Rachel Elizabeth Dare

Chapter 1

A Chance Meeting and a Dam Problem

First off, I guess I should mention my name. That's standard for a story right? Anyways, my name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. If you know me, it's most likely not because you're my friend, but because you know who my dad is. Or you think I'm crazy. I'm not exactly sure which one is worse.

The thing about me is that I see things that no one else sees. Of course, I've spent the last few years just ignoring these things because, being a thirteen year old, my imagination should not be this active. Which is why I knew what I was seeing is real. But I refuse to tell people about what I see anymore because they all said same thing. And I did not want to be thrown into a loony bin. However, some things are just too horrible for me to keep it to myself and that's how I usually lose my friends. I definitely wasn't a loner so this always bothered me but I guess it can't be helped. Maybe I'm just finding the wrong crowd of people…

Back to the weird things that I can't explain. Most of the time I saw monsters. Snake people, skeletons, giants. Things like this. Normally these weird creepy crawlies just walk right by me, which suits me just fine, but generally if they're that close to me… well this is usually where I freak out. I'd seen many monsters act as teachers or staff or even another student in schools and then, usually along with a student or two, would mysteriously disappear in the middle of a semester. The students were usually vaguely remembered, but the teachers were usually replaced instantly, and no one but me seemed to believe that the monster teacher or whatever had been there. Usually they believed that the replacement had been teaching the whole year. Again, I'd stopped bringing it up to other people at this point but still. Can you say annoying much?

I'd also seen other people walking around with weapons that seemed really out of date. I mean like bronze or gold swords or spears, bows and arrows, and very rarely did she see a weapon used in this time and age, such as pistol or a shotgun (not very often but she'd seen it). The thing is, it was usually teenagers that were carrying these weapons, sometimes not even that— A long time ago I'd once seen a little girl, no older than seven, handle a bronze knife with such expertise that I'd had come home and attempted to mimic the girls actions with a butter knife… and ended up with a big bruise on my forehead.

Not only the fact that really young kids could handle weapons like experts was the fact that no one else ever noticed. I'd seen hundreds of people walk past the weapon wielding teenagers without a second thought. Even the kid I'd seen with the shotgun. Weapons in restaurants, weapons in schools, weapons in museums… These kids were everywhere. Not that I'm complaining about it too much. They never hurt other people. Only the monsters that apparently tried to pass as people. I'd never been really close enough to these kids, which was annoying because I really had a boat-load of questions for them.

Of course, there was also that giant boulder that seemed to hover above the Empire State Building in New York City, my home town. It could only be seen on relatively cloudless days, and for some reason it never cast a shadow which never helped my case. The first time I saw it, I screamed as though it was doomsday. But right now I was far away from that problem, because my dad had decided to take me on vacation to the Hoover Dam.

By vacation, I mean mom planning to go on the next vacation and dad on his phone the whole time, planning to destroy more of nature. Something about malls or subdivisions. I know that he knows that I hate most things that he stands for, so he tries to be extra nice to me. And by nice, I actually mean he thinks he's being nice by paying me off or taking me on fancy vacations like this. It's not that the money isn't nice to have—I usually spent it on other people whenever I could, but I did have expensive items in my room. No, it's the destroying the environment part that I hated. And the fact that it made it harder to tell who was a real friend and who wasn't.

Usually on these vacations I would stage escape attempts to get away from them. Of course, escaping really wasn't a term for someone whose parents didn't really care if I wandered off on my own. If they decided to leave without me, they would simply call a limo service for me and have me driven back to them. It's happened more than once and it's really stopped bothering me that they would leave without me. Obviously we didn't get along very well.

Normally I wouldn't mind just going sight-seeing, but today was just a bad for me. I had a cold because I'd been caught in a pretty nasty storm a couple of nights ago, so I had to blow my nose or sneeze every minute or so. Not to mention that wearing a sweatshirt in the desert made me feel as though I'd burst into flames at any moment.

Still, I tried to think positive. I had not seen anything strange in quite some time, other than the occasionally glimpse of the weird hovering rock over New York City through the clouds. I also had a feeling that today was a day that I would finally get answers about my "sight" problem. Which was a long time overdue let me tell you.

I decided to go on the tour of the dam to give me something to do. It was kind of neat to see how it worked, but I didn't understand why other people needed to take some many pictures. I hoped that I didn't end up in any these pictures because I knew that I looked a mess. I nervously pulled my handy dandy hairbrush out of my back pocket and brushed my dark red hair back just in case. At one point of the tour we traveled on an elevator hundreds of feet into the ground. I ran out of tissues on the way down and every time I sneezed after that moment I got some pretty hostile looks. Like I could control whether I caught a cold or not. The nerve of some people!

