Because I couldn't wait to get started and I'm procrastinating on studying, have a chapter of a brand new story for the UnKnown Saga.

Chapter Quote:

"When you feel like throwing rocks, make sure they're ones no one can throw back."
~Rebecca McKinsey
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Chapter 1: Our Spidey Senses Are Tingling

Bryn

"Get off the roof! Get off the roof! Get off the roof!" Bryn said to herself, bolting towards the edge of the building with Luke. She'd put down a bomb of Greek fire in front of the entrance to the roof of the building she was on so when the monsters chasing them came after them, they'd be gone in a nanosecond.

She grabbed Luke's hand before they jumped. Right as their first foot went over the side, the bomb went off, pushing them over the edge. Bryn and Luke lost grip on each other's hands. Her world was spinning until she finally managed to right herself up. Luke was still tumbling head over heels. Using her powers, she forced the wind to try and stop them. They had too much momentum going though so while she slowed them down, it wasn't enough to stop them from hitting the ground. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard of a hard landing.

Bryn groaned as she sat up, rubbing her shoulder that she'd landed on.

"You okay Sharkboy?" she asked, turning her head so she could see her boyfriend. He was sitting against the wall of the building, heaving.

"I'm fine. What about you Cat Woman?" Luke looked over at Bryn, his blue eyes sparkling from the adrenaline. Suddenly that sparkle disappeared as his eyes narrowed in on her shoulder. "Are you hurt? You're bleeding."

"Hey, I'm fine. I just landed on my shoulder when we hit the ground. I probably got hit by some shrapnel too. Let's go find Derek and Silena," she suggested. Luke helped her help, wrapping his arm around her waist. She'd taken a harder fall than her boyfriend since she'd tried to cushion his fall as much as possible. Of course, the moment she stood up she realized it wasn't just her shoulder that was hurt, but pretty much every inch of her body.

"Bryn!" Derek shouted. He and Silena slid to a stop in front of them. Eyeing his friend worriedly, he asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just a bad fall. We took care of the monsters on our end. You?"

"They're crispy critters down in Tartarus now," Silena confirmed. "We should head back to camp, get any wounds we have taken care of."

The rest agreed. They headed over to their car that was parked about a quarter mile away. Luke got into the driver's seat, Bryn rode shotgun. Silena and Derek took the back. The ride to camp was about two hours and although she wanted to stay awake to keep Luke company, Bryn's fatigue settled in. She closed her eyes, dreading what dreams would come to her.

Bryn was extremely familiar with nightmares; she had at least three every night, usually more, never less. But her experience in Tartarus two months ago had amplified them by a tenfold. All her nightmares now took place in that hell hole. Most of the time it was a repeat of when she was paralyzed, watching helplessly as her friends were beaten and injured, except in the dreams, her friends never made it. She'd wake up in a cold sweat.

She wasn't the only one experiencing it though. Luke, Derek, and Silena were just as bad. Silena's nightmares consisted of her being blind and unable to help her friends. Derek's typically consisted of his Underworld powers failing him when he needed them to save his friends. Luke never shared his, no matter how many times Bryn or the others asked him what happened. If it was Bryn, he'd simply give her an exhausted smile and pull her close to him, as if he took comfort in just her being there.

Maybe the car ride was too short, or maybe Bryn never actually fell into a deep sleep, but the nightmare never came. She woke up when the car stopped. It was an hour before dinner so that gave them all enough time to shower and clean themselves up.

"I'm going to the infirmary. I'll see you at dinner?" Bryn queried, looking at her friends.

"Of course," Derek said. "We'll see you later."

"I'll go with you. I'll debrief Chiron on what happened," Luke offered.

Bryn started walking off with Luke right behind her. Upon arriving at the infirmary, they found Chiron was tending to another camper. He smiled at them as they approached.

"Another successful mission I presume?" he asked, standing up.

"Yes, sir, but again, not entirely unscathed. I think I have some shrapnel from a Greek fire bomb in my shoulder. Could you take a look please?" Bryn requested. The centaur motioned for her to sit down. She pushed down the shoulder of her shirt so that her mentor could take a look.

"Ah, yes, you do have a little bit. Luke, my boy, grab a petri dish and some tweezers from the cabinet would you?" Chiron ordered. The Jackson boy did as he was told. Chiron set to work. "So where'd that limp come from, Miss Bryn?"

"Landed a little hard when we jumped off the building."

"She was using more resistance to stop me than herself," Luke said, giving her a disapproving look.

"How did you-"

"I was closer to the ground than you but somehow landed after you."

"Okay, so I was using my powers more on you than myself. It's out of habit."

