Noah,

"She's so grown up," Kate noticed, sitting on the end of her bed as she watched Charlie sleep on the other bed.

As I looked at Charlie, I saw the similarities of when she slept as a little girl. Her blonde curls were everywhere, and she was curled up in a little ball, nestled inside the blankets. Her breathing was adorable, and she occasionally said part of her dreams aloud.

But I also saw the differences. Her hair was longer, no longer just long enough for her pigtails. She was tall now, so she actually took up space in the bed unlike than just using a little part of it. She wasn't surrounded by stuffed animals and hugging Me-Mo the tightest, and her dreams weren't about being a princess.

"You know, most guys want to get as far away from their sisters when they get my age."

"But you've never been normal," Kate took a big bite of the chocolate ice cream carton in between us.

"Hence why I showed up at your door with ice cream," I smirked.

I wasn't exactly what made me show up at her room with ice cream at midnight. But I couldn't sleep. So, like I usually did whenever I did everything to try to sleep, I got my keys and got snack food to sooth my midnight snack cravigs.

When I was on my way back to my room, I just suddenly stopped in front of Kate's room instead of mine, and I found myself knocking on her door instead of how I should have been fishing around for my key. And, instead of her telling me to go to bed, she let me come in as long as I shared the snacks.

"You really should have brought your own," Kate smirked as she took another spoonful from the carton.

"I wasn't planning on showing up here, you know."

"About that, not that I am complaining in any way," she smiled, "Why did you show up?"

I shrugged, taking a spoonful for myself.

"I don't know. I just realized I hadn't done this in a long time, so why not?" I answered, and she raised her eyebrows.

"By long time, you mean two years."

"It can't have been that long, I used to always show up at your window to complain about teachers or girlfriends or something."

"Yeah, high school teachers, high school girlfriends, or high school somethings. When you graduated, that just ended," Kate looked down to the carton of ice cream, and I knew what she was thinking.

And we just ended…

I wasn't exactly sure why we did.

While I didn't know what broke us up, I knew what kept us apart.

I loved her, and I couldn't love her. Everything that could be wrong in this situation basically was wrong. From the fact she was kind of my cousin and my best friend's baby sister who we had both protected since we were little kids, we should not be together.

It seemed easier to just stay apart.

But now that I was with her again, I wasn't exactly sure I could have that distance again.

"Sorry about that. Life just gets in the way I guess."

Kate nodded with a shrug.

"So, what have you actually been doing?" I asked, and Kate took a big scoop of ice cream as she shrugged again.

"College stuff, I guess. I have a busy major and a busy minor, so it's a lot to do. And I have Adriane as my roommate, and she is convinced I have to have this amazing social life. And I do have friends and everything, but, a lot of the time, I would rather just go to sleep."

"Right, Annabeth is always bragging on her little genius."

"She's just happy that I have business as my major and that someone will take over the business."

"So you really want to work in the business world?"

"Honestly?"

"No, lie to me," I smiled.

She nudged me.

"I don't know," Kate looked up, "And I hate that you have to know by the time you're eighteen. I mean, I know a jest of what I want. But at the same time, I am not completely sure.

"I really think that everyone is at that point."

"Except for you," Kate stuck her tongue out at me.

I had to admit that she was right.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do by the time I was ten. When people asked me what I wanted to do for a living, it was always soccer. By the time I was fifteen, I knew my plan by heart.

I wasn't in the right place for Manchester United (my dream team) to notice me. So I needed to get on another team first and prove my skill. I would get in with a team in America and bring them up from the ground (check), and I would get the job offer to move to London.

"Well, I got a little lucky, okay?"

"A little lucky!" she laughed, "You're doing everything you want! You have checked of almost every part of your plan. If you keep playing as well as you do, you'll get the job. And, by the time I am finished with college, you will be in London."

London…

The city I had dreamed of for years now seemed suddenly so far away.

Before, I knew that I could always just get on a plane to see my little sister and family and home of New York City.

But, as I sat here across from Kate, it felt light-years away, like I would never see her again…

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm just suddenly realizing how far away it was."

"I know, it feels so weird to let someone that important to me go…"

My eyes flew up to Kate, who just seemed to realize what she had said.

"You know, I mean, you're my best friend," she quickly said.

"Oh, uh, yeah," I nodded.

Silence filled the hotel room, and I wasn't sure how to break it.

But Kate finally did, though it wasn't with what I wanted to be.

"You better get to bed. Sam probably wants us up early. We still have a while to get to LA."

LA.

I never really liked LA but not because of Hades.

When I was eleven, my birth-mother, JoJo, moved from New York to LA. If anything, I suppose we got closer due to the distance. Our time together was short, so we had to make the most of it. We were never really close though. My mom was constantly jealous of Annabeth because she had both my father and me, and my mom was never really a mothering type anyway.

She worked there was a journalist, one of her efforts to try to stay young and hip.

When I was fourteen, she became wife number two to Henry Alexander. He had once been engaged to Annabeth, though that ended with Annabeth leaving California for New York and falling in love with my dad again. Henry was my mom's perfect match.

