Lockdown II Prologue

Lockdown II Prologue

CPOV

"Get out of the way!" I pushed Nico di Angelo out of the street, just as a black Mercedes sped by, sending up a wave of dirty street water. Percy Jackson, muttered something from the sidewalk and raised his hands, bending the water to his command. The son of Poseidon gently lowered it back onto the road, looked around to make sure no mortals were freaking out, and promptly joined me beside Nico.

"Sorry." Nico stumbled out of the road. "I wasn't looking  Crysanthemum."

I resisted the urge to scream, "Yeah you weren't lookin'! You know, how many careless mistakes can end your freaking life?!", but I didn't. Instead, I glared at the skinny pale son of Hades and said with clenched teeth, "Don't call me  Crysanthemum."

Annabeth Chase dropped the newspaper she was holding and looked up, unaware what had just happened. "Guys, stop standing right beside the street. Someone could get hurt." We all trudged over to where she was standing and asked her for a status update.

She looked troubled, and not at all sure what to do, very unlike a daughter of Athena should. "This source...this trail of death that's going around. I don't know but it's all over the news." She handed us the newspaper. The headline read: '''Destiny of Doom and Death? '''

"That's great." Percy wiped his hands on his jeans. "Where did the death phantom monster thing strike last?" Annabeth squinted at the paper. We were all dyslexic, so of course it took us two times to read it right, three times to let it sink it and four times just to remember what we had read.

"Ellis Island." We all said at once.

"We need transportation." I said, doubtfully. "How can we get there in the matter of time that it takes, so that the phantom isn't gone by then?" We all looked at Nico, who was fiddling with his Aviator jacket. He looked up, when he realized we were all staring at him. "Huh? Oh...yeah I could probably shadow travel...but I would need help."

Percy nodded and whistled loud enough for everybody in Manhatten to hear. Almost immediately a hellhound bounded out of the shadows and dropped down for us to climb on. Nico took me, and Mrs. O'Leary gave Percy and Annabeth a ride.

We got to the house quickly. It was large, with black paint that was chipping, and about three stories. It took a long time to recover from shadow traveling. We walked into the house, without knocking. Nico stopped, when we reached the front door. "What's wrong?" Annabeth demanded. Nico turned paler than usual. "I can sense death in the area."

On that happy note, we headed inside and looked around. I flipped the old light switch on, which took a moment to flicker on. We left the door open. The inside was no more pleasant than the outside. While it was storming and wind was howling, turning gray outside, it was worse inside. There were artifacts inside, that haunted you. A skeleton sat on the kitchen counter, that was coated in dust, like it hadn't been washed in a million years. There was fuzz that looked like it came from the minatour littered all over the ground. A gorgons head, was set upon the coach, and a minatours thorn was embedded above the fireplace, which was cold and black. The entire place, seemed haunted and full of death. There were jars, with tinted green inside, assuming there was greek fire there once.

Percy held up his sword in the dark. "Guys...I have a bad feeling. Look." He pointed to bones in the corner of the room. There was a orange shred of cloth lying beside it, stained with blood. Annabeth drew in a sharp breath. "Is that...?"

Nico picked it up. "A T-Shirt from Camp Half-Blood."

All the sudden, all the doors slammed shut and the lights flickered off. "It's a trap."