Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I didn’t have much of a family growing up. Which sucks, because I know there’s people at home who should love me. They just don’t. All I had was my mom and a step-father. My mother was great, if she stuck around every so often. It wasn’t exactly her fault, since she had to go to work. The only person at fault was Gabe; my stepfather. He wasted my mom’s money on poker and beer, which made my mom struggle for money.

Everything would’ve been fine; I could’ve gone about my life living there if I had to. Except, everything has a whole new layer of terrible when there are monsters in the mix. Apparently, there are these bad people my mom calls monsters that would take me away whenever I sang. My mom never said why, but she just said to stay silent, and that was that.

At least she taught me the very basics of sign language to communicate with her. I was still getting the hang of it, though.

I didn’t think she meant any harm by it; she took care of me whenever she wasn’t at work, but that small amount of time just wasn’t enough. So for 16 hours out of every day, I had alone time with Gabe. One day, I was fed up and tired with it.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — —

“Hey, Brain Boy! Grab me another beer, why don’tcha?” Gabe yelled from the living room over the blaring noise coming from the tv. Some stupid sports channel was on; I doubt he even cares about that crap. He probably watches it to look cool in front of his poker buddies. I rolled my eyes, avoiding the empty beer bottles on the ground as I made my way to the kitchen.

It was always “Get beer!” “Give me money!” “Where’s my pack o’ cigarettes?” so on and so forth. I grabbed the beer from the fridge, bringing it over to Gabe. He somehow managed to smell even worse over the last few months, so my nostrils were getting attacked by the smell of it. Maybe I should help my mom out and clean the apartment? Though it would be most beneficial if Gabe got off his ass and showered once in a while.

“What was that! Are you fucking giving me attitude?” Gabe stood up, forgetting the beer can I worked so hard to carry over. Of course, no matter what I did, Gabe saw any form of body language was a sign of attitude. It’s not like I could vent to anyone; I couldn’t even speak!

I shook my head to say no, but Gabe wasn’t paying any attention. He never was. Who would listen to a stupid 7 year old that doesn’t even speak? I sure wouldn’t. “I’m going to teach you not to talk back to your authority, Brain Boy.”

Gabe raised his fist, and I disassociated before the first hit landed. That was always my tactic; if I stayed in my head and emptied my thoughts and feelings, then I could ignore what was truly happening. Almost like static buzzing around my head; blocking out any senses, such as hearing the yelling. Or feeling the pain. I stayed there for what felt like ages, taking beating after beating. Just ignore, just forget, just detach…

When I came to, Gabe was gone. I looked around before realizing there was blood. Everywhere. On me, on the floor, and on my clothes. I wouldn’t be surprised if my blood was staining Gabe’s fists right then and there. I forced myself to sit up, trying to shake off the sudden dizziness. This was the fifth time this week, and it was only a Thursday. At this rate, I wasn’t going to survive for long.

I stumbled my way to the bathroom, clutching my broken nose. It hurt like hell, but it’s not like anyone around would care. Gabe would be thrilled at the news. I reached the bathroom, turning on the sink and splashing my face. Water always seemed to make the bad feelings go away; like a shower draining away the dirt and grime.

I couldn’t take it anymore; even with the water healing me most of the time, I was bound to have some sort of permanent damage. Being on the verge of death daily can’t be healthy.

So why was I dealing with this? Why would I keep taking hit after hit if all it did was hurt? It wasn’t helping my mom, it wasn’t hurting Gabe, and it certainly wasn’t helping me. It’s not like anyone would miss me; Gabe would be relieved, and mom wouldn’t even notice. This had to be the only option; running away and never looking back. That, or killing myself.

— — — — — — — — — —

I grabbed my backpack, hoping it would fit all the essentials. I would probably need food, water, clothes, and a weapon. New York was a dangerous place, especially for a kid with no adults nearby. With that in mind, I started searching the house. I went to the kitchen, grabbing multiple granola bars, bottles of water, and sandwiches. That would be enough for at least a week, maybe? I also grabbed a big knife from the block, hoping it would be enough protection.

I moved over to my room, grabbing my favorite clothes that I thought would be helpful. Especially things like jackets for when it got cold. As I rummaged through my closet, I pulled out a wadded 10 dollar bill. That seemed like a lot of money. All that ‘essentials’ crap got bored, so I grabbed the photo of me and my mom I had on my bed and ran out. I couldn’t stand another second in that stuffed-up apartment.

The cool air hitting my face shocked me into realizing my situation. I was abandoning a roof over my head, almost constant food, a nice bed, and occasional AC. Was this really worth it? Was I willing to risk death just to escape Gabe?

Yeah, probably.

I kept walking, noticing that no one was around. No one to catch fleeing children, no adults to help. I guess that’s what I was going for: no adults to fail me again. No one to hit me when I blinked, no one to abandon me when I needed them the most. This had to be the right move.

The further I walked, the more scared I got. I didn’t know my surroundings, even though mom had tried to teach me how to navigate the area multiple times. I didn’t even know where I wanted to go; just far enough that I won’t have to see that apartment again.

— — — — — — — —

Of course, there had to be some kind of “monster” around. I wasn’t sure what they looked like; mom said they could be any type with any varying levels of danger. But this one had one eye right in the middle of his forehead. Even with my limited knowledge, I knew it was probably a cyclops that I’ve heard in stories.

I made eye contact with him, my fight or flight kicking in. Can you even make eye contact with one eye? Even though he didn’t attack me yet, mom always said to run in the opposite direction of any monster I come across. So I did. I ran as quickly as possible, forcing my short legs to carry me far away.

I looked behind me as I ran, seeing the cyclops gaining on me. Yup, definitely trying to kill me. Or kidnap me, at the very least. I didn’t like either of those options.

As I ran past civilians on the sidewalk, they started to yell, cursing about how they drop their coffees. Whether at me or the monster, I wasn’t sure; hopefully at the cyclops. I saw one person dialing 911, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. It’s been a few hours; long enough for mom to notice my absence, so there’s a possibility the police are already looking for me. Or maybe that would take 24 hours to go through.

Sirens started sounding nearby, and I knew I couldn’t hide for long. I might as well put them to good use and get this monster out of here. Even though I had a knife, that doesn’t mean I wanted to use it. I ran towards the sound of sirens, seeing a few police officers running out of their car at full force.

They thankfully passed me as I ran, going towards the cyclops and putting him in cuffs. “You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.” One of them yelled, starting to drag the monster into the car. They didn’t seem phased about the man’s singular eye, but I didn’t question it.

The second officer came up to me, scanning me up and down. “Do you know that man?” She asked, crouching down to be at my eye level. I shook my head, causing her to nod. “Understood. Where are your parents?” Great, how do I get out of this one?

When in doubt, start signing. Most people back off when they realize they don’t know what you’re saying. This method proved useful yet again, making the officer give me a confused look. “You can’t speak or something? That’s alright; if your parents aren’t around, we’re going to take you in for questioning.”

That’s no good. If they found out who I was, they would send me right back to Gabe. It’s not like I could just tell them he hits me; Gabe would kill me! I slowly backed off, seeing a group of people surrounding the area. Nosy people. This could be the perfect area to run and hide…

“Don’t run!” The cop yelled. “Can you just wait a second? Shit, Tyler is so much better at kids than I am.”

