"Run!" I didn't even bother to acknowledge which person had spoken. Regardless, I was already bolting even before the prodding from whomever had spoken. Soon, they were running also, but behind me. Despite my generally weak looking appearance, I was actually rather fit. I didn't dread gym class like many other kids I knew. In fact, I rather enjoyed it. I probably could have made a sports team, but the problem with that was in the name--team. I didn't want extra attention. Even track felt like being too social, so I stuck to running on my own, every morning and sometimes nights in summer. It was at times like this that all that running came in handy. I was ahead of the others, although not sure what town I was in.
It was scary how quickly the atmosphere had changed. The picturesque blue sky and clouds were replaced with thick rain clouds of varying shades of gray, and it seemed like the water pressure from above increased every second. All around me, the colors of the buildings appeared to blur together through the veil of water, as if they were being washed away with the rain. Bit by bit, the street became less of a road and more of a river, the water drains at the sides just barely keeping up with the liquid that was running into them at an alarming rate. I leaped up onto a sidewalk to avoid the pool that was forming. Even though I hadn't been in the street long, the bottom of my pants were soaked to just above my ankles. At the same time, the water was saturating the from of my jeans and my sweater. All four of us would need to be rung out by the time we reached shelter.
I slipped and slid in on the wet cement sidewalk, my arms flailing in odd directions to keep my balance. Luckily for me, I managed to stay upright. Less could be said about the others though.
"Mel, Melody! Slow down!" It was Piper, although the sound of rain pounding down on cement and puddles almost drowned out her voice. "We need to-" She got cut off, her pause almost immediately followed by a sloshing sound. I turned on my heel, narrowly avoiding wiping out with the sudden change in direction. Pipe was sprawled awkwardly on the street where she had slipped, scrambling into a sitting position. She attempted to get up, succeeding only in falling again and getting more street water on her. Jay caught up to her and grabbed her arm, yanking her up. He continued to keep a hold on her arm as he started running again, barely waiting for her to be read. Nico was behind them, seeming to be taking the rain and run the hardest.
I turned away from looking at them for a moment, staring ahead to try and find a suitable destination. It was hard to see, but a ways away I could make out a sign: Daunts Albatross Motel. I had never heard of the place before, but a motel was a motel, and that meant a warm haven and a place to dry off until we could start walking again--wherever it was we were going. We could make a plan once we were out of the rain.
"Go there," I called over the ran, jerking a hand toward the motel I had spotted.
Piper nodded in response. She and Jay, now clinging to each other for support and balance, were starting to catch up. Nico, however, with no help, was still lacking. I sighed and started moving back toward the others. It was no use if he took forever. Every step he took made me wince, thinking he was about to fall. Piper and Jay gave me an odd look, obviously confused that I was going the wrong way. But, I passed them, getting to Nico and taking purchase on his upper arm right as he was about to fall, for real this time. Although I had kept him from face-planting the ground, he glared at me, and tried to yank his arm away. I wasn't expecting such a cold reaction, but I didn't lose my grip; in fact, it tightened, and I started yanking him along.
"Get off of me," he growled, once again trying to take back his arm.
I wasn't looking at him, and I still didn't let go or stop walking. "I'm not waiting for you to stumble through the rain. Just accept the help."
"Who said I needed help?" he snapped.
"Logic. Observation. Common sense." He gave no more reply, and neither did I. Soon, he and I had caught up to Jay and Piper, and we headed as a huddled group into the motel.
We must have looked like a mess to the receptionist. Her skin and body made me guess she was middle-aged, but her black hair was in a trendy shoulder-length cut, parted into side-bangs. She even had a neon-green streak in the bangs, too. She looked up when we entered, eyebrows raised.
"Can I help you?"
Personally, I thought that was a silly question. It was raining and we were soaked. What did she think we wanted here, at a motel? But before I could say anything, Piper stepped up, messily tucking some of her hair behind her ear. "Yes, you can. We need a room. Any size will do--we don't plan on staying long."
The woman turned to a desktop computer that looked a few years old and began keying. Eyes scanning rapidly, she clicked a few times, then returned her attention to Piper.
"We don't have many rooms available. The best I can offer is a two bed room. Eighty-eight dollars." She stated these facts almost emotionlessly, her hands folded on the desk. Piper gulped, and it was clear to us all that we didn't have the money.
