Falling Farther

Three

"I don't even know your name! Ugh, can you explain ANYTHING?!" I gasp as he stops in front of my New York City apartment.

"My name is Lucas, I'll be your long island tour guide today, as long as you don't get violently bludgeoned to death!" He says in a fake cheerful voice.

"Alll-righty then," I say under my breath.

"Go get your stuff. I'll be waiting." He says, crossing his arms.

I run inside and grab a few items from my shelves, my scarce overland clothes, and my bathroom stuff before saying goodbye to my sister.

"Where are you going Gregor?" She asks innocently as I retreat to the doorway. My mom is still in the underland and my father is at work, so I have no one else to bid farewell.

"Honestly, I don't know," I says truthfully. I pace back and forth in the elevator, then get off at the lobby. There I see a few cheerleaders looking at me suspiciously. As I start to head towards the exit, they begin to walk towards me, their eyes strangely light.

"Hello Gregor," the leader says in a condescending tone of voice. "Why don't you talk with us for a while?"

"Oh sorry, I've got to go, but maybe some other time-" I am cut off by the teenager abruptly grabbing my arm.

"No, I think you can find time," she says, her eyes glowing red. I start backing up, but her grip is uncomfortably tight. I blink a few times, not sure if I'm seeing her right. Her friends look the same, eyes red and wings beginning to sprout from their backs. They form a circle around me, and I make futile efforts towards the door.

They lean in, and I put my hand on my belt, ready to pull me sword on these strange creatures. "Oh, no, lets not do that," she exclaims, reaching for my hand with her claw-like nails. As soon as she does this, I pull it out of its sheath, making her temporarily unnerved and forcing her to let go of my arm.

"Don't make me use this," I say, attempting to warn them before they get sliced.

"How does he have that, that metal!" One of the creatures on the side whisper-yells to the leader.

"I don't know any more than you do!" She hisses back. I draw my blade down through the hand of one of them, and she screeches as it hits her bone.

The leader brings her claws down on my arms, drawing blood and making me wince. I am no stranger to claw wounds. I pull my sword over and pull my dagger from my other side, and soon we are dueling one on one. Her sidekicks are wounded, and she is too, but she will not surrender.

As I party a blow, she hisses in my ear, "You are no graecae." I stumble back. I am perplexed as to how I know what she said. I am no Greek? I mean, what in the actually heck?

I knew I shouldn't have let my guard down. "Now, where to start?" She has me pinned, and I don't think I can recover. Just then, Lucas casually glances around, and sighs.

"Little help here?!" I gasp as the creature casually rakes her claws over my chest. Lucas ran over and kicks the leader in the back. Now, I didn't think this would even do anything, but the creature buckled, and her back was clearly broken. As she died, her body began to shake, and Lucas grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the building.

"What are you doing?" I ask as he pulls me farther away.

"She's about to blow up. Do you really want to be there when that happens?" He says with a snort.

"Dude, my little sister's on the fifth floor!" I yell as a large boom echoes from the apartments.

"She should be fine, she's up high!" Lucas yells over the noise.

As we duck into a small bakery, I have a question for him that I think he can answer. "Listen, that creature, whatever it was, it told me something that I didn't understand."

"Oh? What?"

"It said I was not a graecae."

"Oh dear." Lucas runs his hands through his hair before sighing. "Oh dear."

"What?"

"I actually didn't think they were around anymore, people like you."

"Excuse me?"

"You are not a Greek, but you're a demigod. So what are you?" It sounded like a puzzle Lizzie would enjoy solving.

"I don't know, that's why I asked."

Lucas sighs, and says three words that seemed to complicate his life more than he would have liked. "You're a Roman."