BOOM!

"NOOOOOOO!"

*****

"What was that?!" I yelled to Styx while we were lying on the ground.

"I have no clue. Some thing big and I doubt its part of the party!"

"Hey, are you guys okay?" A guy walked over and helped me up. Luke limped over to us and helped Styx up from the ground. She almost fell, so he had his work cut out for him.

"I think I hit my head..." Styx mumbled, as I looked at her forehead, only to find a big gash with some blood dripping from it.

"We need to get you cleaned up. You're bleeding from your forehead."

"So that's what's so warm and wet…" She breathed, after stumbling to a chair that Luke set up for her to sit on.

"Luke, are you okay? You're limping." I asked, concerned for his welfare.

"It's nothing compared to Styx. What about you? Are you okay, Eris?" He asked, but he never took his eyes away from her forehead.

"I think I sprained my wrist." I winced as I touched the tender spot on my writing arm.

"Let's go get that in a splint while Luke fixes up your friend." The guy said, leading me out to the parking lot.

"I'm not leaving my cousin. You can go get your supplies and bring them in here." I jerked away, leaving him flabbergasted at the fact that I had said no.

"Okay. I'll be right back."

"Hey Luke?" It was the first time she had spoken since sitting down, so I snapped my head in her direction, in order to figure out what she was going to say.

"Yes, Styx?"

"Who was he? What happened? Where is everyone?" She asked a torrent of rapidly fired questions I doubted he had the answers to.

"Well…"

"I'm Peter, a vortex to another world was created by Luke's father, and everyone but you three was sucked in." Peter walked in, just as Luke was about to start attempting to answer Styx.

"Was it you who cried out 'No!'?" I asked, confused as to when he got here. I would have noticed him, were he here at the beginning of the party. I thought, trying to remember seeing his face in the crowds.

"Yeah. I knew what was going to happen as soon as I saw him open the portal." Peter nodded, seeming to not want to elaborate.

"And what, exactly, hap-" Styx tried to speak, but she swayed in her seat. Apparently she lost more blood than we had thought. Luke had to catch her before she fell out of her chair. "Good catch." She muttered.

*****

Whoa. I never knew that bashing your head felt like this…Ouch. I thought to myself, while Eris was trying to clean my forehead and cover the wound. The guys were a few feet away, fixing up Luke's leg and talking in short, fast, and incomplete sentences.

"Dang, Styx! What did you bash your head against?"

"No clue. It's probably the blood-covered piece of debris. What do you think?"I remarked, cruelly. I knew she was just being nice, for many reasons, but I was still irritated. "Sorry. Couldn't help it."

"Well, my guess is anything, like… maybe, a stick?"

"Ha! Leave the rude and mean to me, girl. It goes with the name." I'll admit that I enjoyed our little bickering, mostly because it was normal. It still hadn't sunk in that my parents were gone.

She picked up a stick a few feet away, turned, walked over to me, and looked at me with a tired look. "No, seriously, I think you bumped your head on this." It had blood on the top of it, with was pointy, and the exact shape of my new scar.

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"My mistake. Oopsie."

"Sure, right, like I should believe you."

"Please! Hypocrite! You had to STEAL your cell phone back. I saw you pick-pocket your mom!" I made a gesture of "what-were-you-thinking?" and "Hah-hah-I-caught-you." Her cheeks turned a bright red.

"I-uh-um-"She got a lucky break, though. The guys walked over, keeping her from having to explain herself.

"We need to move. This place can't do anything for us, now. We have to go find the others." Peter spoke, rather solemnly, which disappointed me. I wanted everything to go back to normal. You know, maybe it was a practical joke?

"You betcha! I need to use a bathroom. For multiple purposes. I think my hair's all messed up!" Eris cried.

"Please! Your hair only needs a comb! It's so straight! I need to actually place my hair, not to mention brushing, as well as trying to cover this gash on my forehead!" I looked at her with a look of disbelief. At that exact moment, our minds clicked, and we both turned to look at the guys.

They were just there, staring at us. Blank looks sitting on their vacant faces.

"What?" We shrugged in unison, trying to figure out what they were looking at.

"Nothing. You both look fine. Why do you need to fix anything?" Peter asked us, glancing over me, and eyeing Eris.

"Yeah." Luke seemed to support that conclusion, by doing exactly the opposite. He glanced at Eris, and was watching me, seeming to attempt to gauge my reaction.

*A few seconds later…*

"Umm." Luke was trapped in a corner, while I was glaring at him. I know that I scared him, at least enough to make him stammer. "M-Maybe we should d-do something about Eris's wrist?"

"Oh, yeah! Sorry Eris! With all this excitement, and my forehead, I had momentarily forgotten about your wrist. How is it?" I looked over at her, after giving Luke the "we-aren't-finished-here" look.

"Um, it hurts." She spoke shortly, as if the pain were unbearable. That's all a big act! It's just so she can get more attention from the guys! I thought, having sprained my wrist before. I knew from my past, that it didn't hurt that much.

"Um, I don't feel so good…" She muttered, only to black out. I had to catch her, which nearly knocked me over. I happened to fall onto Luke, who, out of surprise, couldn't hold both of us, and fell into Peter. It would have been a humorous domino effect, if we were watching from the outside, but experiencing it was not funny. We all fell down, which made my growing headache worse, I landed on Luke's broken leg, and Peter had all of us laying on him. Plus, Eris was a dead weight. She felt like she was dead. Yeah, it wasn't fun.