Child of Athena

Denise trotted along the highway, only pausing to push her tangled hair out of her obsidian eyes. Monsters were always after her, and any adult she told wouldn’t believe her.
Wrapping her arms around her jean jacket, Denise slowed down, and looked at her phone. Another missed call from her so called mom. Good. She never wanted to speak to her again.
Throwing her phone to the ground, letting it shatter, she stomped off. "Oh, Denise, you've been a naughty child." A sickly sweet voice stopped her in her tracks. It was another monster.
Turning around to face the owner of the voice, she was shocked. It wasn't the typical beast. It was a beautiful woman, with translucent skin, blonde hair, but she had red eyes. When Denise concentrated though, she saw an old withered hag, with the same red eyes.
"No, just go away." Denise huffed, and stormed off. She was not in the mood, and her father had told her to find Caldecott Tunnel.
“Oh, but you’ve been bad, you need to be bitten.” Her voice was eerie and hollow.
Denise began to sprint. Recalling the directions, she realized she was so close. The woman began to follow her, shrieking about cavities. “Who are you?” Denise asked.
She saw two tunnels up ahead sitting next to each other on the hill, and a pale boy and dark skinned girl stood in front of a door in between, wearing old fashioned leather battle armour. This must be it. The camp for kids like her.
“Get back here! Mormo needs to feed on bad children!” The hag shrieked, her eyes filled with flames.
“Help!” Denise screamed at the people near the tunnel. Couldn’t they see she was about to get bitten?
The two people in front of the door were standing ready, drawing back their swords. Denise was getting closer, with Mormo right on her heels.
“Nico,” the dark skinned girl said, her curly brown hair escaping from her helmet. “Get her to safety. Now.” The pale boy immediately jumped, and led her into the door.
Inside it looked like the typical maintenance tunnel that mortals would assume was there, with cable boxes, warning signs, and light bulbs. But as she ran deeper into the tunnel with the pale dark haired boy, the cement floors and ceilings became tiled, and the lights became reed torches.
All of a sudden an image appeared out of thin air. It was a older teenage boy with blonde hair, gray eyes, and an orange shirt. "Malcolm?" Nico came to a halt and stared at him. Mormo lunged towards them and the girl struggled to fight her. "Listen, this isn't the best time. IM me later." He waved his hand through the image and Denise stared. Woah, that was weird.
They kept running. The tunnel echoed with the monster's screams and the girl fighting.
“Uh, where are we going?” Denise asked as she heard the monster’s shrieks from behind. The boy, Nico, sighed and stopped them.
A final scream from Mormo, and the girl ran up to them. “Alright, let’s go. I’m Hazel.” She started jogging towards the square of daylight at the end of the tunnel, but Denise planted her feet firmly.
Nico and Hazel spun around to gawk at her, and Denise averted her eyes. “Um, I don’t really know what’s going on.”
Hazel snorted a small laugh and smiled. “That’s okay, come on, we need to get to camp.”
But Denise just couldn’t. She needed answers, she needed information. She was fine staying in the underground tunnel. In fact, she liked underground, so they couldn’t just force her out into the beating California sun. “Come on.” Nico urged, gripping her left wrist.
Denise yanked her arm back. "I can't." She stared into Hazel's eyes and regrettably found a ghost of hers. Shifting her eye color and making her hair a golden brown, she became the illusion of Hazel's most dreaded ghost.
"Queen Marie?" Hazel stuttered out. "Mother?" She backed away, startled.
Denise then faced Nico, and realized they both had identical dark eyes. Shaking that thought out of her head, she found what she was looking for, and she simply shifted her eye color, making it seem lighter. "Bianca..." Nico stared at her, his eyes seeming shattered.
Her heart pounded and she realized it was a mistake. She should've never came here, or ran away. She needed to go home, she needed to go away. Denise's shoes pounded on the tile until they were on cement, and she bolted out of the tunnel, collapsing a few feet away from the door.
She blacked out, dreaming of her mother. Her real mother.
The woman stood in front of her, shifting as if she wasn’t stable. Her image seemed to be split in half, on side mummy-like and dark with black hair, the other pale, cold, and aloof. “My poor child.” She mumbled, her voice sounding like gravel.
“Excuse me? Who are you?” Denise curiously stared.
“Melinoe, goddess of ghosts, daughter of Persephone and Hades. I’m also your mother.” Her image changed and she wavered in front of Denise. The image of her father appeared. “Such a kind man, so many ghosts I came to him every night, and we fell in love. Now that he is dead, I’m more in tune with his spirit.” The image quickly disappeared and Melinoe stood in it’s place.
“When you wake up, listen to Hazel and Nico. And, show Nico that ghost of his once again. You’ll realize some connection.” Then, with that final word, Denise’s eyelids were closed, and the harsh sun blinded her.
“Are you alright?” Nico’s voice asked. Shadows jumped and danced around her eyes.
“Fine, fine. What’s going on?” She groggily sat up and rubbed her eyes, clearing her vision. What she saw definitely freaked her out. She wasn’t anywhere she knew of.
Denise was sitting in a hospital cot, and surrounding her were other beds, and white washed walls.
The girl, Hazel, was standing next to Nico, frowning at her. She bored her eyes into Denise and grimaced. "Welcome to Camp Jupiter."

Notes

Yeah, this is kinds longer, but right now on my other story I'm having a little bit of writer's block, so I decided to update this story and so...yeah.

Oh, and happy early turkey day for people who celebrate American Thanksgiving.