Chapter 36.

The venom isn't directly at us, but I cover myself with my jacket anyways. Liam does the same with his blazer and Thalia holds up her shield like an umbrella.

"Are there any cures for this stuff?" I ask.

"Ambrosia maybe, but you'd have to be fast." Thalia says.

"But it we'd have to have a large supply." I note, "since we could just get poisoned again."

"Which we can't take anyways, because if we have too much, our blood would turn to fire and our bones would turn to ash." Liam bites his lip.

"What fun. Lucky for me, I'm safe in here," my dad says and I scowl at him.

"So what do we do?" Liam turns to me.

"We need to get the others out of those rooms." I bite my lip. "But the doors are locked and we can't get into the hallway, because that's where the venom is. Who's in hat room?" I point to the closest room on the left. Thalia jogs backwards. "Hades' symbol, so Nico."

"The wall here." I point to the wall between the kitchen area and his room. "Maybe if we break it," I say. Thalia goes up to it and forced her shield through it. Then we tear away the plaster. "Alright?" Liam asks.

"Yeah, why?" He shrugs.

"Come out and look." Liam points.

"Oh." Nico says. The floor is now covered in a small layer.

"We're going to be swimming in this." Thalia rubs her forehead. "The lift." She gasps.

"There aren't any buttons to it." I say.

"I can control electricity, maybe I can control that?"

"And be greeted with thousands of monsters?" Dad laughs.

"We'll have a chance at least." Thalia says. "Let's be quick. And enjoy dying." She glares at dad. His blood is black and his skin pale. But I don't regret what I did.

Thalia kicks through the next wall as Lexi kicks through the door.

"Don't go out there." I shout. "Drakon venom."

"Oh damn." She backs away from the splintered door way.

"Yeah, we've got a dam problem." Thalia laughs. "Anyways, our plan is to get everyone in the elevator and I'll try to control the electronics." She says, serious again.

"Can you do that?"

"It's worth a try. "

Lexi shoulder punches through the wall but the next room is empty. "Back the way we came, and then through the next set of rooms." I dash off.

I shoulder barge the closest wall on the right and kick away. "Jesus, what do you think you're doing?" Grace spits.

"Get out of the way Grace." I sigh "I have a knife for this." I take it off the back of my jacket again and shout a warning to Jessica. "You couldn't have warned me?" Grace asks.

The knife cuts through the plaster easily, nothing like I saw with Percy and his sword in my dream.

I see Jessica replacing the bristles on her brush that must have been in her bag with bobbie pins, but the rounded ends have been removed. "Not my best weapon ever, but it'll work on mortals." She points it at me.

"My dad's already kind of dying. I took the celestial bronze half off Backbiter and through the steel side at him." My heart hammers at the words. I had to do it. I remind myself. He's trying to kill us, so it's self defence. Kind of. "Have you kept the celestial bronze half though?" She asks. "It's still a powerful weapon."

"In the next room. Let me get it." I destroy my wall and look I side. I grab the blade and run out with Jessica. The venom is about a centimetre deep now. I make sure not to splash it.

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to do." Thalia puts her head in her hands.

"Hold this." Jessica passes her hairbrush to Thalia who inspects it.

But before Jessica can find anything to work with, the lift opens. "Get in." Samantha stands with Andrew at her side. We don't need telling twice.

"So." Thalia says. We've been going up, slowly, for about ten seconds now. "Is this your brother?"

"This is Andrew." Liam introduces. "Samantha, these are my, em, friends. Thalia, Nico, Lexi, and Jessica." Points to each.

"I know about you." Samantha says.

"Well that makes explaining this slightly easier." Liam says.

"So, are you going to tell us that Andrew is a son of Dionysus?" I joke.

"He's not." Samantha says.

"How did you find us?" Grace asks.

"Your father told me about his plan, about how he was leaving to go to England after he dropped you off on the last day of School, when most half bloods would be at camp. I pretended to go along with it. I caught a plane with Andrew the morning he would leave. Then I came to our old house." She says.

The lift stops and the doors open to our old house. Our real old house, not the one we were in earlier. "But, we were here earlier, and it looked identical to our current house." I say.

"I knew that someone would end up there, so I used the mist to make it look like our home." She explains. "Wait, you can use the mist?" Thalia asks.

