Staring into the Prohibited

This story begins on a cold Friday night of July, when Percy Jackson walked to his room after leaving the last set of boxes on the garage. Things had changed a lot for this twelve year old since the recent event that occurred a few weeks ago. He found out his father was Poseidon, he met Annabeth, and he returned Zeus's lost bolt.

He was going to attend a new school for seventh grade and he wasn't quite sure of what surprises this school was preparing for him. While he was a sixth grader his Pre-Algebra teacher was a Fury, his best friend a satyr, and his Latin teacher turned out to be the trainer of heroes, Chiron.

His summer was a bit better than he had expected but it was also full of surprises. Everybody was blaming him for stealing something he had no idea was capable of being stolen. The guy he had considered his friend had done it. His name was Luke and he might've looked like a kind and handsome young man to everyone else but he was actually a cold-blooded traitor working for Titan that lived in his nightmares. Percy went on a complicated quest, looking for the wrong guy when the actual criminal was in the place in which they started, Camp Half-Blood.

Percy sat on his bed, the back of his head leaning against the wall. Slowly, he grabbed a drachma and tossed it into the air. The night is oddly noisy, he thought. The honking of cars, the yelling of neighbors and the meowing of cats he was used to, but never to this long-lasting sound of rain and thunder. Could the Gods be angry? He got off his bed and walked to the window. Storm clouds covered the sky of New York.

"Could it be?" He whispered lowly, unsure of the cause of this horrible climate. The sound coming from a glass next to his nightstand made him turn. He moved closer to it; light emerged from it. It was a message.

"Percy?" The feminine voice began. "Are you there?"

"Annabeth?" Her face appeared in the water.

"Hey, you never told me, why you had to leave camp so early."

"My mom…she said we had to find a new house…I was supposed to return today but this storm doesn't allow it."

"Storm? What storm?"

"There's one happening at the moment and it's pretty strong."

"I didn't hear of a storm…hmmm, maybe there's a small one over at your place."

Percy turned to the window once more, "It doesn't seem small."

"Anyways, I messaged you because you must know that strange things are going to happen and that if strange people ever reach you to offer something…you must not accept anything from them."

"Why not?"

"Because, they're bad things." The son of Poseidon had noticed the time it took her to respond, usually Annabeth answered as soon as the person was done talking. He knew perfectly that she was keeping something from him.

Trying to keep himself from asking questions he responded, "Okay, I will say no." But he was lying.

"I have to go, Percy, it was nice chatting with you again."

But before he even had the chance to respond, the image of the blonde girl had faded away. Irritated by these new mysteries, he stood up and walked from his room to the kitchen where his mother was reading a letter while drinking tea.

"Hi, mom."

"Hi, sweetie." She kissed his cheek.

"What are you reading?" He asked curiously.

"The bills and some other junk." She put the paper down and looked through the other letters. She stopped at one with a yellowish color. "Oh, this one is for you."

"What?" He took it from his mother's hands and read the letters written in emerald colored tint.

Mr. P. Jackson

Second Room

Hawk Street

House #7811

New York, NY

"Whoever this is, it's creepy that they know what room is mine."

"Are you going to read it now?"

Percy shook his head, as much as he wanted, he couldn't, he was afraid of what this may be. He was hoping it wasn't a threat letter from any gods. It was highly probable though. Rubbing his eyes, he wished his mother a good night and walked back to his room.

When he entered, he placed the letter on top of his bed. He took off his shirt, and noticed that all that running and fighting he had to go through during the quest had developed a better body for him. It made him smile. He switched his jeans for a pair of grey pajamas.

Once he was done, he undid the covers of his bed and got under the soft and warm blankets. Percy looked at the ceiling for a while before grabbing the mystery filled letter. He turned it around and stared at the purple seal that kept the message closed. It had the symbol of an armor shield: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake that surrounded the letter H.

He gulped and thought of all of the Gods whose name started with that letter. Hephaestus, Hestia, Hecate, Hermes, Hera, but he was praying, he was wishing, that it wasn't Hades, the lord of the underworld.

He was so close to opening it but a loud discussion that was happening outside, interrupted him. The many voices made him put his letter to the side. They were loud and very angry; they were all going against a person named Austin.

The twelve year old quickly stood up and ran to his window. He noticed that all of them were hooded by jackets and one by a black robe.

He was man, in his early twenties with light brown hair, his mouth dripped blood, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to expose you like this!" It was hard to tell if the guy was crying due to the continuing rain. "It wasn't my intention I swear!"

A guy whose face was covered by the hood of his blue jacket spoke, "It's too late, Austin, there is muggles out there looking for us, and I'm pretty sure they're going to use us as a Circus attraction due to your stupid mistake."Muggles? That was definitively a word Percy had never heard of before.

The conversation became difficult to hear but Percy tried hard to focus on what they were saying. Another hooded man spoke, this one was wearing a black robe. "Don't try to fool us, child, you exposed your magic not only in the presence of repugnant muggles, but also of a wizard!" A wizard? Could they be talking about Hecate or Circe? Maybe both?

"He was going to attack us!" Austin was yelling.

The man in the blue jacket talked again. "Since you were stupid enough to not kill him in time, he will tell the ministry about the situation and if they find us, we are going directly to Azkaban…"

"Either way, thanks to this beast, we're doomed on either side. If we stay here, the muggles will use us for their monetary benefits. If we go over there, we'll go to prison." A girl wearing a red jacket said.

"I much rather go over there; we'll escape…I'm more than sure He will free us a few days after we're in." Another member of the small crowd talked.

The group that consisted of five people agreed, and the one in the black robe pulled out a stick. Everyone except for Austin had noticed.

"Stand up." The vulnerable man stood up, his hands shaking, he was not aware of what was going to happen. "Julian, how much shall will give this pest?"

Julian, the one in the blue jacket responded, "Maybe ten seconds?" Percy felt the insolent smile growing on the guy's face.

"Run." The one in black said. 10…9…

"No! Please! I beg of you, spare my life! My sister will be alone!" 8…7…

"We'll kill her as well." Percy and Austin both knew that the countdown had begun in the all group's heads. 6…5…Austin stood up and turned his body around, looking for somewhere safe to run but there was nowhere he could go. Then he saw Percy. He got scared; he had gone unnoticed until the man had turned to his direction. 4…3…

Austin had reached his window. He hit the glass several time, "PLEASE, HELP ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" He was crying, "Please!" 2…1… and Just as Percy was about to open his window and allow the man to go in, he heard the words: "Avada Kedavra!"

Percy saw a bright green light striking the man in front of him. He saw Austin's body fall on the floor. His eyes were open, inexpressive, his lips were parted. The man was dead.

He looked up and saw the group of people walking in his direction. He closed his window and he realized how scared he was. He crawled over to under his bed and searched for Riptide. As soon as he found it, he clicked and the bronze pen was fully transformed into large sword.

Waiting for something to happen, he waited next to his window holding his sword, his hands shaking. He was scared…never in his life had he seen such forces being used and filled him with horror that those powers were going to be used against him soon.

To his surprise, he had heard nothing. No sounds. No people knocking on his window. No usage of those sticks to destroy his wall then to get him. There was nothing. Slowly Percy stood and quickly glanced through the window. The group of people were gone.

Looking around, he still saw no sign of those individuals. He looked down to where Austin's body was, but it was also gone. Strangely, a note was left in the place where the corpse once laid.

Before opening the window, Percy looked around once more. When it was open, he rapidly grabbed the piece of laminated paper.

It said: We'll see you soon, Percy Jackson.