It seemed that the Fates put everything they did down just to protect the quartet because of Penelope's reckless decision because ever since they stepped inside the train station, no monster could be seen or felt. It seemed like the Fates did not want those "innocent" civilians to die in vain. Though, who could tell whether they were innocent or not, right? Besides, the train went underground, she did not think that those monsters would be underground, would they?
Good for them, since they don't have to die now.
Penelope sat on the train beside the other three and for the first time since the trip started, closed her eyes to save her strength and stamina. She did not want the hellhounds event to repeat again.
Hungry, she glanced towards the other three to find themselves passed out. Penelope wanted to just wake them up because how could they sleep but decided not to.
If they died, that would be their own fault.
In the war, it's every man for themselves, bitches.
However, she did feel thankful to them being asleep since now she knew no one would disturb her for munching on whatever she had inside her bag, read: snacks. She knew she would have no food for her trip, that was why she prepared a bunch of snacks beside the other tools she knew she would need.
As she munched on a burger, her eyes moved voluntarily to the thing inside one of the pockets inside her bag.
A mirror.
Right, she knew she would probably meet Medusa, the cursed woman with living venomous snakes in place of hair and those who gazed into her eyes would turn into stones. How pitiful, and all because she was raped by her father, Poseidon. Sometimes, Penelope felt bad about the cursed woman. Medusa was the victim, but because of a jealous bitch of a goddess, she was cursed. Penelope knew the love triangle. Athena loved Poseidon, but then her father lusted after the once beautiful almost-goddess priestess of Athena, Medusa. Then someday, her father raped her.
It stunned Penelope when she knew, how low would her father go for women.
However, some tragedy struck the victim, Medusa when Athena decided she could not punish the love of her life as known as rape, so she decided to just curse the woman he lusted after so Medusa could not seduce him anymore.
Like, what sort of twisted-minded person Athena was?
People said she was the goddess of wisdom and war, where was the wisdom go when she decided to punish the victim rather than the perpetrator? The criminal was set free just because she could not punish the one she loved? How ridiculous.
Really, if Penelope were strong enough, she wanted to slap some sense to the young Athena. How blinded was she? Stupid.
So, because she knew the original story of Medusa, Penelope sometimes would feel bad for her. The victim got punished because the punisher was jealous. But then again, Medusa was now some sort of a criminal who lured people in just to turn them into stones. Thus, the young demigoddess could only sigh.
Penelope would later jump into the snake's den just to kill her. It could be read as two different perspectives, however. One, Penelope would kill Medusa so that she could rest now. Two, Penelope would kill Medusa because she did not want to turn into a stone, and would rather leave the place alive.
The two perspectives were both true. Penelope wanted to give Medusa a rest as a way to apologize to her for her father's deeds but also, she wanted to keep her life. Two birds with one stone, no?
But first, the quartet probably needed to walk a few miles for them to find the place Medusa stayed no?
Dawn came and the quartet was still walking, trying to get to the entrance of the underworld as fast as possible. They had arrived in Los Angeles and started walking as soon as they stepped off the train. Nobody uttered a word, they were just kept on walking in the dark in silence.
That was until a grumbling sound was heard. The quartet stopped walking and looked back towards the source of the noise: Penelope. Well, even though she had already eaten a lot of snacks on the train, the quartet had walked for more than a few hours, and her energy from the snacks was all gone.
The black-haired young lady frowned and grumbled, "What are you looking at? I'm hungry."
She still had some snacks in her bag, it was just she did not have the heart to share them. She would rather eat them by herself than share some of her favorite snacks with people who forced her to join this shitty trip.
Thus, she could only grumble, well, and bitching.
"And snappy," Percy added before the three chuckled.
Penelope glared at her twin brother, "Oh, fuck off, bitch."
"Sorry, sorry," The twin brother chuckled before he turned around and started walking.
The silence resumed. The only sound that could be heard was the sound of their shoes making contact with the pavement. It seemed that hunger could mess with one's mind since Penelope began to grumble softly under her breath. Where were they anyway? She had not seen a single sign for the last twenty minutes.
Annabeth must sense her confusion and discomfort since she asked, "Perce?"
The boy turned his head around but did not stop walking towards who knows where. Penelope did not know. She only ever read the description of Medusa's café, she never read the way to her café. Thus, she could only follow since she knew Percy would eventually find that place. Hearing someone called his name, Percy hummed, indicating that someone could shoot their question.
"Where are we?" The girl asked.
Percy stopped walking then. Penelope who watched from behind really wanted to chuckle at this sudden entertainment. If only she also could snack on popcorns.
"Uh..." Percy hesitated about what he was about to say. However before the leader boy could even utter some noncoherent words, Penelope beat him to it.
"He didn't know the way." Penelope smirked as Percy's eyes widened, but she continued, "But it's fine. With Percy's luck, we will probably find some haunted café we could just rest at, no?"
