Son of Crossroads (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 4: And Die

Percy waited anxiously for the time to come. He shuffled anxiously in his seat.  The rest of his classmates worked diligently in the suffocating silence. Percy glanced down at his paper again. Mrs. Nickley stared at him from across the room. The sharp trill of the classroom phone interrupts their glaring contest. Several children's heads snapped to attention, and Percy's heart began to beat faster. There were a few murmurs from the phone, and Mrs.Nickley offered a few hushed words of her own before going silent and hanging up. The class remained silent. Percy felt as though his heart would jump out of his chest. The elderly woman rose from her desk stiffly, walked through the maze of desks and seated children, and stopped to the right of Percy.

"Percy you are needed in the main office." Her voice was more pleasant than normal, but her words were as choppy as her previous movements. "I will not be accompanying you there. Take all of your belongings."

—SoC—

When Percy walked into the buildings main office he was surrounded by a tense environment. The cream colored walls seemed dirtier than usual and even the lighting appeared to be more dingy and dark. The secretary's were working quietly and Percy noticed they too moved with stiff movements. The other guests in the room were all asleep or had eyes that were misted over. All of the guests except for Axle, the two demigods from yesterday, and some other people who seemed to be their friends. Percy wondered if they were demigods too. He still found the concept of Greek gods being real unbelievable.

"Hey kid! Let's hurry up and get out of here." Axle spoke, while rising from his chair, "We've got places to be."

"My name's Percy. And who are those people?" Percy grumbled, slightly upset at being called kid. He was very tall and mature for his age, that's what Ms.Raegan said anyway. He was practically an adult!

"Well you already know Jaimie and Ximena, and this is," Axle didn't get to finish his sentence. One of the girls sitting next to him cut him off.

"I'm Deidre. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I'd be lying." Deidre's voice was cold, and if Percy didn't know any better he might have chalked up the strange tense atmosphere to Deidre's stony attitude. Her tousled hair framed her face nicely and fell down to her chin, but it didn't hide her dark piercing eyes and pale skin. She wore a black sweater, dark purple jeans, and tall black boots. The what stood out about her the most though was her belt. It was large, wrapping around her waist twice, and was made of many segments of a bronze metal. At one of the belt ends was a section of wrapped leather.

Standing next to Deidre was a dark skinned girl with black curly hair that fell a few inches beyond her collar bone. She wore a earthy brown turtle neck sweater, blue jeans, and sneakers. There was a leather strap on her right thigh that housed a weapon and it's sheath, and another leather strap around her waist. To Percy the weapon sheaths looked like dangerous pointy cases, and he distantly thought about what was inside them and why she had them strapped to her.

"I'm Sybil," She introduced, "and we really need to get going."

"Are you guys demigods too? Do you have special powers? Also, why is everyone asleep?"

"Listen kid, here's a bit of advice." It was Deidre who spoke, her voice sending chills down Percy's spine, "In this world being a demigod isn't something to take lightly. You don't say the word demigod loudly in public when mortals are around. You don't use technology or monsters come after you and you die. You don't pay attention or hesitate to kill a monster and you die. And most importantly, you don't stay in one place for too long or monsters find you and you die. Now let's go!"

With the last of her snarled sentences hanging in the air, Deidre grabbed Percy by the wrist and dragged him out of the building. The rest of the small team drifted after them.

"Jeez, Deidre. Way to motivate a seven year old." Jaime mumbled.

Percy for his part was struggling to break away from the girl with a death grip on his wrist. What did she say, something about killing monsters or dying, or killing monsters and dying? Either way, Percy didn't want to find out. The pale girl's grip on him tightened, and Percy winced as her ice cold hands pressed deep into his skin.

In that moment all Percy wanted was to get away. They were nearing the street now. A growing ache spread from his head to his toes. A deep shiver ran through his body, and for a moment an intense heatwave washed over him and his body felt lighter than air.  Unknown to Percy, his body was turned into a fine mist that slipped easily from Deidre's grasp and dispersed into the air.

The feeling was gone as quickly as it came and when Percy regained his bearings he realized he was on his hands and knees, kneeling on a side walk. The world around him spun, but when he looked up he saw several familiar faces looking towards him.

"What was that!" Ximena yelled, her face forming a shocked expression.

"Percy are you okay?" Jaimie asked, rushing forward to the young boy.

–SoC–