Chapter 12: Shadow Painter

Luke pulled the car door shut, sighing as he leaned back into his seat. Beside him, Silena drank deeply from a water bottle while Danny laid his head against the opposite car window.

They'd just made their great escape from the safely landed airplane, where an armada of press and police had been waiting for their story, threatening to bog them down for hours. Instead, Silena's charmspeak had gotten the cops to escort them out of the building with minimal questions asked, though she'd already cleared three water bottles rehydrating from the lengthy exertion. She finished her fourth just as the driver's seat door opened.

"Everyone ready?" a cheery woman asked as she shifted the car into gear, "Downtown, here we come!"

As a discreet 'thank you' for what they'd done on the plane, the airport had given the demigods a few perks that included free access to their taxi service and a voucher for equally nice tickets on their flight back to New York. The trio had quickly accepted their gifts, wisely keeping their mouths shut that the monsters wouldn't have attacked if they hadn't been on the plane.

Their taxi joined the rest of its yellow and red fleet, leaving the airport behind and merging towards the highway that led into the heart of San Francisco. Luke wasn't exactly sure where they were supposed to be going, but the center of the city felt like the right place to start. At the very least, there should be more monsters in the more populated area, and maybe one of them would lead to the Garden.

Silena tapped Luke's shoulder, and he found her looking at him sorrowfully. Before he could ask why, she answered him.

"I'm– I'm sorry about snapping at you on the plane. When you saw the harpies and told me to get under my seat, I felt really angry. It wasn't just at you, but you were just the person in front of me."

"Oh, yeah," Luke chuckled, "I said it cus I thought you were airsick. Don't worry about it."

Silena didn't reply, and Luke shifted his attention out the window, watching cars swerve like bees across the highway. A minute passed before he looked back and found Silena's eyes fixed forward, her face tense. Luke remembered something Thalia had told him about how he was supposed to talk to women.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked tentatively.

Silena sighed.

"Yes, actually. I'm tired of my cabin being the 'useless' and 'fragile' one. We're pretty much ignored in Capture the Flag, and I don't think any of my siblings have left camp for any reason besides trips home. I've been at camp for two years, and I feel like I'm starting to believe what everyone else says about us. About me."

Luke was quiet for a moment.

"I had no idea you felt that way," he murmured, "I'm sorry I said something that made you believe I thought that about you, too. I don't. If I did, you wouldn't have been such an easy choice for this quest."

The daughter of Aphrodite offered him a small smile, but she didn't meet his eyes. Luke saw the hint of a tremor on her lip.

"Thanks, but this quest required a camper from my cabin. If it didn't, why would I be here? Charlie and Clarisse would have both been better choices… More capable."

"Silena." She kept her eyes lowered. Luke wanted to raise her chin, but he couldn't muster the nerve. "Silena," he repeated, and she met his gaze. "I would've broken the rules of the prophecy before I let someone that I didn't believe in come.

"You're someone I want with me when I'm crossing the river in Capture the Flag," Luke smiled, "even if it means you'll apologize to the enemies you knock down." Silena laughed. "You're someone I want to hear from when I've had a fight and I need perspective. You're someone I trust will come through for me when I need it, Silena. I chose you because I wanted you here. That's it."

Silena's eyes were glistening when she nodded silently and laid her head on Luke's shoulder. Luke stiffened and shot a glance at Danny, who was stifling a smirk while keeping his gaze glued to the window. The son of Hermes slowly put an arm around her, tilting his towards the roof to hide the redness in his face.

The rest of the ride, not even half an hour in total, went by quietly until they reached the outskirts of downtown, where the classic groans of traffic congestion became insufferable. They weren't even in the real center of San Francisco – still surrounded by low-rise condos and glass-walled buildings with retro signs – but Luke was already missing the relative silence of Long Island.

"Anywhere in particular you'd like to go?" their driver asked them, her bubbly voice dulled after their last mile took more than five minutes to cover.

"Howard and 7th," Danny answered in an instant.

Luke and Silena jerked to look at him, only to find that his eyes were still set on the city outside. He sighed before addressing their unvoiced question.

"I was born here. Lived here all my life before making my way to camp."

Sure, Luke thought, what was another detail about him that would've been nice to know earlier?

(Line Break)

"You were homeless?" Silena asked, "Since you were six?"

