Sorry if bleh. I very tired. Had to finish before midnight. It 23:30 where I am. R&R.

"Is Leo coming or not?" Percy asked.

"He'll be here," Morgan assured him.

Jason adjusted his glasses and said, "Don't tell me this entire thing is some prank you two are pulling."

Morgan blinked at him. "Excuse me? Why would we pull a prank?"

"Because it's Halloween," Piper said. "If there was going to be a day for you guys to scare us, it would be today."

There was a rustle in the leaves nearby.

"I would've thought you would at least plan it for night," Annabeth said.

"Leo and I aren't planning anything," Morgan stated. "Can't we just go out into the woods and camp?"

"Apparently not!"

Leo had appeared so suddenly that he startled Frank. The son of Mars glared at him. "Sorry," he apologized. "I thought you had heard me."

"They think we're planning something," Morgan told him.

"Gah! Why didn't I think of that?" Leo wondered aloud. "We were just going to scare you with some campfire stories. Actually plan something? We should've!"

"Okay, either you're very bad actors, or you really didn't plan anything," Percy said.

Morgan rolled her eyes. "Forget it, you're hopeless. Come on, Leo. Help me build the campfire."

" . . . and they were never heard from again," Leo said.

"Great fanfic of our lives," Percy mumbled, suddenly uneasy.

"Okay, uh, I wasn't there," Morgan said. "How much of that was made up?"

"Well, obvious the parts where some of us died," Jason said.

"We all died in that story," Annabeth said. "And does every story end with they were never head from again?"

"Most of them, yes," Piper said. "But not mine." She smiled, which looked creepy with the fire light upon her skin.

"I already have chills," Frank said. "Go."

"Now, most stories," she started, "begin with once this or there was once that. Not this one. This story is reoccurring, it's happened multiple times, all with demigods. Mostly in these woods. It always starts when the fire begins to dim."

"No problem here," Leo said, holding his now burning hand out.

"Please stop interrupting," Piper said sharply, pouring some charm speak into her words. "Anyway, no one really thinks about it. Fires always go out eventually. At least, that's what it wants you to believe. Shortly after the fire dims, children of Ares or Demeter usually start to feel uneasy, as if the sense the incoming attack."

Everyone glanced at Frank. "What about children of Mars?" he asked.

"Possibly," Piper said with a nod. "This sign is also ignored because the woods typically have quite a few monsters. With the special tents though, they won't be able to smell them, so no worries right? After that, the children of Hermes go missing."

"Travis and Connor are back at camp," Morgan stated.

"True, but I remember hearing that back before the Great Prophecy was spoken, it was children I Poseidon," Piper said. "It only changed to children of Hermes because there were no more children of Poseidon."

Morgan and Percy exchanged nerves glances.

"Obviously that was never ignored. The others would split up and search the woods," Piper said. "That was a mistake they always made. It plans on it, in a divide and conquer strategy. After that . . . " She shook her head. "Only one demigod ever escapes." After a long moment of silence, she stood up. "Well, I'm beat. We should all head to bed!"

No one realized she poured some charmspeak into that too. They all just nodded wearily and headed into their respective tents.

Before Percy even fell asleep, Frank sat up. The son of Poseidon looked at him. "You okay?" he asked.

Frank shook his head. "I . . . it's probably nothing."

"Did Piper's story get to you?" Percy teased.

"No," Frank said. "It was nothing, just . . . just ignore me."

Leo suddenly sat up. "It did get to you."

"It did not!" Frank insisted.

"Look, I bet the fire isn't even–" Leo abruptly stopped talking as he opened the flap of the tent and saw that the fire was nothing more than a few hot coals. "Well . . . that still proves nothing."

"Guys," Jason said, "just go to sleep. If it makes you feel any safer, Percy, move to the back of the tent. We'll all move between you and the flap, the only way in or out of the tent."

