Y/n Pov:
It's nice to know there are Greek gods out there because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just terrible luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force is trying to mess up your day.
So there we were, Annabeth and Percy and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us, and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupil and full of terror.
"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying:
"Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
"All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes.Everything."
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—" I started.
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" he interrupted.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine," I told him.
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
We sloshed across the mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
After a few minutes, I fell into line next to Percy.
"Look, I..." I told him. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was brave."
"We're a team, right?" he said.
I was silent. I hesitated whether to tell him or not.
"It's just that if you died...aside from the fact that it would suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world." I told him quietly.
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Percy except a glint of his mesmerizing eyes.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" he asked me.
"No, only in field trips," I told him. "I lived in an orphanage before Camp Half-Blood, and it isn't something you would call home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home. At camp, you train and train. And that's awesome and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That'swhere you learn whether you're any good or not."
There was silence for a moment.
"You're pretty good with, weapons," he said.
"You think so?" I asked.
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me," he told me.
I smiled.
I remembered that in olden times if you threw an apple to someone, was a way of asking for marriage, and remembered our game of Hacky Sack and how it ended.
"You know," I said, "maybe I should tell you...Something funny back on the bus..."
I was interrupted by some reed pipes.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff. Then I remembered.
"I can see in the dark!" I said.
They all looked at me quizzically.
"I got it from my mother, no time to explain," I said, grabbing Percy's and Annabeth's hands.
Percy gave his other hand to Grover, who gladly took it and I started leading them safely around the woods.
"How did you not notice you were seeing in the dark?" Percy asked me.
"You don't notice the difference," I said. "I forgot."
After we walked for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colours of a neon sign. I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. Junk food, but food.
The others must have noticed too because they walked faster.
We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side were a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant, it was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To me, it looked like ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.
"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.
Right, he's dyslexic too
"I don't know," Annabeth said.
Grover translated:
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving as if they were about to get their picture taken. I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey..." Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said.
"Maybe it's open," I said.
"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully.
"Snack bar," Annabeth and I agreed.
"Are you three crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
We ignored him.
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
We stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminium cans," Percy said to him.
"Those are vegetables," said Grover. "Come on. Let's leave. These statues are...looking at me."
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall MiddleEastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-coloured hands looked old but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said:
"Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"They're...um..." Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans," I lied.
"Orphans?" the woman said.
The word sounded alien in her mouth. I stiffened.
"But, my dears! Surely not!" she said.
"We got separated from our caravan," Percy said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
We thanked her and went inside. I muttered to Percy:
"Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?" he said to me.
"Your head is full of kelp," I replied.
The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues because they were all life-size. But mostly, I was thinking about food.
Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes. Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away. I barely noticed Grover'snervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us. All I cared about was finding the dining area.
And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
"Awesome," I said.
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."
Aunty Em said:
"No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
Again, I stiffened. I knew everyone was faking to be orphans, but I wasn't. I'm an actual orphan. And with my experiences, don't trust anyone. They take you for granted sometimes.
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
Aunty Em stiffened as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful grey eyes, child."
Then I realized. We never introduced ourselves, how would she know Annabeth's name?
I tried to shrug the feeling off, but it was still there, as if it was a cloud of rain, blocking the sun of food.
Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.
I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.
Annabeth slurped her shake.
Grover picked at the fries and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
I might as well enjoy my food and forget all about those nonsense thoughts
But something was keeping me from enjoying. I mean, I ate the food, but I didn't feel full or less hungry at all. There was a voice in my head telling me not to do anything Aunty Em says and not to trust her.
Hello, conscience. We meet again.
"What's that hissing noise?" Grover asked.
I listened close and thought I heard something, but when it stopped, I imagined it was probably my imagination.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
Again, the names. Was she a stalker or something? Did she read mine? If she did, I feel sorry for her.
"I take vitamins. For my ears," said Grover.
"That's admirable," Aunty Em said. "But please, relax."
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face, but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
"A lot of business on this road?"
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built...most cars, do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
My neck tingled as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"You make these statues yourself ?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company."
The tale sounded familiar to me.
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said:
"Two sisters?"
"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had...a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed with me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually, they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived but at a price. Such a price."
Then I realized. Aunty Em. Aunty M.
Medusa.
"Percy?" I shook him, trying to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
Annabeth looked tense. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
"Such beautiful grey eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen grey eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"We really should go," Annabeth said.
"Yes!" I said.
Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up.
"The ringmaster is waiting! Right!" he said.
Percy sat still, looking at Medusa.
"Please, dears," Medusa pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot.
"I don't think we can, ma'am," I said. "Come on, Percy—"
"Sure we can," Percy said, irritated. "It's just a photo, guys. What's the harm?"
"Yes, little girls," the woman purred. "No harm."
I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Medusa to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues. Medusa directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr.
"Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girls in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."
"Not much light for a photo," Percy remarked.
"Oh, enough," Medusa said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"
"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.
Medusa stepped back as if to admire the shot.
"Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?" she said.
Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled:
"That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
"Grover," Medusa chastised, "look this way, dear."