The lady turned around to get the attention of the other officer, and immediately, I was off like a bullet. Weaving my way through crowds, I tried my best not to bring any more attention upon myself. I heard heavy boots running behind me, and I knew they were chasing me. I eventually ducked into a nearby store, watching the police run past.

Great, now I’m wanted by the police. Just what I always wanted.

— — — — — — — — —

Once the police were out of sight, I stumbled upon a bus stop with enough people there to slip by as someone else’s kid. The bus couldn’t appear any sooner, but soon enough, everyone piled on the bus at once. My plan managed to work, but I chose a seat in the back just in case. The only people back there were an old man and a girl about my age with blonde hair. I decided sitting next to the girl was a less awkward decision.

It took at least 3 different stops to realize that neither of us were going to get off anytime soon. Who knows; maybe she was on the run too? That would be too much of a coincidence, though. Just as I was about to get off at a random station and figure it out from there, the girl spoke up. “You’re not with any of the families here, are you? Are you one of the monsters?”

My eyes widened at the prospect of being one of the monsters. Did I of all people seriously look like one? I shook my head, loosely signing something about running and monsters. We were on the same team: both trying to hide from the constant monster attacks.

“I don’t know sign language. Just promise me you’re not one of those things…” I shook my head frantically, pointing at myself, trying to show that I also fought monsters. I even pulled out my knife, trying to convey I was safe. That obviously wasn’t a friendly gesture, though. The girl jumped back, moving to protect herself. I put it away after that.

Great, another fail at human interactions.

“So you’re not here to hurt me? You must fight monsters too! At least you have a knife; all I got is this hammer.” She held up a dull hammer with golden dust caked on it, proving that she survived many monster attacks. Despite the rocky start, I smiled. She seemed to be friendly for the most part, and we were about the same age. That’s gotta count for something.

“I’m Annabeth. Hold on, I think I might have some paper for you to write on! Then you can tell me your name, at least.” Annabeth pulled off the red backpack off her shoulders, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil from the pockets. I grabbed the pencil and quickly scribbled down 5 badly-written letters:

P-E-R-C-Y

Chapter Text

I’ve always worked alone. Even before I ran away, neither my dad or stepmom were there for me. My dad was always “busy”, which was an obvious excuse to leave. With my stepmom… it’s like she knew there were monsters, but she blamed it on me anyway. So there was no winning in that house.

I ran away; running and fighting on my own for a whole 2 weeks. Then on a spur of the moment, I decided to get on a bus. Not to go anywhere, exactly; it just felt right. 3 stops later, I knew I was wasting my time. I was planning on leaving and figuring out where I went, but then a boy about my age shuffled through the crowd and sat right next to me.

I might stay on for a few more stops…

So now I have a travel partner, Percy. A person I could relate to who also saw the monsters. Sure he was a little awkward, but it wasn’t too bad. He couldn’t speak, so that probably doesn’t help. I didn’t mind, exactly. He seemed pretty nice, and it was about time I got to talk to someone about all my cool building ideas.

Exploring New York helped with that. All the different types of buildings, big and small, had interesting factors to them. Even though we just met, when we got off the bus, he didn’t seem to mind my rambling. It’s been a long time since I felt safe to fully talk to someone, so I was releasing all my pent-up energy.

This went on for a week or two, just us against the world. Every once in a while we would write in the notebook to communicate, but most of the time, I would just ramble to him. He’d respond with a nod or a quiet laugh, depending on what I said. It was nice.

Even if we just walked around and talked most days, there would almost always be a monster around. Moving constantly was supposed to keep them off our trail, but for whatever reason, they kept showing up. That’s how I knew we needed a better system than just a notebook.

“You know, since I don’t know any sign language, maybe we can make signals for important things. Like when there’s danger nearby, or when we’re hungry.” I brought up randomly while we walked off a beaten path. We didn’t bother paying attention to where exactly we were in New York, since we didn’t have anywhere to go.

Percy held up the notebook and wrote a quick response. ‘god idea what were u thinking’ he scribbled down. I tried to ignore the grammar mistakes and misspells. He had trouble with it thanks to his dyslexia. “I guess we could do something like a certain sound. Though that may be too loud if there are monsters around.” Percy shrugged, not sure either.

The sun was starting to set, causing the surrounding trees to cast shadows. It was probably time to find a place to sleep for the night. “We can figure it out in the morning. We should probably go to sleep soon; the monsters are most active at night.” I looked around for a bench or something, and there was one near a fountain.

We walked over to it, placing our bags down to mark the spot. “Is this a good place? There’s not a lot of people around.” Percy gave me a thumbs up, stretching out onto the bench. I did the same, immediately feeling exhausted. Running from monsters all day will give you a workout.

“Good night, Percy.” I mumbled, slipping into a peaceful sleep. Percy always seemed to help calm me down.

— — — — — — — — —

When I woke up, Percy was sitting there like he’d been awake all night. He had his notebook in hand, taking his time to write carefully. I sat up, making Percy look over at me in surprise. “There’s no way you’ve been up all night. I sure hope you’re a morning person.”

That almost got a laugh out of him. I glanced over at what he was doing, and my eyes widened. He was writing down the alphabet, but next to each letter was a picture of how to sign it in ASL. The hands were a little lop-sided, with the thumbs sticking out like, well, a sore thumb. But it got the message across.

“That’s so cool, Percy! Do you just know the alphabet?” I asked, looking over the pictures. Most of the letters seemed pretty simple to do; this will make it a lot easier to communicate. Percy flipped to a new page, quickly writing down a response. ‘I know sum basic words but mostly the alfabet’

Even though it was just the basics, something is better than nothing. We could use this as a signal, too. We might need something that no one else knows, but not a lot of I don’t know a lot of people who know ASL. It should be fine. “Sounds good to me. We’ll find a new place and you can teach me there.”

We started to gather our backpacks, planning to start heading out of the woodsy area and closer to the roads. It may mean more people, but it also means monsters can’t get to us as easily. For some reason, I’ve noticed an increase of monsters since traveling with Percy. Which made sense since there were more of us, but it felt unnatural in a way.

Turns out my hesitance wasn’t for nothing, because out of the corner of my eye, I saw nearby bushes shake. I glanced over at Percy, but he was too busy looking at the tiny fish in the fountain. It could just be my imagination, but in the past couple weeks I’ve been on my own, I learned not to doubt my instincts.

“Percy, I think we should hurry-” Just then, something jumped out from behind those exact bushes. I pulled out my hammer, and I saw Percy from the corner of my eye fumbling with his knife. The monster looked at us with bloodthirsty eyes, but her most noticeable trait was that one of her legs was bronze, and one was a donkey leg.

I had heard some stories of her; Empousa. I wasn’t sure if two 7 year olds with a hammer and a knife could take her, so fighting would most likely be plan B or C. The only issue would be how to escape.

“Ohh, children. I typically like to suck the blood out of adults, since they have so much more blood. But I guess you’ll have to do.” Empousa slowly approached, but before I could yell at Percy to run, I heard a loud roar of something rushing right past my ear. I blinked, and the monster was suddenly 10 feet back, completely soaked. All I managed to see was some sort of wave, but in the shape of a fist. I must’ve been going crazy; I wouldn’t be surprised.

