Sasha woke up in a car with her head leaning against Nico's shoulder, one of his arms slung lazily around her. She tried to sit up, her joints cracking. She couldn't feel her back properly; it felt numb and foreign. Other then that, she felt just like normal. Questions swirled through her mind, but she shoved them aside; she didn't really feel like talking. Nico and Arya didn't seem too keen on filling the silence either, and Sasha was sure they were all exhausted and unnerved by what had happened at the airport. There was no way that any monsters should have known they would be arriving there. Sasha had the urge to smirk at Arya and say 'yea, everything worked out perfect,' but she suppressed it. After all, everything should have gone perfectly, and it seemed like a pretty bad omen that they hadn't. She let her head lean back down onto Nico, and he tensed but didn't push her away. Arya's eyes darted at them in the rearview mirror before she quickly averted her eyes and turned her attention back to the road. Eventually the car pulled up at a neighborhood of apartment buildings. Each building was located wall to wall with the next, tall enough to contain several moderately sized apartments. It was dark due to the lack of sunlight outside (it had gotten much later then Sasha had realized), but the streetlights were lit and cast everything in sight in an orange hue.
The car engine died and Arya turned to Nico and Sasha. "Come on," she said, opening her car door and hopping out. "I think this is the place."
"'I think,'" Nico echoed, "Very reassuring." He leaned across the brunette girl sitting next to him to open her door and help her out. The cool air nipped at their skin, causing Sasha to shudder slightly. They made their way over to one of the apartments, the daughter of Poseidon thankful that she could walk without having to lean on anyone for support, and Arya began to count the apartment numbers.
"23B….24….25B. This is it. Come on." The brunette daughter of Athena began to climb the stairs, Sasha and Nico following not too far behind.
Sasha was climbing the last stair when Arya called them over.
"Guys! Guys, someone's already been here." She said, her voice expressing her worry clearly as it cracked. Sasha walked up to see the door opened slightly, allowing a slim ray of light through, the hinges creaking as the door swung open easily. There were scratch marks on the ground, and green goo forming a path into the apartment. Sasha placed her hand to her neck, wrapping her hand tightly around the sword as it grew, fitting perfectly into her palm like it was made specifically for her. Then again, it probably was. Sasha didn't really know the specifics. Arya grabbed a typical celestial bronze knife from her belt, prepared to strike if anything popped out and attacked. Nico gripped his infamous stygian black sword in his left hand in a defensive stance. Sasha shuddered at the sight of the weapon; stygian iron was a strong, dangerous material. Actually, she believed that only children of Hades could wield weapons forged from the onyx metal. Instead of reflecting light, the sword seemed to absorb it, and the air surrounding the sword was more submerged in the shadows of night than the rest of the area around the demigods. The trio walked into the main room of the apartment, the door slamming shut behind them. The three looked to each other warily before turning their gazes to dart around the room. The sound of breaking glass slicing through the silence made Sasha jump, her head whipping in the direction of the noise as Nico stalked towards what appeared to be a kitchen, Arya following suit and Sasha taking up the rear. They walked into the unlit kitchen, their footsteps echoing against the tile floor. Arya switched the lights on. There were no monsters occupying the small kitchen, but Matt was tied up to a chair, blood trickling down his forehead, and Orlando was strewn across the floor, knocked unconscious. Arya made a noise sounding much like she was being strangled and ran to her boyfriend while Sasha moved to unbind Matt and Nico continued to keep guard for fear that a monster was hidden somewhere out of sight.
"Matt, what happened?" Sasha asked, her tone stern. Of course, that didn't work. The mortal still babbled jitterish like a baffoon.
"There was…and her dog….only….not a dog, not a dog…pink poodle with a bow…and—"
"Oh give it up, you won't be getting anything useful out of him." Nico said to Sasha, and she rolled her eyes, partially due to Matt's unhelpful rambling, and partially due to Nico's ability to annoy.
