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Luke was fucked.
Seriously. Fucked.
Camp life was horrible. Thalia was dead, he was forced to live in an overcrowded cabin full of kids his age and younger, at the tender age of 16 he was labeled the new camp councilor permanently because the old one died on his way to college before the sun even set, and a flock of harpies was after him.
When Chiron had told him of the humanoid birds Luke foolishly didn't think twice about them.
Why would he? He's outrun and outsmarted tougher, so a couple of oversize birds should be nothing.
If only.
The cabins didn't come with their own bathrooms so if you wanted to use the it you either had to hold it in till morning or risk going outside for a bush pee. If you were crazy enough you could risk running to the communal bathrooms on the other side of the camp which is just what Luke was doing.
Running to the stalls gave Luke a chance to get away from his siblings and the breaking down cabin that he called "home" even if it was far from it. Luke's not sure when he fucked up in his plans but the next thing he knew he was running from a group of screeching women.
Any attempts to make it back to the Hermes cabin were cut off by one of the harpies diving in his path causing him to double back in the other direction.
Luke didn't want to risk barging into any of the other cabins so there was only one other option. The big house.
The big house loomed almost menacingly over him as if it was taunting him, saying, "Look at you. The son of a thief getting caught and leaving you with no choice but to come to me."
The voice of the house sounds like grapes getting crushed underfoot and and the scraping of claws on stone.
The closer Luke gets to the door the more urgent the harpies swipe at him. They aren't allowed into the house but they're willing to break a rule or two if that means they get a meal out of it.
Any hope of safety was cut short when Luke got his foot caught in the weak floorboards of the porch.
"No, no, God's not now!" Luke's ankle was throbbing from blisters and the harpies were only a few feet away, slowing the flap of their wings like they knew they had won. Luke was a trapped animal and had nowhere else to go.
"Well if it isn't Lukas Canseco. Seems like you've found yourself in quite some trouble."
"It's Luke Castellan, sir." The 'sir' of his sentence held enough acid to melt the floorboards his ankle was still trapped in. The Harpies had halted their flight at the sight of the immortal camp director, but Luke knew what was happening; all Mr. D had done was put a pause on Luke's inevitable capture and suffering, the moment he walked back inside the house the harpies would be back at it- ripping Luke to shreds and eating him like string cheese, leaving nothing but a pool of blood they would then later mop up because even if they're monsters they still qualified as the cleaning staff.
"Whatever. In a couple of years, it won't matter, and by the look of things in a few minutes you won't even be alive, Lukas."
Dionysus walked a circle around the blonde like a lion to a hyena, taunting him and his unfortunate fate. His feet made no sound; God's do not walk, they lurk around corners and contaminate the air and drive people to madness because they are something humans cannot understand and Luke learned that by the hand of his deranged mother who was driven mad by his father.
Luke was shaking, the chill of the night air, the sound of spring bugs, and the threat of harpies that still have yet to leave him alone are starting to way down on him. The adrenaline Luke's body had used to get him here is dwindling and the liquid presence of Mr. D wasn't helping him stay focused.
The divine being slowed his walk and crouched down in front of him. There was a smug smile on his face like he knew something that Luke didn't, which was everything but whatever source of knowledge Mr. D had on him right now must have been important to Luke's survival if he was still here.
"You know it's far past curfew, Lukas and the girls seem rather hungry," as if to prove his point the 'girls' started flapping their wings and snapping their jaws. "I could let them eat you. After all, it's no skin off my back."
A clawed finger raked up Luke's neck.
"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured to Luke as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please." Luke's jaw clenched, the pain in his ankle had gone away, he was not sure if it was a good thing or not. "Snd naturally if I were to help you, you'd owe me quite that favor, but what a small price to pay in exchange for your life."
He'd never begged the Gods for anything, not after he found out they were responsible for his mother's fate, but now Luke was cornered and out of options. Between the harpies and the deranged God, he hoped his death would be fast.
"Please, Mr. D," Luke muttered. "Help."
In the next four seconds Luke feels only fear when the Harpies rise, and with the next three he feels like a fool, when they fly away.
It was a trick. All of it.
The reason why the harpies never caught him till tonight, the reason they were so determined to lead him away from the cabins, Luke knew that despite how old the big house was as long as there was a god living inside of it Mr. D would never allow any part of it break down like the floorboard had.
Some son of Hermes he was for not only getting caught, but for also falling into such a cheap trap.
"Well would you look at that. You can ask, for help," Dionysus' cold hands rose up goosebumps underneath his pajama shirt. "What a good boy."
Luke really wishes he had took his chances with the bushes.