The Experiment

Chapter 4

"Only three hours away. Three hours until safety. Just a three hour bus ride. Much longer if we walk," River mumbled, still pretty much dragging me along.

I was in shock. I couldn't begin to comprehend what had happened. A thing had flown through my window, chased River and I out of my apartment, attacked him, then I killed it. But, what was the thing?

It was some kind of monster. A monster, right out of a story book. They aren't a supposed to exist. But, then the lines between real and fake were beyond blurred.

"What happened?" I asked, looking around wildly. "I'll explain later. Let's just move now."

We speed walked all the way to the bus stop, then finally sat down on the bench. There was no one around us, as we waited for the six o' clock bus to arrive. It was 5:45, so we still had fifteen minutes to kill.

"Tell me what's going on," I commanded River. "Fine, but quietly," River whispered harshly.

I nodded and inches closer, so he could talk quieted, and I could still hear him.

"Remember the first time we met?" He asked. "Of course I do. That was only a few months ago," I answered, not understanding why that was important to being attacked by a monster.

"Well, during our first conversation, I asked if you liked Greek Mythology. I wasn't asking it just to make conversation. It's not just myths, they're real. We got attacked by a fury, a Greek Mythological monster," River said.

"No. Nope, you're insane. You are completely insane," I said, standing up, ready to walk away from the madness.

River grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to a sitting position. "No, Electra, I'm serious."

"What?" Is all I could say. He could not be serious. This could not be happening.

"It's all real. All the gods, the monsters, everything is real. You have to believe me. Think about it, it makes sense."

I did what he said. I thought about it, and you know what? It did make sense.

The whole lightning thing. Zeus. Breathing underwater. Poseidon. Regrowing the flowers. Demeter. Everything lines up. But, why me? Why did I have these things happen?

"Electra, you're a demigod. I don't know who your godly parent is, but we'll find out soon. We just have to get to camp," River said, raising his eyebrow, as if to ask if I agree.

"Okay, how do we get there? And what kind of camp?" I asked.

Then the bus pulled up, and we darted inside. We took seats in the back, then I waited for him to answer my questions.

"We take this bus ride for an hour, then we walk or take a taxi the rest. I don't want to risk taking another bus. Bad things have been known to happen on buses, and I hate them," River explained, looking around nervously.

The bus started moving forward. I looked around. There were few people, just a few old ladies and some creepy bearded men. One of the men said that I could sit next to him, but he had a perverted look in his eye. He chewed tobacco and occasionally spit the dark liquid onto the bus floor. I not so politely declined.

River was on edge the whole time, as if waiting for something bad to happen. At first, I followed his lead and scanned the bus repeatedly, but soon I tired of that and resorted to staring out the window. An hour later, the bus pulled up to our stop. River could not have been more relieved. He sighed and some color returned to his face. He took a deep breath, closed, then reopened his eyes, then we both stood up.

We exited the bus. "Okay, we can make it. That bus ride was good, as long as there are no more attacks, we can make it by tomorrow," River said, reassuring himself more than me.

It was cool outside. Since it was June, it was still over 65, but it wasn't sweltering or overly humid. It was just past eight, so the sky was almost very dark. We started walking. Even though I was tired, thirsty, needed to pee, and was still confused, I didn't complain, as we left the company of the creepy, tobacco chewing, perverted man and his equally freaky friends.  

We walked for around half an hour, before River decided to call it a night. We found a hotel. It was a struggle to get a room, because apparently most people won't let two runaway-looking fifteen year olds, paying with cash money that easily could have been stolen, rent a room. However, I looked at her hard and asked again, and as if she were under a spell, the woman took our money and handed me a key. River's eyes widened at the exchange, but he swallowed hard and didn't say anything about it. I wondered if he knew something that I didn't once again.

Our hotel room was normal. It had two queen size beds in it, a teeny fridge with three overly expensive waters that didn't come with the room in it, a TV with crappy channels, and a small disgusting bathroom that I wouldn't want to go anywhere near, under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, these were the complete opposite of what I would call normal circumstances.

River and I ate some vending machine garbage, then promptly went to bed. I thought I would have trouble sleeping, but I had no problem at all drifting off. Unfortunately, after sleep came is when the nightmares arrived. They were freaky as hell, man.

In my first one, a bunch of giant people were arguing over which was to kill me. However, there was one man in a dark suit that wanted to keep me alive. I was liking him at the moment. He seemed secluded from the others, like his opinion didn't matter nearly as much as the other's did. Of course, with my luck, the only one that wants to keep me alive, is the guy that doesn't matter. The guy on the outside.

In my next one, there was fighting. People fighting people, people fighting monsters, people fighting big people, big people fighting monsters, and every other combination. Things dropped dead everywhere. Everyone was desperate to survive and protect their cause. Everyone wanted to win, of course. 

The next nightmare I couldn't even describe. It was just flashes of monsters, of my past, of River, of buildings, of strawberry fields, just random things. I woke up, at six, wide awake, and not going back to sleep.