DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Percy's POV

"Whyyyyy?" part of me asked, but I knew why. It was my mom's birthday and it was the first actual adventure since last year. I sat up eagerly and looked at my alarm clock. It was 3:00 a.m. I had to leave now if I didn't want my mom to notice I was gone. I got out of my improvised room and walked into a narrow hallway. The walls were the usual, paint slowly chipping off, faded colors and the smell of rotten moldy wood. I walked inside the maintenance room which was one of our closets. There I found a flash light, some batteries, a rope, some cloth and a first aid kit. I shoved it all in my backpack and walked through the machinery room into the kitchen. I got out a large, insanely sharp cooking knife, just in case, a water bottle and a can of peaches. The kitchen is also our main entrance so I unlocked our door took a deep breath and walked into the open. You might be thinking I am an idiot for walking into a monster-infested forest night, in the dark and alone. First of all this isn't something I do often. Second of all I have a well developed theory; "If your enemy is in sight/range than so are you". Then you say: And how does that prove your point? Well, if I can't see any thing than nor can anyone else. I didn't feel less scared but I set out with my senses at 110%.

I walked at a slow but constant pace erasing my tacks as I went. It took about half an hour to get a mile away until I finally gave up and started walking normally. The library was about 10 miles from where I was, so it would probably take me just over 2 hour to get there. I walked in absolute silence for a while, occasionally crouching and sprinting to different places whenever I felt company. Of course not because I was scared it was just the safe thing to do.
As I walking through the city, I started to think about my life, and what I really wanted. Surely a few books wouldn't be enough to cheer my mom out of our situation. I thought about how we barely survived, always alert, scared and weak. The monsters that attacked our house were never organized or constant. They, whoever that is, probably the greater force were focused on something else, proving that I was insignificant. I was getting frustrated and reckless, making more noise as I walked through the forest. I needed to change this world. I had been reading about a man called Martin Luther King Jr. who said something interesting.
He said "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent." That was going to be an impossible stunt to pull. He got the privilege to say "we", while I was alone, just "me".

The bush on my right shook violently, and it brought me right out of my thoughts.
"Dang" I muttered. I backed up, crouched and raised my arms ready to roll out of the way.
"Screech!¡!" My hand raced onto my ears and the beast flew at me. While I was a little bit off balance I managed to roll out of the way. It did a 180 degree spin and came at me with amazing speed. This time I didn't have enough time to dodge; it closed in and planted its teeth an inch into my right arm. With my left arm I hit it, still not completely sure what it was, full force on the head and shook its teeth out of my arm. It backed away on the ground while I checked my wounded arm, which was seriously hurting.

There was a small oval shaped mouth bite, I panicked and looked at my attacker for the first time. It had a body of a bird slightly bigger than a chicken's, long silky wings, and a woman's head. A harpy, I remembered learning with my mom, but something wasn't right harpies were famous for traveling in packs. I looked at my enemy again. It looked dazed, but its eyes were completely black. The eyes mirrored the lust that the harpy must have been feeling. Then I understood the situation. There were no reinforcements; this monster was barley rational and not even sane: wild. I charged the stupid monster but she rose 50 feet in the air quicker than I thought possible. As she hovered, she looked me in the eyes before she dove. Her mouth was wide open and before she impaled herself into me I reached out. We hit the dirt with my hands in her mouth and her talons scratching at my chest. We rolled on the floor until I was finally able to trap her in my legs. Blood trickled down my arm and I figured I had forty second before my fingers got completely sawed off. I pulled as hard as I could; I ignored the pain, and saw her jaw stretching a bit too far, then SNAP! Her mouth hung limply on her face as she started disintegrating.

I knelt, gasping for air, while I watched the monster turn into a pile of useless ash. I flung my backpack off my shoulder and pulled out the first aid kit. Right now, you might be thinking "Well, Perce why didn't you pull out that knife you packed" well it turns out that normal steel doesn't work on monsters and I learnt that the hard way. I looked down at my chest and my shirt was torn to pieces. While my shirt once white it was now dark red. I took out an antiseptic ointment and dabbed it all over my chest and hands. The wounds on my chest weren't as bad as I expected, aside from the blood loss it was nothing serious. My fingers though were half sawn off and I could barely move them. I wrapped myself up, did a halfhearted clean up job, packed and headed off towards the library.