I turned to Percy, seeing him shaking, but relatively unharmed. He motioned to the trees, and I got the message. It was time to say our goodbyes to Empousa. We sprinted the opposite way of her, hearing the spluttering and cursing growing fainter and fainter away. We were safe, at least for now. But what the heck happened back there?!

We both collapsed on the ground, and I made myself scan our surroundings. We were still hidden in the trees, but I could see buildings nearby. That was a good sign. I looked over at Percy, and it looked like he just ran a marathon. “Percy… do you know what happened?”

When all he did was shrug, I gave him a pointed look. He knew I wasn’t stupid enough to fall for that. Percy begrudgingly picked up his notebook, rolling his eyes as he scribbled something down. ‘the water responded to me. I felt it.’ I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but it didn’t bode well with me.

“We can figure it out later. We should start heading to those buildings over there. Who knows if that monster is still following us.” Percy shuddered, seeming to agree with me. We started heading out of the woods, going slightly faster than yesterday. If the myths I knew of Empousa were true, we didn’t want to talk to her longer than necessary.

When we turned the corner onto the nearest street, I grinned. Out of all the places we could’ve ended up, we happened to be just across the street from a public library. Percy groaned when he saw my face, already knowing my plan. I ran over with Percy close behind, excited to have an excuse to get books. I haven’t been in a library since I left home.

The library itself wasn’t that special, but it had books and a small amount of people around. Sounds perfect to me. Percy opted to stay in the waiting area, supposedly to keep a lookout. I knew he didn’t want to have to deal with his dyslexia. Even if it wasn’t Percy’s favorite, it was a dream come true for me.

— — — — — — — — — —

When I came back with a stack of books in my hands, I had a grin on my face.I had about 5 books, most nonfiction but a couple were fiction. I started to look around for a place to check them out, I saw Percy surrounded by 3 old ladies. And he didn’t seem to be appreciating the attention.

“Where are your parents, dear? You’ve been sitting here for a while.” I heard one lady ask. “Did they leave you? Are you alone?” Percy was starting to look really uncomfortable, and I wasn’t going to just stand there.

“Why won’t you talk, dear? Is it that curse of yours? You poor thing. The gods truly don’t care for you, do they?” Another lady hissed, and a third one laughed. They all cornered Percy, trying to get a reaction out of him. That wasn’t going to do, so I threw a book at one of them as hard as I could.

The three of them turned to me in surprise, confused on why a ‘Warrior Cats’ book hit them in the back of the head.

“Hey, his mom is here. I’ll go get her if you don’t leave him alone!” I ran up to Percy, forgetting the rest of my books on the ground. Thankfully, they seemed scared at the thought of an adult nearby. Or maybe the thought of getting hit with another book. Either way, the three old ladies quickly exited the library.

…So as you can imagine, I had a lot of questions. Those ladies clearly were some sort of monsters undercover. Why else would they talk about the gods? And if they really were monsters, what did they mean Percy had a curse? I would’ve bombarded Percy with questions, but one look at him, and I knew he was already shaken up enough.

Lucky for him, I’ve got something he’ll love.

“Don’t worry Percy, they should be gone for good. But look what I found!” I ran back over to the pile of books I left, picking up one from the top. I hid it behind my back, grinning over at Percy. “It’s a book on ASL! Now we can learn more than just the alphabet.”

I handed the book to Percy, letting him scan through the pages. After a while, I couldn’t tell if he liked it or not. Was it inaccurate? Did he not want to learn with me for some reason? But when he hugged the book to his chest and ran into me, I knew he appreciated it.

“Now we can learn together.” I said to Percy, hugging him back. Now that we have a better way of communicating, it’ll make life a lot easier. I felt Percy grip the back of my shirt, hiding his face into my shoulder.

I only pulled away when I heard a quiet, raspy voice say, “Thank you.”

— — — — — — — — —

We left the library fairly quickly after that, checking out the books and shoving them into our backpacks. Not that we’d be able to bring them back. We needed a safe place to stay, especially after those ladies cornered Percy like that. Public spaces were supposed to be relatively clear of monsters, but obviously monsters like to read.

“So Percy… I hate to ask you so soon, but I can’t help it. What happened back there?” I wondered as Percy and I continued walking down the street. A lot happened that I didn’t understand, and it was driving me crazy. Percy sighed, pulling out his notebook to write an answer.

‘Mom said if I sing, bad things happen. I can still talk, but I don’t like doing it anymore.’ That explained the whole ‘curse’ thing, but why would singing be bad? Percy didn’t deserve to be cursed; he didn’t do anything wrong!

“Do you know what happens when you sing?” Percy shook his head, so I decided to leave it be. I haven’t heard much about his mom before, so I could tell he doesn’t like to talk about her often. Maybe she died, or maybe Percy just ran away. With the way he talked about her, I could tell she wasn’t a bad person.

After about an hour of walking around, I started getting nervous. I’ve never been in this part of the city, and for good reason. The buildings always seemed to be falling apart; not very good architecture on their part. Not many people were around during the day anyway, but once it turns dark? A lot of bad people, including monsters, start to come out.

“Let’s stay around here for tonight. Then in the morning we can find a way around the neighborhood.” I pointed down an alley we just passed, looking for a place to sleep that wasn’t on the ground. All I could see were dumpsters and a bench right outside it. Seemed safe enough.

Percy gave me a questioning look, but went along with it. Maybe he could hear the concern in my voice. I was sure no one would want to hurt us; two kids with no parents isn’t of much value. But you never know.

We sat down on the bench, kicking our legs in unison. Percy started digging in his bag, pulling out the book I found and smiling. Now was a pretty good time to start learning; we had nothing else to do. And at the very least, Percy looked happy. That makes everything worth it.

— — — — — — — — —

I got so distracted reading the ASL book with Percy that I didn’t notice when it started getting dark. I looked up, realizing that seeing the words was getting harder and harder to do. I was right; more people had started walking around once it was harder to see.

“Percy, I’m going to be real with you. I don’t think it’s safe here.” I muttered, pulling up my knees to my chest like I was hiding from the people around us.

Percy frowned, putting a hand on my shoulder. Using the new word we learned while reading, he signed the word ‘what?’ “In areas like this, there’s a lot of crime. There’s a lot of drunk adults, robbers, assaulters, and even monsters. That’s why I want to leave as soon as it’s daytime.”

I saw Percy flinch at the description, his eyes widening in fear. I felt kind of bad, but it wouldn’t be fair to just lie to him and say it was completely safe. The way he reacted was concerning, but Percy would tell me what was wrong when he was ready.

I heard walking coming to our right and panicked. Percy was scared too, and I wasn’t sure where to go. Everyone else so far had been on the other side of this street. What if it was a murderer? Or worse, monsters. We needed to hide, and fast.

As the footsteps got closer, I grabbed Percy’s hand to drag him into the alley and behind a nearby dumpster. The movement created a loud clanging sound, causing the footsteps to stop. That’s not good at all. I got out my hammer as quietly as possible, and Percy took out his knife.

