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CHAPTER TWO.

Sweet Mother of Hades.

My brain stops functioning as she slowly pulls away to take a breath. I open my eyes a bit so I can peek at what's in front of me. I need to know if it's really her k-ki-kis—showing affection to me right now. I need to know that I'm not just hallucinating due to some lovesick puppy disease that I don't know about but am experiencing nevertheless. Not that I am a lovesick puppy. This is all very much hypothetically speaking.

When I open my eyes, I find that my fucking eyelashes obscure everything I see. The only thing that seems to penetrate the barrier of blackness my eyelashes have created is the color blue—a shade so electrifyingly familiar it sends shivers down my spine. They're the same color as Thalia's eyes, and this is the only thing I can see with this little peek.

Holy Styx.

I'm pretty sure the wall didn't have that kind of blue—

So, even though I decided against this a while ago, I open my eyes completely. My vision is blurry because I'm just so damn sleepy, and all I can see are blobs of colors, two of the blobs being that familiar shade of blue. I snap my eyes shut again, rub them with my hands, and open them again.

Gods. I wonder how red I am right now.

I wonder how red I'm gonna get after this.

Turns out, those familiar blue-colored blobs that remind me of Thalia's eyes are Thalia's eyes, and apparently standing right in front of me right now is the aforementioned. I sure hope I'm not hallucinating.

She lets out a breathy laugh and smiles, and that makes me loose it. I cup her face in my hands and pull her so close I can feel her hot breath on my face. I grin as I feel her breath slowly grow spasmodic as she tries to regain her composure after my sudden clamp-and-pull.

"Are you really?" I whisper. I can't seem to form competent sentences right now.

"Maybe." She chortles.

When I feel her lean back slightly, I pull her face even closer to mine, completely erasing the gap between us. I finally have her—I wasn't letting her go now, not without a fight.

Her fingers rake my hair and grab onto the strands forcefully, and her other hand caresses my cheek. I smile against her lips and wrap my arms around her waist to hold her tighter, and to pull her closer. Then—

"Aww, shit!" I curse as I pull away from her. My hand flies to the cheek she was caressing a moment ago, rubbing it gently to soothe the fresh, new burns. "Did you just shock me?" I ask, still flabbergasted, and still pretty much in pain.

She cackles. "Sorry." She leans in closer and pecks my burnt cheek. I smile despite the pain I get when I move my cheek.

"So . . . what're you doing here?" I ask her.

She shrugs and looks around. I begin to wonder if she's looking around the cabin, reminiscing about the days when she lived in camp like the rest of us, when I realize something.

Even through my brain is still woozy and my eyes can't focus on anything but the girl in front of me, I still remember how the feeling of cold marble against my fingertips feel, and—surprise! When I rested my hand on the 'floor' a few seconds ago, I didn't feel smooth, cold, and polished; I felt grainy, dusty, and rough.

That's when it hit me like an epiphany . . . probably because it was an epiphany.

"Where—" I stammer.

"Are we? In a desert a little ways away from Arizona." She smiles mischievously at me. "Obviously not Camp Half-Blood."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed that," I say. "I thought we were in the Zeus Cabin."

She shrugs. "Maybe we were, maybe we weren't. But right now, we're in Arizona."

She stands up and holds out her hand. I mindlessly take it, and she pulls me—no, more like yanks me up.

I brush the sand off my pants and look at her. "What in Hades' name are we doing in Arizona?"

"Well, I have no idea why you are here, but the Hunters are on a mission," she says. She places her hand above her stomach and rubs a circle around it. "I'm hungry, wanna grab a bite to eat?"

"Umm," I drawl as I feel my stomach growl. "Sure. Where though? We're in the middle of nowhere."

She smirks. "You tell me, Ghost Boy. I thought getting out of the middle of nowhere was your specialty."

"More like getting stuck in the middle of nowhere," I joke.

I chuckle nervously at my own joke, but she just stares at me stone-faced.

"Fine, fine, I'll be serious now." I hold out my hand.

She takes it, and whispers, "I think there's a gas station a few blocks away from here."

"Awesome. Now close your eyes and brace yourself."

She turns away and does as I say. I take a deep breath and slowly close my eyes, focusing on the nearest place with food besides a house or any private place we might get arrested in for popping up unexpectedly. I feel her grip tighten around mine as the darkness pulls us in and eats us up.

I only open my eyes again when my feet hit the ground, and Thalia's cursing and toppling over shakes me awake. I mean, she dragged me down with her, who wouldn't wake up?

"Dammit," she says over and over. "I swear to Zeus, Nico, have I ever told you how much I hate shadow traveling?" she screams.

"Not enough," I reply.

"Agh, I'm so hungry, I could eat a—a—" she whines.

"A minotaur?" I suggest.

