"You know," Elena said after a few minutes of walking in silence, "this is kind of fun."

Sophia grinned. "See, it's a great idea!"

"Yeah, you never know what we could run into."

"I'm just here for Camp Half-Blood," I said.

" Of course you are, and I'm 99.9% sure what you just said isn't a real place," said Elena.

"What about that 0.1 percent?" I asked.

I got no answer, but it didn't matter because we had arrived at the store.

We entered the convenience store. I saw a box knife right as we walked in and I grabbed it. It could be a good demigod weapon. I picked up a basket and looked around. Sophia and Elena had wandered off and I was strolling through the aisles. A drawing set caught my eye and I picked it up. The only reason I wanted to get it is that I needed something to draw on while looking for the source of the eerie shadow.

I started to look for Sophia and Elena, but then I knew where to find them. The refrigerated aisle.

"Guys, we have water, and as tempting as it is, we don't need more stuff to lug around," I said. They were reaching for a bottle of soda.

"Says the girl who took the most unnecessary stuff in the world," snapped Sophia.

"Jeez, fine, but only 2 bottles."

They picked up the bottles and we walked to the cashier. I dumped the stuff on the moving belt thing, which Sophia said was a conveyor belt. There was an awkward silence as the checkout guy scanned our stuff.

"Your total is $29.81."

I quickly swiped my mom's credit card.

"You swiped it too fast," the cashier said in a bored tone.

I scowled and swiped it again, slower this time. The pay machine thing dinged and the cashier said, "Have a nice day."

"Well, that was awkward," said Elena.

"Wow, I can't believe you just picked up on that." Sophia rolled her eyes.

They continued to argue as we walked in the direction the GPS said to go to reach Long Island.

After a while of walking, we came across a heavily wooded area. "Let's set up camp here since we don't have much sunlight left," I said.

"We aren't gonna set up in silence!" Sophia exclaimed. She scrolled on her phone for a few seconds and then it started blasting a song called Riptide.

Since I have ADHD I was kind of having trouble focusing on putting up the tent. Sophia volunteered to help and I gladly accepted. And then she told me she also has ADHD.

"Well, that's not helpful!" I said scornfully. Sophia frowned but called Elena for help. As far as both of us were aware, Elena did not have ADHD and was very good at paying attention when she wanted to.

While Elena put up the tent, Sophia sat on a fallen log and I started a small fire with survival skills we learned at the summer camp we went to a few years ago.

"Doesn't it seem like the forest is caving in? Like it's about to swallow us," Sophia said.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It's creepy."

"I finished!" Elena called from the tent. We hurried over and unrolled the sleeping bags that we got at the store. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.

I was running in a dark place. It looked familiar but so strange at the same time.

"Run, run as fast as you can! Please just try to get away from it! It could be the end of everything," I heard a strange male voice say.

My eyes sprang open - my vision was a bit blurry but when it cleared I saw two figures on the ground next to me. Elena was sprawled out while Sophia was peacefully sleeping, curled up in a little ball.

I looked at Sophia's phone. The time was 1:27 am. I sighed and lay back down.

I was just about to drift back to sleep but I heard a crunch of leaves outside. I stood up quietly and rummaged through my bag for my flashlight.

I stepped outside the tent and turned on my flashlight. "Who would be up this early?" I murmured to myself. I shone my light between two trees and my eyebrows shot off my head as I saw a giant dog staring at me. I slowly approached it, looking straight at it. It looked like one of the hellhounds from Percy Jackson had come straight out of the book. I was scared because I knew what could happen if I did something to provoke it.

Then I ran back to the tent to wake up Sophia and Elena and get the box knife that I spent 20 dollars on. We walked out of the tent with everything we could grab. Elena had a stick that she found, Sophia had a bottle of water, and I had the knife.

"You gonna fight with a water bottle?" I asked Sophia.

She rolled her eyes. "It was the first thing I found."

"Please don't make any sudden moves," a voice said from above.

I looked up at the dog because I thought it could talk.

"Why shouldn't we?" asked Elena.

A kid slid down from the back of the huge dog. He was wearing a black shirt and a leather jacket, the classic emo look. He stared into the distance, looked us up and down, then said, "Follow me." He hopped on his hellhound.

"Sorry to be disrespectful, but why should we follow you?" I asked suspiciously.

He cocked his head. "Why should you not?" He looked me in the eyes and I could've sworn they were dark as midnight.

Sophia shrugged. "What could it hurt? If he can ride the hellhound, he can show us the right way. My GPS isn't working anyway." She climbed onto the big furry dog. Elena followed.

"This is crazy!" I exclaimed. "We can't just follow a random hot boy when he offers help!" Sophia stifled a giggle.

"You still don't recognize him?" She asked.

I squinted. "Nope."

Sophia held out her hand. "Come on. You'll figure it out."

I got on with Sophia's help. And that's when my mind put the pieces together.

"Hold up, why do you look like Nico? Like the emo kid." I asked.

"Because I am Nico," he said dryly.

"Wow." Elena narrowed her eyes. "Maybe all this Camp Half-Blood demigod crap is real."

"Hold up, let me go get our stuff," I said

"Are you gonna take the tent?" Nico asked

"No, but I am gonna take our backpacks."

I slid down, went inside the tent and got all of our bags, and came out then got back up on the hellhound.

With that, we started moving. It was a smoother ride than we expected, considering we were riding a giant dog. And then we ran straight into a tree.