Hi, Rachel here! ;) Here's chapter seven. Like I said before, this one is going to pick up the story a lot, more so towards the end. And I'm sorry about there being no chapter last weekend, but I didn't really have much inspiration. Sometimes I get writer block for specific stories...

Anyways, as for our couple names, I'm going to extend that vote until the next chapter. So, remember, if you leave a review, vote for either Natabert, Robalie, or Ronat. :)

Enjoy!

Also, I'd like to thank my beta-reader, SerendipityInSerendipity, for editing this chapter. He rocks. ;)

If you like my stories, follow me at sallyjacksoning on tumblr.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJATO.


- CHAPTER VII: RANDOM LITTLE GIRLS -


My first reaction was to take a couple steps back. Random little girls appearing on street corners offering help? That was pretty much always a warning sign telling you to turn and run. And the way her eyes glittered... It was unnerving. She didn't seem like just a little girl.

Aaron was the first to speak. "Um... how?"

Korianne smiled, "I know the location of the camp you seek. I'd be happy to help you under these... circumstances."

"You have a ride?" Emma asked.

"Of course I have transportation, Emma," Korianne said, and began to make her way down the street. We managed to achieve a rare occurrence—the four-way glance. Emma had never said her name. Maybe she had just heard us talking...?

Nervously, we followed her down the street, my grip on Kenny's hand exceptionally tight. If this girl turned out to be a monster... at least I had my new weapon. That was one thing my mother had been good for. Though I wished I'd never have to use it... it might come in handy. Even I knew I was lying when I said I didn't need her charity. Besides, it was a lot lighter than the wrench that I'd discarded in a trash can on the way up to the bus stop.

Korianne weaved through the nearly empty streets effortlessly, not even stopping to read the street signs as she strutted across the pavement. The way she held herself looked a little ridiculous for an eleven year-old girl—she kept her nose in the air and her shoulders thrown back as if she was the most important being on the planet. Her dress brushed the pavement, swishing around her feet, and I couldn't help but notice that her skin was so pale there really wasn't much difference between it and the garment.

Also—another thing to note—even if it was April, it still was pretty chilly at three in the morning. Her dress was completely strapless, leaving her arms and shoulders bare, but it didn't seem to bother her at all. She didn't even have goosebumps while I was practically freezing in my tank top, wishing I'd been able to grab an extra jacket since I'd draped mine over Kenny. It also didn't escape my attention that Robert kept glancing at me, plucking at the sleeves of his own hoodie as if he wanted to give it to me. For a reason I didn't understand, I tried to push that to the back of my mind.

The rest of our group looked just as skeptical about this girl as I did—even Kenny seemed to be walking as far away from her as he could get without leaving my side. We continued winding through streets, passing by parks and strange buildings in places I'd never seen in my entire life.

Finally, when my feet felt like they were made of lead, I asked, "Where exactly are you going?"

Korianne didn't stop walking. "Not where, Natalie. I'm looking for something specific. ...ah ha!"

She went down the street, walking straight towards... an old fountain? It was quite large—a giant circle of dull, cracked marble with a statue of a woman standing in the middle, cradling a globe in her arms. She had flowers in her hair and vines growing around her naked body, but her mouth was wide open and there was a hole in the center—presumably where the water would've came out if the fountain worked. It looked like a very strange statue of Demeter.

Aaron, on the other hand, had other ideas. "Is that Snow White?"

Korianne's face morphed into a disapproving look. "Snow White..." Her eyes glittered a little, like that was an excellent joke. "No. It isn't."

"Right," Aaron murmured. "She's missing the birds."

Korianne walked up to the side of the fountain, the rest of us following closely at her heels. I studied the fountain, wondering why it looked partially familiar. Korianne stepped into the dry bottom of the fountain and walked up to the statue. She pressed her hand on top of the globe—right above where Australia should be—and shouted, "Enter!" in Ancient Greek.

The five of us scrambled backwards as a panel on the bottom of the fountain slid open with a great grinding noise, revealing a set of stairs leading downwards into the darkness. Korianne leaned over the entrance, examining her handiwork, before letting out a sigh.

