chapter fourteen
─── i end up on the fbi's most wanted list
𝔏et me sup up falling for you;
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The river raced toward me too fast for my brain to comprehend. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision, as I cartwheeled like a rag doll through the sky before;
Boom!
A whiteout of bubbles. I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever in a watery grave.
But my impact with the water hadn't hurt. I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me and I gagged at the thought.
At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake. I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore. I was alive, which was good.
Second realization: I wasn't wet. I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry which was a bizarre feeling.
I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.
No fucking way, I thought.
I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi. I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry. I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag.
Ooh, I don't like this.
But the strangest thought occurred to me only last: I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally. I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled. I should've been dead. The fact that I wasn't seemed like...well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Dree, what do you say?
"Um...thanks for not letting me die?" Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings which was like listening to a much older teenager. "You really helped a girl out?"
No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, an enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the colour of butterscotch.
Why had Poseidon saved me? The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt. So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance. Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.
A river boat's paddle wheel churned above me, swirling the silt around. There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud. I heard that woman's voice again: Dree, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.
"Where are you? Who are you?" I called aloud.
Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the colour of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine. A lump formed in my throat and for a moment, I knew the face. I said, "Mum?"
No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.
"What?"
It is your father's will. Before you travel to your uncle, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Dree, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.
"But..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"
There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat but that might have been due to the silt.
I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. My eyes fluttered close, and if I imagined hard enough, it was like my mother was there. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Dree, do not trust the gifts...
Her voice faded and I grew confused. Gifts? What was she talking about?
"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"
She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.
I felt like drowning myself. The only problem: I was immune to drowning.
Your father believes in you, she had said. She'd also called me brave...unless she was talking to the catfish. Maybe she was a catfish!
I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky mother, waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.
I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father?" I said again to the dark water.
Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface. I came ashore, my nails digging into the dark mud . A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead.
A little girl said, "Mama! That girl walked out of the river."
"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.
"But she's dry!"
"That's nice, dear."
A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."
Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Luke, Annabeth and Grover were okay.
I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.
"... an adolescent girl," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent girl going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities..."
I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.
I had almost thought that I would never find the remainder of my quest mates, but then I heard a shout; "Andi!"
I only just managed to turn, before something slammed into me. I grasped onto the familiar coat, arms wrapping around my waist as a familiar voice reached my ears.
"Andi..." Luke sounded breathless, as I clung to him, my face steadily turning red. "Thank the gods. I-"
Grover ran into us as well, holding onto my waist.
"We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!" He bleated, though it sounded sad.
Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"
"I sort of fell." Luke finally let go of me, panic written across his face as he took my face in both of his hands, looking for cuts. If he didn't let go of me, my infatuation with the hot guy was gonna turn into a full blown crush, if it wasn't all ready.
"Andromeda! Six hundred and thirty feet?"
Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"
"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."
"I'm not crazy! This girl jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There she is! That's the girl!"
Luke turned me around, hiding my face, as he tugged Annabeth and Grover back into the crowd.
"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"
I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.
"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."
"Yeah, but first let's get you out of here," Luke replied, keeping a tight arm around all three of us to make sure that we wouldn't stop moving.
Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Andromeda Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the girl who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a teenage girl wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the girl is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Andromeda Jackson."
"Shit."
Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.
∘☽༓☾∘
Hiya,
Andi is a complete mood and Luke is so relieved to see her it's unbelievable. Also, we got their first hug! So that's good. Annabeth is slowly, slowly, warming up to Andromeda now, which is better than nothing.
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx