"Maybe we should start from the beginning," Cristy said as she rolled forward, "like Jet said, my name is Christina Fouret. Please call me Christy," she extended her hand in friendship which Luke shook.
"Alright then," Luke said, "now I think you guys have a story."
Percy and the other sat down on the couch as Christy began their story.
"We came here for our summer break," she began, "Jet's dad bought the cabin recently and we decided to hang out here away from everything."
"So a bunch of college students decided to take a trip to a cabin in the middle of the woods?" Percy asked.
"Pretty much ya," John replied.
"That is such a horror movie cliche."
"Ha I guess you're right," John chuckled.
"This isn't funny John!"Nat screamed, "this isn't a movie! This is real life!"
"Calm down At, you know how John is. He makes jokes when he is nervous," Jet said as he tried to comfort the blond only to have her walk away, "Nat!"
"Go after her, make sure nothing happens," Christy replied. Jet nodded and ran after the blonde girl.
"So you were saying?" Luke asked.
"Right. When we came here there was nothing different about this place. It was just the same old same old. We went swimming in the lake had a cookout, even fished. But the first night we were here, one of our members went missing."
"What happened?"
"I was awake that night, I have trouble going to sleep. So I watched the lake from my window, the water were still, not a ripple in them. Then I heard someone walk out and down to the living room. I figured they must not have sleeping trouble as well so I didn't bother calling to them. But then I heard the main door open, it locks didn't even click, the door just opened on it's own. I looked out and saw one of my friends walk towards the lake. And the blink of an eye the lake was no longer empty.
"There standing just a few feet above the water was a woman dressed in white. My friend walked into the lake, he didn't stop. He walked deeper and deeper until he was submerged fully. I screamed and woke everyone up. We ran downstairs but as we reached the door, it slammed shut locking us in. We took some time to unlock the door, the locks kept resetting. But by the time we got to the lake there were no bubbles coming from underneath the surface, and the water had gone still once again.
"But the figure in white was still there. And...and she looked like Jena."
"Whose Jena?"
"Josh's dead sister, "John explained taking over for Christy who was tearing up, "Josh is-was, the man that walked into the lake. His sister died two years ago in a car crash. He showed us pictures of her, we know what she looked like. And I swear the thing we saw right above the lake, the figure in white, was Jena. There was no doubt about it."
"So the spirit of a dead girl killed Josh?" Percy asked.
"No," Christy said wiping her tears away, "no. Something else did. Something inside the lake killed Josh."
"That night we all saw Jena, but Christy....well she saw something else," John said turning to the wheelchair bound girl.
"When I looked at the lake the image of Jena flickered, like a projection. What I did see was a face looking up from the lake and right t us. The face was blue and I could see it had green hair like seaweed. But the most disturbing thing about it was...was the fact that it's eyes were red. They were blood red."
Percy looked at Christy again, this time he used Observe;
Christina Fouret, The one with common sense
Lv— 4
HP:200/200
MP:100/100
Race: Human (Clear sighted)
Str-2
Vit-2
Dex-3
Int-9
Wis-12
Luc-6
Crippled due to gang related violence Christy has lived more her life looking at the bright side of life and always being optimism. The reason most her friends like her is because of her will to never give up and never give in.
She hopes Percy will be able to help her friends.
She is scared but wants to remain strong for her friends.
Yup there it was, she was clear sighed. Percy leaned towards Luke and whispered, "she's clear sighted."
"You can tell?" Luke whispered back.
"Yeah. She gives off the same feeling Biggy in Boston gave off."
Luke nodded and then turned to Christy and John, "so what happened next?"
Christy sighed, "everyone began to panic. I tried to tell them about who I saw, but... they didn't listen. I don't blame them though, after all a dead girl had just killed her brother. But eventually one by one people started to die. We tried to get away in the cars but the batteries died. Then we tried to just walk away and back to town but we kept walking in circles. We became desperate as more and more people died by drowning one way or another. Some died in the lake like Josh. Others died while taking a shower or by getting their head bashed in b the sink.
"Now... now there are only four of us left."
"How many of you were there before?" Grover asked s he shook from fear.
"12. There was 12 of us that came to the cabin. We have been here for three days."
