and chokes out,
"About half an hour."
"And no one came to help you?"
"Nobody was around."
"Oh-yeah. What did he even do to you?"
"Listen, Travis, I really don't want to talk about it right now."
"Should we call the police?"
"No. I don't want to get involved in anything like that." she says.
"Okay. Do you need my number? Just in case?" I ask. She shrugs he shoulders and then winces. I guess the creep hit her there, too. I hand her a slip of paper and we exchange numbers. "Just, uh, call me when you need me, I guess," I tell her. She studies me carefully, like she's suspicious.
"Okay." The elevator dings as we reach the 7th floor. I walk with her until we get to her apartment. "Thanks, Travis," she tells me and does something surprizing; she hugs me. "I don't know what would've happened if-if," she sniffs. She cries into my shirt and I awkwardly wrap my arms around her and say reassuring things. Now I really want to find that guy who did this to her and beat the crap out of him. Once she calms down, she thanks me again and opens her door to her apartment. I leave, thinking about all the explaining she's going to have to do. Even in spite of things, I have to smile. Katie Gardner just hugged me.