AN: Hello! This story had been floating around for awhile, and a scene in the movie gave me an idea that sort of brought the whole thing together. That piece will be posted in a later chapter, see if you can spot it. (It won't be hard) This was originally intended as a one-shot, but all together it's a bit long, so I am breaking it into 5 chapters instead. Thanks for reading!
Oh and before I forget: I don't own Percy Jackson, etc...
She was walking home from work, looking forward to the chance to rest. Her day at work had been particularly long, and she was exhausted. The boy sleeping in her arms was old enough to have made the walk on his own, but he could hardly keep his eyes open when she had picked him up, so she had scooped him up a couple of blocks into their trip. He had mentioned a man on the street. She wondered how much more time they would have before it was necessary to change daycares, yet again. It was happening more frequently, now that he was getting older.
She rounded the corner of their block, passed two older men on a bench that looked at her a little too long, and counted the number of footsteps until she could sit down. One building away, she pulled up short. Dodging cars, she quickly crossed the street, her shoe catching on the curb. There was an angry honk, and she waved an apology while checking the dark head resting on her shoulder.
She gave a small smile of disbelief. He hadn't woken up. She wiped some drool off his chin with her thumb before it could reach her uniform, and turned back to her building across the street. She waited. People passed by the doorway with its peeling paint. She shifted the boy's weight and paced a few steps, peering into the dark room beyond it. Her feet really hurt now and her back was starting to throb. She took a few steps closer to the busy street.
There. Something moved in the darkness, up around the top of the doorway. She squinted but couldn't make out what it was. The shadow blurred and grew fuzzy as she stared at it, but it still definitely there. She let out a huff and resumed her pacing. Why, why, why, when she needed it now more than ever in her life, did her sight always seem to be failing her?
The boy moved and wrapped an arm around her neck, still not waking. She raised a hand to his back, and then convulsively tightened her hold on him as she watched a green tail unfold and hang down the side of the building's entry, inches from the arm of a teenager leaning against the wall. The teenager didn't notice, but kept talking to the blonde girl on his left. His girlfriend scanned the traffic on the street as if bored. Their eyes met and the blonde smiled banally at her. She averted her gaze and gave a shiver. The girl had pointed teeth and her lips were stained a red that no lipstick could create.
Maybe it was because of the sun, maybe it was because of the fatigue, or maybe it was because of the task she was demanding of her sight, but her eyes began to sting. She couldn't go home now. They probably wouldn't be going back home ever. They had moved before, and it was horrible, but a small price to pay. The sun was sinking behind the tall buildings and the shadows were getting longer. She found a space on the wall of the building behind her, and slumped against it. There was nowhere else for her to go. Nowhere else.
She stroked the boy's back, hating how goosebumps had appeared on his arms with the decreasing temperature. He should have had more than a thin shirt when they had left this morning. Now his jacket, and hers, were both in the apartment they couldn't get to because of the blood-stained blonde across the street and the green tail in the doorway.
"We'll be okay," she told the sleeping child. "It'll be fine. This isn't bad at all." They must not have picked up on him yet. The blonde hadn't shown any sign of recognition, and neither had moved from their positions. Or they were waiting for her to draw nearer, luring her into their trap with feelings of security.
She shook her head. "If this was really bad," she continued to the boy, "I would have you as far away from here as possible. But we're still here, so this isn't so bad." She stood up and searched the area around her. There wasn't much the police could do for her, but maybe something, someone, would work to their advantage.
"You see," she remarked as she began to walk down the street, "you are asleep. And I am your mother, and I say that you need your sleep." She returned the curious gaze of a lady walking up stairs with her groceries, and then crossed back to the other side of the street.
"So you must sleep." She fixed her gaze on the entry to her building. "And they must sleep, and anything else that wants to bother us, well they're going to have to sleep as well, because you're tired, and I'm tired." She passed the bench and paused again, not wanting to bring the boy too close. "And if anything can help us out here, now would be a good time."
Something slammed into her shoulder from behind, nearly toppling her and almost causing her to lose her grip on the sleeping boy. One of the older men from the bench brushed by her with a grunt and continued on, wiping his nose on the back of his hand. She wrinkled her nose in disgust, and then noticed she wasn't the only one affected.
The blonde had her nose wrinkled too. And her forehead. And her chin, cheeks, and mouth. As she watched the blonde's entire face seemed to ripple, as if trying to drive away a foul odor. The boy beside the not-a-girl paused in his story to ask, "You okay?" before continuing as she turned her face into the brick wall beside her.
This was it, now or never. Hoping enough of whatever offended the blonde still clung to them from the collision, she marched them forward, following the man from the bench. She shifted the boy to her other side, closer to the street and tried to shield him from the creature by the wall.
She passed the blonde and kept going. She walked faster, gaining on the man, relieved beyond belief when he turned to go though their doorway. She passed through the entry on his heels, giving the green tail a wide berth, and followed him though the dingy lobby and into the elevator.
No inhuman shrieks were sounded behind her. She didn't feel scales sliding on her skin. No talons dug into her shoulder, no claws tried to rip the child from her arms. When the elevator grates had slammed closed she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
She planted a kiss on the top of the boy's head. He still slept, he hadn't woken once. The man beside her gave a snort and a cough before pressing the button for his floor. The chains creaked and rattled before giving a jolt and they began their shaky ascension. She waited patiently to reach their floor, and her eyes began to water. Here in this small space with this man, she began to understand what had kept them from discovery.
She gave another glance to the man next to her. He smelt of a myriad of ripe odors, none of them pleasant. His sleeveless shirt may have once been white, but was now a blend of yellow and gray and spotted with a collection of stains she didn't care to identify. The shirt stretched over his large gut and hung untucked over brown pants that were not zipped. His bald head glistened with drops of sweat and he breathed loudly through his mouth. He caught her perusal and his mouth twisted into a leer as he raked his eyes over her form before raising his eyebrows in suggestion.
She turned away and felt her skin crawl. She could understand their repellence. So this is what it took to keep even blood-stained blondes and things with green tails away. She shifted her weight from one aching foot to the other and looked down at the boy in her arms. This would only keep happening more and more often. She couldn't count on herself to see every one of them. The next time she managed to see something, it might already be too late. She ruffled his dark hair. He needed something more. He deserved something better.
Fixing a smile, she turned back to the man as the car came to a jarring stop. He looked a bit surprised as he took in her change in demeanor, but his expression quickly decayed and became smug. She stepped out with him on his floor, determined to make it though a conversation with him. Maybe this time, they wouldn't have to move, after all.
Sooo...let me know what you thought!