Piper opened her eyes groggily. "Hello?" She called. Wait…this isn't her toilet. THis place has bright shining white lights, a sickly smell and a random girl next to her lying down in a made-shift bed. "Who the hell are you?" Piper demanded.
The girl looked into Piper's kaleidoscope almost sadly. She used her hands and motioned towards her mouth as her jaws moved up and down. No sound came out of her mouth but the girl seemed to be trying to communicate. After giving the girl a sympathetic smile for no reason, Piper looked around the area. A white curtain surrounded her bed and the girl's next to her. This looked like..oh god, she's in a hospital.
"Why am I here?" Piper wondered aloud.
Suddenly, the white curtain was pulled apart and two boys walked in. Piper blinked, right Jason Grace and Percy Jackson. "You're alive!" Jason exclaimed as he reached his phone and she could tell that he's texting somebody.
"Alive?" Piper scoffed. "Of course I am. And your first reaction is to text somebody when you see me awake?"
"Hey Pipes." Percy was holding a brown box. "This girl called Catriona wanted to give this to you." he said handing her the box.
"Cat?" Piper's eyes widened.
"Yeah." Percy looked a bit awkward. "She said you know her. Wait, you do right?"
"I do." Piper nodded. Cat used to be Piper's best friend but that was so primary school. They had a fight during their last year of primary school and none of them talked to each other again. Not recently anyways. She is sure that the tension between them is relieved, she meant they aren't going to fight over..whatever anymore. They just fell apart. Sometimes, Piper is tempted to strike up a casual conversation with her when they walk past each other but she never got round to doing so. Cat has her own friends now and so does she.
"Then take it." Percy threw the box towards Piper. The box landed beside her as she stared blankly into space still thinking wistfully of her times with Cat.
"Piper?" Jason waved his hands in front of Piper's eyes.
"What?" She blinked a bit distractedly.
"Sorry, thought you might have slipped into unconsciousness with your eyes opened or something."
"Idiot." Piper muttered.
Jason gave a cute little smile as if he heard her comment. "Anyway, I texted them. Hazel, Frank, Leo and Reyna are coming. Annabeth said something about having important business to deal with."
Percy moaned. "I hope it doesn't last all day. We are suppose to go on a date tonight."
"I can't get you a decent place to stay in." Annabeth reported. "Apparently, some International Maths Competition is held here around this time so all the rooms are booked. Do you mind staying in our local rubbish dump? There are plenty of comfortable rubbish to lie on and if you're lucky, you can find some cool gadgets there. Have I mention having rats as your hotel staff once you trained them?"
Luke groaned while taking another sip of his coffee. "Really? Nothing?"
Annabeth sighed. "My house is always an option but my step-mom would freak if he sees you. Don't worry about my dad, he's in some conference in San Francisco and won't be back until next week."
"How about your brothers?"
"I don't know? But they won't be going inside my room, they know what I can do to them." Annabeth grinned. "Just stay in my room the whole time, okay? If you want to get out, use the window and be sneaky in the garden."
"Great." Luke beamed. "I knew you would be a major help."
"So um..when are you out of town?"
"Don't worry, I'm only around for a few days. At the most, a week."
"Perhaps shorten that time?"
"If I can get what I came here for earlier." Luke promised.
As Piper's finger felt the brown box, the memory of her last fight with Cat appeared in her mind.
"Cat, don't do it!" Piper screamed as gray clouds formed over the two girls. Within seconds, little pellets of raindrops fell from the clouds.
Catriona's electric blue eyes flashed dangerously. "Fuck off! I don't even know why we started talking. This is my life and you can't stop me from doing whatever I want."
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into!" Piper warned desperately. "Why are you even dating a 16 year old player?"
"I know he use to be a player. He won't cheat on me though. I'm practically Goddess, nobody comes close to me in the beauty department." Her eyes rolled haughtily. "And all he cares is if a girl is pretty or not."
"You're 13!" Piper reminded her. "13 year olds don't just date 16 year olds."
