𝓣𝔀𝓸

When Luke first introduced me to the real world, I thought he was joking.

Though, I remember vaguely during the same week I had some "interesting" encounters. For example, I remember strolling by a public restroom with a long line of people waiting outside. This may have seem pretty normal, but when I blinked hard, the people weren't people, they were monsters.

Your parent(s) probably has already told you not to call people mean nicknames like a "monster". Though, these were literally monsters. Some were 7-9 feet tall, while others were about 6 feet wide and only 3 feet tall. Few of the monsters had petrifying razor sharp teeth and snakelike heads. I confirmed their teeth are like knifes when one of the monsters violently sneezed (do monsters sneeze?). While "sneezing", the monster decapitated the monster about 7 feet infront of them and went back to minding their own business like nothing happened.

I was about to ask the group of monsters what were they doing, using a public restroom when they probably have unlimited access to a "monsters only" restroom. When I was just out of their eyesight, some sense was finally knocked into me, literally, a pinecone fell on to my head.

They are monsters! The part of me that has some sense, seemed to scream, they will eat you alive. They won't wait to skewer you or dip you in a sauce! They would eat you with Monster Dew...

Okay, I am definitely hallucinating, or I am really really hungry, I thought.

These monsters can literally blend in anywhere and anytime they want. You could be mindlessly walking in the monster's direction. When you walk by the monster, and I quote, "You could be mindless—..."

You get the idea of these "monsters", this is why I wasn't to surprised when I was strolling around the blocks of Beverly Hills, and suddenly I felt a sharp tug on my collared shirt.

I am still surprised of how I got these clothes. Though, I remember I walked in to a shop in a giant mall,(the store was JcJedi's, or something). I then remembered I changed into some of the store's clothes in the fitting room. I then walked out of the fitting room to try to pay for the clothes. This was when I realized something strange was going on.

A man was running down the hall, straight towards me. I didn't realize this until I didn't have the time to move out of his way. When we collided, he ran straight through me, as if I was never there, and then he kept running to his destination. I was still petrified as a small slim theory paced through my mind.

I took a deep, calming (as claming as you would be if someone ran straight through you) breath and looked down at my body.

I felt myself at least spring 4 feet in the air (and if I am being honest, I may have squealed like a pig).

Where my body should have been, there where dark smudges that you could barely see. I somehow knew that I was, right there and then, invisible.

How?! That was only thought that raced through my mind as I tried to make myself reappear. During this process of making myself reappear, my 20th and final attempt did the trick.

During this attempt, I sneezed alittle to hard and fell straight through the floor and onto the level below. Just my luck, I fell onto a table with a elderly lady that was eating lunch (how embarrassing). But...wait there's more! When I fell onto the table, I finally reappeared.

All I remember left of that encounterment was that I was escorted out of the mall and that I was pretty sure that lady pissed her pants.

Anyway, back to what I was saying, when I felt the sharp tug on my shirt, the first thought that came into my mind was, oh great, I am getting ambushed by a group of monsters again, hooray for me...

I felt the attacker cover my eyes and pulled my arms behind my back and dragged me somewhere, while I was struggled to break free from their grip.

After maybe a minute of struggling, my attacker tossed me across the cold, hard ground. I tried my best to sit up looked to spot my attacker.

2, 3, 4, 7...wait there are 7 of them, I pondered.

This was when I realized something I haven't noticed before. None of my attackers were misshaped, had razor teeth and claws, or even a dragon like head. They looked all almost human.

I felt the realization hit me, these attackers were not monsters, they were humans.

I am getting ambushed by humans that are not much older than I am! I started to panick.

I couldn't use my celestial bronze sword given from Luke himself, because this kind of bronze passes right through humans.

My chain of ideas to escape were cut short when one of the teenagers broke the thick silence.

"Wow, good job, Marco, you caught us a dweeb. Congratulations." The guy you must have spoken gave a halfhearted applause to, apparently, Marco.

"Well, at least got us someone, unlike you." Snapped Marco.

The person who gave the halfhearted applause was about something else when, he was cut off.

"Why can't you two stop fighting for once!" This voice was female. It was obvious that the group that has me surrounded looked about the age of college students.

For some reason, I blinked my eyes hard and when I opened them, I felt my jaw drop.

Before, I couldn't see anything or anyone because I was apparently dragged into an alleyway. It was also getting dark out. Though, when I blinked, I could see everything clearly, it was like I was wearing night vision goggles.

The girl that must've shut the two arguing boys up, stepped forward. She had short curly blonde hair, with hazel eyes. Even though she may have been awe strucking, she seemed to give off a vibe that gave me the chills. "I apologize for those two, you will eventually get used to them."

I was struck one word.

"Wait, what do you mean, "eventually"?" I asked.

The girl just chuckled and replied, "Oh, well, maybe eventually, but you just stumbled across our territory, and when people stumble across our territory, their fate is in our hands. We get to decide between throwing you off a building for our satisfaction or even recruiting you to join us, though that is unlikely...Jane?"

Jane nodded her head, as if they have done this before, and grabbed a club I had not noticed and said, with too much of a smile on her face, "Night, night, dweeb." As she brought down her club and knocked me out cold.

~o0o~

I slept like the dead, which did not reassure me, referring to my current condition.

I felt my eyes blink in and out of consciousness. When I finally began to focus, I realized I wasn't in the middle of an alleyway.

The walls around me were made of cold, hard metal. I was apparently sprawling all over the floor, right next to a bed. (What a coincidence...)

I stumbled to a stand. I look a good look at my surroundings. This was when the final puzzle piece clicked in my mind.

A bed, metal walls, metal bars, no windows... was I in jail?

After accepting the fact of the cold hard truth (I was panicking, banging and also running in circles), I ran over to the metal bars to try to spot anything that could help me escape.

I wasn't alone..., I realized.

There were others like me. Jail cells were linked all together. Some were at the youngest, 9.

My eyesight somehow found a girl about my age, with short spiked brown hair with magenta eyes, attacking the metal bars with a sword smilar to mine, across from me. None of the bars seemed to break, just sparks flying everywhere like confetti.

Wait a second, I thought, These people are demigods like myself...

Finally, after what seemed to be forever, she stopped attacking and threw her sword onto her bed.

I tried to break the silence, "Where are we?"

The girl looked back in my direction, to see who spoke to her. The girl seemed to snicker at me, "Nobody really knows for sure."

"Well, why are we here?"

The girl, obviously paranoid, let out an everlasting sigh. She then sat down on the metal floor, with her legs crossed.

She then began, "Fine...These people who kidnapped us and dragged us here are called, The Nightmares. These people believed that the Olympians were just toying with them to do all of their work that they apparently don't have time for.

This group of people think that they can unite the strongest half bloods and overthrow the Olympians themselves. If a half blood doesn't achieve the requirements to become one of them, then...well, nobody has never seen them again. Questions?"

She looked at me questioning.

"No...I don't. Thanks...?" I was waiting for her to fill in.

She gave a small smile as she answered, "Amara..."

She stretched out her hand as if she was willing to shake hands. She was so pale that something could go wrong if I shook her hand too hard.

I uncoiled my hand from my lap to mirror her pose, "Shaft..."

They shook each other's hands from a distance.