Danny shrugged dismissively and took a casual sip from his cup of coffee. Luke stared at the demigod with a hand wrapped tightly around his own cup. Under normal circumstances, the coffee shop would have been a nice place to sit in.

The two-floored joint was entirely rustic: wood floors and wood walls, dark for the former and light for the latter. Even their quaint, handmade table was white birchwood with a little etching around the edge for the carver's initials. AP. The coffeehouse's dim lighting entwined with the sunlight streaming in from the paned front wall to give the whole place a sweet farmhouse feel.

Luke couldn't enjoy it because he was becoming increasingly frustrated with how little he knew about Danny. Everyone gets their secrets, but his secrets seemed to all be coalescing around the most important mission in Luke's life. This was for Annabeth. He needed all information available.

"Alright, no more bullshit."

"Luke!" Silena snapped, but he ignored her wide eyes.

He remained honed on Danny, who straightened in his seat.

"I was serious about all that stuff I said in the car," Luke continued, "Even besides the rules of the prophecy, I had a really good feeling about you at camp. I knew you were lying about coming along just for fun, but I let it go because of that feeling. Every secret you've had so far has worked out for us, but we're too close to our goal now.

"We're already in San Francisco, and we just found out that you're from here and that you lived here for like ten years–" Luke held up and shook his cup of coffee. "–and now some guy super happy to see you gave us free drinks. I'm not going any further without knowing everything else."

Danny took another sip from his cup, slowly this time while holding Luke's gaze. His curly black hair fell over his eyes, but it didn't hide the new weight in them that made him seem years older. He put the drink back down with a tight-lipped smile.

"What do you want to know?" he relented.

"For starters, why were you homeless?"

"Danny, you don't have to–" Silena objected, but he gently waved off her concern.

"It's been like seven years, so I don't remember everything," Danny started, dropping his gaze to the table, "but it happened because my dad got deported for overstaying his work visa."

Luke's agitation immediately began to ebb, the absence slowly filling with guilt. It was his turn to try and stop him, but Danny shook his head.

"No, you're right. I should've told you at camp why I wanted to come to San Francisco, but I didn't. So let me now." His eyes remained on the table, and he swallowed. "My dad had every intention to go back home on time and take me with him– I remember all of his stories about Oaxaca. But he had a good job here. He made really good money, and he had a big family back home that relied on him.

Danny's jaw feathered as he smiled.

"So he stayed. For them. I remember him promising himself 'just one more month, one more month' every month until the day a social worker pulled me out of school." The demigod stirred his coffee, eyes glued to the cup. "At his hearing, they– they made an example of him. Instead of just deporting us, they charged him with so many counts of forgery and fraud for every month he stayed past the date. Legally, it was enough felonies to claim he was a danger to his son.

"They separated us after the trial– if you can even call it that. He begged them all night the last day in his cell. He tried to give the government all the money he still had just for custody again, but he was sent back to Mexico, and since I was born here, they put me in the system. I ran on the first night with nowhere to go."

Luke stared at his questmate in silence, his jaw clenched and his hand tighter on his cup than before. People did this to Danny. Not monsters– not the same kind at least. How many people had watched him be ripped from his father and done nothing? Fully observant and entirely uncaring, just like the gods. Maybe men really were made in their image.

"Only six years old," Silena said again, her voice small, "How did you survive?"

Danny finally looked up at them.

"It wasn't easy and for a while, it was… cold, but–"

"Three chocolate croissants! These still your favorite, Danny?"

The boy that had brought them their coffees glided over with a tray of desserts. He was maybe fifteen with thin facial hair and sharp, angular features. Luke thought he looked like a handsome fox.

The boy quickly slipped a plate in front of each of them and pulled up a chair between Danny and Silena.

"We still don't have any m–" Silena began.

"Forget the money," he said coolly, "It's on the house. Danny will never have to pay when I'm working, and neither will his friends." The boy leaned onto his elbows, and Luke swore he lowered his voice as he tilted his head towards Silena. "But you wouldn't have had to pay either way."

Luke almost rolled his eyes before Silena smiled and gently traced her hand up the boy's upper arm.

"Aww, you're so sweet."

His suave demeanor crumpled as he blushed crimson and blustered out a combination of 'no problem' and 'it's nothing.' Silena couldn't suppress a smirk as she traded glances with Luke, and Danny laughed aloud.

