Authors Note: I do not own the Percy Jackson world or characters. I do own some OC's (Well this fic is pretty much all OC's but that doesn't matter.) but not their powers or any of that. Please don't sue me!
Side note: Assuming that you, the reader, have already read the Percy Jackson series, this is the basic idea. At the end of The Last Olympian, Percy is talking about how the world is saved, blah, blah, blah, he gets the girl, blah, blah, blah and it's a good ending. What caught my attention though, is when he mentions the demigods being claimed all over the world. Then he says, "Almost every one of them made it to the camp". Almost. This is the story of Tyler Jacobs.
ALMOST THERE
CHAPTER 1
I never could stand those "happily ever after" stories. What exactly made it happy? How could you tell? The story would just end with "and they all lived happily ever
after" and that's it. There's no way to tell if there was something that constituted that happiness or if they just lived the rest of their lives smiling at everything. Or maybe it is the fact that every "happily ever after" story had some sort of true love relationship between the characters. Maybe that's what made them happy and that's just the reason I can't stand them. The whole true love thing just didn't sit well with me. I mean what was true love supposed to be? How would I know? Me, Tyler, whose father ditched him before he was even born, and whose mother gave him up to a foster home at four months old just to be found dead a few feet away from the steps with an "unknown object" stuck clear through her heart. That's no way for a kid to grow up, not knowing the love of his real parents. I guess I could be considered lucky to be picked up by foster parents in such a short amount of time. But my luck quickly ran out. Ever since I could remember, I had witnessed some of the scariest things ever, unknown beings that would haunt me in my dreams and throughout my life. My foster parents were constantly worried about me. I had been put through so many CT scans I was probably more radioactive than a chunk of Uranium. I quickly learned that if I started talking about the beings, my foster parents would eventually take me to see the doctor who's "special machine would tell him how to get rid of the monsters". After who knows how many medications that only gave me an urge to puke, I just stopped talking about them. I didn't even talk about the seven foot hairy beast that I had seen crush the front of my "dads" corvette while I was getting on the school bus. I did, however, notice it had looked directly at me before our bus driver hit the gas so hard that the puddle of urine in his lap started to create a small stream to the back of the bus. The official report was that is was a very large, rouge bear that had been looking for food. That was fairly rare for southern California residents but what I thought was even rarer was the snake that it had as a tail and its goat head sticking out of its back. This little escapade is what landed us in a tiny town in Oregon a few months later. It's not like I don't like California or anything, after moving all over the U.S. that was one of the nicer places my foster parents had chosen. But it seemed like the farther away from it we drove, the safer I felt. I had never really grown attached to my foster parents. I guess it's my fault for not letting them in though. If I couldn't talk to them about what I saw without being dragged to a hospital, how could I learn to trust them? So I kept up the lie and life moved on.
I never liked school much and Shane Jr. High School wasn't any different. The only thing that made it bearable was that it was the only place where I actually met a friend. Josh Reynolds was a tall, strong, and slightly psychotic dirty blonde with a mean attitude. He was just an inch taller than me and kept his messy hair relatively long compared to my short brown hair. He could usually be found picking on anyone he felt like in the halls. I just avoided him for the most part, assuming he was just another school bully. At first, we never really paid each other much attention until the day our science teacher made the mistake of putting us together for a lab. Then he made the even bigger mistake of leaving the room for five minutes. Josh had an evil grin on his face when he heard some of my mischievous ideas. We didn't expect our little makeshift smoke bomb to even work much less clear the entire school due to a thick white cloud rolling down the hallways. After the fire department had made the all clear signal, Josh and I were immediately marched to the office. I'm not sure what made them suspect it was us. I'm fairly certain that it had something to do with the mess on our lab coats. Or maybe it was because the two of us were laughing so hard that we didn't remember being pushed down the halls and threatened with expulsion in the principal's office. After that, it pretty much would have taken a force of nature to separate us. If one word could sum up Josh it would probably be insane. The guy had war relics from pretty much every era on his walls at his house. He went way beyond war fanatic and teetered on the edge of total obsession. In fact, the only time he did well in any class at school, was in history when the teacher felt the need to discuss a battle. As soon as the words "enemy" or "attack" left his lips, Josh was on it like a hawk. There were some instances where the teacher had to threaten him with detention just to get him to stop his rant about what he thought a certain general should have done or where he would have placed troops in a battle. He was rarely seen without wearing some sort of army clothing. Dog tags, combat boots, camouflaged shorts or pants or shirts (camouflaged anything really), and, in the case of the class field trip to the national park, a ghillie suit that he had bought online and packed in a bag. He hadn't meant to cause a team of 75 people and a helicopter to start a massive manhunt for him. Actually he had only been gone for just under an hour and gotten back on the bus with the rest of us without the teachers knowing. Half the school staff and several dozen volunteers including Josh's mom went on the wild goose chase for seven hours. The next day at school, he seemed to be in a very bad mood which is understandable when you have that large a handprint on the side of your face. He loved every form of shooting game imaginable. Several times a week we would go to his house to play Halo or Call of Duty. He always bragged that he was notorious online as the "world's biggest noob tuber", a title that he definitely earned. Josh's mother, Terra, seemed kind of crazy as well. She usually could be found at the local bars where she had spent the most time with Josh's father before he left her with a still unborn Josh. She used to be a big wig in the army before Josh, and usually had a tank top, shorts, boots and a cigarette. She reminded me of the mom in the Terminator movies only younger, meaner, and a whole lot crazier. Josh never could accurately explain what the company she worked for did. Some sort of computer chip nonsense that I didn't know anything about but I guess paid pretty well. I always admired Josh's collection of battle relics on his walls. Everything from civil war caps to a Vietnam ammo crate propped up in the corner. What he called his "luckiest find ever" was a three foot, double edged bronze sword that was in perfect condition with small strange lettering near the hilt.
