Travis

I burst through the metal doors of the gym, Connor, who was in the middle of attempting to skip class at his locker when I came across him, by my side.

"Katie!" I screamed as Mr. Quilton looked over at and glared in anger. Katie was at the top of a rope hanging from the ceiling – much like the one we had back at camp for exercise. At our entrance Katie laughed – a shrill, insane sound – and jumped from the top of where she hung. I ran forward, adrenaline narrowing exactly where she landed on our former teacher. She proceed to slit his throat, and fall to the ground where Mr. Quilton threw her off. I watched with wide eyes as he screamed and turned into dust.

"Shit." Connor whispered in awe. "Holy Sh-"

Katie, having stood, fell to the ground then. And that's when I noticed the large, gaping cut on her stomach. My blood went cold and I threw myself forward, yelling her name. I pushed myself to her side and turned her face towards mine. Her head lolled to the side and her eyes were closed, her skin felt cold and clammy and was smeared with blood.

"CONNOR!" I yelled, realizing he was already by my side. My hands shook as they gently hovered over her blood soaked clothes and burned skin.

"Travis, you're going to have to pick her up." Connor calmly pulled Katie's knife from her frozen hand.

I nodded and followed Connor's command. He continued, "Get her in the truck. I have to sign her out or they'll call the police and we don't need that. There's some nectar in the glove compartment. I'll meet you in a few minutes – now go"

I gathered her in my arms and ran – no one stopped me in the hallway and if they tried – I didn't stop to listen. Once I reached the truck I set her in the backseat and reached for the glove compartment. I found the small silver canteen and began to drip nectar into her open mouth. I couldn't give her a lot and watched slowly as some of her cuts closed. Some of her most predominant burns smoothed out from the harsh bubbly red. I debated giving her more but decided a hurt Katie was better than no Katie at all.

Connor came out of the school then – holding a few papers to his chest as he ran. I climbed in the front seat and turned the truck on as waited for Connor. My hands shook and clenched them tighter on the steering wheel. Connor jumped in the passenger seat and I immediately revved up the engine and began speeding towards our apartment.

"What'd you say." I asked, without it sound like a question. My voice was too hard, and I tried again, "To convince them to let us take Katie home."

Connor flipped through the papers while casting looks at Katie. "I told them that before school Mr. Quilton asked you and I to meet him in the gym during first period to talk about being new kids and everything. After Katie showed up he offered us some cookies – which Katie had an extreme allergic reaction seeing as Katie's deathly allergic to peanut butter. She stopped breathing – Mr. Quilton panicked and took off and you and I needed to get her to the hospital." Connor stopped looking through the papers for a moment and stared out the window. "They wanted to see her but I managed to convince her that Katie would die if we didn't get her to the hospital in time." I swallowed and tensed up.

Connor peeled a post it off one of the first papers. "We're supposed to call the office once we get her to the 'hospital' and I got her home number to call later on. I told the lady working there that you and I were family friends and her parents would better hear it from us, so they won't be calling either of her parents. We'll call later and tell them that she's at a sleepover or something. I don't know."

Connor's voice dropped at the end, and he held the silver canteen in his hands tightly.

"Katie's not allergic to peanut butter." I whispered as a sped through a red light. I prayed to my father.

"I'm sorry," Connor spat, "that I couldn't find a reason for Mr. Quilton to be serving fucking shellfish to his students at 8 in the morning."

I ignored him, and neither of us said anything until he arrived at our apartment building.

Connor jumped out as soon as we pulled up and grabbed Katie. I ran ahead and pushed for an elevator that was – miraculously – already there. I'm not sure what the mortal bellman saw but clearly not what I saw: My bloody girlfriend bleeding to death who I also think is suffering from a concussion being held in my brother's arms. We waited the small wait in the elevator until we reached the third floor. Finally, the elevator dinged and we ran to our door. I jammed the key in and turned to Connor to take Katie in my arms. Her head fell against my shoulder, but the wound on her stomach had mostly stopped bleeding. I made a beeline towards my room and set her down on my bed. I motioned for Connor to stay with her as he evened out a small slice of Ambrosia.

I ran into the kitchen looking for a spare rag, I tried to remember everything that the Apollo kids tired to pound into my head about quick first aid and healing, and I tried to think about that one time I got a nasty cut on my arm and what did they do to it? I didn't have time to think about that. I couldn't take her to a hospital, could I call camp? I grabbed a towel and quickly got it wet, running back to my room.

Cleaning off Katie Gardner's dried blood while she's unconscious broke me a little. I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat and stood before grabbing Connor's wrist and steering him towards the bathroom. With the help of a mirror and a strong flashlight, a rainbow formed under the strong showerhead. As Connor held the flashlight in place I took a deep breath, and tossed a Drachma in.

