Red Skies at Morning | Clarisse La Rue x OC | Percy Jackson AU

I Get American Citizenship from a Goat

While she was out of sight, I slipped behind the counter and snatched a few bottles of painkillers. Then I grabbed as much gauze, bandages, and iodine as I could fit in my bag from various shelves. I was just about to leave when my conscience caught up to me and I took a second to grab a wad of stolen cash from my bag and leave it on the counter before running out of the store.

I wasn't sure if it was enough to actually pay for what I'd taken, but I hoped it would at least be seen as an act of good faith.

After that incident, I decided that I'd be rushing a little less from one place to another. That meant being more careful when stealing cash so I wouldn't have to run from angry adults and older kids, as well as prioritizing eating proper meals over catching a train or bus. That way I could save my energy for running from monsters when needed.

Not to mention, the point of my cross-country trek was to stay one step ahead of the monsters on my trail and never be in one place for too long. I didn't actually care about the destination, so there was no reason for me to rush.

The whole point of aiming for this supposed camp was to situation feel a little less hopeless. I didn't really think I was going to make it anyway, I had no idea how I was going to cross the American border. So slowing my pace was a good thing, the longer I had to figure it out or die trying, the better.

But by an incredible stroke of luck, I didn't have to die trying.

I was in Ontario by late August and the nights were getting colder and colder. I had to find somewhere indoors to sleep in case the snow decided to come early, so I broke into an empty dorm room at a French boarding school. I'd been there for just over two weeks when I got a visitor.

I was eating a tuna melt sandwich I'd bought from one of the school's troublemakers when I heard a knock at the door. I got up and grabbed my bat, just in case. I never knew when one of the few students who knew I was here and didn't speak French would either rat me out or try to blackmail me.

I peeked through the peephole in the door and saw a guy who I guessed was in his twenties wearing a baseball cap and an aviator jacket.

At first, I thought that he might be part of the school security. He was saying some stuff in French until he paused and started speaking English.

"Wait, say that again. I, uh, didn't hear you the first time?" I asked as I slightly cracked open the door, gripping my bat out of his line of sight.

Something about him seemed off. He was visibly uncomfortable talking to me and my gut was screaming that he wasn't human, but no monster had ever tried calmly approaching me like this before.

Sure, there was that one that had come to my door, all those months ago, but it had been scratching and banging. Even the few of the more humanoid ones that could talk usually only threw insults or taunts while trying to kill me, or at most only kept up a horrible attempt at acting human for a few seconds before lunging at me. Never had one initiated an actual conversation without drooling a puddle on the floor.

Still, the longer I looked up at the stranger, the more suspicious I grew.

"You're a new student, eh?" He repeated in a weird, forced accent. "No one was in this dorm a month ago. But I haven't seen you in any classes, either... Eh."

I raised an unimpressed brow while I quietly leaned my bat against the door and reached for the whistle in my pocket.

By this point I was completely convinced something was up, not to mention he hadn't clarified who he was or why he was there, which was incredibly weird since I was fairly sure this was a middle school and he was in his late teens at the youngest.