"It's not the best way to travel," she said with a slight sneer, "but it's good enough."

"Um..." Robert mumbled, "what exactly is 'it?'"

Korianne frowned at him. "Underground tunnels, Robert. There is a network around the United States—only a few... select people know about them. The entrances are these fountains."

"That's where I've seen them before," I murmured. "I've seen one of these in Central Park, I think."

"Yes," she said. "There's also one that appears not far from Camp Half-Blood. If you know how to navigate the tunnels correctly, then you can reach your destinations in less than half the time of a normal commute."

"That's... convenient," Emma said, looking down nervously at the underground tunnel. It was my best guess that she didn't like the underground—she was the daughter of a wind god, after all. She glanced at Korianne again. "Are you sure this is safe?"

Korianne stepped onto the top step. She looked at Emma with amusement, and then gave a non-committal shrug. "Nope."

And then she disappeared into the tunnel.


Walking in a dark tunnel with a girl I didn't completely trust would never have made my top ten list of things to do. The tunnels were so dark I could barely see the silhouette of my hand if I held it an inch from my face, and the ground squelched under my sneakers as I walked. It was all around eerie and unsettling, whether it be from the darkness, the earthy smell, or the strange fact that the tunnel felt like it was eighty degrees instead of freezing like outside.

Kenny kept close to me, gripping my hand so hard I was afraid I was going to lose circulation in my fingers. Robert also hung close to my side, with his hand presumably resting on the hilt of his sword since his elbow kept bumping to me. Emma and Aaron were holding hands, still looking very unsettled. Emma was breathing hard as if she was trying to prevent a panic attack. Meanwhile, Korianne strolled through the tunnels absently, taking random turns and looking completely at ease. I really hoped she knew where she was going.

"So..." Aaron's voice echoed through the very, very quiet tunnel. "About how much farther, do you think?"

Korianne seemed to consider this. "Not very long. We're nearly there."

"That's good," Emma said, her voice a bit higher than usual. "Because I'm really tired..."

Aaron snorted softly and muttered, "And I'm a unicorn..."

"There'll be time to rest when we surface," Korianne said, ignoring Aaron. We went back to silence, listening to the wet smack of our shoes on the earth, and the plop of water dripping from the ceiling. I could still hear Emma breathing, and feel Kenny squishing close to my side as we turned a corner. Abruptly, Korianne stopped in front of a wall and muttered the password again.

The wall shuddered, and then dropped down into another set of stairs. We climbed them back up—Emma seeming the most enthusiastic of us all—and came out of another fountain. This one wasn't located inside of an empty plaza like the other fountain—in fact, it wasn't even in the city. It was in a graveyard.

The marble fountain stood in the middle, still looking worn and decrepit like the other one. Rows of carved graves spread out on all sides, most overgrown with weeds and brambles, none of the dates going up past the 1990s. A few even had the remains of flower bouquets laying near the headstones—piles of brown-gray mush and faded ribbons where the rain had turned the flowers to pulp. Vines snaked up and down the graves, crawling up the statue in the fountain, growing right next to the marble vines and exploding from the woman's mouth. Thick, dark woods surrounded the graveyard on three sides, the fourth led to a highway. The other side of the highway looked like a field, which would've been much more pleasing than popping up in an abandoned cemetery. I could barely make out a sign in the dark; DELPHI STRAWBERRY SERVICE: PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES! and an arrow pointing down the road.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Korianne said in a cool, cheerful tone, strolling through the lines of the graves. Robert and I shared a nervous glance.

"Um... thank you for the help," I said. "But we should probably be going now... heading to the camp..."

"Oh, no, not yet," she said, turning back to us. "You should probably get some rest first. Didn't you say you were tired, Emma?"

"But can't we just rest when we get to the camp?" Emma suggested meekly.

"It's an awful long walk from here, actually," she said, taking another step towards us. "Besides, your... little one"—she glanced at Kenny—"looks almost like he's about to keel over. Rest awhile, and start moving again in the morning."

