Soo… I'm back…

I really don't have a very strong explanation anymore for why it took me so long to write this chapter, besides the fact that I didn't really have motivation. Plus, eighth grade life has gotten in the way. Can't wait until high school... :(

I hope that you guys haven't lost all of your faith in me, and are still interested in reading this. Thank you to all who reviewed my last chapter (even though it was more than eight months ago):

The Pink Archer, I am Katie G. Daughter of Demeter(No spaces), ILoveWillRiker, and Amicaricia10

Thank you so much guys!

Anyway…on with the story.

Thalia's POV

I opened my eyes, and instead of finding myself in the cave with Luke and Annabeth, I found myself in a dark hallway.

I looked around slowly, taking in my surroundings. The hallway seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions. The only light came from torches high up on the wall, flickering with dark green flame. They cast eerie shadows across the dark marble floors.

Where am I? I thought. Is this a dream?

With a jolt, I realized that my regular clothes were gone, replaced by heavy, robe-like clothes. They looked like the kind of clothes the Ancient Greeks wore. I could also feel the cold marble floor under my feet—my shoes were gone, too.

I suddenly felt as if something was pulling me, urging me to move forward. I needed to see what was down that hallway.

I slowly took a step forward, then another, the floor stinging my feet with every step.

Then I heard the faintest sound, far ahead of me. I stopped, my ears alert for any sound. Then I heard it again, closer this time. And I could almost make out the words—

"Thalia?" The voice called.

I gasped. I would know that voice anywhere.

"Luke!" I called, taking a few steps forward.

"Thalia? Is that you?" The voice again. Luke's voice. I was sure of it now. His voice made me smile. I had found something familiar in this strange place, in this strange dream.

"Luke! Luke!" I called, and started running down the hallway, my robes billowing behind me. "Luke!" My voice echoed around the cathedral-like hallway.

"Thalia!" Luke called, his voice much closer now.

"Lu—" I started, but the words turned into a startled gasp when I saw Luke.

He was Luke, just not the Luke I knew. This Luke had the same sandy blond hair, same blue eyes, but he looked older. He was several inches taller, leaner and more muscular, with a light tan. He had on a white shirt tucked into tan Bermuda shorts, with a sword in a scabbard attached to his belt. He was also wearing a necklace I'd never seen before—a thin leather cord with five different colored clay beads strung on it.

But what unsettled me the most about this Luke's appearance was a thick scar, like an old knife slash, that ran from beneath his right eye to his jaw.

"Luke," I gasped, horrified. He looked at me and smiled slightly. "W-what h-happened…?" I pointed at his scar.

"What? This?" Luke touched it lightly, and flinched, as if the memory hurt to think about. He looked at me, a hard look in his eyes. When he spoke, there was an icy edge to his voice. "The gods did this to me, Thalia. That's why I'll make them pay."

"What? What do you mean? What did the gods do—I mean, what do the gods do to you?" I asked completely bewildered. "What do you mean, 'I'll make them pay'? Where am I?"

Luke didn't explain, just held out his hand and said, "Follow me. I'll show you."

I was so confused. This Luke didn't seem like the Luke I knew at all. He didn't like the gods, but he never talked about them like this.

Or maybe this is just a dream, I thought hopefully. A regular dream. Maybe this isn't real, or a glimpse into the future. Maybe this is just my brain making things up, for a change.

But then again, I was a demigod—I never had a regular dream.

I took his outstretched hand, and immediately the hallway started to fade. Luke's hand slipped away from mine as the floor lurched out from under me and I fell down into the darkness.

Panic rose in my chest as I franticly tried to hold onto something, anything, to stop me from falling, but my hands grabbed empty air.

"Luke!" I tried to scream, but my throat had closed up in fear.

My arms flayed helplessly, and the howling wind rushed by me, pounding painfully against my ears.

I closed my eyes tightly. Wake up! I thought. Wake up!

Suddenly, the feeling of falling disappeared, as if someone had flipped a switch. I was laying on my back, unharmed, on what seemed to be a cold stone floor.

I opened my eyes slowly, breathing hard, but I didn't move. I could barely see anything in the dim light. Why hadn't I crashed into the ground?

I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the dim light, and I saw that I was in a dark cavern. I sat up slowly, and saw that I was on a steep slope leading into a gaping pit.

I struggled to my feet, and I felt a cold breeze sting my face. The breeze sent shivers down my spine and the hairs on my back stood up. I crossed my arms to stop them from shaking.

Where was I? Was this even a dream? I wasn't sure anymore, it seemed so real. I dug my nails in my arms, and gasped when I felt them break the skin. No, this has to be a dream. I told myself.