Percy's eyes went wide. That was why there were three cars outside. What did this? What killed 8 people in three days time? Percy looked at Luke, "what the hell is going on here?"
"I don't know Percy, but we are going to get to the bottom of this," Luke replied as he turned to Christy, "is there anything else you noticed? Anything strange?"
"No not really I-"
"NAT!" Jet's voice rang out from upstairs as suddenly a shadow flew down outside and a loud crack was heard.
Percy dashed outside and ran to the field, there face first on the ground was Nat broken form. Her neck was twisted all the way around with bones sticking out of her arms. Percy looked up and saw Jet near the open window upstairs. Only he wasn't looking at Nat, he was looking at the lake.
Percy turned and stopped in his tracks. There standing on top of the lake was Nat. Except she still had heck on straight.
"Nat?" Jet called out as he stepped out onto the window sill.
Percy's eyes widened in shock. He knew what Jet was going to do. He quickly turned to the lake to gather water from it, but for some reason he couldn't. The water wasn't obeying him, he strained his man but it was impossible, like breaking diamonds with your fist.
Percy then looked up just as Jet stepped off the window.
'Moisture control!' Percy thought as he quickly moved. He gathered all the moisture in the air and combined it into a layer of water that caught Jet just a few feet above ground. The water acted like jelly, with Percy controlling it of course, and slowly disappeared the moment Jet was safe.
"Nat come back!," Jet called out as he tried to get up and walk to the lake. Percy knew the boy wouldn't stop so he knocked him unconscious with a punch to the head.
With that taken care off Percy turned to the lake and there, just like Christie described, was a head with blue skin, green hair and blood red eyes.
The face started at Percy and Percy started right back. This thing killed 8, now 9 people. It then slowly began to go back into the water but Percy used Observe before it did;
Nokken,
Lv— 21
HP:2,500/2,500
MP:525/525
Str-21
Vit-23
Dex-15
Int-22
Wis-31
Luc-2
The Nokken is an evil lake spirit that kills people by luring them into the water into the lake and drowning them. They are know to be crafty and vicious creature with no remorse or regret. Beware the Nokken as they can take on the form of anything and everything, even what you want the most.
Kill to gain— 8,000 Exp
Percy closed the box, 'Nokken huh?'
"Perc what happened?" Grover called out as the Satyr looked at Nat's broken body.
Percy turned and grabbed Jet's unconscious form and pulled him into the cabin, "I know what's killing them."
Percy put Jet inside under the watchful eyes of Christina and Luke while he, John and Grover went to bury Nat.
It was a difficult process but the girl deserved that much at least. John cried as he dug her grave while Grover and Percy remained silent throughout. Percy was once again painfull reminded that dead bodies to exist, they don't just turn into golden dust. It was a very humbling moment for Percy, one that he hoped he would never have to do for a friend.
Inside with Luke and Christy,
Luke covered Jet with a blanket and sat down on the couch as Christy wiped tears away for her dead friend.
"Crying won't help them," Luke said.
"I know. I know it won't help. But what else can I do? I am so... so-"
"-Powerless," Luke finished for her.
"Yes. All this time stuck in this chair," she hit the handle bar with her fist, "the only thing I am good at is watching my friends get killed in front of him eyes."
Luke looked at the girl and in that moment saw a little bit on him inside of her. "I know the feeling. That feeling of helplessness. That feeling that you can't do anything to help because something is holding you back. I know it very well."
"How?" Christy asked as she dried her eyes.
"I have a huge family, lots of cousins, siblings. But our parents aren't there for us. From a young age we have been forced to take care of ourselves," Luke's eyes then glossed as he remembered how his family was treated by the gods, how unjustly they were punished.
"So you all lived by yourselves?"
"In a way. Our parents were powerful people. They were always busy with something or the other, never even stopping to think about us. Sure they would remember our birthdays, give us toys and presents. But after that it was business as usual. I watched as the younger member of my family crack under this pressure. I saw them turn to drugs, I saw them get into stupid situations just to gain our parents approval. And I lost count of how many times I saw them die."
"You saw them die?" Christy asked horrified.