He had fame, money, and was just as consumed with being hip and relevant. He had his own cooking TV show that was watched by health-freaks and bored housewives. Together, he and my mom kept up appearances in whatever was the current trend, kept a eco-friendly and healthy lifestyle, and lived in their modern mansion in the hills.

I didn't really like visiting for, if anything, the annoying chores to be "eco-friendly" and the non-stop health food.

"What is it with you and LA? You're okay with your mom and your step-dad, so why do you hate their city?"

"Not exactly sure," I shrugged as I got off the bed, throwing away my spoon and leaving the ice cream that was left over with Kate.

She followed me to the door, and I stopped at the door frame for what would be an awkward good-night exchange.

"So, goodnight I guess."

"We don't have to be so awkward, Noah," Kate's grey eyes met mine, and I felt like my brain was melting.

"I know."

"Why are we like this?"

I felt something surge through me.

Whether it was confidence, insanity, or a death wish for her brother to kill me, it was there.

Because I love you, I prepared to say.

"Because I lo-"

Before I could finish, I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and the world turned to black.

Charlie,

As my eyes began to blink open, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my neck from sleeping on it wrong. The cold air hit me full force, and what had once been a soft bed had become as hard as stone. I let out a tired moan, wanting to sleep more but knowing I needed to get up.

Sam would want to leave early…

I sat up, looking around the room to ask what Kate what on earth had happened.

But she wasn't there. I was all alone in a cavern of stone.

I was on a landing that was completely dry, though the walls and ceiling felt moist. There were too archways at the end of the rock floor, and there was a sudden cut off to a small river below that had eroded over time to form such a large cliff.

Fear hit me hard, and my spine stiffed as I quickly stood.

Stone… I was surrounded by stone…

How? What happened?

Where were my friends? Where was my brother? Where was Aiden? Were they alright?

If they weren't, was it my fault?

Of course it's your fault! I screamed at myself, It is your quest. They could all be safe at home if it wasn't for you.

I felt like I might cry, but I promised myself I wouldn't.

I wanted to prove myself, and this was my chance.

I was trying to decide which pathway to take when I heard heavy walking coming towards me, and I panicked trying to decide if I should run and not have to deal with it or stay and risk instant death to find out what happened to my friends.

In the end, I was stuck with the second whether I wanted it or not.

From the left side archway, two blocky stone monsters appeared, each carrying a large spear made of granite and shale. They walked toward me, and a paralyzing fear ran down my spine.

"She's awake. I didn't want her to be awake," one stone man said, his voice sounding like gravel.

"Then you shouldn't have taken so long to find your spear so we could get here," the other said.

They continued to argue as they got closer to me, and my eyes kept going from one to the other.

"No, I want her right arm!"

"No, I want her right arm!" they fought over who would have the honor of holding my right arm, and I finally interjected.

"You know, since you can't decide, I could walk myself," I tried

"No, no, Mama warned us of your trickery, and we won't fall for it. I will take your left arm," one of them took my arm, and I let out a hiss in pain as his stone hand wrapped around my upper-arm tightly.

"Yes, Mama was very strict on how to transport you."

"Why would she be so strict on such a weak young demigod? I'm only thirteen, you know. And I've never even been on a quest. There isn't much need to be strict," I tried, and the other wrapped their hand around my other arm, making me hiss again.

"Maybe she's right," one looked to the other, and the second stone ma n shook his stone block of a head.

"Mama said to do as she said, and we are going to do what she said," the second one began to pull on me with the help of the first one to the left archway again.

"What does Mama want?"

"Well, she wants you to get back at Athena and-"

"Stop, Felix!"

Felix looked down and kept walking.

The woman in stone…

I felt sick.

"What does she want with my friends? They haven't done anything."

"Even more torture for both Athena and Po-" Felix began.

"Felix!"

"Where are we going?" I asked, and Felix was about to say something when the other started first.

"Don't tell her that we are taking her to Los Angeles, Felix!"

Felix looked back down.

"Wherever you're taking me," I pretended like I didn't hear him, "How are my friends going to get there, too?"

"Someone else will handle that,"

"Who?"

"Stop asking so many questions, Girl!"

"She's nice, Able, don't be so mean," Felix told Able.

"But Mama said-"

"But Mama's not here," Felix told him, and Able seemed to think it over.

We were moving farther and farther away from that large amount of water, and, if I tried to use another water source, I could break the cavern and bury us all. I needed to get my information now or have another way of defeating the Stone Men.

"Fine," Able lessened his grip on me.

"So, where are we?" I asked.

"We are under your hotel about half a mile away from it," Felix answered happily.

"Really, how did you get me down here? It must have been hard for you," I pretended to be interested in how much work it must have been for the two kidnappers.

"There is a little entrance in park nearby your hotel. It was hard to drag all three of you, I didn't know your brother would be there. I thought he would be in the other room," Felix told me.

"You have my brother?"

Felix nodded like he was proud.

Now I couldn't stand it, even if I wanted to.

I began to picture that running stream I had seen before, and I began to beacon for it. I pictured it leaving the stream and coming to me.

While Felix and Able were talking amongst themselves, I peeked back to see the water waiting on my orders.

