Chapter Text
Victoria Thompson POV:
She kept running through the streets, tears being pushed out of her face by the wind.
“I can’t go back this time. I can’t.” Victoria whispered to herself. Her backpack pounded on her shoulders as she ran into the nearest alley panting and whimpering. “Why did he have to squeal?” She questioned aloud while barely being able to catch her breath. Sneaking back in was no longer an option. She could still hear the cries of her little brother and sister begging her not to leave, but Victoria had no other choice, she couldn’t be around that man any longer.
“Vicky please! Don’t go!” Victoria's little sister Silena cried. The echoes of her words rang in her head like a fire alarm. Meanwhile Victoria could feel her brother Charlie’s arms still wrapped around her in a tight embrace, it was his best attempt to hold her down and prevent her from leaving. The only issue is that he was only six years old and not very strong. The memories hung in Victoria’s head; especially walking out the door with tears in her eyes hearing her siblings cry out behind a closed door as she left her apartment building stone-faced except for a few tears falling from her eyes.
“It’s better this way, it has to be.” Victoria told herself, her mind screamed at her telling her that she was wrong and that she needed to go back. “If I do that he’ll just throw me back here again, this is my only option.” This was Victoria’s best shot at making the best of a truly terrible situation. Her next goal was to find food and a shelter for the night; the food goal was inspired by her stomach which was yelling at her for and the fact that she didn’t want to sleep on the cold streets of New York City where she would end up getting mugged or murdered. Victoria also wanted to find shelter to find a safe and private place to let all of her emotions out.
Victoria found a seemingly abandoned apartment building with every window either boarded up or shattered. After trying to open the door for a solid ten minutes, Victoria gave up and decided to climb through a window. She was careful not to cut herself on any stray shards of glass either on the window or the floor. “My god, this place is in worse shape than my family.” Victoria laughed at herself but felt a pang of guilt when she realized how little time had passed since she left; and how she left Charlie and Silena with that man and all of his bimbos.
“AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!” A loud guttural scream coming from deeper in the building disrupted Victoria’s thoughts, the mental images of her little brother and sister ran out of her mind and were replaced by ideas for what could’ve made that sound.
“Hello?!” Victoria yelled out into the darkness as she walked through the main lobby towards the staircase. The walls were adorned with dust and peeling ugly green and beige wallpaper. They were lined with a wooden flower and vine pattern that separated the top half of the wall which was dirty beige and the bottom half; the green half. “Is anyone there?!” She called out again, Victoria felt like those idiots in those stupid slasher movies that always went towards the obvious danger and never made it to the end of the movie and possibly to the sequel. “Maybe I’ll be like Neve Cambell but without the stab wounds.” Victoria wondered aloud. She ascended up the stairs to the second floor listening close for any more yelling, after hearing another scream coming from up above her, she climbed up the next flight of stairs to the third floor. One more scream could be heard and it came from the floor that Victoria just arrived on. The light from outside was flooding the hallway through the boarded up windows which gave it a sort of peaceful atmosphere. She picked up a wooden board that was lying around in the hallway as she approached the source of the noise which had become a small but obviously painful moaning and groaning.
“Make them stop! Go away!” The voice screamed, it sounded masculine and frail, as if he was being attacked and begging for mercy. Victoria raised the board above her head and approached the open apartment door, she accidentally stepped on an old slightly chipped plate and she heard it shatter underneath her foot. The hurt moaning and groaning came to a halt and only silence rang through the entire floor. Victoria carefully stepped towards the door, charged through and realized that there was no one there.
“What? I swear I heard somethi-” She was cut off by someone body-slamming her into the ground. Victoria made hard contact with a wall and her leg collided with a stacked pile of paint buckets, some full, some not. Her leg felt like it was on fire, it had been hit right on the shin by a full paint bucket which then fell on her. The man who attacked her acted fast and climbed on top of her and wrapped his hands around Victoria’s neck and began to squeeze tightly.
“Leave me alone! You flying-demons from hell!” The man yelled. Victoria’s vision was starting to get spotty and she could feel her heart beating faster and faster as the man tightened his grip on her throat.
