Chapter Two:

Nico's POV

When my eyes finally fluttered open it wasn't to the sounds I was expecting. A chilling scream was piercing the air. With my ADHD I was up on my feet in seconds with my eyes darting around the room looking for the monster. It took me a second to find the person screaming. It was the little lumps of kids' I had seen on the floor last night.

The little girl had her small mouth opened wide to let out the rippling scream she was producing. She had rosy cheeks, big light green eyes, and long knotted light brown hair that went to her waist. I took a careful step forward with my hands up to show I wasn't going to hurt her, when I stepped on the other lump on the floor. Real smooth Nico, I thought.

This lump was male and he didn't scream, thank the gods. He looked at me and turned his head towards the girl."Quiet Hope. You'll wake up Mrs. Madam." He whispered soothingly to the little girl who immediately shut her trap.

This boy had shaggy brown hair and looked to be at least 13. He raised his thick eyebrows at me questionably. I was fixing to explain things to him when we heard pounding foot step jogging up the rotting stairs.

The boy got up and woke the kids on the lumpy bed who all got on the floor with their backs towards me. They stood up straight and flinched when Hawk-Eyes slammed the door open.

"WHO WAS SCREAMING?" she screeched at us. She was an uglier sight then I remembered. She was wearing a tattered and stained nightgown and her already ugly hair was piled on top of her head into an ugly trashy pile of brown junk. The little girl, who I assumed was Hope, very timidly raised her trembling hand." And why were you doing such a rude thing?" Hawk-Eyes demanded in a not so nice tone. Hope pointed her trembling hand at me. Hawk-Eyes flashed her eyes towards me and glared at me. Traitor, I thought.

What had I really done? I woke up! That's about all! There was no need to go pointing fingers at me." And why, Di Angelo, did you cause her to scream at such an untimely hour?" she said in a voice worthy of Kronos himself. I was not going to let her push me around like Hope did, so I stood up and jutted my chin out defiantly and stared at her. (I was saving my death-glare for later) "I woke up. That's about all I did since I got in this hell-hole." I replied angrily.

I wasn't going to get the others in trouble so I didn't mention that Hope had been the one to wake me up screaming while I was still asleep. "You will not use that tone with ME! Apologize!" she screamed again. No way was I going to apologize to that thing. So I said;

"No."

She slapped me. I didn't even move my head or flinch. I heard startled and surprised gasps come from the kids in front of me. That slap had actually had some power behind it. I was probably going to have some bruises." Now apologize!' she said smugly like she thought she had done something horrible to me. I had had pinches that hurt worse than that. (Thalia has some major finger muscles)So I let my teenager hormones take over.

"Not until you do!' I said with tones of smart-ass-ness flowing like waves into my voice. She grabbed me by the ear and brought my head down to her smelly feet." I'm an adult! You will respect me!" she said she was literally shaking the house with her voice. I didn't know if it was all of her voice though…. This house was really moldy."All I did was wake up this morning!" I screeched just has loudly.

She let go of my ear and pushed me towards the wall roughly." Oh, so Hope here just screamed at the sight of you. That changes things." She said steely. She reached into the front pocket of her nightdress and brought out a brightly colored, foldable ruler and turned towards Hope, who timidly pulled her hand out in front of her.

I gasped when I saw the state of Hope's hand. It looked like an oil spill had splashed her cream colored hand with purple and black gook. It took me a second to realize they were bruises and what had caused them to appear.

What I did next was completely shocking to me and everyone else in the room too. I did something that Sons of Hades never did. I lied for someone else's benefit. "NO! Wait! I did do something to make her scream! I threw my shoe at her! She had perfect reasoning to scream." I practically yelled at Hawk-Eyes.

Hope turned her green gaze towards me. Her eyes were huge with shock at what I had just done. The brown-haired boy did the same only his gaze was more questioning then Hope's. The other children were switching their gazes between Hope and me too. But my gaze was still locked on Hawk-Eyes.

I was pretty sure she wasn't a monster, but I still had a few doubts. She was scary enough to be one. But her eyes weren't . . . evil enough. They just looked like pure meanness. "Is that so?" she sneered at me."Then you don't get dinner today because of the rude show you pulled on this should have been, fun morning and you don't get dinner tomorrow because you lied!" I felt my jaw slackening, getting ready to drop, but I tightened it just before it could fall. I wasn't going to show her how much that punishment got to me. I would pretend that everything was fine, like Dora I would pretend that everything was fun and happy.

But I didn't fool Hawk-Eyes. They way she looked at me proved it. Her whole face was set into smugness." And, to make sure you don't sneak food or are GIVEN any you have to stay in this room until your punishment is over." She added. Great. I was planning to sneak food out of the kitchen, even though I had no clue where it was. Now, thanks to Hawky I would have to go through with this punishment.

With that glorious last statement she twirled out of room and stomped off down the hall. I turned around with my head hanging and sat in the corner I had just slept in. The other kids stood still for a moment. Taking in the scenes that had just happened before them, I assumed, until they finally went out of the room and did whatever crazy thing Hawk-Eyes thought of.

I had only been here a couple of hours and I was already in deep trouble. The possible demigods haven't even said a word to me and I was gonna have to starve for two days. This quest was going great.