So, just read on…

Lin and Cassile have issues.

Chapter 6

Vomit for Tithonus

My mother made Lin and I go to school as usual. We tried not to avoid any weirdness from yesterday, but there was no avoiding it. Lin rode with me in the car to school, and Tiffany tried to start a cheerful conversation.

"You'll have a great day at school, kids!" She said, looking up from the lap top perched on her skinny knees.

We said nothing. The awkward silence killed any thought of making small talk. We got out of the car, me holding the door for Lin. Lin stepped out, her chains making a jingling sound.

We went to class, as usual. Lin went to her calculus class, and I went to European history. Cassile walked with me, since she was in the same class as me.

"So, how was your date with Lin?" She brushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes, and her combat boots echoed on the shiny linoleum tile floor.

"Awful." I answered. I was being careful with my answers. Cassile shouldn't know about Greek gods and what was happening. I couldn't tell mortals, Nico had told me.

I ignored Cassile's questions and slipped into my seat, doing to assigned work. I was busy copying someone else's homework, because I hadn't done it (family council wastes a whole lot of time), when Lin texted me.

AKP

Gt dwn hr. Mnstr trbl, bhnd schl.

LDA

I needed a way to get out of class. The bath room routine wouldn't work, the teacher was too wily and used to the tricks of kids for that to work. I needed to fake sick. But headaches weren't major; I needed something quick and extreme.

I remembered in the book, The Black Stallion, the main characters were trapped in the desert with no water, but they had camels. To get the water from the camels' humps, they stuck a riding crop down the throats of the camels, to get them to throw up.

And that's just what I did. I didn't have a riding crop (that's pretty obvious), so I used a finger. I shoved it down my throat, hoping that I wouldn't accidentally choke myself and die.

I gagged on reflex, and then vomit started to pour out of my mouth and onto the desk in front of me. I raised my hand. "Excuse me, Mr. Adair, but can I go to the bath rooms? I kind of threw up on myself."

Mr. Adair looked up from scoring papers; saw the mess on the desk. He said, "Mr. Prentiss, you may go to the nurse, clean your self up, and go home." He went back to his papers, unperturbed.

I got up, and Cassile did too. "Excuse me, Mr. Adair, but Alexei is really sick. May I help him to the nurse's office?" She put on a sickly sweet smile, enough to melt even the most hardened veteran teacher's heart.

With vomit on my shirt, I made my way outside. Every time I happened to encounter a teacher, I put my hand on my mouth and pretend to gag, as if I was going to pour the entire contents of my stomach any second. And student, teacher, or school worker hurried away quickly in distaste. This was really working!

I felt Cassile's hand on my shoulder. "You're faking it, I know. I saw you stick your finger in your mouth."

I shrugged her hand away. "Go away, please, Cassile. I'm sick, and it makes it worse when there's someone standing there watching me while I'm sick."

"It's something about you and Lin, isn't it?" Cassile kept following me. "And you're going to opposite way of the nurse's office and bathrooms. You're going to the back of the school, aren't you?"

"Cassile, now is not the time." I snarled. I wished she'd get the hint and leave.

I shoved open the door at the back of the school. It opened with a creak and a groan, and I made way around the piles and bags of trash and boxes. A heard a roar, and a crack. There were more loud roars. I skirted a pile of stacked boxes, Cassile following me.

I rounded a Dumpster, and then I saw Lin. She had her chain whip in her hands, the flashing steel whirling around in the air, to land with a sharp cracking noise on the man she was attacking. "Lin! That's a man, not a monster that you're fighting!" I yelled, my hands cupped around my mouth.

Lin looked around for me, then she crouched down, avoiding a blow from the man's arms.

"That's not a man," Cassile whispered. She touched my temples for a second, and then my vision started to go blurry. "I just gave you short term Mist Sight. It should wear off in the next few hours."

