Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of the Riordanverse. The central character of this story is OC.

Cover Image Courtsey: Lindsay Rapp

~ Chapter 1 : I meet some killer cheerleaders ~

My name is Anathema Walker. I was just another orphan, living in Aunt Emma's Foster Care with dozens of other girls. There was nothing special about me. I was just another scrawny ten-year-old, who stood at an unimpressive height of 4 feet. My brown eyes and dark hair were easily forgotten. I followed the same monotonous routine every single day - waking up, cleaning, learning, fundraising and sleeping. Perhaps the most interesting thing in my life was my favourite soft toy kitten, Kali. She never spoke much. Maybe because her head was full of cotton.

This is the story of how my life judo flipped me and how I landed in a giant pile of chaos. Quite literally.

I walked down the footpath as I stuffed Kali in my jeans pocket. Her pink, dusty arms were hanging out. I looked at my clipboard in frustration and inspected the wagon of cookies I was pulling along with me. The small wagon had 'Aunt Emma's Foster Care' written on all sides, in shades of dull pink and orange. Inside the wagon, large boxes of different types of cookies were stacked on top of one another. I was tempted to eat them.

I sighed again and squinted, attempting to read the names listed under what I hoped was the "Sold" column. It read - 'Nono cutties, Chopo Chics and Scutterbotch'. My dyslexia made it impossible for me to read anything properly. I wondered if I should head back and bring someone along with me. Most of the other girls would be completing chores right now.

And even if they weren't, who would come with you?

I shrugged off the thought and continued to walk ahead.

Even though I had been living in Aunt Emma's Foster Care for as long as I could remember, I didn't have friends there. I had tried to befriend other girls plenty of times, but every time I got close to any other person, they would change. They wouldn't like spending time with me. They would maintain their distance and ignore me every time I greeted them.

The only person I ever talked to was Aunt Emma. She was a short, plump woman in her mid-fifties. She had started a foster care home a decade or so ago, when she lost her daughter in car accident. I felt upset whenever she talked about the accident. It was almost like I could feel her emotions flow over me. She became the mother I didn't have. Like most orphans, I had not the slightest idea of the identity of either of my parents. Slowly, the Aunt Emma's Foster Care Service grew, and it began housing more girls each year. The number had grown rapidly. This year, there were over seventy girls.

Seventy girls and not one I can befriend. I mused to myself. I patted my pockets to make sure that Kali hadn't fallen out.

"Still playing with your toy bunny rabbit, are you, Ana?" I heard a voice teasing me from behind. I turned around to see Sarah Maximoff standing there with a few girls. Sarah was taller and tougher than most kids her age.

"It's a kitten." I felt compelled to point out. Irritated, I added, "Leave me alone, Sarah."

"Maybe I'll take you and your little bunny for a ride in the sewers." She pointed towards the open drain in the alley next to us.

I stuck my tongue out at her and began walking away when she grabbed my arm.

"Not so fast, Walker" She grinned as she began pulling me towards the alley. I flailed my arms and feet, but Sarah was much bigger than I was. She pulled out Kali from my pocket and began tugging at her hands and feet. I attempted to protest but she pinned me to the ground and sat on top of me, pressing me against the burning hot concrete road. I screamed out in anguish. Unexpectedly, I had a burst of energy and rage. Before I could act upon it, Sarah stopped moving, her eyes looking distracted and full of terror. She stood up and backed away from me.

Within a few seconds she zoned back in. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"What is wrong with you?" she whispered. Her was voice coloured with pain.

I looked at her, confused. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Are you okay?" I asked her, bewildered.

She shot me one last look of scorn, tears streaming down her face and ran away. The girls who had accompanied her stood there looking as confused as I was. Some of them gave me derisive looks. Others avoided eye contact. Slowly, they all walked away, muttering to themselves.

I stood up and dusted myself. All the energy that I had earlier had somehow drained out, leaving me tired. I picked up Kali from the ground and moved towards my wagon.

I was perplexed by Sarah's odd reaction. People asked me what was wrong with me all the time. I had never understood them. I learnt to ignore them. Yet Sarah's face had frightened me. She had reacted in an extreme manner. The way she had looked at me, I felt like I had sucked all the happiness out of her life.

It's alright, you're okay, I tried to tell myself. I mentally patted and consoled myself. Then I looked down at my clipboard once more.

"Nono cutties sales, ready to shoot up." I muttered to myself.

I looked to my right. The next house was hazel in colour. It looked pleasant from a distance. There were dozens of potted plants outside. It had a tiled red roof and a cute little gate with a cobblestone path. However, upon closer inspection, it seemed less charming. There was a torn banner at the gate that looked months old. It looked like a cat had decided that the banner was not worthy enough and scratched it out. The plants looked like they were not being taken care of and the random spots looked blackened, as though they had been burnt.

