Percy woke up in her room at the lotus hotel, blinking. A strange dream yet again. A horse and an eagle fighting on a deserted beach while thunder clapped, and then suddenly a silence fell on the land as if someone pushed the mute button on a video. The only thing she could hear was her own heartbeat as the eagle charged at her, claws extended and its beak opened in a silent shriek. The white horse stopped it, allowing the feathered creature to slam into its body knocking them both to the ground. The horse dispersed like a popped bubble and the eagle turned into a shining ball of light, slowly taking a form of a human, a boy her age bathed in a golden glow with a sword in his hand. For a moment, she was happy. He seemed like an ally, someone to help her stop this fight, but then, when their eyes met, she saw a storm in his eyes as he charged at her, ready to kill. The last thing she saw was a golden line slashing through the dark sky.
"Weird…wonder what Luke would say about this…" Thunder clapped outside her window. "Hmm…omens" She shied. Lightning…Zeus…They needed to start moving some. Maybe one more day to recover from the road and.. a short shriek and a whoosh of water was heard from the bathroom. A cold chill ran up her spine. Did someone break in?
"Hello?" Percy called cautiously, reaching to uncap riptide. Slowly, she made her way towards the bathroom, opening the door with a kick and rolling to the side. At first, it was like something had attacked her, but it was just a thick cloud of warm fog that filled out of the room. Looking inside, she groaned. Both the sink faucet and the shower were spraying piping hot water at full blow, filling the small chamber with milky mist, also flooding the floor.
"What the Hades?" Coming in, she tried to shut off the water but to no avail. It didn't even respond or listen to her powers.
"Percy.." A whisper sounded behind her. Jumping, she slashed the air with her sword blindly. No one was there. Only a small mirror and…a face in the mist? What the…no, wait it's her reflection just covered by perspiration. Or was it?
"Percy…" The whisper sounded again. And try as she might, she could not find its source. Her heart starting to beat faster, adrenaline pumping through her veins. "Percy!" The voice sounded just behind the girl as if spoken right into her ear. Percy sliced the air once more, destroying the shower curtain.
"Who's there!?"
"Shh...Percy…you need to run!"
"Is that a threat?" She huffed, tightening her grip on the sword, No matter where she stood the whisper was always behind, straight by her ear. A woman's voice.
"No…a warning...you need to go…run…he's gone mad, he sent him to kill you..."
"What…who, why?" she blinked "Are...are you a water spirit? Why won't you show yourself…?"
"…Get your friends…run…there's no time.."
"Run…from what a monster?"
"Yes….he's coming …coming now! RUN!" The sentence ended with a yell in her ear. Percy grimaced, placing a hand to her ear.
"Fine! Don't yell…" The mist subsided in a meter of seconds , the taps stopped and nothing seemed to indicate that the thing that happened, actually happened. Except now, her hair was curled up in an bit of a cherub look and the clothes were soaking wet. Wonderful. She managed to draw out the moisture out of her clothes but the hair refused any alterations. She looked like a cute tomboy now. Aphrodite must be jumping with glee. No matter, they will straighten out eventually...they have to...grabbing her back pack, she pushed riptide into her pants' pocket and sprinted out of the room. If the warning could be trusted…then what ever was coming for her was already in the hotel. So she needed to be extra careful, at the same time finding Annabeth and Grover. Who knows where they can be? Stopping by the elevators Percy gulped, hearing the steady ping of the machine moving. No way in Hades was she going to be trapped in a small box with no way out. The stairs were far better, at least you had room to fight or flee. Not stopping for anything and anyone, the demigod ran until she collided with some one turning in the corner, at full speed.
"Ouuchh.." Percy groaned out loud, holding her nose.
"Uh hey…you okay?' came a soft voice, looking up from her place on the floor, she saw a blond boy getting up to stand, offering her a hand. In the dim light of the stair case he looked…familiar.
"Luke?"
"Um…excuse me?" The boy seemed confused, but he squeezed her hand and hauled her up.
"Um.. nothing…you just reminded me of a friend, he's blond too."
The boy laughed shortly. "Yeah, us blonds are all the same...copy and paste .." Percy couldn't help but laugh at that.
"Ah, sorry about this running into you…seriously. You're also...totally not like...that other guy.."
"Oh and…is that a compliment?" He smiled. Was he flirting with her? Never mind.
"Don't know… do you like stealing things?"
"Um, no"
"Then it's a compliment." She shrugged her arms. "Ah by the way, I'm P…Pearl…"Percy smiled
"Nice to meet you Pearl...I'm J…' the elevator in the shaft scratched horridly, and both of them cringed at the sound of metal and cement colliding.
"Uh...sorry...I didn't catch that…J what? "
"J…"the elevator cried once more drowning out the rest of the name.
"It must be stuck or something."
"Yes, probably."
"I'll tell the maintenance once we're down there…"
"Sounds reasonable…but they probably already pushed the emergency button.."
"I'm going down there anyway, so it's not like I have to go far.."
"Hmm, it's a long way down from here at least 4 more floors. The blond looked at her suspiciously. "Why didn't you take the elevator?"
"Um…exercise?"
"Exercise?"
"Ugh, I'm impatient ,okay? I hate waiting for stuff! And besides, you saw how fast I ran.."
"Not that I saw so much as I had felt it…with that speed you should get a ticket or something." J laughed.
"Thankfully, there's no cops around," she shrugged. And then, the corridor went totally black, except for the light streaming out of a window at the end of the corridor.
"Power outage?" Percy tried to reason, but the cold chill on her spine told her otherwise. There was nothing normal about this darkness. A dark shape toppled into their line of sight from one of the rooms. Shapeless, blobby, pitch black it crawled on the floor like a maggot. To her surprise, Jason stood in front covering the demigod with his body, producing seemingly out nowhere, a golden sword.
"Stand back.."
"You...you're a demigod!?"
J stiffened and casted her a dark look. Probably fearing he was now surrounded by monsters, Percy rushed with an explanation.
"I'm on your side!" Uncapping riptide, she smiled. "Family stands together…!" The blond smiled, nodding.

The maggot, meanwhile, glided towards them with increasing speed leaving a black trail behind. Poor mortal had decided to leave the room at that time, and the black mass slammed into him like a tidal wave, it must have been liquid because it just devoured the shrieking man like something out of a scary sci-fi movie. In a matter of minutes, the only thing left is the bones of the mortal with the black liquid oozing oof of them
"Holy crap."
"You don't say," J replied trying to contain the urge to shiver. The hissing noises reminded him of some gigantic organ, digesting food.
"If we attack it is going to just enclose around us and do as it just did with that guy…
"Any ideas then?"
"Just one, but I need it to be distracted." She looked at a built-into-the-wall fountain not far from where the creature was now. It might end up straightening it, but then again, water might also dilute it or something.
"You want me to attack it head on?" He snapped his head back, looking at her in disbelief.
"What? No! Just.. throw something at it that will make it stop! Down!"