PAUL'S POV
Waking up early in the morning? Not one of my strong points. By the time the sleepiness wore away after Uncle Mark woke me up, everyone in the Hermes cabin left for breakfast. Very considerate of them.
So there I was, running to the Big House because I was late, my uncle's rifle that he gave to me fully stocked with celestial bronze bullets felt heavy in my already filled backpack. In my right pocket was the silver key.
I saw Julie, Alena's best friend, wide-eyed and nervous, heading in the opposite direction. As soon as she saw me she rushed to the mess hall immediately. Of course, me being the Paul I was back then, I paid no attention to it and had no suspicions.
In front of the four-story building stood Alena and Argus. Alena gave me an irritated look and stalked off to Argus's car at the base of the hill. Five of Argus's eyes blinked at me with sympathy.
The drive through the countryside on the highway didn't feel real at all. After months at camp, the mortal world seemed like a mythical world that just happened to exist and I had just leaped from one to another. I wonder if this was what the mortal's perspective of Greek myths. Alena stayed silent the whole way and didn't even spare a glance at me. I wonder what was her problem.
Argus dropped us off at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I turned to Alena.
"You have a plan?" I finally noticed that we (well, at least me) have almost absolutely no idea of how to get the monster who stole my pinky or how we were going to find it. I thought I would him Mr. Pinky-Stealer since I didn't know its official name and couldn't ask Alena.
"You mean you don't?"
"No, it's not that... I just wondered if you have one." I was saved by a certain nine-year-old blonde. She had her hair tied up in a messy ponytail and a backpack slung over her shoulder.
"Alena, Paul! I didn't know you would be here." Alena raised an eyebrow.
"Didn't you promise your brother you weren't going to go?"
"Nope." Wow. Smart kid. It was either that or she was a very experienced liar.
Alena studied her closely. "If we let you come with us, will you take all of the blame and tell Luke that?"
"Yup!" She looked at the older girl hopefully.
"Ok. You can come."
"Wait a minute, don't I get to decide?" How in the world did they forget me? Me? The most important member of this quest? (Don't tell her I said that.)
"Oh. So you don't want her to go?"
"I do but-"
"So what's your problem?" I didn't like that look on her face.
As I glared at her, a movement caught my eye. A bent figure wrapped in bundles of dark coats hobbles towards us just behind Alena about two blocks away. Normally, this wasn't unusual in New York during the beginning of the end of winter, but the temperature today made the North and South Poles look like a paradise. In other words, it was hot. (How did I know what the weather was like in New York when had I never stepped foot in it? Ok, off topic.) Plus, he didn't look like a regular New Yorker. He stood out of all of the other people around him. I met him before- I knew I had... somewhere...
I nudged Silena who was standing next to me. She glanced at me quizzically, then followed my gaze and noticed the person behind Alena. Her grey eyes widened slightly.
Alena, on the other hand, didn't notice a thing. She might have thought I was staring at her, though, (which I sort of was since the stalker was right behind her and she was in my line of vision) because she just gave me her deluxe-glare.
"What the heck are you staring at?"
Silena grabbed both of our arms in each hand and dragged us in the opposite direction through the crowd before we could even protest. Soon, we lost sight of him. Silena kept going, though.
I don't remember how we wounded up near the sea but we did. The steep, rocky cliff we were standing next to, only separated by a low, wooden fence, was slippery, wet, and sharp. One step out of place would have sent us to our deaths with a broken neck or lungs filled with water.
A few pedestrians passed gave us odd looks. The girls' hair was tangled and windswept, and I'm pretty sure mine was no better.
Silena scanned the rocky coastline until she found what she was looking for.
"Do you guys see those two huge rocks leaning against each other near the base? We need to get down there." Immediately, she had done just that, hopping the fence and started climbing down skillfully.
"Hey, little girl! You'll be killed down there! Come back!" People rushed over to where we were to take a look at Silena and convince her to come back before she was killed.
Alena and I had no choice to follow her example. Among the crowd was the midget guy again. Plus, Luke would kill us both for not 'taking care' of his little sister.
Note to self: never allow a 9-year-old girl to join a quest. Ever.
Both of us took the exact route Silena took ignoring the exclaims from our peers and earned numerous scratches for our pains. Oh goodie, Uncle Mark's language was rubbing off on me.
Silena waited for us at the spot. The sea water lapped comfortingly at our feet soaking our shoes and socks, but I didn't really mind. I tilted my head to see our hunched-over friend looking down at us.