She still had no camera in her hands. I tried to warn Percy.
"Percy—" I said.
He shifted a little.
"I will just be a moment," Medusa said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil...."
"Y/n/n, something's wrong," Annabeth said.
"Wrong?" Medusa said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" I shouted.
Annabeth whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover, Percy and me off the bench.
I ran and Grover followed me, but I managed to convince him that she would get us easier if we went together, so he ran in the opposite direction. I saw Percy at Medusa's feet, trying to look up.
"No! Don't!" I yelled at him.
Medusa had now fully transformed into her snakey self. Her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing serpents.
"Run!" Grover bleated.
I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling:
"Maia!"
to kick-start his flying sneakers. Percy was still paralyzed.
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," Medusa told him soothingly."Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
Percy seemed to have realized who Medusa was, because an extra spark that was in his eye, faded away. He looked concentrated in something as if he were wondering if the Mars bars on Mars were called Earth.
I was concentrated too. How to defeat Medusa...? Her strength is her paralyzing gaze, so if you took her eyes off- no that'd be too complicated. What if you took her whole head off?! Yes, that'd be a better idea!
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" I shouted. "Run, Percy!"
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girls, Percy. One is my enemy's daughter, and the other is the daughter of the one that helped Athena. I shall crush their statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."
"No," Percy muttered, trying to make his legs move.
"Do you want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"Percy!" Grover yelled from behind Percy. "Duck!"
Percy turned around, just to be met with Grover on Hermes's flying shoes.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"
That finally jolted Percy into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail Percy. He dove to one side.
Thwack!
Grover hit Medusa right in the head. Or in the snakes. Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
Percy scrambled away and hid in the statuary, not even 5 feet away from me, while Grover swooped down for another pass.
Ker-whack!
"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled her snake-hair hissing and spitting.
I went over to Percy.
"Percy!" I whisper shouted.
He jumped surprisingly high.
"Jeez! Don't do that!" he protested.
"You have to cut her head off," I told him. "And you have to do it quickly."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here." he said.
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." I swallowed. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother being friends with Athena and siding with her against Poseidon. You—you've got a chance."
"What?" he exclaimed, "I can't—"
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?" I told him, now an octave higher.
I pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
I grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal.
"A polished shield would be better," I thought out loud.
Percy looked at the ball.
I tossed him the glass ball.
"Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly," I told him.
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Maybe not," Grover corrected.
He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry," Annabeth told us. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
Percy took Riptide and uncapped it. The bronze blade elongated in his hand. He then looked at the glass ball and went on to fight Medusa.
Grover was coming in for another turn at-bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful:
"Ummphh!"
Medusa was about to lunge at him when Percy yelled:
"Hey!"
Percy advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, he'd have a hard time defending himself. But she let him approach—twenty feet, ten feet.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
Percy hesitated. I nervously bit my fingernails and Annabeth swatted my hand away.
Grover moaned: "Percy, don't listen to her!"
"Too late." Medusa cackled.
She lunged at Percy with her talons. Percy was quick enough and swang Riptide, cutting Medusa's head fall off and land on his feet.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."
I took Medusa's veil. I ran next to Percy, looking at the sky.
"Don't move," I warned.
Very carefully, not looking down, I covered Medusa's eyes with the veil. Then carefully picked it up.
"Genious!" congratulated Annabeth.
"I learned from the best," I said, looking at her.
She smiled and blushed a little, the way she always did when she got a compliment.
"Is anyone hurt? Is everybody physically okay?" I asked.
"My ribs hurt," complained Grover.
"I just need a long deep breath," said Percy.
"Thank you, Y/n, I'm alright," Annabeth said.
"Why didn't...why didn't the head evaporate?" asked Percy.
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," I explained. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"The Red Baron," Percy said. "Good job, man."
He managed a bashful grin.
"That was not fun, though," Grover said. "Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
He snatched his shoes out of the air. Percy recapped his sword. Together, the four of us stumbled back to the warehouse. We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally, Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
Annabeth flashed him an irritated look.
"Your dad, actually," I said. "Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in Athena's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple became the three gorgons. Poseidon got mad at Athena and begged her to transform her girlfriend back, but Artemis sided with Athena, telling Poseidon off. That's why Medusa wanted to slice us up, but she wanted to preserve you like a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa," Percy said, irritated.
"'It's just a photo, guys. What's the harm?'" I imitated.
"Forget it," Percy said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable," I sassed back.
"You're—"
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
Percy got up.
"I'll be back," he said.
"Percy," I called. "What are you—"
He looked around until he found a big box about the size of Medusa's head. He grabbed the head and walked over to the box. I followed him and read what he was writing (and with great difficulty may I add).
It said:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
Percy poured some golden drachmas into a pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
"I am impertinent," he said.
He looked at me as if he was daring me to criticise him. I simply said:
"You should've added my name too."
He gave me a half-smile.
"You two have a major talent of ticking off the Gods," said Annabeth.
"I hope they like the gift," I said.
Percy chuckled lightly.
"Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan.