Chapter 2

I could say that I wasn't surprised. I could say that I tricked the monster with words and got out without drawing too much attention. I could say that I saw it coming.

But those would be lies.

Why did it not occur to me? Idiot as I am, most things don't occur to me until they're staring at me in the face or whipping my butt. Or in this case, both.

"You made a mistake."

I stared at the guy with a slight frown on my face. I opened my mouth stupidly, but nothing came out.

Then, something happened. The bones where his eyebrows should've been started to jut out slightly. Cashier No-Brow's eyes began to morph to fit this new shape. They changed from watery blue to a cold, hollow black. His pupils contracted till there were no more and in the light, they took on an odd, redish glint. They began to slant downward like the eyes of an animal; they were reduced into snake-like slits.

Snake.

"Mistake?" I muttered, inwardly cursing myself silly. "Mistake is an understatement."

He hissed. His tongue was forked. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Hunter."

I raised an eyebrow (which is more than I can say for him). "Do I have a choice?"

He let out a hiss that I suppose was a laugh. "Such cheek!" he said gleefully. "It's so much more fun when they think they can win!"

I felt my blood run cold. "W-what are you, anyway?" I snapped.

"Well, what do you think I am?"

I would've like to say that he was creepy monster-cashier with no eyebrows, but that wouldn't have done either of us any good. "I'm not here for guessing games," I growled, trying to sound as composed as I could.

His face fell. "Well, then, I might as well kill you now," he said, sounding a little disappointed.

Suddenly, I was very unsure of myself. "What?" I asked him, before I could stop myself.

The snake-dude giggled, and his face lit up again as though this was all a giant tease. "Such fun!" he muttered crazily, twisting his hands around each other and rubbing them together like he'd been waiting for this his entire life. This was…a real monster? This was a joke, right?

Yeah, joke, my eye. But fun? You might say it was fun.

I still had the phone book in my hand. My backpack was lying on the floor, zipped up tightly so no one could see its contents. No way I could reach my knife or the gun without drawing the monster's attention to my pack. What were snakes' weaknesses? The monster was beginning to morph again, this time in his body. He was transforming into a giant, venomous, and most likely man-eating serpent. This was my first test.

Think, think, think! I willed myself, but nothing came to mind. The monster was growing larger and larger till I thought it would bust the ceiling.

"You had a chance," it said. "You could've just gone to the police and they wouldn't have told you anything. But you had to use the phone book—backwards."

I frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"SILENCE!" the monster shrieked. In the front of the coffee shop, people were starting to point and scream. I don't know what they saw in the serpent, but whatever it was, it obviously wasn't good. "You will NEVER make it! You will NEVER find the boy!"

The boy. The demigod. Was this monster's sole mission to make sure I didn't go to Baker's to find the half-blood's satyr?

"YOU IDIOT!" the serpent screamed, now speaking in ancient Greek. "DO YOU THINK JUST ANY SATYR WILL HELP YOU?" It was almost as if it'd read my mind.

I had absolutely no idea what it meant. I had more important issues to deal with. I looked up to survey my surroundings and nearly fainted.

We had company.