Chapter 3
I looked around the candy shop. Mom was starring intently, her arms folded across her chest. It was a little unnerving. As if she thought I had planned a date. I turned my focus back onto Hermoine she had apparently pulled out some baby wipes and had started wiping Rosie's face, blue being absorbed into the cloth whit every wipe.
"You have some cute kids." I complemented.
She turned her attention from Rosie to me. "Thank you. Complementing my kids won't get you out of the questions I need to ask though Percy. Your camp...What is it?"
I looked down at the napkin stand on the table to gather the courage to say what I was about to. It's not that it was stupid, but it would sound bizarre. "I talked to Jason and Piper last night. We agreed that you needed to know."
Hermoine raised her eyebrows, her eyes studied me, For a second I felt as if Annabeth were across the table trying to figure out a secret I had been keeping. "What is it exactly that you need to tell me.?"
"Listen...I know this is going to sound crazy but...There are myths, about the Greek gods. They're real. There is a Mount. Olympus, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon...there all real." I took a deep breath waiting for her to jump out of her chair, call me crazy, slap me even but nothing. She just sat there.
"Okay..." I said, surprised that she was so calm. "You can see through the mist. It's what keeps mortals from learning about us. Almost everyone is oblivious to what goes on when monsters, and Greek or Roman events occur. There's only three people I know that can see threw the mist, that's my mother, Rachael Dare, and now you."
I sit, an uncomfortable silence engulfing the two of us. Then her little boy interrupts us. "Mommy?"
Hermoine replies. "Yes sweetheart?"
"I can't find Rosie." He looks up, tears welling in his eyes.
Hermoine bolts up. "Rosie? Where are you?" We wait a couple moments, but nothing is heard. I look around to try and find mom but she is nowhere to be found.
"I push my chair out from behind me with my legs and I stand upright. "I'll go look for her in the back of the store. Don't worry."
"Thank you. Please, find her." She says. I can tell she's worried. I walk through the isle to the back of the store. The door is slightly cracked.
I push it open to find rows and rows of candy supplies, cutting boards, boxes labeled with different names, ladders to get to the top of shelves. I venture back further to find the very back door to the store is swinging open.
I step out into the alley, first there's nothing but then I hear a scream. Anaklusmos feels heavy in my pocket. I run towards the sound weaving and bobbing between alley ways. I turn a corner to find something I was fearing. A cyclops is holding onto Rosie, she is kicking and screaming in his right arm. I step closer and the monster squeezes the girl. "No closer Demi-god. She is mines for the keeping."
" I smile at the monster. "Now, I'm sure you know me." My grip on Riptide tightens. "You can't think this will end well for you. Or am I wrong?"
"The massive man readjusts the child so that shes in his hands now. "I mean it, any closer and I'll tear her apart!"
This cyclops isn't as stupid as I had wished. I wasn't about to provoke him any more than I already had. I sheath Riptide and put it back in my pocket. "Okay..." I take a step back. "You know that if you take the girl my friends and I will hunt you down. We can forget this if you just let her go."
The cyclops hesitates for a second but then screams "Grendel will not negotiate!" He raises the girl into the air by both arms.
I scream as I try to uncap Riptide from my pocket. "No! Please-"
"Avada Kedavra!" Theirs a flash of green then an eerie silence.
The car ride to Camp Half Blood is silent. Hermoine sits in the passenger seat holding Rosie, who finally stopped crying about fifteen minutes ago. My ears are still ringing from the blast and my hands are shaking against the steering wheel. "What...What was that? When Monsters die, they...they usually disintegrate into sand. That cyclops just...Dropped like a weight."
Hermoine stays silent for a minute. then she starts to cry. "I...I've never done that before! So many people I know have-He had my daughter, IT had my daughter...I didn't know what else to do."
Too many things are going threw my head to understand everything that's happening right now. My thumbs pressed firmly into the steering wheel I press the accelerator a little harder. Looking into the review mirror I see Hugo asleep in his car seat. I sigh. "Well, talk later. I just need to focus on getting the three of you back to camp half-blood."
Hermoine nods and goes back to starring out the window.
I pull up to the gate and press the button to speak through the intercom.
"Percy!" I hear the voice and It's immediate.
"Grover! Hurry let us in! It's an emergency." I release the button and roll up the window. The gate opens and I drive up through. We pull up to the big house. I get a quick memory of Annabeth and I renovating the whole thing three years ago. I get snapped out of my memory by Jason. "Percy, Unlock the doors. Whats going on?"
My hand shakes as I hit the unlock switch. "Monsters, Mom's Candy shop, Hermoine. Get her and her kids to the medical wing."
Now my head is throbbing, whatever she did back in the alley nearly grazed me. I open the door and step out. Tripping into the grass I pull Jason's shirt. then I had the ground hard.
"We saw everything Master." A voice murmurs.
I'm lying face down, i raise my head to see two...things conversation. One looks like a normal cyclops, but the other...I shiver and look away with disgust. It wasn't a man, it wasn't anything I had seen in my life. Nothing I had heard of either, and I'd seen and heard of a lot.
The voices continue and this time I listen intently. "I want more children Froth. I sent Jynx to bring one more Demi-god. Was that to much to ask?" The voice is raspy, I can smell the monsters breath all the way from the other side of the room, I almost throw up. The other monster, who I presume is Froth whimpers. "Grendel..I-"
Grendel Screams. "Bring me the other Demi-god!"
I hear shuffling. Then something odd happens, I feel my body being picked up. This shouldn't be happening I think to myself. I try to move, scream, squirm even but i'm paralyzed from head to toe. Froth brings me closer to Grendel and my mind starts to panic, my thoughts running a thousand miles per hour. Then Grendel grabs me. His grasp is enough to crush my ribs. He screams in my face then hurls my across the room, before I collide with the wall I wake.
I'm caked in sweat. Every inch of me. My ribs burn and I'm lying in my bed. My eyes are fluttering open and I catch glimpses of a handful of people. Jason, Piper, Grover, Juniper, and Nico. Then I pass out again.
This time I wake up to Hermoine sitting next to my bed in a chair. Rosie must have fallen asleep in her arms and Hugo is playing with odd looking toys at the foot of my bed.
"You've been out for a couple days Harr-Percy." She corrects herself.
"Who?" I ask, slightly confused.
"Nothing, forgive me. it's just an old habit." She then proceeds by calling everyone into the room.
I'm 'welcomed back' With fragile hugs and smiles. Then Nico pushes everyone aside. "We need to talk Percy. Dad says Some weird things have been going on in the underworld."