We had fought monsters before, but we ran away from most of them. Now, there was nowhere to hide. The whole alleyway was a dead end. I took Percy’s hand for support, for both our sakes. Monsters never got less scary, and our mediocre weapons didn’t help with that fact.

“Thalia, we have to go. We have to get out of here before nighttime.” A voice called out from right outside the alley. I started to shake. It’s right there.

“I know Luke, but I think I saw something. Someone’s probably hiding over there.” Another voice responded. My forehead was covered with sweat at this point. There’s more than one!

“Even if it is someone, you know this place is dangerous. The people in this area-” Percy let out a small whimper, moving to cover his mouth. But it was too late; the people already stopped talking. We’ve been caught.

“I’m going in. Are you coming or not?” The voice was quiet, probably trying not to alert us. These had to be monsters of some sort. Or maybe robbers. Either way, it was going to be bad. And I had a feeling they wouldn’t run away if we threw a book at them.

The footsteps started going down the alley, and I had to cover my own mouth to stop the crying. This is it; we were cornered. I had a dull hammer that barely did anything, and Percy had a small knife that barely did anything. This is how we die, isn’t it?

The two people stopped right in front of us, and I could just see their shoes. Combat boots and converse? I guess the monsters have good taste in shoes, apparently. I bet they have good taste in the children they eat, too. Hopefully we’re off their menu for the night.

“Can you look..?” One of them asked.

“Fine Thalia, but you owe me.” A head peaked around the dumpster, and I immediately lifted my hammer to swing, blocking Percy with my body as I did so. I made eye contact with the guy, about 14, and he threw his hands up in surrender. “Woah, it’s okay! I won’t hurt you!” He backed up, giving the other person room to look around. It was a girl who seemed a couple years younger than him. So they’re kids too?

“Are you working with the monsters?” I yelled, trying to keep my voice steady. I just had to scare them away, and everything will be fine. Then Percy and I can relax and go back to learning ASL together. Then we can get better weapons and be better at fighting monsters. Then we’ll be safe.

“Oh gods–!” The girl gasped. I’m assuming she’s Thalia and the guy was Luke. Monsters didn’t typically have normal names like that, so maybe they were people too? “No, we’re not monsters. In fact, we actually fight them.” Luke crouched down in front of us, glancing between me and Percy.

“My name is Luke, and this is Thalia. What are your names?” I looked over at Percy, and he was looking straight at Luke. He looked a little less anxious. If Percy felt okay with this, then I guess I can try to trust them. “My name is Annabeth. This is Percy.”

Thalia came over and sat next to Luke, trying to look as unthreatening as possible. “It’s nice to meet you. How long have you been hiding from the monsters? We have been for a while.” Percy perked up at that, putting down his knife. I put away my hammer, deciding not to hit them; it wouldn’t do much anyway.

“Uhm… how many weeks has it been, Percy?” Percy squeezed my hand, holding up 4 fingers with his other hand. “A month,” I answered. Luke frowned, looking at both our weapons. “That’s a long time to be out all alone. Seems like you guys did a good job fighting them off, though. How old are you, 7?” I was kind of surprised that these strangers seemed to care so much. They’re not half bad.

“Well, I turn 8 in 2 months and Percy turns 8 in 3 months. So we’re old enough.” Thalia seemed to find that funny, making her laugh. “That’s still pretty young. How about you join our group? There’s strength in numbers after all.” Luke seemed to be surprised by her offer too, but he eventually nodded.

I wasn’t sure what to say. While these people were being nice, that doesn’t mean they won’t turn their backs on us eventually. I looked at Percy, signing something that meant ‘what-do?’ Instead of answering, Percy looked at Thalia and Luke, who was waiting for our answer. Then he nodded. That was all the confirmation I needed.

“Okay… we can come with you.”

They both smiled, looking genuinely relieved that we agreed. Luke randomly pulled out a knife from a sheath, and I almost thought he was going to attack. But instead, he turned the hilt towards me and handed it over. “I bet it’s hard to fight with a hammer. Now you and Percy can match.” I dropped the hammer and grabbed the knife, which had a bronze tint to it. It fit well in my hand, at least.

“We don’t need to hide from the monsters anymore. Us four can be our own family.” Luke stood up, helping us to our feet.

Percy seemed very excited at the idea, and so was I. But I just had one question. “Do you promise?”

“Family, I promise.”

Chapter Text

There’s absolutely no way we just adopted 2 children. I know it was technically my idea, but now that I think about it, it’ll be a lot of work. We’re already swamped with monsters, so what are we going to do with two more demigods? They just looked so scared and lonely… I couldn’t help it. All I could think of was younger me and Luke, scared and traumatized with no one to turn to. I couldn’t let that happen to anyone else, especially not other kids.

I knew what it was like to have to watch kids get hurt for no reason. My brother had only been 2 years old when my mom had killed him. Well, I wasn’t sure exactly what happened to him, but he was gone. Either way, there’s no possibility of a 2 year old surviving on their own. I was so tired of my mom’s abuse, both with the alcohol and on her own kids. So with nothing left to live for, I ran. Now I have someone to love and care for, and I guess these kids deserve something like that too.

Even though they might just drag us down…

But Luke had even given Annabeth his dagger. He used that thing all the time, so I knew he had a soft spot for them. Luke and I eventually got the kids to leave their hiding spot, taking them along with us on our original path. Both of the kids seemed wary, almost scared of us. I couldn’t blame them; random strangers coming along and taking you along a journey to who knows where? Not a situation you come across often.

Annabeth, the blonde girl Luke gave his dagger to, was starting to warm up to us. She started talking about anything that came to mind; mainly about how she would design certain buildings or monuments. She seemed really smart; possibly the daughter of Athena? Though you can’t tell for sure at that age.

Percy, though, was a different story. He hasn’t talked once the whole time, and I was starting to think he wouldn’t. Maybe he was just shy around strangers or didn’t fully trust us, but there’s a possibility he didn’t speak at all. Thanks to that, I couldn’t really tell who his godly parent could be. It didn’t really matter either way; we were family now, so we had each other's backs. 

No matter what.

No matter what happens to us, we stick together.

“So… who here likes pizza?” Luke called out as we walked down a relatively deserted sidewalk. Besides the occasional pedestrian, we were alone. So no monsters, no police, no worries. Annabeth and Percy raised their hands excitedly, and I wondered when the last time they had a proper meal was.

“Good, because I know a good place to get free pizza. The guy’s name is Fender, and he owes me a quick favor. Might as well cash it in.” Luke explained, starting to read all the signs of the stores we passed. It must’ve been nearby.

“Fender? That’s an… uncommon name.” I pointed out, smirking slightly. I was sure the guy was nice, but I’ve never met someone named Fender before. “Like a fender bender?” Annabeth asked, and even Luke laughed that time. “Yeah, like a fender bender.”

Luke seemed to be slightly off, more than usual at least. Almost like he was expecting something to happen. I started paying attention to the store signs as well, feeling on edge. I couldn’t tell if Annabeth or Percy felt the same, and I didn’t intend for them to. Our surroundings seemed safe, but not right. I didn’t want them to start freaking out like how some kids do.

