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I was terrified; the monster’s glimmering, gold sword felt as if it was cutting the ends of my black hair, it was so close, and all I had to defend myself was a stick I had rummaged to find on the ground. I never understood how I got myself into these types of situations.
I was an entirely, thoroughly normal teenager. I see a lot of things, unexplained things, but I had always been taught to ignore them. Focus on the things that were real. It wasn’t until then that I got an explanation.
The day that I met Kasper, the darkness of the night before seemed to stretch on until late morning, (if you consider 8 AM as late). As I made my way to the bus stop, a gust of wind seemed to engulf
me–I wasn’t used to such weather, having recently moved from California–I had trouble keeping my hair out of my face. Everything seemed to be going wrong.
I grumbled as I stepped into the empty halls of my school, frustrated at the bus that drove away in the corner of my eye. I was so late it’d be embarrassing to step into my classroom.
As my hand reached for the doorknob, I heard the screech of my shoes as I was suddenly knocked back onto the cold floor.
“Hey!” I exclaimed, “Watch where you’re going!” I caught a glimpse of a kid I had never seen before, with a bulky yellow backpack and blond, curly hair.
“Sorry, dawg,” he apologized, holding out a hand to help me up. I didn’t take it.
The kid awkwardly pulled his hand back to his side. “Well, um…do you have any idea where Mr. Rodriguez’s class is?”
I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was give the new kid a tour of my school, but I figured I needed a better excuse for being late to class. “Here,” I mumbled as I led him to his classroom. “You take a left over here…”
Over the course of a few weeks, Kasper and I became pretty close. We found out that we had the same math and lunch period, so we had been hanging out often. He was a lot like me, actually. He stayed away from most people, so I was really his only friend. He reminded me a lot of my old friend, Mark.
During our lunch period, we decided to hang out in the gymnasium. I raised an eyebrow as Kasper’s jogging came to a stop.
He grasped at my sleeve, and murmured, “I don’t think we should go in there.”
“Why, what’s up?” I asked.
“Something feels off.” I rolled my eyes and did something I’d regret. Ignoring Kasper, I pushed open the doors to the gym, Kasper following behind me.
My eyes widened as I stared into the eyes of a green-skinned woman with twin snakes for legs. I felt an ache in my chest as I realized she noticed me, too.
I heard a thud from the bleachers. A kid around my age, with neck-length black hair. The light in his auburn eyes flickered with a flame. My gaze went back and forth from him to the snake woman, and when I saw the vertical blink in her yellow eyes, my instinct of fight-or-flight kicked in.
As the lady slithered towards me, I yelled, “Go!” to the kid behind the bleachers.
She hissed something about a half-blood that I didn’t quite get, and I spotted Kasper a few feet beside me.
The next few moments went quickly. The hissing snakes inching towards me, my hands clenching into fists to my side, and the chair. The empty chair that flew over my head, and made its way to the snake-like woman. When my head snapped to look behind my back, that kid with the flames in his eyes was gone. But there was a new flame in front of me, and it wasn’t his eyes. Snake Lady had disintegrated into dust, initiating a blazing fire that crackled and expanded rapidly. My face felt like it was going to melt off, with the burning light right in front of me, and I hadn’t realized my feet were planted on the ground until Kasper shouted, “Sean, come on!” and snatched my wrist, dragging me in front of him.
I sprinted down the hall with Kasper beside me, the ear-splitting screech of the fire alarm echoing across the halls of the school. I didn’t look back even after I got onto the sidewalk, after I bolted down the streets of incoming traffic. Even after I ran out of breath, and we stopped around 8 blocks from the school.
“I need to get you to Camp Half-Blood, like, right now,” Kasper told me, after a moment of silence. For a moment, I had no idea what he was talking about.
“Half-blood,” I repeated. There was that word again. “That snake lady said that word, too.”
“Dracanae,” he corrected. I’ve never seen him this serious.
“Whatever. What does it mean?” I asked.
“You know the Greek gods?”
“I mean, yeah, like Zeus?”
