The Madness Part 2

Chapter 1: I Become a Trapeze Artist

I'm a procrastinator. Kill me. Actually, don't. There are tons of nice monsters willing to do that for you. I can't help but feel a little nervous that three months had gone by and I had made no progress in my deadline with the Fates.

I should probably be out there killing monsters in a mad scramble so as to give the gods a reason to spare me. But I didn't.

I was on a ski lift in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And killing monsters definitely was not on my to-do list. I was on a vacation.

On the other hand, killing monsters is never on my to-do list. They just gravitate toward me. I squirmed a little on the chair lift and batted some snow off my skis. I wanted to try snowboarding, but I realized that beginners of snowboarding often looked like fools who kept on falling.

And that was not the impression I wanted to give Lydia. I looked at her, sitting next to me on the ski lift. She smiled. "It's so nice that your mom let me go skiing with you guys."

"Yeah." It had been a good few months for her. My dad, Dionysus, had actually sent her money. He called it child support. Seeing as I was living at camp for the last few months, my father apparently had a soft side.

My mom had gotten a job as a chef, and for the first time ever we got a vacation. I couldn't pass it up. No matter how imminent my death could be, seeing my mom was always a necessity.

And then she had invited Lydia as well. Apparently I needed to spend a lot of time with my friends since I didn't have much. And so here we were, sitting together on a chairlift.

After our quest a few months back, Lydia had a sort of confidence about her. I guess that realizing her lost brother was alive had done wonders on her mentality. There was a lot less screaming between us now, and more laughing and talking.

I glanced back. On the chairlift behind us, my mom was sitting there. She mouthed to me. Talk to her. I felt the tips of my ears burn. It was hard to be natural around Lydia with my mom right behind us.

My mom had a sort of playful nature when it came to things that I was awkward back. Sometimes she could be as bad Dad. Lydia looked up at the snow drifting down, and then she glanced at me. "What are you staring at?"

"Huh? Oh…um, the tree." Thankfully, the pine trees were tall enough so that my even from the chairlift my excuse seemed even a little possible.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Have you any idea what you're going to do about the deadline?"

I shrugged. "I kind of thought I would go with the flow." Which turned out to be a very bad idea. The flow is not a good thing. The flow is a sadist.

A laugh pierced the air. Lydia and I turned. My mom's eyes widened. I had forgotten that she was able to see through the Mist. Seemed like a pretty important detail now that I think about it.

Standing above us on the cable wire was an empousa. Not just any empousa, but the one we met moths ago on our quest. I had no idea how she was balancing on the cable with her metal leg and donkey hoof, but in my experience monsters tend to shrug off such minor technicalities.

"You again," I said. Perhaps that didn't come out as mean as I wanted too. Cut me some slack. You've never seen how good looking an empousa was before.

"Me," chuckled the empousa. "Did you miss me, Glenny?"

Lydia drew her bow out from nowhere. "Give me one reason-, actually, scratch that. I'm just going to shoot you."

The empousa casually walked back on the wire line. She stopped above my mom's cable. Her donkey hoof tapped the part connecting the wire to the chairlift. "How sturdy do you think it is?"

I froze. My mom looked up and yelped in surprise. "What happened to your legs?" The empousa looked down to glare at her.

Lydia and I traded a split second look. In the months we had known each other we had developed a sense of teamwork. Well, mainly one person does something and the other person improvises in response. But we are pretty good at that.

Lydia let loose an arrow. The empousa's head whipped up, and attacked with her hair. Now would probably be a good time to mention her flaming hair. I kicked my skis off. They fell down to the ground.

An angry person below looked up, but I had already sprung from my seat. Never a smart thing to do while suspended up high in the air, but my powers deprived me of my sanity.

I glowed a familiar shade of purple. In a second I was standing effortlessly on the wire. I smiled and let out an elated laugh. The empousa looked at me, a demonic smile on her face.

"Still want to ask me out to dinner?"

"You never gave me your number," I bantered back.

She smiled. "Call me Scarlet. You're welcome to visit my home anytime."

"And where do you live?"

"Tartarus."

"I figured." She sprang at me, but I met her blow. The bronze blade of my knife met the sharp talons on her hand. Scarlet raised her hand and fire hosed out like a flame thrower.

I took a running jump and flipped. My knife slashed at her. She dodged. I fell and caught the wire with my free hand. I stabbed her leg with my other hand.

Ping! I scowled. "I always hit the metal one." The empousa raised her metal foot to stomp down. Another arrow whistled by and caught her in the shoulder.

She howled. "No more playing around." She smashed her foot down, and I had no choice but to let go before she crushed my hand. Another hand grabbed me.

My mom pulled me up, an impressive feat considering that we were on a ski lift. Scarlet was advancing toward Lydia. I jumped on the cable again. "I'm ready for round two."

Scarlet sneered. "Nice try." She shot a fireball at me, and I ducked. When I looked up, a metal knee slammed me in the face. If it weren't for my powers I would have lost my balance and fallen off the wire ages ago.

I straightened up. Another good thing about my powers was that they dulled the pain. Of course the aftereffects felt bad, but I could worry about that later. The problem at hand was the battlefield. We were on a wire, and that meant narrow ground. With her flaming projectiles, the empousa had an advantage.

I charged her, allowing my aura to darken to wine red. Enter the Red Beast mode. Greater power, greater tolerance to pain, but less control. Not ideal when fighting on a wire, but I wasn't planning on staying on the cable.

The empousa hit me with fire. It burnt my shoulder but I charged on. Scarlet didn't know about the Red Beast last time she met. I planned on using that to my advantage.

I crashed into her and we tumbled. There was a blur of color and we crashed to the snowy ground below. It was painful, but pain was an isolated feeling in the Red Beast mode. I wasn't really affected by it unless it prevented me from moving physically. Which was, unfortunately, the problem at hand.

I groaned. Scarlet got up. Out of the trees came a figure. And a…a chainsaw. The was a loud roar and then Scarlet snarling.

"One move and I'll cut him!" Oh. She was talking about me. I looked at the blade she had pulled out. It was tinged with sickly green, a familiar poisonous color.

I couldn't see the figure from the position that Scarlet was holding me. I heard Lydia shout from up above. Thwap! My eyes widened. The arrow that landed next to us was a special one. The empousa looked at it blankly. Before I could react, the arrow ignited.

The flare arrow exploded into light, which enveloped the snow. A brilliant flash enveloped me, blocking out my senses.