I felt compelled to walk towards the pit, like I had in the hallway. My feet started moving forward, but then I heard something, like a whisper, and the breeze grew stronger. It seemed to wrap around me, like a blanket. I stopped.

I shouldn't be here, I thought. I don't belong here.

"Luke?" I called, my voice shaking. I started to back away.

My back hit something soft, and warm. I open my mouth to scream, but I was cut short when a hand covered my mouth.

"It's okay." A familiar voice whispered in my ear. "Don't be afraid, he won't hurt you."

He took his hand off my mouth and I spun around. "Luke!" I gasped.

"Thalia, I need your help," He whispered and grabbed my wrist suddenly.

"Wait, who are you talking about? Who won't hurt me?" I asked, bewildered. I looked down at his hand. He was holding my wrist in a hard, almost painful, grip. "Luke, I'll help you, just, just tell me where we are."

I shivered as another cold breeze passed by me. It seemed to whisper in my ear, and sent a cold shiver down my spine. Luke put an arm around me.

"It's okay." Luke repeated. "Don't be afraid, he won't hurt you."

I shivered, but it wasn't from the cold this time. When Luke had spoken, his voice had been eerily calm. "Luke," I said slowly. "Who is he?"

Suddenly the wind grew stronger, and the whispering seemed to grow louder.

Luke looked up, over the top of my head. "My lord," eHeHHe said loudly. "I have brought her, like you asked."

I spun around franticly, trying to see who Luke was talking to. I saw nothing but the darkness, pressing against my eyes. "Wait, what, who are you—"

"At last," A voice spoke out of the darkness, sounding like a knife scraping against stone. "Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, I have heard so much about you."

I gasped and tried to pull away from Luke, but his grip on my wrist was too strong. "Luke, let me go!" I screamed.

"He won't hurt you, you can trust me," Luke whispered in that same calm voice.

I wouldn't look at him. I no longer trusted this Luke; he just wasn't the Luke I knew. "W-what happened to you, Luke?" I asked, my voice rising with every word. "Why are you like this?! LET ME GO!"

"I saw sense!" He screamed. "I saw that the Gods need to end! I need your help, help me take revenge on our fathers! Make them pay! Make them pay, Thalia!"

I shook my head, and tried to pull away. "That's crazy. Luke, that's crazy!"

His face contorted with rage, and the scar on his face rippled, making him look evil. Suddenly he let go, and I stumbled backwards. "You're a lost cause, a stupid spawn of the Gods!" He screamed. "You are nothing to me, Thalia! You're dead to me!"

Every word he said made me flinch, like he had hit me. Tears blurred my eyes. Before I could say anything, the ground fell out from under me, just like it had in the hallway.

I screamed as everything went black, and I fell through the air.

The feeling of falling disappeared again, leaving me laying on my back, and my heart beating painfully in my throat. My face was pressed against not a hard, cold stone floor, but one that was warm and comforting and somehow, familiar.

I opened my eyes slowly, breathing hard, but I didn't move. I could barely see anything in the dim light. Why hadn't I crashed into the ground? I asked myself again.

I reached my hand out slowly, and pulled it back sharply when I touched something warm. With my heart beating in my throat, I started to look slowly over to my side, but stopped. My hands were trembling slightly. Am I still dreaming? What am I going to see?

Just look, I told myself. You've fought monsters before. Look.

I forced myself to look over. My stomach gave a jolt when I saw it was Luke, but then I looked closer and I sighed with relief. It was the Luke I knew, not the one that was in my dreams.

His head was leaning on his shoulder and his sandy blond hair had fallen in his face. It made him look younger, somehow. He looked so peaceful right then, so carefree, with his eyes closed and his body relaxed, that I didn't want to do anything to wake him up.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position and leaned my head against the cool stone wall behind me. My heart beat in my throat, making it hard to breathe. I was still reeling from what had happened, what I had seen. I sat up and when I touched my face, it felt wet. It wasn't real, I told myself. It wasn't real.

I closed my eyes, trying to relax, but I couldn't get Luke's voice out of my head, "You are nothing to me, Thalia! You're dead to me!"

I looked at the Luke leaning against the wall next to me. I didn't know what I had seen in my dream, but I knew that the Luke I was looking at now wouldn't say that. Why am I still acting like this? I asked myself. I looked down at my trembling hands. I know Luke. It was only a dream, I told myself firmly. It was only a dream, it was only a dream… I repeated over and over again in my head.

I felt myself relax, and only then did I realize how tired I still was. I let myself drift off to sleep.

