JUSTIN

Well, Sandy just passed me the notebook so I guess it's my turn. Though, I don't really know why you guys want to hear my story. I mean, what's the point to this again? If Gaia wakes up, then we're all fried either way. Oh well, I'll just get it over with.

When I woke up, I felt like a train had slammed into my ribs. It was hard to move, and I thought it was just me until I realized how heavily bandaged my entire upper body was. Blood stained the bandages, but the pressure was keeping the ruby liquid at bay.

I looked around, which didn't really help since I had no idea where I was. It was dark; very dark. I was surrounded by black, actually. The only light came from three torches stuck into the nearby wall. I was laying on the cold floor, with my backpack tucked underneath my head like a pillow. My rain jacket was laid over my like a blanket.

"Where am I?" I managed to ask, though to whom I was not sure. I didn't see anyone in the room except for a few rats sleeping on the floor.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure where we are," a familiar voice called from the darkness under the stone doorway. Rose stepped out of the shadows, except she looked different. Her face was covered with soot and golden sparkles. Blood covered much of her pink shirt, and her black hair was knotted and hastily tied up in a ponytail. At her side was a bronze dagger, tucked into the belt of her pants. "And I can't find a way out, either."

She walked over to him and smiled. "I'm glad you're finally awake. For a while I wasn't sure you were going to make it."

"Well then I'm glad I'm awake, too. What happened to me? And how did we get here? Last thing I remember was looking for Coach Charleston in the gym."

Rose told me everything. As she talked, the images of Lamia started to come back to me. A woman coming up behind me. The pain as she sliced by body like cheese. And how she bit me. It was weird; I was being told a story of monsters and myths, but I believed it very quickly. Most of it didn't even surprise me. I guess the proof was in the scars on my stomach, but still.

Then I realized. "Wait... You shouldn't be near me! I've been bitten by a vampire; I'll turn into one of them!"

"Oh please. This isn't one of your 40's horror films, Justin. Lamia isn't a vampire; she's a cannibal. So unless you suddenly want to switch morals, you should be good to go."

"That still doesn't answer the question of were we are."

Rose looked around, and I could see the tiredness in her eyes. How long had I been out? And what time was it now? For all I knew it could be midnight, three months after the last day of school.

"I think I figured a bit of that out. This may be Lamia's lair; where she sleeps at night and such. Why else would she shadow-travel here? But, if I had to guess, the Queen of Libya would want to keep her lair close to home."

"So you mean-"

"Yeah. If I'm correct, and I'm really hoping I'm not, we could be in Libya right now. But it doesn't matter. I've already explored every inch of this place. There is no way to the surface."

I tried to move but, as soon as I tried, scorching pain seared up and down my chest. I cringed, then stopped moving. "Am I still bleeding?"

Rose nodded her head. "We need a hospital, but I don't know what else to do." Even in the dim light, I could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were red.

"Don't worry about me; I'll be fine," I said, forcing on a brave face. "Let's just get the hell out of here, okay?"

"Okay."

"Help me up, please." She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. Pain rushed up and down my body, and I winced. I had to lean most of my body weight onto Rose just to stand, but she didn't seem to mind.

"So, here is what's weird," Rose said as we began walking around the room. She grabbed a torch from the wall and held it above her head like in one of those old adventure movies. "When we were in the gym, I couldn't tell you were hurt. You just looked passed out, you know? But as soon as I killed Lamia, all your wounds and blood came into view."

"You couldn't see my... weird." I didn't really know how to process this. My brain had become fuzzy from blood loss and it hurt to try and think.

"It's called Mist, little humans," a voice in the darkness boomed.

Immediately, Rose's hand flew to her dagger. "Who's there?"

"I am Mormo. And you must the little brats that killed my friend, Lamia," the voice hissed.

"Great," I heard Rose mutter. "Another vampire."

I decided I'd never watch another vampire movie. Even if my little sister Ella begged me to watch Twilight (though I'm not really sure if they count as vampires).