One store was ‘UPS’ and another was ‘Monster Donuts’. They didn’t seem to be particularly evil stores, so everything should be fine. That didn’t stop Luke from quickening his pace, though. I kept scanning the stores and roads, feeling myself tense at every noise or footstep. Every breath, every cough or sneeze someone made. They all made me flinch. Something had to be off here; I just couldn’t decide what it was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the kids tugging at the corner of Luke’s flannel to get his attention. It was Percy.

“Luke, hold on.” I put a hand on his shoulder, motioning to Percy. Luke looked about as confused as I felt. He turned around, stopping his nervous pace. “What’s up, Percy?” Percy looked slightly nervous, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Then he lifted his hands and made a motion I didn’t recognize. Annabeth’s eyes seemed to light up though, and she motioned excitedly with her own hands. I made eye contact with Luke, and I knew he didn’t know what was happening either.

“Uhh… I’m sorry. What was that, guys?” Luke asked as kindly. I knew that they were most likely using sign language, but I didn’t know any. Luke clearly didn’t either. “Percy said he wants pepperoni! Can we ask for pepperoni pizza?” Annabeth translated excitedly, causing us to start laughing. I could physically feel the tension leave our group, and we all seemed to let ourselves relax and laugh together.

Maybe that tension in the air was due to the fact that we didn’t know each other and we were scared. Maybe it was because monsters were around, lurking in the shadows. Or maybe, the worst option of all, we didn’t know what pizza we all wanted. Whatever it was, I was glad it left. I didn’t think I wanted to spend the rest of my life traveling with people I was uncomfortable around. 

“Yeah, pepperoni is a good idea.”

                                                                               — — — — — — — — —

Everything was going well with the kids the past week until we realized that ‘double the demigods’ was a bigger issue than originally expected. It was already bad that I was a child of the big three, but now it was too much to handle. It eventually got so bad that I had to tell the kids to go play while I talked to Luke.

“Do you know what’s going on here? That monster was the 5th one today, and it’s barely 3:00pm!” I threw my hands in the air, watching Luke scowl like he was pissed at me for bringing it up. What, should I apologize for being concerned? “No Thalia, I don’t think I would know. If I did, I would be doing something about it! It’s obviously either Percy or Annabeth attracting more monsters than normal. Maybe it’s both of them.”

Sure it was kind of obvious since they were the most recent change in our life, but it was still an issue we needed to solve. Maybe it would be best if we just left them on their own again. After all, they had survived long enough together. “Even if it is them, we can’t do much about it! They’re kids, we don’t even know their godly parents yet. That’s the best explanation we have right now.”

“I’m not stupid, Thalia. Whether it’s them or not, I’m not saying we fix it! You’re the one who brought it up, even though we obviously dealt with those monsters easily. If you want someone to blame, blame the gods. Clearly, they’re not looking over us and lending down a godly hand.” Luke’s voice was getting louder and angrier as he spoke, and it almost scared me.

“Luke, please. I’m sorry, I just thought-” Percy and Annabeth run up to us, effectively cutting off our conversation. They had big grins on their faces like they were planning something. It gave me a distraction, and I easily took it. “Hey, guys.” I smiled back at them.

“Percy and I drew you a picture.” Annabeth announced to both me and Luke. Percy and Annabeth must have had some paper and a pencil in their backpack. They both proudly held up a picture of all four of us holding hands. It looked like a typical kindergarten picture of a kid’s family, and it made me smile. Everything was labeled with a name, including us and even the sun in the background. When I pointed out the large amount of the color blue in the picture, Percy jumped up and down on the balls of his feet. I think he likes blue.

“That really sweet of you guys! I like that the sun has a smiley face.” Luke said, seeming to forget the tense appearance he had not 5 seconds ago. It was a nice surprise on how these two kids could bring us back together more than I expected. Luke had seemed to be getting more and more stressed by the day, and I wasn’t sure if we would survive. Then here come these two kids, and our group finally feels complete. It was a nice change.

We fell asleep as the sun was setting, but I was still getting used to the kids' schedules. Luke and I would travel through most of the night, but now that we had seven year olds along, we have to actually sleep at night. It gave us more energy, but it also made it easier for monsters to track our scent. After everyone else had fallen asleep, I eventually got tired enough to do so myself. As I drifted off, I prayed that no monsters would appear while we were off guard.

                                                                            — — — — — — — — —

I woke up to the lovely sound of screaming and swords unsheathing. I sat up from my spot on the ground, looking around frantically. Annabeth was yelling for me and Percy to wake up while Luke took out his sword and faced… oh gods. There seemed to be an unending amount of monsters coming our way. This is why we always keep moving! I wanted to scream, but there was no point. Sadly, we were going to have to deal with our life choices.

I pulled out my spear, stabbing it through a monster that was getting a little too close for comfort. Annabeth and Percy had pulled out their own weapons, but they looked too scared to help out much. I wish they could, but it would be bad if one of them got hurt. Another reason why they shouldn’t be here. As I fought, I found my way to Luke’s side. The monsters were thinning out, leaving around 20 of them left. But even then, it was too much for two demigods with no training.

I heard a yelp from beside me, and I saw Luke go down. He didn’t seem seriously injured, but the monsters continued to surge around him. I blocked, parried, did anything to help, but I could feel myself tire out. My arms got heavier and my legs started shaking, but the monsters were relentless. The kids were still standing there, holding their weapons and fighting off the couple monsters that came their way. Great, we were all going to die because I decided to take in some kids off the side of the road.

I was about to accept my fate, but just as I lowered my spear, 3 of the monsters in front of me burst into dust. I looked around, trying to see what had happened. Luke was still down, but he was looking up at the group of monsters in shock. They had really started dwindling, but now there were only ten left.

Movement caught my eye, and I almost dropped my spear completely. Percy and Annabeth were holding out their weapons, driving the monsters away from me and Luke. I was shocked at how good they were doing, but then I realized that they still looked scared. Even if they were terrified, they still wanted to save us. That thought gave me strength. So I stood tall, helped Luke back to his feet, and raised my spear again.

“Come on, let's help them out. Unless you admit that two 7 year olds are better fighters than you.” I smirked, racing Luke back into the fray to kill the rest of the monsters. It took no time at all with all 4 of us working together, and soon the only thing surrounding us was the monster's remains. 

Both Annabeth and Percy seemed tired, and I noticed that Percy only fought with a kitchen knife. Annabeth’s hammer had been stored in our backpacks ever since Luke gave her his knife, but we didn’t think about Percy. A knife was better than a hammer, but it could be dull and hard to use against monsters. I would have to talk to Luke about it later and see if we can do anything about it.

But for now, I had to complain about their recklessness.

“Rushing into a hoard of monsters like that could’ve gotten you extremely hurt. Hell, even Luke and I were having a hard time with the sheer amount of them! We’re lucky that they were some dumb ones; what if they were even more dangerous?” I tried to look disappointed, but when I looked at them, I couldn’t help but smile. Maybe these kids weren’t half bad.

“Other than that, what you did to those monsters was crazy! I’m sure they won’t be bothering us anytime soon after the scare you gave them.” Luke interjected my speech, causing the kids to grin. “Yay, we killed the bad guys!” Annabeth cheered, turning to Percy so they could give each other a high five. They ran off ahead with their newfound energy, and I turned to Luke.