"Uh, eighty-eight? We really only need it as shelter from the rain for a while. Don't you think you could make such an accommodation for free?" Piper's voice and expression was a cross between pleading puppy and cute little girl. At this moment, I wanted to give her a room for free--and I didn't even have a room to give. The woman's gaze softened, but she didn't budge.
"Sorry, sweetie. I can't just give away rooms for free." She shrugged, looking like she was about to start ignoring Piper altogether.
"But!" Piper said quickly, desperately trying to get back the receptionist's attention, in which she succeeded. Her expression changed, a bit more determined, her tone more confident. "Please. We only need it for hours, a day at the most. Just until the rain lets up. We'll leave it just how we found it. That's it. Let us have the room." She was staring intensely at the woman as she spoke.
The woman frowned slightly, but in an unsure sort of way--kind of like she couldn't remember what she had been thinking about. "Oh, alright. Just take it." Behind her was a pegboard mounted on the wall, covered in labeled pegs and keys hanging on them. She snatched up the key for room twenty seven and tossed it to Piper, who hurriedly grabbed it out of the air, muttered a thank you, and quickly walked off.
I felt a shove on my side and looked over. Nico was pushing me away--I hadn't even realized that I had still been holding his arm. Without a word, he quickly followed Piper. Now Jay was only left in the lobby with me, the other two already down a hallway, searching out the room. He smiled, still looked awfully happy given the situation.
"C'mon, Mel. Time to get dried off!" He fist-pumped the air for no apparent reason, then turned and followed the others. Not wanting to be left alone, I jogged after them as well.
The room wasn't fancy: two beds, side-by-side with a nightstand between them and a TV in front of them; a small kitchenette, consisting of a sink, mini fridge, microwave oven, and a kitchen island in the center with three stools by it; and a bathroom, sink, stocked cabinet, toilet and shower all crammed together. A rug was sprawled out in front of the beds, and mundane paintings covered wallpaper of faded green and red stripes.
I dropped my bag where Piper, Nico, and Jay had already set there's at the foot of one of the beds. Piper was digging through hers and soon pulled out a set of dry clothes. It seemed Nico and Jay had the same idea, as they were also starting to look through their own bags. Nico, getting his clothes, quickly snatched up the bathroom and closed the door. I could hear the lock click. Jay took his own clothes and disappeared around the corner of the kitchen. "Don't come in!" He dragged out the I in 'in' in a sing-song voice.
"Likewise." Piper was the one to reply, already having shrugged off her jacket, a new shirt and pants set on one of the beds. She was now struggling with her shirt, the task a tedious one, as the fabric was insistent on clinging at every chance. My face grew warm. Did she expect me to change in front of her, too? I knew it was normal--girls at school changed into their gym uniforms in front of each other all the time--but I never had before. For gym I also changed in a stall.
"Aren't you going to change?" Piper asked, confirming my fear. I had gotten so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice she now was already pulling on a bright blue V-neck and staring at me.
"I, uh," I didn't want to. Stupid as it seemed at my age, I wasn't comfortable changing in front of people, not even girls. I felt even more dumb since Piper was doing it without a second thought. My throat felt dry. "I'm . . . not going to change."
Piper raised her eyebrows. "But you're soaked through. You can't just stay in those clothes."
I looked down. Every inch of me--hair, sweater, jeans and sneakers--were indeed wet and also clinging. But it would be embarrassing to admit that I was too self conscious to change in front of her. A daughter of Aphrodite self conscious about being half naked in front of another girl? I had to be the only one like that. No one else would be overthinking this. But here I was, trying to come up with some excuse to not change.
"I just, um, I'm okay. I don't think I need to." I tried to shrug it off, staring at the wall as she changed into fresh jeans.
"Oh c'mon, Mel. You have to change." She didn't sound like she was going to let this go.
Just then, the bathroom door opened, and Nico returned to the room, wearing . . . well, what looked like exactly the same thing, only dry. I could see from here that he had hung the wet ones over the rod of the shower curtain. He was toweling off his hair with a towel from the cabinet, the fluffy whiteness a stark contrast to the darkness of his hair.
"Let her do what she wants. If she wants to catch something because she refuses to change her clothes, so be it." He hung the towel over the rod as well, then grabbed the TV remote, plopping down on one of the beds and turning the TV on.
Piper sighed and shrugged, finally giving in. "Whatever. I won't force you." She followed suit of Nico, hanging her clothes and then settling into the other bed. Not wanting to get the bed sheets wet, laid down on the floor in front of the TV, using my right hand as a pillow. Although Nico's attitude annoyed me, I was also grateful that he had saved me from the situation, intentional or not.
