VIII – Annabeth

My legs ached.

Piper and I had been walking for ages, searching for a supermarket. My breath was coming in short pants, and a bead of sweat trickled down my face.

"Let's take a break," I told Piper, and she nodded gratefully.

We settled down on the pavement, talking to distract ourselves from our aches and pains.

I was just telling Piper about my plans for Olympus, when I heard raised voices.

"What was that?" I asked.

Piper looked as confused as me. She got to her feet, and helped me up.

We were silent, both of us listening intently.

"The sounds are coming from over there," I realized, pointing.

Piper and I crept down the street.

A few minutes later, we reached a dark tunnel. The voices were much louder now, so I figured the people they belonged to must be in there.

Piper shivered and it wasn't from the cold.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Yankees baseball cap.

"Wait here," I told Piper.

I shoved the cap onto my head and tiptoed into the tunnel.

What I saw made me gasp in horror.

Two empousai were standing there. Their metal legs clanged against the floor as they moved. Blood trickled from their mouths and dripped onto the floor.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

My instincts told me to back away, but I had to keep moving forward – for Percy's sake.

I crept through the tunnel, and pretty soon I could make out what they were saying.

"What is the next ssstage of the plan?" One hissed.

"Gaea ssaid that Phaidra will deal with the two boys-" the other replied. My heart skipped a bit at her words. The boys must be Jason and Piper. That meant that Gaea knew where we were.

But it wasn't any of that that made my heart stop, however bad it might be. It was one word: Phaidra.

I'd taught about her in Greek Mythology classes. She was the most evil woman in mythology. Her husband fell in love with her sister. When Phaidra's sister rejected him, he cut out her tongue. A few days later, Phaidra received a weaving from her sister, explaining the terrible things she had been through. Phaidra understood and was uncontrollably angry. She cut her son into little pieces, and cooked him in a soup to spite her husband. Her husband ate his son, thinking it was just a normal bowl of soup.

I couldn't imagine what Phaidra would do to Jason and Leo.

Terrible thoughts swirled into my mind, but the Empousai had started talking again, distracting me from them.

"What about the two girlssss? The daughtersss of Athena and Aphrodite?" The empousai's voice was as slippery as a snake's.

"We will deal with them."

My knees gave way and I fell to the floor with a thud.

"What was that noise?"

"Ssomebody has been watching uss."

The Empousai prowled around the tunnel, clawing at the air with their hands.

I tried to get up, but my foot hit a small rock and sent it skittering across the floor.

One of the empousai's ear pricked up. She sniffed.

"I know where you are," she hissed. "You can run but you can't hide, daughter of Athena."

My stomach knotted with fear as she reached directly towards me.

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