"To put yourself in life-threatening situations?"

"No, to protect the ones I love," she said through gritted teeth. Her boyfriend looked down.

"All right, all the shrapnel's out. Here's some ambrosia and nectar to eat. Get to bed early tonight. Both of you have had a long day and you're taking your exhaustion out on each other." The centaur patted their backs gently before leaving. Bryn and Luke walked out of the infirmary, neither saying a word until they reached Zeus's cabin.

"I'm sorry for being an ass back there. I know you're just trying to protect me," Luke said, leaning against the wall next to the door.

"And I'm sorry for scaring you all the time. I know you're just looking out for me. But I promise you that I'm not going to put myself in any life-threatening situations unless I know I can come out of them alive."

"I'd rather you not put yourself in any life-threatening situations in the first place but I know it comes with being a demigod so I'm not going to stop you."

"Hey, you'll be with me whenever I'm in those situations anyways so I always have you to save my ass if I need it." Bryn winked at him as she opened her door. The two of them walked in.

"It's usually you saving my ass," Luke chuckled, shutting the door.

"True, but at least we're even now."

"Took two or three years for that to happen but it did. Do you want to watch a movie tonight?"

"I would love to, but I'm probably going to bed right after dinner. Jumping off buildings takes it out of you."

Luke smiled. "All right. If you change your mind, I'll be in the Poseidon cabin."

"I know where you'll be. I'm in your bed half the time."

An impish grin settled on her boyfriend's face. She made a face at him, knowing exactly where his thoughts were going. Giving him a kiss, she headed towards the showers.

The warm water felt good. She could feel the grime and dirt sliding off her body. She had to make sure the water wasn't too hot so as not to let the water sting her wounds any more than they already were. Drying off with a towel, she put on some yoga pants, a sports bra, and a tee shirt. She went back to her cabin. Luke wasn't there anymore. Bryn tossed her towel on the bed and dried her hair. Afterwards, she put on enough makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes. She didn't mind spilling to Luke, Derek, and Silena about her dreams, even her brothers, but she didn't want to tell anyone else, and she didn't want them asking.

"Bryn?" Silena poked her head in. "Can I come in?"

"Of course. You okay?"

"Fine. You?"

"Better now that I've showered. I see you have too."

"I smelled like burnt monsters. Which is disgusting."

Bryn smiled. "What's on your mind? I know that look on your face."

"I don't know... I've just been having these weird feelings lately. I keep thinking they're remnants of what happened in Tartarus haunting me but for some reason, I don't think that's it," Silena confessed.

Bryn scrunched his eyebrows together. "What type of feeling?"

"It's hard to explain. It's half like knowing something really bad is about to happen and the other half is feeling like something's breathing down my neck. It only happens when I'm alone though so I'm starting to think it's just paranoia."

The daughter of Zeus bit her lip, wondering how to break the news to her friend in a way that wouldn't make her stress more than she already was. "It's... not just you."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought it was just me getting these weird feelings. Mine's sort of different, and it's all but disappeared now, but the first month we were back from Tartarus, I felt like something was watching me constantly and sometimes when I'd be in the cabin alone, the temperature would seem to drop by twenty degrees. I'd always go to Luke when that'd happen and just stay in his bed the rest of the night. I never said anything because I thought it was paranoia."

"You don't think it is?"

"It's weird that we're both feeling it. I'll talk to Hallie. She's coming over tomorrow with the twins. I'll see if any of them are experiencing anything weird. For now, be on alert for anything unusual."

"Thank you Bryn. How are you doing? How are the dreams?"

"I've never been happier. I mean the nightmares I could do without but honestly, I don't think I've ever been happier."

"The nightmares haven't gotten better?"

Bryn shook her head. "No. Some are less severe than others but the pain is still there. What about yours?"

Silena shrugged. "About the same as you I guess. Listen, I told Derek I'd meet him before dinner so I have to go. But I'll see you later?"

"Maybe. I'm heading to bed early. I'm exhausted from today."

"I understand. If I don't see you later, I'll see you tomorrow." Silena left the room. Bryn finished doing her makeup and went to dinner. She sat with Derek at the Apollo table. She stayed quiet most of the dinner, but she smiled and laughed along with the rest of the table. Her eyes kept roaming over to Luke. He was sitting by himself at the Poseidon table. Silena was at the Athena table. At one point, Bryn's eyes met Silena's. The former nodded over to Luke. His sister seemed to pick up on her meaning: why was Luke eating alone?

