(A/N) Hullo. Sorry for not updating. I am a terrible person. Review now please so I know you're there.

Disclaimer: I do not own ANYTHING but the plot.

Nico had absolutely no idea what to do. No idea whatsoever. He had tried everything, from nonfiction to fiction to lore to even the good old Bible, but there was no absolute way to kill a demon and make them stay dead. There were ways to repel them including holy water, crucifixes, Stars of David, and even salt, and there were also ways to send them back to Hell for a long time, but that meant that in a few centuries Perseus would come clawing its way out of the pit just as bloodthirsty as before. Just like monsters, demons were like cockroaches. They never seemed to die, no matter how many damn times you smashed the frickin thing with your shoe.

"You look like crap." said Jason as he sat down next to Nico at the Hades table. He had no idea why the blond was daring sit with him as the watchful eyes of Mr. D and Chiron scanned the mass of campers, but the son of Jupiter didn't seem to be capable of caring any less.

"Thanks for being a loving friend." Nico replied in a rather monotone voice. "I feel very motivated." Jason shrugged.

"It's true. You look utterly crap-tastic. Still hung up on that Percy thing?"

"What did you say?" Nico's head shot around to look at the son of Jupiter.

"I said you look utterly crap-tastic."

"No, no. After that."

"I asked if you were still hung up on this whole Percy thing." The older boy was utterly confused, and Nico was rather astounded at how oblivious one could be. "I mean, Percy is a son of a bitch, but I don't think you should get this worked up about it-"

"There it is, you said it again!" the son of Hades exclaimed, making wide gestures with his hands.

"Said what? Dude, stop with all the riddles. Spell it out please." Jason replied flatly, bordering on irritation.

"Percy! You sound as if you're best buds with him. He is a freaking DEMON from HELL who we have NO IDEA how to kill." Nico's temper was boiling. Calling Perseus 'Percy' was like calling Saddam Husain 'Saddamy'. Okay, maybe that was exaggerating a lot, but Perseus wasn't just some guy whose name you could throw around. He'd killed people. Even worse, he ate them. That was a whole new level of psycho that Nico did not want to explore.

"Whoa, sorry dude, didn't know it angered you so much." Jason apologized sincerely, shrugging. "Well, I was doing some snooping around for anything…supernatural going on in the area, and look what I found." Nico's excitement began to well up inside of him and peak, anticipation gnawing at his insides like a rabid hamster. "Check it out." Jason pulled a stack of neatly folded newspapers from the seat beside him, which Nico had not noticed that he had brought until now, and moved all of Nico's plates to place it in front of him. The pancakes Nico had been eating were long since forgotten, growing cold as they were left unattended.

The headline stood out like a drop of ink in a bucket of white paint.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

New York, Saturday, May 9th, 2015

THREE FAMILIES MISSING IN THE TRISTATE AREA

By John Smith

Nico couldn't contain his utter delight. Well, not because the families went missing, which was very tragic, but because of the fact that this could possibly be a sign of the beast showing its face, and locally, too. He was almost glad that the families went missing, though it was still very depressing. But hey, Nico used to be an emo kid whose only company was ghosts. He didn't find anything surprising anymore, so he continued to read, wondering what mortals were blaming on the freak disappearances.

Three families; the Brown family, the Kennedy family, and the Davis family have been reported missing, their vanishings reported exactly three days apart from one another. The three families had no connection whatsoever but their towns remain close to one another, though they were in two different states. As far as the authorities know, they had no known enemies, and there is no evidence of an attack. It was as if they simply disappeared into thin air.

The Brown family, from Westchester County, New York, consisted of Margaret Elizabeth Brown, aged thirty-nine; Zachary Ryan Brown, aged forty; Leonard Seymour Brown, aged six; Julia Helen Brown, aged twelve; and Lawrence Harley Brown, aged five months. All of whom simply disappeared from their little house in Claryville, however they could have been gone for much longer, due to the fact that there had been no commotion and their lights were still on. Had concerned family and friends, whom had constantly been calling, turned up, they found the house empty, with no evidence of where the Browns may have gone. Says their family friend Becca Thomson, "They didn't have any grudges or fights or anything. They were the nicest and most normal people in the world." Police are still investigating.

Three days later, the Kennedy family disappeared from Rye Brook, which is a few towns over from Claryville. The family included Yvonne Kennedy, aged thirty; Jacob Kennedy, aged thirty; and Cara Kennedy and her twin sister, Lily, aged seven. "Yvonne was by far the sweetest woman you could ever meet; she got it from our mom. I, however, inherited my dad's stubbornness, but Yvonne wasn't sweet enough to let people take advantage of her; she could put up a fight if she wanted to." says Yvonne's sister, Hailey Grossman. "She also had a good man like Jacob to protect her and the girls. Very strong. I don't know what to think; how could they possibly just disappear?" The police's search ceases to conclude.

Yet another three days later the Davis family was reported missing, not a sign of them anywhere in the town of Greenwhich, Connecticut, located in Fairfield County. The family included Molly Patricia Davis, aged eighty-three, and her husband of fifty years Kyle Arnold Davis, aged eighty-five. "The old couple down the street? They don't participate much in town activities, since they're too frail to walk back and forth from place to place. I went shopping for the old woman once, a particularly normal list if you ask me. No one really knows them, but they give good candy on Halloween and I see them at church every Sunday." says fourteen-year-old Tyler Jacobsen, a former neighbor of the Davis family. It was discovered they were missing when their grandchildren came to visit and found them gone. The authorities' pursuit continues.

