Hey, y'all! I honestly intended to be much further along with this by now, and right now updates are a bit slow, but they should speed up in a few weeks. Thanks for reading! Don't you forget to review!

Chapter Three: Demi-What?

"What do you mean you don't know where my daughter is?"

"I-I don't know what to say, Mr. Cohen," I said, my voice turning into a perfect replica of Ava's timid one. Me? Timid? Yeah, that was a usual experience! This man frightened the hell out of me! It was a billion times worse than any stupid monster.

"I thought you were here to take her to camp," He said, sighing loudly, and collapsing onto a chair. "I thought you would keep her safe."

"Camp? Why would I take her to camp?"

He sat up straight, suddenly. It was alarming how he went from slouched to ruler straight so quickly. His brown eyes peered at me through his dark rimmed glasses, and I just sat there, feeling entirely too awkward.

"You don't go to that camp? Camp Half-Blood?"

Half-blood.

It rang a bell somewhere within the catacombs of my memory.

"If it helps," She continued, "I don't usually kill girls. Even filthy half-blood girls."

"Oh, puhlease! You stupid half-bloods think you're so damn smart, and then you go ahead and call me a vampire! That stupid legend was based on me!"

She had called me a half-blood. But, that wasn't all. I had heard that word again and again, but I'd never paid any attention to it. It had always just slipped my mind. I could remember times from when I was six and a teacher mentioned that word. A strange man off the street had called me it when I was eight. And the very day that I decided to run away I had been called a half-blood by a terrible, snake-like thing.

Why hadn't I realized it before? Why had I been incapable of putting together the pieces of the puzzle until now?

Because before now, I had thought I was crazy. I had been entirely alone, and half of the time I was under the belief that I was imagining things.

"What's a half-blood?"

Almost all of the sadness that had clouded his eyes when I admitted that Ava was gone vanished and was replaced with confusion. His gaze made me feel obligated to turn away, but I stared right back at him.

"How old are you?" He asked, speaking up finally.

"Fifteen."

His eyebrows knitted together in complete confusion, and it looked almost like he was attempting to solve an impossible math problem in his head.

"Your parents- what do they do?"

Generally speaking, I would never give away personal information to a stranger. However, I had allowed the bitch to take his daughter and it was all my fault. I owed him. Besides, he had allowed me to stay in his home without a second thought- clearly that was the biggest mistake of his life.

"Mom's an interior designer and Dad's an IT."

"You haven't got a step-parent?" He pried.

I didn't like that he was asking thorough questions, but I answered, nonetheless.

"Nah, I was born before Mom and Dad married, but he's still my biological dad."

Mr. Cohen's eyes lit up as though he had finally discovered the solution to that impossible equation.

"Lola, I'm going to ask you something, and you need to know that you can trust me. I have to know the truth. Ava- something took her, didn't it?" He spoke very slowly, wincing when he mentioned his daughter.

I just gaped at him. Was it possible that she had told him about the creatures she saw? Or could he see them too?

"Y-Yes. I'm sorry, I should have tried harder. I should have-"

"There's never any point in thinking of what should have been done until after you find a solution," he told me calmly. "Did this thing take her? Or did it hurt her?"

He didn't say person, he said thing. Which meant only one thing. He knew.

"It took her. I don't think it plans on hurting her, it's more of a hostage kind of deal. The thing wants my brother, and it will exchange him for her."

He frowned, his eyes darting around wildly as the gears spun in his head.

"Your brother- Don't say where he is, just tell me if he's somewhere safe."

"That's the problem," I said in an empty voice. "I don't have a brother."

Mr. Cohen- who had insisted that I call him Craig, but that just felt downright wrong- had refused to tell me anything else after that. He wouldn't even mention that he could see the monsters or anything. He just said that somebody was going to come and explain it all to me. Originally, I was worried when he told me 'his friend' was coming, because I immediately wondered if this whole thing was a trap. But then I remembered the horrible pain in his face when he learned about Ava. How he had looked like his entire world had been stolen from him after one single sentence.

Now, however, that sadness had been toned down a bit. He was more concentrated on coming up with the perfect, fool-proof plan to get her back. See, that's the kind of guy he was. In the entirely short time I'd known him, I noticed that he was a math kind of guy, just like Ava. He was all about having everything logical and in perfect order. Which was why the house was freakishly clean.

"Are you sure that this is the best idea?" I asked, my gaze shifted to the clock. It had officially been three hours since Lola had been taken, and we hadn't done anything to get her back yet.

"Yes."

"But what if he never show-"

I was cut off by a knock at the door, and Mr. Cohen rolled his eyes at me. I watched, carefully, as he looked out the window, before opening the door. I wished more than anything that I could go back in time, and warn Ava do have done that before she opened the door. I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I was holding when he relaxed and opened the door.

Waiting casually behind the door, leaning up against one of the pillars, was a teenage boy.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical. When Mr. Cohen told me that someone was going to explain everything, I suppose I had expected a bit more than a teenager decked all in black. What I wanted was someone who could help us get Ava back. Someone who was capable of that, and even though this boy appeared strong, I wasn't convinced that would be enough.

