The Experiment

Chapter 5

I woke up to growling and scratching at the door. My heart beat faster. I whispered to River furiously.

  He sat up and rubbed the drowsiness out of his eyes. "Whaaa?" He muttered, his speech slurred like a drunk man.

    He heard the scratching and immediately jumped to attention. "I guess I'll go see who it is."

   River slowly maneuvered over to the front door. He stretched up and looked through the peep hole.

   "Oh crap, hell hounds," he whispered, turning to me and backing away from the oncoming threat.

    "What's a hell hound?" I asked nervously. I thought I heard of them in stories, but I wasn't sure.

   "One of Hades's monsters. They are from the underworld. I've only ever met one friendly one, and that one isn't her," River warned.

The monster started banging on the door, in seconds it would burst open.

"Let's get out of here!" I said. I grabbed my kitchen knife, and then we raced to the window. Since we were on the first floor, escape through the window would be easy.

River threw the window open and dashed out, me bringing up the rear. Unfortunately, at that moment, the hell hound managed to pry the door open.

It came bounding through the room, heading straight for us. I gave myself one final shove, before landing in the grass on my feet. I was honestly surprised that I stuck the landing, I'm usually not very graceful.

   Right as I hit the ground, the beast came rushing out the window. River pulled me out of the way, then we kept running.

    The hell bound looked sort of like a dog. A giant, black, murderous dog. Even if it was shrunken several feet, it would still be terrifying. It's eyes were dark black. They looked like they were swimming with poor lost souls. Kill was evident in them. It's teeth were log and jagged, perfect for ripping demigods to pieces.

   "Dammit," I muttered. I held the knife in my hand, but as I ran, it nicked my my thigh. The exclamation was out of pain.

    River took it out of my hand, and we continued running. The hell hound was gaining on us.

   Suddenly, it pounced. It was headed right for River's back. Quick as a flash, he sidestepped out of the way, then stabbed the beast in mid air.

"Holy crap!" I screeched, "Is it dead?"

River shook his head. "Not yet. One stab doesn't bring hell hounds down."

We ran in silence for a second. I didn't know if it was still chasing us or if it had left. I hated not knowing. I had to look behind me.

It was like River could sense that. "Don't do it," he muttered.

"I have to," I whispered urgently. "No!" River argued.

Guess what, I did it anyways. I threw a quick glance over my shoulder. The monster was right behind me. He made eye contact with me, then jumped.

I screamed and tried to turn around so I could run faster, but clumsy me, ended up tripping over a rock and face planting. I groaned as my face crashed against the hard ground.

The hell hound would have landed right on my back and head, if it were not for River's cat-like reflexes. He stabbed it again, then again. Soon, only its dead body flopped onto me.

I grunted again. "Thanks River."

"No problem," he said, pulling me out from under the monster by my arm.

I dusted of my shoulders, then we kept going, this time walking, a pace I liked much more.

We walked in silence for about half an hour. Then we stopped at a small cafe for a brunch. We ordered bagels to go, and were out in record time. The confined space was making River nervous.

    I think it was around two when we found them. Our next adventure on our whole trip of adventures, most of them not good and unwelcome.

   I was, however, very grateful for this particular adventure.

  Anyways, we were walking along when we came across a tree. Which, I know isn't very unusual, but it wasn't the tree itself, it is who had climbed the tree.

   We were just underneath the tree's branches, when a child fell out of the tree and landed right on top of me. Not the best meeting, I know.

    We both fell to the ground, her on top of me.

"Oops! I'm sorry," she squeaked. She rolled off of me and landed gracefully on her feet.

The girl was about eight, with blonde, straggly hair and bright blue eyes. She was cute, but she looked homeless, with unbridled hair, over worn clothes, and dirt smudges on her face.

I heard a boy yell for the girl. "Kacey?!"

"Down here!" She yelled back up to him, evidently he was still up in the tree.

Seconds later, a boy dropped down beside her. He had brown hair and deep brown eyes that you could lose yourself in. Needless to say, he was hot.

   "Are you okay Kacey?" The boy asked. The girl nodded, without taking her eyes off of us.

   "Are you homeless?" I asked, without being able to stop myself.

   "Nope. Are you?" The little girl said.

  "No. I'm Electra Boone," I said, holding out my hand.

   "Kacey Carter. I'm eight," the little girl said.

    "I'm Cole Anderson, fifteen," the boy said.

    "I'm River," River said. Then Kacey asked how old I was, and I gave her my answer, fourteen.

    River looked focused, then hesitant, then determined. "Demigods, right?" He asked.

   Cole's eyes widened in shock. "Uh, yeah," he said after a moment.

    "Do you have a satyr with you?"

   "We did, for about a day. He's dead. It's just us now. We're trying to get to camp," Cole said.

    "Okay. You can come with us," I said.

    Cole looked grateful. "Thanks. Do you guys know anything about kids?" He asked, looking over at Kacey discreetly. Kacey shot us a sweet smile.