“Yeah. The myths, the monsters, and all that–I’m sure you’ve seen them before, I’ve seen your drawings. They’re really good, by the way,” he rambled, and I could tell he was nervous, “but, um, they’re real. Definitely real. A half-blood means one of your parents is godly.”
“Like a demigod.” I chimed in.
He nodded. “You’re a half-blood. I’m supposed to protect you on your way to camp.”
A half-blood.
At that moment, something clicked in my head. I’m a half-blood. It was like the world I had never found my place in, and the world I dreamed of, saw glimpses of, had come into one, and I had a world to belong in. The explanation I had always gotten was that I had too wild of an imagination. For so long, all I wanted was to prove that the things I saw were real. I finally had confirmation over the unexplainable. The things I’d be called mad for.
And a camp. I always hated going to summer camps, but for some reason, I knew Camp Half-Blood would be different, and I couldn’t help but feel excited. The people there would be like me. They could see monsters as clearly as I did. Certainly, they’d teach us to fight said monsters. I could learn to fight.
My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed Kasper call for a taxi. I knew he rarely had cash on him, so I asked, “You have money for a taxi?”
“Hm. No, but you have cash, right?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I do.” He smiled and I followed him as he got into the back seat of the taxi. Kasper sat with his legs crossed, as he does anywhere.
I looked as confused as the taxi driver as Kasper gave him an address to literally the middle of nowhere. My head turned to him, raising an eyebrow, but I didn’t speak.
“Are you sure? There’s nothing there, kid,” the driver told him.
“I’m sure,” Kasper replied.
He shrugged, “If you say so,” as he started to drive. A couple minutes passed in silence, before I asked Kasper, “Who is my godly parent?”
“Huh?” He looked like he was pulled out of his thoughts for a minute, and before I repeated my question, he answered, “Oh. I’m not sure, dude, we need to wait until you’re claimed.”
“Claimed?” I questioned.
“When your parent makes it known that you’re their kid. Usually, it’s told with some sort of symbol over your head,” he explained. “Huh. You know, I don’t know why you haven’t been claimed already. You’re thirteen, right?”
I nodded. “What’s that gotta do with it?”
“Well, by thirteen, every god needs to claim their half-blood children. Percy Jackson made that happen.”
“Who’s Percy Jackson?”
He smiled. “Some half-blood.” He looked out the window. “Right here, thanks,” he told the taxi driver, and the automobile came to a stop. I passed him the cash, and we both exited the taxi.
Half-Blood Hill was a green, blossoming hill surrounded by thriving oak trees. I was dazzled at how beautiful the place looked.
If that taxi driver couldn’t see this, he was seriously missing out.
“Why couldn’t he see this place?” I asked.
“Mortals can’t see Camp Half-Blood. It’s protected from monsters and mortals, so unless Chiron or Mr. D lets them in, their eyes just won’t work on it.”
“Who’s–”
A booming roar. One that shook the ground I was on, caused a look of terror to appear on my face, where there once was a faint smile. It was so close to us. Its echo shook the trees, the hill I was so glad to see because I knew that we were close to reaching camp. I didn’t need to glance behind me to know that I was in trouble. That I wouldn’t be able to make it up that hill.
There was a gigantic, horrifying monster just a few feet behind me, holding a golden sword that held mesmerizing designs that I had never seen before.
My eyes scanned the ground for something to defend myself with. I grabbed a crooked stick; it wasn’t anything like that sword, but it was something. I was caught off guard, with the monster bolting straight toward me. Its huge claws seized the collar of my shirt, hauling me up into the air. It blinked rapidly, as if it was trying to make sense of me. Then it snarled. Its horrifying, razor-sharp teeth made me want to scream and run just at the sight of them.
“Put him down!” I heard Kasper screech before seeing three gray blurs racing toward the monster’s head. I realized they were stones when they bounced off of it and onto the ground.
It roared, its spit spewing across the air. “Gross,” Kasper exclaimed. I became increasingly aware of the sword in the monster’s right claw.