"He loves me, okay? Just stop being in the way. Are you jealous or something?"
Piper was taken back. Jealous? No. She is just trying to help her ex-friend. "You know what his repitation is, don't you. What do people call him again? A man-whore?"
"Doesn't mean he's going to force me to have sex with him like what he did to Leila." Cat countered. "Look, I don't want to show up at his place dripping wet. I'm already soaked and I still have to walk a few blocks. Just bye okay?"
Piper felt useless. She tried convincing Cat not to go to his place but she is ever so determined to. She knew what was going to happen but is powerless to stop it. Should she feel guilty? It's not her fault but still. Piper knew she couldn't argue against Cat. All she could do is stand at one side and watch Cat stomp away angrily.
Piper shook the memory away. Catriona had stopped talking to her ever since. She wondered why Cat wanted to give her this brown box. A sign of friendship? A way to say 'how are you doing'? A gesture to make sure she's okay from the attack?
Feeling curious, she untied the white string holding the box together dramatically. The brown wrapping fell apart almost immediately and inside was a piece of paper. Piper was surprised, the box isn't small - it's medium sized. She expected more than just a piece of paper.
Oh well, Piper shrugged. She shouldn't have her hopes high on Cat. Not expecting a lot, Piper flipped the small notepaper.
'Piper,
957-0088 (AN: Not a real phone number. Please don't call this person in real life, it'll trouble them a lot.) Call him.
~Cat'
So Cat sent a phone number to me, Piper thought. How puzzling. However, Piper knew that for Cat, nothing is too weird. She is queen of anything strange happening. Piper didn't know the number, nor does she have a clue to who may own this number. She might as well try calling this person sometime.
"I know you're there." Hades said dangerously soft.
"Well well, Hades Di Angelo. You already know who I am so what's the point of hiding?"
"Exactly." Hades smirked. "Why don't you come out first?" He was in the storage room of a department store hiding behind cardboard boxes. His opponent is lurking somewhere behind the boxes in the same room.
"I prefer having my enemies in the open while I'm in the dark. I thought you'd know that by now."
"Are you being a coward? Come out." Hades hissed unpleasantly. "You messed with the wrong person. You shouldn't have put the note on Piper McLean. What if the wrong person picked it up? This matter is between you and me, nobody shall interfere."
"Oh, I knew you would have got it somehow." The voice taunted. "And you did so why does it matter?"
Hades frowned. "What if. There are many flaws in your plan, it can go the wrong way. You are only sitting in your office hoping that this would go the way you wanted. We all know there is more than 90% chance it'll turn out not as expected. You're playing a dangerous gamble, you're in a lottery and you can't win this."
"If I don't win your so-call lottery, I can try again. I use to love going to Las Vegas to gamble. You know, I always win. Being in the right place at the right time helps but of course, cheating does the rest. This is a gamble I won't loose."
"Shut up." Hades shouted ferociously. "Go torture whoever you like but you are not touching a bit of my fortune or am I being recruited to your little club. Keep my family, my properties and me out of your damn game."
A light laugh drew closer. Hades' heart beat faster. Never in his life he had to do something crazy like this. He had always played safe but this only offered him the hard way. "Come out, come out Hades. It's almost like we're in kindergarten again. Playing Hide 'N' Seek. I'm always good at those games, brother."
"Father had always favored you." Hades remembered bitterly. "Good thing he died."
"I knew it was your fault." A frightening scream echoed the storage room. "Killing your own father was totally not cool."
"And killing me isn't anything better either. We're from the same mother's womb." Hades snarled.
"I can't stand you anymore. I'm ashamed to be genetically related to you. Peekaboo, your game is about to end." Hades felt hot breath behind him. He knew what was going to happen. Taking his last gulp of air, he waited for something to hit him.
Surprised about what's in the box? I hope so and who do you think is Hades related to? Remember, this story isn't Greek Mythology so everybody isn't related.
Anyway, I'm back from camp and it was awesome! I'll be updating more often as I'll probably be on my laptop for quite a lot now.
~Kisses, Emily