"Back to what I was saying," Danny continued, his plate somehow already empty and the sides of his mouth chocolatey, "It sucked for a while, but I eventually found people. People like–"

"Like me!" the boy said with a smile.

"This guy, who can't go more than a minute without interrupting people," Danny drawled, "is Alejandro."

Alejandro pointed at the nametag pinned on his coffeehouse apron, "Or Alex. I like both the same."

A blur of surprise flew over Danny's face, and Luke couldn't help but feel bad for him. He wasn't fully sure why. Silena and Luke quickly introduced themselves as students of the same boarding school that Danny went to, which was apparently his cover for leaving.

"How do you and Danny know each other?" Silena asked, no longer deliberately flustering him.

"Academic prostitution."

"What?!"

Silena looked horrified while Luke's brows furrowed, and at the same time, Danny choked on his own laughter as he tried not to spit up the sip of coffee he'd just drank. Alex snickered with a thumb pointed at his friend until Danny composed himself and wiped his eyes.

"You're so dumb," he chuckled before sighing, "I met Alejandro maybe a year after being alone. In here, actually. I was just hungry and followed the smell of chocolate into the coffeehouse. Found him throwing a tantrum about his homework at one of the tables while a woman in an apron yelled at him."

"My older sister," Alex said quickly, "She worked here before going to college."

"And she was hot." Alex punched his shoulder, and Danny winced with a grin. "Anyway, long story short, the homework was easy for me, and Alejandro got free food here. So, I would do his homework here every day, and he would pay me in food. I never slept hungry after that."

Luke finished his croissant while watching Danny and Alex reminisce on days from years ago. They were jostling each other, and Danny was laughing. Actually laughing. His wide smiles came easy, nothing at all like his lazy mannerisms at camp, where most things seemed like they took him all the effort in the world.

Silena wiped her fingers on a napkin.

"I've never seen you like this," she said, voicing Luke's thoughts, "So happy."

"This is nothing," Alex laughed, "You should have seen him with his old band of guys. He was the prince of the Freaks and Greeks on Howard and 7th."

Danny's smile faltered, and pain flashed in his eyes.

"Greeks?" Luke asked, noticing the change in his expression.

"It's nothing–"

"Danny."

Luke's forceful tone silenced the table. It took a moment before Danny spoke again.

"They were my friends," he said with a sigh, "It was for a bunch of different reasons – and they were way older – but we were all homeless. Met them pretty soon after I met Alejandro, and I stayed on that corner out there. They're the ones who taught me all about Greek Mythology."

"They were kind of obsessed with it," Alex said, "I didn't really know any of them personally, but Danny told me enough about them to know that. It's like they thought it was all real and in a world you could reach." The three demigods shared a glance before Alex smiled sideways at Danny. "Maybe that's where they went."

"They're gone?" Silena asked.

"One by one," Danny said quietly, "There were ten at the beginning, but they just kept leaving. The rest of us had no idea where."

"Until it was just you and that last guy. I never liked him."

"Alej–"

"Yeah, yeah, I know that creep got you a way to your boarding school across the country," Alex said, brushing his friend off, but Luke and Silena immediately sat up. "You know he's not homeless anymore?"

Before anyone could say anything else, a croaky voice spoke.

"Daniel? Is that you?"

All four kids at the table turned towards the source, finding a spindly man in an all-black, obviously-expensive suit. Danny stood abruptly from his chair and moved to hug him while Alex muttered under his breath.

"No way. Hablando del rey de Roma."

"Who is that?" Luke asked quietly.

"The guy," Alex emphasized, "The one we were just talking about. I heard he's some big-shot painter now. Name's Doris or something."

"Doris? Like a woman Doris?"

Alex shrugged.

Danny brought the tall man over to their table, and Luke was immediately put off by his deathly pale skin. It was more grey than anything else. Alex quickly left to 'take some more orders,' and Luke pretended to shift through their bags on the floor before making Silena switch seats with him.

He eyed the man apprehensively, even scrutinizing the way he folded his long legs as he sat between him and Danny. Reaching down like he was scratching his leg, Luke closed his hand around the sword in his rucksack. The man pointed.

"Are these two demigods as well?"

Luke would have beheaded the man in an instant if Danny hadn't thrown his hands out at the same time.