"CHIRON at CAMP HALF-BLOOD" I yelled, carefully.

A scene appeared in the mist, it showing Chiron, Dionysus, and a very scared looking satyr playing pinochle around a table, they hadn't noticed me until I shouted.

"Chiron!" My voice shook on the two syllable word.

They all looked at me in surprise, and I couldn't imagine what I looked like. With Katie's blood smeared all over my T-shirt and arms, flakes of the dried stuff in my hair and on my face. I scrubbed a wrist over my cheek only to see more of them fall onto the bathroom tile.

"Travis?" Chiron asked surprised, he got closer to the mist, "What's wrong? Why are you calling?"

"K-Katie" I choked out. My chest started shaking and I found myself no longer able to speak. I felt like I was choking, and I was desperate for air at the same time. I felt Connor gently push me out of the way as he took over.

"Katie got attacked." Connor said shortly. "We don't know by what, but the skin around her most serious wound is turning gray and she has burns on her face and chest. We have already fed her as much as nectar and Ambrosia as we can but she's still bleeding and we don't know what to do."

I stared at Connor in awe, and with respect. I didn't know how he could stay so calm after seeing Katie so pulled apart but I began to pull myself together. I swallowed and nodded at Chiron.

Chiron nodded, looking grim. "I know exactly what has happened. This is all you will have to do…"

Katie

I felt like I was falling, but being pulled up at the same time, I couldn't explain it. I didn't know how long I've been in this darkness, but it was a long time. So when a bright, golden light came out of no-where, I was very surprised until I felt the sensation of being pulled into a godly dream.

"Katie. You're alive." I heard a voice, warm, but soft like a breeze.

"Of course she's alive. I told you I would help and I did. I would never let her die so young, she one of my favorites remember?" a sweetly voice argued, the most beautiful voice I've ever heard. Aphrodite, I remembered. That was who was talking. And another voice... My vision started to clear and I saw the single most beautiful place I've ever seen. The grass was vibrantly so green, the only justification was that it was fake, and the flowers colors so bright, it looked as though someone grabbed paint and filled them in. Unnaturally beautiful. I looked up, and saw my mother, the only explanation for such unworldly nature.

"Mom?" I asked her. I felt like a small child again, and I wrung my hands together. I've only met her 3 times in my life – and once I only saw her.

She smiled weakly "Hello Katie." Demeter greeted softly. She kept her distance, which I'm not sure if I liked or not.

"Hello, Katie." Aphrodite smiled elegantly. She stood closer then my mother, and waved at me from her spot, her now blonde hair bobbing to the side.

"Where am I? What happened?" I asked, I began to panic as my recent events came back to me.

"You killed a monster, a Empousae I believe?" Demeter nodded at her question, but otherwise my mother kept her eyes on the spectacular garden around us. Aphrodite smiled, "You should have seen it! Travis swooped in and took you back to his apartment to treat for you and it was so cute!" She squealed, like me almost dying was the best thing that ever happened to her.

Demeter sighed and finally cast her eyes on me. I always felt so insignificance next to gods – and even now, I couldn't help thinking about how unimportant I was to her, yet how important she was to me. "Where am I?" I asked asking, directing my question towards her this time.

"You're in Demeter's personal garden! Now back to Travis, wouldn't it be just so sweet if you died? And he never found love again? Oh, something he would mourn on for years about! Or what about if-" Aphrodite was cut off by Demeter's scowl, my mother turned back to me.

"Now daughter, as I am very glad you are alive but I think you should go back to camp now. I'm sure it was very nice seeing your father but I can't have you running around getting yourself hurt in the first week of school." I stared at her in disbelief, and anger began to bubble inside me. How dare she? Ignore me all my life but as soon as I might give her a bad name, I have to go home?

"You want me to go back to camp because of one little attack?" I asked, working to not show my anger. The last thing I needed was to accidently offend a god – lest my parent.

"Little? You would have died if not for the interference of Aphrodite and the arrival of those Hermes boys."

"Hermes boys?" I asked in disbelief, "Those Hermes Boys are my best friends. And they have been there for me so many times you have not." I stood, thankful this was a dream and Demeter couldn't harm me out of anger – right?

"Annnnd you love Travis." Aphrodite interrupted.

My mother and I gave matching glares to the goddess."Not the time Aphrodite" Demeter announced coolly.

I stared my mother down but instead of responding my dream started to get dimmer and dimmer until it was completely dark. As soon as I thought I would be in the darkness forever, light surrounded me. I cursed my chances at being pulled into another godly dream until I heard Travis's voice

"Katie! You're awake!"

I opened my eyes.

Silena and Beckenford

OR

Piper and Jason