"I took this trip with my mom somewhere in Europe like a year ago", he explained.
"She brought me along cause my uncle was out of town. So we went to this huge outdoor market kinda thing and she was looking at this one stand. And a few feet away from her I saw this beast!" he said holding the blade above him like he was a trained killer.
"So I went and grabbed it and I thought my mom was gonna get all pissed cause 'it wasn't a play thing' or something really stupid like that, you know?" he explained doing a mock impersonation of his mom.
"But this vendor guy is like 'hey, you can have that for twenty Euros' or whatever it was. So I look at my mom and she actually bought it for me!" he exclaimed.
"She just said 'don't hit anything' or something really weird. I think she thought it was a toy or something. I don't know how the hell I got it back to the hotel without impaling someone", he grinned.
"So you just waltzed down the street, into the hotel, and past the front desk with a four foot sword and no one said anything?" I said.
"Yea, pretty much. And it's only thirty three inches. Its like it wasn't even there", he said looking at the tip of the blade.
"So do you know what that says?" I asked pointing at the symbols near the hilt.
"I never really paid attention to it before", he said. He then stared at it for a few seconds with his face scrunched as if in deep thought. After a moment he suddenly said, "Demons Soul".
"Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa…so now all of a sudden you can read…whatever the hell kinda language that is? You can't even pass English class!" I said starting to bust up laughing.
"Shut up!" he said play swinging the sword at me. Even though he was joking, he nearly took my head off. I would have been toast if I hadn't noticed in time to duck.
"Hey, calm down there killer! Damn! I was just joking!" I said.
"Sorry", he mumbled. "I don't know", he said sitting down on his bed and looking at the blade again. "I just got this feeling, like that's what its name is".
"Oh, I get it. So now the sword is talking to you", I said. He glared at me but I just stood there smirking back at him.
"Okay fine. Demons Soul it is then", I said in defeat still smiling. We never could have known just how large a role that blade would play in our future.
It was February, which meant for everyone at Shane Jr. High that it was time for the annual science fair. Josh and I hated science for obvious reasons. We hated it more when Mr. Hayne, the science teacher, told us no one could work in teams.
"This is an individual assignment. You should know that by now", he said looking at the whole class. He especially looked at me and Josh more since the whole smoke bomb thing. I never really cared but Josh found it hilarious and pushed Mr. Hayne's limits at every opportunity.
"You have less than two weeks, so you better get started. Especially you, Mr. Reynolds!" he said looking right at Josh who was in the process of "accidentally" throwing a piece of paper across the room.
"Who, me?" Josh said in the most innocent voice he could muster.
"Yes, YOU. If you don't pass this, then you're more than likely going to have to repeat the course", he said as if it was a death sentence.
"Well, we all know how VERY much you enjoy me in your class. I don't see how bad one more year could be", Josh said causing snickers throughout the class. Mr. Hayne just glared the most evil glare he could at Josh while Josh just intertwined his fingers on his desk and smiled back. I didn't know how Josh did it. Mr. Hayne knew exactly how to get to me but Josh, on the other hand, was totally invulnerable.
Despite Mr. Hayne's warnings, we ended up helping each other out with our projects after school. I built some humidity/wind monitor thing I found in a camping magazine. I thought if I could manage a D, I would be okay for the year and for some reason I was pretty good with weather stuff. Josh cared even less than I did but still took it as an opportunity to create a model tank for his project.
"So what exactly is this supposed to prove?" I asked him one day at his house.
"…whatdya' mean?" he asked, busily painting camouflage on his tank.
"I mean it's a tank. How is that a science project?" I said flipping through one of his gun magazines.
"It's a FUTURE tank. Duh", he said. I peeked over the top of the magazine at him and then at his little model M1 Abrams tank.
"Dude, they already have those though", I said.
