Chapter 21: Shadows of the Pitt
I followed the middle lane and after about fifteen minutes I got to the next stop. Everyone looked at me strangely, one woman even screamed. I didn't blame them. Someone walked from the tunnels covered in blood, it would be a strange sight. I quickly went into the bathroom and washed the blood of my face. There was so much blood, the cuts much have been deep. But there wasn't a single sign of a cut on my face. I was still amazed by this stuff. I was amazed to be alive. I thought I would die right there in that tunnel. Even though there was no cut I didn't look good though. I was tired and had black rings under my eyes. I was skinnier than usual and was pale as a ghost. It was weird how much I looked like the image of Samael I had seen. Maybe it was never Samael, maybe it was the monster messing with me and luring me into it's lair. Again I wondered what monster this was. I didn't know of any monster that could do things like this. I stood in front of that mirror thinking of every single monster that I knew of, none checked out. I didn't know that many monsters but the most dangerous I knew. I wasn't prepared for something like this. It took me ten more minutes before I dared to step out of the safety of the toilet. I hadn't been away from camp for a day and something had tried to kill me and mixed my emotions into a self pity and guilt double Sunday. It didn't predict much good for the rest of the trip.
On my way to grand central I watched everything that moved. I didn't trust anything any more. I was scared of another monster trying to kill me. Or Samael being around here. I was afraid that Maximus and Luke had encountered a monster or something worse. I wondered if they had gotten through the morning safer than I had. At the station I went straight to the platform we needed and waited. I was way early. The train left at one, we were meeting at 12, and I was there at 11:30. I stood there nervously. Being as skinny, pale and nervous as I was I must have looked like some kind of junky on withdrawal. I got even more nervous when it was 12 and neither Luke or Max had arrived. People were looking at me as if I was a dangerous criminal or something. I couldn't care less, these were strangers who didn't understand who I was and probably didn't care. I just wanted someone to get there. I was just about to go back to the main hall and see if anyone was there when I heard my name.
"Angel." I turned around top speed. I was still a bit anxious, not strange given what I had just been through. "Don't worry mate it's just me." Luke said.
"Sorry, just caught me by surprise is all." I knew I was on edge but it turned out I was even more on edge than I thought I was. I recognized Luke's voice by now but because of what happened in the subway I couldn't be sure about voices any more.
"Seems like something else caught you by surprise, what happened?" So I told him the story. He listened and nodded as if he was onto something and sometimes looked around the platform. I wondered if he was looking for Max or just randomly checking his surroundings.
"So do you have any idea what it was?" I asked. I had to know what I had encountered, and more so how probable it was that I would ever see one of those again.
"I have one idea, but some things don't check out." Luke said. "But I think it's a Leukrokottas, very rare around these parts. They're seen a lot around Mexico and the south of the country though. Very few are this strong though. They are fast but that's not what makes them so dangerous. They imitate human voices to lead people to them and then devour them. Mostly they imitate random voices like a girl screaming or something, something that attracts attention. There are a few that do more than that."
"Like go into someone's head and imitate the voices of the dead?"
"That's what it did with you. I know that back in the 17th century one nested in this small town in France. It drove everyone mad and killed half of the town in a few weeks. I think it was killed by some small time son of Zeus. I don't believe his name was even mentioned."
"So how many do you think it killed here?" I saw what it did to me. I couldn't imagine what it could do to people who weren't half god. What had happened to people waiting for their subway to arrive and heard voices in the shadows? I doubted that I wanted to know the exact number.
"Quite a few I guess, in a place like that it wouldn't be found easily and it obviously had a few talents. I think you did everyone a favour mate."
"Yeah I guess so." Given I had saved the New York public traffic but that didn't make me feel much better. What happened in those tunnels put me on edge. More so because Luke didn't seem very convinced on what this thing was. "What's bothering you. It was just another another Leukrokottas right?" I asked.
"That's the thing. There's too much that doesn't check out. Like I said they are rare around here. To be plain, this is the first one. It's too cold for them here. They like places were the sun shines bright. Their dens are usually in desserts and stuff. The south of Europe is all right for them but New York...in the subway tunnels? It doesn't seem like them. More so...the claws." What Luke said confused and feared me. I didn't know what a Leukrokottas was so I had no idea where it was supposed to live. But if it really wasn't a Leukrokottas then what was it?
"Claws?" I was pretty sure this thing had claws. How else could it have cut up my face that badly?
