Okay, guys. I'm warning you now—this chapter is LONG and INTENSE, especially toward the end. This chapter here is actually the main reason I gave this story a T rating. Things go a little nuts, but I have my reasons for making it so.

Time for you guys to get acquianted with my true madness... Thanks everybody for reading/reviewing! Hopefully this doesn't hurt you all too badly, heh heh. Enjoy!

XXVI
ANNABETH

Annabeth had no idea what the mortals in the lobby were seeing, especially because she barely knew what she was seeing. She had met some pretty strange monsters in her life, but this was something she'd yet to come across. The creature was roughly the size of an African lion and had the face and body of a giant, black rat—with the added bonus of glowing red eyes and huge, knife-like teeth that dripped with pale green liquid—probably poison. Its legs looked more like those of a wolf, with big, padded paws and long, gray claws that curled almost like talons. Its tail was long and ropy, like a rat's, but seemed to move on its own—almost like a snake, though thankfully it had no head. A set of teeth on one end of a monster was bad enough, but two tended to really complicate things.

"What is that?" Percy stammered, digging Riptide out of his pocket and quickly uncapping it as the concierge scrambled backward looking terrified. All around them, the lobby's occupants—employees and guests alike—were shrieking and running toward the front doors, trying to get away from the beast as it snarled and chased after them. It made a grab for a woman near the right row of elevators, tearing the expensive-looking fur coat from her shoulders as she screamed and bolted.

"You don't think it's here for us, do you?" Hazel wondered, mirroring Annabeth's thoughts. The timing was way too perfect—what could be better monster bait than six demigods and a satyr walking into a hotel in the middle of a big city? The wolf-rat finished shredding the woman's fur coat and turned around, snarling as its eyes landed on Annabeth and the others.

"If it wasn't before, it sure is now," Leo answered Hazel's question. The creature leapt toward them and the seven of them scattered to avoid being impaled on its claws. It made a swipe at Reyna, who ducked and rolled to the side, dagger in hand. Its tail whipped around and caught Grover across the stomach, knocking him off his feet and sending him crashing into a luggage cart.

Annabeth jumped backward as the rat's jaws closed around the space she'd just been standing in. She drew her knife and deflected a swipe of the creature's claws. While it was focused on her, Percy snuck up beside it and swung his sword down in an arc. A metallic clang sounded as the celestial bronze glanced off the monster's flank, jarring Percy's right arm and making him stumble backward.

"What the—?" he said as the rat turned its head at the disturbance and Annabeth noticed the dim shine on its fur. It was like the creature was covered in a coat of tiny black needles instead of hair, acting almost as a suit of armor. Great. Like the thing wasn't enough of a pain already.

While it was distracted, Annabeth tried to duck down low and aim her knife at the monster's belly, hoping to find a weak spot. But the creature must have sensed her, because it lashed out with its front arm and blocked her with the back of its paw, knocking her backward toward a small sitting area and grazing her ribs with its claws. Its tail wrapped around Percy's leg and lifted him into the air, and he yelled in surprise as he was thrown across the lobby to disappear behind the reception desk.

Annabeth scrambled to her feet, wincing at the stinging in her left side, as Reyna and Hazel advanced on the monster from either side. She was about to join them when suddenly she heard a vicious snarl from behind her. With a jolt of dread she spun around just as a second wolf-rat leapt from behind a plush, pale blue sofa and extended its claws toward her. Annabeth dove to the side and ducked behind a matching loveseat to avoid being torn in two.

"Fantastic—our friend brought a date," Leo said wryly as he appeared beside Annabeth. He was digging into his tool belt with his good hand, but every time he pulled something out he shook his head and stuck it back in, evidently feeling that none of his materials were deadly enough to fight off a vicious, armored, giant rodent.

"We need to find a weak spot in their armor," Annabeth said, leaning around the back of the loveseat to see where the second rat had gone. She did a quick headcount of her friends. Hazel and Reyna were still attempting to attack the first creature without losing any limbs themselves. Nico was standing just behind them and holding his sword, the look on his face clearly reading 'I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.' Grover was still over by the elevators, rummaging through the piles of luggage he'd knocked over earlier as though looking for something. Percy was slowly climbing to his feet behind the front desk, rubbing the back of his head and looking dazed.

