9. Pit Stop in Raleigh
I woke to Lexie shaking my shoulder. The sun was shining in through the passenger car window, and the train had stopped.
I yawned, "Where are we?"
"Raleigh. We've got to switch trains, remember?"
That's right. We have a two-hour layover in Raleigh between trains. I grabbed my pack and followed Lexie and Noah off the train. It was already mid-morning, and my stomach was grumbling.
"Can we find something to eat?" I asked them.
"Dude, you read my mind," Noah said.
"Breakfast does sound pretty good," Lexie agreed.
We left the train station and walked a few blocks until we found a diner that was serving breakfast. We took a seat near the back of the café and ordered our food. I got bacon, eggs, and a cup of coffee, Lexie got oatmeal and orange juice, and Noah got chocolate milk and a platter with every breakfast food imaginable. That guy sure can put away some food.
As we ate, I thought about my dream of the dark room and the whispering woman. I wondered if this is where she meant we needed to stop. "Do you think the lady in my dream meant we needed to stop here?" I asked Lexie. "She said to stop short of Atlanta and she would guide me."
"Who was the lady in your dream?" Noah asked. I hadn't yet told him about that dream.
"I'm not sure, Noah. I couldn't see her. I just heard her voice."
Lexie shook her head, "I don't know, CJ. This is far short of Georgia, much less Atlanta."
"I wonder if she was the patron goddess. You know, the line from the quest," Noah said as he chewed his food, and I wanted to tell him not to talk with his mouth full. Oh, gods, I'm turning into my mother.
"A patron goddess will show the way through the land of red dirt clay," Lexie recited the line of the quest. "I think we need to get off the train somewhere in Georgia before we get to Atlanta."
"But where, though?"
Noah shrugged, "Maybe we'll get a sign or something."
Just then, Lexie grabbed my arm. Her eyes were fixed on something across the diner. "What?" I asked. "What's wrong?"
"They're here," she said with worry as she continued to grip my arm.
"Who's here?" Noah asked, but I knew exactly who she was talking about. I followed her gaze to the other side of the diner where the two older teens from the train were sitting.
"Looks like you have a stalker, Lexie," I teased.
"This isn't funny, CJ."
I tried to ease her mind, "Come on, it's nothing. They were probably hungry like us."
She slowly let go of my arm, "You're probably right, but that guy creeps me out."
"What are you two talking about?" Noah was clueless.
She didn't even take the time to explain it to him, "Come on, guys, let's get out of here and back to the train station."
I left some cash on the table to pay for our meals, and as we walked out of the diner, we walked right by the table where the two teens were sitting. I was able to get a good look at them when I passed. The girl was younger than I initially thought. She was probably only fifteen or so. Her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail revealing her dark green eyes and her rugged beauty. Strangely enough, she reminded me of Jordan from back at camp. The guy was older, probably seventeen or eighteen. He was an athletic-looking guy with shaggy, sandy-blond hair and blue eyes. And like Lexie said, there was something about him that was oddly familiar. Now that I'd gotten a better look at them, I decided it was unlikely these two were siblings, and they didn't act like a couple, so maybe they were just friends or something. They were just two kids traveling across the country on a train like we were, which, if you really think about it, was kinda suspicious.
As we walked back toward the train station, Lexie kept looking over her shoulder. "Are they following us?" I asked her.
She shook her head, "No, they're not following."
"See, I told you it was nothing."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, though she didn't really sound convinced.
"I don't get it. What is it about-," Noah stopped mid-sentence and stopped cold in his tracks. He turned and looked down an alleyway that we were walking past. "Did you guys hear that?"
Lexie and I stopped, too. "Hear what? What is it, Noah?" I asked.
"There's something down there," he pointed down the shady ally that was lined with trash dumpsters.
"Something? Like what kind of something?" I asked.
Lexie shuddered, "Probably rats."
