Finding Purpose

Chapter VI

The store seemed to grow with him, although the part we had been standing in changed into a kitchen, just like he had said it.
'I didn't know Cyclopses have gotten smarter these past five hundred years,' Eve suddenly said.
'What? Are you doubting my intelligence?' the Cyclops boomed.
'Well certainly I'm not,' he replied.
What was he doing? We were standing in the middle of a giant kitchen, ready to be served as dinner for a hungry Cyclops!
'But I think I heard some of your brothers say you were the stupidest of all. They thought you didn't have it in you to catch a few simple humans.'
'They did not say that!' the Cyclops yelled.
'They really did,' Eve insisted. 'So I would go up to them and tell them you are capable of doing so. Because otherwise you will always be looked upon by your family.'
The Cyclops' eye lit up. 'You're right. Stay here,' he pointed at the ground. 'I will get my brothers and show you I've caught you myself, and then we will have a feisty meal on your bones!'
'I'm not going anywhere,' Eve promised.
'Finally!' the Cyclops shouted, 'someone who's willing to get eaten instead of bawling his eyes out.'

The giant walked out of the kitchen leaving us on the floor.
'You were kidding right? About getting eaten?' Ann asked Eve suspiciously.
'Come on, like I would ever want to be eaten by that thing. And besides, I was only distracting him from eating us. Now he will try to get his brothers to show off, but by that time will be long gone.'
I watched him curiously. 'What did you use to persuade him like that?'
Eve looked away. 'My grandmother is the goddess of revenge, remember? I used the little persuasion I had to convince him his brothers were messing with him behind his back, and he wanted revenge on them. Now can we please go? I don't want to be the first to see a Cyclops' stomach from the inside.'
'Yeah, sure,' I said, and I walked past him, out of the kitchen and into the showroom, which seemed to be the same when we came in.
'All right, which one do you prefer?' I asked Ann, who was eyeing all of the cars.
She pointed to a dark grey Ford 4x4. 'That one, over there.'
We wasted no time and got into the car as fast as possible. I opened the big doors to let our car pass through and we got away as fast as we could.

-----

After five hours of driving, I was starting to get restless. The only thing that was interesting was watching Eve sleep, and even then that was only for half an hour, because he woke up every five minutes.
'How long until we reach the first village?' I asked Ann.
She was looking at the road and pointed to something. 'I think we've reached it.'
I took a look at the town starting to appear and was surprised when I saw a mark saying Welcome to Hanvin Town. Number of inhabitants: 47.
That's not much, I thought as we crossed the first buildings.
'Stop here,' I said to Ann, 'I can ask that man over there.' Ann stopped the car and I got out, asking the man if he knew where to find Eva.
'No idea,' he said. 'No one living with that name in Hanvin.'
I thanked him and got into the car again. 'Keep on driving,' I said. 'We can try the next place.'

It took us eight different towns to find someone who could tell me where to find Eva. And even then it was with the vaguest directions. Up the hill, down, left, right, I had no idea how we had gotten there, but we got there, and that was all that mattered right now. It took us another half hour to reach our final destination, since the bookshop was actually pretty hard to find.
It sat at the end of a small street, almost invincible if you didn't know it wasn't there. I looked at the graceful letters drawn on the window. Sil's Shop was written in a sparkling white, although time must have done its job, for the colour had lost its sparkle.
We went in, and almost the first thing to notice was the huge amount of books. There were books on every shelf, and still it looked like there wasn't enough space to store them all. At the back of the shop was a woman standing behind a desk, mindlessly browsing through a magazine. Only half of her face was visible for us, but her eyes had a dark navy blue colour and they seemed to observe everything.
'Excuse me,' I said as we came up to her.
She looked up to as from the corner of her eye and stood up.
'Hi,' the woman said with a smile. 'How can I help you?'
I looked at Ann and Eve for help, but they had as much ideas as I had.
None.
'Well, I'm looking for someone called Eva.'
The woman smiled at us. 'That would be me.'
I nodded as I continued. 'I have heard you are an outstanding scientist, and I need a way to find the antidote for this serum,' I said as I took the vial out of my bag. I held it up to here and the woman, Eva, watched it silently.
'So the poison has finally gotten up to him,' she murmured. Her eyes shot to me and widened a bit as realization started to dawn upon her. 'You're Percy's daughter, aren't you?'
I swallowed. 'How did you know?' I said as my eyes narrowed a bit.
'I have had a few encounters with him. After the first time we crossed paths he visited me four times, the last time being two years ago.'
Something started to unfold in my head as I watched her. 'You're the woman he talks about? You're Sylvester?'
Eva turned around, reviling the other half of her face, and I couldn't help but gasp. The right side of her face was entirely burnt, leaving nothing but scars behind.
'What happened to you?' Ann asked.
'I have had some trouble along the way. Percy was the one to help me out eventually.'
I closed my eyes as I remembered the way my dad would come home after one of his encounters with Sylvester, and how devastated he always was for weeks.
'What did you do to my father?' I asked Eva.
She turned to me. 'I didn't do anything,' she said.
I felt the tears well up in the corners of my eyes, but I refused to let them out.
'What, Sylvester, did you do to my father?' By then I had my silver sword pointed at her throat, not being aware of what was happening around me.
Suddenly we were surrounded by armed men, having their guns pointed at us. 'Put the sword down, girl,' someone said.

No, I thought, not before I get an answer.