I stepped out of the shadows near a half burnt candle,the red wax slowly dripping down the side pooling at the bottom of the candle holder. I did a quick 360 and my eyes quickly stopped on a sleeping figure in the bed closest to the window on the far side of the room. I took a deep breath to settle my nerves. Nico looked tired even as he slept but he was safe. I scolded myself for overreacting. I had a bad habit of doing so. I walked quickly and quietly out the back door and slowly made my way to the lake. As I walked I thought of my life before this,my life with Nyx. the rigourous training sessions in both my demigod powers and combat training. The missions she sent me on, the monsters that tried to grill me up and eat me for dinner. I cast my mind back further before Nyx found me, to the time it was just me and my dad. I was probably fourteen years old at the time. School was hard for me, I was always an outcast,but when I got upset a new reputation began to emerge. Whenever I was angry or sad lightbulbs tended to explode around me and sometimes people unlucky enough to have angered me recieved a full blow of what I would later learn to be my mind's power. I instanlty became a fighter, gone was the outcast of yesterday. Kids provoked me just for laughs and eventually my Dad was fed up with it. He pulled me out of school and hired a tutor.

I looked up just as I was passing by the Athena cabin,the owls looming above as silent sentries. The other campers were just turning in for the night. I continued on deep in thought. Weeks passed by and I withdrew into myself, I read more and more. I immersed myself in books of all kinds. My dad was a professer of the ocullt, he literally had access to books on any subject imaginable. As the weeks turned to months I began to stop eating and my dad grew concerned, I only left the house at night and took to sleeping in a tent on our large property. This estate had been in my dad's family for generations and looked out on the hills of California. Eventually my dad grew tired of the failed attempts at conversation. He would talk mostly of how I was acting foolish or endagering my health from not eating. I would listen and go back to reading. This was the only way to stay in control of whatever power surged through me. Eventually my dad sent me to a mental institution called Happy Oaks. The whole placed dripped with fake optimism and yellow paint. Not what I was expecting especially after taking on of my dad's friends private jets from California to New York. The only good thing about my stay there was Dylan. Dylan was a boy about my age I never asked and didn't care. He had blond hair and blue eyes that seemed to see into your soul. He usually wore colorful tank tops of his favortie sports teams and tight jeans. He was my best friend and my first crush. Almost two years passed and in that time Dylan and I became close. We shared evrything with the other hopes dreams fears failures. Our parents had both dropped us here because it was more convient and as long as they kept up the hospital bills the staff were more than happy to keep us here. I remember the day well, it was my sixteenth birthday. Dylan and I were celebrating with a private movie marathon arranged because of my birthday. I don't recall what we watched exactly,scary movies. Our evening of fun was interrupted by the staff saying I had a vistor. I remember we were both confused seeing as how it was too late for visitors and I never had visitors. That was when Nyx had come to me and explained who and what I was. She apologized for the way things turned out but soon explained being kept at Happy Oaks had kept monsters from reaking chaos in my life.

I finally arrived at the lake and sat on the dock. I don't know how long I sat there staring at the moon reflecting on the waters surface. Eventually sleep beckoned so I laid back on the dock and gently drifted off to sleep. The last thoughts that ran through my mind were of tommorow's quest and the consequences should we fail.