We walked for what felt like forever when Percy pointed out the neon light of a sign just ahead of us.
Only moments later did we all start smelling the food.
It smelled like some greasy food that my mom and I used to have from our local diners when I was younger, and the moment I thought about those juicy burgers, my stomach growled loudly.
Everyone snickered at that, but I noticed the pace picked up once we found our way to the two-lane road just beyond the trees.
The sight of the source of the smell was a curious one. It was a closed gas station with an almost unreadable billboard for some movie and an OPEN sign shining with its neon colors.
The building itself was a long low warehouse, looking kind of like one of those super shady buildings from the horror movies.
My eyes lifted to the other neon sign above the gate, and I sighed, "Stupid dyslexia..."
ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM, was what my eyes saw, the letters swirling rebelliously in front of my eyes.
"What the heck does that say?" I exclaimed in frustration.
"I don't know..." Annabeth pinched her lips, glancing at me, and her brows raised as she saw my face for the first actual time.
"Uhhh, Grover? Could you read that?" Percy asked the satyr.
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium," Grover translated for all of us.
I snorted, "That is super weird."
The gnome part was brought to life when we walked into the entrance; two little beared gnomes were placed on either side and were waving and smiling like they were getting their pictures taken.
Percy nudged my side, not looking at my face, and said, "Come on..."
He hurried across the street, and I stood still in my place before my hunger multiplied, and Annabeth and I followed him in unison.
"Hey..." Grover called, his voice worried.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said matter-of-factly. "Maybe it's open.
"Snack bar..." Percy drew out, his face slack with hunger.
"Snack bar..." I repeated, agreeing with him, as I struggled to remember when I actually ate last.
"Are you three crazy?! This place is weird!" Grover retorted.
We ignored him.
I was vaguely aware of the cement statues of animals, children, and even a satyr playing the pipes.
Grover bleated in shock as he exclaimed, "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
I glanced at the statue for a few seconds before stopping with my new friends in front of the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover begged from my left. "I smell monsters!"
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth waved him off from the other side of Percy, who was on my right. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat?! I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," Percy commented.
"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave! These statues are... looking at me!"
His words registered in my mind, and something in the back of my head was telling me to listen to him, but it was shut up when the door opened.
Before us was a tall woman who I assumed was Middle Eastern. The reason why I assumed that was because she was dressed in a long black dress that covered every inch of her body except for her hands, and her face was veiled with a curtain of black velvety cloth.
"Children, it is too late to be out all alone!" The woman cried, clasping her hands as she spoke with a vaguely Middle Eastern accent. "Where are your parents?"
I stared up at her with wide eyes, unsure what to do now.
"They're ... um ..." Annabeth stammered, caught off guard.
"We're orphans," Percy said, and I flinched a little bit.
If I was a demigod or half-blood, then I was not technically an orphan, but the words still resonated deep within me, and I quickly tried to cover up my reaction, getting a glance from Annabeth.
"Orphans?!" The woman gasped. "But, my dears! Surely not!"
"We got separated from our caravan," Percy continued his elaborate lie that he had pulled together in a matter of seconds. He sounded a little stiff, but he was answering, and that was what mattered. "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." His voice sped up, and he just basically blabbed the last part, "Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
"Oh, my dears," The woman cooed. "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 before entering, and Annabeth leaned over to Percy and muttered with a raised brow, "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?"
"Your head is full of kelp."
I snickered, looking around at the statues briefly, not really paying attention to the life-sized cement figures as I followed Percy and Annabeth deeper into the warehouse.
I dropped onto one of the spots in front of the steal picnic tables, Percy taking a spot next to me and Grover and Annabeth taking spots across from us.
Annabeth kept glancing at me, and I was about to ask her why she kept staring at me like I was some kind of alien or something when Grover announced, "Um, we don't have any money, ma'am."
"No, no, children!" Aunty Em shook her head. "No money! This is a special case, yes? It is my treat for such nice orphans."
I stopped myself from wincing at the title this time as Annabeth replied, "Thank you, ma'am."
