Having finished packing my bag, I told Luke to go on ahead, wanting to say a final goodbye to my home. After he left I walked through each room, remembering all of the great memories that my mother and I had made in these walls. They almost made me want to cry, but I kept all of my feelings hidden from view as I slowly made my way to the front door, aching to both leave and stay.

I cannot tell you which one would have won in the end: whether I would have stayed or left.

In the end I did not make the decision.

As I turned into the front hallway that would bring me to the front door, I stopped short. For in front of me was an eight-headed hydra busy eating out of some kind of donut box labelled "Monster Donuts". I have to admit that the irony of the situation (I had always thought of donut makers as monsters as they tempted me and made me fat) completely went over my head. I am honestly surprised that I still remember the fact that he was eating donuts at all, as I was too busy running out of the back door to pay much attention.

To say I was afraid would be a colossal understatement. I was terrified.

Yes, I know I am super powerful and why couldn't I just kill it blah blah blah. Firstly, I have not mastered how to properly control any of them, making me scared of using them. Completely rational response. Secondly, this was the second monster I had ever seen, meaning that I did not have the experience or resolve to fight, opting with flight instead. Again rational. Finally, two parts of my brain screamed at me to not harm the creature as it is natural, even if it looks super ugly. I have Artemis and Demeter to thank for that: one appreciated the bad ass nature of 'animals' and the other worried what the absence of animals would mean for wheat. Obviously I do not have enough control to get my brain to distinguish between monsters and animals. Completely and utterly irrational, but it wasn't exactly my greatest concern at the time.

I may have gotten away from the hydra without it noticing me if I had not tripped on the garden hose and cursed in the loudest voice I could muster. For the first few seconds I thought that I had the best luck the fates could ever bestow on a human. But reality hit when I saw it crash through the front door and turn towards me.

Thus began the chase.

Yelling at Luke to "Run!" I made a beeline for the garage, climbing into the driver's seat in my step-father's Corolla that he only uses when my mother is away. I managed to find the spare key that he keeps in the glove-box (he was very very good at losing keys, though I was sometimes guilty) and turned the car on. As soon as Luke clambered clumsily into the back seat I drove off as fast as the car could go, yet with the hydra still in pursuit.

When I was ten we went on holidays in the outback. While there my step-father decided that Lucas, Katie and I needed to learn how to drive just in case it was necessary. Each of us had a turn in the driving. We started with steering the wheel while sitting on his lap. Then, as we got better he allowed us to use the pedals and change gears. At the time I was just really happy that I was doing something naughty, and that Paul was paying attention to me. But now I see that the 'lessons' were actually super helpful. Wouldn't you know.

Using those skills, I managed to get away from the house and on to a freeway. Here I was able to drive faster, yet not fast enough to lose the monster. He continued to run, and I was starting to wonder if he was given an upgrade. No mythology book that I had ever read mentioned hydras being as fast as cars. Although cars did not exist back then, so that makes the books rather mute.

Even the presence of other cars did not deter the hydra, which I admit I was kind of counting on. I drove as fast as possible, dodging other cars as I pushed the limits of speed that the car could reach, even using my Hephaestus skills to do a few car modifications. Which I can tell you was not easy, especially while driving.

Luke was not idle either. While I was driving and trying to outrun the overgrown freak he was chucking items at it. Which involved my step-father's precious watch, and my mother's expensive perfume (she did not want to leave it in the house where Lucas or Katie could get to it). But it was not long before he ran out of stuff. Which was when I had a brainwave.

My step-brother had a X-Box. Sometimes, when he was bored and in a nice enough mood he allowed me to play as well. Which meant that I knew quite a bit about guns and killing people. It was this that I was thinking about as I took off my weapon ring and willed it to become a machine gun, giving it to Luke without a second glance.

Luke looked at me with wide eyes as the weapon sank in, then he grinned. "Awesome." He proceeded to fire the gun at the hydra, yelping with glee. I was a bit worried about what I had started. But it was working. I could see in the rear mirror that the monster's heads were coming off, and I was happy.

At least until two more grew back.

Enraged at the bad fortune, and furious at myself for forgetting that fact, I began to heat up. I could not see anything through the red haze that covered my eyes as I stopped the car, got out and proceeded to walk up towards the hydra. When I was close enough I stuck my hands up and grabbed one of the heads. It was around that time that I realised that I was not exactly in control of my actions and that I was on fire.

Literally. On. Fire.

Screaming internally, my hands burnt each of the heads to stumps, and then destroyed the body. But I was so anguished that I did not even realise. When Luke, who had gotten out of the car to see me destroying the hydra, could not even touch me, I scrunched into a ball and began to cry.

Can you blame me? The entire day I have been controlled by one blessing to another without any say in the actions. I had effectively lost control. Holding on to the last shreds of sanity that I possessed I stood up, checked my hands to see if they were on fire (they weren't) and then proceeded to get into the car. As soon as Luke was in I began to drive, not hearing or thinking of anything but going forward.

Call me stupid, but I was determined to ignore human contact or focus on feelings for the rest of the trip. It was all just becoming too much, and I could not handle it. So we drove in silence.

Luke had noticed that I was not my cheerful chirpy self. Although he did not know it, he suspected that I had snapped under the pressure of the power that I was given. He could also feel the pain and sadness that was coursing through me.

Although I did not know it, Luke had been told earlier that day how to use the Egyptian necklaces. That, if you knew the right words, you could access the feelings of the other people wearing them. Having had said them as I was inside my house, he felt my slow decent into madness as I lost control. But he had not given up. He knew that he could still save me. He was just waiting for the right moment.

So the car drove on through the afternoon, with my mind completely focused while Luke's mind wandered, as he tried to figure out how to fix things.

He would also later tell me that he thought that my vulnerability made me look more human, and that he was begin to feel attraction. Which neither of us could deny.

We were goners.