Chapter 8, The House of Horrors Part 1

Percy launched himself out of the murky water, conveniently landing right next to his worried friends.

"So….Who's hungry?" Percy asked as straight faced as he could. His three quest mates just stared at him with deadpan expressions. Before anyone could answer him their stomachs answered for them.

By growling. Loudly.

"I'll take that as a yes." Percy snarked as the group laughed and left the area as police swarmed the location searching for answers as to why the Gateway Arch decided to explode.

The four questers happened upon a small family owned diner near the edge of town. As they sat down to wait for the older woman to ask for their orders Percy explained what happened up in the Arch to his friends. Luke paled drastically at the fact that the Chimera and its mother was sent by the Lord of the Skies to kill Percy and was worried about what else the Sky God may send after them.

Tom adopted a thoughtful expression upon his face before murmuring to himself.

"So that's why I felt that tingle in my spine, it means someone is close to death." The grandson of Destined Death mumbled to himself. Percy barely heard what he had whispered and realized that his friend must have sensed it when Percy was injected with the venom of the snake.

The waitress walked over as Percy realized this small fact.

"What can I get you darlings?" The older woman asked the group as Luke looked up at her, being the oldest there he took charge.

"Just a round of cheeseburgers and fries please." Luke responded as the loud roar of a blood red Harley rolled into the parking lot with a dark haired woman upon its leather seat. At her full height she stands at about 5'6 and even from this distance Percy could sense an aura of bloodlust and power surrounding her.

When she entered the building everyone paused in what looked like fear and Luke paled as his eyes narrowed in recognition at the weird being heading their way. Percy also noticed that Tom's gaze snapped to the mysterious woman's face and his hand shifted to rest on the small spear charm on his bracelet.

It was clear to Percy they shared his sentiment.

Something's not right with this woman.

There seemed to be a sense of controlled madness in the air as she power walked towards our table. The waitress returned with the group's food as the mysterious woman sat down, pushing Luke and Grover into the wall.

"What do you want from me now, Lady Lyssa?" Luke all but snarled out in rage, immediately telling the rest of the group that he had dealings with this deity in the past. And not good ones. Percy gripped his pen in his pocket as the aura around the Goddess pulsed and a feeling of madness started to fill the room.

"Oh, sweet Luke, it is good to see you again. But I'm not here for you this time." Lyssa cooed as her gaze fell upon Percy. A feeling of madness started creeping up his spine as he stared hard into the swirling violet gaze of the Goddess of Mad Rage.

"What do you want, Goddess?" Tom hissed as he glared at her and his ruby red eyes glowed in rage. The look he sent at her seemed to unsettle Lyssa as she pulled her aura back in and spoke.

"I merely need a small favor from the son of the Seas." Lyssa responded curtly as her gaze turned back to Percy, who was still feeling the crawl of madness in his spine. Percy motioned to the Goddess to continue speaking, although he did so while clutching the pen-form of Riptide in his hand.

"There is a group of monsters gathering at the edge of the city in one of my temples, they are desecrating it!' I want them taken care of!" Lyssa exclaimed, "In exchange for this favor I will give you a ride west."

Percy looked at Luke and saw the clear warning in the favored son of Hermes' eyes.

Lyssa was not to be trusted.

"Where is this temple?" Percy asked through gritted teeth as Tom tightened his grip on the spear charm dangling from his bracelet, his eyes still glowing that dangerous red glow. Percy watched as Luke gripped the handle of his sword and was also glaring at the Goddess. Grover was shaking, but also glaring at Lyssa with more hate than Percy had ever seen in his eyes before.

"8 minutes east from here, you'll know the place when you see it." The Goddess of Madness said as she stood and left the diner.

The creeping feeling of madness upon Percy's spine left and the building. Tom's eyes stopped glowing and Luke released his sword handle as Percy let go of his pen.

"I assume you two had a run in with her before?" Percy asked Luke and Grover who shared a look with each other and sighed. Luke adopted a guilty look upon his face as Grover laid his hand on the son of Hermes' shoulder.

"When I was sent on my quest to the Garden of the Hesperides for a Golden Apple, my quest mates and I ran into Lady Lyssa and she sent us on a side quest." Luke shuddered before continuing, "That side quest was where my quest mates, my brothers, died."

A single tear trailed down Luke's face.