“GET OFF ME!” Victoria kicked and screamed but her attempts were unsuccessful, she could feel her life force slipping away with every passing second. “There’s got to be something I can do to get out of here!” Victoria thought to herself, but that was difficult because her brain was swimming in panic and fear. She looked at the ceiling and thought that it looked loose, loose enough that if she threw something at it, it would fall and give her enough time to escape. There was nothing in her reach that she could use to knock it down. Victoria was hoping for a miracle that it would fall down by itself. “Please! Please!” Victoria thought aloud, tears were welling up in her eyes and clouding her vision as the man was crushing her windpipe.
A loud crash could be heard from out of nowhere and the man was knocked out by some external force and Victoria was pulled aside by hands that were never there. She coughed and gasped for air and struggled to climb up to her feet while her body tried its best to calm down and recover, in the end she couldn’t get up and just slid down the wall after realizing that it was a lost cause. “What the hell knocked him out?” Victoria wondered as she coughed and wiped the tears from her eyes. After hoisting herself up by using a broom as a walking stick, Victoria scanned the room looking for anything that could’ve caused that man’s outbreak. Small baggies with traces of white powder were found scattered around the corner of the room. “Could’ve been what caused his outbreak.” Victoria thought aloud. The man, still lying on the floor, was still slightly conscious and mumbling stuff that made no sense.
“They’re everywhere! Birds made of metal! They’re like fighter pilots!” The man mumbled, soon after, he finally lost consciousness after muttering something about crazy mech pigeons from Satan.
“He was probably high off his ass.” Victoria guessed while gesturing to the baggies in the corner.
What is that? She thought as she stumbled towards the man, moving rubble, plaster and wood out of the way. He had three long scratches over his left eye that were too thin to have been caused by a human and judging from his short nails and fat fingers, he couldn’t have left those scars and scratches himself.
“What happened to you?” She inspected the wounds and ran a finger across one of them. Before Victoria could get a better idea as to what happened to him, a loud crash could be heard coming from somewhere higher up in the building.
“What the hell is that?” She hobbled over and grabbed her wooden board again before limping out into the hallway, and back towards the stairway and ascended as best she could, but instead of walking like a normal person, Victoria had to sit on the steps and throw herself up each individual step. “This is gonna take a while.” She whined. This gave her some time to think about what had happened back there.
What pulled me? There was no one else in the room. The memory of her attack shot through her head like a bullet replacing the memories of her brother and sister crying as she left her house for the last time. Victoria was sure she felt multiple hands grab onto her arm and leg before she got dragged out of harm's way and the ceiling collapsed on that man. It was probably magic. Victoria laughed at herself. That’s dumb, there’s no such thing, magic is fake. God is fake! She yelled internally, Victoria had stopped believing when she got kicked out of her own home by her own father. That’s when she learned the lesson that you’re alone in the world, no one else takes care of you, deal with it!
She winced in pain as she hit a spot on the stairs that bumped the side of her leg, too close to her injured spot. “It’s gotta be broken, it hurts so much.” Victoria groaned, throwing herself up another step. The pain was getting unbearable.
Come on, just a few more steps! She told herself. The top was in sight and she couldn’t really turn back at this point, she had come too far and didn’t have anywhere else to go or any other means of leaving. The memories of the sudden attack and quick end kept flashing in her mind. From the body slam, to the strangling, to the ceiling falling on that man and something made of nothing pulling Victoria to safety. I can’t think about that right now, just ignore it, that guy probably just fell to the side and I’m overthinking it. Victoria tried her best to give herself some sort of answer to give herself closure; and it worked, for the most part, but something in her head still wondered about what had happened and kept trying to find an answer.
Finally after what felt like an eternity, she reached the top of the stairs and hoisted herself to her feet using the railing before she used her board as a makeshift walking stick. “God I fucking hate stairs!” She screeched, her leg was in pain and looked like it was swelling up and it hurt whenever she made any sort of movement.
There were more sounds coming from down the hall which reminded Victoria about why she came up here, she had forgotten on the way up because she was distracted by coming up with any plausible answer/reason as to what happened during her attack and trying to figure out what happened to the guy's face.
CRAAAASSSSHHHH!!
The sounds got louder and louder as more time went by and as Victoria got closer. “God, what is that!” She yelled covering her ears once she was two feet from the door. The noise was becoming ear shattering.
