The Forgotten Hero (Book 1)

Chapter 4

I stared in the mirror of my dorm room. I was all dressed, my makeup done by one of my roomates. I grabbed the curling iron, gently curling individual ringlets of hair, pinning up the front of it. I hadn't seen Kelli in a couple of days. I wanted everything to be special for the dance, so when she suggested making it more special by not seeing each other, I was 100% on board.

I smiled at my reflection, slipping on heels, abd rushing out the door. I wanted to surprise Kelli by coming a little early.

I knocked on her door, frowning when there was no answer. I gently opened the door, seeing a giant spray of red on the sheets, and all over the carpet. I screamed, Kelli's teeth bared as she looked at me. I grabbed a bronze lamp off the table and when she charged at me, I smashed the lamp into her head, over and over. Eventually, she stopped moving. I got one look at her bruised, busted up face, before she exploded into shiny gold powder. I stared at her in horror, and bolted.

When I woke up, we were hurtling through the sky. I tried to scream, but my voice was caught in my throat. I knew it was a bad idea to be flying. Sure, we had to beware the earth and all that jazz, but the sky was bad.

An arm wrapped around my waist and I stopped falling. I opened my eyes, staring at Jason. I wrapped my arms around him, tighter than I needed to, trying not to think about how we were still hovering in the sky.

"We have to get Leo and Piper." He told me. "It's going to get rough."

I nodded, closing my eyes again as we bounced through the air. I felt us crash into another person and Piper's voice filled the air with calls of, "we have to get Leo."

Then, in an instant, we crashed into a wiggling body.

"Dude, stop squirming. It's me." Jason's voice seemed strained.

Despite this, Leo kept squirming. "We have to save Festus."

In that moment, as if the world was against us, a giant explosion came from the ground. I didn't see it-- my eyes were firmly shut--but I could hear the noise loudly. Somehow it wasn't loud enough to quiet Leo's distraught yells. I felt a surge of sadness.

Jason was really struggling to keep us all in the air. Instead of floating peacefully to the ground, we dropped down a giant, invisible flight of stairs. We kept this falling motion for a couple of hundred feet, before we all dropped like flies, through the roof of an abandoned warehouse.

Breaking through a metal roof is some tough shit to do, and it hurts like hell. I looked up from the place where I landed, staring at the gaping holes in the ceiling, all shaped like a starburst artifact on a CT scan.

I attempted to sit up, a shooting pain in my side making me gasp. I ignored the sharp pains, standing up and walking over to Jason and Leo. They were sprawled on the floor, the smaller boy on the bottom of the pile.

"Where's Piper?" I asked.

A measley, "here," was called out, and I rushed over.

My eyes immediately turned to her ankle. "Oh no." I gasped. It was turned in a completely wrong direction. She must have landed on her feet.

"Are you alri--" Leo cringed. "No, you are not."

"Thanks for the reassurance." She grit her teeth.

"Do either of you know first aid?" Leo added helpfully.

I shook my head, but thankfully, Jason nodded. He knelt by Piper's foot. "Got any first aid supplies?"

I looked through the bag that Annabeth had packed me. There was some water, a couple of granola bars, some money and what looked like crushed up lemon squares.

"What about that food they fed you at the camp? Rambo food?" Leo muttered, handing Jason some tape and gauze that seemed to appear from an empty tool belt.

"Ambrosia, dummy." Piper had her eyes squeezed tight.

I pulled out the bag of lemon squares. "This?"

Jason nodded, feeding Piper a small piece. "More." She asked.

"Annabeth said too much will burn you up." Jason frowned. " We need to set your foot."

I stayed back as Jason set Piper's foot. I was glad, however, seeing as she promptly punched Leo in the arm. He was screaming as much, if not more, than her.

I handed her one of the water bottles from my bag. The color was slowly returning to her face. "Where are we?" I muttered, ignoring the pain in my side as I looked around the building.

"Closed car plant." Leo responded. "I'm guessing we crash landed in Detroit."

"It's about ¾ of the way from Chicago." Jason added.

"This place gives me the creeps." I muttered again.

"I'm going to go look for Festus. The sooner we get out of here, the better." Leo offered.

"I don't like the idea of splitting up." Jason murmured.

"While he goes, we can explore the warehouse." I turned to Jason.

He pursed his lips. "Alright."

Leo floundered off to look for Festus, leaving me, Piper and Jason. "We're going to explore. If we're not back in five minutes--"

"Panic?" Piper guessed, a cheeky smirk on her face. She was much prettier without the magic makeup and hair. "If anyone shows up, I'll skewer them."

"Glad you're back to normal." Jason grinned. "The make up was more intimidating than the dagger."

"Shut it, Sparky." She grinned.

"Sparky?" Jason looked offended. And he looked pretty okay while doing so.

"Yeah, alright Clarke Kent, let's get going. We don't have all day." I countered, heading down the stairs.

Everything about the warehouse gave me the creeps. The fact that it was almost completely pitch black wasn't helping.

Engine blocks hung from the ceiling precariously. Trucks littered the floor, and barrels of oil were lined up against the walls.

I stood close to Jason, freaked out by the experience.

A scraping noise sounded behind us, I squeaked, and grabbed Jason's hand. He eyed me, but didn't let go. "We're going to be fine." He whispered.

"This whole place seems wrong. I just want to get out." I shuddered.

All of a sudden, before I could further vocalize my concern, one looming eye appeared and my consciousness was ripped from me.