"I knew you were going to say something like that, man," Danny complained, gesturing for Luke to wait.

Luke didn't loosen his grip by a fraction, instead moving his blade to his lap. Under the table, he tapped Silena's leg and hoped she'd grab her knife. She imperceptibly tapped his hand to acknowledge him. Luke's body remained tense when the man took a deep breath and placed both his bony hands on the table, showing he was unarmed.

"He's not a monster," Danny said defensively, "He's a mortal that can see through the Mist, and he knows about Camp. I never would've gotten there without him."

Luke was still unconvinced.

"Tell me how." Silena said firmly, and Luke felt a wave of lightheadedness.

He wanted to tell her 'how.' How what? He snapped out of it and realized she was looking at the man. Danny grimaced.

"Silena, you don't have to charmspea–"

Luke glared at him, and he resigned. The man was slack-jawed for a moment.

"H–how, what?" he croaked.

"How you know about Camp Half-Blood," Silena specified, "How you got Danny there."

"I–I migrated for much of my life. Over the years and years, I met many people from many places. Many of whom were confronted by bizarre creatures of mythology. I learned about the true nature of the world from them, and I was entranced. I met as many as I could – finding them anywhere there were those creatures – and I eventually learned about the camp for children of the gods." He smiled. "I just knew Daniel was one of them. For him to travel there, I sold a painting and bought him bus tickets that let him cross the country. I wanted him to grow stronger."

"So you're a painter," Luke said, "Doris?"

"Dorus," the man corrected, his voice gruff after he blinked himself out of his trance, "Did I pass my interview?"

Luke's jaw clenched at how the man was eyeing Silena. He felt a little better seeing that her bronze knife was in her hand. Dorus looked away from them both.

"Daniel, I feel so fortunate to have run into you today," he paused, "After all this time… Ah, I do not mean to intrude on your current affairs, but I have a standing art exhibition just down the street that I would like you to see. Your friends are wholly welcome as well."

Danny looked at his questmates, who exchanged glances. If Danny had looked any less hopeful, Luke would have the idea down in an instant. He didn't trust this Doris or Dorus or whatever at all, but he couldn't think of any real reason to avoid going. Silena seemed to share his sentiment.

With a reluctant yes, Luke let the man lead them out of the coffee shop after they said goodbye to Alex.

"Yeah, he gives me the creeps, too," Luke had whispered to him, and Alex had just shuddered.

It was a short walk down the street before they came up on a low, corner building they'd passed on the way to the coffeehouse. Doris held the door open, which Luke quickly took from him to ensure the man was never behind them. The spindly painter smiled tightly and ducked inside, back to leading the way.

They didn't have far to go– just a few steps. The 'building' was more of an open square space that boasted exposed walls of smooth concrete. Near the back of the room, a walled exit wing folded into a corner that couldn't be seen from where they were. But Luke's focus didn't stay on that for more than a second.

His eyes were immediately captured by the walls and their kaleidoscopic displays of color. Entrancing images spread out on all sides, almost hypnotically oriented in their sizing. Frames as small as Luke's palm to as large as a car hung proudly in curling waves on three of the walls, and they all pulled his eyes to the fourth. Luke held his breath as he saw it.

A single mural took up the entire space. It depicted a forest so vivid that the only reason Luke didn't believe it was real was because it was too beautiful to have been. He barely noticed Silena walk up beside him, her own eyes transfixed on the painting.

An arch of spring foliage crawled over an open clearing. Rays of sun beat down from above. The burning star itself wasn't depicted, but it might as well have been hanging over the audience. The shadows cast by it almost seemed to move with the image, splaying in the grass of the glade and painting dancing silhouettes of the trees overhead.

In the center of the clearing stood a blonde girl in a suit of armor, both her hair and bronze plating glistening in the sunlight. She was turned away from the audience, but Luke could tell her face was proud. The girl's shoulders were pushed back, and she held a golden sword over her head, her face tilted towards the sky.

A floating woman was descending towards her. Clad in regal armor of gold and accented white, her ethereal face was left uncovered by her sleek war helm. The woman's full lips were quirked with a smile. Her hands were spread outward, reveling toward her warrior. A snowy owl perched on her shoulder.

Luke was taken aback. Not because the depiction was Athena, but because Athena's head was tilted down in a bow. A goddess before her demigod.

