"Here you go Lucy, tell your mom I said hi," I said as a handed my neighbor's 7-year old daughter a pot of pink petunias.
Her cheeks were flushed from the chilly air. This made her resemble a porcelain doll with olive skin and big brown eyes as she skippedout of my shop, her light brown pigtails swaying in the February wind.
Her and her mother, Diana, were regulars at my flower shop and came about every other week. Her daughter would often come alone because of Diana's late shifts at the hospital. Diana never asked me, but every time Lucy skipped out of my shop,I would makesure
she got to her front door safely, since her apartment was right next to my shop. I don't know what she does with all ofher flowers, but I'm guessing she takes them tothe hospital to cheer up patients.
When the war with Gaea ended, the first few weeks were quiet with few monsters. Over time, the monster attacks became more frequent to the point where we were on constant watch for signs of The Mist.
Leo became nervous of me staying in the flower shop alone, but I insisted that I would be fine and we compromised on a curfew.
We were to meet at 7 pm every day at my flower shop, but today, Leo was half an hour late. I waited for him patiently, checking the clock every 5 minutes. I assumed he had forgotten about the curfew, since we established it just last week.
An hour later, I decided to call his mechanic shop, but the phone kept saying the line was disconnected.
At last, I decided to go to see if he was okay. I caught a taxi and headed toward Broadway Park. When I arrived at his shop, I saw immediately that it was trashed. Tables were flipped over with blueprints scatteredon the ground andcar parts
/were broken into pieces next to the shelf where it was once nicely organized.
I felt a hard shove from behind me and hitmy head.
I woke up in a boat filled with monsters. They walked past me as if I were invisible. Whoever put me here clearly didn't want me to escape because there were bars along the portholes of the boat. The walls enclosed me in atight space with asmall
bed that you would find in a jail cell of a prison. The closest to an escape hatch was a small slit in the wall with a food tray and a note that read "EAT."
I ignored the command and stubbornly sat down on the hard bed. There was a loud thump behind me and I jumped. There was a man around 40 years old standing behind me. He took my arm and yanked me up a rope ladder that just fell fromthe ceiling.
The next thing I remembered was waking up in a claustrophobic van with metal bars separating me from the driver. I recognized his face as the man who had yanked me up the rope ladder on the boat.
The van died randomly and I thanked the gods for my astonishing luck. The man got out and opened his door, but my luck had run out and he remembered to keep my door locked. I desperately hit my elbow against the window until it shattered. A sharppain
ran up my arm, but I ignored it and darted into the woods. Something about the giant redwood trees seemed familiar, but I didn't have time to figure out whybecause the man shouted "Get her!" So I ran.
Something was on my tail, but I feared that if I looked back it would catch up to me, so I blindly ran through the woods.
After about 5 minutes of running, I convinced myself that I lost the thing that was chasing me. I soon realized where I was. Camp Half-Blood. A twig snapped behind me and a Hellhound pounced. I leaped out of the way, but it grabbed myleg with itspaw.
I desperately ran for the boundaries of Camp Half Blood and leapt to safety. Where I shattered the glass with my elbow and the Hellhound scratched me, I was a bloody mess.
I felt my face get hot and knew the tears were about to come. Leo was missing. The same people that captured him were after me. Hadn't we been through enough? This wasn't fair.
Hot tears spilled down my cheeks.
My tears stopped when theHellhound noticed that I was safe in the boundaries, but something was wrong. Besides the giant dog that just tried to kill me. Just then I realized the collar around the whimpering dog's neck and thewhip marks streakedacross
its back. I squinted my eyes to see what the collar said,"PROPERTY OF THE RIDERS." Black inchor spilled down the creature's back. The man inthe claustrophobic van was on top of the monster. There was something abouthis posture asif
he owned Camp Half Blood. Owned me thatmade me feel uneasy. The monster suddenly jerked causing the man to temporarily lose his balance. In this time, the Hellhound made a run for it, but it was too late. The man caught up to it with inhuman
/like speed and slayed the creature. The only thing to prove that the Hellhound ever existed was a collar that lay on the floor where the monster once was. For reasons unknown, I grabbedthe collar while the man wasn't looking andleapt,
/once again into the boundaries of Camp Half Blood.
I blacked out from the pain.