As I walked I took out my water bottle, drank about half of it, then screwed the cap back on. I put it away because I knew I would need it for the way back, and that was okay because now I was changed, feeling fresh and full of energy. I don't know why water does that to me but I am not complaining, my chest stopped bleeding and my hands no longer hurt as much. I read somewhere that water was the elixir of life but it doesn't seem to have the same effect on my mom.

It was still dark so I thought about using my flashlight but it might alert more monsters that I snooping around in their territory, so I let it go and kept walking in the dark. The trees became fewer and soon I was in the surrounded by hundreds of concrete buildings.

"Should be around here somewhere…" I thought aloud. I checked the entrances of the buildings around me, deciphering the dusty names in the dark. Finally I found it. It was a large square, gray, four story building. The door creaked as I opened it, I should have realized it was weird that the door happened to be unlocked but didn't, so I almost carelessly walked in to the spooky dark library. I turned on my flashlight as soon as I closed the door behind me and did a quick check for monsters careful not to point the light out the windows. Dust hung in the air making the rays of light visible, though after a brief check I found nothing suspicious. All I saw were piles and piles of books, all were super dusty but books are books regardless. Even though this place was scary I felt a sudden surge of pride and felt that the day was already turning out to be great. My mom would be on a happiness high when I would later bring a pile of books along with a sliver of hope. The thought made me smirk.

The place was huge there was a second floor balcony, stairs that were meant for you to sit on and a blockbuster on the third and fourth floor. It probably took me about and hour and a half to find the right books. I was already starting to get tired so I went up to the third floor, sat down and put my back against the inside banister while simultaneously laying my back pack at my side. I sat back against railing above a high celling room for a minute and sighed before reaching for my backpack searching for food. I pulled out the can of peaches and opened it with the cooking knife. I pulled out a peach and ate it a bite at a time savoring the sweat flavor. I was licking my fingers when a cold female voice rung out in the darkness and sent shivers down my spine.

"Seems like I finally found you" She said.

Right then my heart stopped, my whole body shook and I accidently bit my finger really hard.

I felt the salty taste of blood from my finger in my mouth as I ordered myself to calm down. I was lost for words when I saw her. She was probably eighteen or nineteen, had long dark hair, and a perfect body, but that's not what got my attention. She was upside-down, hair falling towards the floor. The situation was defiantly weird and awkward as she stood, or is it hung?, there looking at me with calculating and very, very dark blue eyes.

"I h-have no idea w-what you mean" I awkwardly stuttered revealing my lack of composure. I took a long deep breath, trying to exhale all my fear and confusion in the process. I slowly stood up meeting her gaze, with difficulty, head on keeping my face emotionless.

She completely ignored my comment and looked me up-and-down, or should I say down-and-up, for the last time before two large silver hunting knives appeared at her side. My heart skipped a beat for the tenth time that day and my throat went dangerously dry. I tried to say something but either she didn't hear me or the words didn't make it out of my mouth. The beautiful girl with really scary weapons did a weird summersault like maneuver and landed right-side-up a few yards in front of me. My damaged fingers slipped around a strap on my backpack while my eyes were still on her. The girl had her game face on, business was the word that came to my mind when I saw her expression, but in her eyes I saw a pinch of regret most likely pity but it was so fast I thought I imagined it. Without any following verbal exchange she charged.

I shone my flashlight in her face trying to blind her right before she swung at me. Fortunately she missed, unfortunately I was falling. I made a quick gamble and jumped over the banister, I was on the third floor which was high but the fall took a lot longer than I expected. The really bad thing about my falling situation was that I had jumped too quickly for my own good and was falling in a really awkward position. I hit the building's cold marble floor with my right shoulder first. The shock coursed through my body and the pain started to cause blackouts in my vision. I let out an agonizing yell and new instantly that my arm was dislocated or broken if not both. If that wasn't bad enough after my shoulder hit the floor my head hit the floor… hard. The flashlight in my hand had skidded across the floor and stooped at the foot of a grown man who was more than a few yards away from me. I could barely make out his features with a broken arm and a likely concussion but I made note of his fancy suit and long blonde hair that was held back in a pony tail. I was almost unconscious but not quite, I made it to my feet and aside from sore they seemed fine. "Fine" was more than enough to get me out of there, and my limp slowly turned into a jog that turned into an all out sprint. I was undoubtedly running for my life and with all the adrenalin in my veins that was the best motivation I could have gotten anytime to have gotten me out of there.

I will be updating around once a day for the first 5 or six chapters since I already have a good part of the written, but feel free to review and make comment so I can change stuff if necessary.

Can anyone predict what's going to happen?