I watched Aunty Em and noticed her entire figure go stiff before relaxing just as quickly.
I briefly furrowed my brows but came to the conclusion that I had imagined it and listened as the woman said, "Quite all right, Annabeth. You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."
Ten minutes, us kids were scarfing down double cheeseburgers, shakes, and XXL servings of french fries.
I do not remember the last time I ate as much as I did while we were there. I think I ate three burgers, two and a half shakes, and maybe five servings of fries.
I finally actually got full when Grover, who still had not eaten anything, abruptly asked, "What's that hissing noise?"
I strained my ears and looked at Annabeth and Percy, who just shrugged in confusion.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em inquired, looking at the redhead. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil? You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears."
I coughed back a snicker at that poor excuse and rubbed my eyes, a tired, comfortable warmth spreading throughout my limbs.
I kinda wanted to take a nap and was not super into the conversation that Percy was having with Aunt Em, slipping into a comfortable doze until Annabeth kicked my shin, and I was wide awake just in time to hear the hostess say, ".... I had a...a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by 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."
I met Annabeth's eyes, and even though I was not entirely sure what I missed, the panic I saw in them made adrenaline spark through me, and I put a hand on Percy's arm, saying firmly, "Percy, maybe we should go."
Annabeth nodded, her eyes staying glued to Auntie Em, "I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em brought again, making my stomach twist. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those." She then turned her eyes on me, and I went rigid as she said, "Oh...and what a lovely shade of green, my dear..."
"Her hand reached to touch me, and I felt the blood drain from my face and Annabeth stood, drawing attention back to her as she stated, "We really should go."
"Yes!" Grover jumped up, swallowing what looked like wax paper. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"
Percy did not move from his space beside me, his face dazed.
"Please, dears," Aunty Em begged us, clasping her hands in front of herself again. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth repeated, her face scrunching up in skepticism.
"A photograph! I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
Annabeth's eyes fell on me as if asking me what I thought, which I was shocked about, but I shook my head subtly.
My new blonde friend shuffled on her feet before saying, "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"
"Sure we can," Percy said, irritation thick in his tone as he gave Annabeth a sharp look. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
"Yes, Annabeth," Aunt Em cooed. "No harm."
Annabeth looked ready to just punch Percy, but she allowed the woman to lead us to the front door and back to the garden of statues again.
She stood next to me, her hands clenched in fists at her side.
I pinched my lips, glancing at her and Grover, who were both severely tense.
"Now," Aunt Em gestured to a bench next to the stone satyr from earlier. "I'll just position you correctly. Annabeth, you next to Sally with the dear redhead boy on the other side of you. Percy, you next to Sally..."
Hold up.
She knew my name.
I never told her my name.
My mind went fuzzy as I finally decided that this was a bad idea, like monumentally bad.
"That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand..." Grover murmured at the stone satyr.
"Grover," Aunty Em scolded him. "look this way, dear."
My leg started to bounce as I watched Aunt Em, who was holding no camera.
"Annabeth..." I barely whispered. "Where's her camera?"
Annabeth's hands were still clenched in her lap as she called, "Percy..."
"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em told them in an almost playful tone. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."
"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth tried again.
"Wrong?" Aunty Em repeated as she reached up to move the veil from her face. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover bleated.
A hard shove to the chest made me gasp and grab onto Percy's arm to try to balance myself, but We still ended up being sprawled all over the floor.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth cried, and I turned to look for her, but she was just gone.
How in the world are they doing that?!
I moved closer to a sluggish Percy, trying to get him to wake up more, when a hissing noise made me freeze.
Snakes.
I wanted to look up to see if I was right, but after a quick look at Aunt Em's once beautifully manicured hands, now completely warty and actual talons, I dropped my gaze down and heard Annabeth scream, "No! Don't!"
"Run!" Grover shouted at us before calling, "Maia!"
I heard the flapping of wings, but I kept my eyes on the ground, blindly searching for Percy's arm.