"Easier said than done," Leo pointed out. Suddenly a loud snarl made them both jump and the teeth of the second wolf-rat darted around the corner of the loveseat. Annabeth lunged away from their hiding place and yanked Leo backward right before the monster's jaws would have closed around his shoulder.

They both got to their feet as the creature eyed them hungrily. Without warning, it leapt forward, and Leo and Annabeth dove to either side hastily. Annabeth pushed herself up from the ground as the second monster landed beside the first, which had just whacked Hazel with its tail and sent her crashing against the wall beside the revolving door. Nico knelt by her side to make sure she was alright as the monster aimed a swipe at Reyna. Reyna dodged backward, but her back hit the concierge's desk and the creature's claws grazed her already-injured leg. As she dropped to the ground, the rat opened its jaws and snapped at her. Annabeth felt her heart stop, but just in time Leo scrambled forward and thrust his right arm outward, shooting a stream of bright blue fire right into the rat's open mouth.

The monster snarled and gagged, recoiling from its attack and writhing around angrily. Leo ducked around the concierge's desk and grabbed Reyna's arm, pulling her to her feet and guiding her quickly away from the creatures. Annabeth breathed out shakily, glad to see that someone had actually managed at least to hurt one of them. It was too bad their only known weakness was heavily guarded by rows of razor-sharp teeth. Hopefully it wasn't the only weak spot they had.

"Everybody get down!" Leo shouted suddenly. Annabeth looked over to see him staring at something far above them, his expression somewhere between desperate and uncertain. She followed his gaze to the crystal and gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling—right above where the two wolf-rats were standing—and realized what he was going to do. She crawled quickly across the ground and ducked behind the sofa as Leo raised his hand and shot a thin stream of white-hot fire toward the chandelier. She didn't see it connect, but seconds later the air was filled with a deafening crash as glass shattered and metal bent and broke.

Annabeth got to her feet to see the hotel lobby in shambles. Broken crystal and metal shards littered the ground everywhere. The frame of the chandelier itself was now a mangled mess in the center of the room, with one of the wolf-rats trapped in a space between the barred edges like a cage. It snarled and growled, clawing and biting at the metal, but for the time being it wasn't getting free.

Annabeth looked to her left to see Leo and Reyna emerging from behind another sofa. "Nice, Leo," she said appreciatively. "I've never known anyone who could make a bigger mess than you."

"What can I say?" Leo replied with a grin. "It's a gift."

Turning back to the center of the room, Annabeth saw that the second rat had managed to avoid the chandelier and was now edging around it toward where Hazel and Nico were climbing to their feet. Before she could call out a warning, the beast lunged for them. Hazel had dropped her sword after being thrown and had yet to make a grab for it, so without a weapon to block the monster she tackled Nico and dove out of the way. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite fast enough, and the monster's talon-like claws tore down her right arm.

"No!" Nico yelled as Hazel cried out in pain, rolling away from the creature as best she could. Annabeth vaulted over her couch and ran toward them, knife at the ready, as Nico used his sword to deflect a strike of the monster's claws. He still looked confused and frantic, like he had no idea what was going on, but somehow he was able to dodge and block attack after attack—probably some sort of muscle memory. Annabeth slid to her knees beside Hazel and examined the cuts on her arm, cringing when she saw how bad they looked.

"We should get out of here!" Nico said through gritted teeth as he ducked low, allowing the wolf-rat to leap over him and slide across the floor. He turned to look at Annabeth and Hazel, and Annabeth shot a glance over her shoulder toward where the second creature was still trying to free itself. "Find a place to regroup and figure out what to—" Nico's voice suddenly broke into a mangled scream and Annabeth whipped her head around to see that the first monster had closed its teeth around his leg and was dragging him away from the rest of the group.

"Nico!" Hazel yelled, her voice frantic. Nico managed to roll himself onto his back and was kicking at the rat with his free leg. Finally the heel of his shoe dug into the monster's eye and it shrieked in pain, releasing its hold on Nico and scrambling back away from him.

An uncomfortable lump had formed in Annabeth's throat, making it difficult for her to breathe. She glanced at Hazel, who muttered, "Go," and Annabeth sprang to her feet, dashing toward Nico as he pulled the upper half of his body up on his hands and dragged himself away from where the monster was writhing in the corner, nursing its wounded eye.