"I think we can tough it out," Aaron said, shouldering his bag. "Come on, guys—"

"No, I insist!" she said quickly, sitting on the edge of the fountain. "I'll be walking around the graveyard, watching out for monsters." She gestured at the ground near the fountain. "Sleep. You'll be absolutely fine."

Heart in my throat, I hesitantly sat down on the ground with the others. We sat against the marble fountain, huddling under blankets and looking around nervously. Kenny burrowed into my side.

Robert frowned a little and murmured, "I don't like this at all."

"Me either," Aaron and I said in unison. Kenny nodded.

"Should we try to just sneak away?" Emma asked. "She... she doesn't seem right in the head."

"Exactly," Aaron muttered. "If she catches us leaving, there's no telling what she might do. She might have, like, a psychotic break or something and murder us all."

Kenny whimpered softly, and I glared at Aaron sharply. "That isn't helping."

He shrugged a little. "Fine. Murdered in our sleep, or when we're awake. You choose, Nat."

Kenny shuddered again, and I frowned. "Let's just do what she says. She's staying near the highway, anyways. Besides, we'd hear her if she tried to sneak up on us. Rest, and we'll deal with this in the morning."

"Okay," Aaron sighed, and then added in an undertone, "I suppose being murdered in our sleep would be less painful."

I chose to ignore that, and instead settled my head onto the cold marble. Laying in between Aaron and Robert with Kenny clutched to my side, I felt mildly safe (okay... not really), and I managed to close my eyes once Kenny was asleep. True, the blanket was scratchy, the marble definitely didn't make the best pillow, and there was a possibly schizophrenic girl lurking around, but I drifted off into dreams anyways.

Unfortunately, I dreamed about my uncle.

He was sitting nervously on the living room couch in my old house, his eyes flickering around the room. I could hear the heavy boots of the men walking around the house, and the sound of things being thrown and broken. One of them—the leader, with the gun—emerged from the hallway and began pacing in front of my uncle. He looked agitated, scratching at the bandage that had been wrapped around his head after I'd bashed his skull in with the wrench.

"So, Mark..." he started casually, standing in front of my uncle and talking as if they were old friends and he wasn't holding a gun. "How do you suppose we go about this situation, hm?"

"She was an ungrateful little girl anyways," my uncle said, clearly trying to suck up to this man and keep his life. "You saw her attitude. She probably wouldn't have been much use to you, anyways."

The man looked at him suspiciously. "If you knew her behavior was like that... then why would you bet her?"

Uncle Mark looked scared for a second before regaining his tactics. "I figured some guys like you... maybe you'd have a better time of whipping her into shape."

"Whipping her into shape," he mused. "Hm. And I guess getting clonked on the head with a wrench was part of 'whipping her into shape?'"

Uncle Mark began to sweat. "She's feisty, ain't she? Eh hehe..."

The man frowned, clearly unimpressed. "Well, you're going to have to make up for that loss. Say... you don't have any more money, do you?"

He shook his head vigorously. "Oh, no, you've cleaned me dry." That was a complete lie. I knew he had money hidden under the floorboards of his bedroom.

"Well," the man said, loading a bullet into his pistol. "We'll just have to work out another form of pay, right?"

He aimed the gun for Uncle Mark's kneecap, and his eyes got wide. "Oh, no! I-I can—"

I startled awake to the sound of the gunshot, flying up in my blanket. I was panting and sweating, stifling hot even in the chilly air. The other four were still sound asleep, but I didn't see Korianne around anywhere. That wasn't exactly reassuring.

I looked around again, noticing that the horizon was a tiny bit brighter, indicating that the sun would be rising soon. Even though it was a little brighter outside—the lighting seemed to make the graveyard look even more threatening somehow—I was still able to distinguish a blueish-colored light coming from around one of the gravestones. Frowning, I stood up silently and started to creep over towards the light, ducking behind the marble stone.

When I got close enough to peer around the stone and see the source of the light, I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to stifle a scream. Korianne was crouched at the bottom of the blank grave, holding out her hand. Inside her palm burned the blue light, almost like blue flames. But the strangest thing wasn't her. It was what she was talking to.

