Katie Gardner- demigod

Katie sat one the grass with her knees pulled up to her chest. From where she sat she had a perfect view of the sun setting over the calm ocean waves.

She sighed listening to the horrid voices of her parents fighting in her mind again. Sometimes she wished they would just shut up. But they couldn't do that. Not even for her birthday.

so now she was alone. Unwanted. Trying not to cry. There was only one person who could make her feel better when she felt like this.

"What's wrong Katie?" She jumped a little not having heard the foot steps of her best friend come up behind her.

"Nothing." She said refusing to meet his eyes and continued staring into the ocean waves. He sighed and Katie heard the rustle of grass as he sat next to her.

"Katie." He said.

Katie looked of into the water, nodding to show that she heard.

"Katie." He nudged her with his elbow.

She nodded a little more.

"Katie, look at me." Katie steeled herself, for what it's worth. But the second she looked into her best friend's eyes she knew she was a goner. She loved his beautiful blue eyes, that looked like they belonged to a God. She loved his curly sweeping dirty blonde hair. She loved the feeling that she got whenever she was near him. She loved the way her heart raced when he laughed.

Katie loved Connor Stoll.

Katie felt a sharp prick in the back of her mind as if there was something completely wrong with that sentence. But it was forgotten as quickly as it came.

"Katie, tell me what's wrong." Connor said.

So Katie told him what was wrong. She told him about all the fights her parents were having, she told him about her birthday, she even told him how she just wanted a cupcake.

"Well, as it turns out..." Connor said smiling mischievously. He pulled a chocolate cupcake with perfect green icing from behind his back. Katie smiled in awe, wondering how he got it. "Happy Birthday, Katie!"

Katie giggled with delight. "Split with me?"

"You know it!" Connor gave her the cupcake and a lopsided smile that made her heart beat a little faster. "But first make a wish with this imaginary candle, because my parents don't trust me with fire."

Katie pretended to think then she "blew out" the imaginary candle.

Katie and Connor split the cupcake as evenly as they could (which wasn't even at all) and watched the sun sink lower into the horizon. Katie laid her head on Connor's shoulder and took a deep breath. She loved the way he smelled, as if he just walked out of a flower shop filled with roses. Connor hummed the happy birthday song quietly. Just loud enough for Katie to enjoy.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Connor said fiddling with a copper penny in his fingers.

"Just thinking about how sometimes my life seems too easy." Katie said. Suddenly there was a buzzing by her ears. She absently swatted thinking there was a fly or bee or something.

"What'd you mean?"

"Sometimes a feel like my life is a dream." Katie clarified. The buzzing came back but louder.

"That's silly, Katie." Connor laughed making Katie feel a little stupid. "Would I be a dream?"

"You just seem to always have what I want or need." Katie huffed. Suddenly she heard words coming through the buzzing, as if someone was putting a walkie-talkie next to her ear.

"She's becoming aware, sir."

Katie looked at Connor who didn't seem to have heard anything.

"Make them kiss or something. Don't all girls like that?"

Suddenly Connor looked down at her, smiling. Then he slowly inched closer to her. Then he kissed her. Right there. On the hill over looking the ocean as the sun set. Sparks flew in Katie's mind wanting to make her forget the voices.

Connor pulled away grinning. Katie tried to smile back.

"Something's wrong. She's not responding."

For a second Katie could have sworn the entire place flicked. For a second Katie saw the inside of a glass case in a dark, circular room.

"Systems are hiccuping, sir."

"What's wrong Katie? I'm sorry." Connor said. "I just...I just thought you would like it..."

"Get them back up! "

"Look out-There's someone-!"

Katie screamed. Her entire body felt like a million volts of electricity was coursing through it. Her head felt ready to explode. She wasn't at the hill with the ocean anymore. She was inside the glass tube in the Dark room. There was no Connor next to her only the dome top and sides. She screamed. Claustrophobia kidding in. There was a single light overhead. Katie felt tears run down her cheeks. She pounded on the glass but it was too thick to break from her position.

Her breath caught as she saw a figure in black lean over the top the tube. She couldn't she their face because of the lighting but they wore a black cape and hood.

She was terrified they were going to kill her.

But the only thing the person did was press a button on the Tube and the top flung open. Katie shoved herself up trying to calm her deep ragged breaths, unsuccessfully. Her eyes darted around the circular room for an escape. There was no door. Her eyes landed on a table of sparking and trashed computers with wires that connected to the tube. A body laid among the parts completely fried. Another one the ground. The figure must have done this.

