Sasha's dreams just kept getting worse and worse.

She was at a beach, walking along the shore. The skies were a clear blue, not one single cloud in sight. The sea was unusually calm, the waves silently lapping against the shore. The sand was clean, unlike the beaches in New York ever were, and it squished and compacted with each step Sasha took. Looking over the horizon, the ocean stretched out for miles. Sasha sat, her toes digging into the sand. The waves splashed against her lightly, cooling her from the summer heat. She remembered this—this had been over the past summer when her family had taken the trip to Greece. She recognized the scent of the Mediterranean Sea immediately-it smelled like salt, as opposed to garbage like the ocean's in New York seemed to smell. "Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice behind her asked. She turned to see a boy, and was startled by how familiar he struck her as. She knew she'd never met him before, but she couldn't help but wonder where she'd seen him. She knew she'd seen him somewhere. He had black hair, like Nico's, but his, for some reason, didn't make him look emo. He had starling green eyes that shined when he looked at the ocean. Sasha nodded, averting her gaze back to the horizon. The boy took a seat next to her. "Just watch." He said. Slowly, the scene changed. The ocean darkened to a hideous black, and Sasha jumped up, the water splashing against her feet stinging her skin like acid. The sand was no longer clean, now it was all mucky and repulsing, and shards of shattered glass that were mixed in with it stabbed into her feet, leaving ugly cuts. The sky was a sinister purple, and there were several ominous gray clouds dotting the sky. Lighting lit the sky in a lightshow of several shades of purple, and thunder boomed in Sasha's ears. She backed away slowly, praying to wake up. The boy got up and walked with her, his eyes sad. "They're fighting again, Zeus and Poseidon." He said, and Sasha turned to him, incredulous. "Wha-What?! Are you talking about GREEK MYTHOLOGY?!" She screeched, sure this kid was out of his mind, but he just nodded his head, staring out over the horizon. "Y-You're crazy!" She yelled over the wind, but she didn't know if he had even heard her or not over the storm. He turned to her and yelled something she couldn't understand before disappearing from the dream.

Sasha sat up in her bed, breathing heavily. It was still dark outside, and when she turned to check her phone, she read—after being momentarily blinded by the bright screen—that it was barely 2:30. She fell back into her bed, feeling utterly drained. For the next half hour she tossed and turned in bed, in a desperate attempt to fall back to sleep, but eventually gave up and dragged herself out of bed and into the kitchen. She was, for some reason, incredibly hungry. Yawning, she sleepily poured herself a bowl of cereal and took a seat at the kitchen table, hardly even strong enough to lift the spoon to her mouth. She hardly remembered falling back asleep, but the next time she awoke her head was rested in her arms and she was leaning on the kitchen table. She could see, through the puny gap between her scrunched eyelids, that someone had turned on the lights. She heard Ryan laugh, but it sounded like he was on the other side of a wall of water. His words slurred and jumbled, and whatever he teased her about she didn't hear. Her stomach churned, like someone was repeatedly punching her in the gut. Sick, she straightened up and made a beeline for the sink, shoving Ryan out of her way in the process. He stumbled, and stared at her, confused. Sasha barely made it to the sink before she began to hurl. It was horrible, like someone was stabbing her in the back while she vomited. "Oh, Sasha, ew! God, all I wanted was a freaking apple and I get the image of you vomiting into the sink?!" Ryan complained, but Sasha could hear worry in his voice. He was trying to mask it, but it was there. Her brother sighed. "I'll go get mom." He said, exiting the kitchen. Sasha washed her mouth out at stumbled back to the table, placing her elbows on its cold metal surface and resting her head in her hands. She closed her eyes, and slowly the nauseated feeling subsided. Her mom came in eventually and began asking her questions. "Are you okay?" "What happened?" "What did you eat last night?" "How were you feeling before you went to bed?" "Was it something you ate?" "Do you feel better now?" Sasha, unable to use her voice, answered her mom's questions with a series of nods, shrugs, and shakes of her head. Her mom decided that Sasha should stay home from school, and helped Sasha back to her bedroom. Feverish, Sasha kicked away her blanket her mom laid out over her and shut her eyes, taking deep, steady breaths. She was aware of when her mother and Ryan left to go to school and work, and soon after she had fallen back asleep. No more nightmares haunted her, but there was an eerie feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her phone buzzed on her nightstand, and she picked it up. "Hello?" She greeted, her voice hoarse. "Sasha! Where are you?!" Andrea. Sasha sighed, sitting up. "Sick at home." She said. "Ouch. You any better than you were before?" She asked, and Sasha shook her head before realizing that it was a phone call; Andrea couldn't see her. "No, I still feel like shit." She mumbled into the phone. "I'm sorry. Hey listen, get better soon, alright? I'll call you again later. Also, Nico's here, he wanted to talk to you." "Uhm, Andrea, I'm not really in the mood to-" She was cut off by a male's voice. "Hello?" Nico asked nervously, his tone sounding anxious, and Sasha exhaled, thoroughly annoyed with her best friend. "Hey Nico," She said, allowing her voice to ooze with the annoyance she felt, not bothering to try and be nice. She heard Nico exhale with relief on the other end. "Oh Gods, you're okay?" He asked, an urgent note in his voice. Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Nico, It's just a fever," She said, "it won't kill me or anything." When Nico responded, his voice dripped with sarcasm. "Haha, very funny. I'm an idiot." Sasha laughed, despite how awful she felt. "Alright, well, later." He said. "Uh, well-" Sasha began, but the line had gone dead.