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," Aunt Em basically sang. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
My fingers found Percy's jacket as my eyes fell on a glass gazing ball similar to the one in my mom's garden when I was a kid. I saw Aunt Em's reflection, and I almost gasped.
Aunty Em.
M.
Oh wow.
We were all kinda dumb.
It was Medusa, it had to be, and here Percy was, the boy with the namesake of the person who had attacked Medusa when she was sleeping.
This night could literally not get any worse.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said in a sad old voice. If she was not some kind of psychopathic killer, I would have felt bad, but of course, that was not how tonight was going. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice came from somewhere in the garden. "Run, Percy! Run, Sally!"
"Silence!" Medusa growled at Annabeth before her tone softened again. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer. Neither do you, Sally...you will be safe forever."
"No..." I growled, pushing the panic, clawing at my through away.
"Do you really want to help the gods, Percy?" Medusa questioned. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest? 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."
I pulled Percy to his feet just as Grover shouted, "Sally! Duck!" I spun and spied my satyr friend, his eyes closed and holding a large tree branch, heading straight for us.
I yelped as Percy finally seemed to jerk into action he pulled me to one side, and my left elbow scraped hard against the ground.
We heard a crash, and I was almost elated to hear the enraged scream from Medusa.
Grover had hit her.
Hahaha, snake face.
You miserable satyr," Medusa hissed at Grover. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" The satyr shot back in a shaking war cry.
"Come on..." I gasped to Percy as Grover moved to attack the monster again.
The two of us scrambled deeper into the cement wonderland, frantically trying to find a place to hide and figure out our next move.
"Guys!" Annabeth exclaimed from my right.
I gasped again, falling into Percy, who barely caught me, snapping, "Jeez! Don't do that!"
Annabeth suddenly appeared, holding what looked like a Yankees baseball hat in her hand before bluntly saying, 'You have to cut her head off."
"Ooohhh..." I muttered to no one in particular. "So that's how you do it..."
"What?!" Percy stared at Annabeth as if she had grown another head. "Are you crazy?! Let's get out of here!"
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth hesitated, ignoring Percy's statement as she thought through something, her gray eyes flashing. "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. You-you've got a chance."
"What? I can't—"
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"
I grimaced and looked at Percy, "She is right..."
He gave me a mildly offended look that I took her side.
Annabeth grabbed another gazing ball, suddenly turning into a human science textbook, "A polished shield would be better...The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"
"Would you speak English?!" Percy sighed, glancing over his shoulder in paranoia.
I snickered, "She is, Percy. Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"Exactly," Annabeth nodded, tossing Percy the ball.
"Hey, guys!" Grover shouted from somewhere. "I think she's unconscious!"
Another explosive scream from Medusa drew another response from him.
"Maybe not..."
Percy took something that looked like a pen from his pocket and pulled off the cap, and suddenly the pen was not a pen but the bronze sword from earlier.
I stare at the short sword in wonder, "Woah..."
Percy smirked before he stared at me seriously, his sea-green eyes pinned me to my spot, "Be careful. Stay with Annabeth."
His protectiveness startled me.
I haven't had anybody act like that in years.
I nodded, "I will."
He gave me one last look before he moved off to try to take down Medusa.
Annabeth grabbed my hand and pulled me into a crouch, leading me through the warehouse.
She pulled me back to the veil Medusa had pulled off a few moments before. After grabbing it, she pulled me behind a pair of bear statues and looked at me seriously, asking, "Are you sure you've never met Percy? Or a demigod or anything?"
I blinked, "Uh no...why?"
"It's just that—"
A loud hissing noise filled the air before something heavy fell to the ground to my left.
My stomach clenched as I already knew what it was.
"Don't move..." Annabeth breathed, her eyes to the sky as she carefully dropped the veil on Medusa's decapitated head. "Okay, you're good..."
I carefully turned my head to the veil and almost gagged at the sight of the green goop spilling out from under the veil and being soaked into the ground.
"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked, pulling Percy to his feet shakily.
Percy swallowed thickly, "Yeah...Why didn't–why didn't the head evaporate?"