If Hazel's injury looked bad, Nico's looked far worse. The creature's dagger-like fangs had dug into his left calf, leaving a half-circle of wide, inch-deep stab wounds. Pale green ooze was mixing with the blood seeping down his leg, and Annabeth hoped desperately that she'd been wrong earlier in assuming that it was poison. Breathing fast and gritting his teeth, Nico leaned up and stared at the wound. His face paled and his eyes grew wide at the sight of it.

Suddenly Grover appeared by Annabeth's side. "They need ambrosia," he said quickly. "Nectar—something."

Annabeth nodded numbly and withdrew her backpack, tearing it open and reaching inside. She dug around for the bag of ambrosia she always kept, but quickly realized that it wasn't there. "What…?" she demanded, frustrated, as she pulled the pack open wider and searched through her things. But she hadn't been mistaken—what she was looking for wasn't inside.

"What's wrong?" Grover asked.

"My bag of ambrosia," Annabeth replied. "It's not here." She stood up and turned to face the other side of the lobby, where she'd been before. She ran to the sitting area, thinking maybe the bag had fallen out earlier, but she couldn't find it anywhere. Desperately, she started back toward Grover, noticing that Leo, Reyna, and Percy had moved to check on Hazel. "Don't you know some kind of healing song or something?" she asked the satyr.

"Yeah, but I can't find my pipes," Grover replied miserably. "I thought I might've lost them when the monster hit me earlier, but…" He scratched his head, glancing at the pile of luggage he'd been rooting through before.

Annabeth bit her lip, her heart racing. Hazel and Nico were hurt. She didn't have any ambrosia or nectar. Grover was missing his reed pipes. They had one monster trapped, but it was probably only a matter of time until it got free, and the other would recover soon enough as well. Things pretty much couldn't get worse.

As soon as Annabeth had that thought, she immediately wished she hadn't. Things could always be worse, as the universe constantly went out of its way to show her. And this time was no exception.

"Annabeth, behind you!" Grover yelled.

Annabeth spun around and barely registered the sight of the first wolf-rat (which must have escaped its chandelier prison) mid-leap only a foot away from her before something slammed into her from the side, knocking her to the ground and out of the monster's path. She landed on her back just in time to see the creature tackle Percy and drag him to the floor, sending both of them rolling over each other across the carpet.

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed, dread washing over her as he landed on his stomach, pushing himself up on his arms with his face screwed up in pain. The monster rolled another few feet and landed on its side by the elevators, a little to the right of where Grover was trying to pull Nico to his feet. The creature had a long, bloody slice across its underbelly, and Annabeth noticed that Riptide's blade was stained black.

Without waiting to see if the monster would rise and attack again, Annabeth jumped to her feet and raced to her boyfriend's side. He pushed on the floor and tried to lift himself up, but cried out through clenched teeth and gave up, hunching toward the ground—but not before Annabeth noticed the blood staining the carpet beneath him.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "What?" she asked sharply. "Let me see."

Without looking at her, Percy rolled onto one arm, twisting to the side, and Annabeth felt her insides turn to ice. His shoulders and chest were covered in sticky, red blood, and more was oozing from the deep slash marks that the monster had dug down the length of his torso. Its claws must have miraculously missed any vital organs, or he would probably already be dead. He opened his mouth to say something, but it turned into a strangled, raspy cough and he gritted his teeth, blood dripping from his mouth.

"No…" Annabeth muttered weakly, feeling like she'd just been stabbed through the heart. Struggling to breathe, she raised her head to look around at her friends. Nico had been right—they needed to get out of there. Too many of them were hurt, and somehow they had no way of healing them. She looked at the front door, but her heart sank as she realized that the two wolf-rats were now blocking their path out of the hotel.

Annabeth took a deep, steadying breath. Times like this required a clear head and rational thought. Though it was understandably difficult to think anywhere close to rationally with the boy she loved dying before her eyes. But somehow, they would make it out of this. They had to.

"Come on," she said firmly, grabbing Percy's arm and wrapping it around her shoulders. He grunted in pain but followed her lead and forced himself to stand, though he had to lean heavily on Annabeth for support. "We have to find a place to hide," Annabeth said, raising her voice and addressing her friends. Her eyes scanned the room and landed on a set of double doors beside the reception desk with a sign that read EMPLOYEES ONLY. "Follow me," she called to the others, "and hurry."