Sunlight pressed against my eyes, turning the back of my eyelids red.

I groaned and tried to turn my head away, but my neck was too stiff. Actually, my whole body was stiff and numb. My arm was pinned behind my back and my legs were folded awkwardly underneath me. I unfolded myself slowly, wincing as I felt my bones crack and the painful tingling in my arms and legs.

I opened my eyes and gasped as bright sunlight hit my face. I threw my hand up to shield my eyes as they adjusted to the light, and immediately regretted it as pain shot up my arm. A cry escaped my lips.

"Thalia, are you okay?" I jumped when I heard Luke's voice next to me.

I tried to turn towards him, but then I lost my balance against the wall and started to fall sideways.

Luke caught me by putting his arm around my shoulders. "Whoa, what happened? Are you okay?" He asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah, my arm just fell asleep, that's all," I reassured him.

I looked over at him, and immediately I remembered the dream that I had had earlier. As I looked at Luke's face, I couldn't imagine how Luke would change from someone I knew to someone I could barely recognize, someone who seemed to hate me.

I couldn't imagine what would happen in the future to change him like that, but I knew that it had something to do with the voice I had heard in the darkness. Luke had called it "my lord". Maybe it was a god, but then, why had he insulted the gods? And why had he asked for my help?

Why do my dreams have to be so confusing? I thought. What did that dream mean?

"Thalia? Thalia, are you listening to me?" I heard Luke's voice, and it jarred me back into reality.

"Oh sorry, what?" I asked, blinking, trying to focus on him.

"I said," Luke told me, trying not to smile. "Good morning, Thalia."

"Oh, good morning," I told him, looking at him closely. This was the Luke I knew, not the Luke I had seen in my dream. I didn't need to think about that right now.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Luke questioned.

I tried again to focus on him. "Yeah," I said slowly, "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"You were staring at me weirdly," He answered with a frown. "I thought I did something wrong."

"No, I'm just thinking," I assured him quickly. Hopefully he would ask about something else, anything else.

"About what?" Luke asked.

I hated my luck. He knew all about the kind of dreams we had, so I knew it wasn't going to be easy hiding that something was wrong. "Just a dream I had." I told him after a long pause.

"A dream?" He asked.

I nodded, not looking at him.

Luke didn't say anything else, and after a while, I felt him get up from next to me. "You know you can tell me if something is wrong, right Thalia?" He spoke slowly, as if he was waiting for me to answer him.

I said nothing, wanting to tell him everything, but not knowing how. How would I explain my dreams? Especially the one with Annabeth in it, only a few days before we had even found her, and then the one with him in it, which bothered me even more. I had known him for long enough that I knew that I could trust him, but would he understand, not just brush it off as another dream that came true?

I looked up. "I know," I replied finally, still not meeting his eyes directly.

Luke sighed, as if he knew that was all he was going to get out of me. He walked away.

I shook my head to try to clear my confusing thoughts.

I looked around to find something else to focus on, and my eyes landed on Annabeth. She was sprawled across both of our sleeping bags, and her face was covered by her curly blonde hair. I smiled.

Maybe that's what scared me the most about my dream—the fact that I might lose Luke. I remembered when I had first met Luke, and how long it had taken me to trust him. It wasn't because I didn't trust him, actually, but because of the fact that everyone that I had ever been close to were gone now, except Luke.

As I looked at Annabeth, I knew Luke was not the only person I cared about anymore. Maybe I had lost Jason, but I was not going to lose Annabeth and Luke.

"Thalia," Luke called, pulling me out of my thoughts, again. "Come look at this!"

I blinked, disoriented, and that's when I realized that my eyes were wet. I hastily dried them on my sleeve so Luke wouldn't see.

I went over to where he was, looking through the weapons we had found at the warehouse. I quickly scanned over them, and the quiver of arrows at Luke's feet caught my eye. I hadn't even thought about the bow Luke had shown me, let alone thought that Luke had actually brought them with us.

I looked up, and saw that Luke was holding something in his hand. "What's that?" I asked.

"It's what I wanted to show you," Luke explained, opening his hand to show me a roll of money. I felt my jaw drop in surprise. "I found it in with the arrows."

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I was going to leave the arrows somewhere when we were running, because I thought it would weigh us down," Luke looked at me, then down at the money in his hand. He laughed lightly and shrugged. "It's a good thing I changed my mind."

"Luke, do you know what this means?" I grinned and shook my head in disbelief. "This changes everything!"

"I know," was all he said.

