Hi, everyone! It's Eve E. I'm so, so, so sorry if it's long and if it's not that good. This is probably my first successful fanfic since…2010. XD Anyway, I hope you like it! Lastly, before you read on, this fanfic is dedicated to my awesome beta reader SkylarRocaineDaughterofHerme s. I hope you'll read her stories on PJO if you haven't already read them yet. She's a totally awesome writer! ;) Thanks, Skylar!

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Everyone Wants to Kill Me, Now Don't They?

_Dawn_

I don't know what the hell I did but honestly, the only people who don't want me dead are my two best friends and a bossy girl I just met today—but she may secretly want to kill me too. So, I'm pretty sure they don't count…nope, they don't. But maybe I should explain what happened the day I ended up on everyone's hit list. All right, let's back track shall we?

I got to school before the bell went off and got to my first class just as it did, which never happened on a regular day and it wasn't. I was never late (well, not accidentally anyway). My mornings were never normal but today… nothing of it was. So, naturally, when my first class ended I braced myself for the upcoming questions.

"DAWN!" Kitty Kat—Caitlyn Adams to the teachers and Kitty Kat to the rest of the student population—screamed. The childish, pixie-like, curly-haired brunette ran towards me, smiling and giving me a permanent puppy-dog eyes look with her big, brown eyes. "You're sooooo dead with Derek! He's going to kill you for being late!" She sang, grinning. "I highly doubt that. I didn't see him in class today so he's much, much later than I am." I replied.

Speak of the devil and the devil shall come. Derek rounded the corner and when he saw us, walked towards us. His tall, lean, tanned form came in sight, his bronze hair tousled and his turquoise eyes weary.

"How's it going, little sis? You late too?" He asked, smiling slightly. Of course, I wasn't Derek's little sister and no, we weren't related in any way at all but we had grown up together. We had lived in the same area and known each other since we were five. There were very few times we were separated, the times when he was at a summer camp for all boys. We treated each other like sister and brother so, it grew to be something we always called each other. He was my bro and I was his little sis.

"Nope, I got to class exactly when the bell rang. You?" I replied. "Missed first period," He answered, "Just got here now." "Well, it wasn't important. Miss Kenneth was droning on and on about a poem by Robert Frost—Fire and Ice—I memorized last year, when I found a book with that poem in it." I said without missing a beat.

"So basically, you're telling me you memorized a poem inside a book without bothering to read the book." Derek asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. I nodded. "I need to fill my Book of Quotes. I don't really care if I get epic quotes from the internet or a book I find in the dumpster. A quote is a quote. It doesn't matter where you find it, or where it's from. What matters is that the message reaches you." I answer.

"Deep," Derek remarked. "Not really," Kitty Kat answered. "I got it. It's got to count for something." Derek and I laughed and Kitty smiled. We all had to agree with that. It wasn't as if Kitty was stupid or anything but she was dense and had to be the most simple-minded thirteen-year-old I've ever met. I was younger than her by four months and I was still more mature than both Derek, who's a year older than us, and her…well in certain areas I was.

The bell rang and I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the day was finally going back on track. If only I knew what I was going to face.

xxx

During lunch, I knew something was definitely up. Derek was fiddling with a black Swiss Army knife and glancing around him nervously. Then something caught my eye, a pink wristband on Kitty's wrist. Something that wasn't there before…

"What's that?" I ask her, gesturing to her wristband. "I found it on the car seat this morning. It was cute." She answers. Derek looks at the wristband and raises an eyebrow as if he knows something about it but the look was gone so fast I wondered if I had just imagined it.

"Miss Skylark! I need to talk to you. Come with me!" Miss Letterman snapped, coming up to our table looking like the strict, bird-looking teacher that she was. I never had the best record, getting myself into trouble often, but I didn't know what I had done to make her mad again.

Derek looked nervous and half like he wanted to protest but he kept his mouth shut. Kitty Kat shot me a sympathetic glance but she looked away just as quickly. I stood up, sighing and flicking my black ponytail off my shoulder just to look bored. "Yes, Miss Letterman." I replied wearily.

She glared at me and marched out of the cafeteria, expecting me to follow. I lazily straightened my black vest over my white shirt, dusted off my dark wash jeans, and dragged my glittery silver Converse boots as I walked out of the door to follow Ms. Letterman.