Had they taken off on a surprise trip? And if so then why not answer the desperate calls of their family and friends? Was it an abduction? Then again, why? No captor has yet to step out and offer a ransom for the return of the families. Could they possibly be hurt, or worse? May it all be the same criminal? The towns are very close, but who could evade capture so easily? Local police and the FBI are baffled. More news has yet to come.

"You think it's hungry? Going on a killing spree?" Nico asked. "And the dates do add up; roughly three days is about the time it takes for a demon to get ravenously starving." Jason nodded.

"Yeah, I noticed that too." he replied, his brows furrowed. The scar on his lip quivered a little in his concentration, and his blue eyes shimmered in the light of the early morning sun. Campers were beginning to clear out of the mess hall and head to their morning activities, and the two demigods decided that it would be best if they did the same. Nico had to inform Will and the rest of the seven about this, even Annabeth deserved to know, though Nico was not very acquainted with her.

"I say we go to Chiron and tell him to issue a quest, and maybe Rachel has a prophecy or something she can give to us." the son of Hades told Jason as he sacrificed all of his cold pancakes to no god in particular, assuming Jason had already done the same.

"That sounds like a great idea to me. But we have to do it later. Archery starts in a few minutes and Solace will kill me if I'm late." Nico chuckled at this, knowing for a fact that, despite the fact that Jason was a close friend, Will would never let him live down a tardy lesson, and even would force him to make up all the time he missed. Nico was glad that he was an exception, since he could make it up in kisses rather than actual time. With the thought of Will as well as the disappearances still fresh in his mind, he went off to arts & crafts to make by far the best sculpture of Pegasus out of the entire group.

-Ω-

"So…how've you been?" Perseus asked, rubbing his cheek and leaving a smear of blood behind.

"Besides me being trapped within a pentagram and forced to eat the measly morsels you manage to claw in, not to mention the fact that you're a goddamn psychopath, I am fairly okay." Artemis replied scathingly, turning away huffily. The demon rolled his green eyes, whose pupils slit like a snake's and then returned to their normal shape.

"Okay, then. Just to make sure we're on the same page…"

"The same page? We're not even in the same library!" Artemis snapped.

"How rude. No need to get all clammy, Miss I'm-a-goddess-so-I'm-better-than-everyone."

"At least my library isn't in Hell."

Perseus was angered by this, his lips curling to reveal his wicked fangs.

"I have fed you." he growled, no longer sounding human, which he wasn't. "I have met all your terms with stride; no human meat, no meat from an animal that had belonged to a mortal, no mortal garbage, no mortal food. I have brought you wild mice and rabbits and birds and, on good days, deer. I have slid materials and blankets over the line of the pentagram so you can build a shelter and not become cold. I am being generous, and my patience is wearing thin." Artemis seemed to pale slightly as the demon spit the words out like poison, his tone so scornful she had flinched several times as he had been talking.

"I must, indeed, give you credit for that." Artemis admitted, picking at the blankets that had long since been soiled by dirt. However it did not matter whether they were dirty or clean; she was a huntress, and as long as it worked she did not complain about it. She wondered what her Hunters were doing, no doubt trying to track Perseus down and serve his head on a platter, however Perseus was untraceable. He covered his tracks incredibly well; he didn't leave behind neither carnage, nor fingerprints as he dragged whole families to their demise. He was active only at night and was such a light sleeper that the slightest rustling of a mouse within a one-mile radius startled him into an acute awareness. He walked so lightly that he didn't leave prints or even crush blades of grass underfoot, as if he were a ghost floating over the ground. He bathed in the nearby river to wash his scent away and did his business within the river as well, so all of his waste was washed downstream so roughly that it disintegrated before it could be analyzed.

"Thank you."

"But that doesn't minimize the fact that you are a cold-blooded killer."

Now the goddess was making the demon very angry. He could not stand her company, however if he wanted his ransom he'd have to cope.

"I kill to survive, since I cannot digest anything but mortal flesh and blood. Do you know how many years, in order to lie low while my kind was being slain like deer during hunting season, I had to kill cows and eat them? The blood, out of all livestock, tastes the best, but it is the greater of several evils. The blood is too bland and sluggish, the hide too thick, the bones too hard to snap in half with my teeth. And the worst part was that they didn't even put up a fight. They just allowed me to walk over and snap their necks, dying without even a single plaintive cry. When the titans, thank the gods, rose up and became the bigger problem, I no longer had to kill cattle so that they could suppose I was a coyote. I could just kill and kill and kill. The monsters were the ones held responsible, however they didn't harm nearly as many mortals as me. I was responsible for three-quarters of the mortal deaths you gods thought monsters were to blame for. So, with that said, I think you should really change your attitude towards me." Perseus relished in the moment and grinned as he saw Artemis' badly concealed expression of horror.

He continued, "If you don't change your attitude, I can send you to Hell." Bluff. Of course. However his voice didn't make it sound like he was bluffing, and his eyes flashed dangerously.

"And what's Hell like?" Artemis managed, trying to sound righteous but ending up sounding rather afraid.

"You can tell me when you're burning alongside my brothers and sisters."

Note: I'm going to start doing this thing where there's random funny stuff at the end of every chapter, from quotes to fandom-associated stuff from tumblr.

Today:

Quotes that fit a little too well together:

The Doctor: What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?

Dean: I don't know, maybe pick up the phone and tell us that a raging psychopath was dropping by!

Sherlock: I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.

Castiel: Then again 94% of all psychopaths think they're sane.