Chapter 1: Greek gods are real?

Hi, my name is Rose Morgan Evergreen. Look, I honestly don't have a lot of time to write this down, but you need to hear this. If you ever come into possession of this book, for the love of all that is holy, burn it. Go back to whatever you were doing and pretend as if nothing has happened.

But if you still want to keep reading, then go ahead. Be my guest.

But as you find your life flashing before your eyes, remember:

You were warned.

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"Hurry up, you brat!" Marianne snapped.

I rolled my eyes as we continued walking the littered streets of Long Island. Apparently, my sister didn't know what taking a break was. It seemed like we'd been walking for an eon though in reality, it'd barely been an hour.

Finally, we stopped. But it wasn't at someplace where we could rest. We were at a dumpster. Marianne glared at me as I muttered some choice words and jumped in. Yeah I know what you're thinking, what in the world are two strange people doing jumping into a dumpster?

Well I can partly agree with you. Marianne is quite strange. You see, she's my half-sister. Ever since my birth, we've had a pretty complicated relationship: She either hated me or loved me. She also wanted to be a cop her whole life, just like my dad was. Nowadays, she hates me, because she thinks I killed our dad.

Yeah, right. I could hardly kill a cricket, let alone a full-trained cop who also happened to be to my late father.

Anyways, when you live on the streets, dumpsters are basically free food. Disgusting, but edible. After four years of living on the streets, diving in a dumpster is as good as it gets - if it's food or used to be food, you take it.

The dumpster had a banana peel, some thrown out fries, and...score! A thrown out Big Mac! The issue? Marianne gets first dibs, but for her, it's more like all dibs. She instantly dived for the Big Mac and stuffed it in her mouth, as if she hadn't eaten in days (which, in fairness, we hadn't).

I was able to negotiate the fries and the banana peel. As we relocated to a spot further from the dumpster (mostly because of the wretched smell), we sat down and ate our meals. That's when we heard clompy footsteps behind us and heavy panting.

A woman, maybe in her late thirties or forties, jogged past us and then suddenly stopped. The woman was wearing a navy blue, Nike T-shirt with the logo drawn in a gold color. She was also wearing black jogging shorts, dark blue tennis shoes, and white earbuds hooked up to a phone she carried in her pocket. She was sweating so hard that it looked like she had run through a waterfall a good few times over, her long blonde hair gleaming with sweat and sweat dripping onto the cracked sidewalk.

"Hey, you two look pretty hungry. Do you need some food?" she asked.

"Yeah, proper food sounds great," Marianne answered, a smile on her face. Evil smile, might I say. One that definitely suggested that the food was all hers, though considering her body mass, that was implied.

The jogger smiled back at her and beckoned for us to follow her. Something told me that we probably shouldn't have followed her, but at the time, it seemed like the best choice. As she led us across town, he began asking us some questions.

"Where are you kids from?"

"Who are your parents?"

"What are your names?"

Marianne was glad to answer every single one, not suspecting the slightest hint that the woman might be a stalker. Considering how personal the questions were, I wouldn't have been surprised if she asked for our social security numbers.

She led us through a couple of streets and neighborhoods, giving me a sense of paranoia. I was already suspicious of this whole ordeal, but we'd been walking for a while now and at this point, Marianne was starting to get annoyed, moaning and complaining about when we would get food and asking every two seconds if we were there yet. Though it sounds outlandish, I thought that the woman was luring us to her house so she could lock us in her basement. Just a thought though.

She kept reassuring us we were getting close until she stopped us at an abandoned factory of sorts. It was made up of several metal buildings, most of which were covered with disgusting stains and graffiti. In the front yard, garbage cans were knocked over and trash was spread out across the lawn.

As we entered one of the metal buildings, I couldn't help but feel anxious. There didn't seem to be any food here, but Marianne thought otherwise and kept following the woman, even though I kept trying to warn her that something was wrong. Her hunger was immense. If Marianne liked eating human flesh, then I guarantee you I'd be sitting in her belly. That extremely unlikely scenario just serves to prove how famished she was.

The inside of the building was completely empty, except for some storage boxes and empty shelves that seemed to go on forever.

The woman turned toward us and flashed her pearly white teeth. "Now here's your food."

Marianne rubbed her large belly. "Where is it then?"

The woman bared her teeth again, except this time, they weren't the nice pearly white teeth I had seen before. Her teeth grew into large yellow fangs and her blonde hair suddenly burst into flames. Her eyes were now a creepy red, capable of killing even the cruelest person. Large feathery wings grew out of her back and her legs changed, one metallic and the other...donkey?

