Of all the nights this could have happened, he chose tonight. The night Carter leaves me in charge.
Sadie was running through Brooklyn at nine o'clock in the evening on account of Felix and his insane plan to free the penguins from the zoo.
Looking back on it, it should have been obvious he was planning something. His Christmas wish list: lock picks, burglar mask, penguin whistle, flashlight. Sadie really should have been preparing for this night for a long time. But, in her defense, so should Cater have.
Sadie took another sharp corner, gasping as she grasped the stitch in her side. These lungs weren't made for running.
Sadie spotted him up ahead. He may have been more fit than her, but she had longer legs. "Gottcha!" She gasped to herself, regretting the waste of precious breath immediately afterwards.
Sadie pushed herself. Just a little bit father. Felix turned a corner. Come on, Sadie, don't lose him now! She made as if to turn the corner herself.
Then: WHAM! Her head cracked against something solid, and she fell to the ground.
Sadie grasped her face, which was throbbing in pain.
She thought maybe Felix had conjured a wall or something, but then someone groaned, "What the heck!"
Sadie opened one eye and saw a goth kid, about the same age as her, sprawled out on the ground beside her. His long black hair mostly hid his face, but it was obvious he was in as much pain as she was.
-0-
His hand went to his forehead, and he gasped. "That's gonna bruise."
"So is mine," Sadie said.
His eyes shot open and he grimaced. "You have a hard head."
"Right back at you." Sadie rolled onto her back, thought about sitting up, and then decided it was too soon. Sadie sighed. So much for catching up to Felix.
She was going to have a long night of damage control.
"Why were you running like that?" The boy groaned. He was now clutching his face like Sadie.
"Chasing after someone." Sadie replied. "I almost had him, too. How did you not run into him, but you ran into me?"
"I just stepped out," the boy replied.
"Just stepped out?" Sadie asked, doubtfully looking around. All she could see were warehouses.
"Uh, yeah," the boy said, as if just realizing where he was, and how odd 'just stepping out' would seem.
Sadie propped herself up and gave her forehead one last good rub. Looking down on him, she noticed a couple things she hadn't before. For one, he was extremely pale. Chalk pale. Like never-seen-the-sun pale. Another was the knife strapped to his side; sharp and black, it seemed almost to eat light.
"Whatever." Sadie said. She didn't want to get into it with a knife-wielding kid who spent his free time in the warehouse district.
She tottered to her feet and leaned against the building. "Bye," Sadie said, then not knowing what to call him, finished with a lame, "kid."
He groaned what Sadie supposed was a farewell.
She left him lying on the sidewalk.
-0-
Sadie was too late.
She arrived at the zoo out of breath, her head still pounding, to find something much worse than she had expected. Felix was gone. The penguins were gone. And, looking around, every other animal in every other enclosure was gone as well.
Felix had really outdone himself.
Felix was grounded forever.
Sadie stood silent for a moment, then inhaled, exhaled, and climbed back over the fence surrounding the zoo lot.
The right thing to do would be to go tell Carter. He would be able to get the animals back before someone, like a night guard, noticed.
Of course, Sadie could do it herself. She could say she didn't want to interrupt Carter and Zia's romantic dinner date, and just fix things her way. She could hunt down Felix (she had no idea where to start looking), get him to return the penguins (which would be hard, because they would be summoning an entire freaking zoo) and return home for a relaxing night in front of the telly with her charges (which had been the original plan).
But, Carter would get upset when he found out (because he always found out about these sorts of things). Also, in the miniscule chance that Sadie messed up, he would never leave her in charge again.
For the first, and probably last, time Better safe than sorry was Sadie Kane's line of thinking.
-0-
Sadie wound her way through the streets, making her way toward the restaurant Carter had taken Zia to.
She wasn't paying much attention to the world around her; staring at her reluctantly walking feet, dreading the look on Carter's face when she told him Felix had completely emptied a zoo.
Sadie grimaced and looked up, knowing she was almost to the place, and spotted a familiar face.
"You again?" She asked.
His eyes swiveled and locked on her. "Me again. My head still hurts, you know."
"I know," Sadie said. "So does mine."
"Did you catch whoever you were chasing after?" The boy asked.
"No," Sadie sighed. "Which is really unfortunate. I'm on my way to break some very bad news. I may or may not get murdered."
"Sucks for you," the boy smiled, which was slightly creepy. "Hey, do you think you could give me directions?"
"Well, since you asked politely."
He gave her the name of the place.
"That's where I'm going, actually," Sadie raised an eyebrow. "What business do you have there?"
"I've actually got some troubling news to break as well," he answered. He held out a hand. "I'm Nico."
"Sadie," Sadie shook it. What kind of teenager introduces himself with a handshake? "Let's get going. Bad news can't be kept waiting for long."
The walk to the restaurant was uneventful. They chatted a bit, Sadie found out Nico was on his way to see his cousin, and she told Nico she was on her way to talk to her brother.
When they finally arrived, Sadie stood at the door, taking a moment to brace herself. "Here we go," she muttered and stepped inside.
As it turned out, Carter and Zia were in seats right by the door, so it didn't take long to find them.
It took even less time for Carter to figure out something was wrong.
"What happened," he sighed.
"Well, I kind of may have let Felix…" Sadie shifted on her feet. "It wasn't on purpose, you know! I didn't even know what he was planning."
"Get to it," Carter ordered.
"Well, Felix emptied the zoo. I don't know where the animals are, and I don't know where he is. I thought it would be best to come get you, seeing as I'm a really responsible, level headed person and stuff." Sadie said in one breath.
Carter sat still for a moment, shot Zia a despairing look, then stood. "Sadie, how did you not realize what Felix was up to?"
"I did realize! I even chased after him!" Sadie shot a look at Nico, who was still standing beside her, watching the whole thing. "However, I got held up and lost him."
"An entire zoo?" Carter sounded upset. Very upset. "How? How did you get held up?"
"Umm… I ran into someone." Sadie fiddled with her thumbs.
"And decided to stop and chat, is that it?" He was heading from upset to furious.
"No, we bonked heads! I literally ran into someone!" Sadie assured him. "This guy!" She pointed at Nico, then raised her hand a little higher and lifted his bangs. "See, it's bruising!"
"There's no bruise, Sadie," Carter said tightly.
"We did run into each other, though." Nico said, leaning away from Sadie's touch. "And what do you mean 'Felix emptied the zoo'?"
Carter's attention shifted off Nico and went back to Sadie. She could see her brother editing what he was about to say. "Do you have any idea where Felix might be now? Did you check the house?"
"Ummm… I don't know. I came straight here. Because I'm responsible and stuff, remember?"
Carter sighed. He turned to Zia, said something Sadie couldn't make out, then turned and stormed toward the door.
Sadie tensed, thinking, if he's coming for me, I can always shove Nico at him and make a quick get-away. That wasn't necessary. Carter went past her and exited the restaurant.
Zia soon followed, saying shortly. "Come on. Let's go find Felix."
Sadie looked at Nico. "Well, bye, Nico."
"Your friend emptied a zoo?" He sounded incredulous.
Sadie shrugged and inched toward the door. "It's not what it sounds like," she tried to play it down.
"Okay." Nico nodded slowly.
The door swung shut behind Sadie.
Nico stared after her for a minute, then shook his head. "Alright. Nice meeting you, Sadie." He went further into the restaurant in search of Percy and Annabeth.
Never mind the confusing news Sadie had needed to deliver, he had news of his own.