She led me to an empty classroom and then she smiled in cruelly. "What a pathetic little daughter of dreams! Not a clue about what she really is or where the path of her fate will take her?! No gods or goddesses to aid her! What poor dear. It will be a pleasure watching you suffer and die with your innocence." Ms. Letterman cackled.

Then I watched as my History teacher morph into a large sphinx.

xxx

I had gotten various punishments from my teachers and my mother every time I did something incredibly mischievous or flat out disrespectful. But never once in my life until this day did I ever have 'dying a painful death' be one of those punishments.

"Before I kill you, I'll give you a little chance to live. If you answer my little riddle correctly, you will be spared and brought to my Mistress. If not, then you die a long, painful death and I take your dead body to my Mistress instead." Ms. Letter—the sphinx said.

"Hit me with your best shot," I answered confidently but inside, every cell in my body was shaking like tuning fork. What did she mean by 'no gods or goddesses to aid me' and 'daughter of dreams'?

"The answer to this riddle leads up to what you fear the most:

In the dead of the night, this is all you can see

When you wish to blend into the shadows, this is what you will be

If you look inside an enemy's heart this is what you shall see

And it is the shadow of light for those who know what it can be."

As the sphinx-slash-my-History-teacher finished reciting the riddle, I knew what it was. I mean, I was no genius but it was so obvious. Besides, I knew what I feared the most. "You call that a riddle? It doesn't rhyme or anything." I muttered under my breath.

"The dark, or the darkness," I replied loud enough for her to hear this time. She hissed coldly under her breath. Then she smiled deviously. "Did you really think I'd let you go so easily, my dear. My Mistress wants you, dead or alive. I'll bring you back dead." She snarled. Faster than I thought possible, she pounced.

And Kitty Kat—being the reckless, clumsy, and stupid cat we loved—jumped in front of me (don't ask me how she even got there fast enough), screaming bloody murder. Just before the sphinx's claws dug into her flesh, a bronze shield with green ivy patterns and silver roses spiralled out from her pink wristband to take the blow. There was a sound like nails on a chalkboard when the claws raked against the shield.

Derek was cursing in a different tongue but somehow I knew exactly what he was saying and I made a mental note to wash his mouth if I lived through this. He flipped the blade out of his Swiss Army knife and it grew into a long, double-ended gold spear with what looked like bronze spearheads at the each end.

Kitty Kat screamed as the sphinx turned to pounce at him. She smacked her shield hard against our old History teacher and sharp spikes slipped out from the silver roses on it. Ms. Letterman let out a growl as the spikes drew blood and the silver roses turned red, taking the color of her blood.

That was probably a really good distraction because Derek took the opportunity to throw his spear and it flew with stunning accuracy into the sphinx's side. There was a shriek and our History teacher exploded into yellow powder.

Kitty was shaking as her shield turned into her innocent pink wristband again. Derek sighed and picked up his spear, looking worried. "I was hoping this wouldn't happen." He whispered. "I wasn't expecting their scent to be to be that strong that they'd be found out sooner than I estimated."

I turned to glare at him. "What the hell was that? Am I going crazy? I thought I had ADHD not mental issues like my mother! Great! So, insanity runs in the genes? That's wonderful. So, when are you planning on taking us all to an asylum?" I snapped sarcastically.

"What the Hades," Derek corrected absent-mindedly. Kitty Kat turned in his direction, shaking from both fear and anger—which was a first because of all the years I've spent with Caitlyn Adams, she's never once gotten mad. She stomped over to him and crossed her arms when she stopped in front of him.

"I don't care if it's what the hell or what the Hades or what in the world or what in Tartarus! I DON'T CARE! What I care about is finding out why the Hades our History teacher turned into a sphinx and tried to kill Dawn. I would also love to know why you own a freaking spear-slash-Swiss-Army-Knife and why my wristband just turned into a shield." She exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration.

Derek looked at her. "We need to get out of here, now. I'll explain when we get to a safe place I know. But before that, I just need to ask you both something. Do you know Greek mythology?" He asked. Kitty nodded and I didn't have to answer because Derek knew about my mother insisting she was a daughter of Victoria, the Roman goddess of Victory.

