Haunted || Leo Valdez

78 - Ding Dong, Anne Is Wrong

Bells.

Very loud bells.

That was the first thing Rebecca heard when the winds died. The rich, voluminous, insistent ringing of bells.

There weren't any bells like that on the Argo II, that was for sure.

"Just a second, Mom, I promise I'll get to the bus on time," came Henry's sleepy voice.

As Rebecca sat up, her head started spinning, throbbing painfully. She looked around for her friends. There was Anne, her green-streaked hair all blown into her face. Henry was curled up a few feet away, murmuring sleepily to himself. Leo lay on his side just a few inches away from Rebecca. He rolled over onto his back and gave a big huff.

"Why do those bells have to be so loud?" He wondered.

"I know, right?" Anne sat up, blowing her hair out of her face. "It's so annoying. And wake up, you!" She added, socking Henry. The unexpecting ginger woke with a start and looked around.

"Where are we?" He asked. "Why are there bells everywhere?"

Rebecca frowned and looked around. There were bells all over the place, each one larger than herself. There were also tons of gears everywhere. Rafters and various levels of wood flooring allowed for maintenance.

Definitely not the Argo II.

"Where are we?" Anne demanded.

"I think we're inside a clock," Henry said.

Rebecca looked around to see that where there should have been four walls, there were four clock faces instead -- well, the backs of clock faces, anyway. Each of them had to have been at least twenty feet in diameter. The hour hand of each one was almost nine feet long, and the minute hands probably just over thirteen. Roman numerals marked the hours in an old English font, and they were almost two feet long each.

"Wow," Anne said. "Either we've shrunk somehow, or this clock is enormous."

"Oh, no." Henry grabbed the sides of his face. "We're trapped in a clock! I don't want to be trapped in a clock!"

"Wait," Leo said suddenly, "Listen."

"No, no, just tell us what it is," Anne said. "I'm not playing guessing games."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Cars. City sounds. Loud city sounds, meaning we're in some kind of a big city. So a big city with a big clock. How many big cities do we know have a big clock?"

"Oooh, I know!" Anne said. "It's New York! Because New York has Times Square! It's obvious. We must be inside that weird clock/TV thing Leo messed with on New Years'."

"No." Rebecca shook her head. "Just... just, no."

"Anne," Leo said. "We're in London."

Anne snorted. "Ha. London. London doesn't have a big clock, you prat."

"London is known for a big clock," Henry said. "Big Ben. We're inside Big Ben."

"How did you not know this, Anne?" Leo asked. "You lived in London for how many years?

"She didn't know because Bug Ben wasn't completed until May thirty-first, 1859," Rebecca said, "It was originally called the Clock Tower, but it was renamed Elizabeth Tower, after Queen Elizabeth II in honor of her Diamond Jubilee."

Henry, Anne, and Leo all stared at Rebecca.

"How do you know all that?" Henry asked.

"I spend a lot of time with Annabeth," Rebecca said. "Pick up lots of facts about iconic monuments."