𝓓𝓪𝔂𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓻 | Percy Jackson and the Olympians

ii - Turns out it can be real

As she walked home, she contemplated everything that had happened that afternoon. Starting with breaking Nathan Bloom's nose which is 100% getting her expelled, then her literature teacher transformed into a freakin chimera as if that's a part of your average every day experience. Then, the actual Greek goddess Artemis materialises out of literally nowhere, kills the not-so-mythological creature and then offers her either immortality or summer camp.

Lyanna felt sick and dizzy, overwhelmed by the amount of information that had been unloaded on her in the space of somewhere between half an hour to an hour. She began to fidget with her ring and crack her knuckles as she felt a panic attack coming on from learning her whole life is a lie. She walked up to a dark side street that she usually used as a shortcut to get home and took a glance down it. She saw three old women with giant bat wings huddled together, whispering rapidly in a language she couldn't understand.

She slowly walked into the alley on quivering legs, balancing herself on the wall to her left. She edged around the three creatures slowly, trying to pretend that she couldn't see them. She finally made it around the trio and sped up so she didn't have to spend any more time in their company. Lyanna took a furtive glance back and could've sworn the one in the middle was watching her.

She turned around again, only to see that all three women had disappeared which made her gulp in dread. She heard the flapping of wings above her and sprinted out of the alley onto 5th Avenue, almost straight into traffic. She continued to weave through the crowds on the sidewalk, turning back every now and again to check if she was being followed. She wasn't.

Up ahead she could see her destination and hastened towards it. A piercing screech rang through the air and she broke out into a sprint to get away. She looked up to see one of the woman-bat hybrids gliding above her, soaring in circles above her head and emitting an ear-splitting scream. Lyanna knew she'd never be able to outrun the three monsters all the way home, so she made the decision to shorten her journey to the looming building on her left: the Empire State Building.

She burst into the lobby, out of breath from the stitch in her side. Oddly, no tourists were in the lobby, the only one there was the receptionist dressed in an expensive Versace suit. He looked up at her, handed her a keycard and ushered her into one of the elevators. She placed the keycard into the slot next to the buttons and gasped as a new button appeared with a golden '600' in the centre. She pressed it and sat in the corner.

There was no music in the elevator and the silence made Lyanna uncomfortable. She pulled out her iPod and headphones and pressed play. She lifted her headphones onto her head and closed her eyes, humming along to 'Here Comes The Sun' by The Beatles. She leaned her head against the wall on her right and wrapped her arms around her knees. She sighed contentedly and drifted off to sleep.

She opened her eyes to blinding white light filling her vision, forcing her to snap her eyelids shut again. There was a loud high-pitched ringing filling her ears like she'd been hit by one of those flashbang grenades she'd seen in movies. She knew she was asleep, she knew this was a dream, but she couldn't see or hear anything other than white. She wondered for a moment whether this mysterious 600th floor had anything to do with blocking out her dreams, but she didn't dwell on it.

She focused on her breathing in an attempt to tune out the incessant whining that this new dreamscape was drilling into her ears. She groaned softly and flailed her limbs in frustration as, after what felt like hours of trying to zone out, nothing was working. She really wished she could be back in a lesson with Mr Kadence to help her daydream about winged horses and giant boars, but, unfortunately - or fortunately -, he was dead.

She nearly squealed in delight when the noise began to quieten and the unbearably bright white light began to fade. Instead, all she could hear was the clattering of metal in time with the stomping of feet as if a medieval knight was marching through her head. She opened her eyes in confusion, however, when she realised she wasn't in a dream anymore. She looked to her left and was met with a bronze breastplate like she'd seen in one of her uncle's movies he'd brought for her.