"The gods, Greek mythology, the stories Dawn's mother told her about are real. The gods migrate along with Mount Olympus wherever the fire burns brightest to different places. They are in States now. Actually, Mount Olympus has moved to be over the Empire State Building in New York. They have children with mortals and those children are half-god and half-mortal. They're called half-bloods, heroes, but most commonly demigods. You two are demigods but as to who your godly parent is, I have no idea. There's a camp for people with us, a safe place for demigods to train and live their lives. It's a place called Camp Half-Blood. The camp director is a guy named Mr. D and the activities director is Chiron, a centaur. We need to get you to Camp Half-Blood and then they can explain everything to you. Dawn, no matter how crazy your mom is, she really is the daughter of Victoria." Derek explained.

"Derek Summers, you are so lucky I trust you because if I didn't I would've taken you straight to the mental hospital—both of us with you." I muttered. He smiled slightly before becoming serious again. "Look, little sis, you two need to get home and pack up. Bring everything you need and can't live without. I'm going to take Kitty Kat home. She's a magnet for trouble and I'd rather she not get herself into any with how things are going, there's a high chance of her dying. I really do not need that happening. You'll need to go alone and we'll meet you there. Be careful and don't do anything reckless." He told me.

"I'll do my best. No promises though. I'm Dawn Skylark after all. I get myself into all sorts of trouble because I'm impulsive and I don't think before I do stuff. That's how I roll," I joke. "Come back alive and in one piece and I won't say anything about it," Derek replied, smiling slightly.

"Deal, now what are you waiting for? Get going, bro. The faster you get Kitty's stuff, the better. I don't need any near more death experiences until I get something to fight with, preferably something sharp and extremely dangerous." I say, turning around and walking out the door.

Before I turned the corner, I looked back and gave my two best friends a two-fingered salute. Kitty gave me an optimistic smile. "Don't die!" She called, which meant good luck to a normal person but Kitty Kat was never normal. Derek gave me crooked smile and I knew he was worried because it was clear in his turquoise eyes. I mouthed him a good luck and offered them both reassuring smiles before I left.

xxx

I stood in front of our small American-style house, feeling a sense of anxiety before I entered. My mother was sitting in an armchair, staring off into space. "Mom," I said hesitantly. Indigo Skylark, my once beautiful and strong mother, looked at me. Her black hair was peppered with white and had the same bronze streak that I had in it. Her eyes were light blue and dazed when they stared into mine.

"Dawn, sweetheart, how are you? Why are you so early? Did something happen?" She asked, looking concerned. It almost slipped my mind that she was actually off her rocker, almost. But it seemed that she was having a good day today, hopefully that meant she would be as close to sane and normal as she could get and she would stay that way.

"You were right about all those Greek and Roman mythology stuff you told me about. It's real. A sphinx attacked me today. She called me a daughter of dreams. Derek, my best friend, took this spear and killed her. She turned into dust. That sphinx used to be my History teacher, Miss Letterman." I explain warily.

A flash of recognition lit up on her face. "You were lucky that you hadn't believed me when I told you about me being a demigod. It saved you and kept your scent at bay. They would've found you much sooner. I'm glad I've been able to explain so much and leave you with so much information before you go. You'll be a hero, my darling. You'll be just like me. You're going to be a beautiful, strong, capable hero with a kind heart. Remember that no matter what happens, you have to trust your instincts." She told me, her eyes beginning to cloud with tears.

"I will," I whispered. I heard my voice crack and I knew that no matter how rough and strange my relationship was with my mom I would miss her so much. I'd miss her smile, her gentleness, her optimism, her bravery, and the way she would tell me stories about mythology. But I would really miss was when she would have one of her good days and come out with me and stare at the stars. Before we would go back inside and I would go to bed, she would always tell me a poem. It was like an 'I love you' without saying it. Every night when we didn't watch the stars, I would recite it before I went to sleep.

'Doubt thou the stars are fire,

Doubt that the sun doth move,

Doubt truth be a liar

But never doubt our love.'

"Dawn, don't forget how much I love you. I know I haven't been the same since your father left. I don't blame him and neither should you. He had to leave but I know he would've stayed if he could. Anyway, I just want you to know that I'll miss you so much. I've always loved you, Dawn. Whether I'm sane or in one of those times where I'm completely unaware of what I'm doing or who I am, the only thing I can remember is you. Your laugh when you were a baby, your smile when you're going to leave in the morning, the color of your eyes…I remember them all, sane or not." She whispered, tears sliding down her face.

