Chapter 1

 

    “Ding,” the school bell rings.

I see Helia run towards me. “Come on” I say.

          She nods, her brown curls sliding across her face, her thin and slender hand carefully wiping them away.

    We run to my house. I expect to see my dad standing on our porch smiling broadly, but I don't see him.

           Helia must have sensed my worry, she whispers to me, “He’s probably going to jump out from behind the door and scare us.” I try to believe her but I can’t.

As I slowly round the corner leading to my kitchen I let out a gasp of surprise, with my beautiful olive-green eyes through my thick brown hair I see my dad lying on the ground with a horrid black shaggy dog leaning over him, at least I think the creature was a dog, the dog's tongue looked like a fat worm just wriggling out of its hole. I scream (people always tell me screams are my specialty).

    The creature looks up at me and all of a sudden I am too scared to move.

           The thing slowly approaches me, whispering at first but then getting louder, “Where is it, where is it, I know you have it, where is it, you know where it is, but until you tell me I must do this.”

    I don’t see it at first, but my dad is slowly reducing into shadow.

“Stop, stop,” I beg, “I don’t know what you want, leave him alone.” I turn away unable to look as my father and the dog like creature disappear.

I sit on the floor and start to cry. I hear Helia run down the stairs, she comes up to me and says in a worried tone, “What's wrong?”

I tell her about everything, the dog, my dad, what the dog said. I want her to say I imagined it, that she found my dad upstairs, I want her to say I was crazy, but she just nods solemnly and says, “I knew this would happen.”

I am beginning to think that is was not me who had gone crazy, but her.

As she mutters like a parrot gone crazy, “Oh, no. Why now. At the worst time.”

I say, “Why is this the worst time?”

“Because you are being blamed for something big,” she says.

“What,” I ask.

“Well,” she asks, “Do you remember that class we had about Greek gods?”

“Yes,” I state.

“Well, it’s all true, the gods really exist, they live at the top of the Empire State Building, on the 600th floor.”

“The Empire State Building doesn’t have a 600th floor,” I argue back.

“Yes, it does” She says very seriously.

Now I am really confused. I hear a knock on the door and Helia says, “Go with the people outside, you will be safe with them.”

I trust Helia so I get into the car that was parked.

I look into the front seat, I see a man with only one eye, right in the center of his head. I scream, and try to jump out of the car. He  locks the windows and the doors, there is no escape. I hunker down not knowing what to expect. The monster starts to explain everything.

I am a Demigod, half god half mortal. My mom hadn't disappeared when I was little she had to go back to Olympus. Also that's the reason that I hadn’t been attacked before, my mom put a spell on me that protected me until my 13th birthday. They are taking me to Camp Halfblood where lots of other demigods train to survive.

I ask him who my mom is and he says he doesn't know. The car pulls to a stop.  As the driver unlocks the door I walk towards a girl that I am pretty sure I recognize. As I pull closer I see a face with chocolate brown curls and slender fingers, it was Helia! But something was wrong, instead of legs and feet of a human she has furry hindquarters and hooves.

As I approach her she sees me and starts running towards me. She embraces me in a big hug. I ask her, “Who is my mother, which goddess?”

“I don't know,” she says ,”But I can tell you all the goddesses and then tonight your mother will hopefully claim…” She suddenly starts staring at my head. I do not know what is happening. All I could see is a haze of red.

Then everyone says, “ Hail, Arora, daughter of Athena.”

I am so confused, Helia explaining that Athena is the goddess of wisdom and warfare and took me around Camp HalfBlood. Then we start walking toward this huge house with man in a wheelchair in front of it.

She starts to talk, “This is  Chiron, a centaur, one of the teacher at camp.”

When we get to the big house the man says to Helia, “I can see why he is so mad at her, she is a powerful Demigod.”

“Who,” I ask, “Who is mad at me.”

Chiron says, “ Poseidon, because you are Athena's daughter and his trident has been stolen.”