My vision started to clear again, and I saw the man for who he was. He was a cricket man, and the strangest thing I'd ever seen. He had plates fused to his body, and wings on his back. He had huge glittering eyes, and it was creepy, like from right out of a horror movie.

Lin kept on hitting him with her chain, and I could see some small dents on his exoskeleton. The man's antennae quivered each time a blow struck home. But the Cricket Man was so fast, that he ducked and weaved every time a blow intended for a joint came at him.

"Tithonus…" Cassile stood next to me, staring at the Cricket Man. "He should not be here! All the monsters...I heard…" She trailed off, and then she looked at me sharply. "Alex, shouldn't you be helping her?"

"Well, there isn't anything that I can do." I shrugged. "I don't have a fancy chain like Lin or a gun or anything."

"You can distract it. We can both take some cans and hide behind Dumpsters. You'll jump out from behind and I will too, and we'll both yell." Cassile suggested. She pulled off her combat boots, and then I saw that she had prosthetic plastic legs. She smiled thinly. "Go on, before it notices you." She pulled off the beige colored plastic feet, revealing goat hooves.

I hid behind a Dumpster, filling my arms with used, empty soda cans and beer bottles. I could see Cassile picking up some cement rubble. She saw me, and held her fingers to her lips, a symbol for being quiet. So I waited.

Cassile waved her hand at me, and then started to get up. She pulled herself up to the top of the Dumpster. I did the same. When she got to the top, she started to bang on the lid, and clocked the Cricket Man on the shoulder with a rock. I threw a soda can at it. It might not have been fully empty, because when it hit, a small fountain of orange pop flew out.

The Cricket Man looked up, at the two kids sitting on top of the Dumpster. And that's when Lin struck. With a loud cry, she swung her chain with all her might, hitting him at his neck joint. The head flew off, landing on a pile of candy and chip wrappers.

But the body kept on moving. Lin planted a foot on the decapitated body's chest. She began to hit all the joints. First the shoulders, and then the pelvis. One by one, the parts of the Cricket Man stopped twitching. It lay still, and with a final whack, it started to dissolve. I rubbed my eyes.

The Cricket Man turned to sand right in front of my eyes, which blew away on a wind. Lin tied her belt around her waist, and then her attention turned to Cassile and me.

She strode forward, the chains on her ankles tinkling. "Cassile. I didn't expect to see you here." She gestured at Cassile's goat feet. "You're one of them, aren't you? One of those Keepers." She said this with disgust. "You end up killing everyone, you stupid satyrs. We can take care of ourselves. You're really sneaky, Cassile. How did I not see you for what you are?"

"We Keepers protect our half bloods, but in your case, quarter blood," announced Cassile proudly. "And I have an illusion woven by the Master of Mirages, Connor Stoll. He spent hours making me look human. That's why I don't limp around. Like an obvious Keeper."

"Still, keep to the camp." Lin fiddled with her belt. "You attract attention, and where there are satyrs, there are monsters."

"So I'm guessing you know about the recent influx of monsters, Lin." Cassile's goat feet tapped on the ground. "But you're not telling. And I'm guessing that Mr. Pretty Boy, there, your boy friend, is in on it, too."

"Alexei isn't my boy friend," Lin hissed, a hint of menace in her voice. "And you can't convince me to go to that idiot camp of yours. They train the kids to fight, don't they? My father's told me all about it."

"Um…Excuse me…Are you done yet? I really need to get home." I gestured to my vomit stained shirt. "Because we're standing in a filthy alley, and it's not the best place to argue. Why don't you argue some other time, in another place?"

"Fine, whatever." Lin stalked past me. I hailed a taxi.

Author's Notes: REVIEW. Please. I scanned some pics in, and they're on my profile or look up or what ever you guys call it. Tell me what you think, and remember that I'm not the best artist, and I'm too lazy to shade everything. It looks like crap cartoons, right?

Anyways, Cassile is a satyr! What a shocker. Keep on reviewing, and why do I have to write a chapter a day?

It's freakin' crazy.