We made our way out of the truck, into the desert afternoon. It was easily over a hundred degrees, and we looked like hobo's but what can you do? We spend a night in a smugglers truck. People were to interested in the animals anyway, we didn't attract much attention.
We passed the Monte Carlo, the MGM and little tiny replicas of the pyramids, a pirate ship, the Statue of Liberty, all the things that vegas promised in its commercials really. While our surroundings were interesting, I don't think any of us really knew what to do in them. None of us had been to Vegas before, none of us knew the way around. At least, I don't think I'd ever been to Vegas before, it was familiar, but at the same time- I don't know. It was an odd feeling, I dismissed it.
I think at some point we'd taken a wrong turn, because soon enough we found ourselves at a dead end in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon lotus flower, the petals all lighting up in pattern to attract attention. There was no one leaving, no one going in, but the doors were open, pouring air conditioning into the street that smelled like what I assumed were lotus flowers.
The doorman smiled at us, looking inviting enough, but one can never be to careful. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come and sit down?" he asked us kindly.
The man looked pretty normal, and he was sympathetic, and kind, looked trusting enough, but there were alarm bells going off in my head. Don't go in, don't trust him. Why not? I couldn't figure it out. There was a funky aura about the place. Dark memories.
Percy nodded. "We'd love to," he started, but I cut him off.
"Percy, I don't like this. At all. There's something telling me it's not safe," I said, grabbing him arm.
He shot me a confused look. "Tif, this guy's totally normal, and we need a break. We've got plenty of time."
I wanted to protest again, but I had to admit, a comfortable and cool place to rest was extremely tempting. I backed off, still worried, but I'm not going to fight it. I'm tired and there's beds in a hotel. We stepped inside and took one look around, Grover was the first to speak.
"Whoa."
Whoa was right. The entire lobby was a game room, but it was the most intense game room I'd ever seen in my life. There was an indoor water-slide that flowed through the entire lobby, and surrounding a glass elevator that went up at least 30 floors, probably more. To the right, there was a huge climbing wall beside an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. Virtual reality suits with laser guns were scattered around the entire lobby, surrounded by hundreds of video games with huge screens, like big screen TVs. There were a few other kids, but I couldn't see that many. No line-ups, and no lack of food. There were waitresses everywhere, and snack bars, serving anything you could eat.
"hey!" said a bellhop, running over to us. His uniform was odd, a white and yellow Hawaiian shirt with a lotus flower design, cargo shorts and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."
"Um, but-" Percy stammered.
"No, no," he said laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up tot eh top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the not tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk." Shooting range? That sounded good to me. "Here are your Lotus Cash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."
He handed us each a green plastic card, like a credit card. There was a lotus flower on it in a slightly lighter shade of green and a serial number. On the back was the standard magnetic strip.
"How much is on here?" Percy asked, after a pause.
The bellhops brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"
There was another pause, the bellhop trying to figure out what Percy meant. Then he laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay." And he was gone.
I watched him go, following the other three to the elevator. That whole thing had seemed terribly familiar, and the alarm bells were going off again. But once again, I had to suppress them, for the sake of my and everyone else's health. We rode the elevator upstairs to our room, which was a suite with four separate bedrooms and a bar stocked candy, soda's and chips. There was a hotline to room service on the counter. In the bathroom was fluffy towels and bathrobes. which connected to bedrooms with waterbeds and huge feather pillows. In the living room there was a big screen TV with satellite and four laptops with high-speed internet. On the balcony there was a hot tub and the promised skeet-shooting machine, complete with shotgun. It launched clay pigeons out over the Vegas skyline that you could fire at with the gun. Not legal, but I knew what I'd be doing, unless something better came along. And the view was spectacular, you could look over the balcony and watch the sun set over the horizon if you wanted to.
"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said in awe. "This place is-"
"Sweet," Grover finished. "Absolutely sweet."
We all split off into our rooms, where I found a closet stocked with clothes that fit me somehow. Again, familiar but the feel of dread was starting to fade. I must be imagining things.
We each had our own bathrooms, and my first instinct was to take a shower. It was lovely, a hot shower was exactly what I needed after a week of travel, as was the change of clothes, the soda, chips, and Mars Bar.