The tour found its way to the water turbines that powered the place, which was kinda cool to look at but really loud. In no time, I had a headache on top of being sick, and after a few more sneezes and violently cursing my cold, I decided to look for some tissues. I wandered into the girl's restroom, which was located in a small hallway on the opposite side of the balcony overlooking the water turbines. Once again cursing the fact that I had a cold, I stuffed a few Kleenexes into my pocket and headed back towards the elevators. As I headed back towards the generator room, I watched a nervous looking, black haired boy backing into the hallway. He knelt down and peered around the corner as though making sure that something wasn't following him. I figured he had escaped from his parents as well and that was ok in my book. My curiosity got the better of me, however and I found myself wanting to know what he was actually hiding from.

Well that and the strange feeling that he could possibly answer the question of why I could notice things that no one else seemed to notice.

As I approached him, I could see that he was tensed up. Like, so tensed up that his hand was completely white tense. He seemed to be clutching something in one of his hands. I briefly wondered if he had a weapon in his hand, but, though the thought made me slightly nervous, it did not make me any less curious about the boy. When I saw that it was just a pen, I let myself relax just a little.

'Why would he have a weapon,' I told myself. 'He doesn't look any older than me.'

I was just two feet away from the boy when I felt a sneeze coming. Annoyed, I quickly pulled a Kleenex from my pocket and tried to blow my nose as quietly as possible, so I wouldn't startle the boy. He looked so nervous that I decided that it would be better if allowed him to see me before I started pegging him with questions.

Apparently sneezing quietly hadn't worked out very well. If my eyes hadn't been glued to the boy's hand – the one that was holding the pen – I would have missed the whole thing. Time seemed to slow down as I watched him slash at me with a sword that I could have sworn was a pen just seconds before. I yelped as the blade passed through me horizontally and dropped the Kleenex I had been holding. However, instead of lots of pain, as I had expected, all I had felt was an icy sensation that went through my stomach. Not the most pleasant of feelings, but, all things considered, I figured it was better than the alternative of being half a girl. The shock of watching a blade appear out of thin air and go through me wore off quickly enough, and I remembered that she should probably yell a little.

"Oh my god!" I shouted at him. "Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?" He seemed to be in some sort of disbelief because he just stared at me for a few seconds before responding.

"You're mortal!" It was my turn to stare in disbelief. What the heck? Did he actually just say mortal?

"What's that supposed to mean? Of course I'm mortal! How did you get that sword past security?" I wasn't sure I liked the way he had called me a mortal, like I was something different. It was bad enough to be called different by people that I knew much less a complete stranger. Then again, he did look genuinely surprised that he was attacking me and not something else. One thing I was certain was that he hadn't been expecting a thirteen year old girl standing behind him. Made me nervous to think of what company he had been expecting.

"I didn't – Wait, you can see it's a sword?" I rolled my eyes. Did he think I was I stupid?I could see from his eyes moving that he was examining me – In a way that was completely not creepy mind you!... Although I don't think I would've minded if he thought I was cute. He looked rather cute himself. He had a mop of messy black hair and eyes the same color as mine. He was wearing a very worn pair of jeans and the same could said about his sneakers. He also seemed to be wearing some kind of fur over his shoulders. I had a strong feeling that it was from a lion which seemed very odd. My eyes traveled to the sword that the boy was half-heartedly trying to hide behind him. It looked as though it was made out of bronze, although I'd never seen bronze give off its own light source before.

"Well, it's either a sword or the biggest tooth pick in the world." I finally answered. A bunch of questions bubbled in my mind again and I decided to just let loose. Maybe I'd get an answer that I'd been looking for years. "And why didn't it hurt me? I mean, not that I'm complaining. Who are you? And whoa, what is that you're wearing? Is that made of lion's fur?" I saw him take a subtle glimpse at his sleeve. I wondered if the fur was even what he saw. Perhaps all he saw was a winter coat. In that moment I wished that I was just a little less crazy. But that didn't make what I saw any less true. These things I saw couldn't just be in my head. I shook myself and saw that he seemed to be concentrating.

The boy snapped his fingers. "You don't see a sword. It's just a ballpoint pen." I blinked. What? Maybe I'm not the only crazy one…

"Um… no. It's a sword, weirdo."

"Who are you?" He demanded. I huffed. Who was he to demand anything of me after he tried to kill me?

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare." I told him then got a little more forceful with my tone. He wasn't cooperating very well with me and that was annoying me. I needed answers and I came to the conclusion that he definitely had some with the way he was trying to hide stuff. "Now are you going to answer my questions or should I scream for security?" I didn't know if I actually would if he didn't answer, but I knew by the panicked look he gave me that he had believed me.

"No!" He shouted then quieted down. "I mean I'm kind of in a hurry. I'm in trouble." I raised my eyebrow at him.

"In a hurry or in trouble?"

"Um, sort of both." I was about to question him about why he was in trouble when I saw something over his shoulder. At first I thought they were just regular soldiers but something seemed… off. As they got closer, I saw what it was. It was like their eyes were just blank slates of black. Almost like they didn't have… I paled. They didn't have eyes! They were skeletons! In that second I just knew that the skeleton soldiers were after the boy in front of me. I thought of quick plan in my head.

"Bathroom!" Confused look from the boy…

"What?"