The rest of the day Sasha spent in bed. Although she never vomited after the morning, she still felt queasy. It was only after Ryan had arrived home from school that she began to feel slightly better, and that was mostly because Andrea had sent him with 1/2 a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream for Sasha, with a note on the lid of the lid reading 'get well soon or I'll kill you! Xo, Andreaa' Giggling, she had popped open the lid and grabbed a spoon, devouring the frozen treat. She finished it quickly, realizing it was the first thing she'd eaten all day. Ryan handed her some school books and some of her notebooks. He smiled at her. "Here's your homework." He said smirking before heading upstairs to his room, locking the door behind him. Rolling her eyes, Sasha set the books on the table and moaned. If there was anything Sasha really hated, it was homework. What, was seven hours of school a day not enough? She called Andrea, making plans to meet her at Dylan's Candy bar on 5th Avenue in 20 minutes.

They met up and Andrea hugged Sasha, informing her of how the day at school went. "So what was up with Nico? I mentioned to Mikeal that I was calling you and he must have overheard because he asked for your number. I told him no, but he could talk to you when I called you. What's up with you two?" Andrea asked, nudging Sasha, who rolled her eyes. "Nothing. I don't really understand him—he's so weird." She commented, grabbing one of the little plastic pouches they had available all over the shop and tossing some gummy worms and candy corn in it, along with some gum balls and sour strips. Andrea loaded hers with Jelly beans and skittles, and they paid, walking down the street to a Baskin Robbins only a few stores down. They ordered a banana split and took it into a booth, dumping their candy on the ice cream and digging in together. "He seems to like you," Andrea noted, finally, taking a bite of chocolate ice cream with some mini marshmallows. Sasha shook her head. "He seems odd, and I really wish you'd stop leaving me alone with him every time he shows up." She said, allowing Andrea to catch the annoyance in her voice. "Sorry. I really thought you liked him. If you don't, I'll back off." She said, and Sasha nodded, taking a bite of the vanilla ice-cream, catching some gummy worms along with it. "So what's up with you and Mikeal? You never talk about him anymore." Andrea shrugged. "Mikeal's...Mikeal." She said finally, and Sasha raised an eyebrow. "I thought you liked...Mikeal." She responded, imitating her friend's tone, but Andrea shook her head. "I dunno. It's like...different, I guess." She stated, and Sasha nodded. "You'll work it out, whatever it is." "Yeah, I guess." Someone walked into the ice cream shop, and when Sasha caught a glimpse of the boy all in black, she moaned. "EVERY-WHERE I GO." She muttered, catching her head in her hands. Andrea caught sight of what Sasha was annoyed by and her eyes widened. "Do you think he's stalking you?" She whispered, glaring over Sasha's shoulder, where Sasha knew Nico was looking over at them. Sasha shook her head. "I don't know!" She whispered back, aggravated. Andrea's eyes narrowed. "He's coming this way," she warned in a hushed tone, "be cool." Sasha smirked. "Girl, I am SO cool." she told her friend, and Andrea smiled, and Nico came into Sasha's vision. But he walked right past them, taking a table off in the back of the restaurant. Andrea raised an eyebrow at Sasha but said nothing, and Sasha shrugged. "Okay, well, that answers that." she said, and Andrea shook her head, carefully refraining from turning her neck to look at Nico. "He's so stalking you. Let's get out of here." She said in a hushed tone, and Sasha nodded, the two girls standing up. Sasha watched as a blonde girl walked in. She was wearing a tight-fitted strapless hot pink top and super short jean shorts. Like, Sasha didn't even know they MADE shorts that short. She was wearing hot pink wedge-heels that were maybe 4 inches tall at the least, and she turned to Sasha and smiled, waving. Sasha knew she'd never seen this girl before and was sure she wasn't waving at her. Puzzled, she turned to look behind her and saw Nico had stood up and was smiling at the girl, motioning for her to go over to him. Sasha suddenly felt an odd ping of loathe. She walked out the door along with Andrea and through the windowed walls of the shop was just in time to catch a glimpse of Nico and the girl kissing. Disgusted, she turned away, walking down along 5th with Andrea.