I hug her but she shoves me away. "You don't have enough time. You need to get out of here. Monsters will be coming, lured to you by your scent. You must go! Pack everything and go! Hurry up!" She orders. I nod and run into my room.

I don't waste a moment, grabbing a duffel bag and shoving all my 'important' clothes into it. I throw the rest of my necessities into it. I keep very few of my personal belongings, only a photo album, my Book of Quotes, the very few books that were mine, my iPod, and my silver laptop.

I sling the duffel bag across my chest and I leave the room, not daring to look back. When I go into the living room, my mother is waiting for me. She holds out a black belt and when I reach out to take it, it turns into an extendable black whip crackling with electricity. "It used to be mine," She explained, "You don't have a weapon. It served me well and I'm sure you'll learn to use it in time."

I thank her and give her a hug. I turn and head to the door, when I feel her presence behind me. I look back to see what she wants and I'm staring into the eyes of a completely different person. My mom's once blue eyes were all black, the pupils vanishing in the black of her irises.

She's holding up a knife and I dodge it. She slashes forward and it seems that no matter how out of practice she is, she can still fight well enough. The knife slices a long, thin gash across my forearm and suddenly it feels like my arm is on fire. I scream and stumble back, trying to avoid her hit. She doesn't give me a chance to regain my bearings, attacking again. This time, she nicks the skin on my neck with the tip of her blade.

But before she can move the knife back, I grab it by the blade. I ignore the sting, the wetness of my hand as the blood trickles down from it and the pain as the blade tears into my skin. I let out a whimper but I don't let go. I yank it out of her grasp and toss it upwards. I catch it by the hilt with my uninjured right hand—which is lucky that I'm right-handed and she injured my left—and run away from the place I called home before my mother…or whatever creature was possessing her could catch me.

When I reach the end of the street, I lean against a streetlight. My forearm and hand were bleeding heavily and I couldn't open my bag. My right hand wasn't hurt but my right forearm was and I couldn't move it without letting out curse words so explicit my mother might've made me wash my mouth with alcohol or screaming bloody murder. Neither of those sounded like things I should be doing at the moment, since I was on the run from monsters I have yet to encounter.

I sunk to the ground and silently prayed to Tyche for luck enough that Derek and Kitty Kat would find me here and fix up my hand. I doubted it would work but I had to hope or I'd pass out from blood loss and be a very easy target for very hungry monsters. I was not feeling like becoming something's dinner at any time.

"DAWNIE, GODS ARE YOU OKAY?!" A high-pitched, very familiar voice screamed. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the floppy, red cat-eared hat. Then I saw the red and blue mismatched, knee-length socks, the red and blue shirt, the jeans with paint splatters on them, and the high pigtails of brown curls. "Kitty, you're okay." I sighed, relieved.

"I wish I could say the same thing for you, little sis. Look in the mirror recently? There's a lot of blood. That is blood, right?" Derek asked, coming into view. He was teasing me but there was concern written all over his face. "No, I happened to drench myself with red paint. Of course it's blood, genius!" I muttered sarcastically. He laughed, relieved for once.

"If you can manage to be sassy and sardonic in that condition, you're still pretty fine. I can patch that up. Just hold on a while first, all right?" He said, kneeling down next to me. I nodded and looked at him. "Since when did you know first aid?" I asked him as he pulled out a first aid kit from his backpack. "It's a child of Apollo thing," Derek answered calmly.

I expected Kitty to break out her hyper streak and be all 'son of Apollo? That is so cool!' I also expected that she'dstart shooting questions at Derek at the rate of a machine gun but she held back all the curiosity, well most of it at least.

"SON OF APOLLO," She commented, "THAT IS SO AWESOME! I wonder who my parent is! I want cool powers too!" The excitement in her voice was obvious and it made both of us smile at her. Count on Kitty to be optimistic, nonchalant, and childishly excited. You'd think we handed her an early birthday present.

It was silent afterwards. Derek gave me this water bottle that had golden liquid in it and I drank half of it before he took it away again. "Godly food like ambrosia and nectar could make you feverish if you consume too much and kill mortals but they heal anything," He explained, putting the bottle away into his bag.

