Some lines have been taken directly from The Lightning Theif chapter 11.
Annabeth Chase was hungry. She and her friend Grover had been walking for miles. And they kept walking until they saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 90s movie, and a shop that seemed to be open. The closer they got a smell waffed towards them. Food. Annabeth's stomach rumbled and Grover's joined in.
It was one of those roadside curio shops, that sold statues and lawn ornaments. There was a neon sign hanging above the door that Annabeth couldn't make out. She looked to Grover for a translation.
"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium." He suplied. "But hey, maybe we shouldn't go in. It looks...sketchy." Annabeth scoffed, "yeah right, c'mon I'm hungry." She grabbed his elbow puling him towards the door. The front lot was covered with so many cement statues that the duo had to turn sideways to get between some.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
They stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters." Annabeth shook her head.
"Don't make excuses." But before she could even lift her hand to the door it creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern looking woman. She wore a long black gown that covered everything but her boney hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind the veil, but that was about all Annbeth could make out of her face.
"Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?" She asked soumding Middle Eastern too.
"They're ... um ..." Annabeth started to say, trying to think of a believable story. "We ran away."
The woman gasped placing a hand over her chest, "Oh my dears, you poor things. You must be starving! Come, come, follow me." she led them to the back of the warehouse to some sort of dining area. When they got there Aunty Em locked the door behind them. Which didn't bother Annabeth, probably a safety precaution or a force of habbit.
Annabeth took her chance to look around, there was a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables in the middle.
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said. Grover cleared his throat,
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am." Aunty Em shook her head,
"No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice children." she said smiling.
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
Aunty Em visibly stiffened at her words, "Are you all right, ma'am?"
"Yes, quite all right, Annabeth, thank you. Just a shiver."
Their hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Soon after, she'd brought out plastic trays heaped with food; double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.
The food was almost gone when Grover whispered, "Do you hear that hissing noise?" Annabeth frowned, pausing her chewing to listen after almost a full minute she shrugged and took a slurp of her milkshake. Aunty Em emerged from behind the counter and sat with them for a while, staring. Annabeth sent a nervous look to Grover, he opened his mouth to make an exuse to leave when she stood up,
"So sorry I have some things to set up in the back I will send in my dear er...Nephew to attend to your dishes." She smiled once again before shuffling out of the room. A door on the side of the room opened slowly and a tan boy about Annabeth's age stepped out, wearing an apron over his blue T-shirt. He eyed them nervously as he crossed the room. He lowered his head when he neared their table, not looking them in the eye as he stacked plates and cups up his arms.
"M'Percy by the way. " he mummbled keeping his eyes trained on her milkshake cup. Annabeth could just barely see his eyes under his dark shaggy hair, but not enough to see the colour.
"I'm Annabeth and this is Grover." She said. He looked up at her and she sucked in a breath. His eyes were strikingly geen, he had deep-set, thick eyebrows (, terrible acne) and a light spray of freckles that you could only see if you were close up, which Annabeth was. She could feel his breath on her face and he smelled of the sea. Grover cleared his throat and Percy jumped slightly and ducked his head.
"We should really go, its getting late." Grover said, tugging on his 'Go Green' hoodie strings. Annabeth nodded in agreement.
"Oh, I'll tell Aunty Em that you're going." Percy said Walking out of the room, carefull not to drop their plates. A few minutes later Aunty Em entered the room with Percy trailing behind her peering at them from behind her shoulder.
"Leaving already?" She asked sounding genuinely upset, "At least stay for a photo, yes? I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children." Annabeth hummed, thinking,
"Alright just one picture." Aunty Em clasped her hands together,
"Thank you children, Percy fetch my camera." She said turning to him. Percy nodded sliping out of the room as Aunty Em led them to the front garden. "Here sit on this bench."
Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, both of you? A large smile? Wonderfull." Grover's eyes wandered towards the satyr statue a few feet away.
"Sure does look like uncle Ferdinand. Even has his nose." Grover mummbled.
"Grover," Aunty Em snapedbut then relising her mistake, she changed her voice, making it sound sweet, "look this way, dear." She hummed, "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."
"Grover." Annabeth mummbled through her teeth.
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted. "Shes Medusa!" She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands grabbing Grover's wrists and pulling him behind the bench. Percy burst through the door with the strap of an old polaroid camera around his neck.
"I'd just found the camera and I heard yelling, is eve-" Annabeth dove at him, pushing him to the ground. She turned his head towards the ground and manually shut his eyes. The camera was broken.
Aunty Em- Medusa turned towards them and sighed, "I didn't want you to see me like this Percy. The Gray-Eyed One did this to me." Medusa said "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this. You see now why I have to kill her. Them." The snake heads turned towards Grover, whos eyes were too shut. Annabeth glanced towards a round glass lawn ornament and saw that the woman's eyes were trained on her.
"You can't trust her!" Annabeth yelled. The snakes hissed.
"You can't trust them!" Medusa screeched.
Percy whimered, "No." And it sounded like he was going to cry and Annabeth's heart broke a bit, this boy was probably raised by her.
"No? You'd choose them over me? People you don't even know over the woman who cares for you? Stay with me Percy, and you will be the center of my garden, no pain like going with them will bring you."
"Mia!" Annabeth yelled and Grover came whizzing towards them, she heard a thwack and then Medusa's rage filled roar. Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket like he was goung to stab Medusa with it, or write a strongly worded letter. But he uncaped it and a sword shot out.
She lunged at him with her talons.
He swung sword, Annabeth heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like when you but your ear against an hourglass - the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Percy sunk to his knees and silent tears started to fall down his face.
Annabeth came up next to him, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green goo.
"Are you okay?" she asked him. He wiped his face with the back of his sleeve ans nodded, getting up.
"Can I come with you?" He asked.
"Well your part of our prophecy so you kind of have too."
you shall leave with two and return with three,
a boy with eyes like the depths of the sea,
you shall slay the one with a heart of stone,
spill her blood at the place the boy calls home,
you shall go west, and face the god who has turned,
you shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned,
you shall be betrayed by the one who calls you friend,
and fail to save what matters most in the end.