"Fine," she said, turning to the son of Hades and handing him the bandages she'd taken out from her pack as she turned to Orlando and Arya. "you deal with him, then." Nico muttered under his breath and carelessly bandaged Matt's cuts as Sasha kneeled down next to her friend and searched through Arya's bag for the nectar.
"There," she said, handing her friend the Godly drink and watching as she held it above the son of Hecate's head and allowed for some to trickle into his mouth, her hand shaking slightly. A few moments later, he coughed and sputtered, his eyes flying open. He struggled and fought to sit up, his eyes crazed. He struggled and fought his girlfriend's grip, and she heaved a frustrated (yet relieved) sigh.
"Orli….Orli, stop. Look at me. Orlando." Arya said, and Orlando turned to her. He stopped struggling and he let his head fall back against the floor softly. His eyes closed, his choppy light brown hair plastered to his face with sweat. She lifted her hand and tucked some of his hair behind his ear, kissing him on the forehead softly.
"What…what happened?" Arya asked, her eyes trailing around the disaster of a kitchen. The lighting was hanging sideways and lopsided by one taught wire, the cupboards were pulled out and some were thrown across the floor, the utensils scattered. Bowls were strewn across the room, many broken, and there was a table flipped upside down over to the other side of the kitchen.
"Some monsters attacked us… one with…it had heads, like rottweilers,and the body of a rottweiler, but the creature had a snake for a tail, I forgot what they're called…"
"How many heads?" Arya asked suddenly, and Orlando raised an eyebrow.
"Two."
"It was an Orthrus." Arya spat immediately, her tone venomous.
"and there was a scythian dracanae with it, Gods, I hate those things the most."
"You're lucky it wasn't anything worse." Arya exhaled, relieved. She cupped one hand around his cheek and ran her thumb along the side of his face.
"But Arya…" Orlando asked, his tone a whisper, "how did they even know we were coming here?"
Arya shook her head slowly, her eyes glistening with what Sasha assumed to be tears. "I dunno." She whispered, moving to patch up Orlando's many injuries. He grabbed her wrist and before Sasha even had a moment to blink they were kissing, Arya straddling the son of Hecate, whom of which had his arms wrapped securely around her torso. Sasha smirked, rolling her eyes. She turned away quickly, however, and stood, moving away from the couple. She turned to see that Nico was fiddling with the zipper of his jacket (the only non-black item the son of Hades wore) and bit her lip, turning away. Matt was passed out on the floor, and Sasha chuckled under her breath. Poor mortal.
"Okay, erm…glad you guys are….happy to see each other, and whatnot, but don't you think we need to deal with Orlando's idiot friend dosing off in the corner?" Nico said, interrupting the [awkward] silence and gesturing to Matt, who was curled up into a ball, unconscious, in the corner.
"Yeah, and I'd kind of like to get out of here as soon as possible. They didn't attack Orlando to kill him, obviously. They wanted to show us that they know where we are, and that they can attack at any time. Let's be prepared when that happens, and not in a..state of inconvience."
Arya stood up, slinging one of Orlando's arms around her neck andfirmly wrapping her hands around his waist to support him.
"Alright, come on. Let's get out of here."
"But what about Matt?" Sasha asked, and the daughter of Athena sighed.
"We can't very well leave him, can we?" Orlando looked at his girlfriend incredulously.
"Even if we could, we wouldn't!"
Sasha sighed and walked across the room to Matt. She tried lifting him up by wrapping her arms under his and around his chest to lift him up, but to no avail. Nico's mouth tightnened into a thin line before he quickly crossed the kitchen. He briskly moved Sasha out of the way and, in one quick movement, slung the unconscious form that was Matt over his shoulder and exited the apartment without another word or glance backwards. Sasha turned to Arya and Orlando, incredulous, but the daughter of Athena simply shrugged and escorted herself and her boyfriend outside the apartment after Nico, Sasha trailing behind, irritated.