"Oh, definitely rats, but something else, too." Noah, being left-handed, put his left hand on the grip of his sheathed katana, and began walking into the ally. I pulled my pen from my pocket, Lexie pulled her hairpin from her bun, and we followed Noah into the alleyway.
The ally was long, about two hundred yards, and it dead-ended with a five-story brick wall that was the north side of a building. The buildings on both sides of the ally were also brick and stood about five stories, making the ally shady and gloomy even during the day. Every twenty feet or so, there was a blue or green garbage dumpster on either side of the ally. No telling what could be hiding behind or inside those dumpsters.
"Children," a raspy voice echoed in the ally. "I love children. Come, let me eat you."
We readied our weapons. Nobody was eating me, that's for sure.
"Show yourself," Lexie demanded. Why does she have to be so brazen?
A woman, well, I think it was a woman, came out from behind a dumpster about twenty feet from us. The lower half of her body was that of a serpent, which made me shudder. Have I mentioned I have a problem with snakes? As the monster slithered closer to us, I noticed her face was horribly disfigured. She looked like she'd been hit in the head with a baseball bat…multiple times, and her eyes were constantly moving and twitching like she had no control over them.
She lifted her head and made a noise like she was sniffing the air. "I smell sea god," she said. Oh, great, she smelled me. She pointed at me with her five-inch long fingernail. "Hello, cousin."
Wait, what? "I know you're not talking to me," I gaped.
I think she tried to smile, "Oh, but I am. That is why I can smell you, mortal. You see, Poseidon is also my grandfather." That god really gets around. "I'm Lamia," she continued. "And I'm hungry."
I cut my eyes toward Lexie, "Lamia?"
She shook her head, "Don't get me lying."
"Once queen of Libya, transformed into a child-eating daemon," Noah informed us. "Granddaughter of Poseidon and Lybie."
So, she was my cousin. I think I just threw-up a little in my mouth.
"It's all Hera's fault," the monster hissed as she slithered closer to us, and we carefully backed away. "I was once so beautiful that the king of the gods himself courted me, and I bore his children."
I think Lexie might've just thrown-up a little in her mouth, too.
"Hera was angered by this. She killed my children and turned me into this hideous creature." Certainly sounds like something Hera would do. She can't seem to keep her nose out of anyone's business, can she? She definitely hasn't made life easy for my parents over the years, especially my mom.
"If you would've kept your skanky paws off my married grandpa, then none of that would've happened, now would it?" Lexie berated, and I wanted to sew her mouth shut, already. She was gonna get us all killed.
The monster narrowed her twitchy eyes at Lexie, "I will devour you slowly and savor every last drop of your blood, granddaughter of Zeus."
"Try it, you sorry excuse for a Gorgon wannabe!"
Noah turned to Lexie, "Really? That's the best you could come up with?"
"I'm kinda on the spot here, Noah. Get off me."
The monster'd had enough, and she lunged at Lexie. Lexie dove away, and Noah and I both struck Lamia with our swords. She hissed in pain and whipped her serpent tail around, knocking Noah and I to the ground. Lamia turned back to Lexie who drew the string back on her bow, and an arrow magically notched on the string. It's pretty cool, actually. She never has to carry a quiver full of arrows; they just magically appear when she needs them. Her dad hooked her up good with that magical item; she's so spoiled. She released the string and the arrow flew straight and fast, piercing the monster in her left eye.
Lamia screeched and grabbed the arrow sticking out of her eye. She tried to pull it out of her head, but it wasn't budging.
I turned to Noah, "What do you think? Slice and dice?"
He nodded, "You flank left, and I'll flank right. Let's cut her down to size."
Lexie drew her bowstring again and was yelling some obscenity at the monster to hold her attention while Noah and I approached from the sides. Lexie released another arrow, piercing Lamia in the throat. She gagged, and Noah and I took advantage of the distraction. We thrust our swords into the monsters backside, and she again whaled in pain. She whipped her snake-tail around, but we anticipated the move and were able to jump the monsters squirming tail. Lexie, however, was caught off guard by the sudden whipping of Lamia's tail, and it knocked her off her feet. Still on the ground, Lexie drew the string back on her bow and fired another arrow at the monster, hitting her in the other eye. Damn, she has good aim.