Mormo appeared from the same way Rose had come in. He was short, scrawny and bald. Wisps of white hair poked out of his grey skin. He wore a red sweater vest and tan dress pants, like a retired old man. Fangs hung out of his mouth like a saber-toothed tiger, and his eyes glowed a burning red. Mormo's face gave off so much hatred that it was hard to look at it. That and he was butt-ugly.

Rose raised her dagger (now I'm wondering where she got such a thing) and said, "We killed her only out of self defense. We're... sorry about that. But, please, we are a long way from home and very confused. How do we get out of here?"

Mormo scoffed. "Your friend should be able to tell you that. It seems he can see through the Mist. But it doesn't matter. Because I'm going to feast on your bones like the bad children you are."

I looked at Rose, but even in the dim light of the torch I saw she was terrified. She couldn't carry me, and hold the torch and fight with the dagger. I told her to drop me. Rose paused, then nodded. "Find the way out," she whispered. "I'll deal with Mr. Rogers over here."

When she let go of her support, I almost fell over. I was running out of time before the blood loss killed me. But Mormo was totally focused on us. There was no way around him without a distraction.

It's not everyday a guy has a best friend like Rose. And I'm pretty sure without her I wouldn't be alive. That girl drew her dagger like a badass and raised it over her head. She charged, slashing and cutting at any opening she could. I'd say she looked like a ninja, except I honestly don't think she ever held a blade in her life. So a lot of it was just sprawled motion. But still, she had major guts to fly into battle mode like that.

At least for now, Mormo was too preoccupied with my spastic friend to give me a second glance. I stumbled to the wall and clung to it for support. Moving as fast as my wounded body would take me, which is to say not fast at all, I dragged myself down the corridor. It was so dark in here I couldn't see two feet in front of me. I held onto the wall and used it to find my way. Behind me, I could here the clashing and yelling of a battle.

I got to another room, one with a single square tile in the roof. Light was coming in just around the edges, and I hoped it was a trap door leading out. More light was seeping into this room, and I could see the outlines of objects. A fountain sat in the middle of the room, but no water came out. All I smelt was... oh, God. The fountain was spewing blood. But what else should I expect from a cannibal's lair?

The top of the fountain looked like it was close enough to the ceiling to reach, but I couldn't be sure. And I certainly couldn't climb in my condition. Plus, if I slipped into the fountain, who knows how many diseases I could get?

I inched away from the wall and tried walking on my own. I didn't realize something was rising out of the fountain until it was too late. Skeletons coated in think blood climbed out, one after another. They seemed confused at first, wondering why they were there. And then they spotted me. I had to assume that all these skeletons were the past victims of Lamia. According to Rose, the vampire queen had been around for 3000 years. There would be a lot more skeletons where these came from.

I waved at them, forcing on another brave smile. "H-hi," I tried to sound friendly, but it came out as a whimper. "You must be the protectors of this lair."

The skeletons chattered an agreement. Some off them had swords, some had shields (which was weird since Lamia only preyed on children). Some had teddy bears and dolls.

"I'm assuming Lamia killed you?" Another chatter of agreement. "Then I have good news. My friend and I recently killed Lamia, so you're free to go."

The skeletons stopped advancing and looked at one another. Some started climbing back into the fountain. Others were not so easily convinced. "I don't exactly have proof we killed her, but my friend drove her dagger through Lamia's heart right in that chamber over there." I pointed and the skeleton's eyeless sockets followed my finger. "She exploded in a cloud of gold sparkles." The skeletons seemed satisfied with this. "Actually, the girl who set you free is in trouble at the moment. Maybe, as a repayment, you could help her kill Mormo?"

At the name Mormo, the skeleton children went into a frenzy. I assumed Mormo's favorite dish was also children. The kids charged, raising their swords and teddy bears for battle. I ducked, but they ran passed me down the corridor. Only one skeleton remained, waiting for orders.

