Mystic Island

☼☼1☼☼

Raine

“Alright, you may begin your tests,” Mrs. Belman said at the front of the class. “You have forty minutes, and use your time wisely.”
I groaned, and stared at the fresh paper. 1. 2xy²(9x+7xy+250y)
The teachers give us the easiest problems in the world, and then some idiot screws it up, so here, right now, is what I was going to be seeing next year. Oh wait, of course I wasn’t. I was an eight grader, on my way to high school. And high school was the chance to get rid of all of the people I hated in middle school, like for instance, Hanna and Sierra. They thought they ruled the whole world, and if I hadn’t known a daughter of Aphrodite, I’d swear, they were ones. But children of Aphrodite were also compassionate about love, and these two loved no one else except themselves.
I stared at the date I’d written down in my sloppy handwriting. June 10th. Two more days until the end of school. Just two more. I could live with that. I had to enjoy these last days of freedom, ironically enough, because my summer would be filled with training: constant battle practice along with a week-long-exploration of the Labyrinth with Brooke. My friend, Rose Arrow, would be joining us as well. I sighed, and pushed these thoughts to the back of my head.
Rrrrrrr-ring-ring-ring! That was the end of math class. I picked up my test final and walked it over to the plastic bin where we turned stuff in. I’d finished the entire test and was hoping for at least a B+. If I thought like that, good things seemed to happen to me.
I headed out of the trailers and towards my next class, Language Arts. Luckily, we were just watching a movie, so it wasn’t any big deal. On the way, I caught the attention of Andrea Micah, a good friend, but not close enough to know who I truly was. Brooke was even closer to her, and she never told her. She never told anyone except those in the mythical world like us. Andrea smiled, and her dull hazel eyes were filmed with exhaustion. I knew how she felt. I’d taken three finals already that day, and I still had two classes after this. We walked together to class until I realized something. I’d forgotten my wallet in math.
I checked my phone time. 11:47. I still had time if I hurried. I said a quick goodbye to Andrea, and sped off to the door leading to the outside.
A faint wind had picked up, so I had to keep brushing my dark hair out of my face to keep from stumbling without sight. I dashed into the room, trying to avoid looking stupid in front of the seventh grade class, and retrieved my wallet. Then I ran back outside to the cafeteria door where I’d be able to slip though and up the stairs to Language Arts. This was until I heard a strange noise coming from the tennis courts behind the school.
I froze. I listened hard to hear what was going on, and first came a deep, vicious growling. Then came a girl’s scream. Monster attack. I dug my hand into my jacket pocket to pull out Lightning Strike, my portable bronze sword. It was the size of my index finger when I first held it, but when my hand squeezed the hilt, it transformed into my monster-slaying weapon.
I slipped along the back wall in the shadows. When I was close enough, I peered around the corner to see a huge beast of weird proportions. Its head was of a bronze eagle while the body was one of a muscular lion. Its back heralded a pair of huge golden wings, beating furiously as the monster advanced on the poor mortal. I knew this creature from both Greek mythology and medieval lore. This was a griffin, and it was hungry.
The mortal I knew as well. It was Kayla Cristal, a girl in my Spanish and Language Arts class. And she looked like she was about to faint, the way she was staring horrified at the griffin.
When the griffin leaned back on its feline hindquarters, ready to pounce, I charged. The griffin turned its majestic head and glared at me with its bird-black-eyes. They sparkled with anticipation of a meal of a hero, but this one wasn’t living long enough to taste one.
I swung Lightning Strike, not really aware of the mortal watching me, and sliced a deep gash into the griffin’s lion flank. His (I assumed it was a he) eagle legs clawed at me, and he squawked angrily when it missed. I was nothing like the fighter I was a few months ago. I was a trained and experienced veteran when it came to monsters. I ducked and rolled, slashing my sword at the belly of the beast. The griffin howled, and it collapsed to the ground, growling in pain.
Luckily, I dodged out of the way before the griffin’s body crushed me, and I stood upright to watch the monster writhe in agony. I glanced nervously at Kayla, but she’d seemed to calm down. Her dark eyes were eying me nervously, and she was probably thinking, “I must be going crazy because lazy Raine just killed a lion bird thing.”
I nearly struck the monster to put him out of his misery until the griffin reared up and caught my legs from behind. It hoisted me high up, and his golden beak nearly closed around my body. That was up to the point when I cut his beak right off with my sword. The griffin widened his eyes, and before my eyes, the creature disintegrated. I fell and hit the ground with a thud, but I had the strength to get back to my feet and brush myself off. The griffin’s dying wail sang through the air when I stared at the pile of dust proudly. That had to have been my fastest battle with a monster ever. My centaur teacher, Chiron, would have been proud if he were here.