With one flick of my wrist, the water attacked Felix and Able, acting like millions of years of erosion as it blasted the rock men into pieces. The small rocks cut me and left my arm bloody from them both trying to hold on to me. But, in the end, the water stopped, and only one spear had survived.

I grabbed it and hurried off through the cambers to the other archway.

As I ran, I could only think of the bad possibilities of what could be happening to Noah and Kate.

Kate,

"Kate, wake up," someone whispered in my ear as they gently shook me, trying to wake me up.

My eyes slowly began to blink open, and they struggled to adjust to the dim light. When they did, I gasped. My spine straightened, and I sat up, leaning up against the wall as I looked around the area.

We were in… a cage.

The walls were damp, but the floor somehow remained dry. There were stone bars leading from the ceiling down, and I wasn't sure how we even got in. Outside of our prison, there were two archways, both looking exactly the same. Even if we did get out, I wasn't sure where to go…

"Calm down," Noah wrapped his arm around me, trying to calm me, and I looked up to him.

Noah looked just as frightened as me, but he had chosen to look strong for me. I admired him for it, but I admired him for just about everything he did, honestly. But, if he felt anything like I did, it must have been almost impossible to look and act as strong as he did.

"W-Where's Charlie?" I asked, almost too afraid to ask.

"I don't know," Noah admitted, his voice cracking.

"They're taking her to their leader."

My eyes shot over to the corner, where a teenage boy sat. He let out a weak wave hello.

My eyes shot back to Noah, silently asking him if we could trust him. But, whether we had a choice or not, Noah nodded that we could trust him.

"Kate, this is Chester. He's stuck here with us, too," Noah moved to where we could both look at him, though not letting go of me.

Carefully, I looked over to Chester again.

He was handsome, though too young for me.

He looked to be about fourteen, though maybe older or maybe younger. He was tall and skinny, though not gangly and too thin or anything, and he wasn't as muscular as Noah or Aiden. He had black hair that had gel to stick up like the Justin-Beiber hairstyle. His skin was olive, and the only thought I could think of was "Dark Angel" as I looked at him. His lips were thick, his cheekbones high, and his eyes dark obsidian black.

He had on a tee shirt for Greenday and a leather jacket. His jeans were worn, and he was playing with a leather bracelet with something written in Latin.

"Chester Raven," he smiled, "At your service."

"How'd you get stuck down here?" I asked, still eying him as if waiting for him to suddenly try to kill us or something.

"Stumbled in where they didn't want me. Some Son of a Hellhound stole something from my dad, and he sent his son after it," Chester shrugged, "You know the gods. Can't handle anything on their own."

"Who is your dad?"

"Pluto," Chester looked to the two of us, "What about you two?"

"I'm second generation. Poseidon is my grandfather."

"My grandmother is Demeter, and my other grandmother is Athena," I told him, and he nodded.

"What got you down here?"

I looked to Noah, letting him take the explanation on this one.

"They want my little sister," Noah explained, and Chester's eyes seemed to soften.

"So, you're the bait or they already have her?" Chester asked.

"I don't know," Noah admitted, and I took his hand and squeezed it, comforting him.

It was hard to try to comfort him when I felt like I might sob myself.

Was this it?

Was this the moment we had been praying would never happen? Had we lost Charlie forever? Would we even make it out alive?

I couldn't imagine life after Charlie. I couldn't stand to stay in New York, I would have to leave. I might not even handle being with Noah anymore. And I would forever remind him of Charlie, which would lead us to our ruin. I wasn't sure how I would do anything.

And Noah…

There was no way he could ever life without her.

Silence began to fill the air as we thought about it, as we wondered whether we would ever have her again. Chester didn't try to make conversation, he just played with the black leather bracelet, and Noah held me tight.

And then I heard the sound of running.

"Do you hear that?" I looked to Noah.

"Hear what?"

It was slowly getting louder, and everyone's ears perked up to listen to it better.

Finally, Noah's face lit up as he heard it.

He put his hand on his hip to reach for his dagger, which somehow had managed not to be taken when we were kidnapped and brought here, and he sat up, letting go of me.

I was too busy listening to be sad about that.

And then all of a sudden, a young blonde ran into the chamber and pulled to a stop.

"What the Hades?"

"Charlie," Noah and I both hurried to the bars, and she came towards us.

"You're alright," Noah did his best not to cry, but I did.

"Hi," Chester let out a wave, and she looked to the two of us as if asking for an explanation.

"Long story," I shrugged.

"Move back," Charlie motioned for us to move back to the wall of the cave, and she held up her hands to destroy the stone bars with water.

Water sprayed on me, and small rock fragments flew at me, though not enough to hurt us too much.

When the sound of water stopped, we all opened our eyes to see that the bars were gone.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," Charlie motioned for us to follow her, and, before we could even ask, she was already making her way through the cave.

"How do you know where to go?"

"We had some pretty stupid captors," Charlie smiled, and she walked even faster through the caves, and the two boys struggled to catch up with us.

"How long do we have?"

"About a quarter of a mile, and we should be out of the cave.