Trust me.
Anything is better than being a half-blood.
It isn't every day you're attacked by an evil goddess, but then again, it's not every day you find out that your mother is one either.
Six days ago, I was at Kansas State High with my friend Irene, fighting off students who'd ridiculed us. Now, I've fought monsters, I've completed the hardest task of my life and I'm pretty sure there's more coming.
You might be wondering how this happened, but first, I need to tell you the truth.
Percy was right.
If you feel strange in these words, if you find yourself urging to investigate the holes in your life, please, don't. That's how I got caught up in this mess.
My name is Daryl Carvers.
Like I said, six days ago, I was attending Kansas State High with my best friend Irene. It's not the most exciting place, but she makes it better.
When I turned 16, I decided to persuade my strict father to let me attend after he'd homeschooled me for my entire life. It took a bit of time and a few home-made fish chermoula's, but I managed it. I didn't cook often, so it's safe to say he was excited about that.
Home wasn't easy either though. I kept having memory episodes and forgetting important parts of my life. Or more specific; half of it.
You see, every now and then, my brain tries to tell me that parts of my mind are missing. Like pieces of my life haven't happened, or happen to quickly. So quickly that I miss them.
I don't remember my first word, and scarily, neither does my father. We don't remember the day I learned to walk, or the day I used the bathroom for the first time.
He chalks it down to my ADHD. Forcing me to go last Summer must've calmed his nerves, especially with the diagnosis. I attempted to convince him otherwise, but then he chalks it down to his time at work, since he's a professor at Birkley High, a troubled kids school south of Topeka, but it always bothered me.
In recent years, he'd been freelance tutoring for bitchy rich kids. Magic and Occult science was his forte. You should see the inside of our house. It looks like the witch doctor walked in and exploded all over the walls.
Anyway, it quickly became part of the curriculum, and he'd managed to snag the easy job. He'd been working there for 5 months when it all happened.
That's something I definitely remember, and I couldn't ever forget it.
The days were normal, but at night I would be plagued with nightmares. Slowly, they'd get worse. It started with black fog. I knew that I was asleep, but it felt like I was endlessly falling. Even the wind popped in my ears. Another night, insects would crawl over me. When I tossed and turned in my bed, I could hear the squish of the bugs. Others included a giant bull running toward me and a set of tunnels that kept collapsing just as I made it out.
I did not like the nightmares.
Then the worst came. Irene and I had finished school that day and made our way to Dutch Bro's Coffee, our favourite coffee chain. We collected our coffee and bumped into Piper, an older girl we'd met a few weeks back.
Piper wasn't the type of girl that Irene was interested in being friends with, but I was more than happy to make new ones. Piper was always friendly to us, even lending Irene 5 after scaring away a bully outside of school. Even on this occasion, she still tried to keep the facade.
But I knew better.
"Hey!" Piper exclaimed, an unnatural smile plastering her face.
"Hi," I said, coffee in hand. "Want some?" I asked, extending my arm. Irene shuffled next to me with the fakest grin ever, but I knew she meant well. "What's going on? Haven't seen you in a couple days."
She filled the silence by blowing raspberries. "I've just been-You know, busy." She searched around her, obviously looking for something. I could start to tell something was wrong.
"You lost?" I asked.
"No, no," she replied quickly. "I'm just—" She paused, trying to think of what to say. "Meeting up with a friend, yes, meeting with a friend. You two have fun though." She turned away to leave but I clasped her hand.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing I just have to go." She tried smiling, but her eyes kept drifting behind me.
I tried to turn, but she stopped me.
"No! I just realised that I didn't hug you goodbye!" Something came over me, and suddenly I wanted to hug Piper. "Goodbye."
She turned and walked away, but my eyes couldn't help themselves. I turned to see what she was looking at, and there, in the middle of Kansas traffic, stood a woman covered in a veil of smoke.
"Oh my god," Irene exclaimed.
"What the hell-" I said. Well, okay, I practically shouted. Enough for Piper to stop in her tracks, anyway. She ran back to Irene and I.
"Please tell me you don't see that," she urged.
"Daryl, what is that?" Irene said.
"Not you too," Piper replied. She huffed in annoyance and grabbed my hand once more.
"Run," she muttered, and we sprinted across downtown Kansas City.
Surprisingly, it didn't take us long to lose the woman. I was very familiar with the streets of Kansas City and Irene knew all the hiding spots pretty well. Don't ask why.
Cars were zooming past and Piper kept blabbering about the mortals seeing a crazy lady in the middle of the road, whatever that meant. I tried to converse, but with a wave of her hand, I was dismissed and she turned to ramble to herself some more.
Irene struggled to keep up with Pipers pace, even though she led most of the way. Down a few right turns and one left, the creepy woman was out of sight. No doubt lost among the crowd of vehicles.
"How're you doing?" I asked Irene, even tho she wasn't seeming too shaken. "It bothered me so I thought I'd ask."
"Yeah," she replied. "I'm good. I just—What was that?"
"I don't know."
"Well does your friend?" She snapped. "Sorry."
"It's all good. I'll talk to her, after she's composed." I raised my voice so that she could hear me over the rumbling engines. "You never know, maybe this is the moment we've been waiting for," I joked.
Irene laughed and nodded in approval.
Irene and I had talked about getting away from this place and exploring new things. We promised no matter how weird it was, or how strange things got, we'd go with the first opportunity.
I couldn't reminisce for long, since I was interrupted by Piper's boot. She slammed it against the concrete sidewalk. "Is this a joke to you?"
"A joke?" I snickered. "You haven't even told us what's going on."
"What's going on—" she stopped herself. "This is what's going on."
She held up her hand as a cab pulled to a stop. She pulled the door open and knelt down. "These two friends of mine need a ride home, free of charge." The cab driver accepted instantly and she held the door open for us. "Get in the car."
"What? No," I said.
She stepped forward and looked me in the eyes. "Get in the car," she said, her voice stronger.
I opened the backseat of the car and started to get inside.
My mind snapped back.
"Wait, no," I said, hopping back out of the car. "You did that to me earlier." Piper stepped back. "How are you doing that?" I asked.
"How are you doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Piper?" A voice came from behind. I turned and a small kid came into view, with a red cap, baggy sweatpants and a bright orange t-shirt that read 'Camp Half-Blood'.
"Twig!" Piper shouted, hugging him. "Oh my Gods, I thought she'd got you."
"I managed to escape. Crawled into a dustbin. That had good Bumble Bee biscuits, although I may have eaten an actual bee. Who's the friends and why do they smell?"
"Ah," Piper said. "This is Daryl—"
"Hey," I muttered.
"—and this is Irene."
Irene nodded at the direction of the boy.
"Oh," he said.
"Yeah," Piper confirmed.
"Are you sure? I mean, did they do anything—"
"They saw her. So that means something."
Twig accepted this answer. "So what now? We have a cab, but nothing else."
Piper hesitated, her finger moving the same plait as always away from her eyes.
"Well," she said. "Not everything. I could get a plane."
"And take them back?" Twig said. "What if they're not?"
"Not what?" I butted in. "You know we are still here, right?"
They exchanged glances and huffed.
"Demi-Gods," Piper sighed. "Get in the cab. We're going on a plane ride."
I couldn't process what exactly she said, but all I could ask was 'to where?'.
Irene shifted slightly but her lack of hesitation made me sure she was up for it.
"Our home," Twig said.
Piper made way for the cab. "To Camp Half-Blood."