I heard an intentional cough behind me, and I turned to Kayla. “What?” I asked innocently.
“Don’t mind me,” Kayla said in a mock version of my innocent voice. “I’m just standing here, watching you blow up a griffin, and questioning my own sanity.”
“How much did you see?” I asked suspiciously, cocking my head. Mortals didn’t see monsters as clearly as demigods did, like me, and usually their less superior senses didn’t pick up too much.
“That was a griffin right?” Kayla demanded. “Half eagle, half lion? Those aren’t supposed to be real.”
“How much did you see?” I repeated, thinking up a good cover story at the same time. Lying was one of the jobs of heroes.
Kayla rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to say? That I saw nothing? I saw you killing a---griffin with a really cool sword. That’s all.” She shrugged, but her eyes were frozen with excitement and fear.
“Why was it here?” I asked. Usually monsters leave mortals alone, unless they were desperately hungry, but normally they just find the common satyr or a defenseless demigod for lunch instead. “Did it follow you?”
“From where?” Kayla asked, exasperated. “Look, all I was doing was walking to Language Arts, same as you. And when I was, this thing pulled me out of the sky and dragged me here. It set me down eventually, but I think it was tired of my kicking and screaming. Stupid teachers didn’t even come to see what was wrong.”
I knew that they wouldn’t; in fact, the mortal teachers probably didn’t even hear Kayla yelling or see the monster pick her off the ground. This was a risky question, but I had to make sure… “Are-are you human?”
Kayla almost broke out laughing. “That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard! …Well, if you were asking Brian or Michael if they were human, I’d get it, but…” She broke off, and sighed. “None of this really happened, did it? I’m just going crazy.”
“No, no,” I said slowly. “It happened, but what I don’t get…if you’re mortal…”
“Like you’re not,” Kayla scoffed. “I don’t think that rehab worked at all after you were in that gang.” She put her hands over her mouth at my fake wounded expression, and she squeaked, “Oh my God, I didn’t mean to say it like that!”
I growled under my breath, and said, “No, it’s okay.” The lie that the news had let out was that me and my thirteen demigod friends plus the satyr were indulged in a horrible cult for a while. And that eight of us had died in gang fights, which I had wished was the biggest issue. Really, the fifteen of us had embarked on a dangerous quest to fulfill a prophecy and save the world. We’d been sent to defeat Hades, who was rising against the Olympians to overthrow them and rule the world. My former friend Nichole had been sucked into his twisted plan and the evil traitor had died before she’d tried to kill me. Brayden Flyt, a son of Hermes, had stabbed her with one of the fallen hero’s spear.
I always felt sad when I thought about my dead friends, and that helped when I had to fake being sad or angry when someone mentioned the ‘cult’. Police were still ‘working’ on that case, though they’d never find anything. I stared at the sky angrily, and storm clouds began to move in. That was something I could do as a daughter of Zeus, a god who had voted to kill us on Mount Olympus, Greece last fall.
“Seriously, I didn’t mean it,” Kayla said quickly. “I know it’s been hard for you…darn it, there I go again.”
When my golden eyes glowed harshly, Kayla was caught staring at them. I looked down quickly, knowing that only Greek-world people would understand my weird Twilight-vampire eyes. My dad had the same eyes, as did my half-brother, Apollo.
“Forget it,” I said. “Do you know why the griffin was here?”
Kayla sighed. “Look. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think this is my imagination. What really is happening? And who are you, ‘because you are not Raine Strike.”
“I am Raine,” I insisted. “And look, you…” I faltered, my liquid topaz eyes uncertain. No mortals other than us heroes’ human parents knew about the true way the world was. They didn’t know about the gods, monsters, titans or demigods. No one had since the Roman Empire. But it was this or I risked Kayla telling someone about this. Besides, Kayla was usually very quiet and good at keeping secrets. I would know; I’d told her a couple normal ones, so I expected this one to remain confidential too.
“Kayla,” I began. “Have you ever heard about the Greek myths? Like those ones in seventh grade?”
“Yeah,” Kayla said slowly. Her dark brown eyes were confused and one of her eyebrows was cocked.
“Well, every single one of those was true,” I said.
“Okay then,” Kayla said sarcastically. “Let’s go to the nurse’s office, alright? Maybe this is all a bad dream. Come on.” She reached for my hand, but I yanked it away, my yellow eyes stern.
