Shadow of Myself

Chapter 1: Intrappolati (trapped)

Percy~

Men in white coats are evil men! Sigh, time to back up a bit further.

I was enjoying the little time that I could spend with my family. I was actively avoiding camp ever since this arrogant son of Zeus showed up. I was also avoiding my mother currently because of a monster attack. I know she doesn't hate me, but the attack happened fifty feet away from our apartment.

I sighed and stuck my hands in my pockets. My breath misted in the cool air of an approaching twilight in Manhattan. I vaguely wondered how the camp was doing. I told Annabeth that I was concerned about my education when she demanded to know why I seemed to be avoiding camp. For once, she bought it.

The wind whistled shrilly. It seemed to get darker. With a start, I noticed that there was a shadow over me. My instincts screamed of danger, but it was too late. I felt splitting pain in my head, and I blacked out.

I came to with a splitting headache. I muttered a curse and winced at my bright surroundings. My hands and feet were cold. That was due to the fact that I was sitting in a metal cage. My neck and back ached. I felt a collar around my neck.

I heard footsteps. I had gotten good at recognizing demigods and who their parent is. I looked up and saw a child of Hecate. She had a vicious smirk on her face. She circled my cage eyeing me like a prized piece of meat.

She turned to the man next to her and said, "He is perfect. We must begin the experiments right away."

The man frowned and asked, "Are you sure? The last one didn't make it."

I paled and backed up against the far side of my cage. What ever they are saying isn't good. I have no wish to die soon.

"He is perfect and before long he will be magnificent." She paused for a moment and a contemplative look crossed her face. "We will, however, have to make some minor changes to the original experiment we had in mind."

The man smiled and said, "Let's begin." He snapped his fingers and two werewolves stalked toward my cage. They opened it and dragged me out, snarling every time I struggled. They hauled me through the sterile white hallways until we reached an observation room. They strapped me onto the lab table and retreated.

The demigoddess came in closely followed by the man from earlier. I struggled uselessly against the bindings. She stalked toward me and ran a finger slowly down my chest and murmured, "A fine physical specimen."

I shivered with revulsion and twisted away from her, but it was futile. She smiled a feral smile and said, "Let's begin test number one." The man took out a clipboard and began taking notes. "Subject Six is a demi-child of Poseidon. Caucasian,male, approximately six feet tall with black hair and green eyes. Mother: Sally Jackson-Blofis. Beginning test number one."

An assistant brought in a vial filled with a swirling red and green mixture. She took it from him and turned to me again. She then began to inscribe runes onto the table around me. When she was finished, she force the contents of the vial down my throat. I gagged and my throat started to burn. My vision flickered, and I saw scary half-formed images appear at the edge of my eyesight.

I heard her voice from far away state, "Test number one appears to be successful so far. Subject's vital signs are slightly elevated. Brain wave activities are off the charts. The souls appear to be mingling." Wait, souls?

I heard screaming in my head. Little did I know that screaming was me.

The tests continued throughout that week. Some days it would be two vials filled with that questionable liquid, if it was even a liquid. The color was always changing.

I am getting massive headaches now. Sometimes I swear I can hear voices whispering. One time I almost died. I'm seeing things now. Images that don't make any sense. Sometimes it feels as if I get possessed. When I come out of these fits usually I find some image painted in my blood. I lost my nails within days. My fingers are tender all the time.

I lost track of how many days and vials it has been. My world is constantly filled with pain. There was one vial I hated. It was filled with this nasty black sludge that burned when I was forced to swallow.

I pace around in my cage. I mulled over that I might not even escape before I die. I doubt anyone is going to come looking for me. I catch sight of my reflection on the mirror glass on the door. It's dark, but my eyes glow an ethereal constantly changing color. My jet black hair looks like it's made out of shadows. My teeth are pearly white and look sharp some how.

Then I noticed how long my fingers were as well as my arms. I never noticed until today. I never noticed because I had always been strapped to that table or crouched in this cage.

They didn't come for me today or the day after. They didn't even come the day after that. By then my back had begun to hurt. My skin got darker even though I hadn't seen the sun in so long. I curled up and accepted my inevitable death. I drifted in and out of consciousness. Hunger clawed my belly and I thirsted for water.

In my delirious state I heard voices. A pitiful and scratchy whine made its way out of my mouth. I coughed harshly and the voices got closer and became more urgent. Finally the blessed blackness dragged me under and I knew no more.

Jenna's POV~ (A daughter of Athena)

My sister is worried. Many demigods have gone missing including the famous son of Poseidon. My older brother Malcolm has gone missing to as well as our oracle. Many Romans have gone missing too. We sent out a combined search party.

That search party is comprised of me, Gwen the daughter of Ceres, and a Satyr named Grover. Grover seemed worried. I think he knew some of the demigods that were missing. He tracked the scent to this run down building in the forest somewhere in Virginia.

The minute we walked inside Grover told us the air stank of the death of many demigods. He also smelled a stale monster stench. Reassured we explored deeper into the building. We talked in low tones. Grover led us to a door that had a mirror on it. We cautiously crept into the room.

When we saw cages we began talking. A quiet whine cut through the air followed by some hacking coughs. It came from the only occupied cage in this room. Grover seem to recognize who it was because he rushed forward. He fiddled with the lock and the cage door squeaked open. He grabbed who ever it was that was in there and hauled them out of the cage.

The person was male and looked odd. His hair appeared to be made of living shadows. His skin was a darkened tan. His fingers seemed longer than normal and the nails were white curved hooks with darkened tips. His hands were crusted with dried blood. His eyes were slanted and his lips were open slightly displaying pearly white teeth. His clothes were in tatters. He didn't look good.

Gwen shouted in fright. I went over to her to see what was wrong. She was standing in a doorway and the stench of decay was coming strongly from in. She rushed forward and knelt by two of the bodies in this room. Looks like we found the rest of the missing half bloods. We began the grisly task of identifying who was dead. The only missing demigod that was not dead was the son of Poseidon. That must be the person we found.

He's the only survivor.

We back tracked around the bodies and went back to the room filled with cages. Grover was hunched over him. He looked up. His eyes and face were worried.

"We have to hurry." He said. "He might not make it."

I hurried outside closely followed by Grover and Gwen who were carrying our unconscious friend. With a start I noticed we now had a fourth Pegasus in our group. This one was a pure dignified shade of ebony. It snorted and pawed the ground when it saw him. It approached slowly. It neighed.

"I know Blackjack", Grover murmured.

Blackjack stuck his head forward and neighed again.

Grover turned to Gwen and said, "Get him to camp. He is going to need help. Take Blackjack, he's the fastest pegasus besides Pegasus himself. Hurry."

Gwen nodded and swung up onto Blackjack. Grover and I careful placed the demigod, who must be Percy, in front of her. She carefully settled him against Blackjack. "Let's go Blackjack!"

The pegasus shot forward and soon they became a distant black dot in the sky.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I almost died laughing this weekend. The fate of the world was nearly doomed because of a nose bleed. For those who have read tBoO, you know what I'm talking about.

There is probably going to be an influx of Wilico stories. (WillxNico)

Nightshade