“We might have to look for some sort of real weapon for Percy. I agree that Annabeth really needed that dagger; you can’t fight monsters with a hammer. But a kitchen knife isn’t made for killing monsters on the daily.” Luke didn’t seem too concerned about it, shrugging when I brought it up.

“While that is true, I don’t think it’ll help anyone if we worry over it; just let the kids be kids. We’re kids too, even if they’re younger than us. Let’s just focus on giving each other the family we never got.” Luke put an arm around my shoulders, and I let myself relax. I completely forgot why I was worried about Luke in the first place. Sure he seemed a little unstable at times, but weren’t we all?

I had a feeling things were going to turn out just fine for us. It had to.

Chapter Text

I used to think the gods only did bad things to their children. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that. All they do is take, take, take from demigods. No giving, no caring, and no sympathy. Hermes left me and my mom when we needed him most, letting mom go insane and leaving me to deal with the constant yelling and green smoke. So I ran off, hoping to leave everything behind me.

But the resentment lingered in the air like a bad smell. Never leaving, always in the back of my mind.

Then I met Thalia, and the pain of loneliness slowly left. Even if we got in fights every so often, we still cared about each other. We both had our own shit to deal with, and we never really talked about why we ran away. But as long as we stuck together, surviving was slightly more bearable. Then we eventually found Percy and Annabeth; they made our small group feel whole.

So maybe the gods can do some good things. Or it’s all because of the Fates… I don’t know which option I preferred, but I had a real family. I didn’t care about anything else.

At first, I could tell Thalia wasn’t completely sold with taking in the kids. I couldn’t blame her; two children was a lot to handle all of a sudden, especially for two teenagers. With the increase of monsters on our tail, we’ve been fighting non-stop. Well, maybe not non-stop . There have been some nice moments where we all got to sit back and be kids for a while. Kind of like right now.

We had made another make-shift camp to stay at for a couple days. It was risky with our demigod scent staying in one place, but if we were strategic about it, we were usually able to avoid hordes of monsters. So with the threat of monsters not front and center in our minds, we were able to relax. I sat back to “keep watch”, but I mostly wanted to see everyone having fun. Percy and Annabeth ran circles around the small clearing we found as Thalia chased them, laughing whenever one of them would squeal in excitement.

Subconsciously, I reached down for my bag, wanting to remember moments like these for when things get rough. There was no avoiding eventual despair, so it was smarter to prepare for it instead of hoping for the best. Thalia suggested I start a “diary” of sorts. I preferred to think of it as a record of how demigods managed to survive on the road, even with the monsters. Maybe a demigod will find it far into the future and find it comforting. Then again, who knows what it’ll be like for demigods in the future. Probably not any easier, honestly. I was going to title it something… maybe “The Demigod Journal: by Luke Castellan”. Though, something like “The Diary of Luke Castellan” sounded cooler. Even though it was not a diary!

But when I unzipped the backpack and reached in, it didn’t feel like the way my bag was normally organized. Not that it was particularly neat, but it was unfamiliar. I looked down, realizing that it was a blue bag instead of a yellow one. That was Percy’s, not mine. I got distracted from my original plan and started looking through what he had. Not meaning to snoop at all, but there wasn’t much in there to begin with. Some food and water, some clothes, a couple toiletries like a toothbrush, and a notebook. It was light enough to easily run while carrying it, but still packed enough to hold the necessities. The notebook specifically caught my eye, since neither Annabeth or Percy mentioned it before. I pulled it out quietly and opened it to the first page.

The very first thing written there was Percy’s name in sloppy handwriting. This notebook must’ve been from when Percy and Annabeth first met. It was more obvious the more I read of the first page what their situation had been like. It was mostly responses to questions like “blue” or “pizza”. Just two kids meeting for the first time, asking questions about each other. Except in this scenario, they had to be on the run together to avoid monster attacks.

Then Annabeth seemed to start writing in it, too. You could tell who was who based on the handwriting and word choices pretty easily. Sometimes they would doodle in it, sometimes they would have quick conversations. There was one line that caught my eye though, and I caught my breath. It was just sitting there in the middle of the page, staring menacingly back at me. “The water responded to me. I felt it.”

I let out the breath I was holding, trying to calm my nerves. At some point, Percy controlled water? Hopefully they were just messing around… but I wasn’t so sure. There have been double the monsters since these kids arrived, which was odd. Thalia was a daughter of Zeus, so it wasn’t completely out of the question to have a son of Poseidon.

I tried to shake it off, flipping past that page. If we had two kids of the big 3, we were on thin ice. But just my luck, the next few pages got more surprising. You know, the typical shockers such as, “Mom said if I sing, bad things happen. I can still talk, but I don’t like doing it anymore.”

I could tell I’ve crossed a line and quickly put the book back. I had no idea why Percy’s mom would tell him that; she was just a mortal, scaring her kid into not talking for no reason. Right? It didn’t matter anymore, though. We had each other and that’s all that mattered. I’ll keep them safe. Just as I zipped Percy’s bag up, Thalia started walking towards me. She let the kids play together further away where we could see them. “Hey.” I smiled, trying to act like I didn’t just learn a lot of important information. This wasn’t the time to tell her.

“Hey. I’ve been thinking, and we’re starting to run out of supplies. We don’t really have anywhere to go, so maybe…” Thalia trailed off, raising her eyebrows. “Okay, what are you getting at?” I asked, knowing Thalia well enough to realize she expects something specific out of me. “Considering where we are- you said your mom lives nearby? We can go ask for help,” Thalia shrugged like it was the simplest task in the world. I tensed up, digging my nails into the chair I sat in.

Sensing my rising anger, Thalia explained herself. “We have two kids to feed, Luke. We may be able to ration food well, but it gets a lot more complicated when children are involved. When we start getting desperate for supplies, I don’t want to be far away from even a semi-reliable food source.”

She had good points, but I was the only one in our group that knew of my mother’s condition. Thalia knew she went crazy, but she doesn’t understand how it feels to see green smoke come out of your mother’s mouth as she shakes you and rants about your eventual death. At the very least, I don’t want Percy and Annabeth to have to see that. “I don’t know; you remember what I said about my mom. Not all there in the head.”

Before we could discuss it further, Percy and Annabeth walked up to us. Percy used the sign we determined as water, and Annabeth did the same. It made sense that they were thirsty, since they ran in circles all day. Thalia pulled a water bottle out of her purple backpack and the kids guzzled it down. It was lucky we all ended up with different colored backpacks, so we could tell which was which. So much that did, though, with the notebook incident.

Thalia turned back to me with a frown. “We only have one bottle left.” That decided it. We were going to my mom’s house.

   — — — — — — — — —

My mom lives alone in Westport, Connecticut. I left Connecticut for a reason, mostly because of my mom, but here we were. Percy and Annabeth seemed confused on why we were going to someone’s house, and Thalia had been acting uncomfortable all day. Even though it was her idea in the first place. I only misdirected us a few times, but eventually, our destination came into sight.

The roof was more broken down than I remembered, and the yard was starting to get really overgrown. Garden gnomes and beanie babies still lined the walkway to the front door, which was left ajar. Hopefully no one got in and hurt my mom stole anything useful.

