You're ganna wish you had taken our advice

Matt was glad that Jia Li had started the van. He climbed in quickly and felt the van drive off quickly. He held the Cds in his hands. His heart pounded against his chest. He noticed Jia Li laughing and he wanted to join in as he felt the fear laughter beginning to bubble up inside. Fear laughter is what he called it, you know when you're scared but you just start laughing? Yeah, that happened to him nearly all the time.
Eventually they couldn't hold themselves in and he began to laugh with her. Amongst the laughter he heard the faint sound of police sirens. His dark eyes looked in the rear-view mirror and he saw a very far away police car speeding towards them. He rolled his eyes. He opened a CD case and placed it in the CD player. As soon it began to play he turned it up loud enough so he couldn't hear the sirens. Luckily - for Jia Li's sake - it wasn't a song that had screamo in it. You know, like Crown the empire? It was a cover that Sleeping with sirens did for pop goes punk. The song was F*ck you. Probably o0ne of the few pop songs he didn't mind. He began to sing along with it, just the words he knew though.

Matt got out of the car so fast he nearly faceplanyed into the concrete. Luckily he saved himself and began to run. There were too many people in the pathways so as he weaved through the people hastily he searched for an alley. He kept glancing back and checking to see where the cops were at. They were just stopping and had spotted them quite easily. He went back to searching for an escape.
He was now dragging Jia Li making sure he didn't lose her.

Matt was soon hiding behind a dumpster. The smell actually didn't bother him, and not because he was a boy - that was stereotypical. He had grown up with the stench of cigarette, dirty clothing and a whole list of other odours. He didn't like it though he just became used to it.
He tried to hide as much as he can when he heard footsteps coming closer to their hiding spot. After a few seconds the sound became fainter and after what seemed like forever he let go of the breath he only just realized he was holding. He turned to face Jia Li. He didn't really have to turn much since they were only a few millimetres apart.
"You okay?" he asked. It seemed like the obvious question to ask. He waited for her answer.
There was a sudden load crash. Matt's head snapped around to where the sound came from. There was the sound of a low growling. His fingers went to his ring. He cautiously leaned his head out.

It could've been any monster. Any monster that wasn't a hellhound. He wished that it was Star but these were about twice her size. He got back into his hiding position which was becoming uncomfortable for his teenager self. When they had first ran into the alley he had hoped they would hide... in a much more comfortable place. He was a bit too squished in this place.
"Why are there freaking hellhounds?"
"That's probably the worst question to use a breath on..." he whispered out loud. There was a bit of insensitivity in his words but that was the normal him showing. He felt bad for saying it to her. A look of regret showed through his eyes as he tried to think of a way to escape them.
He just hoped that they wouldn't find them until he thought of something.

Matt thought about her idea. Sure, they could lose them but that was about a 50/50 chance. Plus it could attract attention from the police again, which he didnt want and he was sure that Jia Li didn't want that either.
"Nah, we should just -" he was interrupted by the sight of jia Li's expression on her face. He knew it was his fault. He knew he could be insensitive sometimes but he hated that he had hurt her feelings. He found it weird that he felt sorry for tthat. It had been such a long since he felt that.
"sh*t... I'm sorry..." he felt a little awkward apologizing. Why? Because he's probably hardly ever said sorry.

Matthew was not sure if his apology meant anything to Jia Li. He figured not. If they weren't already in the situation they were in he would have said a much better apology.
"Let me guess. We're gonna fight?" The Hephaestus daughter asked. If it wasn't obvious enough, of course they were. He didn't dare saythis aloud ythough. Despite his insensitive attitude he knee he shouldn't. He transformed his ring into his sword.
"Yeah..." he answered to her question. Though he felt as ID she didn't need an answer anyway.

The hellhounds growled. He wondered if they looked like poodles in the eyes of mortals. Because that should make them look really stupid; two teenage kids scared of poodles. Yep. Scary. The thought quickly faded as the hellhound blocking the exit pounced at them. Matt dodged and swung his blade at the beasts side. He didn't like the idea of killing something so closely related to Star. But he didn't really have a choice. Did he?
The hellhound instantly snapped his head towards him. It's mouth in a snarl revealing sharp teeth. Matt took in a breath as he tried to remain calm. All he had to do was kill the hellhounds, make sure Jia Li doesn't get hurt and escape with no problems. Because Matt could feel the sun beginning to gradually sink down.

Matt snapped out of.. that. He swung his sword at the hellhounds neck in an effort to protect both himself and Jia Li. It seemed to make it more angry. It jumped out at him. He held out his sword tightly and watched as it pierced through the hellhounds chest before exploding in a big puff of yellow dust. Matt coughed a bit.
"Got any brilliant plans?" he heard her voice over the growls of the monsters.
"How does this sound?" Matt began, dodging a swipe of the hellhounds paw. "kill them and leave." He said, his voice slightly shaky.

Matthew was trying to focus on both killing the hellhound and making sure Jia Li wasn't getting killed. He didn't want to witness another death.
He made the mistake of looking away for another second. The hellhound swiped its claw just below rib. It stung but Matt was fast enough to take a hit at the bottom of its paw. It made it back away slightly and Matt quickly took that time to checkhis wwound. It actually wasn't that deep but it was bleeding and ruining his jacket. Matt used the last of his strength to slice at the hellhounds weak leg before stabbing it in the side and running the blade down its side. There was the sound of the hellhound howling before it disappeared into dust.
He took a breath and cleaned his blade on his jacket, it was ruined anyway. He turned to the daughter of Hephaestus as she asked "You okay?" He saw her arm.
"holy sh*t. Why are you asking me that? Are you okay?" he asked. He knew that she should put pressure on it. He took of his jacket and folded it in half so the dirty side wouldn't affect her wound. "hold your arm out." he said. He didn't know exactly how he would tie it around but he knew he needed too.

Matthew silently winced in his head. At least I'm not the one who's hurt. He sort of regretted thinking that later but for now he just shrugged it off. They should probably head out. The police have - hopefully - forgotten about them and moved onto eating donuts or something. For now their top priorities were stopping her arm from bleeding like it's on it's period, leaving this scene and maybe picking up his CD's from the van along the way. Yeah, he cared that much about his CD's.
Matt gave Jia Li his jacket. "Put pressure on it or something..." he said. He caught her little stare and just raised an eyebrow slightly before looking down at his own wound. It wasn't that deep. It only stung a bit. Honestly, it hurt actually hurt a lot but he just did his best to ignore it. He knew they should head back to camp - to get ambrosia - but he honestly just wanted to stay away as long as he could. Though he doubted that Jia Li would want to stay as well.

"you're hurt too you know." matt heard jia li mutter. he shrugged and muttered back "well, i dont care about me at the moment..."
Matthew cleaned his blade against his jeans before changing it back into his black ring he has had since his grandparents died. He placed it on the same finger as always which he knew was sort of an unhealthy habit but old habits die hard right?
"lets go." jia li had said before she began to walk away. walking for her wasn't hard as it as her arm injured but for matt he had a little difficulty. He winced but quickly pushed it away and dealt with the pain. He continue to walk with the pain hanging onto him.

They had walked out onto the streets when he decided to ask Jia Li that important question. "so im guessing we're heading back to camp now." he ruffled his hair and stuffed his hands in the pocket of his jeans. He looked in the reflection of a car window and wondered what the mortals thought he looked like.