They warned us against it. They warned us of the prophecy. They said SHE would rise, and it would be the beginning of the end.
But I KNEW it had to be done. Prophesies can't be avoided.
I knew the consequences, but I also knew how she could save us all.
I had dreams about it, but they didn't scare me. But tonight's did.
I was in a cell, one that was small and dark. I looked down at myself, and judging the state of my attire, I had apparently been there for some time. I peered out of the bars and saw that was in a faint room that had approximately twelve cells, but only two were full. The one I was in and the one next to me. I notice the walls were just bars to, so it was easy to see who it was.
He looked about ten years older than me, had dark hair that was messy and untamed, but it seemed to fall perfectly around his sleeping face. I gasped.
The man in the cell was Nico.
"NICO!" I screamed, reaching for him. But the moment my fingers reached in-between the bars, a powerful jolt of electricity ran through me, send me flying. "NICO!" I screamed again. He stirred, and sat up. He rubbed his head, and looked at me. "Morning, babe." He mouthed at me. He gave me a small smile and looked like he was waiting for me to reply.
Why didn't he talk?
"Can you hear me?" I shouted. He sighed and looked at me longingly. I saw his eyes tear a little. He crawled over to the corner and motioned for me to come over.
Unsure, I slowly crawled over. I noticed one of the bars was missing a part, like some wacked it really hard with a hammer. He raised his hand up, and so did I. He grabbed my hand, and wiped away a tear. I realized this was the only place in our cells that we could hear each other.
"Did they finally crack you, sweetheart?" He looked so sad; I didn't know what to say. "Nico, where are we?"
He sighed. "Its okay, Thalia. She's on her way. She'll save us. You've stayed with me for, how long now? Ten years? You can stay with me a little while longer."
"Who's on her way?" Nico looked at me, then looked up at the sky. Or what I assumed to be the sky. It was hard to tell where we were. "Curse you Dionysus." I frowned.
Suddenly there was a lot of thundering above us, and the ceiling crashed down, followed by so much dust we couldn't see. When it cleared, it revealed five teenagers. They were in 'goose formation', or like superhero teams looked.
It was obvious that the girl at the head of the formation was their leader, just by the way she looked. She turned to two of her friends, who might have been twins. "Go scout. Use whatever is necessary." she said to them, and then motioned for the two other to help her search he cells. The blonde haired boy grabbed her hand and said something to her, and I saw the concern in his grey eyes.
I decided that he must have been a son of Athena, or maybe he was...
Lukas? Surely not. The last time I saw him, he was two, maybe three. Besides, Lukas had green eyes. I shook my head. This was a dream, but I kept thinking it was real.
"Sterling, I'm fine. Let's just find my..." she trailed off, and beside me Nico gasped. "It's her. Thalia, it's our baby girl." I looked at the girl, and saw her punk clothes and electric blue eyes.
I opened my mouth to call out to her, but before I could say anything, I was cut off by a blood curling scream. Everything went black, and I woke up in a cold sweat.
I had seen the future, I know I had. I bit my lip, debating if I should wake Nico. I looked over my shoulder to see my husband sleeping peacefully, unlike he was in the dream.
I couldn't take that away from him. I sighed, and heard footsteps in the hall.
"Mommy?" I looked up and saw my baby girl standing in the door way.
Calliope Anna Grace di Angelo was three years old, and the most perfect child anyone could ask for.
Her electric blue eyes (With brown flecks) stared up at me with fear.
"Mommy?" she asked again. I reached over and turned on the lamp next to me. "Come here, Calli." I said, reaching out my hand. She ran over to me, her feet slightly muffled by her Disney princess Pajamas, which were a size to big for her.
"What is it, baby?" I asked, pulling her up on to my lap. "There is people out side my room." I narrowed my eyes. "Bad men outside your window?" Calliope nodded.
Suddenly the house shook. Nico bolted upright beside me, looking around with half awake eyes. "Nico." I hissed. Be turned around and his eyes widened.
"Are they?"
"Yes"
"Do you want me too?"
"No. Not alone."
Nico bit his lip and slid over to the door. He motioned for me to follow him. With Calli in my arms, I quickly followed him to Calli's room.
A small meow came from Calli's bed. We whirled around and saw Miss Vicious staring up at us. The cat looked timeless, even though she was only five years old.
Her green eyes pierced us as if she was warning us.
I stood next to the bed as Nico lightly slid over to the window. He peered out, and his eyes widened "Thalia, we need to go. Now." I strained my neck to see, and gasped.
A whole army of monsters had gathered outside of our house. I grabbed Nico's hand and he nodded at me. I grabbed a necklace off of Calli's desk and placed it around her neck. "Calli, I need you to wear this ok? Oh, Nico! It has our last name!" He grabbed a pocket knife and started furiously scratching.
We ran down stairs (With Miss Vicious at our heels) and grabbed some weapons from the pantry (No one thinks to look there) "Mommy? Daddy? What's wrong?" Calli said, staring up at us from the staircase. "Will she be ok to shadow travel?" said, turning to Nico.
We had been expecting something like this for months, but now that it was here, fear gripped my chest like ice.
"Of course she will, she's my daughter." Even though he sounded confident, I could see the fear in his eyes. "Calliope come here baby." I led her over to the couch, refusing to look outside the window.