The rest of the exhibit's images followed the same theme. Spinning to trace them all, Luke saw Ares, Demeter, Poseidon, his own father Hermes, and even Zeus, all descending towards proud demigods. His heart hammered in his chest. He couldn't help but share in their pride.

"How do you like them?"

Dorus' croak startled Luke, but he masked his surprise as the man appeared next to him.

"They're incredible," the demigod breathed, "The shadows make them look so real. Maybe even better than real."

"You have a good eye," Dorus mused, "Shadows are my bread and butter. Shadows are what give life to an image."

"Why Greek Gods and Goddesses?" Luke asked.

"The deities are secondary," the man answered offhandedly before his eyes all but set alight, "It is demigods – people like you – that give my art life. How brilliant it is that you channel the gods above into accomplishing such feats. For all their power, they themselves are mere spectators."

Luke didn't even realize he was nodding.

"But these are my old works," Dorus continued, "From an era long gone. I have another collection – private – that focuses solely on demigods. Would you like to see that one?"

"Yes," Luke answered firmly.

Dorus smiled and began to walk towards the exit wing in the back of the room, and Luke followed with Silena beside him.

"I don't like the way he talks," Silena murmured to him, "and I don't like that Danny went onto the private collection alone."

Luke blinked out of his own thoughts and realized Danny wasn't at the far corner he'd been standing in earlier.

"When did he leave?" Luke asked, mentally berating himself for not noticing.

"Just before Dorus came and talked to us. They walked back there together, but I listened to make sure nothing happened."

Luke nodded, and a sinking feeling festered in his stomach. He'd let himself get distracted enough to lose track of his questmate. That couldn't happen. Sensing his discomfort, Silena slipped her hand into his.

Dorus turned the corner into the exit wing, leaving their sight for just a few moments.

"I hope you do not mind the short trip to my private expo by Tamalpais."

Luke and Silena froze in their tracks, one step into the turn.

Tamalpais, Luke thought. The harpy on the plane mentioned the same place.

But even his own thoughts felt like they were coming from worlds away. His vision tunneled to the exit wing in front of them, or what they'd thought was an exit wing. It was a dead end, not more than six feet of walking space, and it was almost black as night.

Dorus stood shrouded in shadow, his pale face the only part of him visible. His mouth was slitted with a smile, and at his feet lay Danny, silent and unmoving. Not even a second had passed since the duo had stepped into the trap, their own feet darkened by shadow, and neither could react before the blackness rose to the rangy man's will and swallowed them.

(Line Break)

Luke woke up in what he thought was the center of the same square room. It nearly was, but the air was haze grey. As his vision came into focus, the demigod realized that the splendor of the walls was faded, the paintings as dull as the atmosphere. He couldn't fully make out the images that garnished the walls in the same fashion, but there was only one person in each. And they were too bent to be gods.

Testing his limbs, Luke realized his hands were tied behind his back, his legs bound to each other. He pulled on his restraints and immediately felt an overwhelming wave of nausea. However he'd been knocked out was still clouding his mind, making any exertion nearly vomit-inducing. He instead twisted his fingers, feeling at his restraints and finding what felt like endless knots. Looking down at his legs, he saw intricate patterns around his ankles that he had no idea how to unwind.

Luke began to panic when he twisted his head and saw his bag lying against one of the walls with Silena's and Danny's. All three of their weapons lay beside them, far beyond his reach. Quietly, he turned the other way and found Silena. His heart clenched so tight it hurt him. She was unconscious, hunched over herself and bound just like him, but with a cloth gag across her mouth ensuring she couldn't charmspeak.

"You believed it coincidence, Daniel?" Dorus' voice reached Luke, and its croak had become grating. "That I arrived on the same day, at the same time you returned here?"

An inch at a time, Luke silently rotated himself until he found Danny. His friend was tied to a chair a dozen feet away, struggling against similar restraints with his eyes narrowed and his jaw set. Dorus loomed over him with a strange rod in his hand, and a white canvas stood autonomously beside them.

"I was waiting for you," Dorus continued, "You were uninteresting prey the last time I saw you. Entirely uninitiated to the true, mythological state of the world. Unlike your old friends."

Danny's body stiffened. Dorus took a step back, smiling and raising his arms to bring the demigod's attention to the wall behind him.

"Don't these look familiar?"