"Not this one! This one has….special paint with…um…nanobots in it! And they…uh…bend the light around it so it's…like…invisible!" he said.
"…you were watching Future Weapons again?" I said more than asked.
"No! I just came up with this! It's the…M2 Inviso-tank!" he decided holding it out in the palm of his hand with a smug grin on his face.
"…Rrrrriiiiiiiight", I said raising an eyebrow at it.
"That's…cool", I said looking back at the magazine trying to hide my eyes rolling.
The science fair came faster than expected. The day of the demonstrations, everyone was at their stations in the gym with their choice of project. There was everything from model rockets to a massive volcano (which no one found original but me and Josh wanted to see anyway). I was surprised when a judge actually took the time to flip through my entire report which, as far as I was concerned, was just my attempt at rambling about the importance of weather predictions. Little did he know that half of the words in it, I had taken from some meteorology website.
"This is pretty good", I heard him mumble to himself. I looked down the corridor of desks at Josh who was busy arguing with a judge how his tank was still a "future" tank. As the judge walked away scribbling something on her clipboard, I tried not to laugh when I saw Josh raise his middle finger at her with a look of total rage on his face. I could swear it looked like his eyes were burning red, something I would occasionally see when someone really pissed him off. As soon as he saw me, they returned to their original light brown color. His look still sent the message, "I'm NOT in the mood for any shit right now!" I just turned around chuckling to myself. I knew he had been to juvenile hall too many times to want to hit anyone again, but there was no guarantee he wouldn't want to somehow take out his anger later. When I looked up, I saw that my judge had finally gotten to what me and Josh considered the "main event" of the day. The clay volcano kid was not a total idiot. He knew that if he was gonna get any kind of grade at all, he would have to bring the house down with this demonstration. I noticed he had been staying after school to talk to the chemistry teacher about it and I figured they had something big planned. His volcano looked to be at least six feet tall. He was a hell of a chemistry whiz, so there was no chance this was gonna be some lame ass vinegar and baking soda thing.
"This thing better work. I've waited all day for this", I heard Josh say right by me and I jumped a bit. I hadn't noticed him sneak up behind me so quickly, something he often did but I had yet to get used to. We eagerly looked at the towering goliath of a volcano and waited for the fireworks. The kid grabbed a little remote, turned around, and pushed his glasses up on to his face a bit. The last thing we saw was a little smirk on the kids face and heard him quietly say, "…boom". Boom indeed. I swear, I thought I felt a small shock wave from the blast. Debris shot out of the top with a huge roar followed by a massive amount of smoke. This black smoke cloud actually put mine and Josh's to shame. Smoke filled the entire gym and you could barely see a foot in any direction. I dropped to the ground coughing bringing Josh with me.
"What the hell, man?" I heard Josh exclaim through his coughing. Suddenly, we heard something whistle over our heads and an awful screeching like some kind of mix between a hawk and a dying person.
"…D-…did you hear…?" I couldn't finish my thought. The doors to the gym burst open letting out some of the smoke and several panicking shadows. Me and Josh scrambled to the light but tripped over people attempting to do the same.
"Move it!" Josh yelled over the crowd as he helped me back up. As I staggered around, trying to regain my sense of balance, I glanced up at the rafters of the gym through a small opening in the smoke. I'm not sure if I can clearly describe the monster I saw. I'm sure I had seen it before at some point but never this close. It was some sort of mix between a bald woman, a bat, and a vulture. It had black wings and glowing eyes that were looking hungrily right at me and Josh. It opened its mouth and let out another blood curdling screech.
"Th-…that's one ugly-", I stammered.
"COME ON!" Josh screamed at me pulling me through the door into the open air.
A few minutes later, after the smoke cleared and everyone was accounted for, me and Josh sat on the curb looking at the scene before us. Every fire fighter had an angry look on his face, mumbling things to each other about annoying little teenagers and their pranks while medical teams went through the crowd checking for injuries and people who were still coughing. I looked at the chemistry teacher who was yelling at clay volcano kid whose glasses had a cracked lens.
"I said ounces not pounds! Are you out of your mind? You're lucky you didn't collapse the whole building!" I looked down at the ground thinking about what I had seen in the gym before being pulled out. Whatever it was, it had disappeared pretty fast. I knew I couldn't say anything about it. If I told Josh what I saw he'd probably just laugh or ask me if I was feeling alright. I was so deep in my thoughts about my problem, for a moment I thought I had imagined it when I heard Josh say,
"You saw it too". I slowly turned my head towards him.
"W-…what?" He still had his head down and had an intense look on his face.
"That thing up in the rafters. You saw it too, didn't you?" he said a little louder, turning to me.
"I thought I was going crazy. All these damn things I keep seeing are supposed to be in horror movies, not the west coast. These fucking monsters have been haunting me ever since I could remember", he said, getting up. I quickly followed him as he started quickly walking to his house.
