It reminded Thalia of a Zombie apocalypse. Short, swift, and terrifying. And she almost, almost, screamed like a little girl.

She didn't hear the gun shots in the hall. She was on the other side of the building. Fresh out of the gym class with a one way ticket to the Principals office for "Participating in an Unprovoked Fight".

Yeah, sure, "unprovoked".

"Thalia."

"Get the Hell away from me, Nightshade." Her voice was sown with poison daggers but Zoe didn't seem to care. She looked like she hadn't slept in a couple nights. Her fight with Luke must have been keeping her up at last night. Good. Still Thalia did not feel like looking at her best friend's backstabbing face right at the moment. She wanted to keep her breakfast in her stomach.

"Thalia, please." She said, "Listen to me."

Thalia didn't look up.

"Thals please!"

For a second, everything was still, like time froze. Thalia barely felt it but afterwards it haunted her like a ghost. Could she have saved everyone if her looked up? Could she have altered her destiny? But in the heat of the moment she was so content to not listen that she rolled her eyes and continued changing into her gym clothes.

She noted with satisfaction, Zoe looked, well sounded, disparate. Like she was losing everything. Including her life.

"Thalia Grace! You need to leave the school!" Zoe's voice hit her like getting caught in a car crash.

She stopped on the way to the exit in the Gym Hallway, and patted her sides with a little humorless laugh. Then she turned and snarled, "Is that a threat?"

Zoe shook her head quickly, "Thals please!"

Thalia snorted and turned back around.

"Thalia, just trust me!"

Maybe it was the term she used, trust me, that stung like a knife plunging in to her chest, or maybe it was because that girl dared touched her shoulder when she said it. Whatever it was Thalia lost it. She shrugged off Zoe hand and twisted around in the same motion. Her fist connected into Zoe's chin, knocking her perfect little cheekbones. A round of gasped exhaled from the rest of the girls in the class.

Thalia hoped that's was Luke liked so much about Zoe that he had to cheat on Thalia with her.

A weeks worth of anger pulsed out of Thalia, like draining out of her limbs. It felt good, like relaxing after a good work out. Just as she was about to do it again, Coach Lupa, a wolf like woman who's strict rules were like law, started blowing her whistle. Clarisse yanked Thalia's arms back, yelling something about self control in Thalia's ears. She didn't hear it at all. She wore a crooked plastered grin on her face soaking in the feeling of justice. Coach Lupa ran to Zoe who's head had slammed back into an ajar locker.

"I hate fights just as much as the next person," Clarisse said pinning Thalia before she could do anything else, Which was an obvious lie—Clarisse loved Fighting way too much, "But be real, Grace. Coach was standing right there!"

"Thalia!" Coach Lupa barked, looking like she was going to eat her alive, "Principal's office! Now!"

So yeah, you tell Thalia that was unprovoked. Zoe was asking for it.

Thalia took was long way. Considering she was on her own. It turned out to be the thing that saved her life.

She took the back stairs and then passed the art rooms and the Science hall. She slowed down to ideally look at the paintings on the wall. Beautifully crafted art works. She noticed most by a Nancy Bobfit, but they weren't that good. More like the girl had bullied her way to the top. Her favorite was the one all the way to the side. It was alone, like no one had actually wanted to put it up at all. Thalia couldn't see why. It was a carefully crafted, a colored pencil drawing that had been ripped up at one point, leaving only half of what would have been an excellent Horse. The side with the name tag was left and Thalia could've sworn she heard the name Hazel Levesque recently.

But she couldn't remember where or when exactly. And then she came to the library. She sped up her walk dramatically from there.

She hated Libraries. She knew if she looked in there was an 85% chance Annabeth was in there reading, her feet up on a table and her head back, her mouth moving with the words as she seemed to leave the world behind. Her white sweater, that she wore most days would be bunched around her elbows, like she always did went she was too hot, and it would be exposing that scar. The scar she got because of Thalia.

Because Thalia had been too busy kissing Luke to check her phone, or watch the minutes. Or even notice that her little sister was not there.

Thalia should have known, from that night. If Luke was willing to cheat on Annabeth, he would cheat on her too. Still some part of her wished he hadn't.

Thalia reached the end of the hall she turned the corner and the door to the guidance counselor was there. It was closed but the light was on, so she must have been in a meeting. Thalia was glad. She really hated that woman. Everyone did.

The Front office was silent. She should've noticed right then something was wrong. It was never quiet in the front office. There was always the secretary, Mrs. Aphrodite Hephaestus, who never shut up. She constantly talked about herself and over the years Thalia had learn she was married to Mr. Hephaestus, the workshop teacher, but had a not-so-secret relation with a professional wrestler that taught at the school named Ares or whatever, and she loved the color pink and she knew every detail of every relationship, and she talked so often about them it made Thalia want to follow the rules so she'd never have to go back.

But it was okay today. She'd heard this morning that Mrs. Aphrodite had the week off and a much quieter woman was in for her.

