the story of thalia grace.

thalia

( hunter of artemis, mistress of thunder )

disclaimer: not mine.

I opened my eyes to the sound of breaking glass and hysterical laughing. My mother was home… and she was drunk. Again.

I sighed and pulled myself out of bed. I didn't understand; why me? Why was this incredible burden heaped on me? I was sick of caring for my alcoholic mother, on top of taking care of myself.

I dragged myself out of my tiny bedroom at the end of the hallway in our apartment, and walked down the hall to find my mother doubled over in laughter in the living room. I sighed. Stupid. A broken beer bottle sat by her feet. She held another bottle in her hand. Beer sloshed out as the laughs racked her body.

"Mom?"

She stopped laughing and looked up. "You." She said pointing a finger at me. "You're the one that idiot Zeus gave me."

I sighed. Might as well humor her. It could save me another beating. "Yeah, mom, I'm what Zeus gave you." Who the heck is Zeus?

She scowled and walked over to me, putting her face in front of mine. Her gray eyes bore into my skull. "Are you being disrespectful to me again?"

Shoot. "Um… no."

"I think you are. You're my daughter," She said the word disgustedly, as though she couldn't stand the fact that we were related. "I deserve more respect from you."

"Sure." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I instantly regretted it.

"IMPUDENT CHILD!" She screamed. She flew at me, beer bottle raised above her head. Before I knew it, the bottle came crashing down on my arm, which I had raised in protection of my face. The bottle shattered, leaving shards of glass in my forearm.

"Agh!" I yelled. I ran behind the couch, putting a barrier between me and my insane mother.

I thought she was going to come after me again, but she just laughed. "That'll teach you." She said as she sat down on the couch, leaving her back to me. "That'll teach…" Her voice trailed off and her shoulders sagged. I came around to the front of the couch to see what had happened. She had fallen asleep mid-sentence.

I sighed. I had half a mind to just leave her there. Let her drag herself to the bathroom when all that alcohol came back up later. But I'd probably end up having to clean barf off the rug, because she wasn't going to do something like that herself.

I sighed once more. Then I bent over and picked her up, carrying her to her bedroom, which was right next to the small bathroom in the hall. There was more of a chance that she'd make it to the toilet before all the beer came up when she woke up later.

With that done, I went into the bathroom and picked the glass out of my arm. After that, I disinfected it and bandaged it up. I would definitely have to wear long sleeves to school today.

Bleck. School. I thought as I pulled a plain black long sleeved shirt over my head. I wasn't the… best student, I guess you could say. I had ADHD, which made it hard to concentrate during class, and on top of that I had dyslexia, which made it hard to read the boatloads of homework they sent us home with every day.

The teachers were okay, I guess. I knew that they suspected that my mom was probably beating me. But I didn't want their help. I could take care of myself.

After I got dressed, I went back into the restroom again. I brushed my teeth and ran a comb through my short, black hair. I put some black eyeliner around my electric blue eyes. Checked among my freckles for zits; there were none. I pulled on a black jacket. I grabbed my backpack and an apple as I walked out the door. Just another morning in the life of Thalia Grace.

School was a nightmare. I got sent to the principle's office twice and was given detention for every day after school for the next week. I sighed as I sank into one of the desks at the back of the detention room.

This was stupid. So incredibly stupid. I grabbed my iPod out of my backpack and put the headphones in my ears as the detention teacher walked in the room and sat down at her desk.

I settled back into my desk and closed my eyes. The only upside of this was that I was prolonging going to home to my mother.

Soon I had the feeling that I was being watched. I opened my eyes to find the teacher, Ms. Forrester, looming above me.

Jennifer Forrester was one of the younger, prettier teachers at the school. She taught sixth grade English, so I had to sit in her class for an hour every day.

Looking at her, with her wavy, blonde locks and her amber eyes, you'd think she'd be pretty cool. Turned out she's a tyrant. She gave tons of homework, and she screamed and yelled and gave you an unspeakable amount of hours in detention if she caught you breaking any one of her rules in class.

So, I was naturally a little scared when she appeared in front of me, looking pretty ticked off.

I took the headphones out of my ears. "Can I help you, Ms. Forrester?"

"Ms. Grace." She frowned at me. I saw something glint in her eye. It looked like… delight? She was happy that I was in trouble once more? "Ms. Grace. Come with me."

I got up, grabbed my backpack, and followed her out of the classroom. She led me down the darkening hallway into the gym. She held the door open for me, and I walked into the room, my boots squeaking on the hardwood floor.

I wondered what I was in trouble for. Was it against the rules to listen to music in class? Did she finally catch me selling cigarettes to the eighth graders? I wondered if she'd accept my excuse… the cigarettes were the only way I could keep the older kids from pushing me around. I decided to just get it over with and ask why I was here.

"So… what's up?" I asked, turning around. But Ms. Forrester wasn't there anymore. "Ms. Forrester?" I called. I turned around again. But she was nowhere in sight.