Luke looked to the wall of paintings, nine in total. They were all men in some form of supplication. On their knees with their palms on their thighs or their hands clasped together. Or on all fours, looking to the sky or touching their heads to the earth. The only constant was the terror on their profiles. The paintings displayed side views of the men, and each one's face was twisted with fear, tears stained on their cheeks.

Luke didn't understand until a choking sob escaped his friend.

"What did you do to them?!" Danny shouted, shaking in his binds, "They were our friends! What the fuck are you?!"

Danny's voice was unhinged, nothing at all like Luke had ever heard it. It woke Silena as Dorus hacked out a laugh and pointed the rod in his hand at himself.

"Not 'what,' but 'who?'" he rasped, taking a deep breath, "I am Apollodorus Skiagraphos, reborn."

Luke drew a sharp breath, loud enough for the rangy man to hear. Danny's words caught in his throat. Camp Half-Blood had ensured that all of its demigods knew the artisans of Ancient Greece.

"The Shadow Painter," Luke murmured, and the man's curdled smile grew, "But you were a mortal, and the gods killed you two thousand years ago."

"They still teach of me?" he mused, sparing a glance for Luke and Silena, "Good, but it is time for them to update the curriculum. Tell me… why did they say I was killed?"

Danny remained silent, tears slipping from his eyes as he glared daggers at the undead painter. Luke followed his lead until Apollodorus pressed the tip of his rod into Danny's knee, and the demigod shouted as it sizzled his flesh.

"You disrespected the gods!" Luke shouted, and Apollodorus withdrew the rod, its peak suddenly red-hot, "They said you made them look weak!"

"Did they provide you with any evidence?"

"No," Luke said slowly, "All your work was lost when the empire fell."

"Well, you just saw some of it," Apollodorus spat, "Is it a valid assertion that I made the gods look weak?"

"No." Luke paused, seeing the mural in his mind, "You made demigods look strong."

Apollodorus clapped a slow beat of five, his applause echoing through the hazy room.

"Brilliant," he purred, "A child understands with one glance what a Pantheon couldn't acknowledge in a century!" His eyes became hard. "Those vain creatures decided my intention was to portray them as– as beckonable. And simply for that, do you know what they did to me?! They threw me into the Fields of Punishment for millenia!"

His bony chest rose and fell behind his black suit.

"I lost my mind over and over and over until I came to the conclusion that every man in the Fields does: there is an escape from here – Tartarus. Without a second thought, I flung myself into the hell beneath hell with nothing but a soul sharpened by hate. All tortured men who do what I did suffer a fate far worse than before. But not me, no. In the fumes of the Pit, I was rebirthed a torturer."

"You're a man turned into a monster," Luke whispered.

"I learned from my new brethren and crawled from the depths into the overworld, and here I am!" He sighed with a splitting grin, glaring at the ceiling. "The gods branded me with their own self-absorbed ideology, so I will make those arrogant bastards… beckonable. The price they pay each time they do not crawl down from their plinths will be the blood of their own children."

Luke's stomach shriveled into itself as he realized what the monster meant. He looked around the room, tracing the other three walls filled with dozens and dozens of paintings. Men and women, boys and girls, sobbing in their desolate frames, praying to empty grey skies. Every image was a demigod. Each one unclaimed by their divine parent in the moment they needed them most. Luke's eyes became hot.

"They… they were all demigods?" Danny asked quietly, his eyes fixed on the sparse wall of his friends.

"Yes," Apollodorus murmured, a sick grin carving his face, "You should have joined them years ago, but I thought I would give you more time. Especially after seeing you already fail so often at calling her."

Danny's face went sheet white, "You knew."

"Danny!" Luke shouted, "What is he talking about?"

The son of Hecate began to shake with sobs, and Apollodorus laughed.

"Your friend has slept alone on freezing streets more times than he can count. He begged his mother each night for fire, for warmth. Nothing until I found him. Until I brought him to his old friends. It has been years now, let us see if she has altered course."

Apollodorus raised his rod, holding it gently between his fingers as he lined Danny up with the blank canvas. Luke realized through the haze that it was a paintbrush.

"Pray!" the monster roared, and the demigod jerked in his chair.

"Danny!" Luke shouted again, "She helped us on the plane! She'll come!"

Silena, still silenced by her gag, sobbed as she pried at her own knotted ropes. Danny began to wail in his binds.