I watched the glimmering golden sword drag up into the air, I would’ve been admiring it if it wasn’t grasped by the monster’s hideous claw. I struggled, yet there was no use. All I could do was watch, and I refused to. My eyes squeezed shut, and for a moment, I could not breathe. I couldn’t hear Kasper’s voice. I was unprepared, unprepared for the inevitable pain that would soon come. And I waited.
Waited.
Waited, and I felt nothing. I wondered if I was dead.
My eyes opened, and I gasped for the air I could now breathe. That golden sword was planted in my stomach.
Yet there was no blood. It didn’t even leave a scratch.
After being dropped apathetically onto the hard ground, I groaned, rubbing my head. I blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the blur in my eyes. When I looked up, Kasper was standing over me.
“You alright?” He asked as he hauled me to my feet, and I nodded. “Good, because we need to outrun an eight-foot monster.”
Kasper was bolting as I watched him kick off his red shoes, which were held together by a thread. I blinked. He had hooves instead of human feet. They were goat hooves.
“Kasp–what? You’re a goat?!” I exclaimed, a few feet behind Kasper.
“Satyr!” he corrected. “I’ll tell you later–just keep running, we’re almost up the hill!” The bellowing monster stomped ragefully towards us as we ran.
When I reached the top of the hill, my heart stopped. Kasper was gone. It was as if he disintegrated in thin air. I couldn’t see Camp Half-Blood.
The other side of the hill was only a field crowded with strawberry bushes. The strawberries were barely ripe, some green and miniature, others white and small. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The first time I ate a strawberry, my lips swelled. My eyes watered. My cheeks were the same shade of red as the berry I had consumed. I despised the taste of strawberries.
My eyes stung. They were watering the same way they did back then, but for emotion. The camp was supposed to be right here.
“Kasper?” I called. No one answered. I couldn’t even hear the raging monster I was terrified of only a moment ago.
Then it hit me. I remembered what Kasper said to me.
Mortals can’t see Camp Half-Blood.
Was I a mortal? Certainly not. I see monsters. Normal people don’t just see monsters.
But why couldn’t I see camp? And where was Kasper? I was alone. I didn’t need an explanation for that. I dug my own hole, and now I’m stuck in it. I heard a sniffle. I wasn’t completely sure if it was me.
A tap on my shoulder startled me out of my thoughts. When I turned around, I was greeted with brown eyes and tight blond curls.
“Kasper,” For the first time in a while, I smiled fully. I almost hugged him, I was so excited to see his face, but his face was filled with dread. He was frowning. In his eyes, I could see a flicker of disappointment. My smile dropped. I felt a familiar ache in my chest.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Sean…” I didn’t like the way he said my name. “I wasn’t supposed to bring you here.”
“You–what? Where else would you bring me?”
“Sean–”
“No,” I interrupted, “What are you saying right now?”
“You’re mortal.” He said the word mortal like it was some sort of curse. I scowled at him.
“I’m not.” I paused. “How could I be mortal? I see monsters.”
“Yes, but–” He paused. I didn’t speak. “But some mortals can see past the Mist.” I didn’t ask what that meant.
“So, what? What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know.”
“I don’t!” He sighed. “Look, I think we just gotta bring you back home.”
“Back home?” I repeated. “You mean you just tell me that the things I’ve been seeing for years, the things I was called crazy about are all real, and you want me to, what? Grab a cab, and jollily walk away from a world I barely get to know about?”
He was frowning. There were tears in his deep brown eyes, and I realized that he hated this conversation just as much as I did.
I sighed, and sat on the peak of the hill. “I’m sorry. This is all just so wild to me.”
“I know. It is for me, too.” Kasper replied.
We sat in silence for a while, the only sounds around us were the light wind and the occasional sniffle from me. The sun was setting, and I remembered the kid I had seen a few hours ago. Was he the half-blood Kasper was meant to find?
My two worlds hadn’t come together. They were taken apart. I knew the monsters I had drawn were real. That made it worse. I didn’t have a place in the moral world or with the gods. I wondered if I’d ever find my place.