𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 𝐅𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐇, 𝐿𝒆𝒐 𝑉𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒛¹ᵃ ✓

𝒙𝒗. Gold statues and dead moms, what a weird mix?

"Where's the light switch?" Jason's voice echoed alarmingly through the room. "Don't see one," Leo said. "Fire?" Piper suggested. Leo held out his hand, but nothing happened. "It's not working." "Your fire is out? Why?" Piper asked. "Well, if I knew that-" And with that, Michelle tried going ghost-mode, but it didn't work. "Hey, why isn't ghost-mode working?" She whined, waving around her hands.

Jason snorted, before Piper shushed him. "Okay, okay," Piper said. "What do we do-explore?" With that, Leo shook his head. "After all those traps outside? Bad idea." And with that, the hairs at the back of Michelle's neck rose. She hated having to be a demigod. Having ichor flowing through your veins, was more of a curse than a blessing. She hated always having to look behind her so she wouldn't be followed by monsters. She just wants to be a normal kid for once. And let's just put this out there, a normal kid does not have the pressure of saving the queen of the gods on their shoulders.

"Leo's right." Jason said. "We're not separating again-not like in Detroit." "Oh thank you for reminding me of the Cyclopses," Pipers voice quivered. "I needed that." Michelle shivered just at the mention of those things. "Please, never mention Cyclopses again." She said, getting chills.

She did not want to remember almost being cooked alive and swallowed by the earth whole right now. Michelle's head turned to the windows, and by her judgment, the sun should be coming up soon. "It's probably going to be dawn soon enough." She guessed, and Jason nodded. " Mich' is right. Too cold to wait outside. Let's bring the cages in and make camp in this room. Wait for daylight; then we can decide what to do."

Nobody offered any other idea, so they rolled in the cages with Coach Hedge and the storm spirits, then settled in. And just for clarification, by 'they', I mean Jason rolled both of them in since he's the only one who could've. Thankfully, on the very comfortable looking couch, Leo didn't find any poison throw pillows or electro whoopee cushions.

Leo didn't seem to be in the middle to make more tacos. Besides, they had no kind of fire, so they settled for cold rations. Michelle had opened her bag, and was currently eating some pizza-pockets and her purple Fanta from her magic cup she stole from camp, and had thankfully not left at Medea's.

Michelle took a good two bites of the pizza pocket before offering some to Leo. "You want a bite? I got extras." She muttered with a smile. He studied the pizza pocket, before nodding. "At least it's not cold peppers." He muttered, and Michelle snorted. "You give me the peppers and I'll give you the pizza-pockets?" She gave him a crocodile smile. "Deal." He said, giving her the pepper before going back to working on the cage lock.

Speaking of the two cages, the storm spirits thrashing and hissing in their cages was not helping her nerves. Those venti coffee's-whatever they were, were definitely not happy in the slightest. She got this uncomfortable feeling that they were watching her, and she got that feeling once she walked into the house. Something about the statues in the living room of this literal castle, felt off to say the least. It was like their golden eyes were staring right at her.

As for Coach, who was frozen mid shout and his club raised, was not thrashing around constantly. Leo was working on the cage, and Michelle was snuggled up against him, looking for any kind of heat. He was trying out a bunch of different tools, but the lock seemed to be giving him a hard time. She turned her head, only to see Piper already curled up on the sofa comfortably.

No matter how tired Michelle might be, her kind kept running at a million words a minute, like always. She had just woken up from sleeping, and had never taken watch for everyone yet, so she'd probably just stay up for a while. And, her mind wouldn't let her forget that they were running out of time. If she'd been counting her days alive right, it was the early morning of December 20, which meant, tomorrow was the winter solstice, and her birthday was in exactly one month, yay?