Shading is fun.
If only there were some people who knew what she was talking about, they would probably laugh with her.
"Though if it's possible, please walk faster so we can reach somewhere faster, okay? My stomach's eating me alive right now." Penelope grinned as she gestured for the others to keep walking.
The quartet walked for another few hours, it was the worst time of Penelope's time ever since she found out that her grandma was dead and that she was abandoned when she was a child. She wanted to just not give a fuck and eat but again, the others were all hungry and lost. She could not just shove it to their faces that she still had some snacks inside her bag. Though, if she had to walk another thirty minutes, she would definitely not give a fuck and devour everything.
However, one thought struck her.
How come no monsters come to them?
It had been a good 3 hours, probably, ever since they stepped out from the train. But, why could they not encounter even a small hellhound? Like, it was way too suspicious.
Besides, it did feel like they were walking in circles if she thought about it again. As soon as she thought about it, she stopped walking. She decided to trust her instinct and tried her luck. Thus, she slipped away quietly from the group of people who could not even feel her walk away.
She found one tall kind of big tree where she jumped on its bark and settled herself. If her thought was real, she would eventually meet her group again. Though, if her thought was false, which was never, she could still survive, since she was an expert at killing everything on sight.
Thus, she rested and finally could open her bag to eat some food.
It was a blissful thirty minutes, she rested and ate a lot of food, when she finally heard the first sound coming from her left.
She readied her swords and her breath so that if it was some enemy, she could do some sneak attack. However, her eyebrows twitched when she found out who the intruder was. It was her group.
Her instinct was real and they were not lost. Rather, it was some spell to make them walk around.
Some bitch was messing with her and now that she knew about it, she was furious. When she found the one who put the spell, she would not hesitate to send them to Tartarus. No hesitation and no empty threats.
Her brain racked then, but she did not stop the group of three when they passed. It was kind of funny to let them walk around for how many times while she was there, watching and resting. Who was it that said Athena's children were smart?
When the three passed her tree, she began to think seriously. Who was it that have the capability to create some spell? Magic? This sort of thinking somehow threw her back into a war flashback when she entered the cursed labyrinth. Really, she hoped that it was not the same and that God could just let her rest.
If we were talking about magic or even witchcraft, should we think about Hecate, then?
Hecate was the goddess of magic, witchcraft, and even ghosts, no? She was even called the Greek's witch, was she not?
But, why would she place some whatever spell it was in this sort of place? Like, was there some forbidden place here?
Maybe like Medusa's café?
It was way too suspicious, no? That some spell was placed in this kind of nowhere place? Who was crazy enough to step foot in this place where ghosts could probably live? Was Hecate protecting civilians so they would eventually give up to search whatever they were finding and just go back to the main road? Or was she just playing some sort of game when she heard the quartet was trying to go west to Hades since she was bored?
It was tiring to reach some sort of answer.
Well, at least she could see how frustrating the three were when they passed by her again. Furthermore, she had a good rest and her stomach was finally full.
It was time to tell the three that there was something that trapped her in here.
When the three passed by her again, she created some small bubbles and sent them to each of their faces just to burst it. She laughed out loud when the mindless three jolted out of surprise from the prank.
"Penelope?!" Percy's eyes widened, but then he turned around and just realized that Penelope was not in the back of their group ever since who knows.
"Well, I thought someone would finally realize that I was not there, but guess not." Penelope laughed again, but she continued, "Just for your information, this was the third round."
Annabeth, who heard the sentence gaped at her. "You meant that we were walking in circles this whole time?"
Penelope grinned, "Really, the smartest, right?"
Annabeth asked then, "How could you find out?"
"Well, I just found it weird that I couldn't feel or even detect monsters, don't you find it weird?"
"Huh, I just realized. What a dumbass."
"Well, because of that, I decided to just rest here since I felt like we were walking in circles. Thus, I followed my gut. Imagined my surprise when I saw the three of you walking toward me. It was entertaining though watching your frustrated faces. Thanks for the good laugh." Penelope explained as she cackled at the end. "Also, the fact that none of you realized I was gone and was watching you was kind of funny too."
"You bitch, you could at least inform us." Percy cursed as he frowned.
"Well, I was testing your brains, but seems like I was the smartest in this group," Penelope smirked. She did not feel offended by the word bitch as she was indeed a bitch, a badass bitch. Thus, she spewed whatever was inside her brain.
Annabeth seemed to be offended, however, as she asked, "Well, if you were the smartest, where are we?"
Penelope cackled. She answered, "How would I know? I just know that there is a spell here, though I don't know whether it was Hecate who set it up or any other gods who could use magic."
"Hecate?" Annabeth frowned.
"Now, as the smartest one officially, go ahead and try to solve the problem. I'm way too lazy to do some riddles right now." Penelope shrugged and laid down a little on her bark. She continued though, "Don't forget to thank me with some dinner because I woke you up from this whatever spell."