There was a face swirling in the grayish dirt—the face of a woman. Her eyes were mostly closed, almost as if she was sleeping. Her face was stretched into a grin, almost, but it looked sinister, like she had just succeeded at something particularly nasty. But the worst part was her voice—it was sleepy and drowsy, but filled with so much malice that hearing it made me shutter.

"You've done well," the woman said to Korianne.

Korianne smiled cruelly. "I serve you alone, mother. I am glad my work is satisfactory."

"Yes..." the woman crooned. "She is a perfect target, as I suspected, correct?"

"Oh, perfect indeed," Korianne said. "I can see the way she protects him... so easy to use. Spirited, too. We couldn't have gotten luckier."

"It will be an enormous help to my rise," she said.

"You will be able to use her for a variety of things, I'm sure," Korianne added. Use who? What were they talking about?

"Mmm... yes," the woman said. "A minor role to play, but important nonetheless."

Korianne nodded enthusiastically. "I'll have him to you by tonight."

"Make sure you do not slip up. Do not get too comfortable... pride is always a downfall," she reminded her.

"Yes, mother," Korianne said dutifully.

"Good," the woman said. "Good..."

The face faded back into the dirt, and Korianne stood. I dashed as fast as I could back to the others, and shook them all awake, my heart beating erratically.

"What's going on?" Emma whispered. Quickly, I explained to them what I'd seen.

"We need to go now," I urged, grabbing my bag. "Or she might—"

"Or she might what?" Korianne's voice said from behind me. I whirled around to see Korianne... but not Korianne. Now, instead of an eleven year-old girl, she was a full grown woman, gazing down at us, her eyes hard like stone.

"Eavesdropping, are we?" she snarled. "That isn't a wise idea, Natalie. You don't know exactly who you're messing with."

"Enlighten me," I muttered.

Her face twisted into another cold smile. She held up a hand, and suddenly, big, fluffy snowflakes started to rain down from her palm. "I am not some disgusting half-blood, demigod. I am Khione, the goddess of snow."

"What do you want from us?" Robert demanded. "We haven't done anything to you!"

"True," she said, "but I'm not after all of you. Just this one..."

As fast as lightning, Khione had Kenny in her clutches, clamping down onto his shoulders and holding him in place. He tried to struggle and get away from her, but she held fast. I summoned my spear from my necklace—effectively scaring Emma and Aaron to death—and charged forward at the goddess.

She simply snapped her fingers, and a blizzard erupted around us. I tried to reach her and my little brother, but it was useless. The snow stung my eyes and burned my skin, biting into my bare arms as it whirled around. I couldn't see two feet in front of my face, and all I could hear was her menacing laugh above the roar of snow. I couldn't even see any of the others.

I swung the spear around blindly and screamed in frustration, grabbing out for anything. My knee hit the side of the fountain and the wind spun faster while I was off balance, knocking me onto the ground. The spear skittered from my hand, and the snow began closing in, wrapping around me like a cocoon, encasing me in freezing water so cold I couldn't move. I could see Khione there, still holding onto a now sobbing Kenny, laughing as my friends continued to stumbled around in the blizzard.

I squirmed, trying to move towards her, but the snow and ice weighed a ton. She cackled. "You'll be seeing me again soon, godling. Farewell, and... good luck. You'll need it."

I watched in horror as a thin crust of ice began to spread over Kenny from Khione's hand, traveling up his wrists and freezing him in place as he cried. It spread across her too as she simply grinned at me, and before long they were both encased in ice. Abruptly, the ice shattered and the blizzard stopped, leaving only piles of mush where Kenny had previously been standing. I sat there on the ground, paralyzed with horror and cold, staring at the ground before the rest of the group stumbled over to me.

Then, it finally hit me.

"KENNY!"


Oh no! Kenny has been taken by the forces of Gaea... even though they don't really know that, yet.

Canon characters WILL be introduced in the next chapter, so, don't worry about this being all OCs. I hate stories that don't incorporate the elements from the actual book.

Anyways, if all is well, the next chapter should come out next weekend. But who knows? I might release it today, or Wednesday, or... well, you get the point. But no later then this weekend.

I hope you enjoyed reading this! Reviews are appreciated. :) Don't forget to vote on couple names!