Afterwards, Luke and I agreed that we would go out to get food, because we were running dangerously low. So, as Luke packed our backpacks with the things we needed, I went over to where Annabeth was sleeping, still curled up on our sleeping bags.

I felt bad about waking her when I saw how cute—and how peaceful—she looked.

I rolled my eyes inwardly—how many times had I said, or thought, the word "cute" in the last week? Way more than I'd like to admit. A few weeks ago, I would have been disgusted with myself if the word cute passed my lips. Heck, a few weeks ago, I wasn't nearly so worried about how I treated Luke like I was now. Was I growing soft, or was I just opening up to them more?

I blinked, trying to clear my head. Focus, Thalia, I told myself. Focus.

I knelt next to Annabeth's head and shook her shoulders gently. "Hey, Annabeth," I whispered. "Time to wake up." She groaned and rolled away from my hand. I shook her shoulders again. "C'mon, it's time to wake up now."

She opened her eyes. "Wha's wrong?" She asked groggily.

"Nothing," I reassured her, gently. "Luke found something that will help us get food, and I woke you up so you could go with us."

"Really?" Annabeth asked, propping herself up on one elbow, looking at me with hopeful eyes.

"Yeah," I told her. "Do you want to go now, or wait?"

She nodded. "Now."

Then she sat up, and I stood up and pulled her to her feet. "Well, then," I smiled, and smoothed down her blonde hair. "Let's go."

Luke was waiting outside, with all three of our backpacks slung over his shoulder. "What took you so long?" He complained, but the small smile on his face told me he was just joking.

"Impatient, much?" I retorted, mockingly.

Luke smiled, and threw me my backpack. He handed Annabeth's hers, and gestured at us to follow him. I allowed them get a few feet in front of me, before I let the smile slide onto my face.

Luke and I had always joked with each other like that, until a few weeks ago. It was good to be back in our comfort zone, instead of me apologizing to him all the time, and the tension that seemed to be between us was gone, hopefully.

I quickened my pace so that I was walking alongside Luke. "Where are we going, exactly?" I asked him. I had just now noticed that we weren't going towards the river, but walking along it.

"Don't get too excited, we're still gonna go through the river," He told me, trying to suppress a smile.

"Hey!" I shoved him lightly.

"I don't want to walk all this way in the river. Do you?" He asked, turning to look at me.

I shook my head quickly. The last thing I wanted to do is walk through the river all the way back out of the forest.

"Are you okay?" Luke asked suddenly.

I was caught off guard by his sudden question. "Yeah…what do you mean?"

"I mean this morning, after you woke up, you were…I don't know…you were just, out of it, like you were worried about something, or you were thinking about something," He spoke slowly, as if he were searching for the right words.

Part of me wanted to tell him that it was nothing; that he shouldn't worry about it, but part of me didn't want to lie to him.

"It was a dream that I had," I told him, after a long pause. "And you were in it."

"I was in it?" Luke repeated. "I was in your dreams?"

"Yeah," I explained, searching for the right words. I didn't know how to explain it him. "You were in it…but it wasn't you. It was like an older version of you…but you were different, and there was this voice..."

Luke looked at me, confused. I shook my head. "You know what, never mind," I sighed.

I walked ahead of Luke, and started towards the river, but Luke grabbed my wrist to stop me. I turned around.

"Hey, if you don't want to talk about, that fine," Luke told me, his voice quiet. "But you can tell me anything, I'll listen to you. You can trust me, Thalia."

I wanted to tell him everything; to tell him about the dreams that I had been having, about my mom and Jason, how my life was before we met, but I couldn't. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, it was that I couldn't bring myself to open up to one person so much. I had spent my whole life hiding things from people—even the people I trusted—that I couldn't suddenly change that now.

"I know that, Luke." I looked up at him, pleading silently with my eyes.

"Thalia, Luke? Are you okay?" Annabeth asked, bringing both of us back into reality.

I pulled away from Luke, and smiled at her reassuringly. "Yeah," I held out my hand. "Ready to go, kiddo?"

She took my hand, and then I made the mistake of looking at Luke. But surprisingly, instead of seeing anger or disappointment on his face, I saw only understanding. He smiled at me.

"C'mon, we need to get going before it gets dark," Luke stated, before turning and walking into the river. Annabeth and I followed him.

Maybe Luke was more like me than I had realized. Maybe he had gone through the same things, and he was just so used to hiding them, that he couldn't tell anyone. Maybe I had been misreading Luke all along.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when the cold river water soaked into my shoes. I gasped, and so did Annabeth. A few feet ahead of us, I could hear Luke cursing under his breath. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at him.

After what seemed like hours, we finally got to a place near the city.