Everyone seemed to be satisfied by the idea and moved so if anything got in, it would have to go through three well trained demigods to get to Percy.

Even then, Percy and Frank were uneasy. Leo tried to shrug it off. Jason on the other hand just wanted to sleep, he wasn't so easily scared.

Percy eventually just sighed, completely giving up on sleep. He went to sit up, but someone was suddenly holding him down. He thought he saw a face above him in the dark, and before he could get the others' attention, he felt a wave of coldness wash over him, and he was no longer in the tent.

"Piper," Morgan whispered, sitting up and looking over Annabeth's sleeping body. "Pst! Piper!"

Piper sat up a little. "Yeah?" she questioned. "Can't sleep?"

Morgan could hear the slight amusement in her voice. Her ears turned a little red. "No, I can't. Your stupid legend actually managed to scare me. Thanks."

"Oh, it's no legend," Piper said, laying back down and rolling away. "It's completely real. Clarisse was there last time it happened."

"At least tell me when it happened," Morgan insisted.

"Sometime before Dia de Muertos," Piper yawned.

"Oh," Morgan said, laying back down. "So, it could happen anytime before midnight. I feel so much better now." She rolled over and faced the wall of the tent. She picked up her water bottle, opening it slightly. If she was going to be attacked, she wanted to be able to defend herself.

Piper listened for a while to see if Morgan had anymore questiones. She knew she'd really scared her, and she almost felt bad that she told the story, but she was almost positive that Clarisse just told her the story to scare everyone, knowing she would repeat it. She was just a little mad no one had invited her, not that she would even come had they asked.

Finally, Morgan began to ask, "Hey, Piper, do you know what–"

The rest of the question never came.

Piper sat up, looking over to where Morgan was suppose to be. All she saw was a water bottle knocked over and spilling into the tent. She jumped up, turning to the net to the side and grabbing her dagger. "Annabeth!"

Annabeth sat up in alarm, her knife already in hand. "What?" She turned to where Morgan used to be. "Oh gods."

"I swear, I didn't know the story was real," Piper started saying. "I thought Clarisse made it up!"

"Hey, it's okay," Annabeth said. "Right now we need to wake the guys, see if Percy is there, and then go find Morgan."

Piper nodded and they hurried out of the tent and into the guys.

Frank, in the form of a Pitbull, tackled Piper. Realizing it was her, he jumped back and returned to his normal form. "Sorry!"

Piper waved it aside, that wasn't her concern. "Where's Percy?"

Frank turned around. "I don't know. Jason? Leo?"

Leo sat up. "What now?" He looked to the back of the tent. "Crap! How did I sleep through that?"

"I was awake!" Frank said. "I don't know how anyone got passed us!"

Jason woke up from the noise. "What now?" he groaned.

"Percy and Morgan are both gone!" Annabeth snapped.

Jason noticed that Percy was not in fact in their tent. He grabbed his glasses and armed himself with his sword. "That story was real?"

"I didn't know!" Piper defended. "But now we have the upper hand. No matter what, we are not spitting up!"

Annabeth nodded in agreement. Once everyone was out of the tent, she asked, "We should head to the creek first. If either of them managed to escape whatever has them, they'll head their first. And I know one of them is bound to get away."

"Plus we can send a message to someone back at camp," Leo suggested. "Get backup."

They took off north.

Percy and Morgan sat anxiously in the dark. Neither of them could see where they were or knew who took them.

"I think I'm done just sitting here," Percy said. He stood up, hitting his head on something, and falling right back down.

Morgan winced. "That sounded painful."

"It was very painful," Percy said, feeling to see if there was a bump. He felt something wet and sticky. He was now bleeding. "We need to find an exit."

"Okay but how?" Morgan asked.

There was no response.

"Percy?" she called into the darkness.

Still no answer.

"I officially hate camping!"

The others reached the lake at the same time that Percy did.

"Thank the gods!" Annabeth said, pulling her boyfriend into a hug. "How the Hades did you escape?"

