The next day Ma told us over breakfast that she was taking the boys out that night, and Dani, Gracie and I would be at home by ourselves. She told us it would be our turn next Saturday night when we would go shopping for some new clothes for me. Dani found some old clothes for me in the wardrobe but Ma said that I should have some brand new ones, to go to school in. Mike and Fred were in their room all day talking about what they would do that night. I think they were going to see a late night movie or something with some of their friends.

After Ma and the boys had left Dani, ,Gracie and I were on our own in the house. Gracie watched the TV for a while (It was very interesting how the TV worked. I looked it up on the computer that day) so Dani and I went to our room. We weren't sure what to do. We sat and talked for a bit but we didn't know what to talk about so it was very awkward. Then Dani said, "Let's play truth or dare."

I asked, "what's truth or dare?"

Dani said, "I will ask you if you want a truth or a dare. If you say truth you have to answer a question truthfully. If you say dare I will dare you to do something. If you refuse you'll have to do something bad. Then you will ask me if I want truth or dare."

"Okay," I said. "You start."

Dani asked what I wanted. I said "truth."

She asked me if I had a crush. I said I didn't, because I had only been here for two days. I then asked Dani what she wanted. She wanted truth as well. I wasn't sure what to ask, so I said, "Do you have a secret?"

Dani didn't reply for a second. I felt awkward. Weren't you supposed to ask awkward questions in this game?

"Yeah. I'll tell you. The thing is..." started Dani. "The thing is... unlike the others, I don't know who either one of my parents were. I was sent to an orphanage, and all I heard about them was that my mother was an Olympian. You know, an Olympic athlete. That's all I know about them. The orphanage was really horrible. Me and my friend May were always making up stories about the grown ups there being monsters. There was this one guy, Mr Lopse. He was huge and really scary. Then there was Mrs Pousa. She looked like a vampire, she did. One day May and I decided to run away. We managed to escape. But on the way, we were caught by Mr Lopse and Mrs Pousa. I hid but when I dared to peek from my hiding spot... May was gone."

I was speechless. Dani had seemed so happy and nice before, it was hard to imagine that she'd been hiding this inside of her. "Gone?" I asked. "What do you mean, she was gone?"

"There was nothing there. Not a trace. But I get the feeling that Lopse and Pousa didn't take her back to the orphanage. I would have heard them say so. I heard some horrible noises. A scream. And May was gone." I thought about this. Perhaps she had been taken back, and she didn't want to go? But again, I got a feeling that she didn't go back to the orphanage. Perhaps... something more sinister had happened to May? I banished the thought from my mind. Whatever had happened to her, it wasn't my buisiness. It was about Dani and May, not me.

"So, what's your story?" Asked Dani. "We've told you all of ours, what about you?" I didn't think Dani would believe me that I'd lived some two thousand years ago in an endless Labyrinth and then fallen asleep to wake up in this age. She wouldn't believe me, would she? I decided I would tell her some of it. "Well... I grew up with just my father," I began. "He was an inventor called Daedalus. I didn't know who my mother was. I had apparently had a brother called Icarus but... something happened to him. I don't know what. Anyway.... I...I..." I wasn't sure what else to say, how to explain how I had come upon Ma's house. 

"Like in the Greek myth, about the man in the Labyrinth," said Dani. I jumped. She knew about my father and the Labyrinth? Even after two thousand years?

"H...how...how did you...know that?" I asked. "About the Labyrinth... and Father... after two thousand years?" Dani gave me a strange look.

"What do you mean? It's a Greek myth," she said.

"Well... you've saved me some trouble... you may not believe it but... that actually happened... and I grew up in the Labyrinth... but then... they came and I was put to sleep... and I woke up in this...time..." I said awkwardly.

"Alexia...I... I believe you, Alexia. You see... After May...disappeared... I ran off again but... I got lost. Then a strange guy... with horns, would you believe... he told me he knew someone who might help me... he gave me directions and I followed them...and ended up here, at Ma's house. I told someone about the strange horned guy but nobody believed me. They said I must have been seeing things. But I am sure of what I saw."

I couldn't speak. A man with horns... A satyr. She had seen a satyr. And from what I knew, that meant one of two things:

Either Dani was a mortal with the ability to see things that would be otherwise invisible to mortals, or... she was a child of one of the immortal gods.