"Right. Could you help me open that trap door?"

The skeleton wore a pink night gown and grey slippers. I assumed she couldn't be more then eight; which was my sisters age. The thought sent shivers down my spine, but the skeleton girl didn't seem to mind. She pushed me up the fountain and, when I couldn't reach the trap door, detached her arm and handed it to me.

"Uh, thanks for the hand." I used it to push what I though was a door (it was really a heavy loose tile) out of the way. Light streamed in so fast I had to shut my eyes. "Thanks-" I turned, but she was gone. I did see someone though. Rose was climbing up the fountain behind me. Together, we pushed ourselves to the surface world.

As far as I knew, Rose had never been wrong about anything. That's what I saw her as; the smart friend with all the answers. But we were not in Libya. Not even close. No, for some reason the old cannibal queen of Libya held her HQ under a castle in Scotland. When we climbed up, we were almost trampled underfoot by tourists. Luckily no one payed any attention to us; maybe there was more of that mist stuff Mormo mentioned. So we didn't get in trouble for going into secret vampire catacombs that shouldn't exist under old Scottish castles.

We placed the tile back over the opening and Rose gasped. "It just melted back into the floor!"

I didn't get what she was saying. I could still clearly see a black tile surrounded by stone. But I didn't question her. We had both been through enough today without me confusing Rose.

There weren't any clocks around, but the night was just getting dark now. I remember my dad saying something about Scotland being five hours ahead of us when he went on a business trip here. He told about the two days he took just to look at the old castles (my dad was a history buff). He showed me a lot of pictures, but there were just so many castles that looked exactly the same, I couldn't tell which one this was.

I was wearing my raincoat over the bandages so no one could tell I was bleeding to death. Wouldn't want to make a scene. We followed a group of tourists that were just finishing up their tour when someone yelled through a microphone, "Daytime tours for Auchen Castle ending in ten minutes! Ghost tour about to begin!"

I don't think my dad ever visited Auchen, so it didn't ring any bells. But I felt almost certain this ghost your constituted children ghosts. Hopefully the tourists won't be too disappointed when nothing appears. According to Rose, the skeleton children dog-piled Mormo until he collapsed into dust, then crumbled to dusk themselves. I hoped their spirits had finally found peace, but I wasn't entirely sure how the afterlife worked for Greek monsters. I wasn't sure how the world itself worked anymore.

"First things first, we both get fixed up at the hospital. Then we sit down and try to figure out exactly what is going on with our Latin textbooks coming to life," I said as we exited the castle. I was still leaning on Rose, but for some reason I felt stronger then I did before. My headache was gone and I could see straight again.

"Not Latin, you dolt. Latin would be the Roman gods. These are Greek."

"What, you think that even though there are Greek gods, there can't be Roman too?"

She was quiet for a moment. "I suppose that's true. But then again, I don't think I understand anything that's going on right now."

It was getting dark very quickly, and I didn't want to stay and find out what kind of ghouls came around here at night. We followed the tourists onto a bus that was headed for Beattock.

I grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her aside before she could climb on.

"What?"

I nodded my head towards a police offi- I mean a constable. "Why don't we just tell him the situation and have us driven to the hospital?"

"Tell him what situation? That we shadow traveled here on the back of a cannibal and killed two vampires and an army of undead children? I don't think he'll believe us."

I rolled my eyes and talked up to the officer. "Excuse me, sir. I was just wondering if you could help us? We've been trying to find people for a fairly long time. You see, we just came out of those woods over there. We've been lost and lets just say we had some bad luck with the wildlife." For good measure, I unzipped my jacket and showed him the bloody bandages. "Could you maybe take my sister and I to the hospital?" I didn't have to look at Rose to know she shot me a glance at "sister." But it seemed the most believable story.

At first, the constable looked confused. Then he looked at Rose and saw just how beaten up she was, too. He nodded. "A'right, son. Me car 's jus' o'er the hill." We climbed quickly and jumped in the car. "Yu two don't seem ta be from a'ound here."