"Mother, please!" he sobbed.

Luke's eyes pricked like needles watching the boy. Boy had never been an apt description for someone as unfazeable as Danny, but that was what he was. What he'd been reduced to again. The burning brush pressed into Danny's shoulder, and he shrieked through his sobs.

"Mother!"

Luke couldn't stop the tears streaming down his face as he shouted his friend's name and yanked at his arms. He bit down so tightly that his mouth filled with blood. He couldn't break out of the restraints. Each time he felt he got close, his left shoulder threatened to pop, and a terrible jolt tore up from the same thumb.

A terrible singe filled the air as Danny moaned, still calling to Hecate, and an image began to take shape on the canvas. Shadows coalesced across the white fabric, silhouetting the boy tied to a chair. His mouth was open in a prolonged scream, his cheeks wet with rivers. His voice echoed in the room as Luke fell over, still prying at the ropes around his arms. A guttural yell ripped from Luke's throat as he realized his legs were even more unusable.

Silena fruitlessly kicked her bound feet while steam hissed from the canvas. Luke's heart was pounding in his skull, his head against the ground, but the deafening sound wasn't loud enough to drown out his howling friend. Until it was.

Danny's voice died moments before the sizzling stopped. Luke's shoulders slumped as he sobbed into the floor. He forced himself to turn towards the demigod, only to find the seat emptied. Instead, Danny sat amidst steam belching from the darkened canvas. The son of Hecate was art, immortalized in his pain, in his terror, and he would join an exhibition with the rest of the forgotten demigods. Luke almost threw up at the sight.

He would have if his eyes hadn't snapped to Apollodorus, who was already walking towards them. The demigod stared at him with unbridled hate, biting at his legs when he stalked close enough.

"Hasty," the painter purred, "Your will is promising, but wait your turn."

He kicked Luke in the chest, knocking him on his back before he grabbed Silena by the hair and dragged her to the chair. She kicked and struggled in the only way she could – silently behind her gag – as tears rolled down her cheeks. Even with the air knocked out of his lungs, a garbled scream ripped from Luke as he turned over.

"I'm going to kill you!" Luke shouted, spitting the blood he'd drawn from his own mouth.

Apollodorus tutted as he dragged over another blank canvas and reached into the easel. He produced two globs of white on two fingers and plugged them in his ears. Wax, Luke realized, through his roiling rage. Her charmspeak would be useless. And Luke would watch another friend die. Just as useless as he'd been for Danny. As useless as he'd been for Annabeth in the Cyclops Lair. There was nobody to save her this time.

Apollodorus ripped the gag out of her mouth, and she immediately vomited.

"Pray!" he roared in her face.

"Please," Silena sobbed.

Luke's gut tightened painfully. He thought the meekness in her voice would kill him before the painter ever could.

"Help me. Help me."

Her pleading felt like a knife chipping into Luke's soul. He wanted to die. He shut his eyes and languished in his paralysis. Why wasn't her mother answering?

"Luke, please."

His chest heaved, his eyes snapping open. She was never calling to her mother. He strained to look at her, and she was fixated on him.

"Please, Luke."

She wasn't calling to any god. Her voice was level– as level as it could have been through her shaking– and there wasn't an ounce of charmspeak in her voice. There didn't need to be, not now.

Luke jerked through his left arm again and again, damning the pain tearing through his shoulder and thumb. Jolts shot through his arm, but he didn't stop. He couldn't. He grunted when the rope loosened by a fraction, and he twisted as far as he could before wrenching with all his body weight.

His shoulder instantly ripped from his socket, and his thumb cleanly broke from his hand. But his arms were free. Luke's world nearly turned black from the shock, but he couldn't fall now. He lunged forward on all fours like a feral animal, moving with whatever limb would carry him. His bound legs kicked as one, and he gnashed his teeth every time his dislocated arm pressed into the floor.

But the wax ensured Apollodorus couldn't hear him. The brush was nearing Silena, who was sobbing even harder. Maybe from joy, but the painter would never know. Before he could press the burning tip into her shoulder, Luke sprung from the floor and barreled into him.

The demigod dragged the monster to the floor, both hands vices around his neck. Pinning his legs down with his own, Luke forced Apollodorus to turn onto his back and meet his eyes. The pale man's horrified face was greying as Luke tightened his grip, his dislocated arm doing its best to obey.