Annabeth half-led, half-dragged Percy toward the doors, hearing a series of scuffling and snarling behind her. As she reached them, she glanced over her shoulder to see that the two monsters had apparently regained their bearings and were eyeing up their prey—which meant that they didn't have much time. The doors in front of Annabeth swung both ways on double hinges, so she pushed through them, the others on her heels. Behind the doors was a long, wide hallway. To one side was a row of service elevators. To the other, a line of doors that Annabeth supposed led to supply closets and the like. At the end of the hall was a second set of double doors, though these appeared to have locks on both the handles and the base where the doors met.

"There!" Annabeth shouted, pointing toward the doors.

"You want us to lock ourselves up with those things out here?" Grover asked uncertainly. He glanced uneasily to his left toward Nico, who had an arm hanging around the satyr's shoulders and was balancing on his left leg, blood and poison wolf-rat saliva dripping from his right leg.

"We just need time to come up with a plan!" Annabeth replied desperately. "We can't get out at the moment, so all we can do is get safe!"

"Works for me," Leo said. Hazel, who was leaning on Leo and looking tired and pained, nodded in agreement.

The monsters finally seemed to figure out that their chew-toys were escaping and snarled at them angrily. One leaned back on its haunches while the other bounded forward.

"Alright, alright, let's go!" Grover yelped, and all together they hurried down the hall as the wolf-rats chased after them. Annabeth broke through the doors at the end of the hall and the others filed in after her. Grover and Nico were last, and together they slammed the doors shut and fastened the locks. One (or both) of the monsters rammed the doors from the other side and the wood groaned from the force. Frantically, Grover pressed both hands against one door and held it in place while Nico leaned his back against the other.

Breathing fast, Annabeth lowered Percy to the ground and looked around her. The room they'd just locked themselves into turned out to be the hotel kitchen. The left wall displayed a line of sinks, while the right had one long countertop running its entire length. There was a long island in the center of the room with griddles and stovetops, and five of the biggest ovens Annabeth had ever seen sat against the back wall. There was a metal door which probably led into a walk-in freezer, and a wooden door which probably housed a pantry. Cupboards beneath the stoves on the island and the counter against the right wall must have been filled with various cooking utensils.

"Okay, anybody got a plan?" Leo asked as he knelt beside Hazel, a hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe we can call someone for help?" Grover suggested as once again the wolf-rats rammed the kitchen doors.

"I don't know if there's time for that," Reyna said apprehensively, eyes fixed on Percy, who was still breathing but looked worse after their quick escape. Annabeth swallowed hard and looked around the room, trying to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, after all that had happened, she was at a total loss. Their situation really didn't look good.

Grover groaned in frustration. "This is a nightmare," he muttered as the monsters pushed against him and Nico again.

Suddenly something flared in Annabeth's memory. A story—a legend that she'd read somewhere long ago. "A nightmare…" she repeated thoughtfully, eyes staring distantly ahead as her mind began to race. "That's it!" she exclaimed. "This is a nightmare—a dream. It isn't real!"

Everyone stared at her blankly. "Say what now?" Leo said with a look that clearly said he feared for her sanity.

"No—listen," Annabeth explained, her mind almost moving too fast for her mouth to keep up. "In ancient times, the cave where Hypnos slept was guarded by his three sons, Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasos—the three gods of dreaming. If any mortals were to come snooping in the cave, the Dream Brothers would put them to sleep and force them into a dream world to distract them while they decided what to do with them. That has to be what happened here—to us. Hera warned us about the Dream Brothers, remember? They must have sensed that we were looking for Hypnos and put us into this dream!" Annabeth was practically speed-talking now, her heart pounding. It explained so much—the unfortunately-timed disappearance of her stock of ambrosia and Grover's reed pipes, the lack of hotel employees in the kitchen and other staff areas, the near-perfect defenses of their monster opponents—everything that just seemed too perfectly-timed to be real. If this were true, if none of this was really happening…

"It… makes sense," Reyna admitted uncertainly.

"If this is a dream," Nico said, his breathing heavy and ragged from his injury and the effort of holding the door, "then… how do we wake up?"

"Well," Annabeth answered somewhat reluctantly, "the only way to force yourself awake from inside a dream is… to die."

