Percy Jackson and the New Great Prophecy (fanfiction)

Chapter 1

WE MEET OUR ANONYMOUS TWINS

-Talise-

We were baking when the door smashed open. It was a very rude entry. Who smashes doors open when you can just frickin' knock? I clutched the spatula in front of me in hope of defending me and Maria from...Oh. My. God. Looming in our doorway were two of the most horrendous beasts I had ever seen. Or imagined. They were gigantuous and hairy, with a bull's head. Minotaur. My memory whispered, dancing out of reach when I tried to remember how I knew that. They charged. Maria jerked out of her shocked paralysis and screamed, 'The attic!' The attic was the furthest away from the lounge and kitchen. Why would she want to go there? Nevertheless, I followed her up, too terrified to argue. The slanted ceiling nearly smacked my head off as I climbed through the secret hatch. They wouldn't find us for a while. Unless they tore down the house, of course. Which they probably would, considering how they announced their entry. Maria was crouching over something black in the corner, and I gasped when I beheld the pile of weapons shimmering black and gold. When I say pile, I mean just 2 weapons. A bow and a sword. I lunged immediately for the sleek long bow, adorned with gold and bronze swirls. Where are the arrows and quiver? What about the string? Maria had grabbed the sword, one and a half metre long, with a bronze hilt and a silver cross piece and tiny silver bones wrapping around the base of the blade. The sword shimmered menacingly, black as night and radiating a chill that had nothing to do with the cold. It was the kind that reminded you of your worst memories. The ground shook. Those idiotic monsters were heading up to the attic. WHERE WE WERE! I panicked. And reached for an arrow, nocking and aiming before I realized the string and quiver full of arrows had not been there a second ago. I pulled the string taut and hoped the archery lessons I took would pay off. Otherwise, I was total dead meat. The arrow hit true, right in Mr. Stupid's face. Or Mr. Idiot. I couldn't really tell them apart. Maria was slashing blindly at Mr. Idiot/Stupid, and I murmured under my breath, 'Don't kill me too.' 'Yeah, I'll try not to. It's hard!' she muttered back. I struck one last arrow before the attic was full of two 14 year old girls...and two identical piles of dust? 'Ew!' was all I could get out past the fear choking me. 'Let's go downstairs.' suggested Maria, and we both stumbled out of the attic, covered in monster dust. 'Since when did your attic house weapons?' I asked her hysterically. 'Since about two seconds ago.' She replied grimly, and crashed on the couch. 'Don't do that! We don't want to explain to your parents that two monsters came into this house!' She stared at me, then to the trashed couch. 'I doubt my parents would even notice the mess. They don't really pay attention to anything, really.' 'Still. We don't want more of this. Get up, we need to -' I was cut off by a clinking of keys. Oh no! Her parents were home! 'Honeypies! We're home!' Maria's adoptive mother (actually my aunt) flopped onto the ruined couch, not even minding the tangled wreck below her. She obviously was speaking to Maria's twin "brother and sister" (cousins). She didn't even glance up to say hello, which was pretty fine for us. At least we didn't have to clean the place. 'Talise, are you all packed for your trip to Rome tomorrow?' she asked me. 'Yes, we're both ready.' Maria started up the stairs, claiming that she wasn't hungry. 'Tal, you coming?' she called down. I followed her up, although my stomach growled in protest. I fell onto my curtained bed and went fast asleep, despite the trip to one of my favourite places being tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. I dreamt it was night and I was walking with Maria to a cafe in Rome. It was called Demi's Delights. I slipped in and saw that there were only two people there apart from us. They looked eerily familiar. I went up to them, and they turned to look at me and I suddenly woke up with a loud tapping noise on the door. 'Wake up! It's 9:00 A.M! We leave in an hour!' Maria shouted. I groaned sleepily and ran downstairs. The next ten minutes were a blur of getting ready, packing last minute items and going to the car. Sickness hit me the second the plane took off, though. Every spot of turbulence was terrible. Maria was squeezing my hand so hard it hurt. 'Ow!' I muttered. 'Jeez, girl, you have a tough grip!' 'Sorry.' She relaxed the grip just a teeny bit. After an eternity, my ears popped, announcing our descent into Rome.

We got off the airplane at 6:00 P.M. There was still some time to look around, which took about two hours. At 8:00 P.M., we signed into our hotel where we were going to stay. That night I couldn't sleep. Finally I rolled over and shook Maria awake. 'Can we go out?' 'Sure.' We tiptoed down the hallway and outside into the fresh, crisp night air. 'Whoa...' I pointed to a flashing neon sign saying- Demi's Delights. Now, I was sure I had seen it before, but I just couldn't remember! I tugged Maria inside. Immediately we were enveloped by the delicious smell of baking goodies. I nearly moaned in longing. We sat down at table 16. I had brought my bow with me, or tried. It had disappeared the second I stepped out of the house. There seemed to be a new charm on my charm bracelet, but I think it was already there before. I just hadn't noticed it. Maria kept twisting her ring around. It was the only piece she insisted on never taking off. A family heirloom, apparently. I felt a prickling sensation, as if we were being watched. We were, as it turned out. The two boys in the corner were staring at each other and sneaking looks at us with thinly veiled astonishment, for what reason, I had no idea. At least until I marched up to the creeps. Maria followed. The boy on the right looked much older than me, the look in his eyes-Oh. My. God. His eyes! They were exactly like mine! I stumbled back in surprise and blanched. Now that I looked closer, his hair was exactly the same black as mine too. 'Hello. I'm Percy Jackson.' He said, with a hint of astonishment. 'Yeah, and I'm Zeus.' Maria snorted. I looked back and smirked. 'Don't you mean Goose?' I initiated the childhood joke between us. She didn't get it. 'No, it's Zeus. Z-E- ohh.' I face-palmed. Now she got it! 'Don't tell him that!' The boy on the left said in a hushed voice. 'He's not real, idiot.' Maria snapped. The boy on the left recoiled. I wondered why she was acting like that. The boy on the left...ohhh. Oh dear. He could have been Maria's twin. Maria must have noticed too, because she went pale as paper. She stormed away back to our table, dragging me with her. 'Let's get out of here.' she said. The look in her eyes was so scary I knew better than to argue. I had never seen her like that. We fell into an uneasy sleep.