Honestly, I got us lost. In my defence, it's not hard to get lost in a city you've never been before, but something must have interfered with my internal GPS because after ages of wandering, we found ourselves outside the Lotus Hotel and Casino. It looked pretty impressive, even by the standards of Vegas.
The Hotel towered over us, several stories high and coloured a brilliant gold. The windows were tinted silver and and there was a huge neon flower on the entrance, electric pink and lighting up and flashing. It had writing on it, but it was impossible to read with my dyslexia so Grover had to tell us that it said "The Lotus Hotel and Casino."
For all its glamour and lights, there was no one going in or out. The doors were open, the appealing smell of lowers were wafting out, but it almost seemed deserted, apart from the doorman, who was watching us with a smile.
"Hey kids," he said. "You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"
I stared at him and narrowed my eyes. I half-expected him to turn into a raging monster any second, but the only change he made was his smile widening. I tried to look through the Mist at him, but I couldn't see any change. He must have been mortal, but I still had a bad feeling about him.
"We'd love to come in," Percy said, leading us inside.
The doorman smiled at us as we passed him, and I gave him one last suspicious look, but then he was dismissed immediately from my thoughts as I took my first look in the casino.
"Whoa," Grover said.
I felt stunned. Percy looked like his jaw was about to touch the ground and already drool was seeping out.
The entire casino was a game room. It was huge, as in skyscraper huge. There was bungee jumping from the roof and climbing walls and water slides and go-cart racing and every extreme sport you can think of. Hundreds of video games were scattered throughout the area along with virtual-reality suits with working guns. Best of all, waitresses moved around with snacks and drinks. It looked like Elysuim.
"Hey!" a man called, coming over to us. I glared at him suspiciously too, taking in his white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts and flip-flops. He looked like a small, less obnoxious version of Mr D. But despite his ridiculous attire, he looked normal to me. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."
"Um, but . . ." Percy stammered, but the man simply laughed and cut him off
"No, no. The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need any thing, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."
He handed us each a great plastic card with a lotus printed on one side. I frowned at it. Was it fake? It didn't look it. But this all had to be some sort of joke. We looked like we'd literally been dragged off the street. And we were still wearing the ridiculous Waterland merchandise clothing.
"How much is on here?" Percy asked, frowning.
"What do you mean"? the man asked, confused.
"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"
He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."
Not really sure what else to do, we got the elevator up to our room. It was amazing. It was a suite with three adjoining bedrooms that all contained water beds and fluffy towels and feather pillows. There was a shower and toilet for each bedroom and and the main room was stocked full of goodies. It had a hotline to room service, a big-screen television with satellite, high-speed Internet, a bar crammed with candy, soda and sweets, and a massive lounge that you practically sunk into. The balcony had a skeet-shooter and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons over Vegas and shoot them down. I could already see Percy eyeing it off hungrily.
The view was amazing too, but it wasn't of that great an importance compared to everything else. We were in Elysium all right.
"Oh, goodness," I said blissfully, sinking into the lounge. "This place is . . ."
"Sweet," Grover finished. "Absolutely sweet."
I had a shower and managed to scrap the weeks compilation of dirt and grime off me under a hot jet of bubbly water. When I came out, I felt rubbed red and raw, but better than I had in ages. All the clothes in the closet fit me, so I grabbed a pair of jeans and a blue top, then went back into the main room to stuff my face.
Grover was already finished showering and dressed and was munching on a bag of crisps.
"I never want to leave," he moaned, chewing on the packet.
I could help but agree with him after my second fanta, third packet of crisps and a chocolate bar. Something still didn't sit well with me though, and it wasn't all the food. I felt like that was something urgent I should be doing, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember.
Shrugging, I turned on the TV and flicked to the National Geographic Channel. A documentary on the amount of erosion that deserts caused was playing and I watched, fascinated.
When Percy came out of his bedroom, dark hair still wet and pointy from the shower, he looked disgusted at what I was watching.
"All those stations, and you turn on the National Geographic. Are you insane?"
"It's interesting."
"I feel good," Grover interjected. "I love this place."
His shoes sprouted wings suddenly and he did a slow lap around the room before landing again. I felt the same, except I couldn't fly.