The tension in the room intensified as everyone exchanged uncomfortable glances. Annabeth knew that what she was suggesting wasn't exactly easy to take in, but she met everyone's eyes and silently willed them to trust her. This had to be a dream. If it wasn't, and it was real, then… No, there was no way. She had to be right.

"Okay," Nico said slowly, looking almost sick. "So… should we, you know… release the hounds?" The monsters outside banged against the door and snarled, and Nico grimaced in an obvious combination of pain and fear.

Grover paled even further. "If we have to die, I'd prefer something a little less slow and painful," he said weakly, and Annabeth couldn't help but agree.

Heart racing, she looked around the room, mind hard at work. She couldn't believe she was actually sitting there while three of her friends were probably bleeding to death, trying to come up with a plan to kill the rest of them quickly and easily. It was overwhelming and downright insane, but she told herself firmly that it had to be done. They had to get out of this nightmare.

Suddenly her eyes landed on the stovetops on the center island, and she got an idea.

"An explosion," Annabeth said firmly, turning to her friends and trying to keep her voice level. "We should have everything we need to make a basic Molotov cocktail here in the kitchen. Release some gas from one of the stoves, and it should be enough to… to blow up the whole room." She'd been about to say 'to kill us all', but somehow that just didn't seem like something any sane person should say aloud.

Everyone looked uncertain, like they were too afraid to speak. Everyone, that is, except for Leo, who stood up and said, "That's a great idea and all, but it won't work for me. Immune to fire, remember?" His eyes darted between Annabeth and the doors, behind which the pair of rat creatures were snarling and scratching at the wood. "And I don't exactly fancy playing 'impromptu autopsy' with Pinky and the Brain out there," Leo added with a failed attempt at a humored tone.

"Oh…" Annabeth muttered, that fact having completely slipped her mind in her frantic search for a plan. She didn't want to leave Leo to the mercy of the monsters, but the explosion was the only plan she had. Panic began to well up inside her, which was not something she was accustomed to. "I… I don't…"

"Annabeth," Reyna said firmly, getting the blonde's attention. The praetor's intense, serious eyes shot toward Leo, who was watching the door with a nervous expression. When her gaze flitted back onto Annabeth, the look on her face was slightly frantic. "Are you sure this isn't real?" she asked, her eyes boring into Annabeth's. "I mean are you absolutely certain? If we die here… we wake up, right?"

All eyes turned to Annabeth as her friends waited for her answer. Momentarily at a loss, Annabeth glanced around at them—at Hazel, whose face was pale and clammy, a hand clamped tightly over her bleeding arm—at Nico, who had beads of sweat on his face and was shaking, leaning on the door not only to keep the rat creatures out, but also to keep himself upright as the monster's poison spread from the vicious bite marks on his leg—and finally at Percy, whose breathing was growing shallower and more ragged as the seconds ticked by. Feeling sick, Annabeth forced herself to look at the gaping slash marks across her boyfriend's chest and arms, focusing on what she was seeing and allowing it to sink in. She was terrified, but one thing was certain: this was wrong. Everything about it just didn't feel right. She knew this wasn't supposed to be happening.

"Yes," she finally breathed. "I'm sure. This is a dream. It has to be." She was surprised by how steady her voice sounded, but also glad. It made her sound like she believed what she was saying without a doubt.

"Okay, then," Reyna said, nodding shortly and breathing fast, like she was trying to make a difficult decision. Her grip on her dagger tightened as she finished, "I trust you." Annabeth looked up and locked eyes with Reyna, feeling a sudden surge of emotion. Despite the situation, she felt a small, grateful smile tug at her lips.

But her smile vanished when Reyna turned and drove the point of her dagger into Leo's chest.

"Reyna!" Hazel shrieked, and Annabeth threw her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. She understood Reyna's intentions – they both knew the explosion was the only plan they had to end this dream and wake themselves up, but unfortunately for Leo, fire couldn't kill him. So something else had to do it instead, and Reyna had taken it upon herself. She did it to save him.

Still, that didn't make seeing the pain on his face any easier.

Leo stared at Reyna with wide, unfocused eyes. His eyebrows creased in confusion and his mouth opened and closed without sound, his fingers twitching as his body seized up in shock. Reyna avoided his eyes and pressed her lips together into a thin line before yanking her arm backward, pulling her dagger free. Leo let out a strangled cry of pain and staggered forward, hands grabbing weakly at Reyna's cloak as blood began to soak down the front of his shirt.

