Annabeth Chase and the Lightning Thief

Chapter 27 - I build a city by myself

Honestly, I got us lost. In my defence, it's not hard to get lost in a city you've never been before, but something must have interfered with my internal GPS because after ages of wandering, we found ourselves outside the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It looked pretty impressive, even by the standards of Vegas.

The Hotel towered over us, several stories high and coloured a brilliant gold. The windows were tinted silver and and there was a huge neon flower on the entrance, electric pink and lighting up and flashing. It had writing on it, but it was impossible to read with my dyslexia so Grover had to tell us that it said "The Lotus Hotel and Casino."

For all its glamour and lights, there was no one going in or out. The doors were open, the appealing smell of lowers were wafting out, but it almost seemed deserted, apart from the doorman, who was watching us with a smile.

"Hey kids," he said. "You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

I stared at him and narrowed my eyes. I half-expected him to turn into a raging monster any second, but the only change he made was his smile widening. I tried to look through the Mist at him, but I couldn't see any change. He must have been mortal, but I still had a bad feeling about him.

"We'd love to come in," Percy said, leading us inside.

The doorman smiled at us as we passed him, and I gave him one last suspicious look, but then he was dismissed immediately from my thoughts as I took my first look in the casino.

"Whoa," Grover said.

I felt stunned. Percy looked like his jaw was about to touch the ground and already drool was seeping out.

The entire casino was a game room. It was huge, as in skyscraper huge. There was bungee jumping from the roof and climbing walls and water slides and go-cart racing and every extreme sport you can think of. Hundreds of video games were scattered throughout the area along with virtual-reality suits with working guns. Best of all, waitresses moved around with snacks and drinks. It looked like Elysuim.

"Hey!" a man called, coming over to us. I glared at him suspiciously too, taking in his white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts and flip-flops. He looked like a small, less obnoxious version of Mr D. But despite his ridiculous attire, he looked normal to me. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

"Um, but . . ." Percy stammered, but the man simply laughed and cut him off

"No, no. The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need any thing, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed us each a great plastic card with a lotus printed on one side. I frowned at it. Was it fake? It didn't look it. But this all had to be some sort of joke. We looked like we'd literally been dragged off the street. And we were still wearing the ridiculous Waterland merchandise clothing.

"How much is on here?" Percy asked, frowning.

"What do you mean"? the man asked, confused.

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

Not really sure what else to do, we got the elevator up to our room. It was amazing. It was a suite with three adjoining bedrooms that all contained water beds and fluffy towels and feather pillows. There was a shower and toilet for each bedroom and and the main room was stocked full of goodies. It had a hotline to room service, a big-screen television with satellite, high-speed Internet, a bar crammed with candy, soda and sweets, and a massive lounge that you practically sunk into. The balcony had a skeet-shooter and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons over Vegas and shoot them down. I could already see Percy eyeing it off hungrily.