12 | Fuck It Up, (y/n)!
We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.
We weren't attack even once, but Percy was still hyper and super-duper awake.
Me and Percy tried hiding from most people, since, you know, we're both in the news, wanted for being missing. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as we got off the Greyhound bus. I was sweating and heavily breathing, Percy had a startled and crazy look in his eyes. Percy had a metalic blur for Riptide in his hands, and I had Amaranth in my hands. The bow probably was seen as a slingshot or something.
The picture's caption read:
Twelve-year-olds Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, and (y/n) (l/n), wanted for the disappearance of Zaak Gullevard in Brooklyn two weeks ago, are both shown here fleeing from the bus where they accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson and (l/n) fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boys may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. Jackson's stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture, and the director from (l/n) home orphanage said he's also put in a reward for who brought the kid to him.
"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.
The whole day, Percy was pacing around with difficulty to sit still, or just looking out a window. I rarely kept sat down on my seat, only ever still when Annabeth started lecturing me that I wasn't supposed to be eating the food from other people.
Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The lit-tle boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I waved back.
Another time, toward evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a Hummer. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone
We didn't have enough money to go much closer to where we needed to go, we only got up to Denver, and our money wasn't enough for a sleeper car, so we feel asleep in our seats. Halfway through the ride, I was still awake, and Percy's head fell into my shoulder. I would've let him sleep on me, but I remembered that he drools in his sleep. Sadly, I wasn't fast enough to push his head off of me, and got a puddle of drool on my shirt. I changed as soon as I got the chance.
Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffle daround and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth, Percy and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.
"So," Annabeth asked Percy, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"
"What do you mean?"
"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, “I won't help you.”" I told him.
Percy hesitated to tell us, but in the end he told us about this weird dreams he had, about some dead people and a voice that offered his mom back.
Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."
"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"
"I guess ... if he meant, “Help me rise from the Underworld.” If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"
Percy shook his head, I just shrugged. It's really a hard thing to know what she asked.
Grover snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.
Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time–"
"This time?" I asked. "Dont tell me you've met them before?"
Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."
"What would you do if it was your dad?"
"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."
"Oh."
"You're not serious, are you?" Percy asked.
Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on him. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."
"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hos-pital...." I said. "No one ever told me how I got into the orphanage. I just did."
"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or some-thing. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a “regular” mortal wife, and had two “regu-lar” mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."
I stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. I wanted to make Annabeth feel bet-ter, but I didn't know how. But it did look like Percy did.
"My mom married a really awful guy," he told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."
Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinch-ing the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to me that the ring must be her father's. I won-dered why she wore it if she hated him so much.
"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife–my stepmom–treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened–you know, something with monsters–they would both look at me resentfully, like, “How dare you put our family at risk.” Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."
"How old were you?"
"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."
"It's impossible to get to the camp alone," I raised a brow.
"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."
Annabeth dozed off in her own sad memories and left the room silent, the only sound filling my ears and coloring my view were Grover's pink snores.
Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.
"I want to do that," she sighed.
"What?" I asked.
"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, (y/n)?"
"Only once, I think?"
"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."
"That's kind of cute," I giggled.
Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."
I glanced back at Percy, who stretched and walked around a couple feet behind us, and I snorted.
I covered my mouth with my palm to hold in the louder laughter that banged on my lips to try and esc-ape.
We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.
"You paint your nails?," she asked at last.
I left her question without a proper answer and just tried drowning down my laugh.
🌙🏹࿏
We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.
Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."
"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."
"Sightseeing?"
"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"
Percy and Grover looked at each other before looking over to me with questioning looks, I only shrugged and walked forward, letting the three follow me if they wanted to.
Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar with-out monsters."
The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that exciting, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the
Arch was built, so I guess it was okay. Except for the part where Grover didn't pass me any jelly-beans, but did to Percy, I did hate that.
I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover.
He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff.
"Underground," he said distastefully. "Under-ground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."
But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.
"Guys," I said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"
Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"
"Well, Hade-"
Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place.... You mean, our friend downstairs?"
"Um, right," I said. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"
"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."
"He was there?" I asked.
