Stormbreacher - Book 1 of Titanomachy Series

Chapter 13: The Joys of Mass Transit

"WAKE UP YOU STUBBORN FAT BITCH!! WAKE UP YOU STUBBORN FAT BITCH!!"

Yup. That was the alarm I had set to wake me up at midnight.

I slapped the tablet silent and gradually rose from bed. Stinger was out cold on my shelf, still asleep despite the obnoxious alarm. I grabbed my bag just beside my bed and went to nudge him awake. He did not wake up.

I picked his limp little body up and shoved him in my bag regardless. At least he won't make noise, I thought, turning away and shuffling out of the room.

Walking through the hall, I realized, it was my last chance to turn back. I could still abandon this. Why was I going to start with when I knew, for a fact, that whatever I'd find would make me miserable. I was putting myself in extreme danger, and for what?

It wasn't enough to stop me. I'd planned this out. I wasn't going to abandon Dad and turn back now. That would be wimping out like a stupid coward. I wasn't a coward.

I was Athena Concord, moron extraordinaire.

I made it out of the hall without disturbing my infinitely perceptive mother and escaped towards the front door. She conveniently kept the keycards to the apartment in an easily accessible corner of the kitchen—I was able to swipe one of them and shoved it into my pocket. She won't notice...if I'm quick...

The front door is thankfully pretty quiet, but in the one moment that I was trying to intricately and silently pull it open, I felt like I was James freaking Bond. I cracked the door open only maybe a foot, just enough for me to slip through the doorway and the door. Once outside of the apartment, I shut it so quietly that even I couldn't hear it.

And I was officially out of the house.

"Stinger? Stinger, wake up."

I picked Stinger up out of the bag and poked him in the face until he got up. He groggily swatted a wing at my finger and gradually opened his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, alright, I'm up...hold up!" Stinger frantically glanced around him, realizing that we were not in my room. "Where the hell are we?!"

"I'm trying to hail a taxi. You remember?"

"No!"

I groaned. "We're going to the underground, you dingus."

"Oh. Oh, yeah." Stinger slapped his talon over his head. "I'm an idiot."

"You and me both. Get in my bag again."

"Why'd you wake me up now? You could've let me sleep."

"Because this is the only spot where I can guarantee that we're alone."

Stinger rolled to his feet and yawned dramatically in a downwards dog pose, splaying his tiny little fangs out for the world to see. "Right...ugh..."

I plopped him back in my bag and pulled out my phone. Mom had made me download an app that let you call a taxi over to your current location that would drive you to anywhere you went. I call it an Uber because nobody knows what an Uber was from the pre-Titanomachy days and calling a taxi an Uber confuses people. I think that's funny. 

"Corner of South 42nd...and Robinswood Lane...and my destination is Seaward Kyang Station," I murmured. "Alright. And now we wait."

"How long we gotta wait?" Stinger asked, his voice muffled by the backpack.

"Until Christmas, probably. Ubers only sometimes show face, and when they do show up, they tend to ignore you."

We only waited five minutes for an Uber, for the record. I've never had one of these things show up so fast. The driver was an old Middle Easterner chewing on a cigar that had the width of a table leg. It was so damn stinky in this cab, I nearly choked climbing into the back seat.