When dinner was over, Luke headed to the campfire with the rest. Bryn pushed aside her worries about him and went to her cabin to go to sleep. Sleep came to her almost instantly, but with the sleep came the nightmares. She knew they weren't real, but the rationalization rarely helped. The pain was still too real, too soon, too true. Every time Bryn woke up from the dream of watching her friends die while was paralyzed, unable to save them, her heart felt like it was going to simultaneously constrict and explode into nothingness.

At some point in the night, Bryn woke up to the sound of someone quietly entering her cabin. The person slid into bed next to her. Knowing who it was, she turned over so she could rest her head on his chest.

"Did I wake you?" Luke whispered.

"No," she murmured in response. "Nightmare."

He kissed her on the head, wrapping his arms around her. Luke knew that saying comforting words would do nothing to console her, so he just held her until she would fall back asleep. They did this every night, every night since their first night back from Tartarus. The first time it'd happened, Bryn had gone to the Poseidon cabin. Luke had been up, doing stuff on his computer, but he dropped everything to help her. The next night, he came over to her cabin. That night they made an agreement that neither needed to knock if they were coming in, that they could just crawl in bed with each other.

"Were you okay at dinner?" Bryn asked softly.

"Yeah, why?"

"You were sitting alone."

"It's not the first time I've done it."

"No, but you've been doing almost every day since we got back from Tartarus."

"I'm fine, just haven't been in the mood for deep, technical conversations which seems to be the only topic of interest at the Athena table," he joked, but Bryn could tell his heart wasn't in it. She wanted to push but he was putting up walls, and she was all too familiar with that since she'd done the same thing for most of her life, even to the people closest to her.

"Well, when you decide to tell me what's going on, because I know something is, I'll be all ears." Giving him a kiss on his jaw, she closed her eyes again.
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She woke up what felt like only a few minutes later but she knew it was longer than that. Bryn noticed that her bed suddenly seemed much larger than usual, and she realized that was because Luke was gone. Or so she thought. Upon rolling over to her other side, she found him pacing up and down her cabin, seemingly oblivious to the fact she was awake.

"Luke? What's wrong?" Bryn asked, sitting up. She glanced outside to gauge what time it was. She could see on the horizon the faint blue that indicated dawn was coming. It must've at least been close to four or five in the morning.

"I'm fine. Just a nightmare."

"So why are you pacing?"

"To calm myself down."

"What was it about?"

"Nothing."

Bryn sighed. "This has been going on for two months. One day you're going to have to tell me what's going on."

"That's funny coming from the girl who not only kept secrets from her friends religiously over her entire time at being at camp, but also refused to tell her closest friends she was dying."

The words stung but Bryn didn't let them get to her. Luke was exhausted and was taking his tiredness out on her. She stood up. "I know, and I'm telling you to open up because I know what keeping secrets does to you. It slowly destroys you from the inside out, Luke. It will destroy the light inside of and let darkness take over."

"You can't do anything if I tell you so what's the point in doing so?"

"Because maybe I can't help, but it might feel good to get it off your chest."

"It won't do any good! Geez, just stop pestering me about this already, will you? Gods, if I knew that having a girlfriend meant I'd be relentlessly asked to share my feelings, I never would've gotten one." Luke stormed out of Zeus's cabin, leaving Bryn frozen in place. Had she heard him correctly? Was he regretting dating her?

Numbly, the daughter of Zeus crawled back into bed, closing her eyes in an attempt to fall asleep. But no matter what she tried, her body refused to relax, refused to let her sleep. Her thoughts kept racing about what Luke had said.

Suddenly her phone started buzzing. Grabbing it, she said, "Hello?"

"Hey sis," the twins greeted simultaneously. They sounded tired.

"Hey you two. Everything okay?"

"We were about to ask if we'd woken you up but you hardly sound tired," Brady said.

"Our spidey senses were tingling and we sensed you were distressed about something," Bradley added.

"Luke and I just had a fight is all."

"You two have had fights before but Brady and I never got a feeling about it before. Whatever he said really got to you."

"Something's wrong with him and he won't tell me what it is. Then he said some stuff that makes me think he wants to break up with me."

"Break up with you?" Brady repeated.

"Okay, this is the guy that fell into Tartarus for you. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to break up with you," Bradley remarked.

"Tartarus changed us. Maybe more than we know," Bryn said.

"You want us to talk to him?"

"No, but thank you. I'll talk to Silena, see if she knows anything. I'm fine though, really. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We should get there right after breakfast."

"All right. Get some sleep."

"You two Bryn. We love you," Brady said. She hung up with her brothers and rolled onto her stomach. Maybe tomorrow would be kinder.
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A long chapter for a first chapter. Longer than I expected. Hope you enjoyed and reviews would be lovely :)