"I couldn't sleep at night. I started seeing them even in my dreams", he continued.
"Hold on, so you've been seeing these things too? And you didn't tell me?" I asked a bit annoyed. He stopped dead in his tracks and whipped around towards me. "How the hell do you think I would tell you, huh? 'Oh yea, by the way, I see some pretty scary shit trying to kill me sometimes. Hope that doesn't put a damper on our friendship or anything'", he said with his hands raised in a 'no big deal' kind of way.
"I've already tried telling people before. You should have figured it out by now. No one else sees them so they don't believe us. And I am NOT having another fucking doctor putting me through a cat scan again!" he said turning around.
"Come with me", he said while he walked away.
"I've got something you should see." I was frozen, too shocked at what I was hearing. How the hell was he also able to see these things?
"Hey, you just gonna sit there? Come on! Before another one of them shows up!" he yelled over his shoulder. At the mention of a second encounter, I started moving again.
When we got to his house, I saw his mom sitting in front of a computer.
"Hey, what are you doing back so early? Schools not out for another-"
"They let us go early today", he interrupted.
"Had some trouble with the demos today."
"Is that what all the sirens were about?" she asked looking back at her computer. She didn't get an answer. We went right to Josh's room and he shut the door behind us. He went over to his cluttered desk and started sifting through the mess in each drawer.
"Ever since we moved here, it seems like it's worse than before!" he said seemingly to himself.
"Colorado was fine. One, maybe two sightings every month. Then we start moving west and they just got more and more frequent", he said, opening a drawer and pulling out a medium sized notebook.
"Any of these little bastards look familiar?" he said, flipping from page to page. Josh wasn't a great artist, but every page I saw managed to send a separate chill down my spine. Almost every one of them I had already seen before in real life. A giant Cyclops, a massive two headed dog, half woman half snake beings, several randomly mixed monsters, and…
"Wait!" I said grabbing the booklet and staring at the drawing before me. It had the head of a lion which didn't look familiar. But its other features are what caught my attention. Its goat head was staring right at me just like it had not more than a year ago. Its snake tail looked like it was still hissing at me, baring its fangs. I dropped the booklet.
"When...did you see this?" I asked, slowly feeling the blood drain from my face.
"Oh, I've seen him about three times I think. Two were from a pretty good distance so it didn't notice me. But the last time, about ten months ago, I got pretty lucky. It's a good thing I saw it before it saw me. I managed to slip into a bathroom in this gas station where it couldn't smell me from outside. Ended up staying in there for about an hour", he said tossing the booklet on the desk and crossing his arms.
"Don't think I'm waiting for a bus to a city ever again." He walked over to me and pulled out a chair by my arm.
"I guess that look on your face means you've met our little Chimera friend then?" he said, sitting down in front of his computer.
"Our…what?" I asked still reeling from the shock of seeing it again.
"A Chimera. I know it sounds like a weird name, but that's because I haven't shown you the best part", he said bringing up an internet screen on his laptop. I could hardly tell what part of this was supposed to be good to begin with, but looked over at the screen anyway.
"I did a little bit of searching and found out a few of the things in that book have a name. Of course you know the Cyclops already. I mean who doesn't? But then you've got that thing, the Chimera", he said pointing at the page in the booklet,
"and the Empousa", he flipped back to the snake-lady, starting to flip to each picture and, in turn, bringing up another page on the computer screen with the same kind of picture. He went through most of the book.
"I've found out about almost all of the ones in this thing", he said, poking the booklet.
"But do you wanna know the real kicker?" he said looking right at me. He turned back to the computer and said,
"BAM!" and brought up a new page. I looked at the top and tried to read it out loud.
"Green My…Mygotholy? What?"
"No, Mythology. Jeez, and I thought I sucked in English class", he said.
"What's this supposed mean?" I asked.
"Do I have to spell it out for you? Not that it'd do much good apparently…" he said.
"Would you just get to the point?" I said getting a little annoyed.
"Alright, a while ago, before you showed up, we went over Greek Mythology in history. Bunch of badass heroes with swords and stuff like Hercules, you know?" he said, ignoring my outburst.
"Well I was looking at my history book because we had to do some stupid reading thing that you and I love so much, and I saw a picture of something I had seen before, like déjà vu. So I just kind of shrugged it off because it looked a little different from what I had seen in real life anyway. But then I saw another and another all of different monsters I'd seen before", he said scrolling down the screen.
"Don't you get it? Everything we've been seeing is all in Greek Mythology. I guess Greek History in our case", he said looking out of the corner of his eye at me through his hair. I looked at all of the pictures on the website intently. He rolled his chair away giving me the mouse and grabbing his booklet.
"Every monster that we thought a bunch of drunk Greek dudes came up with, some that we haven't even seen yet probably, every one of them...is real."
"When did you find all of this?" I asked.