The wounds on my forearm and hand were healed completely. I thanked him and Kitty pulled me up from the ground. "We need to keep moving." Derek reminded us. We started running towards school and then, we heard a booming war cry. Kitty froze. We all turned our attention to the street to our right and I cursed colorfully.

"CYCLOPES! RUN!" Derek yelled. We took off down the street. "What do the mortals see? It's impossible for them not to notice a giant Cyclopes chasing after us!" I asked, shouting over the noise of the Cyclopes footsteps. "There's something called the Mist that keeps mortals from seeing stuff like that though I'm not sure what they do see." Derek explained, breathing heavily.

All of a sudden, Kitty tripped on her shoelace and fell flat onto the pavement with an 'oof!' We froze and pulled her up just as a blue car flew right over us and landed just feet from where we were standing. Derek shook his head and dragged us into a side street.

"Split up," He murmured as the Cyclopes passed the small street we were on. "What?! We can't do that! That's insane! If one of us gets caught, we won't be able to help!" Kitty protested. "I don't like that idea either but it's our best bet. He'll have a harder time catching us if we're running in different directions." I whispered.

She slowly nodded. "You both better be careful." Kitty warned. "It's you I'm worried about," I muttered. She laughed. "Don't do anything stupid, you two." Derek reprimanded before he was off and running, taking the street where the Cyclopes was. Kitty looked surprised. "He's going to get himself killed." I hissed. "Derek will be fine! He's had more experience in stuff like this." Kitty assured me, but she seemed to be trying to assure herself as well.

I nodded. "Good luck, Kitty Kat." I told her. Then I ran into the road to our left, not sparing the Cyclopes or Derek a glance as I passed their street. I passed house after house, getting closer and closer to school when I heard what I dreaded most. Derek was yelling and there was a huge roar of victory that drowned him out.

I stopped and watched in horror as the huge Cyclopes clutched Derek by his ankle and then dropped him. I could hear screaming and out of the blue, a beautiful white Pegasus rode in and caught him on its back.

The rider—a caramel-haired girl wearing an orange shirt with the words: Camp Half-Blood—pulled out a bow and notched an arrow. She fired an arrow right into the Cyclopes eye and he let out an angry roar. He swatted at her but her Pegasus dodged it easily.

The girl fired an array of arrows into his eye again and before the Cyclopes could react, the Pegasus swooped downwards and landed on the pavement near me. She regarded me with haughty blue-gray eyes and dropped down onto the ground to stand in front of me.

She was at least three inches taller than I was, willowy, lithe, and beautiful. Her caramel curls flooded around her, windswept and still looking photo-ready. She had the looks of a British girl and carried herself like a princess—head held high, chin up, confident posture, and looking down at me.

"You must be the demigod Derek was sent to protect. I did tell Chiron to send a satyr instead but he insisted that Derek get a chance to…fulfill his dreams of being the protector of new demigods. I heard there were two of you. Where is your companion?" She asked coldly.

That's when Kitty Kat decided come in, looking worried and also quite like she out of one of those animes she loved to watch. "DAWN—who are you?" Kitty exclaimed before quieting down. The caramel-haired girl pursed her lips and looked slightly annoyed.

"My name is Kyrie, Kyrie Hall, daughter of Nyx the Goddess of the Night." She answered. Then a huge hand wrapped around her and picked her up. Kitty and I looked up and watched as Kyrie struggled in the iron grip of the Cyclopes. Her face turned red, the blood going to her head, and the Cyclopes' grip began to tighten—trying to suffocate her.

Kyrie screamed so loud it jarred Derek right out of unconsciousness. "GET OUT OF HERE!" She shouted. So, naturally, I took out my whip and got onto her Pegasus, riding it into the sky and right in front of the Cyclopes' face. "PUT HER DOWN!" I yelled.

I really should've thought through my brilliant plan because he did drop Kyrie…and she fell about three stories, screaming the whole way down. "KYRIE!"

xxx

Cliff hanger! (I know lots of people may hate that)

Anyway, I'll update ASAP. Hope you leave a review! Constructive criticism is appreciated but flames will be taken care of by Leo! If you don't like it, then don't read it. I don't mean to be rude but I really don't like haters since I'm not forcing people to read this! Thanks! Here's a cyber-cookie for all of you!

-Eve E