"Katie." The figure said soothingly trying to calm her down. "Katie relax-"

"How do you know me name? Who are you? Where am I? Where is Connor?" She demanded.

"Katie don't you remember?" The guy stepped into the light, not that it helped. He had black matted hair and eyes that looked only partly sane, the color of the sea. He wore a T-shirt with the initials CHB and jeans with a necklace around his neck that had a couple beads on it.

Katie's hand went up to her neck where the same necklace was. She wore the same T-shirt. But she didn't know this guy.

"I don't know you." She said. "What did you do to me? Where am I?!"

He looked miserable. "Katie, we need to get you out of here." He didn't bother answering her questions but he took her wrist and pulled her closer than Katie wanted be. He held her tight and pointed a grappling hook upwards. With a zing they were flying towards the open roof, before Katie could even wonder where he the grappling hook.

So she did the most logical thing she could think of. She screamed.

"HELP ME!" She wailed as they reached the top, which was a brightly lit hallway. Immediately The boy put a hand over her mouth muffling any sound.

He dragged her, as she struggled, around a corner. He muttered some incoherent words to himself. He pushed her ahead of him and then yanked her to a stop.

"Listen to me." He said staring into her eyes like he was looking into her soul. " My name is Percy Jackson. We are Demigods, the sons and daughters of the Greek Gods. Your mother is Demeter, the plant lady. Those people you saw in there were mortals. They kidnapped you and wiped your memory. And now they are going to try and kill you."

Katie looked for a sign that he was joking. He wasn't joking. A daughter of Demeter? A daughter of a Greek God? That's just crazy.

"You're a crazy lunatic." Katie said.

That was when the men in black uniforms with guns ran around the corner. "Open fire!" One of them barked, and they all happily did.

"Am I?" Percy hissed pulling Katie down the hall as bullets narrowly missed them. Percy yanked her along. Katie felt adrenalin pumping in her veins. Blood pounding in her ears. Confusion only muddled by thoughts of escaping.

By thoughts of living.

Of Surviving.

They ran down twists and turns and a staircase. Finally they made it to a long hallway with double doors at the end. Percy suddenly stopped. Katie turned too.

"Keep going!" Percy commanded.

"What about you?!" Katie yelled.

"I'll be fine!" It was a terrible lie. "Look Out those doors is the exit. At the top of the hill there's a van from the Delphi Strawberry Service. There's a girl with Blonde hair and a boy who kinda looks like death. Tell them..." Percy's voice cracked. "Tell them, you're the last. Tell them they caught Draco. They caught....Me."

Katie looked at him, feeling overwhelmed by emotions. She didn't know what to do. There was the sound of guns being fired and boots on a metal staircase. Percy pushed her to the door.

"GO! Tell Annabeth I'll see her in the Elysium!"

Katie ran to the doors tears fluttering freely down her face. She burst through the doors as the gun fire and screams started. She saw the van immediately, at the top of the hill that surrounded the building she had burst out of. She charged up the grassy hill bullets narrowly missing her. Yells and screaming filled the air. Katie didn't look back. She didn't need to, to know she wasn't going to make it.

Suddenly she felt a tugging sensation in her gut. The grass started to grow at an alarming speed behind her weaving a wall to block any shots at her. It took her a second to realize she did that. She made the plants grow. She leapt the final steps towards the van where a girl with blonde hair was frantically motioning for her to hurry up.

"Where's Percy?!" She cried. Katie flung herself into the truck. She looked at the girl with tears still streaming down her face. "No! No!" The girl quickly tried to deny it. "He can't be dead!" She screeched.

"He said to tell you I'm the last!" Katie sobbed. "They caught Draco and him. He said tell Annabeth I'll see her in Elysium."

The girl sobbed harder. The van started up with a roar and Katie saw a boy driving looking like he was about to cry. "Katie, how much do you remember?" He asked as the van shot forward.

"Who are you people?" Katie answered.

"Gods it's getting worse!" The girl sobbed. "Percy! My Seaweed Brain!"

"Katie, we'll tell you everything when we get to Survivor City." The boy said. "Just trust us for now."

Katie let out a hiccup from crying so hard. She was terrified. What was going on. Where was Connor? She needed him more than anything right now. But unlike every other time Connor didn't just appear.

"I was living a dream. A lie." She cried to herself.

She looked at her reflection in the back window the van as it drove an alarming speed. Tear lines covered her cheeks and she looked like she had been sleeping for years. Her brown hair was fraying and messy, like a rejected Sleeping Beauty.

She stared at the reflection, quietly humming a deranged version of Happy Birthday herself.