"Correction: my food," she hissed.

She dashed at Marianne and bit into her shoulder, sucking her dry like a vampire. I stared in horror as Marianne crumpled to the ground, her body limp. I felt paralyzed, overwhelmed with fear.

She turned towards me, her fangs covered in red blood. "Your turn."

She flew towards me as if she were an eagle ready to snatch its prey, a comparison that wasn't too far-fetched from what was occurring now. As she opened her mouth, coming in for the kill, I screamed in terror.

Purple energy radiated off of my body as the windows around me shattered. Boxes flew off the ground and the empty shelves fell over.

The woman looked in horror as she turned to dust by a wave of purple energy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do much after that as I passed out cold on the floor.

When I woke up, two teens around my age were looking down at me with curious looks on their faces.

"W..what just happened..-who are you two?"

"Well... I'm Amethyst and this is my twin brother Kai," said one of them.

The teen was a girl with an Odango hairstyle, her blonde hair wrapped into two buns with large strands of hair falling into pigtails. She was wearing blue cheetah-print glasses with a long-sleeved, white lace T-shirt along with baggy jeans and worn-out sneakers.

"Older twin, mind you," said Kai, the other teen. He had short, combed over brown hair and deep brown eyes. He had light tan skin, and was wearing a red jacket that said "Camp Half-Blood". He wore black sports leggings and sneakers.

"Wait, where am I? Where is my sister?" I cried panickedly. Marianne and I never really got along but she was all that I had. I couldn't bear to lose her.

Kai and Amethyst glanced at each other with grim faces.

"The dead body on the floor of the factory place?" Kai asked. "If that's your sister, then she's...gone."

"Kai, really?" Amethyst chided. "I'm so sorry-"

But I wasn't listening. I started breaking down, overwhelmed with grief. First my dad and now my sister, both dead.

I sat there sobbing for a while as the twins stared at each other dejectedly.

When I finally stopped crying, which probably seemed like an eternity to the twins, Kai said, "Look, I'm sorry for your loss and everything, but we think we know what happened to your sister and who that person was. Amethyst?"

"We believe you were attacked by an empousa, a-"

"Bloodsucking vampire thing." Kai interrupted.

Amethyst nodded.

I looked at them with pure confusion. What in the world were they talking about? They seemed to read my expression.

"Great, another person we need to explain this to. Good luck, sissy." Kai said, stepping away from Amethyst and me.

"Explain? What the heck are you two talking about?" I angrily asked. It sounded like these two were just making up stories to throw me off. I'd never been so confused in my whole life.

"Please don't be angry," Amethyst begged, making a tense expression. "Look, this is gonna sound hard to believe, but there is a whole different reality that mortals don't know about. Have you ever heard of Greek mythology or any mythology of that sort?"

I shook my head. Why did she use the word "mortals"? Since when did anybody use that word?

Kai turned towards us. "Figures. Basically no mortal ever reads Greek mythology unless they're a nerd."

"Look, in Greek mythology, there is quote on quote "fictional" gods and creatures." she said, making air quotation symbols behind her ears.

"Like Zeus?" I asked.

"Yes, like Zeus. Now in this world, those gods and creatures actually exist. Mortals don't know about this world because of a magical force called the Mist." Amethyst explained.

"That's crazy. But it would explain how I saw a vampire sucking my sister…" My voice broke.

After clearing my throat, I realized something. "Wait, if I'm a mortal, how did I see that empousa thing?"

"That's the thing me and Kai are trying to figure out. We heard a large sound coming from the factory and we followed, out of curiosity. We saw dust, the sign of a monster fading, and boxes thrown around the room. We think that maybe you're a demigod. Half-human, half-god."

Kai popped in between us. "Yeah, so long story short: you're either a mortal who had a very unfortunate run-in with a monster or you're a daughter of some god."

I looked at them, confused more now than ever. "I might be the daughter of a god?"

"Well, that is essentially what I said, but yes. For example, Amethyst and I are children of Apollo," Kai said.

"Apollo is the god of the sun, healing, music, archery, plague, light, the list goes on. The point is, you slew the empousa, a feat mortals likely couldn't accomplish on their own," Amethyst continued.

"So, what am I supposed to do now? I mean, if you guys are right and I am a demigod, where am I supposed to go?" I questioned.

Both siblings looked at each other.

"Well, the only place you can go if my theory proves true: Camp Half-Blood," Amethyst answered.