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," Annabeth explained. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
"Hold up...Minotaur horn?" I questioned in shock, joining them. "As in the Minotaur?"
Percy smiled sheepishly, his eyes flashing with pain as well, "Yeeeaaahhh...it's a long story."
"Well, you better tell it soon."
He nodded, his dry hair sticking up, now looking like he just got off the beach, his hair crazy, "I will." He looked at Grover, who was dragging himself up to his feet, flying sneakers fluttering around his head. "The Red Baron. Good job, man."
Grover grinned a little bit, gently touching the welt on his forehead, "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
Five minutes later, we were sitting at the picnic table again, staring at the double grocery-bag-wrapped head of Medusa, suddenly feeling too exhausted to even breathe.
"So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
I gave Percy a look that said, Really, dude?
Annabeth gave him a frustrated look, "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters, who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him." She glanced briefly at me, but it was so subtle I almost missed it.
"Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa?" Percy snapped back at the Athena girl.
Annabeth straightened and in a pretty awful imitation of Percy's voice, said, "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
Forget it!" Percy waved a hand at her, his face red.
You're impossible."
You're insufferable."
"You're—"
"Hey!" Grover shut them up, which I smirked at. "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 plastic-wrapped thing and wrinkled my nose, Gross.
Percy abruptly stood, "I'll be back..."
Annabeth called after him, but he disappeared into the warehouse.
Grover and Annabeth were talking about something in front of me while I zoned out, playing with the ring on my necklace, trying to calm the adrenaline racing through my system. It was like my senses were dialed up a thousand, and everything made me jumpy. So I just quietly calmed myself for about ten minutes.
When I finally felt chill again, I leaned forward, pinning Annabeth with my eyes, "What were you going to say earlier? About me?"
Annabeth pinched her lips, glancing over her shoulder where Percy disappeared, before turning back and saying, "I was just thinking about your parentage."
I nodded slowly, "And what have you concluded?"
The blonde seemed to be weighing her words before saying quietly, "Have you noticed how much you and Percy look alike?"
I blinked before stammering, "I m-mean I noticed our eyes are similar, but—"
"It's not just your eyes," Annabeth cut me off. "You guys also have the same nose, same jawlines, and you both have had a strong scent when Grover was around. Also, don't you think it's a little weird that you have his mom's name? And you can see through the Mist, and the Furies sensed you on the bus too. And then you have Percy's gut feeling...Doesn't that seem a little too coincidental?"
I bit my lip, staring at my hands.
Annabeth was right.
There were too many signs.
Too many connections.
Something was just too similar between Percy and me.
I unconsciously rubbed my nose before looking up at Annabeth and Grover, who was watching me as if I were going to explode, "I mean...It would make sense."
"I think it makes perfect sense..." Annabeth said. Then she shrugged, "Or maybe I am crazy, but it's probably the former."
I glanced over her shoulder before leaning forward to the two of them. "I'm not saying you're wrong, but let's keep this theory quiet. At least until it either gets confirmed or denied."
Annabeth's eyes sparkled as if she had solved the world's greatest mysteries, "I'm right. I know it."
"She hasn't exploded a toilet, though," Grover muttered.
I looked at him and blinked, "Um, what do you mean—"
Percy rejoined us, and we all silenced, watching him pack up Medusa's head into a shipping box and fill out a packing slip saying:
The Gods Mount Olympus
60th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
I snickered at that, The sass is real with this one.
"They're not going to like that," Grover told Percy, staring at the box. "They'll think you're impertinent."
"Well, it'll be hilarious," I shot back at him as I watched Percy pour some kind of gold coins into the pouch he was holding and an invisible cash register went off. I sigh, "Gosh, this life is so weird."
"I am impertinent," Percy grinned at me as he answered Grover.
The box vanished, and I ran a hand through my knotty hair, "I have so much to learn..."
"Yes, you do..." Annabeth muttered, not even questioning Percy's rebellious act towards the gods. "But, we don't have time for that right now."
I could practically see the gears in her head turning as she stood and said, "Come on...We need a new plan..."