"I don't think I did," he said. "It let me go." As he stood in the lake, the water reached up to heal the cut on his head.

"It just let you go?" Jason questioned.

"Probably because its divide and conquer stragety failed," Piper said. "This might be its back up plan."

"How?" Percy asked. Then his eyes widened. "It still has Morgan and I know the way! It knows we won't just leave her!"

"We're playing right into its trap," Frank said. "But what choice do we really have?"

"We'll call for backup," Leo said, still liking his plan.

"No time!" Percy insisted. He took off back through the forest, Annabeth by his side.

Everyone followed him but Leo. The son of Hephaestus just crossed his arms. "I'm at least calling for Festus," he mumbled. He took a deep breath, putting his fingers in his mouth. Suddenly, something grabbed his hand and covered his mouth. A wave of cold washed over him.

No one seemed to notice that Leo had been left behind. Percy stopped as he reached the pile of rocks that should've been Zeus' Fist. "It's around here," he said.

"Now would be an okay time to split up," Frank said. "Right?"

"We really shouldn't," Jason told him.

"We shouldn't, but we might have to," Percy said. "I don't remember exactly where the entrance was, but it's pretty small. I hit my head when I had stood up."

"If anything so much as touches you, scream," Piper said.

The five half-bloods split up. One by one they started to disappear. First it was Frank, and then Piper. Then Annabeth and Percy, leaving Jason by himself.

Jason knew everyone was gone, but that just meant he had to keep looking. He was the last one, they always left one alone. "But why me?" he asked aloud. "There has to be a reason." He thought over what he'd done all day on Halloween. Then he just thought about his traits, still looking for where the others would be hidden.

"Is it because my father is Jupiter?" he questioned, looking around. "Is it because of how I was raised?" He didn't know if he really expected an answer, but he was running out of ideas, and he practically searched the entire area. "Is it . . . because you're scared of me?"

Something grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him. He turned, but no one was there.

This is good, Jason thought. Whatever it is, it's responding.

"So you're not scared, huh?" he guessed. "Okay, then, maybe it's something I did? I don't know what I would've done to make you spare me."

Something suddenly tackled him from behind. He managed to roll over onto his back and find himself staring at a hellhound. "Mrs. O'Leary?" he questioned.

The large dog licked his face.

"Well, that just killed it," a voice mumbled. "I told you we should've used a different hellhound."

"It might've ripped him to pieces," a second voice stated.

Jason recognized both. "Nico? Hazel?"

It was quiet for a moment, but then Mrs. O'Leary let him up and he saw everyone was okay.

"What was this?" Jason demanded.

"We were trying to freak you out," Nico stated. "You know, because you said Hazel and I were too old to trick-or-treat."

"Percy led you here on purpose," Hazel added. "He was in on it."

"Not at first," Percy admitted. "I was just as freaked as everyone else. Then when you didn't split up, they decided to let me in on it."

"Yeah, so uh, thanks for the mini heart attack," Morgan told the two children of the Underworld. "Really appreciated."

"Was Piper in on it too?" Frank asked.

"Nope," Nico smiled. "But Clarisse was."

"That's why she told me that story," Piper realized. "It was made up."

"Not entirely," Hazel said sheepishly. "Nico and I did a little research and several campers went out here on Halloween and presumably went missing after midnight about seventy years ago."

"Well, that's reassuring," Frank mumbled. "Okay, I don't know about all of you, but I'm tired. Now that we know it was a prank, can we go to bed?"

"I guess," Nico said. "Can Hazel and I join you guys camping?"

"Well, duh," Morgan smiled.

Everyone started heading back to the tents. Even Mrs. O'Leary decided camping in the woods sounded fun.

Leo was behind them. He heard a sound in the woods and stopped. "Could there really be . . . " He stopped himself and shook his head, smiling.

He was unaware of the glowing purple eyes that watched him from the trees above.