Percy was still in the shoer, I could hear water running from his room. Annabeth had cranked up the volume on the National Geographic Channel, while Grover lounged in a chair eat all the chips he could. I made a beeline for the skeet-shooting range and fired it up, making it as fast as I could. It didn't pose much of a challenge, but I could easily spend hours on it.
"All those stations," I hear Percy say from the living room, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"
"It's interesting," is Annabeths defensive reply.
I turn off the machine and turn to face them, leaning on the balcony railing. "To you."
"I feel good," said Grover, shoving more chips in his mouth. "I love this place." Without him realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes, lifting him a foot off the ground and lowering him back down. I choked back a giggle.
"So what now?" asked Annabeth. "Sleep?"
Grover and Percy looked at each other and grinned, holding up their LostucCash cards.
"Play time," said Percy.
I was all up for staying up in the room and shooting down fake birds, but I had to see what the rest of the hotel was like. I was immediately drawn to anything with an aiming system, shooting games, that sort of thing. At last, I found something that worked for me. The targets were small, and the gun provided had an extremely small range, one that would only hit if you were perfectly on target. What's more, it was a competition, I was facing off against three other people, all guys. they thought I was the underdog, I was going to show them.
The graphics were amazing, it was playing through a city scape complete with trees and wind that would blow the leave overtop of your targets so that you couldn't see them. They were all hidden in little tiny areas of the enormous map, you have to be very careful when you checked it.
Let's be honest here. I'm a daughter of Apollo, and even if those guys were army sharpshooters, I would have kicked their butts. That's exactly what I did. I beat them in round after round, and it got to the point that the four player game was all on one. I was starting to wonder when they'd realize there was a setting for that.
"You're good," said one of the boys as the round finished. They were all staring at me in awe, I had beaten their scores four times over. "I've been playing this every day for a week and you've been playing a couple hours and you're better than I am."
"Natural talent," I said smugly. "There's a three on one setting, shall we?"
We changed the setting and were off. It was a long game, the settings giving the one person a chance to catch up. i didn't need the help, it was alarmingly easy to keep up with them. I was thirty second off finishing when I felt someone tugging at my arm.
"Just a second," I muttered, shaking them off.
"Tif, we need to get out," a male voice says.
"Why? Just a second."
"Tiffany," someone pulled me around by the arm, a girl who I recognized. Annabeth, it was Annabeth. As soon as I saw her the alarms went off again, in full force. "Tiffany, we need to leave, right now."
I nodded vigorously. "You're right, we need to get out of this place, now." The three of turn started to run off, in search of Grover I assumed. He wasn't with them. We found him playing a game called Virtual Deer hunter.
"Grover!" we all shouted.
"Due, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!" he yelled at the screen in response.
"Grover!
He turned the plastic gun on Percy and started clicking wildly, like he was still playing a game. The three of us exchanged a glance, then grabbed him, Annabeth and Percy getting his arms and me wrapping my arms around his waist. His flying shoes turned on and started to tug him back towards the game as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"
As we were heading to the door the bellhop caught up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"
"We're leaving." said Percy defiantly.
"Such a shame," he said, with extremely genuine sadness. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."
He held out the cards, silver with a black lotus on them. I was so tempted to take one, but I couldn't. I wanted to but didn't want to at the same time. Grover reached out for one, but Annabeth regained her composure first and yanked his arm back. "No thanks," she said.
We kept going to the door, and as we went the food smelled better, the games seemed like more fun, and back up in our rooms, we could stay the night. One night wouldn't hurt, would it? It was so nice in here, so much cooler than out there, we would be so much more comfortable.
And we were out. I hadn't even noticed it happen. As soon as we were out we sprinted down the sidewalk like we were running from monsters.
It felt like the afternoon, maybe two or three, which would match with the time when we went into the hotel, but the weather was completely different. It was a humid storm, with lighting flashing out in the desert. Percy had Ares' backpack again. I remembered then, exactly what had happened. That casino, it was a time warp. I remembered being in there a long time ago, but it had looked so different, I hadn't recognized it.
"How long were we in there for?" I asked Percy, who was checking a newspaper for the date.
He didn't ask questions, just looked at me with slight fear and said, "Five days."