"Well I started looking for more information from a website in the history book around the time you showed up. Actually, the one that you're on right now", he said.
"So, about six months ago." As I scrolled down, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing from the website.
"So, wait a second", I said turning to face him.
"I feel like there's something…more"
"What are talking about?" he asked looking at me.
"Well we know that all these monsters are real", I said, starting to pace.
"Yea, obviously", he said.
"But there's one part of Greek…eh…History that we're forgetting…and probably the biggest and most important", I said finally solving my puzzle.
"What are you saying?" he said, not understanding what I was getting at. I stopped pacing and looked right at Josh.
"If all of this is real", I said pointing at the screen, "…does that mean that…the Greek Gods are real too?"
I'm not quite sure how I managed to sleep that night, even if I was still at Josh's. I had "convinced" my foster parents over the phone to let me stay the night. Even though convincing them meant saying I was staying at a friend's house for the night and hanging up before they could protest. Josh was definitely thrown for a loop when he heard what I had said. He kept repeating how he couldn't have noticed it before. I lay awake on his floor, staring at the roof. I couldn't believe that I heard Josh snoring so peacefully after the events of that day. There was no way he could have grown used to this already. Or maybe he could have.
"Josh, you must be one tough son of a gun", I whispered to no one. 'Or just totally crazy'. I thought. I heard him shift a bit in his bed but it returned again to his steady snoring. I didn't feel my eyes close soon after.
My dream was unlike most of my others. It was so much more…real. I saw three people running away. No four. But from what? I couldn't see much in the moonlight but…what was that sound? A fourteen foot giant came lumbering into view, going after them. It was a bluish color, had dark blue hair, and looked like he was about to enjoy smashing something with his huge club. The club looked like it was bigger than a limo and had nasty looking spikes the size of my arm sticking out of it. It was dark outside, but I swear I could see chunks of meat hanging from several of them. I didn't want to know what from. The kids all wore pretty shabby looking clothes and had backpacks on.
"Come on!" I heard one of the kids yell. The voices owner appeared to be close to my age, maybe a bit older. He had dark brown hair like me, only his was curly. His eyes looked grey from the street lights they ran by. He was a bit shorter than me from what I could see, but he was very fast considering the pace that the boy in front of him was going at. I couldn't make many out the features of the boy in front except for his huge amount of hair and his strange running. They tore down another deserted street and jumped into an alleyway.
"What are we gonna do?" I heard a female's voice say. It must have been one of the two who were near the back. She looked very young in what light there was in the alley. She was probably seven or eight with flowing blonde hair and the same grey eyes as the curly haired boy.
"Shawn, I'm scared!" she said, clutching the curly haired boys arm with tears rolling down her face.
"Shhhhh…it's gonna be alright Ashley", he said, holding her close to him and looking fearfully over at the other girl.
"We're gonna get through this. We always do", he said stroking her hair. He took out a two foot blade from his bag and held on to it in desperation.
"This is so wrong!" I heard the other boy panicking. He appeared to be a bit taller than the Shawn kid and three times as hairy. His hair hung clear down to his shoulders and he had what looked like two very large bumps on his head.
"There hasn't been a violent Hyperborean giant around for ages! This is bad, you guys. This is really bahahahahad!" It sounded like he was bleating. What the hell was wrong with this guy?
"Would you shut up Reggie? Your scaring Ash!" the other boy said harshly.
"Amber, is he coming yet? Did he see us go in here?"
"Shhhhh!" the other girl said whipping around with her finger to her mouth. I only caught a glimpse of her, but what I saw I'm pretty sure made my heart skip a beat. Her hair was down to the center of her back and was a light brunette. Her face looked like an angels and she appeared to be about my age. She quickly turned back around and peeked around the corner. It seems like she stayed there forever, waiting for the giant to appear. Slowly she turned back to her friends and whispered,
"I don't hear anything. I think he already passed-" CRASH! She jumped back just in time, inches away from where a spiked club now left a small crater in the ground. "PEEK-A-BOO!" the giant said like he was the world's largest toddler. Ashley screamed.
"RUN!" Amber yelled. They all sprinted past the towering monster and ran down the road they had come from. Amber quickly grabbed something shiny from her bag. I couldn't tell what it was at first. Then I saw the unmistakable barrel of a revolver. A.357 magnum by the looks of it. They all kept on running and turned another corner. They stopped and put their backs to the wall, breathing heavily. The sound of very large footsteps became louder and louder. The boy named Reggie saw the gun Amber was clutching and looked at her.
"I already told you, mortal weapons can't hurt-"
"I know!" she said, facing him.
"That's why I made something very special out of the pieces of Celestial bronze you gave me." She took out a single bullet from the chamber and held it between her finger and thumb in the light for him to see. Reggie's eyes got wide as he saw the bronze cylinder before she replaced it in the gun.