I felt a push from behind and started to fall towards the rocks. Instinctively, I curled into a ball and braced myself for impact. It never came.
Instead, I fell face first on a freezing ground soaked with sea water. The dirt could almost be considered mud. Along the walls were torches with blue flames lighting the dripping tunnel as far as the eye could see. My groan echoed back.
Unfortunately for me, Alena decided to drop in… on my back. Seriously, for a girl in that physical condition, she shouldn't have weight that much. Then again, muscle weighed more that fat-I think. I also think she broke my spine.
"What was that for?"
"I don't know. Silena pushed me and you were in the way."
"Will you two keep quiet? You'll get us all killed!" Silena took a torch from nearby and held it up. "We'll be safe here from the monster but this place its own monsters."
Alena and I helped ourselves up and scraped as much dirt and mud off as we could trying to contain our embarrassment.
"Are you sure that's safe to touch?" Alena wondered.
"Perfectly." The mixed-blood's reply was short. "Come on. I want to get out of here." She marched deeper into the tunnel without another word. We older and less informed demigods trudged behind reluctantly.
"Just wondering, how did you know about this place?" Alena, Miss I-have-to-know-everything, asked.
Silena hesitated resulted with me bumping into her and falling on my bottom in the damp ground. Alena nearly tripped over me. "A friend showed me it." She refused to look at us and just stared ahead.
"Who was your 'friend'?" I don't care if she was the child of some famous hero or whatever. This was my quest, and I didn't like the way she was keeping us in the dark.
"A child of Poseidon."
"What-" I never got to finish my sentence.
"Why do you care?" Her voice rose several notches. "Just be happy you didn't lose another finger," she snarled. The echoes repeated her.
I stuffed my hands into my pocket. The way people stared at my no longer existing digit infuriated me. The way people talked about it like it was the most horrid thing made me see white. Luckily for her, I managed to keep my temper in check.
"And thanks to both of you, my parents disappeared!" By now, she was breathing heavily, trying to control herself. Alena's face could have given an evil, extra-ripe tomato a run for its money when she was accused. I was shaking like crazy. Nobody moved.
Soon, Silena calmed down. "Sorry guys. I didn't know what I was talking about." She stared at the path ahead. "I'll scout ahead."
Alena opened her mouth but Silena interrupted her. "I know the place better so I should go. You guys stay here." Silena gave me the torch and went ahead. "If I don't come back in one hour than send a search party."
After she was out of sight we found a dry spot on the ground and sat waiting for her. An awkward silence hung over our heads. Finally Alena broke it.
"You know, you should be happy the monster cut your finger." She paused but didn't hear a reply from me. "Jacob, the guy that took care of you, told me that the arrow the monster shot you with had some type of poison on it. It stiffens all of your muscles so that no blood could go through. If it spread, you would have died."
My arm getting tired, I handed the torch to Alena and took my left hand out. It didn't look like it was ripped off but like I was born that way. The smooth skin over it made it almost impossible to think a pink ever stood at the end of my hand, but I didn't want to talk about it.
"Do you know what this is?" I took out the silver key. It reflected the soft blue light.
She examined it in her delicately like it was about to brake. "A key."
"Yeah. I found it when-"
"When Mormo hit me with it. I know."
I blinked once. Twice. Three times. "Er. Ok, how?"
Alena rolled her eyes. "Rachel's prophecy, remember? I practically heard your every thought."
My face heated up. I hope she didn't see anything embarrassing. It was bad enough someone knew what I was thinking, but a girl, the opposite gender? Hit me right now. Then again, I saw some of her 'embarrassing' moments. Getting a B+ on a test while still having the highest test score? Seriously? What I really didn't want to know was all of her 'boy' problems…
"Those thoughts were private!" I hissed.
"I wasn't like I had any other choice." Her face, again, turned thirty shades of red and pink. "Besides," she said with a mischievous grin, "I got some black-mail material out of it."
I opened my mouth to say something but my words were drowned out.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Silena!" We both jumped to our feet and dashed toward the direction it came from slipping several times. We passed some forks in the road but somehow we knew which way to go. Finally, Alena and I found Silena frozen (not literally) in front of a dead end.
Alena gasped. I just stared.
Leaning against the wall were two fully clothed skeletons side by side.
"We're doomed."
Finally! It took forever to write this. Sorry for the wait. I hoped you liked it. This chapter is what- 1,980 words? O.O
Review and comment!
~Sepharim