"Yeah, a Leukrokottas has hooves not claws. It just doesn't check out." I think this worried the both of us. If this wasn't anything we knew was it possible that this thing was completely new? It seemed impossible. It didn't predict much good for our quest. The first day and I already encountered something we didn't know. What else did we have to go up against?
It would be another half an hour before Maximus arrived. He was barely on time for the train. He was apologizing and stuff saying that he got lost. It was New York, easy to get lost but he had to go to Grand central, come on. The train was huge. I had never really travelled by train but this was definitely the biggest train I had ever seen. Our main luck was that not many people seemed to be travelling to Chicago today. The train was pretty much empty. The three of us had our own car. When we were in the train we started to check each others snack supplies. We had a lot of sodas, crisps and things like M&M's and snickers. Luke had filled half his bag with Reese's.
"Come on...you two don't love this things?" He said.
"They're all right...but half a bag?" I said. I liked Reese's even though I rarely had them. Back when I lived with my mom I used to have them and I had them once when I lived with Jake. I thought they were all right but Jake didn't buy them as he was allergic to nuts.
"Let me have one of them then." Max said. Luke handed him one of the packs he had and Luke looked at him with anticipation.
"You're gonna love this man, I lived on these things when I first came to America." After unwrapping the thing Maximus took his first bite. His eyes grew wide and a smile appeared on his face.
"Dude..." He swallowed before finishing his sentence. "You are so freaking, right these are awesome!" I had never seen Max this excited, actually I had never seen him get exited about anything. It was a first I doubted I would ever see happening.
"I know!" Luke and Max seemed to have found a mutual love for Reese's peanut butter cups. It was funny to see. I felt that it was good that they had something they shared. I trusted Max mostly because I could place myself in his shoes. I knew what kind of things he must have done. I was happy he decided to join us. But Luke took Max's betrayal a lot harder. Luke had been at camp a long time and cared about every demigod there. He had a problem trusting the former spy. For me seeing them together was hope for a good friendship.
Over the next hours we went through a lot of Reese's. It didn't take them long to convince me to have a few and they were awesome indeed. It wasn't that long of a ride to the first stop. Only about 6 hours. We left the train right after dinner (I've never had worse rice and chicken.) Pittsburgh was bigger than I thought it was. I had never been there before. When I travelled to New York last time I skipped past Pittsburgh. We decided again to go our separate ways even though I voted against. Luke just cracked a joke about staying away from subways and told Maximus to be on time and went off. I understood why he wanted some time alone. Max and I both knew that he had a few extra drachmas to Iris message Maria. There were times when I got the urge to see if I could get through to Samael with one of those. Sadly I had no idea how to make a rainbow in order to Iris message. Out of the three of us Luke was the only one that knew how to. Maximus never had to contact anyone back in his old life. When something was up Phthonos would come to him, other than that he was left to fend for himself. Even though Max seemed to have lightened up, I wondered where he went in New York, and where he went now. I wondered if there was a chance that he was meeting with Phthonos. After all now that he was travelling with us Phthonos had some use for him again. The same could be said about me though. I was strolling around town and I could be doing anything. Of course I wasn't doing much interesting. I was just walking in this park not too far away from the station. It was getting dark, it was about 8 PM after all. We'd spend all afternoon sitting on our asses. I was happy I got a chance to stretch my legs. I was simply walking around when I heard a familiar voice. I knew I shouldn't interrupt Luke and Maria while Iris messaging, it cost Luke a drachma after all. So I waited not far from where Luke had created his own little rainbow. I couldn't hear them, I didn't want to. I respected the both of them and this was the only chance they had to talk. When I saw Luke walking away from the bushes I figured he had made his call, now I could have a chat.
"You know, IM'ing in public can get you a ticket." Luke tensed up as if he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He turned around slowly with a face as red as a tomato.
"You didn't hear all that did you?" The question made me wish I had eavesdropped. I was curious what was so bad that I couldn't hear it.
"Don't worry, I didn't. That's why I sat away a bit." I said with a smile on my face. I should have said I heard everything just to mess with him but I thought that might go a bit too far. And Luke seemed a lot more relaxed after I said I hadn't heard a thing. He walked over and sat down next to me as his face turned back into it's normal complexion.
"Seriously dude we should stop sneaking up on each other when we're feeling jumpy." Luke said.
"Agreed." We just sat there for a minute, the weird thing was that it seemed to get darker every second. It was getting later of course but it didn't go this fast.