I pushed the rickety wooden gate open, which fell off its hinges at my touch. This place could use a bit of repair, to say the least. I turned to Thalia and the kids, making myself look as unbothered as possible. “Okay guys, this is my mom’s house. We’re going to see if she has anything we can borrow then get out. Just stay behind me and it’ll be alright.” I was mostly addressing Annabeth and Percy, but it was also for Thalia. We just had to be in there quickly then get out.

Annabeth seemed excited to meet my mom, but I couldn’t share the same sentiment. Percy started to look a little scared; maybe I let a little bit of my bitterness slide into my tone. It won’t be a big deal as long as my mom doesn’t freak out all of a sudden. If she’s currently in an episode, we’ll just turn around and call it a bust.

Immediately when I walked through the front door, a horrible smell hit me. I knew exactly what it was just from a look around the house. Right when you walk in, there’s a kitchen to the left. That kitchen had containers of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches stacked on every surface. There were a few scattered around the living room as well, but everything was centered around the kitchen.

The kitchen produced a smell of moldy sandwiches and burning cookies. That’s what my mom would always make me when I was sad. It usually managed to cheer me up, but now it disgusted me. Not just the moldy food, but what happened to her. How could the gods allow this to happen? She was completely innocent, and they turned her into this.

My mom stood in front of the oven, staring down at a newly burned batch of chocolate chip cookies. It was hard enough to see when I was nine years old, and now that I’m fourteen, it hasn’t gotten any easier. Her hair was a tangled mess, like she had been pulling on it for years. When she turned to look at us, her eyes were blown wide and bloodshot.

“Luke! My baby!” My mom rushed over to me. She gave me a tight hug, refusing to let go. I stayed still, not sure what to do. Do I hug back? Do I push her away? Eventually she let go, soon turning to Thalia. “Luke, you’re home! I missed you.” My mom then hugged Thalia, thinking she was… me. She couldn’t tell the difference between a stranger and her own son.

She then gasped, finally turning to Annabeth and Percy. “Oh Luke, you’ve come for lunch! I’ve made your favorite.” As she bent down to hug the kids, I had enough and stopped her. “Hey- uhm, mom. My friends and I were wondering if we could borrow some things. You know, like food. You seem to have enough.” I mumbled the last part, but my mom didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh, of course you could! I know you love peanut butter and jelly. Come here.” My mom turned her attention back to me, waving me into the kitchen. She grabbed a few of the top containers in the pile and handed it to all of us. Then she opened the fridge nearby to show cases full of Kool-Aid. I didn’t think any of this would help us long-term, but it was food nonetheless.

As we started putting food into our bags, my mom started muttering to herself, suddenly forgetting we were there. It felt awkward talking to her in front of Thalia and the kids, but I had to if we wanted to make this trip worth it. “Hey. Mom. Do you have anything like pillows we could borrow? You know, for… sleeping.” Yeah, that was stupid of me. Of course she knows that pillows are for sleeping- or did she? Maybe her brain was fucked up enough to not know.

Instead of desperately trying to help us like she has been, my mom started to shake. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, but then I recognized the green mist that started to surround her. I backed up, trying to push the others along with me. “Let’s just go, we need to leave. Now.” But in the midst of the confusion, it was too late. I felt a cold, hard hand grab my shoulder.

I paused, remembering the multiple times my own mother, May Castellan, would shake me, begging for Hermes to change my fate. Chanting about my violent demise. So I twisted around as hard as I could, forcing her hand off of me. I stumbled back, watching as May did the same. The green smoke billowing out of her mouth and eyes seemed to choke me.

I expected her to calm down after that, maybe forgetting it ever happened. But the smoke continued, and she started to whisper something. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I could see her make eye contact with everyone in the room. Then she darted, heading straight to Percy. “Cursed. Cursed! My child! Must protect him!” May started to shake Percy, making him cry out. I don’t think I’ve heard him cry like this; it’s always been silent. Not now- it was loud and it was terrified. “Hermes, help! Not his fate! No-”

It’s like I could feel my anger bubbling forward, taking over my actions. I grabbed May’s shoulder like she did to me just moments before, then forcefully threw her off of Percy. He was still shaking despite May not touching him anymore. I didn’t even take a moment to feel bad for making my own mom fall as I grabbed Percy’s hand and turned to Thalia. “Grab Annabeth and go!”

Then we were out the door, leaving May’s cries to the wind. Just after Thalia ran out the door dragging Annabeth behind her, I reached over and slammed the door closed. My chest heaved from my heavy breathing, and I could hear both of the kids crying.

Besides that, everything else was silent.

I turned my back to the door, looking at my family. Thalia was trying desperately to calm Percy down, who was still scared from his shaking. I couldn’t blame him; the first time May did that to me, I was a worse mess than he is now. I knelt down to Annabeth, who was looking at Percy with a terrified expression. Percy’s distress was probably stressing her out even more. Since he hasn’t spoken in gods know how long, it didn’t sound like a typical 7 year old crying. His vocal cords weren’t used to it.

“Hey, Annabeth. I’m sorry that my mom scared everyone. She has a certain… condition that makes her do that sometimes. But I promise she can’t hurt anyone. We’re leaving now, alright?” Annabeth nodded, hugging me as tight as she could. I patted her back, not used to comforting children. I was an only child, so I haven’t had any previous experience.

I looked over at Percy, seeing that Thalia was moderately successful at calming him down. That was good; we could start heading out, far away from this house. I took Percy’s hand again, giving him the warmest smile I could muster. I saw Thalia lead Annabeth to where I stood, ready to leave. “Alright everyone, let's head out.” I announced, then walked out of the yard, kicking the broken gate on the way out.

Not even five minutes out, we ran into more trouble.

   — — — — — — — — —

“Luke.” Not five minutes later, a voice called out to me, making me stop in my tracks. Thalia almost bumped into me, looking around frantically. “Where the hell is that voice coming from?” She whispered into my ear, and I shrugged. As I opened my mouth to speak, a bright flash of light blinded my vision. When I could see again, a guy with brown hair and winged sandals stood in front of us. Oh. My. Gods. This is the worst day I’ve had in a long while.

It was my dad of all the gods in the world, and Hermes wasn’t looking happy. “Leave us alone.” Is the first thing I could say to him, and I intended it to be the last. That’s not how it turned out, though. Hermes blocked my path, speaking to me in a concerned tone. “Luke, I’m here to help you.”

“Yeah, well you could’ve helped me five years ago when I needed it. You’re a little too late to the parenting party.” I basically spat out my words, staring Hermes right in his eyes. I didn’t care if he struck me down for being rude; one way or another, the gods would realize the mistake they made by ignoring their children.

“I know, but you must listen. The prophecy your mother foresees, it has been ongoing for centuries. I need to at least try to warn you. Keep your family in mind; I am always looking over you.” Hermes seemed genuinely distressed, but I couldn’t care less. If he suddenly wants to play family, I wasn’t going to get me and my friends stuck into it. “My real family is right here. I don’t need biological parents to fill that role.”