"No way. You…actually-"
"Shhh! Hey…what happened to the footsteps?" she said peeking around the corner. I hadn't noticed it either but suddenly, there were no more impacts on the ground. "…Oh shit. Where did he-" BOOM! In front of Amber landed the massive blue giant. Ashley screamed again as Amber fell to her back from the impact. The gun clattered to the ground. The giant raised his club over his head, about to create a very large mess on the sidewalk.
"AMBER!" Shawn yelled. Amber rolled over, grabbed the gun, and flung the barrel in the direction of the giants head as the club was starting to come down. BANG!
I woke up to Josh nudging me in the side and sat bolt upright.
"Get up, lover boy. You don't want to keep your precious Amber waiting, do you?"
"Huh?" was all I could manage feeling dizzy from sitting up so fast.
"Oooooh my head", I said grabbing my scalp and slowly reaching for my-
"…Wait. What did you say?" I asked looking at Josh.
"I said get up! It's Friday. We still have to go to-"
"No before that! You said a name…" I said staggering to my feet.
"What? Oh, you mean Amber." I looked at Josh feeling my face getting all scrunched up in confusion.
"Don't ask me. You're the one who kept saying that name all night. I'm not sure whether my alarm clock woke me up or you. What exactly where YOU dreaming of, huuuuuuuh?" he said smirking. I sat down in his computer chair and put my head in my hands. The whole thing was already starting to fade except a few details and…the names. What were the names? Amber, obviously, and Shane and Ronnie and Emily. Or was it Ashley?
"Oh…DAMMIT!" I said, slamming my fist on his desk.
"Hey! I'm sorry if I woke you from your 'happy time' dream, alright? Jeez, you don't have to-"
"No, you don't understand!" I said, trying to remember everything that had happened in the dream.
"I had a dream last night. It was really creepy…like I was right there", I said and explained what I could remember.
"Whatever. I have weird ones like that all the time", he said getting a new shirt from his closet.
"But you don't get it! It's like was right there with them! I could see everything perfectly!" I tried to explain.
"Look the only thing that's different from any of mine is that gun you were talking about. Most of the time, it's some kids that go old school style with swords and shields not guns. And most of the time, it doesn't end well for them."
"What? When did you start seeing them?" I asked a little confused.
"I don't know, like three months ago. It's always someone different and it's always the same damn thing. They get chased by the monsters. They get cornered. They die. The end", he said, tying his boots on and tucking his dog tags into his shirt.
"Are you sure that's how they always end?" I pressed on.
"Ugh. Um…no I think there were two times where I saw a few lucky ones get away. Are you happy now?" I wasn't and he could tell by the look on my face.
"Look it's not that big a deal. They're just dreams anyway. It's not like its real or anything", he said.
"Now come on and grab some breakfast from the kitchen. I really don't want to put up with a nagging math teacher all morning, whining that I was late. And I don't think your class will be much better if you are too. Let's go!"
Josh was right about one thing. Being late to English started a big boring lecture about how important it was to be prompt and prepared, and what my future would be like if I was always late to important meetings. I had already heard it about seven billion times before and didn't want to put up with it again. It was already hard enough to look like was paying attention in that class to begin with. I sat through most of my morning classes in a daze. I went to each class pretty much on autopilot. I couldn't shake the thought of those kids I had seen. "It's not like its real or anything", I heard Josh's words echoing in my ears. His dreams couldn't have been the same as this one. No one's dreams could ever be that vivid.
"Mr. Jacobs!" I heard a familiar (and very annoying) voice say.
"Huh?" I said, looking up at Mr. Hayne, getting annoyed at what he said. I didn't realize I was already in my science class, the second to last class of the day. Wait, had I even eaten lunch?
"I said would you care to read from where Jasmine left off in our books?" he said looking over at me with that evil look he gave. Everyone in the class was snickering, except for Josh who just rolled his eyes. I looked down at my desk where I was supposed to have a book open to…some page.
"Are you aware of how low your grades are, Mr. Jacobs?" he asked, obviously enjoying this little "payback". I felt a twinge of anger. I was dying to say, "Are YOU aware of how much of an asshole you are?" but that wouldn't help much of anything. He knew I HATED being called by my step parents' name, yet still insisted to be as much of a dick as possible. I was never really all that close to my step parents and I never accepted the name Jacobs. It was too foreign to me…not really mine yet forced on me anyway.
"I don't like being called that", I said in a low voice, squeezing my desk tightly.
"I'm sorry, what was that Mr. Jacobs?" he cooed.
"I said, I don't like being called that", I said louder than before. CRRRAAA-BOOM! There was a huge thunder clap outside. A few of the girls in the class screamed and there were several car alarms going off outside.
"What the devil?" Mr. Hayne went over to the window and looked up at the sky. It was completely clear, something that didn't happen often so close to the coast. I looked over at Josh whose eyes were looking back at me in total shock.
