Kass could sense something was off from the moment his best friend started talking about some crazy monsters he'd been seeing. Well, to be fair, Kass had felt a sense of offness long before then, he just couldn't pinpoint what. Kass's best friend was a guy named Mark and they'd been through just about everything together. Mark had been his partner in crime since birth: he'd been there when they'd glued the principal's coffee mug to his desk, or when they had pulled the fire alarm just to postpone a test. Mark had been there when Kass had a concussion and Kass had been there when Mark broke his arm. The two boys had grown up as neighbors and were closer than most brothers. They knew next to everything about each other, therefore, Kass knew that Mark was mortal. Mark was completely, 100 percent mortal and knew nothing about the Greek world that was Kass's life. Mark didn't even have the sight for crying out loud, so why was Mark describing an emposa?
"It had this weird metal leg" Mark exclaimed in a panicked tone, "And yet, the other leg was a hoof, I'm not even kidding you, it was a goat's leg and had a hoof for a foot!"
"What did it do when you ran?" Kass asked. "Did it follow or…"
"No." Mark interrupted, "It just stood there, as if it expected me to come back. It almost seemed surprised that I ran, as if… as if it wasn't used to being noticed."
Kass sat down on the bed and started thinking. When he had received an S.O.S. from Mark in the middle of the night he didn't know what to expect, but this certainly wasn't it. What was going on with the mist? The mist was normally something Kass understood, he was a child of Hecate after all. Now a million thoughts were running through his stormy grey eyes. Why were there unexpected holes in the curtain that was the mist? Why had the mist gotten stiller over the past couple months? Why had Mark suddenly developed the sight? Was it really an empousa or was it just one too many nights playing video games? Kass ran a hand through his tousled wavy brown hair.
"You don't think I'm crazy, do you?" Mark asked in a meek sort of voice.
"No" Kass easily replied, "I'm just wondering why now? I mean, those things have always existed, they've just been hidden from… from those who don't want to see it."
Kass resisted the urge to say 'hidden from mortals' because that was a conversation he didn't feel like having quite yet.
"What?!" Mark almost exploded "What do you mean they've always been there? Can they make themselves invisible or something? Why can you see them? Is this some sort of dream? Oh god, I'm dreaming. That's it! That's why everything is so weird. I'm in some sort of nightmare."
Obviously Mark wasn't as good at keeping his questions inside as he started rambling on like a crazy person. Though, to be fair, this was the first time Mark had seen anything out of the ordinary. He was owed at least a couple minutes of crazy.
"Look" Kass said in an eerily calm tone, "This isn't going to make much sense to you right now but please just keep quiet as I explain anyway. The Greek gods are real and so is that whole realm of mythology. What you saw to today is a breed of monster called an empousa it attempts to feed on unsuspecting…. prey" Kass once again avoided the term mortals, "They are normally concealed by this thing called 'the mist'. It morphs whatever doesn't work into your version of reality. Instead of a crazy monster girl, you would see a drunk woman. Or, instead of a swordsman fighting her, you would see a man pushing her off him. It basically covers up anything out of the ordinary. I've been able to see through it since birth, though don't normally tell people what I see so I could avoid being thrown into an insane asylum. The only thing I'm wondering is why can you see through it? Why now?"
Mark looked stunned. He sat down on the bed next to Kass and seemed in utter shock, occasionally he would glance sideways, but when Kass would turn and make eye contact he would just shake his head and look forward again. Finally, after a few minutes of this awkward silence, he seemed to regain his composure.
"Ummm.." Mark started awkwardly, "So much for telling each other everything."
Of course, Kass thought. After all that he had explained that only thing Mark really cared about. Honesty. He felt like an idiot.
"Sorry" Kass replied honestly, "I tried telling you when we were kids but, well, you thought I was crazy."
"I still do" Mark replied, "Though, now I just think we're both crazy."
"Were we ever sane?" Kass responded, regaining some of his old humor.
"True." Mark said as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.
Then, as if both of them had decided that enough was enough, they slipped into a comfortable silence that soon drifted into sleep.
The next morning Kass woke around 9 and was a little shocked to see his best friend Mark laying next to him, snoring like a bear on his deathbed. That was, until he remembered the S.O.S. text that he had received the night before. Quickly getting over his confusion Kass got up and started to get dressed for the day. Since Mark didn't get up till after 10 on weekends Kass didn't have to worry about being quiet.