"Oh by the way I've got something to show you." Luke said as he reached into his pocket. Out of it he got a small black box, like one for rings.
"Sorry mate I don't take jewellery from friends." Luke slapped me on the back of the head. It didn't really hurt, I was happy he didn't do that with his bronze hand.
"It's for Maria you div." That's when I understood. I never thought it was for me, that was just a joke. But I didn't understand what it meant at first.
"You mean, you're getting married?" I couldn't believe that. Luke was only eighteen. They were quite young to marry. But it was logical given the life we led. Demigods weren't ones for long lives and if you were lucky enough to find true love in the time you have you had to take it. Luke and Maria truly loved each other so Luke was right to ask her to marry him, even if it was early for mortal standards. Mortals were so ungrateful of the long life they could lead. Of course they didn't all survive a hundred years but the chance of them dying the next day was smaller than for demigods. So few mortals lived their lives like every day was their last. It was a flaw of the world.
"Well if she says yes, and if I make it back." I was sure she would say yes, I didn't doubt that for a second. I think both of us doubted the answer to the question if he was coming back a lot more.
"I'll make sure that you return to her, even if it means I don't." I made that promise, and I was about to keep it. He had people waiting for him, and I was going to make sure those people would get to welcome him back.
"Don't get so dramatic man. We've been fine till now." That's how Luke jinxed it. Around us the world was turning black. We couldn't see a single thing, not at first anyway.
"Luke what's happening. Luke!" He was sitting next to me a second ago, but he was gone. I couldn't see him, nor hear him. Had he ever been here at all? I doubted everything I had been sure of just a second ago. The pure darkness...it scared me. That's when scary...turned into terrifying. I started seeing things in the shadows. Visions of anything that scared a person. Spiders, heights, tight spaces. Until I saw something that scared me personally. I saw Samael stand in front of me, barely two feet away from me stood the person I feared more than the god who we were trying to defeat. At first he just stood there but after a few seconds he pulled out a sword and slashed towards me. I wasn't quick enough to react, I closed my eyes and covered my head as if it would help. I stood like that what seemed to be hours. When I opened my eyes Samael was just standing there again. This shadow could scare me...but it couldn't hurt me. Not physically anyway. They were there to scare me to death and traumatize me for life. Everything seemed to want to mess with my head rather than kill me. When I stopped fearing the vision in front of me, it evolved. Samael's face changed, it reformed into someone else. That someone was me. I stood in front of myself, he had a sadistic smile on his face. Then I realized I wasn't standing there looking at myself...it was Colt.
"You're too weak to defeat him Angel. Phthonos will crush you with ease. If you want to defeat him you should ask me. I'm better than you Angel, I can do what you can't. Just let me in." I wondered if this really was Colt. He seemed more real than the vision of Samael and Colt spoke. Did these shadows give Colt his own body? Was that even possible?
"I'll die before I do that Colt. You're a monster and if I'm your cage so be it. I'll never let you go out again, I'll never let you hurt anyone!" That's when he disappeared. I had faced my fear, and beaten it. That's how I thought the illusions worked anyway. I started to be able to see a bit too. For some reason my eyes didn't really seem to be bothered by darkness, even when it was this pure. I could see Luke now, and hear him. The illusions had blocked me off completely but now that I had beaten it I could see. Luke was seeing things too. He was sitting on his knees with tears rolling over his cheeks.
"I'll kill you Mack! I swear I'll kill you!" He screamed. A lot of questions rose to my mind. Who was Mack?
"Luke! Snap out of it, it's not real." I yelled. He ignored me, or he didn't hear me.
"It's real to him Michael." A voice said in my head. It was a deep voice but it didn't sound sinister, nor kind. It was an emotionless, but ancient voice.
"Phthonos?" I asked. It was the first name that popped into my head. The only person that was powerful enough to conjure up something like this.
"Phthonos?" The voice laughed. "He's a god my boy but he's hardly capable of something like this." That raised the question who this thing was. And more so how powerful he was. Apparently...he wasn't one of the weak.
"Let Luke go! Whoever you are you let him be!" I said. I didn't think it would listen but it was worth a shot.
"So defensive about your companions. He's got his own demons to face Michael. He's going to have to get through them himself."
