Invisible String (Percy Jackson)

Out Of The Woods

"Holy shit!" Ana said as she dodged yet another tree branch thrown at her. Not the worst that had been hurled at her in the last week.

Cars, lamp posts, animals and even people had propelled towards her at maximum speed. Well, what looked like animals and people, a weird twist to all of them. One dog seemed to have more limbs than expected, birds with mouths instead of beaks... Even women with flaming hair, and she didn't mean a bright red.

It had been quite puzzling, not the creatures themselves. No, they had been around all her life. But they'd never attacked, they always passed by her, not noticing the one person that realized they existed. So it came as a surprise when all of a sudden they weren't only creatures anymore, they had become monsters.

Yet that wasn't the only weird thing happening at the moment. The fact that their charges ended just as suddenly as they began.

Every single one of them.

They were heated. As soon as they spotted her they threw themselves at her, or in this case threw other stuff. But the weirdest thing happened. Whenever they got close to Ana they sort of, disappeared. The monsters simply turned into dust, right in front of her. It had been driving her insane, making her wonder if she'd finally gone completely mad.

Having visions since her infant years was reason enough to prove her hypothesis, the recent "attacks" were just sprinkles on the cake. She wondered what had changed in the last seven days. Nothing had, that she could tell. Her life was, well, her life was as it always had been. If you could call that normal.

Her last year of highschool had been going as usual. By that Ana meant dreadful. Classes were long and her friends were few. The only thing aiding her spirits was the knowledge her mother was waiting for her.

Yet Ana had decided her warmth and her house to the cold weather of Long Island, believing some fresh air would do her well. She had been sorely mistaken.

Now a giant cow with underpants was at her heels, following her ever since she had gotten off the bus. She was zapping through the woods, hiding behind a tree to hide from another one being thrown at her.

"That's not fair, dude. I'm not strong enough to reciprocate," Ana shouted at the minotaur as she ran, not even trying to look back. "Next time let's try something more my speed, how about twigs?"

He seemed to not hear her, as he chucked another one, falling right in front of her. As she climbed over it she dwelled on the fact that she had nowhere to go. What would she find in the middle of the woods?

A thought process that was not very long, due to the branch of the next one he threw hit her in the back. Making her fall forward, hitting herself with a rock on the head. Ana began to say her goodbyes, the large beast approaching her.

"Stay back," a boy told her, sword in hand.

Where had he come from?

"Where am I going?" she replied underneath her breath. Still, he heard her, shaking his head with a smirk.

As he prepared himself for battle, she tried to sit up, to be able to watch.

"We meet again," he said to the minotaur, holding the bright sword up.

"What do you mean by again?"

"I battled him when I first got to camp," he answered, not helping with that explanation.

"What is camp? You know what, don't answer, focus on killing that thing," Ana told him, pointing at the arriving monster.

"Will do."

She could see the boys look harden and see him tense up, raising his sword. The minotaur ran at them at full speed, only to do something completely unexpected to the boy, but not to her.

"Wait, what?" The boy was astonished, the beast he was about to fight had just disappeared, leaving a mist of sand.

"Don't tell me that didn't happen last time you fought him?" she laughed. "Then I wonder how you actually beat him."

"Wow, I try to help you and this is how you repay me," he chuckled, heading over to the ruins of the past minotaur. "Did you do that?"

"No, at least I don't think," she replied, attempting to get up. "Don't look so shocked, it's been happening all week. Hold on, you saw it, you've fought it before, and you aren't shocked about the monster itself. I thought I was the only one!"

He laughed, offering his hand to help her up, which she gladly took. "You aren't alone. There's a bunch of us."

"At this camp of yours?" Ana responded sarcastically.

"Exactly, so let's get to it," he told her, putting his sword away in a very particular manner, which left her stunned. "Let's go."

As they began walking a comfortable silence fell between them. Ana limped slightly, worrying the boy.

"You okay to walk?" he asked, getting nearer and holding his arm out.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she told him, brushing him off. "You know, you look familiar."

"Do I? Are you sure you've ever met someone so handsome?"

"I think you mean pompous," Ana laughed, although the raven haired boy wasn't wrong. He was quite pretty, but she'd never tell him that.

"Well, I'm Percy."

Her face went white. It couldn't be. Was it actually him?

"You okay, you went a little pale, do you need to sit down?" Percy asked her, hand snaking through her waist to help her keep her balance.

Ana moved away quickly, hitting his hand away. "I'm fine. It's just, peculiar name. Like Perseus."

"That's who I was named after, mom liked his story. So now I'm left with a lifetime of people saying 'is that really your name?'" Percy laughed, throwing his head back. "Speaking of names, what's yours?"

"Ana" she responded sourly, trying not to make it too obvious in her voice.

"Ana, cool name," he said quietly. "We are nearly to camp, I'll explain everything there."

She nodded her head, too dizzy to not change her face from disgustment. Ana stopped in her tracks, holding her hand to her head.

"Hey, Ana, hey. You okay?" Percy asked, getting closer to her, only now noticing how much distance she'd put between them.

But she barely heard him, the world spinning and ears ringing.

Everything went dark, the last thing Ana saw was Percy's hand catching her as she fell.