As our train pulled into Penn Station, I kicked Leo in the shins to wake him up, while Nico gently shook Bianca's shoulder. Once they were up and ready to go, the four of us piled out of the empty car, and we made our way to the surface.
Once we all reached the crowded street level, we looked around in awe at the huge skyscrapers that surrounded us from every side. It was amazing how a tall building made of steel had the power to intimidate a person into feeling so insignificant in the world. It seemed like you would be able disappear off the face of the world, and not a soul would notice you were gone.
“Okay… Anyone know how to get to the Empire State Building from here? I would look it up, but my phone is dead.” Bianca said, snapping me from my thoughts.
Nico, Leo and I just shook our heads side to side while still staring up at the skyscrapers.
“Same here,” I said.
After another minute, I finally escaped out of the spell of New York City. “Guys! Snap out of it!” I shouted. The three turned towards me. “We need to get down to business.”
“Shut up and let us savor this moment while we can,” Bianca replied.
“Haven’t you ever been to the city?”
“No.” Bianca and Leo said in unison.
I turned towards Nico, “You?”
“Yeah, for a short time, but I mean that was a few years back and, well, everyone was kind of asleep, and I was fighting in a war.”
Against all my will to scream ‘I know. I meant besides that,’ I gave him the best look of confusion that I could manage. “Huh?”
“Long story.”
I nodded. “Great, so how do we get to the Empire State Building from here?”
“You heading to the Empire State building?” A man’s voice questioned from close behind me. Turning around, I saw a man holding a cardboard sign. He had knotty grayish brown hair down to his shoulders with a knitted hat on top his head. He wore wool fingerless gloves that didn’t match his hat. He was wearing several layers of coats and sweatshirts. I took a step back.
“Uh… Yeah?”
“I could take you there.” He offered, using his hand to gesture to a beat up cycle rickshaw.
“Um… that’s okay. We were just going to walk, but thanks anyway.” With that, I turned around and shoved the others down the street, in the opposite direction of the creep.
“Jo, that was a bit rude.” Bianca said.
“And he was a bit creepy!” I countered.
She huffed in annoyance. “Whatever.”
“Guys…” Leo said as he stopped walking.
“What now?” I asked ticked off.
Nico shushed me, “Listen.”
We listened closely. A growling noise was coming from behind us. The four of us slowly turned around. The rickshaw guy was standing in front of us with fangs sprouting from his mouth.
“What the hell…?” I asked, backing up slowly.
“What is that thing?” Bianca questioned.
Nico coughed. “One of my dad’s pets.”
“Huh?”
“Nico,” Leo spoke up, “You’re telling me that thing is a hellhound?”
“Well, not fully, but I can sense it.”
Bianca yelled, “How is it in human form?”
“No clue. Experimenting, I guess.”
“Great.”
“That’s awful.” I said.
By now, the top half of the beast was hellhound, while the bottom half was still morphing.
“Run!” Bianca shouted, pulling on my shirt. I hadn’t realized that they had taken off. The four of us took off down a block. Bianca checked over her shoulder.
“Shit!”
“Where… is… it?” Nico panted. “It’s…. difficult …….to sense.”
“Closer than you think.”
People were jumping out of our way, hollering curses at us. Welcome to New York. We swerved around a corner, and Bianca put on an extra burst of speed.
“Is she… trying that… ‘I don’t have to… run faster than… the bear… just you...’ statement?” Leo panted.
“Huh?” Nico questioned.
“Later!” I shouted.
We watched as Bianca turned into an alleyway. Nico glanced to the side as we entered the same alley.
“Seriously?” He shouted with a huff of annoyance, upon seeing the hybrid close at our heels.
In the alley, which was a dead end, we watched as Bianca kicked off the ground, into a front handspring. She grabbed hold of a metal ladder and pulled it down. She quickly climbed up the few rungs and onto the first landing of the fire escape.
“Hurry!” Bianca shouted as we got closer.
A loud, ear-splitting roar echo throughout the alley. The beast has arrived. Leo climbed up first, skipping most of the rungs. As he neared the top, he spun himself onto his stomach, with the metal flooring cutting into him, and stretched out a hand to me.
“Quick.”
I jumped and grabbed his hand. He hoisted me up. Nico began climbing up, after me.