"You know what, I could eat a 'you'," she snaps before marching off ahead of me.

"Mm, delicious," I mutter sarcastically.

Note to self: never bring a girl shadow traveling when she's PMSing—it only makes them cross over to the 'dark side'.

Hahaha, get it?

"NICO!"

"Coming!" I screech as I take huge strides to catch up to her.

We pass by a gas station—because I got it right this time—and there we find these two big buff thug dudes wearing muscle-hugging leather jackets that look like they're about to rip, and a skinny girl with way too much eyeliner and not enough clothing in between them, staring right at us. Thalia glares at them, and the two dudes back off. I chuckle, but stop when I see one of them noticed me and looked like he wanted to chew my head off, and since he was HUGE, he probably could.

I start walking faster when the girl whistles at me. I turn around and see her lick her lips and wink at me. I cringe my face and take a step back in shock.

Disturbed, I glance at Thalia. She's way ahead of me and hasn't looked back once. Probably wasn't going to any time soon too.

I spin on my heel and begin to follow her when I feel someone grip my shoulder and spin me back round, then I find myself face to face with the same face that disturbed me just a while ago.

She takes a step closer to me, her hands lingering on my bicep.

"Hey," she says, still inching closer to me. I try to move back, but she just pulls me back and moves even closer.

"Uhh, hey," I say back, contemplating on ways to somehow get out of this. I glance at the two dudes with her before. They still haven't moved, but are looking at me murderously right now.

Damn it!

"I haven't seen you around here before," she says. She's inched so close to me her legs are in between mine. I think my legs are going to become claustrophobic after this, if that's even possible. "Are you new?" She licks her lips again, and keeps her head dangerously close to my neck. For some reason, I'm starting to think she's a vampire and is about to make me 'one of them' anytime soon.

I wonder if becoming a vampire hurts . . .

"Um, well—" I start to think 'what the hell am I supposed to say to that?' when my savior swoops in and saves me.

Thalia grabs my wrist and pulls me away. "Sorry, he doesn't date whores."

The girl glares at Thalia, still trying to inch back towards me. "I'm not a whore."

"Sorry, my bad," Thalia says, laughing so sarcastically, 'obnoxious' would be an understatement. "He doesn't date sluts either."

Thalia was just about to turn around and drag me with her while she walked away—which by the way, I wouldn't really mind—when the raccoon girl struts over and pushes her.

Big mistake.

"What d'you say, you little bitch?" the girl shouts.

"You heard me," Thalia snaps back. "Either that or you're just that stupid."

The girl lunges for Thalia, but she isn't fast enough. Thalia pokes a pressure point, probably shocking her a bit—or a lot—too, and she staggers back, gasping for dear air.

"That all you got?" Thalia laughs. She looks at the two thugs, who still haven't moved. "'Bout you two buffoons?"

They both shake their heads frantically. For big buff guys, they sure were a bunch of pussies.

I chuckle.

"I thought so." Thalia smirks.

She tightens her grip around my wrist and drags me inside the little diner beside the gas station, Antonito's.

We make our way over to the booths and manage to grab one in between a big fat guy and his crater-faced best friend pigging it out with burgers and beers, and a stressed looking woman in a wrinkled up suit, constantly shouting at the phone practically glued to her ear, doing yesterday's crossword puzzle—and badly, at that.

We take seats across from each other. I find myself amusingly staring at the little advertisement for milkshakes in the middle of the table when a small and scrawny balding man approaches us. I inch away from the edge of the table discreetly, because I don't want his smelly and dirty apron touching my favorite jacket (and Grandma Demeter would kill me if I got it dirty anyhow).

"What can I get for you two?" he asks us with a voice way too high-pitched and jolly for his overall demeanor.

Thalia looks at me, mouthing, "What do you want?"

I shrug and tell her to pick for me.

She orders two cheeseburgers and two regular Cokes.

"So," I begin awkwardly. "You said the Hunters are on a mission?"

"Classified, Nico, you know that." She smiles mischievously.

"I wasn't going to ask about that," I say. "I was just wondering . . . why aren't you with them right now? I mean—you are the Lieutenant."

Thalia laughs. "I'm not really here you know."

"What?" I ask her disbelievingly.

"Nico!" she leans forward and lightly punches my shoulder. "When did you become so slow?"

"I'm sorry, it's just—I haven't seen you in ages and I'm just so happy that I get to spend some time with you right now, then you go and tell me you aren't really here."

Her forehead meets her palm with a slight collision.

"What?" I ask whiningly.

"If you wake up and just mope around again tomorrow, I swear to the gods, I will kill you."

"So I'm dreaming?" I ask.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"But it all feels so real—"

"As did all the other dreams," she intercepts me.

I fall silent.

So does she.

Smelly McBalding Pants comes with our orders with a grunt. I mean it's 'service with a scowl' now anyway, right?