“Listen!” I said. “What I’m telling you is the truth! Those gods and monsters…they still exist today. And well, so do demigods.”
“Demi-what?”
“Demigods,” I said. “Half-human, half-god. And, well, I know some of them.”
“Really?” Kayla didn’t sound excited or really wanting to know, but she sounded skeptical.
“Yes,” I said. “And one of them is me.”
“Maybe you should go see a doctor, or one of those straitjacket people,” Kayla joked.
“Ugh, you mortals are impossible. I don’t remember why this was a good idea.”
Kayla burst out laughing. “Come on, Raine! You’ve got to be kidding me because that has to be the worst lie I’ve ever heard!”
“Keep your voice down!” I ordered, lowering mine. “I am a demigod, Kayla. A daughter of Zeus. Really.”
“Yeah right,” Kayla scorned. “If you’re the daughter of Zeus prove it!”
I glanced at the sky. “Do you have any outdoors plans today after school?”
“No, but what does that have to do with anything?” Kayla folded her arms across her chest.
“Alright then,” I said, ignoring the second part. I raised my hand, and my golden eyes were glowing. A rumble of thunder boomed and the once blue sky was now swathed in gray clouds. Pouring rain began to fall and a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.
Kayla looked bewildered. “Uh…did you do that?” She looked really afraid of me now.
I pursed my lips, but I nodded. “Yeah.”
Kayla was backing away, shivering. “Okay, I’m freaked out now.” She pulled out a cellphone. “I’m just going to call the cops, okay?”
“No!” I held out my hand and sent a weak bolt of electricity towards the phone in Kayla’s hand. It wasn’t strong enough to hurt her, but it knocked the T-Mobile onto the grass.
“What the…” Kayla muttered. I took a step forward, my eyes pleading. Kayla rushed backward too quickly, and fell on her butt. “Stay away from me,” she warned without too much bravery.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I sighed. “I just want to talk.”
“About what?” Kayla asked cautiously.
“Can you at least promise me never to speak of this to anyone?” I asked.
“I’m not sure I can do that.”
“Please, Kayla,” I said. “Don’t tell anyone. This is private, alright?”
Kayla bit her lip, and scrambled backward, and I rolled my eyes. “I am not going to zap you! Calm down!”
Kayla took my words to heart, and obeyed like she was a dog and I her master. “Jeez, you’re weird,” I said.
“You’re one to talk!”
I checked the time on my phone. “Okay, we have like thirty minutes left of Language Arts. Do you want to go, or…?”
Kayla stood up with my help, but she took my hand and glared at it like it was on fire. “No, I’m too freaked out to go to class. I’m going to the nurse’s office, and then I’m going home. I think I’ll pass for a fever because I’m so freaked out right now.”
“Stop saying that,” I said. “Look, maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, but it’s too late now. I’ll go to the nurse’s office too, and I’ve got the perfect cover story.”
“What?” Kayla asked suspiciously.
I smiled, and she backed off a little. “Oh, you’ll see.”

“You were attacked by a deer, you say?” the nurse mused. She looked skeptically over her thick glasses. “I find that hard to believe.”
“There are a lot of loose deer around here,” I commented.
The nurse raised her eyebrows. “Fine. Tell me the story again.”
“I was on my way to Language Arts when I lost my wallet. I went back to get it from math class out in the trailers when I heard Kayla scream,” I began.
“Then I saw her by the tennis courts and a buck had run into her when a car had almost hit it. It was afraid, and Kayla had just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“The area near the tennis courts?” the nurse repeated. “And why were you there?”
Kayla looked stumped for a second, but then her eyes flashed. “I wanted to go outside to get to class. I was out in the trailers, and it would have been faster to go that way.”
“So I am expected to believe a deer tried to run you over in attempt of flight. Right in between classes.” The nurse pushed her red-rimmed glasses up to her dark eyes.
“Yep,” I said calmly. I was so used to lying, and this wasn’t even the worst lie I’d ever come up with. The accidental explosion in the cafeteria was pretty funny; it was really caused by a rogue phoenix, and slain by Rose, who weakened it with seawater and stabbed it with Cascade, her magic sword, a gift from her dad and given to her by Artemis.
So the cafeteria wasn’t serving popcorn chicken anymore, which was kind of a loss, but they weren’t as good as they were in sixth grade anyway.
“Alright,” the nurse sighed. She pointed to a tan-tile room in the back. “Go lie down for a while, and I’ll call your mom to pick you up.” The nurse glared at me. “What about you?”
