I've reworked Chapter 1 a little, so hopefully it flows a little better than before.

Oh, and just a warning, flames will be fed to Leo.


I've spent the last twelve years growing up with a fairly normal life. I go to school near the house that me and my parents live in in upper east-side Manhattan, play some sports, and get decent enough grades. I don't cause trouble, even though it seems to find me on a regular basis.

My graduation from the sixth grade ended less than half an hour ago, which means I have a whole summer vacation ahead of me to enjoy. Sweet, sweet freedom for a whole two and a half months. No teachers, no classmates, no high school students coming around to pick on us. Just me and pure freedom. Which probably means getting shipped off to Grandma's house for another summer.

Little do I know that my world is about to be turned upside down in every possible way.

My name is Ciara Jackson.


I walk up the steps to my house and open the door quietly. I hang my backpack up on the hook by the door and wipe my shoes on the rug. "Hey Mom, I'm home!" She's usually at home whenever she's not out doing one of her big architectural projects, which means that she'll probably be in the kitchen, since she doesn't trust Dad around dangerous appliances.

When I get no response, I poke my head into the kitchen. "Is anyone around?" I don't see anyone, which is weird, since Mom usually tells me and Dad whenever she's going to be leaving early or heading to another state.

Suddenly, I feel a tap on my shoulder, so I turn around and see a gruesome and terrible bronze face. I scream at the top of my lungs and drop to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest. Not again... My breath comes in short, shallow pants

Water splashes onto the floor from the kitchen sink and I can see water coming down the hallway from the bathroom. It's everywhere, there's water everywhere. I hear fast footsteps downstairs, then coming up the stairs.

"Honey, it's okay! It's just a mask." She pats my back soothingly, rocking me slightly. "Just breathe, in and out, in and out. Slowly..." It's been a while since the last time I had an episode, so it's no wonder that maybe we would think that I'd finally gotten over these damn anxiety attacks.

Between breaths, I gasp out. "Mom! What's happening? Why is there water everywhere?" Despite my efforts to calm myself down, I'm risking having a second panic attack on top of the first one. But I just can't seem to close my eyes.

Mom's eyes widen as she takes in the scene around us. She yells down the hallway. "Percy! Get in here now!"

Dad runs in and looks startled. "Did you break the plumbing with one of your experiments again?" He says that like it's a common occurrence. Where was I when Mom was brekaing the plumbing!?

"No, it just happened when I played a joke on her. She had another panic attack, but..." Mom looks at me like she is worried about something. " Then this happened. Do you think she could be like you?"

Dad kneels on the floor and pries my arms from around my knees. "Sweetie, why don't you stand up and dry off?"

I tremble a little as I stand up, I grab a dish towel from the rack near the oven and go to dab some water off of my jeans. While dabbing, I realize that my jeans aren't even damp. What...? But that's... I'm shocked by the impossibility of the situation. I had been sitting in three inch water, but my jeans and shoes don't seem wet at all.

"What the hell is going on? I'm dry." I drop the towel and it floats on the water until it soaks up enough water to float down to the floor. "Why am I dry!?"

Dad looks at me with a pained expression. "There is something I haven't told you. You never showed any signs of power, so I thought that telling you would just make you uncomfortable." He looks at Mom and she nods, so he holds my hands and looks me in the eyes. "You made the water spray everywhere when you got scared. It happened to me when I was your age, and there were even some incidents going back to when I was about three years old. Since you never showed any signs until now, I thought that you hadn't inherited any powers from me, but this incident changes things. Listen very carefully while I say this. You are not entirely human."

I shake my head in alarm. "What do you mean not human? I'm human, I have to be! Just look at me! I have normal colored skin, eyes and hair. I don't have any spikes or weird boils, no scales and nothing remotely unhuman. So what the hell do you mean I'm not human?"

Dad breathes in and out slowly. "I didn't say that you were an alien, just not entirely human. I want you to watch carefully." He stands up and stares at the water. With a wave of his hand, the water swirls into the air and down the sink. The floor dries and when he touches the towel, it dries too, then he hangs it on its rack.

"How did you do that?" I feel shivers go up and down my spine, making me shake.

"Let's go see your grandpa, I think that you will understand once you meet him." Mom suggests. "Percy, go start up the car."

Dad nods and walks out the door first. Mom gets me a jacket and coaxes me out the door. She seems a little tense, but I feel so confused and overwhelmed by this afternoon that I barely remember getting into the car, or even most of the drive.


The next thing I know, Mom and Dad are leading me up the steps of the Empire State Building. Being here confuses me even more. "What are we doing here? What does any of this have to do with the Empire State Building?"

Dad shakes his head. "Not here, not where people can hear us."

He nods his head at the guy working the security desk, then leads the way past metal detectors to a large bronze elevator. He makes sure all three of us are inside before closing the doors and producing a keycard. He pushes the keycard into a hidden slot below the floor buttons. A Greek letter, an omega, flashes on the screen and the elevator whirs into motion.

For a minute, I feel like I'm going to be sick. Not panic attack kind of sick, but turbulence in an airplane kind of sick. Not that I've ever been in an airplane before. But some of my classmates have described the feeling to me.

The elevator is moving so fast that the numbers indicating the floor are whizzing by at ten every second. Soon, the flashing numbers turn back into an omega and the doors open.