It was like metal being thrown against more metal but times a hundred! Leaning on her good leg, Victoria raised the board over her shoulder in a battle stance as she prepared herself for another fight.
The source of the noise was impossible for Victoria to comprehend, they were literally flying mechanical demons!
“CAAAAWWW!!” The birds screeched, their combined screams were like nails on a chalkboard mixed with a knife scraping against glass and of course, metal scratching slowly and painfully across more metal.
One of them charged at Victoria and she quickly slapped it out of the air with her board but not before its claws raked across her hand. Blood spilling down her arm and some landing on her clothes and face. Now everything really did look like a death scene in a horror movie. “What are you!?” She screamed, but all she got as a response was a loud metallic cawing sound.
Victoria’s injured leg was still killing her, so she was hopping down the long hallway as fast as she could. This isn’t very fast obviously, so the birds were quickly gaining on her. “Help, anyone!” She cried, her voice bouncing up and down as her foot made impact with the solid wood floor. Victoria didn’t expect anyone to answer but she might have as well tried in hopes that another homeless person or coked up psycho ran in and distracted the birds while she ran away to safety.
“I’m coming! Just one minute!” A voice yelled from the stairwell.
What!? There’s someone here? Victoria ducked into a room hoping to dodge and weave her way around the birds. It worked for the most part. Besides one bird latching its beak to her arm and clamping down. “AAAAAGGGHHHH!!! HURRY!!” Victoria screeched as she slammed the bird into the wall and it smashed to pieces and clattered onto the floor. She took a quick look back at it and saw that there was nothing there, as if its remains had just dissolved into the floor.
“Where are you?!” The voice called out. It sounded feminine and quite young. She pounded up the stairs as fast as she could and Victoria could hear it.
“The dam hallway! Now hurry!” Victoria was losing energy and her leg was starting to cramp up. She stumbled over a stack of planks and hit the floor with a jarring THUD! Victoria grabbed her knee in pain and waited for death to claim her through the mechanical birds and their sharp talons and beaks. The feeling never came; she felt a pair of arms latch onto her shoulders, pulled her up off the ground and shoved her into a nearby room and locked the door behind them both.
“Are you okay?” The girl asked. She wore a floral green shirt and dark brown pants that seemed to slip into her shoes. She was a light brown, possibly Hispanic or Indian with a scared and concerned look on her face.
“Yeah I’m perfectly fine, I’m just bleeding and I’ve got a fucked up leg! She remarked angrily. The door was the only thing keeping Victoria and this strange girl from death by birds. But that clearly wasn’t going to last long, the birds were throwing themselves against the door and the hinges looked like they were beginning to come loose.
“Okay, you wait here and I’ll go handle them!” The stranger said as she got up and walked toward the door.
“Wait! You’re going out alone? That’s suicide.” Victoria argued. Even though she had no idea who this girl was, she didn’t want to see her get gored by those demons outside.
“I’ll be fine, you just wait here or I’ll make you.” Her tone was very commanding and she definitely wasn’t taking no for an answer. If this girl was willing to go face those monsters by herself then she was crazy or crazy strong and didn’t fear death, either way, Victoria let her leave.
She rushed out the door but not before throwing her leather satchel down next to Victoria. Soon after, she could hear the sounds of distressed cawing, metal clanging against each other, and loud guttural yelling, like a battle cry. Is she okay?? Millions of thoughts rushed through her head. What happened to her? Is she okay? Why did it go silent? These questions and more ran around her head until the door creaked open slowly and Victoria shut her eyes tight and clenched up into a ball out of fear.
“What, what’s wrong?” The girl asked. Victoria opened her eyes to reveal that she was still alive and perfectly okay, minus a few cuts and scrapes she was perfectly fine!
“Wha- what, h- how?” Victoria stutters, They should’ve killed her, how did they not kill her? She was at a loss for words and could barely produce human sounds. All that came out was just, “Huh?” or “Uhh- uh.”
“That’s not important right now, what’s important is me tending to your injuries.” She picked up her bag and reached into a side pocket and fished out a small bag filled with what looked like lemon squares.
“How’s that gonna help?”
“Trust me and eat.” She said while pushing the small food towards Victoria’s mouth.
“So what’s your name?” Victoria mumbles through a full mouth. This girl saved her from death and she has no clue who she is.
