daughter of heaven || percy jackson

1.6

⎯⎯ ୨ 1.6: when my depression works the graveyard shift ୧ ⎯⎯

ARGUS DROVE THEM out of the countryside out into western long island. melanie sat in the passenger seat (probably forever going to be a passenger princess) whilst annabeth, grover, and percy all sat in the back. it felt weird to be on a highway again. the first time was when she was being transported to yancy academy, and that was a total shit show. she stared outside into the real world. 

melanie was feeling exceptionally nervous. she was afraid that some lightning bolt would appear from out of the sky and strike her down. hopefully, if zeus did that, he'd be nice enough to spare the other four in the car. a couple of minutes passed.

"so far so good," percy said. "ten miles and not a single monster."

"it's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain," annabeth replied. 

"remind me again—why do you hate me so much?" 

"i don't hate you." 

"could've fooled me." she folded her cap of invisibility. "look...we're just not supposed to get along, okay? our parents are rivals."

 "why?" she sighed. 

"how many reasons do you want? one time my mom caught poseidon with his girlfriend in athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. another time, athena and poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of athens. your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. my mom created the olive tree. the people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."

 "they must really like olives." 

"oh, forget it."

 "now, if she'd invented pizza—that i could understand." 

"i said, forget it!"

melanie smirked and from the corner of her eye saw argus winking at percy from the eye on the back of his neck.

traffic slowed the car down in queens. it was so bad that they were moving only like five miles an hour. there was standstill traffic at exit 22, where the grand central parkway met the long island expressway. 

melanie hadn't realized it, but she was very tired. and soon enough, her eyelids were drooping, and she slumped against the door and fell asleep. hopefully she would get no dreams, or maybe some pleasant dreams.

she was wrong, per usual.

at least it started off normally. melanie was sitting in central park, leaning against a tree. this part of the park overlooked the reservoir. it was night time, but it felt completely deserted. the skyscrapers of new york gleamed with light, but she still found it strange she couldn't see anyone ... or hear anything.