"Screw you!" I started making my way to Luke. It was hard to, the shadows seemed to slow me down. When I reached him I started shaking him around, he didn't seem to notice. "Luke whatever you're facing, it's not real. Don't let it get to you." I tried. For some reason, his expression seemed to change. He looked straight at me, I didn't know why but he had broken through somehow.
"I saw...I saw her die." The shadows around us disappeared. I saw the park, the sky, the dim light of the stars. In front of us stood a man. He was middle aged, black hair, a scruffy black beard and was hooded. He was wearing all black clothes. All ripped up and old, he looked more like a homeless person than anything else. His eyes were the strangest though, his iris' were nearly as black as his pupils. Like mine.
"Who are you?" I asked. The man stood there, with a slight smile on his face.
"I'm impressed Michael, I didn't think you'd break through the illusion so easily." He kept calling me Michael. My actual name, one I didn't like using any more.
"Why did you do that!" Whoever this guy was. He was a complete and utter bastard. He put Luke through hell. He only seemed to be coming by now. His expression seemed a little less blank anyway.
"I had to test you Michael, you're going up against a power far greater than yourself. You need to be prepared for far worse than this."
"Then test me! Leave my friends out of this!" The man chuckled a bit. I glared at him but he didn't seem to mind.
"Your friends are as far into this as you are." He said. Luke crawled up to his feet. He seemed like he was going to be sick, but that was still better than before.
"You didn't answer me before. Who are you?" I asked again. He still stood there with the same smile.
"His name is Erebus, god of darkness and shadows." Luke said. I looked at him with a surprising look, I didn't expect him to say anything. "And he's your father." Especially not that. What I knew of being claimed was that something appeared above a demigods head. I looked up praying that there was nothing there. What I saw was three tendrils of darkness. Apparently that was the seal of Erebus. I looked back at my father. He still smiled. On my hand something appeared. A black fingerless glove, with Angel written on the back, and Colt in the palm.
"Call on me in the shadows, and you will not be seen." Erebus said. "Now show me your sword." He said. I was stunned at this, but I did as he asked. I pulled out shadow-edge, a name that seemed more fitting now than ever. He walked over to me and tapped the blade with his finger. The blade turned pure black and it seemed to be...smaller. It kept turning smaller until I wasn't holding a sword, but a black Zippo lighter. "A lot easier to carry, no? It works as a lighter as well, it might need gas though." I just nodded. "Now I must be off." He started walking into a shadow he just created. "By the way. Happy sixteenth birthday." He had obviously timed this perfectly. 8:32 PM July 14th. Just after the sun went down. I was born exactly sixteen years ago. He decided to claim me at this exact moment. I guess it was quite special that he chose such a moment but to me it was still sixteen years too late.
"Dad wait!" He was already gone. It seemed to be something the gods enjoyed to do. I stood there for a second stunned because of what just happened. I held shadow-edge in my hand in lighter form anyway. I shook my head to break out of all the confusion and turned to Luke. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Luke said. "Why didn't you say it was your birthday?" Luke never knew what to prioritise. His mental health versus my birthday. Apparently he chose birthday. A dumb choice especially since there wasn't even going to be a party.
"Are you sure? You seem a bit out of it mate." Luke nodded, he refused to show any kind of damage but we both knew he wasn't in the best of shapes. "It wasn't important. It doesn't matter if I'm sixteen today." I said. I never was one for birthdays. The last few years I hadn't celebrated them, just another day to me.
"It is important man, it's sixteen." Luke said as he sat down on the bench. He still looked bad but I think he was feeling better. "You know, you should be getting your first car now. I should be voting for our next president. But here we are. We don't get those luxuries" Luke said. I think every demigod wished for a different life. But none of us got it, we weren't born to be normal. "You should get back to the station. I'll go find Max and meet you there." Luke said. I doubted for a minute but then I nodded. If it was what he wanted I'd go on ahead. I took my first few steps when Luke stopped me. "'Angel...congrats on the claiming and happy birthday I guess." I smiled and nodded. I left Luke in the park. I saw him sit down on the bench for a minute. He was more spooked than I was. I wonder what he saw. Whatever it was it was bad. I figured I best did what he said. I made my way back to the station. I wondered why Erebus had to do this. Maybe he didn't think I could do this. It didn't matter what he thought. I'd stop Phthonos, if he doubted me, I'd show him. I'd show him that I was stronger than Colt, and that I was brave enough to face my fears. I'd show him that he didn't make a mistake by having a son. I would prove that I hadn't been a mistake.