Hermes looked at the three people behind me, Percy holding my pant leg, and Annabeth and Thalia holding each other's hands. “Your family? Are they…” He trailed off, looking at Percy and Annabeth in confusion. Oh... there’s no way he’s thinking what I think he is. “Dear gods, no. We chose our own family, and you can’t suddenly waltz in and try to help. We can handle ourselves.”

Hermes at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “I cannot say much, but this prophecy? It puts you and your family in danger. Please, just don’t let your emotions lead to your big mistake!” He began to raise his voice, even going as far as to reach out to me. I took a step back, making Percy scramble back with me. Percy’s grip on me was only tightening. “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“I can’t say what happens, it’s a Great Prophecy. The only person who has any sort of clue about what it could mean is Apollo.” Thalia came up from behind me, putting a hand on my shoulder. “Come on Luke, try to hear him out. It’s not every day a god gives you a message…” She was trying to change the subject, knowing that I wouldn’t listen to Hermes’s rant.

“Why else would he be here? He just wants to talk about the stupid prophecy.” I muttered, crossing my arms. I felt like a dumb, rebellious teenager whining about his parents. I guess I kind of was. Hermes heard me complaining though, and smiled awkwardly. “I’m not only here for your part in the prophecy, but your friends are also in danger of it.”

I frowned, wondering how he knew so much about this prophecy without knowing what actually happens. “What? Are they okay?” I subconsciously reached over to Thalia, who was still right beside me. If Hermes was here just to threaten us… “Let me see… you two.” Hermes pointed at Thalia and Percy respectively. “You’re not supposed to be alive. You broke the law. And you…” Hermes looked down to stare directly at Percy. “You’re cursed. How though, I’m not sure.” He turned to Annabeth next, and before he could continue, I interrupted.

“Okay, I think you’ve overstayed your welcome. Is that all?” I made Hermes look back at me, stepping up to make him back off. “What? It was a warning- these things will affect your futures if you don’t figure it out soon.” I knew the gods were stupid, but I didn’t know they were completely blind to mortal societal norms.

“You need to leave. I don’t care about my ‘big mistake’ or whatever.” I tried to move past Hermes yet again, but the god stopped me. “This can make or break the world. You need to take this seriously. If you don’t, I’m afraid…” He trailed off, and I felt myself rolling my eyes. He was just being as overdramatic as all the gods and goddesses are. 

“I don’t need to take anything seriously! All you do is put demigods through unnecessary pain by ignoring us until you need us. We’re not your pawns in a stupid game of chess. We are human beings with human emotions, and I’m not going to get my hopes up about you again. Me and my real family are going to go now, okay?” With a final push past Hermes, I finally managed to get the god out of my sight.

Thalia and Annabeth ran along with me and Percy, Thalia glancing behind her shoulder to where Hermes still stood. I couldn’t give a shit if I hurt his little godly feelings- he hurt mine plenty of times. “Luke, what if he tried to kill you back there?” Thalia hissed, trying not to get the kids more riled up than they already were. It didn’t work, because both Annabeth and Percy flinched at the prospect of me dying.

“I had a point to make and I made it. The gods need to get their godly heads out of their royal asses.” I grumbled, continuing forward to who knows where. We were just marching down an abandoned road, not sure where to head next. So I went whichever way felt right, and that was away from Hermes.

The group stayed silent, no one daring to continue the conversation. All roads in my head seemed to lead either to the gods or the shrinking amount of food that was still an issue. May wasn’t as helpful as we were hoping. After a while of walking and one or two rest breaks, Percy made grabbing hands up towards me. Annabeth did it a lot when she wanted to be carried, but I’ve yet to see Percy do it.

Despite being both physically and mentally worn out, I picked Percy up and continued on our way. That seemed to break a bit of the tension, since Annabeth started talking to Thalia quietly behind me afterwards. Slowly, things were starting to go back to normal after the stressful events from the day.

About 15 minutes later, we took another break. We found a quiet area with enough shade to keep us cool, then sat down and took a breather. I was about to close my eyes and try to get a bit of sleep, but I felt someone tapping my shoulder lightly. I looked over, just to have a notebook shoved directly in my face. I sat up, taking the book and putting it at a distance I could read it at.

“Does he hurt you?” It read.

I raised an eyebrow, looking at the culprit who woke me up. “What do you mean by that, Percy? Who are you talking about?” It had been a little more than an hour since we left May’s house, and I thought we had left the subject behind. But as I watched Percy write down Hermes’ name, my eyebrows furrowed. Why would Percy think that Hermes physically hurt me? He was just a jackwagon.

Then I remembered that I wasn’t really sure why Percy had run away in the first place. I never asked him or Annabeth why they were on the streets running from monsters. Hell, I barely knew why Thalia ran away. Something about her mom being a jerk and having a younger brother? I wasn’t sure, but there’s a possibility that Percy had to deal with some sort of abuse at home. There weren’t many other reasons to risk your life with the monsters.

“No Percy, Hermes has never physically tried to hurt me. But he’s not very nice, and I wouldn’t suggest trying to talk to him. But don’t worry, I’m alright and everything will be okay, too. Family sticks together, right?” Percy looked so convinced that I even started to believe myself. Maybe we would turn out okay, despite the odds. Maybe this ragtag, mess of a family had a chance in this world.

“Alright boys, while you two were messing around, me and Annabeth figured out a place to stay until tomorrow. Are you ready?” Thalia announced to get our attention, standing up and stretching her arms. I turned to Percy, giving him a smirk. “Don’t worry, we’ll get her back for breaking our resting time later.” I promised, standing up with a sigh. “You’re going to be the death of us.” I joked, now addressing Thalia.

Despite my obvious tiredness, we still trekked forward. Thalia didn’t specify where we were going, but I trusted her enough to lead us in the correct direction. Thalia and Percy stuck to the back of our group as me and Annabeth showed us the way to our next destination. I was mostly zoning out, talking to Annabeth absentmindedly. No actual monsters have shown up recently, which was lucky. Maybe because we were near a god for a while? It might’ve thrown off our demigod scent.

Before I could think too deep into it, Annabeth stopped us right in front of Percy and Thalia. “I almost knocked into you, I hope you know.” Thalia complained, but then out of the corner of my eye, I saw what made us stop. Annabeth pointed at it, jumping up and down. “It’s a goat!” Which was odd, since goats don’t normally show up in Connecticut digging in a garbage can. It didn’t look like a normal goat to me, and I was willing to bet it was a monster.

I pulled my sword out, putting my hand out in front of the others to stop them from pulling out their weapons. “Hold on, we’re not sure if it’s a monster. I’ll go check it out.” I wasn’t sure what I meant by checking it out, but I didn’t want to start a fight if we didn’t half to. I crept up to the goat, just close enough to where it could hear me if I yelled. Thalia was right behind me, so I had to be extremely careful drawing its attention.

“Hey!” I yelled, not so carefully. It did the trick though, and the goat jumped out from the pile of trash it was rummaging through. But when the goat turned around, it didn’t have hooves for hands or a snout as a nose. From the waist up, it looked like a completely normal human. But from the waist down…

We had found ourselves a satyr.

His eyes were in slits, still startled from the jumpscare I gave him. We made eye contact, the awkward silence stretching long and thin. Then he held up a tin can he was half chewing on and asked, “Want some?”