By a city in New York there was a mountain pass. On the mountain pass there was a lake, it was a treasure, hidden by miles of the forest. There by the lake there were four cabins, in a ring and they were all occupied. The four people who lived there was Leo Valdez, Percy Jackson, Octavian, and Reyna.
Reyna was the most mature of the four. She was about to go into combat, when her sister became sick. She decided to stay by the city where she was hospitalized, and she pays for her hospital bills.
Leo is trying to get his feet stuck firmly onto the ground. For years his life had taken him to different places and he us twats to settle down and stay in one place. He also doesn't have the cleanest past so he's tried to turn it around. Leo currently works as a mechanic in the city, but he can never seem to escape the hardships of his childhood.
Percy is setting up for his fiancé, Annabeth, to move in with him. He doesn't want to move in with her to her apartment in the city because even though he grew up in the city he wants to take a break from the chaos.
Then there's Octavian, he's the neighbor that nobody likes. He is stuck up, and believes that he's better than everybody. He also believes in curses, so he always rants on that if somebody wrongs him they will be befallen with bad luck.
It was a Saturday, around three p.m. Reyna was on the phone with her sister, Leo was working on watching one of pewdiepie's You-Tube videos, Percy was e-mailing Annabeth to come over the next day, Octavian was obsessing over a new book on curses and omens.
Percy closed his computer and looked out of the window and saw Leo laughing his butt of and he realized he barely knew his neighbors! What was even worse was that Annabeth was really picky about who her neighbors are so he needed to find out more about them. "Hm…what's a good way to get everyone together?" he murmured to himself, and he looked around the room. Then he saw his shelf with DVD's, and he looked through it. Then he saw one of his favorite thriller movies, Silence of the Lambs.
That settles it, he thought to himself, tonight I'm going to get them over for a movie. Percy then grabbed his coat and headed next door. He decided to go to Leo's house first.
When Percy knocked on Leo's door he heard rapid footsteps, and then the door opened. Percy gave Leo a friendly smile; he figured that was a good way to get off on the right foot. "Hi Leo are you doing anything tonight?" Leo replied with a crazy grin that was sure to make people know not to give him anything sharp or pointy, "Hey Percy, and no I'm not doing anything tonight…why you asking?" Percy raised his eye brow, "I was going to ask if you wanted to come over and watch Silence of the Lambs." Leo rubbed his hands together like an evil scientist making a plan, "Count me in!"
Percy then headed over to Reyna's house, "Hello, Reyna? Are you in there?" he asked as he knocked on her front door, he peeked through a window next to the door and saw her on the phone. He turned around and sat on her steps, oh yeah! He thought to himself, her sister is sick. Isn't her name Hylla? "What do you need Percy?" Reyna asked, which scared the daylights out of Percy, he jumped up and looked at her with his eyes wide. "Oh!" Reyna's expression was possibly as scary as Percy's girlfriends' when she's upset. You did NOT want to see Annabeth angry. Percy rubbed his arm awkwardly, "Sorry, I was just wondering if you'd like to come over to my place and watch a movie with Leo and I." Reyna looked at the floor like it was going to be hard to answer.
"Well, I guess that I could come over. I've been really stressed out lately, so maybe a break would be nice." Percy nodded, and said, "I'm really sorry about your sister if there's anything you need, you can just ask for it." Reyna gave Percy a grateful smile, "Thank you, I'll be over at your house at seven."
So far Percy liked his neighbors, though Reyna seemed like a person you wound NOT want to get on your bad side. Now he had to see about Octavian, Percy always thought he was pretty creepy so he decided not to invite him over. Then he headed back to his house and looked through his cabinet for some popcorn. He found it and threw it onto the counter by the microwave and then he went to get the place some-what nice looking.
Seven came around the corner and not but one minute after Reyna knocked on the door, "Hey Reyna." Percy said as he opened the door, "Can I get you something to drink?" Reyna shook her head, "No I just ate, but thank you." Five minutes Leo came in a bag of popcorn, "Did you guys start the movie without me?" he asked looking around like he's gotten used to it. Percy laughed, "Nope, come on in…and you do know that I have popcorn." Leo shrugged, "I eat half the popcorn before the movie even starts."
With that Percy popped in the movie and sat down. About half way into the movie, the lights started the flicker, "Um Percy?" Leo asked, "Did you rig this place or something?" I shook my head, "No, let me check outside." As he was going to the window the lights went out. Uh-Oh. Percy thought to himself, he pulled aside the curtains and saw that there was a big storm coming. He headed back to the living room and told Leo and Reyna, "There a storm coming, that's probably what took the power out."
Leo looked at him uncertainly, "Probably?" Percy gave him a look that said, "Anything can happen." Percy went and grabbed a flashlight, "I'll go see what happened to the power." With that he headed outside.
When he's started the movie the area around his cabin was quiet, peaceful, and sunny. Now…well it was really dark, the air was thick like it was about to rain, and everything seemed to cast a looming shadow. He pulled out his flashlight, sensing that he might need it. After less than a minute of walking he found the electrical box.