"Yeah; we're tourists," I said. "From America."

"We wondered off from our group," Rose added. "Somehow ended up here. We met a few animals that didn't seem too happy to see us."

"An' were are yer parents?"

"Well-" Rose cut me off.

"It's just us, sir. It was our first time going to a country alone, you see. Our parents are back in America; they're too busy with work to come with us on vacation anymore."

The constable looked bewildered that any good parent would let their child go to a different country alone. But he accepted the story nonetheless.

"C-could you hurry up, please? It's getting hard to breath," I said, my chest now feeling like boulders were dropped on it.

"Right," the man said, and he turned on his sirens. "Time ta get you to ta safety."

I had to admit, being surrounded by people with Scottish accents would have been awesome. The first girl I ever had a crush on was a girl who just moved from Scotland. And I'm pretty sure I only liked her for her voice. But when people are yelling in your ear, the affection sort of fades. Doctors were rushing in and out, trying to find an open ER for me. I was on a gurney, with an oxygen mask over my mouth. I was put on oxygen support because apparently one of my lungs wasn't in great shape. And I was still loosing a lot of blood; more then I had realized. The only reason why I felt stronger was the adrenaline pumping through my body. Now all that was gone, and I was probably going to die.

But Rose was okay, so that was good. She only had to get three stitches above her eye and eight on her left arm. But she was alive.

They finally took me into a room. I felt a sting as am IV was shoved into my arm. Red liquid began pouring into my body. The doctors were feverishly cutting away at the makeshift bandages. One nurse actually gasped when he saw my wounds. I hoped it really wasn't a big deal, but apparently the wounds were worse then they thought. The last thing I wanted was to be put to sleep again; to leave Rose alone in case of another bad guy ambush. But when they shoved that little needle into my arm, I could feel my consciousness slipping. I fell into a deep sleep, where a familiar face met mine.

Danny the school councilor was standing in the darkness, looking at her watch and tapping her foot impatiently. When she say me, she smiled.

"Dang, man. I've been asleep for an hour already. It's about time you showed up."

"Um... sorry?"

"Nah, it's ok. As long as you're alive. You are alive, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure for how long. The doctors say my wounds are pretty bad."

"Doctors? You're at a hospital?" Her voice automatically became concerned.

"Yes. I was dying, remember? But, how are we talking like this? Am I really talking to you?"

"Yeah. It's one of my gifts as a demigod. Controlling my dreams and such. I'll tell Sandy you two are alive. She'll be glad to hear that."

My heart skipped a beat at the mention of Sandy; or maybe my body was just going into cardiac arrest. It was weird, but I was very aware I was dreaming. I'd never lucid dreamed before, and I didn't like it. "Is she alright? Is she with you?"

"Don't worry, Sandy is safe at camp with me. We're going to find you and get you home. I promise."

"We were just going to call my dad and get a plane ticket home."

Danny shook her head. "Don't fly. It's too dangerous. Even though you two aren't half bloods, Rose caught the gods attention by fighting Lamia and, I assume, winning."

"We fought some guy named Mormo, too. And a lot of skeleton children."

Danny cursed under her breath. "Hecate won't be happy about that. Those were two of her most valued minions. I wouldn't risk flying; too many winged creatures could knock you out of the sky. Just lay low for a while. We'll find you two. I'm going to ask for a prophecy from the Oracle tonight, then we can Iris message."

"Is that like and IM thing?"

She shook her head. "We'll contact you. You'll know it when you see it. Do you know where you are?"

"Somewhere in Scotland."

She cursed again. "That makes things fairly difficult. But we'll find you. Uh oh... looks like Chad is trying to wake me up. Must be time to bring Sandy to the Big House. Talk to you later, kid."

Her image shimmered and disappeared. I was left alone in my own black dream; still vividly aware I was not awake. It was probably the most unsettling sleep I've ever had.