She takes a bite from her burger. I attack my drink first. I chug half of my drink in one sip.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask her.

She widens her eyes and looks at me.

"I mean, why do you keep visiting my dreams? What exactly are you trying to tell me?" I ask her, poking my burger with a soggy French fry.

She laughs, nearly spits out her burger, and then swallows what was in her mouth without chewing. She slurps her cola and shrugs. "I didn't think it would take you this long to figure it out."

I just look at her.

She laughs.

"We're playing hide-and-seek, Nico. The only difference is, I actually want you to find me. Get it?"

I shake my head.

She leans forward and smacks my head. "You're an idiot." She sits back down and takes another bite from her burger.

"Wait," I cough out. "So that means you're in Arizona right now?"

She shrugs. "The Hunters are on a classified mission. But it isn't anyone's fault if you run in to us while you're on a quest for camp, right?" She smirks.

I nod, finally taking a bite. "True, true."

She laughs. "You figure out the rest."

"I hate riddles," I tease.

"I hate you," she teases back.

"Aw, too bad, I don't feel the same way," I say.

"Whatever." She sticks her tongue out. "I know."

I nod. "Sure you do."

Ha, if only she knew just how much I lo-lov—didn't hate her.

"Wait," I say.

"Hm?"

"Everything in this dream is like a manifestation of everything happening and will happen in reality eventually, right?" I ask her. "I mean, for demigods."

"I guess so."

I smirk. "So, then who's that girl you snapped at?"

She shrugs. "She kind of reminds me of Allison."

"That Nemesis girl who joined you guys like, a year ago? She has the hots for me?"

"Pbffft," she chokes on her cola.

I guffaw.

"Gods, you're such a mother-fucking asshole," she says as she wipes her mouth with her napkin.

She tries to hold in a laugh. "Yes, that Nemesis girl who joined a few months ago."

"Ahaha, my bad," I chuckle halfheartedly.

"And I'm in no position to tell you, a male, which of the Hunters has 'the hots' for you. Honestly," she shakes her head, chortling softly.

"Sure you are, Lieutenant Grace." I wink. She scoffs at me. "You can tell me you love me if you want, you know."

"In your dreams, Corpse Brain." She snickers.

"Wait—wait—" I say, raising my hands up stupidly because I know it pisses her off. "—we are in my dreams! Wow, who woulda known?" I gape at her dumbly. "You going to admit it or do I have to get you to by force?" I grin.

"Bring it, di Angelo."

And right on cue, there's a loud ear-splitting shriek and the ground begins to shake. A huge crack splits the ground, and it's slowly nearing us. I look at Thalia, begging her with my eyes to kiss me one last time before we both have to go. She smiles at me and leans forward. Holy Styx, this is it—

"Get out of my cabin, Nico." She smirks one last time then slaps me, zapping me as well in the process.

"Fuck it," are the first words that escape my mouth when I wake up. My head is rested on the cloudy walls, and I graze my fingers on the floor just to make sure I'm really here, and confirm it when I feel the cold marble on the tips of my fingers.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

I glance at the big golden clock around Zeus' neck.

4:37 am.

I close my eyes and focus on my cabin, feeling the darkness pull me in once again as I shadow travel. And only one other thought crosses my mind as I do so—Thalia called me Nico.

REVIEW!

* 11-7-2010: I originally wrote out Allison to be mentioned as the 'daughter of Prometheus', then I realized that Prometheus wasn't a minor greek god, but a Titan, so I made her a 'daughter of Nemesis' instead, because Nemesis was the first minor greek god that popped in my head, and it kind of fits... Hahaha. Oh, and I almost made her a 'daughter of Asclepius' too.

If you're wondering about the disclaimer...

1) It's in Spanish because I have to do my Spanish homework right now, but I refuse to; and

2) Because my classmates got me starting all over again during our field trip recently, I'm obsessed with "I'm On A Boat" by the Lonely Island, featuring T-Pain (I don't own this!). Yes, I do the dirty version, the clean one is too sweet for me.

Thank you so much for all the support I got for the first two chapters! It really means a lot to me (: And I'm sorry if Nico is whiney, and if he just goes on and on and on... about Thalia. But, I mean, you can't blame him right? The girl he loves is God knows where and he can't even be with her because she's sworn to eternal virginity - so yes, I just realized, because of their oath, a Hunter does die a virgin.

To all those who read it, I also updated my other story, "Til' Hell Starts To Freeze"! So if you haven't read it yet... I guess, read it! And don't forget to review!

I seriously don't know where I'm going with this story, but honestly, I think I like it so far. It's spontaneous (: But ideas for this story are more than welcome, so feel free to give some!

Yours, from a boat - Schoe P:

PS. I've always wanted to crowd-surf. I wonder if it's fun.. HMM.