"What the…" he muttered to himself, the electrical box looked like it'd been cut through with claws, multiple times! As far as Percy knew, the cabins didn't have bears or anything that could've done something like this. Cautiously he turned around and then he saw it. All he saw was a big dark mass that defiantly had fur, and had two big glowing yellow eyes that were staring straight at him. Percy didn't know what it was but he ran.
Back at Percy's house ten minutes had passed and there was still no sign of him. "Do you think it should've taken this long to have checked the electrical box and come back?" Leo asked, and Reyna shook her head, "No. Something is defiantly wrong. If he's not back in five minutes we're going out to look for him-" The door opened, "Was the power outage one of you guys because if it is I swear if it is-" yelled Octavian, and Reyna cut him off, "No it wasn't one of us, go back to your cabin."
Octavian scowled, and looked at Leo, "I bet it was you, you're all mechanical-" and Leo stood up, "You really think I did this?" Leo pointed outside, "Percy went to check it out and he hasn't gotten back yet. I wouldn't do this to him, and why would I have a reason to? Right now we've got more important things to worry about!" he yelled.
Reyna stepped in between them, "Stop it!" she opened the door, "We're going back to my cabin to get my phone and flashlight then we're going to look for Percy. Any objections?" Octavian wasn't very pleased but he agreed and Leo was fine with looking for Percy.
Reyna walked out first followed by Leo and finally by Octavian. Even that short walk to Reyna's cabin put everyone on edge. Leo could tell something was up; he reached into his back pack that he always carried around and pulled out his pistil. Octavian looked at him suspiciously, "What's that for?" Leo didn't look at him, "Something's up, I don't want to be without a way to protect myself." Octavian looked at Reyna, "Don't I get something?" "No." Her eyes flickered to the clearing; they were at the electrical box.
Leo walked over to it first, with his pistol ready, "Um…guys you might want to see this." Reyna walked over quickly followed by Octavian. They looked at the slash marks, and saw Percy's flashlight on the ground. Reyna sighed, "Do you think Percy's…" Leo asked and Reyna shook her head, "No there'd be blood, most likely he saw something. Then he dropped his flashlight and ran in…" she looked around and saw some brush that looked like it's been pushed out of the way. She pointed to it, "that direction. The only question is who scared him off." Leo looked at the ground, "Or what."
He picked up a tuft of fur and handed it to Reyna, "Um…am I invisible?" Octavian asked, and Reyna and Leo both said at the same time, "Shut up!" Just then they noticed the air got colder, Octavian stood there, frozen with fear. Then a dark mass formed behind him and pulled him into the shadows, Leo shot in the direction of the beast and then ran off with Reyna. They could still hear Octavian's' screams.
Once they got to Reyna's cabin she sat down trying to catch her breath. Leo leaned against the wall, "What was that?!" Reyna stood up and closed the door, then locked it, "I don't know Leo, whatever it is we need to avoid it." Leo covered his face with his hands, "Reyna, do you still think we should still look for Percy?" she nodded, "Yes but we can't spend too much time searching. There might come a point when we have to give up on looking for him."
Leo didn't want to bring up Octavian; there was no way he could've survived that. He could tell Reyna was trying to be brave but the plain fact was that this was seriously scary stuff, and they could actually be killed. Over the past few months he's come to admire Reyna and her strength, he was not going to let anything happen to her. "I'm going to find my shotgun." She said as she headed to her room. Leo didn't mean to be snoopy but he went to explore the cabin.
He walked into the kitchen and was glad he didn't eat a heavy dinner. "Reyna!" he yelled and she came pounding down the stairs. In the kitchen was a truly horrific sight; from the ceiling fan was hanging Octavian. Not only that but you could see exactly where the beast cut him and ripped out part of his stomach. Then in what Leo was hoping to be red paint on the walls said:
First was the scrawny boy, next it's going to be one of you
The window was broken and Reyna sunk to her knees, for the first time she saw an expression he wasn't used to seeing on her face: fear. "Leo…" he knelt down, and wrapped his arms around her, "Leo I'm scared." She murmured, and he whispered, "Listen Reyna, I'm scared too but I'm not going to let anything happen to you." A tear fell down her cheek and seeing Reyna this way was pulling Leo apart.
She looked up at Leo; "Really?" he managed a small smile, "Would I lie to you?" Reyna laughed weakly, "Are you asking me a trick question?" "You tell me." Reyna wiped away a tear, "Thanks Leo." She took his hand, "Now what do you say about kicking some serious monster booty?" Leo smirked, "I got nothing better to do."
After thirty minutes of walking and searching Reyna looked at Leo, "I don't know if we can look for Percy much longer." Leo nodded, "So what now then?" she crossed her arms and knitted her eyebrows in thought, "Well, we need to find a car or truck so we can get out of here. Then we can go to the city." Just then they heard a branch snapping, Reyna spun around aiming her shotgun at the noise.
Percy stood there with his hands up defensively, "Whoa! Guys, it's just me. Though I think I know why you guys are so tense." Reyna lowered her shotgun, "I assume you've seen it too." He nodded, "Say have you guys seen Octavian, not that I really care…but you know." Reyna and Leo were silent, "What happened to you guys, and I'll tell you what happened to me." Leo could tell Reyna didn't want to talk about ti so he took the lead.