I splashed out of the water, my legs weak and unsteady. My wet boots felt like weights on my feet. I sat down quickly on a large bolder so I wouldn't fall down.

I shook my head—I could barely stand in these shoes, let alone walk all the way through the woods, through the city to get food, and back again.

I turned to Luke, who was just now coming out of the river, followed by Annabeth, both of whom looked as comfortable as I felt. "Are we just supposed to walk into a restaurant with soaking wet shoes?" I asked.

Luke shook his head and smiled at me. "No, do you really think that I didn't think about that? I put an extra pair in your backpack."

"Oh," I said sheepishly. I hadn't thought about bringing shoes.

I pulled my backpack towards me and unzipped it. Maybe I hadn't thought to pack a change of clothes, but Luke had. Actually, he had done a lot more than that. He had put two full bags of ambrosia, two bottles of nectar, a jacket, and a pair of sneakers in my backpack. I pulled out the jacket and shoes.

"Hey," I looked at Luke. "Thanks!"

After I had put on the jacket and the sneakers, I turned back to my backpack to zip it up, but then I remembered something. I pulled out my mace can and put it in my pocket. You could never be too safe.

I stood up, brushing off dirt from my jeans and walked to where Annabeth and Luke were waiting a few feet from me, sporting dry shoes and—in Annabeth's case—an oversized army jacket.

"Let's go," Luke said, nodding his head towards the woods. We followed him, but I realized that he hadn't really told us where we were going. I frowned.

"Where did you get all these clothes?" Annabeth asked curiously, looking down at the jacket.

"We found them," Luke said, shrugging his shoulders.

I didn't know what to say—it wasn't the truth, but it wasn't a complete lie either. We had gotten the clothes from a donation bin in the back of a clothes store, so it wasn't technically stealing, even though we hadn't asked for them. Hey—it was a bin for clothes for the homeless, and really, we were technically homeless. We didn't really have a choice—the store employees would have been a little suspicious if a twelve year old and a fourteen year old came in asking for clothes. It wouldn't have helped the whole "low profile" thing we were aiming for.

"So where exactly are we going?" I asked Luke. I was surprised at the tone of annoyance in my voice.

I guess I was used to leading, instead of following someone unknowingly, not knowing exactly what was going on. It was like following someone mindlessly off a cliff, even though you had seen the people in front of you fall off the edge. It drove me insane—the idea that I wasn't even in control—even though I had purposely allowed Luke to lead us.

It was hypocritical of me, really, to complain of him not telling me where we were going, when I used to do the same thing to him all the time.

"Sorry," I apologized quickly, not meeting his eyes.

Luke sighed. "Thalia, stop. I thought we already went over this. You don't need to apologize all the time. You just wouldn't be you if you didn't boss me around." He smiled.

"No...it just, it came out wrong," I shook my head, shoving my hands in my pockets. Why did I have to complicate everything?

"Hey," He lightly nudged my shoulder with his. "I know what'll cheer you up—a burger."

That caught my attention. I looked up. "What?"

"You're hungry. All of us are." He looked at Annabeth, who nodded in agreement. "And I know the cure. A nice, juicy burger with extra cheese and—"

"Okay, I get it, I get it!" I laughed. "So I'm guessing we're stopping by a restaurant?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Bingo."

I rolled my eyes, but the smile stayed on my face. Maybe there was something different between us, but he had just reminded us that we had found a break—a big break. No more wondering if we were going to be hungry for the next week—like we were before, until we found an abandoned truck packed with sandwiches. I thought we had gotten lucky with that, but I just didn't know how lucky we could get. I just hoped it would last.

As we left the familiar cover of the forest, and stepped onto the sidewalk, I suddenly felt exposed. In the forest, we could most likely hear approaching monsters, and the forest gave us places to escape and hide. Here, we were out in the open, where we couldn't run if monsters found us. It made me want to turn around and forget about getting food, but I knew we needed it, so I dug my nails into my palms to keep myself walking forward.

"That looks like a good place," Luke pointed straight ahead of us.

I looked at where he was pointing at—a little restaurant at the end of the street we were on.

"Okay," I agreed, trying to keep my voice steady, so Luke wouldn't notice how nervous I was. "Let's go."

So there's the chapter. Actually, this chapter was twice as long, but I cut it in half. It still is the longest chapter I've written, and I think it's almost enough payment for my nearly ten month disappearance, hopefully.

My writer's block seems to be gone, for now. I've been working on a few other stories, which is why I haven't been working on this one lately. A few are almost complete, so I might post them soon.

Anyway, I hoped you like the chapter. Thanks for reading!