Thalia walked into the office and froze. The smell was what set her off at first. metallic, with a hint of the perfume that the secretaries always wore. The type that must have been labeled something like Old Cat Ladies. The office was empty. Thalia felt a wet string of sweat drip down her neck, nervousness that didn't make sense. She swallowed hard.

"Hello?" She asked timidly.

She almost face-palmed herself. She was Thalia Grace. Not some stupid, horror movie girl. There was nothing she was going to do that was 'timid'. "HELLO?" She called louder, "I PUNCHED A GIRL IN THE FACE. IF NO ONE'S GOING TO YELL AT ME USELESSLY THEN I'M GOING TO GO."

Thalia looked around and there was no reply. At least not at first. Thalia's eyes flickered around. And she nodded to herself. No one was coming, she could go. But a feeling of coldness gripped her as she walked out and she just had to look back once.

That's all it took.

She saw the hand. She almost screamed, so high pitched it would've broken the windows, but at the last second she slammed her mouth shut and covered it with her hand, making only a squeak.

She careful walked around the counter. The only sound was her own breathing. A woman Thalia didn't recognize was laying on the ground. She was ghostly pale, like her soul had been drained out, her eyes were blank and reflected only the ceiling tiles back at her. She was wearing a nice white blouse with a navy blue skirt. Except it didn't look that nice anymore.

Not when her torso was covered in blood.

Next to her was another Secretary. And behind the back them was someone else. Mr. Janus, the ruthless Psychology teacher who was obsessed with rights and wrongs, was laying on the ground on an overturned chair his mouth open in a scream that would never be heard.

Thalia let out a whimpering sound, a slim exhale of sound.

Who would do something like that? Why would someone do something like that at all?

Suddenly the Principals door slammed open. The room was sound proof, and often kids joked that Chiron did it that way so no one could here the screams of the kids dying inside. Thalia had never believed them, mainly because she'd never heard Chiron raise his voice ever.

Thalia froze. Her eyes went wide. And she made some type of gurgling in the back of her throat. A figure stood in the door way a rather big gun in his hand. He was dress in black. On his shoulder was a red symbol, a five slashes like claws had ripped through the fabric, except it was only a print.

Thalia's eyes rested on what was behind the figure, another figure with his legs up on the desk.

The blue carpet that Chiron had install when he became the Principal was stained blood red.

"Don't make a move kid." The figure lowered the weapon right at Thalia. His voice cleared her thoughts, like a speaker right next to her ears so she couldn't possibly not hear him. "Otherwise you can join them on the floor."

Thalia's eyes flickered back to the door. To escape.

"Don't even think about it." He said.

Thalia could read his voice, she watched his fingers and slowly raised her hand in a surrender. He wanted to shoot her. He wanted to see her bleed to death.

Thalia didn't want to bleed to death.

She opened her palms and the scrap of paper, her referral slip fluttered out. She couldn't lie. She was scared. She was terrified. This guy, this situation made her want to curl into a ball and lock herself in her own locker.

She watched the guys eyes flicker to the paper.

Thalia dove into the hall way.

The doorway exploded with the metallic sound of bullets, one nearly lodged in her head. She felt the wind, the burning sensation that whipped her skin.

Tears blurred her vision. Damn, she was so scared she was crying. Her stomach flopped but she didn't stop running. Her gym shoes skidded on the tile floor.

She couldn't get the sight of the woman's empty eyes out of her mind.

She was dead.

She was dead.

She was dead like Thalia was going to be.

Thalia chanted it like it would change the destiny. Through her tears, she saw what she had to do. She had to save everyone's lives. Or at least tried to warn them. She had to run five steps. She had to run five steps to the end of the corridor, where the red box was waiting. The fire Alarm.

That wasn't the hard part.

The hard part was getting there before she got shot.

She moved faster than she ever had. But time felt slower. It felt delayed. Extended. Every thought in her head was wondering when the bullet was going to pierce her back, when it was going to kill her, when she was going to die.

One step.

She could hear the cursing behind her and the foot steps.

Two steps.

Her fingers reached for the alarm.

Three steps.

There was someone around the corner, she could see their black T-shirt.

Four steps.

Her hand wrapped around the handle. A bullet missed her by millimeters.

She pulled down. Time jumped forward. The rich shrill sound broke the air like a saving bell the school wide alarm exploded outwards. The classes were slightly slower on the up take. Down the Hall the screams started, as people realized that it was not a drill.

It was life or Death.

Thalia was jerked back around the corner. Her scream pierced the air an octave higher than the alarm. She head slammed back against the wall. She must have hit her head a lot harder than she thought.

Because the guy who was holding her was not the one who'd threatened her in the office. Her mind her got into surreal mode. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't hurt anyone. Never. He couldn't.

Her mind stubbornly refused to believe it.

He held her by her shirt, it cut into her throat until she couldn't breath. The alarm continued to shriek. His shirt was black, with the ripped symbol on the sleeve.

There was blood on his arm, dried blood.

And still she couldn't believe it. He wouldn't.

He couldn't.

He couldn't.

He could.

"You've ruined everything." Luke Castellan, growled in her face.