“I’ll go back to class,” I said. The nurse nodded, and began to write a pass for me. I glanced at Kayla while the nurse wasn’t looking, and made a motion across my mouth with my index finger and my thumb pinched together, meaning, Zip it. Kayla’s eyes were troubled, but she nodded slowly.
When I got back to class, I handed Mrs. Blume my pass, and she smiled. I sat next to Andrea, who whispered, “Where were you?”
“Helping Kayla in the nurse’s office,” I replied. “What we watching?”
“Talladega Nights. Can you believe they’re letting us see this in school?”
I laughed, and watched the movie until the bell rang. Later on, after school, I met up with Rose, Belle, and Brooke. We sat at the meeting place, and we were going to walk home. I told them about the griffin attack, and they all took it seriously.
“That’s the second monster in two months at the school,” Brooke said grimly. “We only have two days left, but the wild monster problem here is getting horrible. Baltimore has the highest homicide rate, even more than New York City. And the Cyclopes number is really high there.”
“Should we contact Chiron?” Rose asked. “He probably already knows, but we could use some help.”
“Yeah?” I joked. “From who? If you haven’t noticed, we’re the only heroes around. Unless you know any other demigods?”
Just then, Alex Jones’ gang passed by, laughing hysterically and pushing each other around. Sierra Sweeder flipped her dark hair and her multi-colored eyes were a hard shade of blue. When she passed me, she bumped into me, pushing me down onto the curb. Sierra snorted and laughed while her stupid friends giggled and doubled over, jeering.
Brooke and Rose tried to help me stand and Belle gathered my lunch that I didn’t feel like eating before. But instead, my friends had to hold me back. If they hadn’t, Sierra would’ve been a pile of burnt ashes. My eyes were glowing flames and the sky was darkening to a deep gray and a roll of thunder boomed overhead.
Sierra laughed along with her friends, but she looked a little freaked from the sudden storm. Brooke bit her lip and her silver eyes were worried. “Raine, calm down. Don’t zap anyone.” She amended, “Again.”
I rolled my eyes. That kid survived, even if I did zap him. I grit my teeth and faced the idiotically laughing mortals. Tyler Brown, a black kid with a D average, sneered, “Go join your gang, gold-eyes.”
Sierra and Kellie pushed Brooke and Rose back, and my hand flickered to my pocket that held Lightning Strike. I lunged at the two mortal girls, but apparently Belle was faster. She held me back, barely, and she had a pleading look in her eyes. She knew how my temper issues went. Someone got shocked along the way. But I couldn’t help it, I was so angry. A bolt of lightning came down and nearly struck the flagpole behind us. Alex’s group backed off a little, and the smarter ones left with stupid expressions. But the dumbest ones who wanted to test their luck stayed behind. Kellie and Sierra, robot twins (I’m serious, if one moved, the other did too), edged towards us with snobby, proud expressions. Kellie sneered. “So, hey, Raine, is your mom picking us up today?”
“Even if she was, you wouldn’t be coming, jerk,” I said without moving my mouth.
“Screw you!” the blonde said. “I’ll just go home with Sierra, won’t I?”
The dark-haired girl’s eyes were weirdly purplish. “No, sorry, I’m busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Not really your business,” Sierra said without looking up. Her multi eyes were a light shade of guilty blue.
Brooke nudged me. “Come on. We got to go home.” I walked past Kellie, ignoring her disgusted look. When I was close enough, I smacked my shoulder into hers.
“Sorry,” I muttered, though I was smirking. The clouds receded, and I headed to Brooke’s house.

I hung out with my brother, Niko, at around eight as we watched SNL reruns. I dug Lightning Strike out of my pocket and mindlessly began to shrink and grow it until I realized that my little brother was here. Of course, he was leaning over me and was begging, “Can I see it? Can I see it?”
This was nearly as bad as his iPod phase or his Japanese anime phase. As soon as he learned I was a demigod, he went crazy for all of my weapons. I trusted him to keep it a secret; after all, he had to be the most secretive fifth grader in the world, not to mention, completely mortal. I learned not to easily trust demigods with the experiences I’d had.
And Niko was actually only my half-brother. He was completely human and was my stepfather’s son. As it was, it was hard enough to keep most of my hero life from Niko without that constant bugging. So I didn’t exactly feel very comfortable with giving my sword to him, which was lethal to monsters, gods, and humans alike. And to everything in between.
I tried to pay attention to Saturday Night Live, but Niko kept going, “Can I see it? Can I see it? Can I see it? Can I see it? Can I see it?”