I went up to the door and knocked thrice. A moment later, a girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen opened the door. She was tall and wore a cheerleader outfit. Her face was tattooed with feathers of different colours. She looked down at me and smiled. "Hi, there, what's your name?"

"I'm ... uh … Anathema Walker. I'm from Aunt Emma's Foster Care. Would you -er- would you, like to buy some cookies?" I replied in the least nervous tone I could.

For a second, I thought a saw a flicker of anger and worry. However, it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. I must be imagining it.

"Sure, dearie." She smiled again. From inside the house, I heard a hissing sound. She looked back and quickly added, "How silly of me to leave the tea on the stove!"

There was something very wrong about this girl. My mind screamed 'RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN'. But I restrained myself.

"How old are you?" she enquired.

"I'm going to turn eleven in a month." I answered, wondering why she would need this information to decide what flavour of cookies she wanted to buy. Something about her was off. She was getting on my nerves.

She looked left and right as if looking for threats. "Why don't you come in?"

I looked at Kali helplessly. I didn't want to go in, but I couldn't very well refuse. That would create a bad impression for the foster care. A bad impression always reduced donations. With the number of girls increasing manifold, loss of donations was not something Aunt Anna could afford. So, I walked in, pulling along my wagon of cookies.

The girl was joined by three other girls who looked disturbingly similar. All of them were dressed the same. They shot me baffled glances. They looked at the one who had let me in accusingly. They pulled her aside before she could talk to me and began whispering rapidly. Their faces looked worried and urgent. Suddenly, for a hot second, I imagined that the girls' hair was on fire. I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head. I was always imagining things. I had to stop. I tried to focus on something else. I tried listening to what the girls were saying. Their voices sounded like they were hissing. They waddled their fingers as they talked. The finger began looking more and more like claws. I was imagining again.

At that very moment, my head began throbbing. I fell to the floor, clutching my head between my hands. I had had terrible headaches before, but this felt like someone was shoving a white-hot iron rod into my brain. Tears fell out of my eyes. From the corner of my eye, could see the girls just standing there, stupefied, unsure of what to do. The one that appeared to be their leader began walking towards me. Another girl screeched, "Kelli, don't. We don't know what to do with her!"

I looked up and the girls were no longer girls. Their hair was orange in colour was engulfed in flames. Their nails had turned into talons and their skin had become pale. Their eyes looked red and blood thirsty. Their mouths were wide open and in place of teeth I saw fangs. One of their legs looked brown and shiny, maybe copper or bronze? The other leg was so mismatched that an abstract artist would also be traumatised. It looked brown and furry like the leg of an animal. My vision began to fuzz. Stars began to dance in front of my eyes.

I'm imagining this. I tried to convince myself. It's not real. None of it is real.

I could only see the outlines of the girls as they fought among themselves. They were snarling and screaming.

"We don't know, Kelli! We have to leave her be!" one yelled.

"Yes, do you want to be punished for a mistake such as this one? She's like a walking a nuclear warhead!" another screamed.

Are they talking about me? I thought groggily. I was no nuclear warhead. I was just a girl. It must be someone else.

"You do not understand! If she is as powerful as you're claiming, then where was she all this time? She could -" The girl who seemed like she was Kelli howled in pain. A muscular boy wearing an orange shirt had pierced her furry leg with a weapon that was dangerously pointy. He looked about twice my age, so I assumed he had a pointy-long-weapon license.

"WHY I OUGHT TO-" but she was interrupted again by a wave of water hitting her face.

How did that happen? This is only my imagination. None if it is real.

The boy gave an exasperated look.

"Don't you guys ever just stay dead?" he complained.

A blonde girl joined the boy.

"You again?" she said dryly. She scanned the room and saw my collapsed on the floor. She slowly nudged the boy and indicated my present. The boy only nodded.

The boy rolled his eyes at Kelli and then ran forward and slashed her arm.

"PERSEUS JACKSON" Kelli thundered. "You have escaped from me not once, not twice, but thrice!" She proclaimed it as if there was no greater crime. She launched herself towards the boy. He jumped sideways and rolled on the ground.

Meanwhile the blonde girl was distracting the other three cheerleaders. I heard her voice calling out from somewhere behind me.

"I'm here, come and get me!"

The cheerleaders ran across the room. However, by then, the voice had changed its position. It seemed to be coming from near Kelli now. The cheerleaders ran back and forth in confusion.

"Stop your little games, daughter of Athena! We will catch you!"

Daughter of Athena? I had not the slightest idea what an 'Athena' was or why an 'Athena' was important enough for the girl to be called 'Daughter of Athena' rather than by her own name.