"Not… cool…" he forced out, his voice sounding hoarse and choked and making Annabeth's breath catch in her throat. She felt tears sting at her eyes as he dropped forward onto the ground beside Hazel, who reached over and grabbed his shoulder. She pulled him onto his back just as his eyes slid closed.

"H-He's…" Hazel stuttered, eyes wide and watery as she pressed her hand to Leo's neck, "he's dead." She looked up at Reyna in disbelief and repeated, "He's dead. How could you—?"

"Hazel, it's okay!" Annabeth interrupted, swallowing a sob and trying to appear calm—which was very difficult to do when you've just watched one of your best friends die, real or not. She glanced around briefly to see stunned looks on the others' faces as well. "This is a dream, remember? Leo isn't dead—he'll be fine."

"What if you're wrong?" Hazel shot back desperately. "What if this is real? What if—?"

"It isn't," Annabeth argued firmly. "Hazel, please. Trust me." She looked into Hazel's eyes, pleading with her. Hazel remained silent and took a deep breath. When finally she nodded, Annabeth found herself praying she wasn't misleading her friends. If she was… No, she was done thinking that way. She had made her decision, and there was no going back.

"Let's get moving," Reyna said urgently, a slight look of vague uncertainty on her face, like she couldn't believe what she'd just done. "What do you need?"

Annabeth got to her feet, forcing herself not to look at anyone but Reyna. "A bottle," she said shakily, "some flammable liquid, a rag, and a match. And turn on one of those stoves, but don't let the flame light. We just want it to release the gas."

As Reyna turned toward the center island, Annabeth started quickly rooting through the cabinets beneath the countertop. She found one full of rags and towels and grabbed one, knocking over two neat stacks in the process. In the pantry, she found a second door leading to a walk-in cooler. She took a bottle of lemon juice and dumped the contents out on the floor—she didn't think the dream hotel employees would mind—and rushed back out to the kitchen to rinse the bottle in a sink. Reyna had collected a container of lighter fluid and a box of matches from the cupboards beneath the center counter and turned on a stove, and already a weak smell of propane was permeating the air. Simply lighting a fire wouldn't cause it to explode, but with a little help…

"I can't believe I'm friends with you crazy people," Nico said with a pained look as Annabeth and Reyna gathered their materials. He coughed violently and hunched his shoulders, clutching a hand to his abdomen and looking like his stomach was about to leap through his mouth. Annabeth could tell by looking that he wouldn't be able to hold the door behind him for much longer.

Grover glanced at Nico with concern, his eyes wild. "Let's just hope we all make it out of this so you remember us crazy people," he said, his voice weak and strained. Hazel grimaced and murmured something that was lost under a choked sob, her shaking hands forming fists in the blood-stained shirt over Leo's unmoving chest.

Annabeth picked up her pace. After filling the empty lemon juice bottle with lighter fluid, she soaked the rag in the same liquid and stuffed the end inside the bottle, fastening the cap as best she could to keep the rag in place. She picked up the matches and knelt beside Percy, watching him with frantic eyes. She could feel her heart pounding and her breath racing. Percy looked up at her and gave her a weak smile, but even as she watched, the smile vanished again and his breathing slowed to a stop, his eyes glazing over blankly. Annabeth's eyes stung and her breath caught painfully in her throat—it was now or never.

Her hands were shaking so badly it took her three tries to successfully light a match, and when she did she almost dropped it. Once the rag was lit, Annabeth gripped the bottle tightly in her right hand and took a deep, steadying breath. She was right. She knew she was. She had to be. Her friends believed in her, and she was not about to kill them. She was about to save them.

Before she could break down and cry, Annabeth flung the bottle as hard as she could toward the stove. As the glass shattered, all she could feel was the burning heat, and she threw herself over the lifeless body of her best friend and screamed.

THE END! Okay, I'm kidding. Real talk, that might be the worst ending to anything ever, haha.

Sorry that was so intense. I did warn you, hehe. Thing is, they needed to believe that it was a dream. Demigod lives already kind of suck, so the dream would either have to be really great or really, really, really bad in order for them to buy the whole 'this isn't real' idea. And I figured it'd be more fun to throw in some action and angst and go for the 'really, really, really bad' approach. I'm a terrible person, I know.

So if you're still breathing, drop me a review! See you guys in a few days!

-oMM