artemis ; pjo

Planning

After the girl disappeared, everything was eerily silent.

We all looked at each other, not sure what to do. Minutes passed, and we were getting comfortable. James opened his mouth to make a suggestion, but another noise sounded somewhere else.

Behind us, hundreds of those creatures were barreling towards us, but this time they were being lead by a human. Jess was leading them with a look of pure hatred on her face.

"Um, okay, quick makeshift plan," I whispered, "Try to get them inside the building. Kill two birds with one stone."

"But what is that thing inside?" Sadie asked.

"It's a bit of a long story, and we don't have time. If we live through this, I'll give you all the details."

"Guys, let's commence the plan please," MK said, pointing at the oncoming army.

We all stood up. Once the creatures were all but on top of us, we ran into the large marble room. The dark monster (let's call it Shadow Lord until further notice, I think it's suiting) that was in the room had its eyes closed. Everyone was sure to be quiet as we crept into the shadows, looking for a hiding spot. James, Gabby, Ben, and I slipped into a large crevasse that was covered by a shadow. MK, Eric, Dan, Megan, Madi, and Sadie found a huge hole in the far corner of the room to hide in.

Jess crashed into the room first, followed by the chattering creatures. From where we were hiding, we could see the pale eyes of Shadow Lord begin to glow. Jess's body went rigid.

"What is the meaning of this?" Shadow Lord boomed, raising a hand. The Fire's flames froze. I realized that the monster was freezing the process.

"I-I The demigods c-came in he-here, Your Greatness," Jess stuttered, bending into a bow.

"I did not see the disgusting beings."

"I-I'm sorry-" Jess began, but a screech cut her off. I looked away from the conversation. A shadow creature was standing over the hole that our friends were hiding in. Shadow Lord strode over there with his large body and peered into the hole. He let out a slow laugh and more creatures came over to haul them out of the hole. Shadow Lord counted them under his breath.

"Six! Six demigods for sacrifice!" He laughed.

"Y-your Greatness. There are ten of them," Jess said.

I drew in a sharp breath.

"But I only see six." He paused. "Search the whole area! I want the scum in my hands!"

The creatures scoured the room, tearing apart marble and gold. They started at one end and tore the room apart in an orderly chaos, making their way around the room. My mind raced trying to come up with a plan. Using the only plan I could think of, I grabbed the hands of the two closest people. Without daring to talk, everyone around me grabbed hands until all four of us were connected.

I closed my eyes, concentrating hard on moonlight. My head throbbed as my necklace grew cold, but I didn't think about opening my eyes to see if it was working. Once I had a feeling in my gut that everything was good, I focused on where I wanted to go. The problem was, under the adreniline rush and stress I was having, I didn't know where I wanted to go.

"It's coming!" Gabby warned.

Because of her statement, I ended up thinking about the Shadow Lord. So where do I end up? At the damned Shadow Lord's doorstep.

My eyes tore open to the sight of complete darkness, no sign of light. Suddenly I was jerked back and into light again.

"Amanda you were just-" Gabby started, but was cut off by another piecing howl.

I looked up to see the Shadow Lord towering over me.

"You!" He boomed. "We finally meet! I finally have you!"

"M-me?" I managed. The Shadow Lord didn't hear me over his laughter. I wasn't sure why he was so overwhelmed with joy.

"After all these years of chasing your father, I get something much more precious. More valuable," He gloated.

This was the force that my father had lived in far of. This was the force that tore apart my family.

Suddenly the Shadow Lord (who was the size of a sky scraper, mind you) shrunk down to a dark mass of 6 feet. He bent down close to my face and twisted his fave into a happy expression.

"My plan just got a whole lot easier."