Secrets [A Heroes Of Olympus Fanfiction]

Part Twenty-Three:

Part Twenty-Three:

Frank helped Hazel out of the taxi. At first he was hesitant to get into one because of what happened to Percy and Annabeth, but Hazel had said he was just being silly.

Hazel. Man, that girl was tougher than she looked. When she had first told him that she was pregnant, he hadn't believed her but now he could see how much it had effected her. Her stomach may not have been the size of a balloon yet, but you could just make out her baby bump. For their date, she was wearing a long, silver sparkly skirt with a white tee-shirt. Overtop of her shirt she was wearing a black jacket, and to complete the look her hair was let out and she had white ballet flats.

"You look beautiful." He complimented her, and she beamed.

"Well aren't you just a charmer." Hazel smiled. She linked her arm in his and they entered the restaurant.

Since they were at Camp Half-Blood, Frank had decided to take Hazel out to the mortal world for dinner. It was only half an hour drive from the camp so it didn't take too long to get there, but for an ADHD demigod, it felt like waiting for your order at McDonald's when the place was full.

"Reservation for 'Zhang'." Frank told she lady waiting by the door. She checked her list, smiled, and showed them to their seats.

"Here's your menus." She passed them two leather-coated books. "The fish of the day is salmon cut up finely with baked potato and salad. Can I get you anything to drink?"

"May I please have some orange juice?" Hazel asked politely.

"A coke for me, please." Frank replied.

"Sure. I'll let you look over your menus." The girl disappeared.

"There's something fishy about her..." Hazel murmured.

"Yeah, I can feel it too." Frank replied. "But lets worry about that later. What do you think looks good?"

"Maybe some pasta?" Hazel suggested.

"Anything you like." Frank smiled. "I might go for the pasta as well."

"Then we could get the garlic bread to start." Hazel replied.

"Sure. But just one problem: I'm lactose-intolerant."

"Hm, true. Why don't we just get the nacho chips with guacamole for starters?"

"Sounds good."

Two minutes later the waitress came back with their drinks. "Are you ready to order?" She asked, smiling.

"For starters we would like the nacho chips, then for main two pastas." Frank replied.

"Anything for dessert afterwards?"

"No, thanks."

"Your meals will be ready shortly." The girl replied, still smiling.

"How can she smile so much?" Hazel muttered.

"I don't know. And I don't like it."

•••

Their nacho chips arrived ten minutes later. As they dug in, Frank felt uneasy, like something was going to happen.

The pasta arrived, but before either Frank or Hazel could pick up their cutlery and eat, the waitress's hair caught fire. Hazel shrieked as she turned into an empousa.

The mortals scattered. Whatever they saw, it must've scared them. "Nice try Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque." The empousa sneered. "You'll never get out of here alive!"

Frank turned into a bear. He roared, and pounced on top of her, knocking her to the ground. She tried to rake her nails across his skin, but all her nails met was clumps of fur.

Bear-Frank extended his claws and slashed her to shreds. She disintegrated into golden dust and Frank turned back into a human.
Panting slightly, he turned to look at Hazel but instead of seeing her running up to him, he saw a cyclops swinging a massive club at her head.

"HAZEL!" He screamed, as she fell to the floor, unconscious.