“No!” I groaned. “Go bother someone else!”
“Can you at least zap that weird kid in my grade with the tuba?”
“No!”
“Please?” I shook my head. “Why not?” he cried. “You hate him!”
“I want to, but zapping is illegal,” I grumbled. I crossed my arms, and Niko laughed.
I wished that all days could be as easy and lay back as the easiest portion of my life, my mortal family. But no, lives of demigods didn’t work that way. Heroes didn’t start off strong and able to beat monsters without dying.

My dreams were strange and dark. I first was standing in a dark corridor, lit by faintly-lit torches. I recognized the place, and I scowled. Curse Hades. He was still trying to tempt me and my friends.
Last winter my fourteen friends and I had embarked on a perilous quest to destroy a monster that was attempting the fall of Olympus. The monster had turned out to be Nichole, daughter of the god of the West Wind. She’d worked for Hades for half of our journey, and over half of our quest members died for it, including her. Could I say I never regretted her death? That I never regretted the way fate made things work? No, I couldn’t say that at all.
I walked down the hallway slowly with a cautious expression, but one full of pride too. I served Olympus. I wouldn’t ever fall under Hades’ temptation again. I had, at one point, and I felt like I’d caused Ally’s death. The daughter of Apollo had given her life to protect her friends, and we still grieved for her.
The whisper of spirits accompanied when I walked through the mysterious passage of the Underworld. The sound of light footsteps echoed behind me, but I assumed those were the steps of the dead in the walls of Erebos, Hades’ palace.
I kept walking, and wondered how far I’d go before I either woke up or found the Lord of the dead.
Instead, someone found me. The echo of footfalls were louder, like they were getting closer, and I drew my weapon. Lightning Strike glinted gold in the darkness of Erebos, and I whirled around to see a faint column of silver stain the dripping obsidian walls. I bared my teeth and edged forward, and some humanoid shape, too shrouded in the night to see clearly who---or what---it was. I swung my sword and I heard a shriek.
“Hey!” a familiar voice cried. “This may be a dream, but those things still hurt!” I lowered my weapon to smile sheepishly at my old friend.
“You can’t really blame me,” I protested. “Creeping up on me like that, especially in the Underworld.” I shrank Lightning Strike back to pocketknife size, and my golden eyes were liquid pools of nostalgia. “What’s up, Heather?”
The daughter of Demeter adjusted the silver bow on her back, and especially in the cover of the dark, I could see a silver outline that marked her immortality. “The Hunters are preparing for battle, but that’s not important.”
“Yes, it is. It kind of affects the fate of the world, Heather.”
Heather rolled her coffee-colored eyes rolled. “Let me rephrase. I meant, that is not why I have been sent.”
“Sent?”
“By Lady Artemis,” the huntress said. “To recover you.”
“She knows I’m in the Underworld then.”
Heather grabbed my hand, and she looked concerned. “Why are you in Hades’ land? In Erebos, no doubt. You can’t really…”
“I didn’t come here on my own accord, I was brought here,” I said flatly, a little ticked that even Artemis, one of the only immortals that favored me and my friends, would even suspect that I’d turn traitor. “You know I’d never betray anyone.”
“I do, but these are desperate times,” Heather whispered. “No one expected you know who to join Hades, and we are losing gods.”
“What?” This took me by surprise.
“Some of the minor gods, like Nemesis, are finding a better opportunity on Hades’ side. A bunch of other ones too. And two are dead.”
“Dead? Gods can’t die!”
“There have been a few assaults on some smaller gods,” Heather explained. “This was more of a score on our side though. Selene, the moon goddess, and Helios, the sun god, tried to sneak over to Hades’ side without the Olympians finding out right away. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work out that way. Artemis and Apollo have fully taken their roles.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s…weird.”
Heather nodded. “Anyway, that’s off topic. I need you to leave the Underworld right now. Artemis wanted to talk to you, but if you didn’t intentionally come here…well, that was plan B.”
I listened as Heather began, “Artemis warned you out of Erebos. And she…had some news. Something that could be better for us, or a terrible thing. We recently discovered two demigods, and they are at school.”
“What? Two demigods? Are you sure?”
“Positive. Artemis sent out three scouts last week to find any unknown heroes. And we found some at Dumbarton.”
“Do I know them?”
She looked at me without expression, and she said solemnly, “Oh, yeah, you know them, Raine.” My eyes kept getting wider and wider when she spoke the names of the demigods. A howl ripped through the walls of Erebos, and it was joined by triplet of canine cries.