"Given the chance, I would kill her." Luke stated bluntly as he wiped his tear away and stood. Percy and the others joined him and they started to head towards the temple, Tom and Percy thinking about what they were just told.

Luke couldn't control his anger at Lyssa, his dominant hand clenching and unclenching repeatedly upon the pommel of his father's sword. His thoughts ran rampant through his mind as he heard his brothers' pained yells as they were slaughtered in service to the Goddess of Madness.

Luke remembered what the Goddess had said to manipulate Luke and his brothers, John Lively and Daniel James, into tackling her little errand for her.

Don't you want to have the fame of other heroes be yours? Don't you want to be like Heracles, Perseus, or even Liam Scott?

The Mad Goddess had probed into their minds with this promise of glory.

She had introduced a mad urge to become like the great heroes.

That mad urge for glory murdered his brothers and nearly broke his mind.

For her amusement.

Luke grit his teeth and strengthened his grip on the pommel of his sword as he led the way to whatever hell hole Lyssa was sending them to. If Luke lost one more person to the Mad Goddess' whims he would wage war on her, alone.

Grover was overwhelmed by the emotions of sorrow and rage radiating off of the group. The emotions were invading his mind and forcing him to emulate those very feelings. Skewing his sense of both smelling out monsters and direction. Forcing him to let the others in his group lead him forth.

Grover remembered just how broken Luke was when he returned to camp covered in blood and carrying the dead bodies of his brothers past Thalia's tree. Grover remembered how Luke had yelled out challenge after challenge to the Goddess that interfered and how the rest of camp could do nothing but watch as the greatest swordsmen of the generation sobbed into the night.

After this, Luke had thrown himself into training. He only picked up the speed of his training after receiving his sword from his father. Luke became a different person as his hatred of the Gods grew only to be tempered by whatever Lord Hermes had told him.

At the time, Grover had wished there was more he could have done to help Luke. Grover tried to shake himself of the emotions plaguing him, they weren't his after all. Trying to distract himself from the invading emotions, Grover thought back to Tom's claiming.

How did he always find the strongest Demigods? First Luke, the greatest swordsman of the generation and favored son of Hermes, Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, who unfortunately died and got turned into a tree, Percy, the son of Poseidon, accused of stealing the Master Bolt, and Tom, grandson of Atropos and son of some unknown deity.

Tom. The grandson of Atropos.

Grover didn't know what to think about that news. Satyrs, and all nature spirits really, do not get along with beings related to associated with Death unsettle them to their very core. Yet here is one of his closes friends being claimed by the Fate of Death. Grover didn't know how to feel about it but he knew that his first reaction was mistrust.

Grover knew it wasn't fair to Tom to show mistrust in him but Grover couldn't help his instincts.

The Grandson of Destined Death scared him.

Luke paused as he turned the corner of the sidewalk.

"I found her temple." He sighed as he drew this enchanted longsword from its sheath on his hip.

The group stopped behind him as they inspected the building down the road.

A two story house laid across from them, for the most part it was inconspicuous, if you don't count the blood stained windows of the second floor and the sound of howling penetrating its walls.

"Well that looks cheery." Percy said dryly as he uncapped Riptide and rolled his shoulders in anticipation for the coming fight. Luke noticed Tom stretching before he too drew his blade into existence. Grover pulled out his reed pipes and took a deep breath.

The group of 4 shared a collective sigh as they trudged on towards the seemingly haunted house.

Luke reached the door and jingled the handle. It was locked. He passed his sword to Grover and pulled out his thieves tools to pick the lock.

The lock was easily pickable and Luke pushed the door open as he recovered his sword before entering.

There was an eerie silence in the entrance hall as Luke slowly walked forward, his hands never dropping from their two-handed grip upon his sword. The group of four slowly formed a shieldless phalanx as they moved forward into the hallway.

A loud thud rang out from behind them as the door slammed itself shut.

"What is this? Monster House?" Percy whispered as he scanned the surrounding area for any threats.

That same howl rang out once more before anyone even had a chance to respond to Percy's sarcasm.

As if summoned by the howl a group of scaly lizard-like women slithered into view surrounding the group. These dracaenae as Luke knew them to be had snakes for legs and all held small leather round shields, bucklers if Luke's recognition was correct, and an assortment of spears all pointed at them.

Seeing that they were out-manned, Luke whispered to his friends, "Scatter!"