"So what now?" I asked. "Sleep?"
Percy and Grover exchanged excited grins. They held up their LotusCash cards.
"Play time."
The boys went nuts in the lobby. I started off playing all these trivia ones where it gave you quizzes and brain skills stuff, but then I found a huge 3-D sim game where you got to build your own city. It would come up in holographic form right before your eyes. I got addicted to it. I built city after city, each one better than the one before. Some followed Ancient Greek style of architect, some more Gothic and some futuristic. They all looked amazing, and I could almost imagine them in real life. I could do it, one day. Create my own city, my very own. But where would it go? The whole world was taken already.
I shook my dark thoughts away and looked around to see Grover was playing a reverse hunter game, where the deer shot the hunter. He was getting a bit too into it, screaming at the game words like, "die filthy human, die!" I hoped he'd be able to snap out of it when we left.
That pulled me up short. Leave? Why would I want to leave? It was perfect here.
I saw Percy darting around everywhere. He must have played every game available. I looked back to my city. The next part was crucial. It was a medieval palace and I was moving my towers in place alongside the walls, setting up strong defenses. I'd just moved the last one in position when some one shook me.
I looked up, irritated, to find Percy hovering beside me, a peculiar look on his face. "What?" I asked.
"We need to leave."
"Leave? What are talking about? I've just got the towers -"
"This place is a trap."
I ignored him, looking back at my city. The next part was the portcullis. It was the main line of defense. No attacker could get past it once it was in position.
Percy shook me again, jarring me back to reality. "What?" I hissed, annoyed at the interruption.
"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"
"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes." I couldn't believe he was being such a drag. Couldn't he see that my city was more important than whatever he was taking about?
"Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."
"So? Can you imagine a better place?"
He looked angry now. He suddenly grabbed my wrist, jerking me away from my city, just as I was lowering the portcullis on place.
"Hey!" I screamed, lashing out at him, but he didn't seem affected by it. And he was much stronger than me, despite his thin build.
He swung me around and pulled me closer, forcing me to look into his sea-green eyes.
"Spiders," he said. "Large, hairy spiders."
I shuddered in horror, my mind clearing immediately. Percy released me as I reeled in shock, realizing what the place was now.
"Oh my gods," I croaked. "How long have we -"
"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."
We headed straight to the Virtual Deer Hunter game and found him there, still firing at humans.
"Grover!" we both yelled, but he was making too much noise himself to hear us.
"Die, human! Die, silly pollution nasty person!"
"Grover!"
He spun and started firing at us, his eyes dilated like a goat's. Percy looked at me and together we grabbed one of Grover's arms each and started towing him towards the exit. "No! I just got to a new level! No!" he yelled, his shoes sprouting wings and attempting to fly him back to his game.
Fortunately, Percy and I were more than a match for him and we got him to the exit, only to be confronted by the man that had given us the LotusCash cards.
"Well, now are you ready for your platinum cards?" he asked us, looking earnest.
"We're leaving," Percy told him sharply.
"Such a shame," the man said, looking downcast. "We just added an entire new floor of games for platinum-card members."
He held out the cards and I could see the boys wanted one. I felt an urge to take one, but then I envisaged the dream I'd had, the one where Percy had died, and the urge stopped.
Percy turned away, his jaw twitching as he fought the urge to take one. Grover reached out eagerly but I slapped his hand away.
"No thanks," I said, marching the satyr away.
The further away we got, the stronger the urge was to turn back. The beds seemed to call for me, but I grounded my teeth and kept walking. We burst out and I felt like we'd managed to succeed where Orpheus had failed. He hadn't resisted the urge to look back and had therefore lost his beloved wife forever.
To keep the temptation away, we ran down the sidewalk, getting some distance between us and the casino. I felt worried as I saw the storm brewing over the desert, something that had definitely not been happening when we'd gone in. How long had we been in there?
Percy ran to the nearest newsstand and grabbed at the daily paper. I read the date over his shoulder. My stomach dropped as I saw it was June twentieth.
Oh, Styx.
We'd been in the casino for five days. There was only one day until the summer solstice. Only one day to finish our quest and stop World War 3.