The God's Reign: Book one, The Knowing

chapter 9- Hannah builds a monster head collection

The night-wind breezed past me, waving my short hair into my eyes. The parking lot was dim-lighted and unoccupied except for a few cars, which I suspected were employees opening up the store. The super-market sign blinked in yellow letters: Publix: where shopping is a pleasure!

Hillary and I stood in the dark with Lussafir in my arms, his silky fur keeping me slightly warm. I was getting impatient. It had been two hours since we got here and there was still no sign of Hannah and Ethan.

Hillary checked her wristwatch. 9 pm. She grumbled and shivered from the cold breeze. "Curses on Poseidon's beard! What the hell is taking them so long to get here?" she huffed.

As if on cue, Ethan and Hannah in thin winter coats and jeans burst from behind the bushes of the parking lot. They ran to us with weapons at the ready, Hannah with a dagger and Ethan holding a golden sword. Hannah held something bulgy in her arms, but before I could identify it, she zipped it up in her jacket.

"About time," I praised dramatically. "Where did you guys stop along the way- Disney World?"

"Of course not," Ethan panted over with Hannah at his heels. "We would have stayed there much longer. Anyway, we ran into a little...predicament. Hannah and I took care of it, though."

"Was it monsters?" Hillary guessed. Ethan nodded. "What species were they?" she asked. Before he could even open his mouth, I answered for him.

"Six dracaena, two cyclopes, and the same centaur from the school," I reported confidently.

Ethan and Hannah gave me a disturbed look. "How in... what the...what?" Hannah said, mystified. By that response, I guessed that I was correct.

"How did you know that, Sierra?" Hillary awed.

"Hello, I'm the daughter of freaking Hades here! Remember what Pheonix said: it is normal for the family of Hades to feel the presence of death. The same thing happened just 10 minutes ago that happened when I killed the cyclops at the library." Then, in my mind, I wondered how the centaur had shown up multiple times in the last week. Ethan had caught sight of him following him to the school. Hillary ran into him on the way home, and I had seen him right outside my bedroom window before I had gone to sleep. Something was up with that dude, and I did not like it. He seemed more than just some random monster; he needed to have a plan for us, something not pleasant.

My eyes drifted to the thing in Hannah's coat. I pointed to it. "You know, you can't keep that a secret for long; it makes you look pregnant, and I can smell it from here." I cracked a disgusted frown at Hannah.

Hannah sighed and threw up her arms in surrender. "You caught me," she reached in to her jacket and pulled out the last thing I would have thought she hid in there. It was a woman's head, but not a mortal woman's head. It was cut off by the neck with green ooze that oddly reminded me of the junk on Nickelodeon dripping from the end. The woman's hair was made of coral snakes (that were still living, unlike the head.) and her skin were scales that were a violent shade of green. She had white curved fangs for front teeth inside her half-open mouth. The beast resembled medusa; though we would have been turned to stone if it was her. It was a dracaena head.

Hillary and I jumped back with pruned faces. Ethan ran toward us, away from Hannah's side, and hugged Hillary's arm. "Oh, dude! That's revolting!" he squealed.

Hillary didn't mind Ethan- she just plugged her nose. "Holy Zeus, that smell is horrible! What did that thing eat?" she shrieked.

Calmly, Hannah held it up. "Mice, squirrels, trash scavenge, human flesh; the typical dracaena diet." 

I made a gag gesture. "Stinks worse than Travis's feet!

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Fine! If you babies won't let me continue my hobby, I'll drop it." She huffed. She let go of it as it landed on the pavement with a squash!