Chapter 4:

I woke with a start confused about where I was and if what had happened was a dream or not. Considering that I woke up in a back alleyway there is probably a good chance that it was not a dream. I look around and saw Dylan leaned against the wall of whatever building we were behind, and off to the left Liam was sitting in the shadows watching me.

"Where are we? What did you do? What happened earlier? Why have two things called you 'Lord'?" I shouted at him. I was so confused about what had happened in the past few hours. I mean a seal man had approached us and threaten to kill us if Liam hadn't been there, and then some crazy fire vampire lady named Kelli tried to kill me and Dylan.

"I wish I could explain but I can't. Those things as you call them well they're greek monsters like from the myths." Liam looked calm like he's explained this many times before, and for as much as I know about him he probably has. "And well they respect me and don't try to kill me like they tried to do to you and Dylan. I've never seen them like that but I guess I normally see them when I'm alone. How do you think I've been living on my own for so long?"

I was stunned. He was a complete lunatic. As soon as Dylan was up and recovered I was going to get him as far away from Liam as possible. But until then I might as well get every answer I could from him.

"So what happened to the pipes? I mean they just burst out of nowhere." I asked trying to sound as possible because I knew I had something to do with the pipes.

Liam looked at the ground as he answered me, "I felt something before the pipes burst almost like this feeling that something bad was going to happen, and following my gut, it lead me straight from my first period to Dylan, Kelli, and you. I stood back trying to see what would happen before I intervened so I could make sure Kelli was actually a monster, and when she said her name and made Dylan almost fall over I knew she was a monster. Then everything just happened so fast and I thought you had it mostly under control so I went to check on Dylan."

"Wait a minute we were behind a shut door how did you see most of that?" I asked him because I was now truly sure he was crazy.

"Oh yeah umm-" Liam was cut off by Dylan waking up.

I rushed towards Dylan, "Hey hey you ok? We've got to go we need to get you help. With how bad of a hit you took from that water you probably have a concussion, and hopefully only that." I said as I began to help him to his feet and pull him towards the sidewalk.

"Wha- What is going on? What happened?" Dylan asked me.

"I can't explain right now but after we get you some help I'll tell you everything," I reassured him as we started walking down the sidewalk with him leaning on my shoulder. Liam followed a little ways behind us, but I really wanted to lose him in the crowd of people on the sidewalk. The kid gave me the creeps there was just something off about him that I've never really noticed before.

Suddenly, I noticed someone or something else was following us. I turned around really quick to look behind me and I saw a guy with his daughter looking straight at us. I pulled Dylan off to the side of the sidewalk and continued to make eye contact with this man. There was something about him that felt familiar. He had dark black hair, sea-green eyes, he looked fit, and seemed to be about in his 30s. His daughter or the little girl he was with was also staring at me she had blond hair, with a mixture of green and greyish eyes, and she had to be no older than 9. When I looked back at the man he was looking at Dylan and he seemed to notice something because his face paled. He made his way through the crowd with the little girl's hand in his, and I knew that there was no reason for me to run from him. I mean I was carrying Dylan and he was almost double my weight and I knew Liam wouldn't be any help, so the man would just end up catching up to us pretty quickly so I decided to stand my ground and fight if I had to.

When he got pretty close to us he motioned for me to follow him. I don't know why but I did. I hoped it would be out of Liam's confront zone and he would leave Dylan and I, but with my luck, he continued to follow behind us. The man lead us down several streets without saying anything to us, and just when I started to get a little creeped out by the whole thing Dylan spoke up.

"Excuse me sir but where are you taking us?" he asked trying to mask some of the panic in his voice.

The man turned around and put the little girl behind him to separate us from each other and said, "I know it might be a little crazy but it looks like you might need some help especially since you have tons of monsters on you half-blood scent trail." After he finished saying that he turned back around and continued walking. I glanced back to see if Liam was still following us. He was but he seemed to take a few steps back like if he needed to run he would have less of a chance of being caught. That made my nerves perk up but there was something about the stranger and his daughter. They both reminded me of someone or something that is always making fast decisions and is uncontrollable.

We continued walking and had to step into a few alleyways to stay away from weird looking things on the sidewalk, but finally, we reached our destination. It was a small gated apartment complex. The stranger opened the gate for us and ushered us inside. When the gate shut behind us it reminded me of Kelli shutting the door of the small janitor's closet. It must've reminded Dylan of the same thing because when the gate clicked and locked he jumped a little. The stranger looked us both up and down and only quickly glanced at Liam, but all of us pressed forward. As we headed up the stairs to the third floor of apartments the little girl slowed her pace so she was walking right next to me and Dylan who I was still kind of carrying.

"What is your name?" she asked while looking straight at Dylan. I guessed she wasn't talking to me so I let Dylan answer her.

"Umm Dylan why?" he asked her with confusion lingering in his voice.

"Well my mommy has a picture with a guy named Luke and a girl named Thalia in the drawer next to her bed and Luke looks just like you. If you want I could show you the photo when-" she was cut off mid-sentence by the stranger.

"Silena." he warned, "How about we get them inside before we get to know about them."

Silena picked up her pace again and soon enough we were outside what I was guessing to be was their apartment. The stranger opened the door and shouted inside.

"Annabeth, I'm home and I brought… well you'll just have to come see for yourself." a few seconds passed and I heard movement from somewhere down the hall.

A woman appeared from a room at the end of the hallway and when she saw us she grabbed the wall from support.

"Luke?" she croaked.

Sorry for the cliffhanger but I wanted to feel like Uncle Rick for once, and I think I did a good job. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review if you like the story so far. ~Emily