Moments: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

I - Erica

Falling was scary. In fact, it was Erica's number one fear. Falling through time, however, was much different than actual falling, because your life literally flashes before your eyes. You fall through a sort of time vortex and you never know where you might end up.

As she landed, she cut her head on something sharp. She opened her eyes to see what it was, but she was immediately blinded by the bright lights of a New York City skyline at night. Erica reached her hand up and lightly touched her forehead, only to pull it away dripping with blood. She reached for her dagger so she could use the reflective surface to check out the injury, but she found it to be missing.

She sighed and checked her watch - 11:36 pm. "We should get going, find somewhere to stay for now," Erica said aloud to her friends, but she soon realized that she was speaking to herself.

"Girls?" she called. "Holly? Gemma?" No reply. Erica frantically looked around for her dagger, which doubled as a recording device through time, but there was a catch. It could only replay moments that its blade had seen. Maybe it could help her find her friends.

As she searched, her head pounded and dripped blood onto the sand. Wait a minute, sand? "Where am I?" she thought aloud, not expecting a reply.

"Long Island Sound," a boy's voice said from behind her. She turned around too quickly, becoming dizzy and blurring her vision. Before she could swoon enough to hit the sand, however, the boy caught her head. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Erica," she replied, "Erica Peyton."

"Erica," he repeated to himself, letting it sink in.

"Well?" Erica said. When the boy didn't reply, she added, "do you have a name?" she asked, again looking around her. Her vision had cleared for the most part. She looked up, noticing the stars and immediately picking out the most distinctive constellations. Gemma had taught her how to do that, how to connect the stars so that they were part of a larger whole, like a masterpiece in the sky.

"Of course I have a name," the boy responded, "but it's nothing that you need to know right now."

Erica switched her gaze from the starry sky into the sea green color of the boy's eyes. His eyes were ever-changing, as if his emotions weren't really stable. There was definitely something nervous or scared hidden in them, but he was kind all the same.

"Where are you from?" the boy asked. "And how did you get here?"

Erica opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. This boy would be terrified if she told him the truth, so she quickly made up a lie. "My dog ran away," she explained, "and I was looking for him." A dog who ran away in the middle of New York City at night, on the beach? Yeah, right. Only an idiot would believe that.

Sadly, the boy wasn't an idiot. "You're lying. I saw you fall out of the sky." As Erica became flustered and tried to think of a logical explanation why she would be falling out of the sky and onto a beach in the middle of the night, the boy interrupted her thoughts. "Never mind, we can talk about that later. But I think right now we need to get you to the infirmary. The cut in your head is pretty deep."

The boy lifted her up and started to walk along the beach. An infirmary? On the beach? Whatever, Erica was barely surprised anyway, she'd been there for less than five minutes and was already totally confused.

She looked up at the boy, who was focused straight ahead. He had messy black hair that fell into his eyes a little bit. He appeared to be on the shorter side for a boy his age- maybe sixteen or seventeen? However, Erica was in his arms and not standing, so she couldn't compare their heights. She made a mental note to check on this later.

"This is the moment of truth," the boy stated. He stopped walking and gently set Erica down, but gave her his arm for support. "Do you see that little indent in the ground right there?" Erica nodded. "If you can walk past it, then you're safe. If not, then we'll have to figure something else out. Okay?" Erica nodded again and started to walk forward.

She stopped right before the little indent. What if she couldn't walk past it? Who even was this kid? What was beyond this line that she might never get to see? She took a deep breath, and stepped over the line.

She looked up at the boy, who was smiling. "Erica, you did it!" He scooped her back up so she wouldn't have to walk anymore, and began walking yet again.

He was still smiling, she noticed, and she wondered why. Why was it so important that she could cross a line that was drawn in the sand? This boy was strange, and certainly not like her. What was she to tell him when he asked again about her falling from the sky?

The boy stopped walking again, and set her down. She grabbed his shoulder for support, and the two of them walked slowly across what looked like a summer camp, with several cabins and a few kids her age or maybe slightly younger outside giggling with their friends or sitting on the cabin steps reading a book. The summer air smelled of strawberries.

The boy led Erica to a building slightly bigger than the cabins, with a rather large sign above the door which read "INFIRMARY". The boy helped her up the stairs, and held the door open for her. He brought her to a bed which she climbed onto and sat down. The boy left briefly but came back with what looked like ambrosia. Wait a minute, ambrosia? Why would this mortal summer camp have ambrosia?

Erica shrugged it off, although she felt a pit in her stomach. Something was wrong, very wrong, and she didn't belong here. However, her head was throbbing in pain so she took the ambrosia and savored the flavor of her Aunt Kerry's apple pie.

Her head immediately felt better, but there was still blood all over her face. The boy was already on it, and he returned with a wet washcloth and wiped her face clean.

Erica smiled at the boy, and he smiled back. "I'm glad you're here, Erica," he said. "And welcome to Camp Half Blood."