Now blind, Lamia was defenseless. Noah and I gripped our swords tightly with both hands and swung at the monster's midsection with everything we had. Our blades sliced through the monster's body like hot knives through butter, effectively cutting Lamia in half where her serpent form met her human form. The two halves fell to the ground and quivered uncontrollably until they burst into dust.
I stared at the pile of dust for a moment. This was the first monster I'd ever killed. I looked up at Noah and Lexie, "Well, that was exciting…and quite disturbing."
As soon as I said that, a train whistle blew a few blocks down. Lexie looked down at her watch, "Guys, our train leaves in four minutes."
"We'd better run," Noah said, then took off out of the ally toward the train station with Lexie and me right on his heels.
When we entered the station I heard an announcement over the intercom, "Final boarding call for train 226 Raleigh to Atlanta. Final boarding call…"
We sprinted through the station and made it to our train just in time. We boarded the passenger car and took our seats as we tried to catch our breath.
"That was close," Noah said.
"Too close," Lexie agreed.
An attendant walked by us, and I got her attention, "Excuse me, miss, how long will it take to get to Atlanta?"
"It'll be several hours," she said. "We have to make a couple stops along the way."
"Where are the stops?" I asked her.
"We'll be stopping in Charlotte and Athens before reaching Atlanta."
Athens…if that's not a sign, I don't know what is.
I nodded to the attendant, "Thank you, ma'am." I looked at Noah and Lexie who both had smiles on their faces, "We'll be getting off in Athens."
They both nodded, "Yep."
The train ride was long and uncomfortable. Unlike the last passenger car we were in, this one was full. There were only a few empty seats in the entire car. I tried to get some rest, but between the adrenalin still pumping from the fight, the chatter from the passengers, and the sun shining in through the window, there was no way I was going to get any sleep. I was bored, so I twirled my pen between my fingers, careful not to press the button. That would've been awkward if my pen grew into sword-form right there in the middle of the crowded passenger car. There's no telling what the Mist would've manipulated that image into. I almost wished it had an actual pen-mode so I could doodle on the back of my hand or something. If I was bored enough to want to draw on myself, Lexie and Noah were probably losing their minds. ADHD and long, boring trips don't really mesh. I know, because both my parents are ADHD. Even as adults, they're fidgety and spacey. My dog has a longer attention span than they do sometimes. I've been around it for so long that I didn't really notice Noah tapping his foot uncontrollably or Lexie biting all her nails off. It wasn't until I thought about it that I realized how miserable they must be.
"We'll be there soon, guys," I told them. Neither of them said a word. Honestly, I don't think they even heard me speak.
It was about an hour later when our train stopped at the Athens-Clarke County Station. We grabbed our packs and exited the stuffy passenger car. We went straight for a vendor in the station selling cold drinks. We let the vendor talk us into getting sweet iced tea with lemon. It was the southern tradition he said, and I could see why. I think I found my new favorite drink.
We walked out of the station and onto the sidewalk there in downtown Athens. It was a warm and muggy evening in northern Georgia, and the air smelled of blooming gardenias, southern-fried chicken, and peach cobbler. My stomach rumbled. Downtown was bustling as it was dinnertime and people were making their way to the many restaurants. I could see the University of Georgia only a few blocks away and a number of hotels that dotted the downtown area.
It had been a long day, and we were all tired. "We should find a place to crash for the night," I said.
"I think I can help with that," a woman's voice said from behind us. I recognized her voice as the voice in my dream. We all turned around to see a beautiful, gray-eyed woman in a simple, yet elegant white dress standing before us. It was Athena, patron goddess of Athens…my grandmother.