"Then, why don't you?" the voice replied.

In a sudden movement, the monster girls grabbed at the air and the blonde girl appeared. An old cap fell off her head. They held her with their talons, and the girl began bleeding. I could see her blood seeping into the carpet. The boy looked at her, worried, but Kelli was leaving him no room to rescue her.

It is real. I'm not imagining it. She is dying. I have to find a way to save her.

I shut my eyes tight and then opened them. I summoned the strength to stand up. My legs were wobbly, and my head was still throbbing.

"Hey, fang-face" I managed to say. "Has anyone ever told you that your legs look incredibly ugly?"

The cheerleaders turned their attention towards me. They dropped the blonde girl. She fell to the floor, blood oozing out of her wounds.

The one standing in the centre said, "Choose your words wisely, girl."

"Wisely" The one of the right echoed.

"Or we will tear you apart" the girl at the centre continued.

"Tear you apart." The one on the left agreed.

I did not want to be torn apart. Yet there was something about the way they said it. It sounded like they weren't sure, and they needed a second opinion regarding whether killing me is a good idea or not. Generally, I would be happy to know that someone is hesitant to kill me. Not that I've thought of the scenario before. I presume that is what I would have felt. In this case, however, it made me anxious.

The dagger that the blonde girl had dropped was still lying on the floor. I had to get to it.

I slowly inched towards it, distracting the killer cheerleaders with questions.

"Who are you people?" I asked, hoping that they had a narcissistic tendency to rant. I knew many people who had that. Maybe killer cheerleaders were a part of that group.

They look appalled. I think they were stunned that I did not recognize them. To be fair, they weren't on billboard charts top 100. Then they closed their eyes, to regain composure after such a vile insult, perhaps.

"We are Empousai. Blessed monsters of Hecate." Then she wriggled her orange eyebrows and said, "I'm Tammi, this is Taffy and that's Tessie." She indicated the empousai beside her.

I'm pretty sure those names were impossible for a non-dyslexic person as well. I moved towards the dagger again.

The blonde girl groaned.

"So, what are you doing here?" I asked, hoping to prolong the conversation long enough to pick the dagger.

"This is our house!" one of them snarled, possibly, Taffy.

"Wait, you guys live in New York?"

That sounded a little too weird and that was considering all the things that had happened today. Were there monsters like them living everywhere? Every city, neighbourhood and street? The thought of walking through monster-infested streets every single day made me queasy.

The empousai growled in frustration. "Who are you?" they asked. I stared at them blankly.

"I'm Anathema Walker?"

Apparently, the idea of me being Anathema Walker annoyed them so much that they lunged at me. Luckily, I ducked just in time to avoid being barbecued by their hair. The dagger was almost within my reach.

One of them, possibly Tammi, realised what I was about to do.

"Oh, no you don't" she snapped and jumped towards my hand that was reaching out for the dagger. Her talons cut through the skin of my arm and I fell to the floor. My arm was covered in blood now. From the other side, Taffy charged at me. I slid across the floor, heaving myself away from the empousai. Their eyes were now bloodshot.

Beside me, the blonde girl seemed to be somewhat conscious. She kept mumbling something about tarts.

I had no defence. I looked to the other side of the room, where Perseus Jackson, that is what Kelli had called him, was attempting to put out a fire that had emerged from Kelli's very flammable hair. He ducked as Kelli leaped forward. She was holding out her talons out as though she was wielding a dagger. He wasn't physically hurt, but there were bags under his eyes. His eyes looked tired. He kept shooting worrisome glances at the girl lying on the floor, but it didn't look like he could do anything to help.

The Empousai pounced towards me. I shut my eyes, trying to be as mentally prepared as one can be for being shredded to bits. Out of the blue, the empousai shrieked. I opened my eyes a peep to see them clawing out their own eyes. I squeezed them shut. On my left, the blonde girl was sobbing in her semi-conscious state.

At the same time, Perseus had tears welling up in his eyes. He twisted around and ran his sword through Kelli's leg. She wailed horrifically and then burst into golden brown dust. Instantaneously, Perseus ran to the girl lying in a heap. Tears were flowing down his face uncontrollably.

"Annabeth, no, no, no." he muttered. "I'll get you back to camp. It'll be alright."

He picked up the girl with no effort and then for the first time seemed to look at me. I expected him to look angry, but he looked concerned and a little scared.

That is when my senses began failing me.

I patted my pocket to ensure that Kali was still there.

My vision blurred again, and I fell to the ground. I blacked out.

A/N: This is the first fan fiction I have ever written. I sincerely hope all readers liked it. I'm open to all constructive criticism. :)