Crimson Rivers [1] - Percy jackson

Chapter 1. Grover shops for a wedding dress

My nightmare started like this. I was standing on a deserted street in some little beach town. It was the middle of the night. A storm was blowing. Wind and rain ripped at the palm trees along
the sidewalk. Pink and yellow stucco buildings lined the street, their windows boarded up. A block away, past a line of hibiscus bushes, the ocean churned.
Florida, I thought. Though I wasn’t sure how I knew that. I’d never been to
Florida.

Then I heard hooves clattering against the pavement. I turned and saw my
friend Grover running for his life.
Yeah, I said hooves. Grover is a satyr. From the waist up, he looks like a typical gangly teenager with a peach-fuzz goatee and a bad case of acne. He walks with a strange limp, but unless you happen to catch him without his trousers on (which I don’t recommend), you’d never know there was anything un-human about him.

Baggynjeans and fake feet hide the fact that he’s got furry hindquarters and hooves. Grover had been Percys best friend in sixth grade. He’d gone on this adventure with me, Percy and a girl named Annabeth to save the world, but I hadn’t seen him since last July, when he set off alone on a dangerous quest – a quest no satyr had ever returned from.

Anyway, in my dream, Grover was hauling goat tail, holding his human shoesnin his hands the way he does when he needs to move fast. He clopped past the little tourist shops and surfboard rental places. The wind bent the palm trees almost to the ground.
Grover was terrified of something behind him. He must’ve just come from thenbeach. Wet sand was caked in his fur. He’d escaped from somewhere. He was trying to get away from … something. A bone-rattling growl cut through the storm. Behind Grover, at the far end of the block, a shadowy figure loomed. It swatted aside a street lamp, which burst in a shower of sparks.

Grover stumbled, whimpering in fear. He muttered to himself, Have to get away. Have to warn them! I couldn’t see what was chasing him, but I could hear it muttering and cursing. The ground shook as it got closer. Grover dashed around a street corner and faltered. He’d run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops. No time to back up. The nearest door had been blown open by the storm. The sign above the darkened display window read: , ST AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE.

Grover dashed inside. He dived behind a rack of wedding dresses. The monster’s shadow passed in front of the shop. I could smell the thing – a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotten meat and that weird sour body odour only monsters have, like a skunk that’s been living off Mexican food.

Grover trembled behind the wedding dresses. The monster’s shadow passed
on. Silence except for the rain. Grover took a deep breath. Maybe the thing was gone. Then lightning flashed. The entire front of the store exploded, and abmonstrous voice bellowed, ‘MIIIIINE!’

I sat bolt upright, shivering in my bed.
There was no storm. No monster.
Morning sunlight filtered through my bedroom window. I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass – a humanlike shape. But then there was a knock on my bedroom door – Percys mom called, ‘Syrus, you’re going to be late’ – and the shadow at the window disappeared. It must’ve been my imagination. A fifth-storey window with a rickety old fire escape … there couldn’t have been anyone out there.

‘Come on, dear,’ his mother called again. ‘Last day of school. You should be excited! You’ve almost made it!’

‘Coming,’ I managed. I felt under my pillow. My fingers closed reassuringly around the necklace I always slept with. I brought it out, studied the beads on it: my vampire necklace. My sword Regulus was away in the closet. Percys mom had made us promise not to use deadly weapons in the apartment after Percy’d swung a javelin the wrong way and taken out her china cabinet. I put the necklaces on and dragged myself out of bed.nI got dressed as quickly as I could. I tried not to think about my nightmare or monsters or the shadow at my window.

Have to get away. Have to warn them!
What had Grover meant? I made a three-fingered claw over my heart and pushed outwards – an ancient gesture Grover had once taught me for warding off evil. The dream couldn’t have been real. Last day of school. Sally was right, I should have been excited. For the first time in my life, I’d almost made it an entire year without getting expelled. No weird accidents. No fights in the classroom. No teachers turning into
monsters and trying to kill me with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding
homework. Tomorrow, I’d be on my way to my favourite place in the world – Camp Half-Blood. Only one more day to go. Surely even I couldn’t mess that up.
As usual, I didn’t have a clue how wrong I was.

Sally made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast. She’s funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it’s her way of saying
anything is possible. Percy and Syrus can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that. Percy and I  ate at the kitchen table while his mom washed dishes. She was dressed in her
work uniform – a starry blue skirt and a red-and-white striped blouse she wore to sell candy at Sweet on America. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

The waffles tasted great, but I guess I wasn’t digging in like I usually did. His
mom looked over and frowned. ‘Syrus, are you all right?’

‘Yeah … fine.’

But she could always tell when something was bothering me. She dried her hands and sat down across from me. ‘School, or…’ She didn’t need to finish. I knew what she was asking.

‘I think Grover’s in trouble,’ I said, and I told her about my dream. Percy chimed in saying like usual we had the same exact dream She pursed her lips. We didn’t talk much about the other part of our life. We tried to live as normally as possible, but his mom knew all about Grover.

‘I wouldn’t be too worried, dear,’ she said. ‘Grover is a big satyr now. If there
were a problem, I’m sure we would’ve heard from … from camp…’ Her
shoulders tensed as she said the word camp.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you what. This afternoon we’ll celebrate the end
of school. I’ll take you two and Tyson to Rockefeller Center – to that skateboard
shop you like.’ Oh, man, that was tempting. We were always struggling with money. Between his mom’s night classes and our private school tuition, we could never afford to do special stuff like shop for a skateboard. But something in her voice bothered me.

‘Wait a minute,’ Percy said. ‘I thought we were packing us up for camp tonight.’

She twisted her dishcloth. ‘Ah, dear, about that … I got a message from
Chiron last night.’

My heart sank. Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. He
wouldn’t contact us unless something serious was going on. ‘What did he say?’

‘He thinks … it might not be safe for you two to come to camp just yet. We might
have to postpone.’

‘Postpone? Mom, how could it not be safe? I’m a half-blood! It’s like the only
safe place on earth for me!’ Percy whined

‘Usually, dear. But with the problems they’re having –’

‘What problems?’

‘Percy … I’m very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can’t explain it all now. I’m not even sure Chiron can. Everything
happened so suddenly.’

My mind was reeling. How could we not go to camp? I wanted to ask a million
questions, but just then the kitchen clock chimed the half-hour. His mom looked almost relieved. ‘Seven thirty, dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting.’

‘But –’

‘Percy, Syrus, we’ll talk this afternoon. Go on to school.’

That was the last thing I wanted to do, but his mom had this fragile look in her
eyes – a kind of warning, like if I pushed her too hard she’d start to cry. Besides,
she was right about our friend Tyson. We had to meet him at the subway station on time or he’d get upset. He was scared of travelling underground alone.
I gathered up my stuff, but I stopped in the doorway. ‘Sally, this problem at
camp. Does it … could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?'

She wouldn’t meet my eyes. ‘We’ll talk this afternoon, dears. I’ll explain … as
much as I can.’

Reluctantly, we told her goodbye. Wr jogged downstairs to catch the Number  Two train. I didn’t know it at the time, but his mom and us two would never get to have our afternoon talk.
In fact, we wouldn’t be seeing home for a long, long time. As we stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight – a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one. Then it rippled and vanished.