She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus-the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true...."
"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"
"But then ... how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" I asked.
Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.
"We don't," Grover said.
"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," I said.
I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch.
We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it. We started going up, inside the Arch.
"No parents?" the fat lady asked us.
She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.
"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."
"Oh, the poor darlings."
The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.
I said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"
"No," the lady told me.
She smiled, as if that cleared everything up.
At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, though.
Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.
Percy pushed Annabeth and Grover to the elevator car, where I was waiting leaning on the side of the door. He entered but there was no space left for me to come in with the two tourists inside.
The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."
"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."
But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I said, "Nah, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."
Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.
I waved at them when I saw the doors closing, saying they didn't need to worry and that I would take the next car without saying anything.
I started looking around the empty space, whistling and drumming on my legs while I twirled on my feet.
Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.
I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.
Uh-oh.
Forked tongues are never a good sign.
Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me.
"Now, now, sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."
"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"
His parents pulled him back.
The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.
"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."
Ice started forming in my stomach. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"
"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."
"Oh, sorry, I didn't know," I
She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were side-ways slits, like a reptile's.
The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.
The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.
The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA–RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS–IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS-EXT. 954.
I only felt my right arm weight with the new hunting knife resting onto my hand. I was at least ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.
I nervously giggled. "Hey, doggie."
The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, (y/n) (l/n) . Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"
I didn't even look at her, I was too focused on the giant goat-lion-snake in front of me. All I could think to say was: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"
She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, (y/n) (l/n), my son shall destroy you!"
"Uh-oh."
The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing.
I man-aged to leap aside and dodge the bite. I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors. "Good evening."
I couldn't let them get hurt. I gripped my knife, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, you ugly, dog treat breath creature!" The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.
Before I could swing my knife, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.
I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eye-brows.
Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.
Great, I thought. I just blowtorched a national mon-ument. Even worse, Annabeth liked it.
Moonlight was now a shining bronze blade in my hands, and as the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck.
I really regretted that decision, speci-fically when the blade only made some golden sparks on the dog collar and passed without a single on the Chimera. I tried defending against the lion mouth and jumping around to avoid any fire it spit out, but I totally forgot about the rest of te Chimera's body, only remembering it when the snake tail drowned its canines into my thigh.
I felt like my whole leg wanted to rip itself off from my hips, it hurt like hell. I tried slashing against the lion's mouth, but the serpent wrapped itself around my ankle and pushed back, throwing me to the ground. My blade slipped from my hand and slided across the ground until it fell out the hole and down the whole monument, in the direction of the Mississippi River.
I tripped back into my feet. But I could feel all the venom running up from my leg to my chest and giving my whole body a deep and painful sting. I figured that I lost, I had no weapon. One Moonlight fell from the hole, and the other didn't seem to activate. And I probably wasn't going to live much further to see if it was actually going to.
I limped back into the large hole on the wall, trying to keep my distance from the Chimera. But it kept clawing on the ground and approaching me, roaring, foaming with anger. Smoke dancing in the air around the Chimera's mouth. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"
I tried backing more away, but I knew the hole was right behind me, and if I fell, the family and the guard would be fried chicken. I couldn't just let them die. If I die, they do, too.
Or would they?
If I die, the monsters would go away.
I could just sacrifice myself, and let the four humans live.
"Oh, son of Artemis," Echidna growled. "The dear son of Artemis. she holds you so, so close to her heart. What would she–better yet, her father do, if his grandson died. The son of his almost favorite child."
"Care to find out?" I chuckled.
I put both of my feet into the small part that separed floor and air from my body, my heels stuck out from the ground and left part of my body outside the monument.
I gave Echidna a two fingered salute with my left hand and left my right arm extended to the side, and simply let my body fall back, feeling gravity, or a god, push me back to the ground.
"Uhh," I tried thinking of something. "Mother? Mom? Could you lend a help to your son? I think I'm dying. I need your help... Please."
I gripped tightly to the pendant with a bear paw on it, praying countless of times for my mother's help, or even my grandfather's, at the point, I didn't care who did help me, I just didn't want to die so soon.