“I’m Flora, and you’re?” Well now she had a name, which made her a little friendlier. Flora held out her hand for a handshake waiting for Victoria’s reply
“I’m Victoria.” She didn’t take Flora’s hand, something didn’t sit right about her, as if she wasn’t here by accident. Victoria swallowed the last piece of food and her entire body relaxed and felt at peace. Victoria tasted food from her youth which seemed so far away, she didn’t ever want to lose that feeling. It made her sad but also happy at the same time. “Okay two things, number one, where did you come from, and two, is there weed in these lemon squares?” She asked holding up the food in her hand, no food should have that much effect on someone without drugs.
“No, these aren’t those kinds of foods. It’s called ambrosia, what’s it taste like to you?” That was a weird way of phrasing the question, wouldn’t Flora have tried these at least once in her life?
“It tasted like the home cooked Thanksgiving meals my grandmother used to make, she used to cook these amazing feasts for hundreds of people back when she was younger. Her dream was to be a chef in a big fancy restaurant, but then my dad was born and messed up all her life plans, she always told that she loved him in spite of all those things that were taken away from her but I could tell from the look in her eyes when she used to tell me her stories that she always resented him just a little for it.” She admitted, there’s no way that a lemon square could taste the same as a stuffed turkey on Thanksgiving, what the hell is going on?! “How did that taste like her food, that’s impossible!” Victoria rambled on for a little longer before Flora interrupted.
“It’s the food of the gods! And you wanted to know where I’m from, I’m from Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for children of the gods of Olympus.” Victoria stared at her like she was insane and then started laughing.
“That’s good, that’s a good story, now where are you really from?”
“I just said it, I’m from Camp Half-Blood, I’m telling you that you’re the descendant of a god!” Flora was really sticking to her story but Victoria wasn’t buying any of it.
“Oh my god! Just drop the act, I know you’re lying! God or ‘the gods’ don’t exist!” Victoria yelled. Flora took cover behind a nearby wood box as if Victoria was going to get hit by something big. “Ohhh, I get it now,” Victoria began.
“Thank the gods!” Flora praised as she stood back up walking back towards Victoria.
“You’re part of a cult! Yeah no thanks, I’ll pass on whatever this is.”
“NO! I’m not part of a-” Flora was getting impatient. “I’m not crazy! You’re a child of a god and it’s my job to get you back there safely, now we have to go before something else worse than your birds attacks us!” Her ears were turning red and Victoria could swear that there was steam coming off of her head.
“Okay, okay, you win, I'll play your little game. Where is this ‘Camp Half-Blood’?” Victoria wanted to see just how far into this whole thing Flora was in.
“In Long Island, now let’s go before something else finds us, well you actually.” Flora began to walk out of the door but stopped when she realized that Victoria was still on the ground not moving. “What are you doing, come on we have to go!”
“I can’t move, my leg is still all fucked up and I need help getting up.” Victoria argued.
“No you don’t, now get up.” Her tone was serious and didn’t sound all happy and carefree like before. Victoria knew that Flora was done playing around and was prepared to drag her out by her hair and ears if needed.
“Alright but I’m just gonna be dead weight because of my le-” Victoria cut herself off as she stood up to find that her leg was completely fine, it was as if nothing had ever happened to it. She jumped a couple times to test it to see if it was fake and the tests all yielded the same results; no pain, no aching, not even a bruise! “What the fuck are those lemon squares?!” Victoria demanded. Her brain was hurting itself trying to come up with a logical explanation to her speedy healing.
“Not important right now, what’s important is getting you out of here!” Flora exclaimed as she sped out the door and descended down the stairs. Victoria didn’t want to be left behind so she hauled ass after the girl and met up with her in the lobby. “Okay from here we go.” Flora kept mumbling stuff under her breath about where they were headed and how they’d get there. “Come on, let’s go!” Flora was eager to get out of here, so was Victoria; she wanted to get as far away from this place as possible.
God I’m finally away from this place. Where is this girl taking me? Something seems off about her, like she’s not human. That’s stupid, don’t think that, monsters don’t exist and they never have. Those were just weird birds. A million thoughts swam through Victoria’s head as she and Flora raced through the streets of New York City. (End of Chapter One)