"Bathroom! Behind me! Now!" I elaborated. I wasn't quite sure why he listened to me but he did. That left me standing alone in that hallway with a group of angry looking skeleton men bearing down on me. Not my smartest plan. I was skeptical that it would even work.

As they neared me, I heard the hissing sounds that they made. I wondered if that's how talked. Seemed creepy, so I figured the reasonable answer to that was yes. I took a deep breath. And then I panicked.

"Oh my god! Did you see that kid? It's about time you got here. He tried to kill me! He had sword, for god's sake. You security guys let a sword-swinging lunatic inside a national landmark? I mean, jeez! He ran that way toward those turbine thingies. I think he went over the side or something. Maybe he fell."

Please work, please work, please work… The skeletons looked at each other in what I guessed was excitement (They didn't exactly have expressions) and they walked towards the edge of the balcony. That left a clear path back to the elevator.

It worked! I'm so awesome!

I opened the door to the boy's bathroom and gave the boy an all clear sign. "But you'd better hurry." I warned. I realized that I was shaking a little bit. I'm sure I looked extremely pale as well but if the boy noticed it he didn't say anything. All he did was peek around the corner of the hallway.

"I owe you one, Rachel Elizabeth Dare." He looked ready to bolt. I understood. We probably didn't have a whole lot of time before the Bones Brothers realized I tricked them.

"What were those things? They looked like—" The boy interrupted me.

"Skeletons?" I nodded, ninety-nine percent uneasy now, one percent relieved. He did see them! I'm not the only one imagining them! I had to ask him more, follow him into the elevator. I needed to know. I didn't want to be crazy anymore! But before I could ask more questions he started talking again.

"Do yourself a favor. Forget it. Forget you ever saw me." What? Forget that you see that same things that I do? Forget that you might be able to tell me what things are and why I can see them?

"Forget that you tried to kill me?" I got out and cursed. I couldn't seem to get out the other two things out of my mouth.

"Yeah. That too."

"But who are you?"

"Percy—" He started to say. But those skeletons had turned around. "Gotta go." And he started to sprint away.

"What kind of name is Percy Gotta-Go?" I shouted stupidly after him. I found that I didn't have the strength to follow him, even though that I needed to get more answers from him. I collapsed onto my knees. The skeletons all filed out after Percy so I didn't have to worry about being hurt.

It took me a minute or two to regain the ability to move, and I quickly made my way to the elevators in what was most likely a vain attempt to catch up to Percy. The elevator seemed to take forever to return to the surface and I found myself tapping my foot in between my sneezing. I came out into the sunlight just in time to see Percy and three others surrounded by eleven skeletons. Apparently they'd gotten back up.

They were right next to the bronze angels, which had turned brown with age except for theirs toes. People had rubbed their toes so often (because it was supposed to give them good luck) that they had a shine like a new penny. Or like Percy's sword, which I could see shining from here. I sprinted toward the group, hoping that I could help at all to get rid of the skeletons that surrounded them. All but one of them seemed to be willing to fight to the death, and that, of course, scared me just a little… Ok, actually a lot. Before I could reach them, however, I saw the angels behind them lower their wings to intercept the attacking skeletons and protecting Percy and the group from the other six. I flinched when I heard bullets ping off of the bronze wings, the sound thundering all way across the dam. The next thing I knew, the angels had taken flight, one kid for each arm, and the skeletons were making a futile attempt at following them on land.

I stood there stunned for a few more seconds. I guess my legs managed to work without the use of my brain because when I came out of my stupor, I was sitting at the dam snack bar. My parents weren't waiting here anymore. This didn't faze me. I was still processing what I just saw. I was now one hundred percent sure that Percy knew all about my "sight" problem. I felt myself relaxing, for once getting an answer that wasn't just "You're crazy Rachel." I immediately went back to the short conversation I had with the boy that had tried to kill me.

'Forget it. Forget you ever saw me.' Percy had told me. I didn't even have to think about my response. It was already there, waiting to be called on like an overachieving student raising their hand and hopping up and down to be noticed.

No. No I can't forget you Percy… Blank… You owe me answers.

Feeling as though it would be slightly rude to draw Percy on a used tissue, I pulled a fresh tissue out of my pocket and a pencil out of another. It was crude and took a half an hour to finish, but I thought it was an accurate enough depiction of the boy for now. When I got back to New York I would be able to make a better one.

Because I couldn't help but feel as though I would find Percy again someday.

A/n: So I've been getting really into Percy Jackson lately and this scene was one of the funniest scenes in the series! (: I've always wondered how it would have looked to Rachel so here it is! I hope I did it some justice! It's definitely different writing in 1st person instead of 3rd so I hope I did ok on that one.

So this makes three stories that I'm working on now. Hmmm. I'm gonna need to figure out a pattern on how to update these stories. Course it might just end being whatever I feel like working on at the time so there's that warning. As always reviews would be greatly accepted so I can know what I need to improve on! So please leave some!

If you're a Harry Potter fan you should check out my other stories. Those stories are also at a pretty early stage and I could use reviews for those stories as well!... not that I'm pressuring you or anything! (;

Tata!