After what seemed like forever, Argus dropped them off at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side. The rain kept coming down.
Finally, the bus came. As they stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy—enchiladas.
"What is it?" Percy asked.
"I don't know," his goat friend replied tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."
But it wasn't nothing. Percy was relieved when they finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. They stowed their backpacks. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh.
As the last passengers got on, Aurora slapped Percy's shoulder aggressively. Before he could even say "Ow," he saw her.
An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and Percy's heart skipped a heat—and not in a good way.
It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face. Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat and one in a purple hat. They looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds—same gnarled hands, paisley bags, wrinkled velvet dresses.
Triplet demon grandmothers.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.
Percy scrunched down in his seat. His brows furrowed in confusion as Aurora did the same.
"They're not coming for you." Percy hissed.
"Yes, they are." Aurora argued back in the same tone. When Percy looked at her quizzically, she nudged it off. "Long story. We don't have time for that. Back on topic: the Furies."
She sneered their name like she'd seen them before.
The bus pulled out of the station, and they headed through the slick streets of Manhattan.
"She didn't stay dead long," Percy whispered towards Annabeth. He was trying to keep his voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."
"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said, side-eyeing the boy. "You're obviously not. Both of you. Di immortales."
"Both of us?"
"All three of them," Grover whimpered.
"It's okay," Annabeth thought out loud. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
"They don't open." Grover moaned.
"A back exit?" She suggested.
There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped, unless they wanted to fall into a highway and get run over by oncoming traffic.
They hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the restroom."
"So do I," her two sisters echoed, and they all started coming down the aisle.
"Wait." Aurora stood up. "Hey, bitches!" She jumped up and down, unsheathing her bow and shooting an arrow. It hit one of the Furies in the shoulder. The monster hissed in pain, and all six eyes turned towards Aurora.
He could see her visibly shudder—for real, this time.
His jaw dropped.
Annabeth's gray eyes widened. She grabbed the girl's arm and dragged her down, but it was too late. "Are you insane?"
"Annabeth, give Percy your hat. He's the one they want. I'll talk to them." Aurora explained quickly, her brown eyes glancing between Percy, Annabeth, and Grover silently. Without another word, Aurora stepped out into the aisle.
Annabeth opened her mouth, like she wanted to scream in protest, but Percy stopped her. "She's right." He hated to admit it, but she unfortunately was.
He didn't like how confident she was, though. These were the Furies. And Percy's math teacher. (He thought the second was worse. He failed algebra too much).
"Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can go to the front and get away." Annabeth instructed. She glanced at Aurora, who was walking calmly towards the furies.
The fact that the old ladies weren't old ladies anymore didn't calm his heartbeat, however. Instead, their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. In their hands were fiery whips.
And somehow, Aurora was just standing there.
"Stop falling in love and go, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth screeched, shoving the cap on his head.
When Percy looked down, his body wasn't there. He started creeping up the aisle, as he was instructed, and finally made it to the front of the bus. He could hear Aurora talking. Annabeth drew her bronze knife. Grover grabbed a tin can from his snack bag and prepared to throw it.
"Nice to see you again!" She dodged a whip easily. Her bow was a sword, and she wielded it even more naturally than when they were training. "Did Daddy send you? For me, or for Jackson?"
She struck, cutting one of the Furies' whips in half. She shrugged, as if it was an accident. "I thought you were done with me." Mrs. Dodds' talons opened, ready to strike, but Annabeth was too quick. They moved like a machine, like they'd been fighting together forever.
"Let's just talk, Alecto." She took a slow step forward. "You don't want to kill us. If you did, you would've done so already."
All three Furies hissed at her in sync.
"You've been practicing!" Note to Percy: Aurora was even stupider than he was. She kept talking and talking—making them madder and madder, giving Annabeth an opening to strike. "I love the new hisses. Great album. I'll tell Mom to hire you for the palace next spring!"
"Tell my stepdad to leave us alone, okay?" Aurora sneered as she tackled Percy's old math teacher. Mrs. Dodds' fangs were bared, her sisters closing in on the three. "Percy has nothing. He's gone."
Gripping her sword tightly, she lunged forward, the blade gleaming as it caught a glimpse of the street lamp. Somehow, Aurora parried the Furies' attack, the clash of metal against talon echoing through the bus. She danced out of Mrs. Dodds' grip.
Aurora cried out as the tail of the whip hit her ankle. Her luck couldn't have lasted that long. Her skin bubbled, like it was dipped in molten lava. Percy was beyond surprised when she got back up.
"Why does talking never work?" She whined. Her brown eyes were filled with even more anger than before as she steadied Oleander. "You guys have bad communication skills. Big red flag."
Annabeth stabbed at one of the Furies. She waved her bronze knife and screamed in Ancient Greek.
Mrs. Dodds wrapped Aurora in her whip, the sound of sizzling so loud it could've been a barbecue. She cried out in pain.
"This was for you, child of Persephone. You alerted us, but we could smell Perseus Jackson from a mile away." Mrs. Dodds' accent was southern, maybe Georgia. Her forked tongue flicked as her pointed finger reached for Aurora's neck.
What Percy did next was so impulsive and dangerous, he should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.
He grabbed the wheel, jerking it to the left when the bus driver was distracted.
And then, he hit the emergency brake.
Smart, right? But he had to do something to save Aurora.
The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips again, snagging Grover's tin can.
Percy looked at the open doorway. He was free to go, but he couldn't leave his friends. He took off the invisible cap.
"Hey!"
The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at him, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea.
"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."
"I liked you better as a math teacher," he told her.
She growled. Annabeth, Aurora, and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.
Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around Percy's sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at him. He felt like his hand was wrapped in molten lead, but he managed not to drop Riptide. He stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. He turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust.
Annabeth got Mrs. Does in a wrestler's hold and yanked her backward while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.
"Ow!" The satyr yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"
The Fury he'd hilt-slammed came at him again, talons ready, but he swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.
Mrs. Does was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed, and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover got Mrs. Dodds' legs tied up in her own whip. Finally, they both shoved her backward into the aisle, where Aurora was waiting.
She was hunched over in pain, red hot scars seared onto her arms, but Oleander never left her firm grip.
Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.
"Zeus will destroy you!" She promised. "Hades will have your soul!"
"Braccas meas vescimini!" Percy yelled. He wasn't sure where the Latin came from, but he thought it meant "Eat my pants!"
"And fuck Hades!" Aurora seethed before stabbing her sword right into Mrs. Dodds' middle. The monster opened her mouth to let out a scream of rage, but she burst into a million little dust particles and disappeared.
Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of Percy's neck.
"Get out!" Annabeth yelled. "Now!"
They rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver.
"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our—"
BOOM!
The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof. In the distance, caws could be heard.
"Run!" Annabeth said, her eyes wide as she panicked. "Her death called reinforcements. We have to get out of here!"
They plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind them, and nothing but darkness ahead.
ೀ⋆｡🌷 notes ...
word count: 1775
date published: february 19, 2024
thoughts: the next chapter is a good one :) will probably publish on friday or saturday because school starts again ugh. also we're going to have less of percy's perspectives and more of aurora's now!