Lies [A Percy Jackson fanfiction]

Ch.2

The best predators come out as the prey.

James Clarke was easily the least popular kid around at Riverdale High. He didn't have rich parents, good looks or outstanding grades. He was normal. He had blue eyes, messy black, bit gray, hair and a face like any other guy you would see on the streets.

But being normal made him lame at Riverdale, everyone here was outstandingly good at something, had gross rich parents, model faces or all of the three. No one here was anything close to normal, except for him of course.

James sits in the corner at lunch, though he was easy to spot. He was the only one who didn't wear designer's clothes, the only one who didn't have friends to talk to, which singled him out.

Rosina walked towards him, people quickly scooted away to make way for her.

"Hey." She sat down by James at the empty table.

James was startled by the approach of the girl, his pupils widened in shock. No one, no one, ever sat down with him.

"Your name's James right?" Her cold gaze fixed on his,James nodded his head, carefully not wanting to displease her. He glanced at the bench at the opposite side of the room, not surprisingly, he heard snickers and giggles coming from it. That was Rosina's friend group, also known as the top students of Riverdale, the most popular . That was why he knew from the moment that Rosina came up to him, something was up.

He saw Rosina turn to her friends too, she shot her signature "go to hell" glare at them, making the snickers stop, at least for a few seconds. That only made him suspect more about what the fuck did she want with him.

"I want to talk to you about something, meet me after school, 3 pm at Miss Angela's office." She demanded. James raised an eyebrow. "I swear I'm not up to something bad. That is one thing I can promise you." Her voice oddly softened this time, James looked up, Rosina's gray eyes meeting his. He saw something that he had never ever seen in those eyes, not just the usual haughtiness, but desire, desire for information.

Rosina didn't wait for a reply, she swiftly got up and turned her back to him, walking back to her friends. It was like his silence spoke his answer for him. James sighed, though he already expected that Rosina wouldn't really sit with him for lunch, it felt nice to have someone talk to him, even if it was just for ten seconds.

-

Rosina opened the door of the office, as expected, the remains of Miss Angela scattered across the room, highlighting it with its golden shimmer.

She turned her head around to observe the boy behind her, he wasn't good at hiding his emotions, so Rosina could see at first sight that he had seen something like this before. He didn't widen his eyes or open his mouth in shock. He had been through before. Which meant that he had answers she needed.

"Explain." Rosina went straight to the point. "I've seen you running out of the classroom and returning with flecks of gold sparks on you, just like these. I know that you've seen one of these too, whatever they are." She glared at him, trying to read his expression.

James was silent for an awkward moment, perhaps it was because he wasn't used to communicating after not having much with others for so long, but he spoke, though it was more of a mumble, with a lot of stuttering.

" Well, you see. Greek Mythology, and the Roman, they're real. The gods exist, and sometimes... sometimes they have children with mortals like how they did in the stories." He stuttered. " Well they're not exactly stories, it really happened in the past but.. you know what I mean. Sometimes those monsters come back to life and they hunt demigods like you and me. After we kill them they disintegrate and dissolve into gold dust like this."

Rosina processed the information, she wasn't shocked, she had used up the "shocked" emotion a long time ago. So Greek stuff is real, what else is new?

SNAP

The two teenagers in the room whip their heads in the direction of the sound. It was coming from the closet (why would anyone put a closet in a school office ?)

" What's that?" James blurted out.

" Am I supposed to know?" She spat.

Whether or not either of them knew what it was didn't matter, because the monster revealed itself. It bursted out of the closet, its eyes burned with the madness of the fierce monster it was. It was a hellhound.

How did this thing fit into the closet? Rosina thought to herself.

James didn't pause though, he took out a bow and aimed at the hellhound. When he pulled the bow Rosina saw an arrow which seemed like it was made by a kind of blue energy appear in his fingers.

Though James didn't pause, neither did the monster, it lunged itself at the demigods, it's jaw wide open ready to savor the flesh of them.

Rosina scooted to the side, unleashing her dagger at the same time.

James shot the arrow at the hellhound, but missed its head, the arrow sunk into the body of the monster, it howled in pain, but it's anger once again fueled it. It snared at the boy who wounded it, without any warning it charged, knocking him down with a powerful force, sending him flying across the room and his bow swung on the opposite side of the room.

James's back hit the wall, he felt dizzy from the hit but he managed to sit up against the wall. He had encountered monsters before, not much, but this was the closest call to death. He could feel the rotten breath of the monster while it approached him, its eyes staring directly into his. James closed his eyes, this was it, he was going to die.

Please mother, he prayed in his head, if there's any luck I have left now would be a good time to use it.

He braced himself for the worst, but the feeling of a hellhound's teeth sinking into him didn't come. Instead he heard a painful howl. He opened his eyes.

What happened apparently, was that Rosina had thrown her dagger across the room directly at the hellhound, it was very well aimed, stabbing the monster directly in its head, almost slicing it in half. The monster faded into golden dust which piled onto the floor, joining the remains of Miss Angela.

Rosina rushed to James's side of the room, picking up her dagger along the way.

James felt another wave of dizziness come over him, at that moment he didn't know what to do, which meant he had to do one thing.
"We have to get to camp, Camp Half-blood."