“Why don’t you just call it off, Nico?” Leo shouted as we tore off up the stairs.
“I already tried that, Valdez!” The metal flooring beneath us creaked and rocked as we bolted up them.
Bianca was a ledge above us. “Uh… guys…”
We stopped and looked over to where she was staring. Two more hellhounds had joined the original one. Sure. Why not?
“Nico, do something!” I shouted.
“They’re not going to listen, Jo! I can't control them!” Well then.
“Come on!” Bianca shouted as she ran up two more sets of stairs. Damn, that girl is fast.
When we reached the top of the building, we all crashed into Bianca who was frozen in her place.
“B?” I asked. She didn’t answer. We peeked out from behind her.
“Hello, son of Hades, son of Hephaestus, and daughter of…”
“Ares.” I answered numbly.
“Right.” The hellhound answered as though it knew something I didn’t.
“What are you?” Nico questioned.
The beast laughed. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Uh, yeah. That’s why he asked.” Spoke the second hellhound.
He stole my line. I thought while pouting.
“I know, you imbecile!”
“Oh.” The other beast answered in a small voice.
Oh gods, what have we gotten ourselves into this time?
Bianca still hadn’t moved.
“Bianca?” Leo questioned as he moved to angle himself in front of her. When she didn’t react, he turned and yelled over to the hellhounds, “What did you do to her?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why isn’t she moving?”
“Fear.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We are showing her Fear.”
I glanced over and Nico, who turned to look at me.
Leo yelled, “Well, stop it!”
At the same time, I yelled, “That means you are doing something to her, morons!”
Ignoring me, the hybrids said, “We can’t stop. It’s mistress’ orders.”
At that, Leo summoned an axe from his belt and charged forward, but the hellhounds disappeared before he even got close enough to swing. He turned around, cursing. Bianca crumpled to the ground.
“Bianca!” We yelled, racing towards her. The three of us kneeled down in front of her.
“B!” I shouted, but she didn’t show any sign of hearing me.
Leo stretched out his hand to touch her shoulder. “Bianca?”
She flinched, eyes wide. The three of us moved back a bit, and shared a look of confusion and concern before glancing back over to Bianca.
“Bianca,” Nico spoke softly, like I imagine he would talk to Hazel. “What did you see?”
He went to place a hand on her shoulder like Leo did before, but Bianca flinched back again. Nico retracted his hand, placing it on his thigh. Her eyes prickled with tears. She coughed, “I saw… I saw myself… I was…”
Before she could continue, she broke down sobbing. The three of us just stared at her. None of us have seen her cry like this before. I moved forward, cautiously, in case she jumped away. When she didn’t, I pulled her into a hug.
Bianca soon caught her breath, and stopped crying. “I’m sorry.”
“Bianca, it’s okay. You can cry; they showed you Fear.”
“I’m not sorry for crying. I’m sorry for what’s going to happen.”
I glanced over at the guys who were looking at each other confused.
“Bianca,” Nico said, swiveling his head to face her, “What did you see?”
“I-I can’t tell you. I'm sorry. I don't want you guys to experience it. . . I'm sorry.” She kept mumbling.
I was about to question her when Nico spoke up, “It’s okay. Bianca, we understand. Can you walk?”
She looked at him strangely, but nodded.
“Okay.” He got up and held out his hand to her. She took it, and he hoisted her to her feet.
The four of us walked back down the ladders we came up on. Bianca walked ahead of me with Nico right next to her, ready to catch her if she collapsed. Neither of them said anything as we made their way down the fire escape.
“I wanna know how those things beat us up to the top of the building.” Leo commented to me in a whisper, as we followed behind the others by a few steps.
“Like Nico said, they might be experiments of Hades.”
“Great. Experiments of the god of death. Perfect.”
We jumped down after Nico and Bianca, back onto the alleyway cracked cement.
“Okay, let’s get to the Empire State Building without any more monsters. Agreed?” I asked.
“Agreed.” Leo and Nico said in unison. Bianca stayed silent.
We walked to the curb and I hauled a cab. “Empire State Building.”
The driver nodded in the mirror and took the four of us, squished in the back, down to 5th Ave. The four of us scraped together the total just before we arrived.
“Here.” I said handing the man the money before following the others out onto the street.
“Ready?”
We all nodded. I glanced down at my watch. 4:33pm.