"Must have been some sort of sonic boom…" Mr. Hayne decided after he grabbed his keys and turned off his car alarm. Several footsteps could be heard rushing past the door, probably other teachers. Before Mr. Hayne had a chance to resume his ranting, the bell (thank god) rang to release us to or last class.
"Mr. Jacobs, you owe me an hour of detention after school for not being with the rest of the class the entire time!" I heard Mr. Hayne say as I walked by his desk. I didn't even stop to argue that he couldn't tell if I was or wasn't. History was my last class of the day and I just wanted-
"Dude…" I heard someone say behind me.
"What?" I said whipping around to face the voice.
"Whoa, calm down, damn…" Josh said.
"Hey…were you…did you notice anything weird just now?" he asked a little nervously.
"What the hell are you talking about now?" I said, starting to walk again.
"I mean in science when Hayne was being an ass…" he said more confidently.
"No. He's a douche just like every other day", I said.
"When we heard that thunder…it…it looked like you…like you were glowing almost", he said looking at me a little worried.
"You had this yellow glow around you, sort of."
"Whatever", I said, not very interested. I walked on leaving Josh behind.
Our history class ended pretty quickly. Josh was lucky as the subject was the Pacific theatre of World War II. Josh was busy babbling about how brilliant the Japanese were to have built such an intricate cave system on the island of Iwo Jima when the bell rang. He looked a little bummed when he had to stop. We packed up our stuff and headed out the doors.
"Man I was just getting to the best part too! I'm telling yea, it didn't matter how many days the navy bombarded that place, those Japs were dug in too deep", Josh said. I ignored most of the rest of what he was saying till we got outside. I wasn't that big of a war fanatic, but Josh rambled on about this kind of stuff all the time.
"So did you figure out what the whole glowing thing was about?" he said while we walked in front of the school.
"No. I didn't really notice much of anything", I said.
"Are you sure I was glowing, or were you just seeing shit?" I asked looking over at him.
"No, you were definitely-"
"Ah, there you are Mr. Jacobs", Mr. Hayne said in front of us. He must have taken the door to the faculty room to take something to his car…or to piss me off some more.
"Did you forget about your detention? You wouldn't mind staying for another hour for making me come and find you would you?" he said looking at me. I felt Josh tense up next to me.
"Tyler", I heard him whisper. I ignored him. I was too focused on the man in front of me, smiling that evil smile of his.
"When I talk to you, I expect to get an answer Mr. Jacobs"
"TYLER", I heard Josh say a bit further behind me. Mr. Hayne continued,
"As of right now, you are-HURK!" He didn't finish his sentence.
"Oh god…" Josh said. I looked down and saw a claw sticking out of Mr. Hayne's chest. Slowly Mr. Hayne was lifted into the air and flung towards me. I dodged in time to see him roll over on his back, looking at me in total horror and coughing up blood. I looked into as eyes as he stopped breathing. I turned around to look at what had done this to him. I could smell the monsters warm breath before I saw it. How I didn't notice it before, I'm not sure. The best way I could describe it was a dragon. Nothing like you would see in some kid's movie, though. It had to be at least nine feet from nose to tail and pretty thin. It looked sleek and black almost like a fighter jet. Its eyes were an evil shade of black that looked right into your soul. I watched as it reared up onto its hind legs and let out a roar directly at me, something like a loud shriek and a tiger's growl combined. As it stood there ready to strike me down in one quick blow, I said the first intelligent thing that came to mind,
"uh…hi." Apparently, big and ugly wasn't there for a conversation. He slammed a massive clawed foot down, right where I should have been if Josh hadn't come and tackled me like a running back.
"Oof!" I heard myself grunt as he landed on me hard.
"RUN!" he screamed, dragging me about ten feet before my legs finally responded for me. One thing could definitely be said about the beast, it was fast. Its movements seemed more like that of a snake. It struck right at our heels, shaking the ground every time. We just barely managed to duck one way or dodge the other just as a foot or a head came striking down where we were moments ago. Everything we did seemed to be purely on instinct. We dove in between some cars that were still in the parking lot in an attempt to at least slow it down. That didn't help much. As thin as it looked, it still grabbed the SUV we had our backs against and flung it into the air. Whatever it hit caught the fuel tank on fire, turning the whole thing into a huge fireball. I stood up and looked at the carnage. Bad mistake. I glanced back at the monster in time to see its head come right at me with its mouth open. For a split half a second, it almost looked like a picture of a shark showing its teeth. I was yanked away again by Josh, who seemed to be saving my ass a lot today.
"Damn it! Stop doing that!" he yelled at me. He looked over my shoulder at the monster and said,
"Come on! Now's our chance!" We started running again. I glanced back to see what he meant. It had its head stuck in the window of the other car I was just standing in front of. It seemed to be even more like a shark in the sense that its scales were all pointed back so it was caught in the door frame. It managed to finally yank its head out while tearing apart most of the car in the process. It looked around in our direction and let out another roar. We ran as fast as we could, trying to get as much distance as possible between us and that thing. I was suddenly aware of what street we were on.