I manage to stutter, “Why would he blame me?”

“Because he has held a grudge against your mother for a long time.”

He says with a sigh. “When the gods, were trying to become the main god of a state,” he says, “Poseidon decided to go for one and when he arrived Athena was already there. So they made a competition to see who could make the best gift. Poseidon made horses and Athena made the olive tree. Athena won. Athena also caught Poseidon and his mortal girlfriend in her shrine, which is hugely disrespectful.”

“Oh,” I say, “then why,” I add on, “did he send a hellhound to retrieve it?”

“He didn't,” Chiron explains. “We think that someone evil, sent that hellhound.”

That sentence makes me feel uncomfortable, so that concluded our talk. I decide to go with Helia so she could help me choose a weapon. They start giving me an assortment of swords, bows, and knives to try out, none of them felt right. I see a sword gleaming in the corner it had a slight blue tint. “What about that one,” I say. They bring the sword over to me. I hold it in my hand and I feel strength flow through me, I swing it and it slices through solid metal like it is butter.

The sword was mine!

 

Chapter 2

 

2 weeks later

“Wake up,” I hear someone yell. It has been 2 weeks since I got to Camp Half-Blood and plenty of crazy things have happened. As Helia drags me to the Big house we are abruptly stopped by Chiron.

“ It's time,” he says, “you have to go.”

“Do what?“ I ask.

“You have to go on a quest to find Poseidon's trident,” Chiron says. “You will go with Helia and Nilos.”

As soon as the sun comes up the next day we are off.

“We are going to go to the 600th floor in the Empire state building.” I say.

“Ok,” Helia says, “There could be monsters anywhere so-,” her words are cut of as a hideous creature slides out of a dark alleyway. It's top half is of a woman but the bottom half is of a snake.

“Ohhhhh,” I hear Helia yell. I slice at the monster with my sword, as my sword makes contact with the creature, it turns into dust.

“Oh no,” I say as I draw closer to Helia, her chest is covered with blood. As I slowly examine it a voice speaks behind me.

“I can help.” It says.

I swing my sword around expecting to see a different monster but instead I see a goddess.

“You can? ”I ask.

“Take this charm, it will heal her,” she says calmly. She holds out a necklace.

“Thank you!” I say.

Just like that the strange woman was gone.

I put the Charm around Helia’s neck and she instantly starts to heal.

Chapter 3

 

Just 10 minutes later we are back up, this time carefully. When we finally get to the Empire State Building we run inside and go up to the counter, about to ask the person at the front desk to see Poseidon, Instead of saying anything he snatches the charm off of Helia’s neck and runs out the door.

“Stop!” I shout. “That's ours!”

All I can feel is revenge and hatred bubbling in my stomach. Just Helia cry for help is what brings me back to the real world. I run towards her desperate to help. She is bleeding heavily. We are losing her.

I hear Helia whisper, “Him, the man, follow him, he has the trident, it was-” She starts breathing heavily, wheezing, breaths, blood spraying from her mouth, coloring her lips bright red. She has a red lake, still growing fast, around her. I start to scream her name but her life is ebbing away too fast. She takes one more staggered breath, and stops breathing, her heart stops beating, she is gone.

All I can hear is my scream rocketing like a spaceship across the room. Everything is a haze. Nilos helped me up, a strange car comes and Nilos yelled for me to run. People in dark clothes come running at me from all sides. I am too broken down, to weak. The last thing I see is Helia's broken body. A searing pain shoots through my head, then everything becomes dark.

 

Chapter 4

 

I wake up to quiet voices coming from the hall. I am alone in a cell. My hands tied and a thick chain wrapping around my waist and connecting me to the floor.

I move closer to the small rectangular window in the door, just managing to hear what the people outside the door are saying.

A man says, “Master Nilos will decide what to do with her today at noon.”

“Master Nilos?” I ask myself.

“I hope she gets executed,” a woman says.