Kass got dressed in jeans and a fitted gray t-shirt that accented his misty grey eyes, a trait he inherited from his mother. Some of his friends told him that when he concentrated or got angry that mist in his eyes would condense into a solid grey cloud of fury that could be quite unsettling. He glanced at himself in the mirror before he left, ran a hand through his disheveled brown hair and walked out the door. He'd left a note for Mark of course, he didn't want to receive a panicked text wondering if he'd been kidnapped. Kass laughed at the thought, he almost wished he hadn't been nice to his friend, just to see what his reaction would be.
Kass walked past his father's room, glancing in just in case he was awake but, as usual, he was asleep. Kass's dad was a bit of a drunkard, he didn't do anything drastic like coming home and puking all over the carpet. It was only to the point where Kass could count on a hungover father every Saturday and Sunday morning. Kass was used to this though, so he took a couple pills of advil from the kitchen cupboard along with a cup of water and placed it on his dad's nightstand before leaving. Mark would know not to wake his dad until at least 2 in the afternoon. That was just the way weekends rolled at the Taylor household.
Not that Kass minded though, it was what gave him his adventurous streak. Every morning he would have to leave the house and every morning he tried to go somewhere new. One morning he and Mark had taken their motorcycles and just driven straight down to Mackinac Island, a good 3 hours from his home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Today, however, he wanted to go swimming.
After taking his motorcycle out of the garage he revved up the engine and flew. He flew out of his old town and through the tree surrounded excuse of a highway. He flew through the darkest parts of the forests until there was almost no daylight, then he flew until there wasn't a tree in sight. He flew till he reached the ocean like edge of Lake Superior, yes, it's a real lake, and it was only then that he finally paused. He set down his bike, pulled off his shirt, jeans and shoes and jumped into the lake. Though most people would be ashamed to strip to their boxers Kass was somehow able to pull it off. It did help that he had a solid six pack and a face from his godly side of the family, though who's counting? It also helped that Kass was alone, completely alone and could sense anyone coming if they dared step within a mile of him, another trait from his godly side of the family.
It wasn't like he was able to sense the people's energy or anything like that, no, he was able to sense the absence of energy. For Kass could sense the mist, he was always sensing the mist. It was like a living cloud of murky pea soup that was all around him. It wasn't hard to walk through it, it was just there. When Kass was a kid he would always wonder why his father, or anyone else for that matter, couldn't see this cloud of a substance that was constantly moving and flowing around people. He was curious about this cloud so he had practiced feeling around the mist and trying to figure out what it did. Kass soon realized that it was connected to him, and that he could sense things that happened around him At first it was only being able to sense where he could touch. He was able to sense where a pencil or paper was based on how the mist flowed around it. Then his range started growing. He found that it was much easier to sense moving things, such as where his dad was in the house and eventually what he was doing. Sooner or later his range could expand to a mile wide with exact detail as to how tall a person was or what types of cars were driving past his window. Kass wasn't always focused on that of course, it would far too overwhelming far too fast.
The one thing Kass always focused on though, was monsters. They were often very easy to sense because they manipulate the mist themselves. The smooth clouds of mist would soon condense in specific areas so he would know, 'hey avoid that spot' or 'there are about 20 monsters coming my way I should probably run'
So when Kass started swimming in the cool waters of Lake Superior, on a hidden strip of beach, the last thing he expected was to be approached. Of course, that's exactly what happened.
"Hello?" Kass heard a feminine voice call
Quickly, he turned around and observed this girl. Within a matter of seconds he saw that she was about 16 with bleached blond hair that went down to her hips. She was extremely pale, though not the type that makes you look sickly and she had the most startling blue eyes that he had ever seen. Kass would have thought she was a daughter of Zeus had it not been for the scared look that her electric blue eyes were giving him. Kass realized that he probably looked a little intimidating to this girl, since his body had immediately gone into battle mode.
"Sorry!" Kass exclaimed relaxing, "You scared me."
"You're fine." She responded easily, though her calm demeanor was soon shattered as she looked down and started muttering the rest "You actually scared me too! My grandparents live in the house on the edge of this property. I suppose I wasn't expecting someone else to be in the lake…."
Sure Kass felt bad that he had scared this girl but his mind had gone elsewhere as soon as she started talking. Why had he not felt her coming? Why had the mist not been disturbed earlier? Sure enough, when Kass looked for the mist it was almost gone. The mist had reached a thinness it had never reached before, it was to the point that Kass was scared for a complete extinction of the mist all together. What could've caused this? Was he just in a large whole or was this the new reality of the mist? Kass didn't know but he knew he had to leave.
"Sorry for scaring you." Kass said suddenly, interrupting the girls rant, "I've got to go."
The girl just looked at him strangely as Kass walked towards his motorcycle, yanked on his clothes and took off. Sure he was soaking wet but he had needed answers, and there was only one place to go. Camp Half-Blood.