Finally, Jay returned. The curtain rod full, he draped his clothes over the sink. Instead of sitting in bed next to Piper or Nico, he laid down on my left, following my example, only using his left hand as a pillow.
Minutes passed in silence except for the noise of the TV. It was some random sitcom, the overdramatic kind where someone is pregnant, some is on drugs, and someone is getting cheated on, all that drama for the views. Suddenly, the show switched off.
"So, leader, what's the plan?" It was Nico. He set down the remote on the nightstand. "Where are we going?"
I sat up, scratching the back of my neck. "Um, I-"
Before I could even pretend to have an answer, he sighed. "You don't have one, do you?"
How he could see through me so easily, I don't know. But once again, someone else popped into the conversation before I could answer.
"Do you have to sound so accusatory?" This time it was Jay, who had also sat up and was looking at Nico. "She's never been on a quest, much less lead one. You don't need to sound as if she's already failed by not already having a plan." Although Jay did not speak unkindly, there was also a forcefulness to his voice.
I stared at him. People didn't really defend me often. Well, ever.
Nico sighed, then continued, as if neither of them had said anything. "The first two lines of the prophecy were 'Mother of Exiles conceals the one/Whom creates the boundary between mortals and gods.' The best first step would be to figure out what 'Mother of Exiles' means. Any objections?"
No one had any objections.
"Okay then. Any ideas?" The room was silent. Nico glanced around at us--especially me--expectantly, as if waiting for a ground-breaking response any second. Piper looked stumped and stared at the sheets below her. I sat cross-legged and played with my hands, no answer coming to mind.
"Ah," Jay said slowly, hesitantly. This was the quietest I had heard him yet. "What about... Nemesis?" All three of us looked at him as if on cue.
"Uh, what about her?" I asked. Nemesis seemed like such a random person--well, goddess--to bring up.
Jay scratched the back of his neck, as if not entirely confident in what he was saying--that was a first. "Well... You know how Nemesis is the goddess of revenge?" We nodded, although still not seeing what he was getting at. "And sometimes revenge can mean, say, kicking someone out. You know, exiling them." He paused for a moment, waiting for it to click with us. All at once, it seemed to register.
"So you think 'Mother of Exiles' might be referring to Nemesis," I said, stating the obvious.
Jay nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I could be wrong. But it's a possibility, right?"
"Yeah, it is. But why would Nemesis capture Hecate? Why would a revenge goddess trap the goddess of magic, the night and the moon?"
"Well, maybe some other god wanted revenge for whatever reason," Piper said, finally adding to the conversation. "Does it matter? Right now we need to focus on finding and freeing Hecate before the Mist fades completely."
"But where are we going to find her?" I asked, looking skeptical. Was it normal to be going off to talk to the gods? And if it was, where the hell were they?
"Let me think." Piper repositioned herself so that she was cross-legged on top of the bed. "The last time we saw her was... Salt Lake City, I think. Utah."
"So... We go to Utah and see if we can locate her? Is that the plan?" I fiddled with a strand of the scruffy tan carpet.
"I guess so." Piper looked around the room. "Any objections?" Each of us looked at the other three, as if trying to read each other's minds. When no one objected, Piper dramatically slammed her hand palm-down onto the nightstand like a gavel. "It's settled, then. We're going to Salt Lake City, Utah."
"Um, Piper?" Jay asked. "How... How are we going to get there?"
Piper withdrew her gavel hand. "I... I didn't think of that."
"We'll rent a car," Nico said matter-of-factly.
"You need to be twenty-five to rent a car," I argued.
The conversation went back to Piper. "Once I persuaded a salesman to give me a BMW. I can get us a car." She cracked her fingers. "Okay. Plan is in place. We'll get the car once it stops raining." She took the remote from Nico and clicked the TV back on. The sitcom was off, replaced by a soap opera. Bad acting, even more over-dramatic plot than a teenage show, and a plot so unrealistic it was laughable. Piper and Jay mocked the episode in high-pitched voiced--"Oh, Ricky! Please don't leave me! It's not what you think!"--but Nico and I sat quietly, although whether it was because of thinking or just lack of social skills, I didn't know.
There were three character deaths--one, I suspected, was faked--and two affairs by the time the rain stopped. Once we had our now-dry clothes packed, we were off again.