"Why…are we…going…to your house?" I gasped to Josh between each breath.
"You got…a better…idea?" he said over his shoulder still running. I didn't of course. We burst through the front door of his house and slammed it behind us gasping. He locked the deadbolt even though we both knew it wouldn't do a damn thing to stop that monster.
"What the hell happened to you two?" we heard a familiar voice say.
"SOMETHING JUST TRIED TO KILL-", I was stopped by Josh's hand grabbing my face.
"We just had a race to see who could get back here the fastest", Josh said still holding my mouth.
"Are you sure everything's alright?" she said, getting up to come towards us as we headed to Josh's room. There was a loud crash over our heads. Everyone froze in place and looked up at the ceiling. The next sound was the sound of the entire ceiling collapsing as the dragon came crashing through the roof and into the living room. The last time we heard Josh's mom's voice was her scream before a foot kicked her into the kitchen. There was no way she was getting up from a force like that. The dragons head whipped back around to face us. It opened its mouth and reared it into the air inhaling with a wheezing sound. There was a glow in the back of its throat.
"Oh shit", I said. At the same time, Josh and I both dove to either side of the dragon as a trail of fire blew from its mouth, blowing out the door and leaving a huge hole in it. The sides of the house were now burning around us. Josh ran into his room, followed quickly by me, and shut the door. This was it. We couldn't get out past that dragon and the windows in Josh's room were fitted with bars to prevent him from escaping his house in the middle of the night. We would either burn or be eaten, neither option was very appealing.
"What the hell are we supposed to do man?" I said, starting to panic.
"My mom…" I heard Josh say.
"That son of a bitch killed my mom." I looked at Josh. He was looking at the door with a murderous look on his face. No…it was even scarier than that. There was no mistaking it this time. His eyes were glowing with a blood red fire.
"I'll kill him", he said from his corner of the room with finality. Above him, the sword Demons Soul hung from the wall, a red glow surrounded the blade. The dragon burst through the wall, throwing dry wall all over the place. It shrieked again and started coming at me. There was nothing I could do. This was it. A WWII canteen sailed at the dragon's face, hitting it square in the eye. It whipped around to shriek at Josh, who had thrown it.
"Come on, bitch..." Josh said.
"COME AND GET ME!" The dragon turned its full body to face him, leaving me shaking against the opposite wall. The room was just big enough to fit it and us. The next three seconds seemed like a slow motion movie. The dragon lunged at Josh with its mouth open, about to enjoy a tasty morsel. Josh reacted faster than I could blink. He jumped off its face, grabbed Demons Soul, and kicked hard away from the wall. He seemed to turn in midair and came down bringing the glowing blade with him. He landed and sliced the blade all the way through the monster with a sickening SHLICK! The dragons head fell to the ground, its body still writhing around. Suddenly, it burst into dust and vanished. Josh stood there holding his head down with his hair in the way of his face. He was grasping Demons Soul which still had a red radiance around it. I didn't move. I didn't know what I was more afraid of: what had almost happened to me, or what I was seeing now. I got up just enough courage to move away from the wall. I was still shaking a bit.
"J…Josh?" I asked. He slowly looked up at me. His eyes were ablaze and he looked way scarier than everything in his monster book combined. He blinked several times when he saw me. The red fire in his eyes disappeared and the blade stopped glowing. His eyes began to tear up and he fell to his knees crying.
"She's gone…" was all he said. I could only imagine what he was feeling. Sure, my mom was killed also (probably right in front of me) but I was only an infant. To have grown up with that person just to see something like that happen to them…it must have been unbearable.
"I'm sorry", was all I could manage.
"We need to leave", he said, getting up and grabbing his sword, "We need to leave now."
"We…we can go back to my house", I suggested.
"No", he said, "This place isn't safe. We have to leave town."
"I understand", I said, slowing my breathing. I took a bag from his room and filled it with MRE's that Josh had collected for a while in his closet. They didn't taste too good but it was probably all we would have for a while. He helped, grabbing another bag already pre-packed with a knife, fire starter, and several other survival tools. I suppose it was some kind of emergency "get out of Dodge" bag. I took the canteen he had thrown at the monster. I didn't have it in me to go to the kitchen and fill it. His mom's body was probably still in there. We didn't have a lot of time left anyways. When we left through the hole in the wall, the flames were starting to grow larger and the whole place was bound to go up any second now. Josh didn't even blink walking through the smoke. Meanwhile I was having trouble just breathing. I filled the canteen with the hose outside before we left. I could hear the wail of the fire engines in the distance. As we hiked into the surrounding forest outside of town, we didn't look back.