When Calliope was born, we moved to Vermont, hoping that if anything went wrong, we could get there faster.
"Now listen to me closely. Some very bad men want to hurt us. Daddy is going to shadow travel us to a safe place, but once he does, we are going to have to run, and Daddy's going to carry you, okay?"
Calliope nodded, too terrified to ask what shadow traveling was. I looked around our living room, searching. I finally found what I was looking for among the shelves, a big black photo album. I quickly ran across our brown hard wood floor and grabbed it.
This, Miss Vicious, and our weapons was the only thing we brought with us from New York.
I remembered when Nico and I were still dating, and it was halfway full. Now it was completely full, stocked with memories from Nico first asked me out to our daughter's third birthday and everything in between. I ran over to the closet and grabbed a small pink backpack. I shoved in several different things. A dagger, some drachmas, the photo album.
Turned back to Calli who was nervously petting Miss V. "Calli, can I have Mr. Bear? You can have him back right after wards." Calliope looked at me suspiciously as if she didn't believe me, but she wound up handing me Mr. Bear, her prized teddy bear. I slipped the backpack on Calli, and I almost smiled at how cute she looked.
But instead, I wiped away a tear that threatened to fall. I had to be strong. Nico came over and lifted Calli on his back. The houses shook again, and I knew it was a matter of minutes before the monsters broke through our magic boundaries and over took the house.
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a swift hug. Miss Vicious meowed, and rubbed against our legs. I leaned down to her. "Goodbye Miss V. Take care of the house for us."
I don't know which was sadder, leaving the house, or leaving Miss Vicious.
"Nico, I'm scared." I whispered. His only response was squeezing my hand. The last thing I saw before I plunged into darkness was Miss Vicious, and our house being over taken with monsters.
I stumbled through the forest, Nico only an arm's length away from me. Calli whimpered at every little sound, and I didn't blame her.
"Mommy? Why are the bad men chasing us?" I couldn't answer that. There was no way her little mind could comprehend it. It would terrify her. I looked at Nico, and a look of understanding passed through us.
Calliope whimpered again and hugged her father closer. I winced, because I knew Nico didn't give off very much warmth, being the son of Hades and all. Sure enough, Calliope shivered, showing it was still cold.
Suddenly screams pierced the air, causing me to stumble and fall. I jumped up and started running next to Nico. He looked at me with concern, but I shook my head.
We had more things to worry about than me stumbling in the forest.
The forest shook as screams echoed the trees. But they weren't screams. They were battle cries.
A tall brick house came in to view, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It rested in the middle of an open field, a dangerous place to run in a battle, but our only hope.
Nico slung Calli off his back, and slightly pushed her to me. "What are you doing?" I whispered, trying to keep my voice level. "I'm going to fight them, I have too. If I don't..." he looked over at the building, and then turned back to me.
"No! You do that and you'll get killed!" I screamed, grabbing his arm. He bit his lip, and lightly pushed me off. "I'll be fine. Just go. Go!" I chocked back a sob and watched the love of my life run into the forest.
I scooped up Calli and began running. "SETWEOWOD ORPAHNEGA" read a big purple and black sign read. I dashed up to the bottom of the steps, and set Calli down. She suddenly paled.
"DADDY!"
I whirled around, and froze on the spot. The monsters had chased Nico into the field, and were now bolding him off the ground. By the throat.
"NOOOOOOOO! NICO!" I screamed, pulling out my sword. "Mommy!" Calliope screamed beside me. "Calli, run into the house, and baby, rum up the stairs until you can't go any higher. Don't look up out windows okay?" My baby girl nodded.
"Calliope, I love you, always remember that. I love you." she nodded, her raven hair bouncing around her face. She ran up to the door and pushed it open with all her three year old might, and dashed in.
I turned back to Nico, and plunged into the battle. I hacked my way through the monsters until I reached Nico. His sword was lying on the ground, and his hands were frantically trying to pry off the Lygostrian giant hand that threatened to suffocate him. "Let him go!" I screamed, raising my sword.
I swung and hit the giant's leg, but it seemed to harmlessly bounce off. I looked back to the brick building for. For a split second later, and I saw a light being turned on.
I saw Nico being strangled and my world crumbled. I choked back tears that were streaming down my face.
A few years ago, I would have scoffed at the thought of Thalia di Angelo showing so much weakness, but now I could barely think or hold my sword up.
"LET HIM GO!" I screeched, whacking everything in sight, letting my instincts take over. A Lygostrian beside me laughed and picked me up like they did Nico.
Nico reached out to me and chocked out my name. Ice washed over me, and Nico whispered: "I love you."
Nico exploded into millions of gold dust, and it was swept away like sand in the wind.
I felt like I couldn't breathe, but I screamed with all my might, thrashing and hitting my captor, but it was no use. "Say good bye to the world, daughter of Zeus." It cackled.
Now I really couldn't breathe, and my lungs felt like they were about to explode.
I looked back at Sweetwood Orphanage, and saw almost all the windows open, with people staring at me. But in the very top window, a little girl with black hair was screaming and being held back by a woman.
"Stay safe, Calliope. Become my little hero, and save the world for me." I thought.
Then a wave of blackness came over me, and I felt no more.
To Be Continued….