But then I spotted something that scared the crap out of me: two glowing, red eyes, in the darkest corner of the gym. I gasped and slowly backed away towards the doors to the gym. Then I turned and full out ran. I slammed into the doors, but they wouldn't budge.

The owner of the red eyes emerged from the shadows. It was Ms. Forrester… but it wasn't.

She now had illuminated red eyes… but that wasn't the freakiest part. What was even weirder than those eyes, were her legs. One looked like it was made completely out of bronze, and the other was a shaggy-furred donkey leg.

"Thalia Grace, did you really think you could hide from us? When my master finds out that your father broke the pact…" She let the threat hang there. But I wasn't really paying attention. I couldn't tear my eyes away from those legs.

"What… what are you?"

She smiled and chuckled. "I am an empousa, servant of Kronos, the Lord of time."

I sat there in shock. "A what?"

She smiled and approached me. I backed up, the doors pressing into my backpack. "No matter. All that matters is your… and your father's… death."

Then her eyes glowed even brighter, and she bared her fangs… wait… fangs? She chuckled. "I shall enjoy this… it's been a while since I've tasted a demigod's blood." Then she flew at me. I hardly even had time to wonder what she meant by "demigod."

I sidestepped and ran from her, towards the double doors on the opposite side of the gym.

They slammed shut just as I reached them. I turned around, panicking. I started to run. Maybe I can tire her out. I knew it was unlikely, but it was better than standing there waiting to have my blood sucked out.

"You cannot run forever, daughter of Zeus!" There was that Zeus thing again. But I didn't have time to worry about that. She was getting closer by the minute. I jumped onto the bleachers and began running up the steps. That's when the strangest thing happened.

Thalia. In your backpack.

I jumped. What was that?

There is no time to waste. There are items in your backpack that will assist you. Put some distance between yourself and the empousa, and then open your bag. You will know the items when you see them.

"What?" I said aloud. But I listened and sped up, jumping down from the bleachers and running towards the gymnastics equipment. A plan fabricated by a figment of my imagination was better than no plan at all.

I ducked behind a stack of blue rubber mats and opened my bag. Sitting on top of my jacket was a Mace canister and a silver bracelet. I put the bracelet on and opened the canister. How pepper spray was going to help me against a blood-sucking monster, I didn't know. But when I opened it, it transformed in my hand, turning into a long spear. I yelped and dropped it.

Then I looked up. Ms. Forrester was running full speed at me. I didn't trust it, but nonetheless, I picked up the spear and ran away from her, zipping up my backpack and slinging it over my shoulder as I went.

The bracelet. Tap the charm. I shrugged and obeyed the voice. A large silver disk spiraled out. It was a shield, the kind that I'd only seen in gladiator movies. It had a terrible image of a monster on it. It seriously freaked me out. If I weren't so afraid of the vampire thing behind me, I probably would have dropped it and run away as quickly as I could.

I looked over my shoulder to check how close Ms. Forrester was. She was right behind me. I turned back around to continue running when – BAM! I ran straight into a wall.

She had me cornered now. I surveyed the wall, looking for weak spots. Nothing. I turned around. Ms. Forrester had stopped running now, and was facing me, fangs glinting in the darkness. "I shall enjoy slaying you, daughter of Zeus."

I spun around, holding my shield in front of me. "No!" She screamed. "Not that! Not that!" She backed away slowly, her arms over her face.

I inched closer, backing her up so that I had room to run. But she overcame her shock pretty quickly, because she shook herself and then lunged at me. I blocked with my shield. She knocked me over, but at least my blood was safe – but not for long.

She went into a roll as she fell and then pounced again. I did the only thing I could think of in this situation – I whipped my spear around and pointed it at the monster.

She made a terrible noise as she impaled herself on my spear. Then she exploded into yellow dust.

I coughed as I waved my hand in front of my face.

I opened my backpack and pulled out the lid from the canister. I touched it to the spear head and the entire thing quickly transformed back into a can of pepper spray. I tapped the center of the shield and it spiraled back into a bracelet.

I stared in awe at the two things in my hands. Did that really… just happen?

No, I must be going crazy. Things like that don't happen in real life. Only in cheap horror movies. But then again…

What did she call me back there? Daughter of Zeus? My mom said something about Zeus giving me to her… wait.

Zeus giving something… he can give a daughter to a woman if he… ew! Zeus and my mom? Gross!
But who is Zeus… name sounds familiar… something from history class…

That's it! The Greek gods! Zeus was the most powerful of them, the leader of the Olympians.

They did have children with mortals in the myths, but… the gods couldn't still be around… could they?

I sat down on the gym floor and put my head in my hands. I didn't know what to do. This wasn't the first time something weird like this happened to me. Maybe it wasn't quite so extreme the other times, but still.

That's when I made my decision. No more monsters. No more abuse from my drunkard mom. No more school. No more eighth grade bullies to sell cigarettes to.

I was going to escape it all in one simple, single, drastic move.

I was going to run away.