Then he lunged at the closest dracaena and slashed at her shield, watching as the heavy blade cleaved through both the shield and her, turning her into a fine gold dust that slowly disappeared. Though before he could spin around thunder shook the house causing him to stumble.

Luke shrugged off his loss of balance before he spun around to help his comrades only for them, and the other lizard people, to not be there.

Luke got a sinking feeling in his gut as he searched for any signs of his friends.

There were no signs, as if they were never there to begin with.

"I'll find them! I swear on the Styx I will never let another friend die!" Luke shouted out to whatever had made his brothers in arms vanish as thunder shook the house once more.

Tom didn't know what happened. One minute he and his friends were surrounded by lizard people then he heard a high-pitched whine in his head and the next minute he appeared, alone, in a different room he could only hope was still in the house.

The room he was in had a bunch of different types of weapons hanging on the walls, swords, axes, spears, even shields. They were all in pristine condition yet didn't appear to be made out of any Godly metal, just simple steel. There were some stands with full plate armor from the Middle Ages.

Tom felt a buzz in his head as he gazed upon one weapon at the back of the room. As he approached it the buzz grew stronger, as if the weapon was calling out to him.

It was a dark oak wooden composite bow, crafted in the fashion of the old Mongolian design, the wood looked as if it was blackened by some sort of flame treatment with gold capping on each end and with a shining silver string. Next to it laid a quiver made of the same blackened oak wood and inlaid with gold as well as having a solid gold bottom, it was full of arrows.

The buzz fell silent as he picked up the bow and he watched as golden flames etched a single word into the shaft of the bow.

It read Fotoforos in Ancient Greek. Light Bringer. Before Tom could ponder on why this weapon called Light Bringer called to him a voice rang out behind him.

"It is a gift, grandson of Destined Death." A young masciline voice said with a fading Italian accent.

Tom spun around drawing an arrow from the quiver and aiming at the boy across from him. Tom inspected the unknown boy as he raised his hands in surrender, the boy stood at 5'7 with dark black hair and eyes the color of bone with a pale complexion. The pale boy wore a blank black hoodie over a black shirt with black jeans and brown combat boots.

"Who are you?" Tom asked as he kept his arrow nocked at the pale boy.

"You can call me Anthony, I am here on behalf of your Godly Protector." The pale boy, Anthony, replied with his hands still raised.

"Godly Protector?" Tom asked as he looked for some sort of weapon on Anthony yet saw none.

"Yes, the God Phoebus Apollo has taken you under his protection in order to protect you from any other Deity trying to kill you for your parentage." Anthony responded in a clipped tone though his accent showed his boredom quite clearly to Tom.

"And this bow is a gift from him?" Tom asked as he kept his narrowed gaze at the supposedly unarmed boy, not fully trusting what Anthony was saying. The boy simply sighed before speaking again.

"I swear on the Styx that this is the truth." Anthony said as thunder shook the house, "I am simply a messenger employed in service to Lord Apollo by my benefactor."

When Anthony wasn't struck down for a false oath on the River Styx Tom released his hold on the drawn arrow and put it back into his new quiver. He attached the quiver to his backpack and slung Light Bringer over his shoulder, still keeping an eye on Anthony only for a light purple mist to emanate from the Italians feet before completely engulfing him which made him fade away leaving Tom alone in the room.

"Why would Lord Apollo protect me?" Tom asked himself as he secured his supplies and left the room. Entering the hallway Tom heard the loud piercing howl from earlier again and quickly drew his new weapon as he checked his surroundings.

Good thing he did as a large dracanae slithered into his view only to take an arrow into her neck forcing her to turn to dust. However, he was not prepared to see the ghostly form of his grandfather to walk across the end of the hallway in front of him.

Tom paused as his feelings of grief and self-hate grew before he slung Light Bringer over his shoulder and ran for where he saw his grandfather go. He stumbled as thunder shook the house once more but he continued to run forth.

The loud howl rang out again so Tom grabbed his bow and nocked an arrow as he slid into a crouch at the end of the hallway, sending a glance down each path. At the end of the opposite side from where his grandfather went was a smaller hellhound that was running towards Tom only to fall to a well placed arrow in the throat.

"Thomas…." Tom heard the faint murmuring of his grandpa as he turned around and saw the ghostly form of his grandfather fade away into a wall. Tom's grief only grew as he held hope to save his grandfather, a hope that was dwindling as he got his first good look at the spirit form of his grandpa.

