The Lingering

First book in Hellbringers.

Chapter 1: Punks
I

Kevin

Kevin stood up at the train station, waiting for his daily J train to school. His retro music from the '10s was blaring in his ears and it seemed like he would finally get a normal day of life. Naturally, he was wrong. But today, things were about to get a whole lot weirder. The train arrived within a few minutes, and experience had taught to wait right where the door was. He didn't notice the weird things going on around him when he stepped in. Suddenly, the train seemed to stop and go backwards. He jumped up and ran to the window in front and realized that his particular car was disconnected from the train and rolling away. Fooooooooooooood, a voice hissed. He jumped and turned around to see all the people in the car shedding their skin and turning into horribly, scaly, deformed things. Half blood food, another added. The sssscent is sssstrong with thissss one. "Whoa! What are you? What scent?" Kevin sniffed under his armpit, but the monsters started laughing. The car jolted to a stop and Kevin heard some voices outside before he passed out.

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Kevin woke up in a silver tent with a fire burning in one corner. He assumed that he had been having another one of his crazy dreams, but he wondered where he was. He got up from the cot he was lying on and stepped outside. The first thing he noticed was the tents. Dozens of silvery tents identical to his, all shining in the dark, under the moon. The second thing he noticed was that he was in a graveyard and that someone's tombstone cross had been knocked down to make room for this tent. Bad memories of graveyards began to seep into his head. Funerals, he remembered. His brother. His sister.

He was about to collapse again when a steady hand caught him. "Calm down, dude. You look like a ghost." He turned around and saw a girl, who was clearly more of a punk than he was. "Who..." he started. "Thalia. Just Thalia." Evidently her last name was something embarassing like Foch or Glasscock. "OK...why am I here?" Second order of business. "Because, you're like me." Kevin noted that they had many similarities. Somewhat long and spiky black hair. Punk clothes. '10s music related clothes. "You mean, punk?" "No, I mean you're a demigod." Kevin had heard this term in passing before. "A demigod. Yes. Of course. Because that is..."

"You'd better sit down." He did so, and braced himself. "Have you ever had that feeling that your parent, or one of them, isn't really you parent?" Had he ever! He was absolutely sure that he was not living with his birth parents and waited this confirmation. "Yes. Both of them, actually." "That's not uncommon. But the thing is, one of your parents was a Greek god." He let out a loud laugh that could've awoken even the present dead. "Very funny. Who set you up to this? Was it Aram? I know he's been out to get me recently. Her faced grimaced, and Kevin realized that she had faced this before. After a few minutes of silence, "I think you know by now that I'm not kidding." She stood up. "Get some sleep. We'll talk about more in the morning." And with that, she left.

Chapter 2:
II

Percy

Percy had had a rough day. He and Blackjack had chased a strange monster across Brooklyn and Queens. Yo boss, started Blackjack. I think our pal is landing. "That's good, Blackjack. You think you can drop me over him?" Blackjack seemed to think about this (thinking was a rare feat for him) and said ''Maybe. It's risky.'' "Risk is what we were born for. Get a little bit lower." The pegasus began a slow descent when Percy noticed the creature ramming a mortal door down. "Never mind, Blackjack. Just get me to the ground." They immediately plummeted several hundreds of feet and then caught themselves roughly ten feet off the ground. As they got lower, it became more apparent that they were in a deserted neighborhood. Percy jumped off and ordered Blackjack to leave, but be on duty. As he got closer to the house that had the beast, he heard a scream. Mortals, he thought. Just as he neared the doorway, the beast came barreling towards him. He brought his sword down as it passed and sliced it clean through the neck. It didn't dissolved. Voices started speaking in his head, and he was only able to think of one name. Carter. He regretted saying it as soon as he did. Before Carter arrived, though, a small, nerdy of 13 or 14 stepped out of the house. "Who are you? What was that thing? Why do you have a sword?" Percy realized that this was a clear sighted mortal. "I'm Percy, I don't know, because I need it." "That's a less than satisfactory explanation. You know, I think I know you from somewhere. I think I saw you in my dreams. But you were younger, 15, 16, not 30!" Percy grinned. To him, 30 was an amazing feat. To this kid, 30 was old. "30," said a familiar voice, "Even though you've saved that for 15 years, I still think you're 15." He turned and was face to face with Carter Kane. Friend? Enemy? Demigod? No, the last one was undoubtedly wrong. "Whoa, you've got one of my monsters on your hands." "I do, don't I?" It reoccurred to him that this mortal was still here. "Uh, kid, how about you go back home?" "Uh, how about no? Also, why'd you say demigod? Are you Norse or something? Is your dad Thor? Or are you Greek? Is your dad Zeus?" Percy was utterly shocked. This kid had read his mind. He seemed to realize it too. Carter cleared his throat. "Um, you can read mind?" asked Percy. "He can read minds?" poked baffled Carter. "Yes." This was not good. The last mind reading mortal was before Percy's time, but the last mind reading demigod was still at camp.