"There are more dangerous things out there than this thing in the lake Christy," Luke replied, "much more dangerous things. You have seen them before haven't you? the monsters that walk among us."
Christy looked down, deep in thought. All of this was to much for the girl, the pressure added on. The realization that all those things see saw in the corner of her eyes when she was young, all those things were real. The realization that everyday could be her last caught up to her as she felt fear grip her heart, "w-what are they?"
"Monsters," Luke replied, "every monster in existence is real and they hide in plain sight. You are special, you can see past their attempts to hide. You can see the real world."
"Wh-what do I do?"
"Keep your head down. If they don't know you can see them they won't attack you. You will be safe as long as you ignore them."
"That's it?! So is a blood thirsty vampire comes along all I have to do is stich my head in the ground and hope he doesn't see me?!"
Luke raised an eyebrow, "what more do you want?"
"I don't know? A weapon? Some proper advice?! A book on how to kill monsters?!"
Luke laughed, "you remind me of a friend of mine. She and you had basically the same reaction when she learnt of all this. Only there was a lot more cursing and a lot more stabbing." Luke then got up and reached into his bag and pulled out the spare blade he got from the forge, "can you see what this is?"
"Is that a gold sword?"
"Yup. It's made out of a material called celestial bronze, or in this case an alloy of it. It is very rare and is the only thing that can kill monsters," Luke then handed the blade to Christy who held it at an arm's length inspecting it.
"It's beautiful," she waved it around enjoying the feeling of power it gave her.
"Normal human can't see it, if they do if would probably look like a baseball bat or something."
"And you are just giving it to me?"
"Yup," Luke then pulled out his personal blade, "I have my own."
Christy smiled but the a sad look came across her face. She then handled Luke back the sword, "thanks for this. I don't really think I can ever use it though."
Luke looked at her like she just grew an extra head, "why is that?"
"Are you blind," Christy tapped her legs, "I can't walk. By the time I use this blade the thing that is trying to kill me would have ripped my head off!"
"It's okay. People tend to look down on disabled people. Just wait for the monster to turn away and then stab him between the ribs."
"Ah yeah sure. The chances of me actually hurting a monster is the same as me dancing!"
Luke sighed. He was right, she did remind him a lot of Thalia, especially with that temper of hers. Suddenly a thought came to Luke, he knew exactly what to do to calm her down, "okay then." He then put the blade aside and grabbed Christy and pulled her up. He then held her up by the waist and and spun her around the room.
"What are you doing?!" Christy cried as she tried moving away from Luke's grip.
"Helping you dance!" Luke laughed as he spun her all over the cabin living room.
"Stop it Luke!"
"Oh come one live a little!" Luke grinned as he started to hum a tune.
Eventually Christy stopped protesting and hung off Luke's arms. Slowly however a smile formed on her face as she hugged Luke tightly, "thank you."
"Anytime," Luke replied as he hugged her back. She smell good, like lilacs.
Just then the door opened and Percy walked in with mud on his knees, "ah.... am I interrupting something?"
Luke's eyes shot open and started at Percy. He then tried to move in two directions at once and ended up tripping falling into the couch, walking up Jet and causing Christy to fall on top of him.
"What the hell is going on?" Grover asked as he and Jon joined Percy at the door.
"I have no idea. But I think Luke was trying to score with Christy."
After a few minutes,
Jet, now wide awake, looked at Percy with an open mouth, "you know what that thing is?"
Percy nodded, "it;s a Nokken. From what I know it is a shapeshifter that can transform into anything. It probably transforms into whoever you care about the most and then drowns them in the lake."
"How do you know all this?" Christy asked from her wheelchair.
"I'm an expert on water sports," Percy replied. Luke and Grover probably thought it was a son of Poseidon thing, which was exactly what Percy wanted them to think.
"So now that that's settled we should probably get out of here," Grover said rubbing his hands.
"Don't you remember we can't. This thing, this Nokken makes us go around in circles. We tried a lot, not once did we succeed," John said.
"But you didn't have Percy back then," Luke said smiling at the demigod, "he is kind of like Christy, except his powers are stronger. He can get us out of this mist."
"Woah," John said staring at Percy, "who the hell are you kid?"