The ghostly form of Ramses Badawi shared every injury that killed him. Seeing his grandfather that injured again hurt.

Slinging Light Bringer back over his shoulder, Tom pulled Akamptos into existence as he walked towards where he saw Rami disappear.

Tom kicked open the door at the end of the hallway and stalked into the room as the loud howl rang out again. This time he was attacked much quicker, so quick he wasn't able to act swiftly enough to prevent an injury.

A dracaena had appeared wielding two spears and while Tom had managed to parry the first strike he wasn't able to dodge the second and received a stab to his right shoulder. Luckily he managed to back away enough that it didn't go all the way through him but he still got stabbed pretty deep.

And it hurt. A lot.

Tom felt a tingle in his spine similar to what he felt when Percy was dying of poison. He knew what it meant. Someone was going to die. He could tell the feeling meant him and realizing this poured adrenaline into his system.

Tom moved faster than the snake lady this time. He cut off her left arm and pushed her back, ignoring her roar of pain. She managed to cut a light gash on his shin with a quick sweep from her other spear. but it was too light to bother him as he cleaved her in half.

Taking a shaky breath and a moment to look around the room he now found himself in, he noticed a window that told him he was on the second floor of the house. Tom was standing in a bedroom this time, there was a large bed in the corner with a desk across from it and two dressers stood next to each other under the window. There was a closet in the other corner.

Tom walked over to the closet as it was the only part of the room he didn't have direct visual of and opened the door only to see nothing but clothes hanging in there.

Tom grabbed the chair from the desk and pushed it under the handle of the door he entered through. Having secured the room, Tom carefully took off his backpack and set it on the bed before unwrapping the red scarf and very slowly pulling off both his hoodie and shirt. Once his upper half was clear of clothing he used his uninjured arm to riffle through his bag for some bandages.

"Man, I really wish I had some ambrosia or nectar with me." Tom sighed as he finally found some bandages. He carefully used a portion of them to wrap both wounds before taking a look at his blood stained clothes and decided he should see if the dresser had his size in shirts.

There was a single navy blue henley that fit though it was a little small and so it was tight against his body, yet not too tight to restrict movement. He also grabbed a gray army jacket off one of the clothes hangers in the closet that he stuffed into his bag along with the red scarf.

Taking a moment to hold his fathers bracelet in one hand and his mothers Ankh necklace in the other hand. He sent a small prayer to his grandmother before standing and pulling his backpack back on.

Drawing Akamptos once more, Tom kicked the chair out of his way and walked back out of the room. Moving towards the other side of the hallway where the hellhound had come from.

"Thomas….." He heard Rami's voice flutter in the air again as he tensed and looked around, yet not seeing the ghost of his grandfather. Letting out a sigh Tom continued his solitary and careful march down the seemingly endless hallway of the Temple of Lyssa.

When he finally reached the door at the end he was out of patience and therefore decided to kick it in.

Good thing he did as it hit a dracanae in the face and stunned her enough for him to dispatch her quickly.

This time he was in some kind of large dining room that looked straight out of the old Dracula movies. A large dining table sat in the middle of the room with a bunch of chairs matching the dark wooden table while the walls were completely barren.

Letting out a sigh of frustration at not coming across his grandfather's ghost or his friends, Tom pushed onward through the house before he paused as a loud yet short scream of pain rang out near him, as if it was only a room over from him.

Tom immediately rushed towards where he heard the noise, busting through the door to find Luke who had just been stabbed in the hip, just barely missing his bones, by a hooded form that vanished as a loud howl rang out in the room Tom just burst into.

Running over to Luke, who had fallen over, Tom rolled him on his back in order to get a better look at his wound. Only Luke had already stopped breathing. And it didn't really look like Luke up close, he was missing the scar and dark circles under his eyes.

It was a fake.

That's when Tom figured it out. This is a temple of the Goddess of Mad Rage, of course it would mess with its occupants heads.

The howl rang out again, except this time Tom noticed it didn't sound like a dog howling but more like a shrill screech. And it was close to him. He immediately headed towards where he heard this noise originate from. He had a feeling this creature was what Lyssa wanted dead and gone.

The faster he killed this thing the faster he could get his friends out of whatever illusion they were stuck in.