He told him about how the beast thing took Octavian, and what had happened in the kitchen (though he left out the part about Reyna's breakdown.) Percy looked at him with his mouth hanging open, "geez compared to that I probably had a luxury time." He told them about how he'd run off and what he'd seen with the electrical box. "So you've been wandering about out here, in the dark, without a flashlight, gun or any other means of protection?" Reyna asked and Percy nodded, "Yeah that about sums it up."
There was a silence and Percy said, "What's your plan from here?" Leo replied, "We need to find a car or truck then we're going to go to the city." Percy muttered, "The city…"then his eyes widened, "Oh-no! Annabeth said she was coming over tomorrow!" he looked around wildly, "We have to get to the city before she leaves!" Reyna put a finger onto her mouth, "Be quiet, we might not even get to the city if you guys continue to be this loud!"
Percy looked at the ground obviously beat, "Well I thought I saw a garage a little ways back." Leo looked up at the sky, like saying, "What are we going to do with you?" she raised his eyebrow at Percy, "Well that would've been helpful information before now." I gestured for Percy to lead, "Come on, I don't know how to get here."
After around ten minutes of walking they found the garage, and Percy looked at all of the trucks windows, "All of the doors are locked and none of the windows are down." They heard what sounded like a window that was being broken, "Not anymore." They heard Leo say, and he'd broke a window and gotten in. Percy looked around, "We don't have the keys how are we going to start it?" Leo smirked, "Haven't you learned never to doubt me?"
Percy had learned never to give him coffee, sharp things, or something that could inflict harm upon anyone else. If you didn't see trust was in the mix.
In a little less than a minute Leo had unlocked the car and started it up, "Road trip!" he said, and Percy wondered how anyone could be this light hearted in a grim situation like this, well then again this was Leo he was talking about. Without hesitation he climbed into the truck and they sped down the road.
Leo turned on the radio, and the song 100 Years came on, "Um…can we change the song Leo?" He nodded, and changed it quickly and then we saw a police station. It didn't look too good. Reyna volunteered to stay and watch the car, while Leo and Percy went to check out inside. Once they got in they both were speechless, the walls were covered with blood. There were different body parts scattered around, and then they heard a moan, "Help…"the voice whispered weakly, Percy looked around and saw a man with his legs bitten off.
Percy knelt next to the man, "What happened?" The man weakly said, "We didn't see it coming, my two friends were about to close up shop when this-this thing came in here. I got out lucky…" Percy replied, "We'll get out of here." The man shook his head, "No, it's too late for me. Go on, get to the city. Save your love ones…Those are who it's going after…" Then the man's head slumped and Percy closed his eyes, "Let's go Leo."
They both ran to the truck and Reyna asked them, "What happened in there, you guys look a little shaken-""Reyna," Leo said, "your sister might be in trouble, and Annabeth might be too." That was reason enough for Reyna, she hit the gas and they went thundering down the road. Clearly going over the speed limit they got to the city in a matter of minutes, "Where do we go first?" Percy sighed, "Annabeth is smart she might be able to last longer than Reyna's sister." Reyna looked at him gratefully and they sped down the road to the hospital.
Secretly Percy hoped that monster was nowhere, but he knew that was a childish thought. This wasn't Little Red Riding Hood, this wasn't just a big bad wolf, this was a monster who didn't know when to stop all it knew was how to kill.
Reyna jumped out and ran inside and found the place in ruins, she sunk to her knees and started sobbing. Leo ran out to her and knelt beside her, "Go on Percy, I'll stay here with Reyna." Percy raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you'll be okay?" Leo crossed his arms like he was disappointed that Percy doubted him, "Just get going."
Percy hit the gas and went down the road as fast as the car would let him. He quickly drove up to the parking lot for Annabeth's apartment, "Annabeth!" Percy yelled, and he ran up to Annabeth's apartment. I fumbled around in his pocket for his keys to her apartment, "Annabeth?" he called again, and this time the doorknob wiggled, "Who is it? It's 2 a.m." Percy nearly cried out of relief, "Oh thank god, Annabeth are you okay?"
She opened the door and let Percy in, "I'm fine, why Percy. Oh god, you look horrible!" Percy sat in one of her chairs, "Well you should see Reyna." She tapped her chin, "Isn't she one of your neighbors?" Percy nodded, "I need to tell you something." He told her about what'd happened over the past couple of hours. Annabeth took the information calmly, "So you thought that monster would come for me?" Percy nodded, and then the wall broke down and there stood the monster. It grabbed Annabeth and disappeared.
That's when Percy woke up, "Weirdest dream ever." He murmured to himself, he got up and went outside, the cabin was in order and he decided to go talk to Reyna. He walked across the trail to her cabin, then he knocked on the door, "Hello, Reyna?" a girl, who was defiantly not Reyna opened the door. She had short curly back hair and brown eyes. She looked at Percy confused, "Who's Reyna?"