“Or eaten by the Chimera,” a different girl says.

I check my watch, it is 11:07 and 36 seconds. I let out a gasp of surprise. Less than an hour to live.

Someone shoves me hard on the shoulder. I must have fallen asleep. I check my watch 11:59 and 03 seconds. Two people slowly escort me down a long hallway. Our footsteps make a slight clinking sound on the hard metal ground, 11:59 and 47 seconds.

As we made our way into a small room they pushed me down into a hard metal chair and strapped my arms and legs down. Now I am breathing hard, 11:59 and 56 seconds. My watch makes a beep, meaning it is 12:00

I see a shadow slowly sliding across the wall, and Nilos steps out of the darkness.

“You killed Helia,” I say.

“Yes,” he says calmly. “I did send that creature and order that man to do so.”  

“You're a monster,” I say.

“Let's see,” he says slowly walking around the table. Studying me. As he starts to touch my ears, mouth and nose, I bite him.

He yelps in pain, then smiles.

“Strong teeth, bad attitude, and killer instincts” he says. “I will give you two choices, to join us, or to be killed and eaten by the Chimera.”

My mind reels and my blood turns cold. This is not what I expected, he gave me a choice, to live knowing that I had betrayed my friends and family, or die and know that I made the right choice. I can't betray Helia for this, but can I? I say, “Yes I will join you.”

 

Chapter 6

 

5 weeks later

I am awakened by someone knocking on my door. It is my 5th week here. I quickly throw on my clothes. As I fling open the door and look into the hall I see a young woman,  she smiles at me, and says, “come.” This woman is my new instructor.

I start to hear shouts and swords clanging. “This must be where they practice sword fighting,” I think.

The young woman breaks into a run. She yells over the noise, “Go, we are here to save you.”

I recognize her, she is from Camp HalfBlood. Her name is Adonia.

“Where should I go,” I say trying to sound brave.

She starts to speak, “Go get the tri-” than a sword grows out of her stomach. She screams. Blood flows onto the ground.

I run up to her, “I will find the trident,” I promise.

Her scream breaks my eardrums, I grab her, desperate to save her. Her blood pools over my feet my legs. Another person died for me.

I hear Adonia whisper, “avenge me.” Then I feel her life slip away under my fingers.

I roar feeling all the emotions suddenly overflow my senses. I rip my sword out of its scabbard, I strike down everyone near me. The man standing behind Adonia was breathing hard. Blood, Adonia’s blood, covers his sword, he is the same person that killed Helia. I rip through his flesh. I see his face grow wide in surprise. I stab him again.

“That was for Helia,” I say.

I stab him one more time in the head and he stops moving.

“And that was for Adonia,” I cry.

I rip the charm off his neck and run.

 

Chapter 7

I slowly make my way to New York, taking whatever public transportation I can. I arrive at the Empire State Building. I get into the elevator, pressing the button that says 600. The elevator started to move. By the time the elevator dinged, signaling I was at the 600th floor, my stomach was churning, probably Poseidon's doing. I walk out of the elevator amazed as I look around at Olympus.

As I approach the throne room. Seeing all the gods sitting there, I feel so small. When I finally finish my story, Poseidon says, “so you are suggesting that one of these gods stole my trident,” motioning around the room.

“Yes,” I say.

“Which one?” He asks.

I looked around and immediately find the goddess, “her,” I say pointing.

“Nemesis?” He asks. “The goddess of revenge.”

“Yes, that is definitely her.” I reply.

 

Chapter 9

 

I make my way out of the throne room. I hear Nemesis's cries as she is dragged to be tortured by Poseidon. My phone rings, I pick it up and hear a familiar voice. I scream into the mouthpiece, “DAD!”

I quickly hang up and run home. I walk through the front door and my phone starts to ring again, I think it is my dad, checking if I am home yet. I pick up and hear Chiron’s voice.

He whispers softly, he says, “ Aurora come quick, we just received several sightings, Helia is alive.”