The flailing brush between Apollodorus' fingers found Luke's good arm, unleashing its fire into his skin, but the demigod didn't care. Blood spilled from his lips as he shouted through the pain, blinding the monster. Grey skin purpled while Apollodorus gasped for any semblance of air. The brush left his hand, and his spindly fingers began to claw at Luke's arms. The nails drew more blood, but it was too late for Luke to acknowledge the affliction.

Still holding his body down, Luke lifted Apollodorus' head by the throat. He gnashed his teeth and slammed his head into the floor. Then he did it again. And again. And again. He didn't stop when he heard the crack of a skull, or the squish of grey matter, or the spurting of blood or the sigh of a dead man. He didn't stop until the neck between his clenched hands was nothing but thin strips of skin.

Only then did he shove off of him and fall onto his side, breathing heavily as the grisly remains finally vanished into golden dust.

Luke's body began to move on autopilot, covered in blood as he slunk over to their weapons and cut his legs free. His left arm fell dead at his side as his adrenaline began to fade and his ears began to ring. Tears might have been falling from his eyes, but he wasn't sure. His shivering body just focused on taking one step at a time.

He cut Silena from the chair, and she hugged him tighter than he'd ever been hugged before. It might have hurt if it didn't feel so good. She was sobbing into his neck, and he could only tell from her shaking. Over the piercing sound filling his skull, he couldn't hear whatever she said into his ear. He could barely hear his own voice when he spoke.

"I'm so glad you're safe," he whispered before losing consciousness in her arms.

A/N: Just gonna yap a little bit because I like talking through my processes. No need to read if you don't want to, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Anyways, man I'm sad Danny's dead. But, let's be honest, we knew it was coming (also it's probably a good thing because I don't want any relevant OCs in an actual retelling besides monsters I find interesting). I'm pretty much treating this like a Book 0 to the actual retelling and using Luke's POV to give some backstory to how he ends up becoming the kind of guy he does. I get that's relatively boring to people who want to see a more traditional retelling, and I'm only a little bit sorry because I also want to practice writing characters and character development both in evolution and devolution. Of course, I hope you're enjoying it, and I would love genuine criticism about what I could do to make my writing better going forward. Anyways, yeah RIP Danny :(

normalpjo fan: bro i love this story i love you and god have mercy you made me in to an addict of your storys i just need moreee

Haha thank you man. So glad you're enjoying the story, and I hope I'm not making you wait too long between updates. By mid-May, we'll be back to minimum one a week for sure.

JoJo 'Perlia' Jesus: I see your point. Burnout is a terrible thing. To take one thing off of your mind, I know I'll enjoy the Perlia. I wouldn't deserve my title of Perlia Supremacist if there was an option. Keep up the good work, and have a great day!

Happy to hear it. I have a few ideas to meaningfully sprinkle it in earlier than the actual revive she gets at the end of Sea of Monsters, and I'm excited to see your reaction to it.

levisorus:

I'm only not copying the review over for word count, but I'm so glad to hear from you again man. Also, I don't want to give you any false hope about Perlia being in full swing in just 3-4 chapters because we've unfortunately got a while, BUT I have some ideas to get the train running don't you worry. Your praise means more to me than you know, and I genuinely believe that if I end up really writing and publishing the kinds of stories I want to, you'll have played a serious hand in giving me the confidence to. I won't ever forget that.

Anaklusmos404: This is definitely interesting. I am thoroughly enjoying this so far, though I do find Percy's quest to be far more entertaining so far. Keep up the good work. It'd also be super cool to see Percy grow to have muscles like the mermen, because he's at the bottom of the ocean, and his body should reflect that. And to show that, being on land, everything should be easier when it comes to physical stuff. I personally look to Aquaman and Aqualad as inspiration for this.

Haha yeah, I do think Percy's quest is stronger when it comes to keeping attention. Most likely because it's so much more action-driven than character-driven, and Percy + Triton are a lot easier to want to see do stuff than Luke + Silena + OC, but I'm really glad you're enjoying the story overall. I do have something in mind about how Percy being underwater will affect him when he reaches land for the main story, but I don't want to make him ultra jacked or anything because he'll be like twelve haha. I will be talking about how the sea has affected him though, and I'll definitely look into Aqualad.