"And you are…?" Luke said.
I blinked a couple of times. "Uh, what?"
"Your name" Luke said impatiently. "Who are you?"
"Thalia," I answered. "I'm Thalia."
"Just Thalia?"
"Yup."
"You a demigod?"
"Yup."
"Not gonna elaborate?"
"Nope"
"Okay." He put his hands into his pocket and looked around.
"Are you a demigod?" I asked him.
"Uh huh." He held out his hand Son of Hermes.
"Cool." I shook his hand. "Uh, yeah. My dad's a god too."
"Do you know which god?"
"Um, yeah"
"Not going to tell me?"
"Uh, no."
He just nodded. I can't tell him who my dad is. I don't know
this guy.
"I gotta go. See you around." I said awkwardly. I really had no plans. I just needed time to think.
"Sure." He replied. "See you."
I sat down. Alone with my thoughts. One hand, it would be useful too have a demigod friend. But then again, I
can't trust him.
The next day, I saw him again. I was at the subway, using
the restroom. When I came out, guess who was huddled at
the corner? If you guessed Luke then, ding ding ding, we have
a winner.
"Luke?" I walked over to him.
"Thalia! What are you doing here?"
"Uh," Think ,Thalia, think! "Bathroom."
Nice answer.
"Oh, ok." Luke said, confused.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, I'm a runaway. I move a lot and I sleep in pretty
weird places." He said, gesturing to the corner.
"I'm a runaway too." I blurted out.
"I kind of guessed that already." Luke smiled.
"What made it obvious?"
"Honestly? You going to the subway for the restroom."
Luke laughed.
I decided to trust this guy. He did save my life.
"Do you have a place to stay for the night?"
"Not really."
"I know a place we can stay in." I said, thinking of that old
vacation house.
"Cool," he said, smiling.
We spent the whole day like tourists. Me, showing him
around. Turns out, he's been running for a while already. We
arrived at the vacation house pretty late.
"Welcome to the best hangout spot ever." I said opening the door.
"Wow," Luke said, looking around. "Nice!"
It was pretty cool, despite the dust. All the furniture was still there,
and weirdly, the electricity and plumbing still worked. And best of all, a
fireplace, perfect for a chilly night like this one.
We built a fire and sat there letting the fire heat us up. "So, um, where
are you from?" I asked him. The silence here was a bit too uncomfortable for my taste.
"Connecticut. You?"
"California"
"How long have you been running away?" he asked me.
"Since I was ten." I replied. "How about you? Why'd you run away?"
"I left home at eight." He hesitated before continuing. "My dad left us years ago. A
year after I was born, my mom tried becoming the Oracle. They said she had a gift of
sight. She could see through the Mist better than most mortals.
"Mist?"
"Yeah. The Mist is very powerful. It makes it harder for mortals to see monsters and
stuff. I don't know much about it though."
"Oh, so that's why only I saw the monsters." I said "I thought it was because I was
crazy or something. Well go on. What happened to your mom?"
"She got crazy. She would seem normal at first. But she just loses it sometimes.
She would grab me by my shoulders. Her eyes would glow green. And she would say
horrible stuff about my 'future'. It was terrifying."
"Wow," I said. "And I thought I had problems"
"How about you?" Luke asked me. "Why did you runaway?"
I told him. Everything. Well, almost everything. I omitted the part about Jason, my baby
brother. It was just too painful.
"So," Luke said. "Where'd you get your shield?"
"You mean Aegis? My dad gave it too me." I told him. "Where'd you get the sword? You
know, that sword that you used to shish kebab those lion monsters."
"Haha, yeah it does a pretty good job of slicing sphinxes. Anyway, I stole it from my dad."
He replied, pulling out a bronze knife, his sword and a spear." I managed to swipe some
weapons and some ambrosia and nectar from my dad before he left." He handed me the spear.
"Here, you'll need one to defend yourself."
"You're giving me this?" I said, amazed. "But you hardly know me. We just met. How come
you trust me already?"
"Well, I had a dream. A vision." Luke blushed. "That I would find help in the daughter of lightning."
There it was again. Silence.
"Uh, thanks for the spear." I said awkwardly. He nodded. Then he lay down and went to sleep.
And for the first time in my life, I had good luck to thank the gods for.
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