Nico stopped talking to her. In fact, he didn't even bother looking her way. It was as if she'd never existed, and Sasha's hate for him just grew more and more with each passing day. It didn't help that suddenly Ryan and him had become best friends and now the guy was coming home with them almost every day. Sasha figured she should've been happy about this—she was the one who'd wanted him to leave her alone, right? But then why was she so pissed? Apparently Ryan and Nico were together in a special English class since they were both dyslexic—yes, her brother had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia when he was five, and at the same time Sasha had been diagnosed with ADHD, too, and that was why Sasha hated talking about disorders to anyone—Nico and Ryan had become great friends. Much to the disadvantage of Sasha, of course. Mostly in the afternoons she had begun to spend her time sulking in her bedroom, unhappily doing her homework, or going home with Andrea to avoid her own home. One Friday Andrea had been busy, doing something with Mikeal, so Sasha had gone home with Nico and Ryan. She found it annoying that he had practically moved into their house yet didn't have the courtesy to give her one freaking 'hello' every once in a while, but she had let it go. When they'd gotten home, Sasha had been about to do what she usually did: march directly up to her room and lock herself in, avoiding the boys. But as she made her way for the stairs, a hand grabbed her wrist. She turned back, confused, to see Nico grabbing her arm. He looked at her, his eyes so much like death itself boring into hers, and she saw a tense nervousness in them. "We're going to this movie premiere, wanna go?" Sasha raised an eyebrow. Three weeks not talking to her and suddenly he was the same old him. She took her wrist away and shook her head. "No, thanks." She said, her tone as cold as ice. How dare he!? She turned around again to head to her room, but Nico grabbed her wrist again, and once again she saw the anxiety in his eyes. "Look, today...it's not really safe for you to be here alone, alright? Just...please?" Sasha raised an eyebrow, several questions swimming around in her mind, but instead of voicing all of them, chose one. She sighed, rolling her eyes and pulling her wrist away, all the while glaring at him. "What movie?" She asked, and Nico smiled, heading outside. She followed him out to the car, where Ryan was waiting. When Ryan saw Sasha, he raised an eyebrow. "Dude?" He asked Nico quizzically. Sasha hopped into the passenger seat and the boys climbed into the back. "So you never answered me, what movie?" She asked. "We're watching 007." Nico said, and Sasha turned back to face Ryan, glaring. "You're an ass. You knew how much I wanted to see that movie and you didn't want me to come?" She asked, and her brother shrugged. She laughed, turning back to face the front. "Screw you." She said, and when he kicked the back of her chair, she laughed again. Nico seemed to hardly be paying attention. He kept looking out the window, like he was anticipating something bad. Sasha, confused, continued to watch him but didn't say anything. They got to the theatre and got out, walking into the building. Inside, the cool air from the AC and the scent of popcorn hit Sasha along with a load of memories. So many times, Sasha and Andrea had come here together to watch movies or just play the cheesy arcade games they kept on the other side of the lobby. They went directly to theatre 6 after buying caramel popcorns and root beers. When Nico handed the tickets to the ticket collector, he raised an eyebrow at Nico quizzically. "Demigods, right? Well, you know the rules-" The man was cut off by Nico slamming something that looked oddly like gold coins into his hand. The ticket collector smiled and let the trio through. "Nico, what was that guy saying back there?" Sasha asked, and Nico shrugged, obviously knowing more than he was letting on. "Who knows?" He said, his tone dismissing the topic.

