Chapter 4

Starlinglover: Thank you so much! That made my day! :)

Inspiration from this chapter came from Starlinglover's story Tomas vs. Ekaterina's. It's really good!

Gaea lifted Ryder up with her powers as if she was standing up, passed out, in the air. She moved her to a wooden chair. Chains from nowhere chained Ryder up to the chair. Her eyes fluttered, but she didn't wake up.

Now, Gaea said.

Hyperion pulled out a whip with shards of glass at the end. Ryder opened her eyes and looked around.

"Why don't we show these demigods and those Cahill's what they're up against?" Hyperion said. "They'll love seeing her get hurt."

Gaea snapped and a video camera appeared in the corner. It was sending a live feed to Ryder's dads study – the one place Ryder told them to stay out of during the tour.

Ian's phone went off. He pulled it out and saw Dan and Amy laying there like a rag doll. Dust was all around and it looked like a pretty small place in the picture. Hamilton looked over and saw it. He closed his eyes and balled his fists up.

"I'm in!" he growled.

"You're going to give in that easy?" Aly said, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. "Why am I not surprised to see that from a Tomas?"

"Aly," Ian growled. "Shut up."

She looked at him as if she offended her. He glared at her.

Piper poured another water bottle on Leo's fists that were on the table. "Leo, we're out of water bottles! Will you stop it?"

He crossed his arms and stared at the floor. His jaw was set. Then he finally talked.

"Alright," he said. "We got one fire freak, one Mr. Zappers, one guy who can turn into animals, jewel girl, muscle guy, pretty girl, and water boy. What a great army."

"Seriously?" Jason said. "Mr. Zappers?"

"Would you rather I call you sparky?"

Jason frowned. "Shut up!"

Ian stared at the picture, well mostly at Amy. "I'm in too."

"Ok, add pretty boy to that list too," Leo said sarcastically.

Jonah was really quite. He was staring at Piper. Jason was getting annoyed with him. If Ryder would've been here, she would've snapped in Jonah's face and would've said something sarcastic. Noise came from Ryder's dads study. Aly moved to head up there when Sinead jumped in front of her.

"That's Ryder's dads study," Sinead said panicky. "You guys haven't seen Ryder mad. You've just seen her aggravated!"

"Come on, how bad can it be?" Aly said, stepping around Sinead.

When Aly opened the door, she said, "Uh, guys? You might want to come see this!"

"What is it?" Sinead asked. "A dead body? Because that wouldn't surprise me!"

"A video."

Jeeves stepped out of the kitchen and he frowned. He didn't say anything, but he kept watching them as they all sprinted up the stairs.

As they all sat down (well, everyone except Leo, Ian, and Hamilton), Aly played the video.

Ryder was tied to the chair, completely conscious, screaming cuss words at Hyperion that all of the people in the study were surprised she knew. Hyperion brought his whip back and whipped her across the face. The whip had glass and metal spikes on the end. Her cheek had a deep gash on the side.

Ryder winced, but she didn't scream. Her eyes closed shut.

"She won't cry," Sinead said.

"How do you know?" Jonah said.

"Because when she was seven and I pushed her down a set of stairs with a broken leg."

Everyone looked at her.

"What? You should know I was a mean kid!"

Ryder glared at Hyperion and tried to lung, but the chains pulled her back, wrapped around her neck and began choking her. She was staring at Hyperion as he stepped towards her. He whipped her side and she let out a scream. Her green shirt tore and her skin ripped like a piñata. Blood poured out.

Leo looked away with his eyes closed.

Ryder began screaming death threats in Greek, even with the chain around her neck.

"What did she say?" Hamilton asked.

Percy shook his head. "You don't want to know."

Atticus ran into the room just as they whipped Ryder another time. He froze and his eyes got scared.

"What are they doing to her?" he asked, trembling.

Piper and Sinead told him to come sit in between them on the couch. When he did, the two girls didn't see his smirk. Frank and Jason looked at him and smiled.

"No wonder he's so smart!" Jason said.

The girls gave him a confused look, but a guy knew what they were talking about.

"Ryder, stop screaming," Hyperion said. "You're going to hurt your voice!"

"Just like I'm going to hurt your damn face!" she hissed back.

He slapped her across the face right on the place where he whipped her first. She screamed again. Now, she was mad. Her face got red, her fists clenched, and she began speaking in some foreign tongue.

"Ich werde dich wie einen Fisch ausnehmen, zünde deine Leiche in Brand, dann füttern sie auf ein Rudel Wölfe, die seit Jahren nicht mehr gefüttert wurden!" she muttered.

"Serious death threats!" Ian said.

"You can say that again," Atticus said.

"What did she say?" Hamilton asked again.

"Something about feed his dead body to a pack of wolves after she lights it on fire and guts him like a fish," Ian said, trying to get that gruesome sight out of his head.

Hyperion looked at the camera and smirked. The screen went black and white.

"LEO STOP CATCHING ON FIRE!" Piper yelled.

When they looked back, Leo's hands were on fire. They disappeared and his face turned red with embarrassment. "Oops."