The boy walked in as soon as the door was open, glancing warily behind him before shutting the door and locking it. That sure as hell didn't make me nervous or anything crazy like that.

"Nico, right?"

Glancing at Mr. Cohen in astonishment, I couldn't help but wonder what the hell he was thinking. What was he doing bering in some kid he hadn't even met? This was a matter of life and death for his damn daughter! Shouldn't he be more careful about it?

The guy nodded his head, glancing at me, and waited for someone to speak.

"I'm Craig and this is Lola. My daughter, Ava, was taken by a monster earlier today."

I didn't miss how he winced at that last sentence. And I also noticed that this Nico didn't look the least bit surprised. Was this normal for him?

"Taken?" Nico spoke up for the first time, and I shivered slightly at the lack of emotion in his voice. "Are you sure she wasn't…"

"She's alive."

He looked at me carefully.

"How do you know she'll stay that way?"

"Because Ava's a hostage. She said that she'd let Ava go if I give her my brother," I answered, looking back into his dark, guarded eyes.

"Who's your brother?" He asked, continuing to look me in the eye. Almost as if he was trying to intimidate me. Well, I wasn't about to be intimidated by him.

"I don't have a brother."

"But you're a demigod," he said in a 'duh' tone of voice, as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

"What the hell did you just call me?"

"Nico, she doesn't know."

My head whipped back and forth from Nico to Mr. Cohen. What were they even talking about? What were they hiding? And what the hell was a demigod?

Demigod.

The more I thought about it, the more familiar it seemed. It was as if I'd heard that word before, but I couldn't quite remember where.

My mind flashed back suddenly to a sixth grade history test question. What is the name of the mortal child of a god and human?

I'd gotten that question wrong. In fact, I'd flunked the whole Mythology unit. I remembered that clearly, because Mom had been pissed when she saw my test scores, and I hadn't been able to give her any reason as to why it had happened. That had been a long two weeks trapped in my room, pretending to study.

But why did Nico call me a demigod? Did he seriously think Greek Mythology was real?

Or was I wrong? Maybe I was remembering it all wrong, and demigods didn't relate to any kind of mythology.

"What's a demigod?"

"How old are you?" Nico demanded, not bothering to even acknowledge my question.

"Fifteen."

He sighed, running a hand through his dark hair in what looked almost like annoyance. He cursed under his breath, but I couldn't quite make out what he said and it sounded almost like a different language.

"What is a demigod?" I repeated, growing frustrated. How hard was it to answer my damn question?

"Someone who's parent is a god and the other parent's human."

I gaped at him, and looked back at Mr. Cohen, only to see he didn't look shocked at this revelation. In fact, he looked rather calm about it.

"Are you kidding me? You seriously think I'm going to fall for this?" I demanded, growing angrier by the second.

Was this all some sick joke? Did they think this was funny? Was this Mr. Cohen's way of making fun of me when I told him about the monster? What about Ava?

"Lola, Greek Mythology is real," Mr. Cohen said, reaching over to put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I stepped back before he could touch me.

"Uh, no, actually it's not," I said, glancing sideways back at the door. I eyed Nico and wondered if he'd chase after me if I ran. If he did, I wasn't sure if how fast he would be.

"It is. You've seen monsters your entire life, and no one else has. Why do you think you've seen them? You're different. You're the daughter of a god."

"No, I'm not! My parents are completely. one hundred percent human!"

"You were born before they got married," Mr. Cohen spoke up, "Which means that he isn't your father." I stared at the two of them in astonishment. They actually thought they were making a valid argument about all this. Which they definitely weren't. Because all this Greek shit didn't exist. It was all stories invented by some insanely bored Greeks thousands of years ago. There was no truth behind it whatsoever.

They were both watching me carefully, and I tried to inch towards the door without them noticing.

"You're lying! They wouldn't lie to me!"

One step backwards.

"Are you sure? Because it looks like they already have," Nico said, getting frustrated with me.

One more step.

"Of course I'm sure!"

Another step.

"Monsters exist. You know that because they've been following you around for as long as you can remember. Other people can't see them, only you can. Haven't you wondered where they come from or why they are always after you? Have you thought that maybe there's a reason that it's you and not someone else they want?"

I paused misstep and stared at Nico in surprise. It felt almost like he was reading my mind, but of course that wasn't possible…Was it?

For years, I had thought I was crazy. I thought that I had to be delusional if I was seeing monsters. Even now, my sanity was questionable.

Here, these people were providing me with an explanation. Answers to the questions that had eaten away at me this whole time. I'd had countless sleepless nights because of these questions. Here I was, being offered answers, and I wasn't taking them. Why?

Because if it was true, then Mom and Dad had lied to me.

"Ava," I began, my gaze shifting to Mr. Cohen. "She could see them too. Which means-"

"Her mother is a goddess," He finished for me, nodding.

"That's why you let me stay here. You knew," I realized, a lightbulb turning on. He nodded. "And that camp you were talking about?"

Nico answered, "It's a camp for people like us. Where we train and learn how to survive. That's where we're going."

"We're going there?"

Who the hell did he think he was telling me that he was taking me to some camp? What if I didn't want to go?

"You either go to camp and train or you die out here."