"Nice to meet you, Thalia Grace. Daughter of Zeus. I'm Samantha Thompson, daughter of Hermes."

"Bye." Thalia throws her hands up in the air.

"I want to know, how is your home not Monster Central?" Nico says.

"My husband, Chris, had an agreement with the monsters. He didn't know about me or Katy but we were still affected. In exchange for his work, no one from his family would be harmed. Not every monster agreed as you can see, but most did. And that's why Grace and Katy have lived so long without going to camp half blood."

"Does this still stand?" I laugh.

"Gods, I hope so. But right now, we need to get to camp. Chris is probably dead by now, and there won't be an army of monsters yet. But give it half an hour or so and they'll want to check his progress." She bites her lip. "We have 'til noon at best. At worst, they're already here."

"We left the others at the bar." Liam says.

"Yeah, Rainbow Night Club." Nico blushes.

"Sat Nav it is. There's a bus outside, everyone be quick."

We all scramble in and we're on the road in less than a minute. I hold my pistol loaded with celestial bronze bullets in my hand and my dagger is taped to my thigh, for emergencies. We run through a few red lights and many cars beep at us but we don't stop or slow down.

Ten minutes pass before we stop. The music has stopped and the lights are off.

"Where the hell did you lot go?" Will yells.

"We'll explain on the way, get in." Thalia orders.

Now that there's eleven half bloods and three mortals in he car, we really are some sort of beacon for all monsters.

"What's the fastest way to get to camp?" Samantha calls.

"Shadow travel." Nico says.

"Not an option." Will insists.

"The Phaeacian ship" Grace says. "They're as fast as a falcon and are driven by thought, plus there is no risk of being shipwrecked."

"That's great Grace, but where are we going to get one?" I say.

"There's one over there." She points behind us. When I see the bridge over the river which reads 'all the rivers lead to the sea, yet the sea is not full', I know where we are.

The river tees, and up the alley way to our right is the highstreet.

The ship looks like a typical medieval ship with a sail and at least twenty oars peeking put at the bottom. "How do you know it's a Phaeacian ship?" Olivia asks.

"I just do, I can't explain it."

"Well, all board." Samantha says and picks up Andrew who has been strangely quiet.

The deck is almost empty, apart from the sail and a set of stairs leading down. There is no wheel or whatever it's called when it's on a boat. Suddenly, the tho rocks to the left and I gasp as half of us scatter towards the edge, "sorry!" Grace calls. I grab onto the rope which lines the inside as we begin to move. "I don't see anything coming for us." Nico informs.

"Still not putting my gun away." I murmur.

"Good, I am not dying in this dress." Thalia snorts. "Seriously, why do you own this?"

"It was given to me, I wouldn't pay for that thing." I raise my eyebrow.

"I'm tired, what time is it?" Will yawns.

"Three am." Samantha replies. "Let's go and see if there are any beds or what below deck." She picks up Andrew and Will, Thalia and I follow.

As soon as Thalia jumps the last three steps, Samantha turns on a torch on her key ring.

There are twenty hammocks all striped different colours with blankets over them. "What if something happens?" I ask

"I told Grace that if there were any problems that she should scream as loudly as she can." Thalia says. "Great, so now I know what to ignore. Dibs on one of the hammocks at the back."

"Same." Thalia says and I fall asleep straight away.

When I wake up, I'm back in that lift, but I'm on my own and it's still. The doors are closed and the lights are flickering. I go to where the buttons are to press the alarm, but they disappear as I touch them.

The lift starts to fill up with water from the bottom but I can't see where it's coming from. I try and pry the door open but I can't and when I reach for my knife, it's gone. I beat the doors but it doesn't even make a dent but my hands are numb. My heart is hammering against my chest and I feel like I can't breathe. I try to breathe slowly but I can't. The water is already up to my waist now. I kick against the floor but all I get is a muffled thump. I scream out of frustration.

Perhaps If I wait until the water rises above me, maybe I can swim up to be able to take apart the top of the lift. Then climb out. I kick off my trainers and tie the laces around the back of my neck so that they hang down my chest.

I wasn't wearing trainers.

I wake up, for real, with a blanket wrapped around my neck and my hair is sticky with sweat even though I'm freezing. I sit up in the darkness. I pull on my boots and go up stairs to see who's there.