Halfway through the movie things started to go wrong.

They were right at the part were Naz Hussein and James were talking some strategy or something (Sasha really wasn't paying that much attention, she kept glancing over at the ticket collector, who was standing by the exit and kept glaring at them) when the fire alarm sounded. The emergency lights went on, flashing red as sirens wailed. Nico jumped up, grabbing Sasha's and Ryan's arms and hauling them up along with him, his nails digging into Sasha's skin. "Get up, get up!" He snapped, yanking them into a standing position. "Nico? What-?" Sasha let her sentence trail off when she saw Nico's hand, now clutched tightly around a solid black dagger. "Nico! What the hell are you doing!?" She screetched, her eyes wide. "Duck," He hissed, and when neither Sasha nor Ryan obliged, shoved them down under the seats. "DUCK!" He commanded, running out into the chaos of the hectic mob of movie-goers. Slightly peeking up over the seats, all Sasha could see was a maelstrom of popcorn and running, screaming people. 'Idiots!' She thought. 'Why not get out of here?' Then she saw why. The ticket collector she had seen guarding the exit was still there, but now his skin was covered in scales. Sasha's jaw dropped and she turned to scramble back under the chairs when something grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and jerked, hard. She was lifted up into the air, kicking her legs and clutching at her collar, desperate to get some air into her lungs. Just then, a face came into her view. It was the face of an elderly woman, wrinkled with age. The eyes shone a fiery red, and Sasha's heart nearly stopped. Her stopped kicking her legs, stopped moving, paralyzed with fear. Through the red eyes, she saw all her worst fears being played right before her eyes. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. "That's right, child. Did you truly think you'd survive me?" The hag asked, sneering. It was Ms. Meyers. Her skin was now changing—from a pale, elderly, withered peach, to a groggy grey. She bared her teeth, which grew to fangs right before Sasha's eyes. Sputtering for air, black spots began to dance into Sasha's vision. She was being suffocated—only this time, it wasn't a horrible nightmare she could wake up from. Just as she was sure she was about to pass out, the monster gasped, doubling over, releasing her grip on Sasha's neck. Sasha fell to the ground, gasping. She turned to see a black metal tip protruding out of Ms. Meyer's gut. Her teacher turned to glare at her, hissing. "Daughter of the sea god, this isn't over….." She said, before vanishing into a pile of ash. Nico stood, towering the remains of the monster, gleaming with sweat, his expression grim. He bent over to retrieve his sword, and his face morphed into a sour expression as he examined his blade. "Dammit Alecto," He said, grabbing the hem of his shirt and using it to clean off his sword, "Dad's so grounding me now." He barely then seemed to notice her, and his eyes widened. "Shit," he said, beding down to help her up, "are you alright?" Sasha nodded, her eyes stinging. He sighed. "Gods above, Sasha, didn't I tell you to-" He was cut off by a scream, one all too familiar to Sasha. She recognized it immediately from all the countless times her brother had awoken in the room across from hers, horrified by the nightmares that haunted them both. Her face paled as the blood drained from her face. "RYAN!"

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A.N.: Woohoo! CHB in the next chapter! xD