"So...um...we can get out of here now, right?" I asked when neither Jack nor Blake moved. Blake glanced at me and then frowned. "Yeah. Sorry." He said, dropping Jack's hand and walking back toward the barrier.

Jack was staring at Blake. I tapped him on the arm and he looked at me, his eyes slightly unfocused.

This was creeping the Hades out of me.

"Um...did you two have like...a moment of realization back there or...?" I muttered, looking down at my feet. Jack laughed so loudly that I jumped. "I can't believe you just asked that question!" He roared.

My face turned red. "GODS OF OLYMPUS NO! NOT LIKE THAT!" I yelped. Jack doubled over, howling like a hyena. I slapped the back of his head, my face getting redder by the minute.

"JACK WHAT THE HADES!? I-I MEAN IT'S NOT LIKE I HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST-BUT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT! JUST-AH NO! I KNOW YOU'RE NOT-NO." I stammered, not sure why I had to make things so awkward. What was I, an awkwardness generator or something?

Jack stood up (with a great effort) and grinned widely at me, tears seeping out of the corners of his eyes. "And I just told you I liked you..." He sighed, trying to sound exasperated (but failing miserably).

I heard Blake clear his throat and I jumped a little. He was looking at Jack and I, a hurt expression on his face. When he caught me looking, his cheeks reddened and he turned away, back toward the barrier. "We can get through now." He informed us, not making eye contact.

Jack and I glanced at each other, then followed Blake through the barrier.

The sound that pounded my eardrums when we walked through was unbelievable. I shoved my hands over my ears and gripped the tightly. Car horns blasted at me from every direction.

Then I noticed that we were in  the middle of a street.

Holy Hades.

"Haha, well isn't this great." Jack said, grinning and putting his hands on his hips. I glared at him as he waved at the frustrated drivers. "We are standing in the middle of a freaking road and you're waving at the drivers that would rather run us over than have us stand here." I said. Jack looked at me, an expression of mock innocence on his face. "What's wrong with that?"

"Unbelievable." I muttered, turning around and walking off the road. Jack and Blake followed me, Jack still waving at the drivers and Blake pulling his hood low over his eyes.

"Let's go up there." Jack suggested, pointing up a very small, but still rather steep hill. There was an iron fence on the top. I stared at it, uncertain if I really wanted to find out what was over that fence.

"I don't this that's a good idea," Blake said, glancing up at the fence nervously. Jack shrugged. "I never have good ideas, but somehow they work themselves out. That being said, get your leather clad booty over that fence and check it out for us."

"Why me?" Blake asked. Jack tilted his head. "Because, idiot, you're the strong one."

•••

Soon enough, the three of us were over the other side of the fence. Turns out, it was an old church with a lot of land.

I lead the way toward the front enterance. Iron railings were on both sides of a steep slope of steps. The steps were small and each one wasn't very high.

I touched my hand to the railing, which was painted black...at least that's what it looked like. Most of the paint was peeling away, and where it was gone the railing was rusted.

I touched my hand to the railing. It was cold, colder than it should have been for such a warm summer day.

I paused, staring at the cars in the street, fear clawing at my stomach. How did I know that this was just a warm summer day? I mean...I hadn't really paused to feel the air. What if...what if I had been gone longer than just a few hours. What if it had been days?
Weeks?
Months?
Years?

No. That's impossible. It couldn't have been that long.

But the barrier was there. What if you were part of some weird time-warp or something? What if it is years into the future?

I looked back down at the railing, examining it's peeling paint and rusted patches.

"Hey, Asha!" Blake called, snapping me out of my daze. I jumped about a foot into the air.

Taking a deep breath, I climbed down the stairs and started in the direction I thought I had heard Blake's voice.

I found him and Jack kneeling over a bare patch in the ground. I bent over them, looking at it. There were claw marks in the sand.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing at it. I felt Blake shrug. (I was leaning on his shoulders. Not against him. I swear.)

"We don't know. That's why we called you over here...We thought that maybe..."

His voice trailed off. I stared at the top of his head, but he didn't look up. "What did you guys think?" I asked stiffly.

Jack stood up and held out his hands like I was about to arrest him. "Hey, it's not bad or anything." He said. I looked him right in the eye. He didn't flinch.

Okay, that's a good sign. No flinching.

"We just thought that when you had those weird vision thingies...they were like...about monsters and stuff." He explained unprofessionally.

I felt like screaming and ripping my hair out. They didn't understand, obviously. How could they? They weren't the ones with creepy mind connections.

I bit my lip and looked away, trying to control my anger. I'm not really sure where it was coming from. It was just there.

Basically my anger is a volcano. It's pretty close to being unpredictable, and when it does finally blow up, it's loud, explosive, and usually destructive.

"Are you okay Asha?" Jack asked. I felt his hand lay on my shoulder and I took a deep breath.

"I don't know what it is." I said through gritted teeth. I kept my back turned to him, in case the sight of his face made me lash out.

After a minute, I felt his hand lift. I realized that he had been touching my left shoulder.
With his left hand.
His scarred one.

I felt bad for snapping at him, now. There were no more scars because of me...but what if my coldness drove him to do it again.

I took another deep breath, turned around, and walked over to the patch of sand. Blake and Jack stood a couple of feet away from me, glaring at each other. Jack's fists were clenched and I'm sure that Blake had his clenched behind his back.

I bent over the claw marks and ran my hand over them. I didn't know what they were for sure, but I could guess if I wanted to.

I put my finger into the sand and started to write something. I don't know why I did it. I just had a gut feeling that it could be important. It could be dangerous, it could be considered some sort of threat if the wrong person saw it.

The funny thing was, I didn't really care. I knew it was important that I did this. I didn't know why it was important. I didn't even know who I was writing it for.

But I knew they would find it.

So I wrote it.

Come and find me.