Going through Time-Chapter Twelve: My Father Appears After Fourteen Years

       I rubbed my eyes, and woke up to find an ugly face in front of me.

       It was ugly, alright. Greasy hair framed a wrinkled, scarred, twisted face, with crooked lashes and a long nose. Eyes teemed with pure hatred, gleaming wickedly. Before I could say Oh my fricking gods, gnarled, clawed hands swiped across my cheek, leaving wounds that would probably give me scars.

       Unsheathing my sword, I swiped through the Fury-like creature, cutting its leathery wings (so that was what I had heard in the dark) in half. I suddenly shrieked in pain, my body hurting sharply all over.

"Arai!" Came Sadie's voice. I must have woken them up.

Yes, came the reply in my head. We are the curses, the curses...

The fate of the Cyclopes, it cackled. Sliced all over to death.

        I blinked, from the corner of my eye Will jumped and kicked the arai in the shin, then brought his sword down on top of it. He then looked at his ribs, and gasped. They were bleeding on the sides, blood coming down in gushes and staining the sides of his clothes. Glancing at Sadie, she had just cut an arai to dust.

"No!" I screamed, but my voice sounded hollow, and far away.

       Sadie suddenly fell to the floor, her legs buckling under her. Never had I seen so much blood. Her arms looked like her legs, torrents of red liquid flooding onto her body. I yelled in fury and slashed through a semicircle of arai, kicking one into a sharp boulder and another under my foot. On and on the curses went, and blood almost covered my vision, but at that moment a whoosh of black defied gravity and killed the rest.

"Sadie...Will..." I murmured, and crawled over to them, still trying to bite back a scream of pain. My friends had both passed out, and only then did I look back behind me. A hellhound came into view, its tongue lolling and tail swishing from side to side. It didn't seem to be hurt, but it was a monster after all.

         I nearly killed it with my weapon, but right before I brought it down I stopped. Mrs. O'Leary, the hellhound! Percy's friend! Why she came down here, I didn't know, but I was glad nonetheless. "Hello, girl," I said, but weakly. I barely had enough strength to sit, but Mrs. O'Leary had different ideas. Picking me up in her enormous mouth, I felt myself being carried up onto a mound of black fur, which I realized was her back.

"Go!" I whispered in her ear, and she bounded into the darkness. After a few moments, she skidded to a halt, and I clambered off, dragging Sadie with me, and then took care of Will. I limped forward, only to be knocked over by a massive body. Gold eyes blinked at me, and I got the instinct to attack, but a man stepped out of my shadows, with my same eyes, same body, same high nose. My father, after fourteen years, was finally here. Kronos.