Perspective of Max

If there was one thing that Aphrodite passed down to me (and I'm pretty sure that there's more) is the ability to see if someone is truly beautiful.

Sure, this empousa was attractive, but there was something wrong with her. I can't describe it, but I knew as soon as I saw her that she was an empousa.

She could charmspeak, but I could charmspeak even better. Sure, her telling me that I look sexy in that jacket in my native language almost got me, but I shook it off. Thank the gods, all of my friends listened to me when I used my charmspeak. Call it fighting fire with fire. Anything she could do, I could do better.

"What's that?" Said the monster, her eyes wide. "I'm just a normal girl!"

I sighed, seeing my friends turn back to her. She even got Jessica, and girls were typically good against empousa. I decided to play along.

"Oh, you're right.." I said, making my eyes wider and putting a silly grin on my face. "I'm so sorry, miss. I guess I haven't been getting enough water."

"Oh, that's okay!" It said. "I hear there's a bar on this train, come on! Let me get you some water!"

I wasn't stupid, I knew there was no bar. I mean, my friends believed her, but whatever. "Sure! Excuse me Tanner." I said, shoving him out of the water and standing up. The train had already started moving again, and walking was giving my motion sickness, but I had to follow her anyways.

Tanner and Shane looked rather upset that I was walking off with this 'hot' 'chick.' I wanted to laugh, but knew this wasn't the time. She lead me through two different train cars, passing rows and rows of passengers, some speaking English while others spoke French. She opened a door, telling me that the bar was through here. I knew it wasn't, but I went in anyways.

The room was filled a bunch of cargo; boxes and duffle bags and what not. She walked up to me, placing her hands on my shoulders and looking at me deviously.

"I decided to skip the bar..." She said with a sly tone to her voice. "I just really wanted a piece of you.. Sorry, I couldn't wait!"

I wanted to puke all over her. The idea of someone charmspeaking me made me sick. I didn't think I needed to keep playing this game any longer.

"Couldn't wait to drink my blood, monster scum." I growled, pushing her off of me and drawing my sword.

She flared her teeth, which had suddenly become very long and pointy. Her eyes flashed fiery red, and her nails grew a few inches longer, seemingly transforming into daggers.

"I knew this would never work on you, Aphrodite spawn." She snarled at me. "I figured it'd be best to pick you off one by one, so I'd start with you, get you out of the picture. Such a shame too, after all, you are seriously attractive. Exactly why I must drink your blood! With that in my system, I can get any demigod to do my bidding! I will be unstoppably beautiful!"

"Sorry, lady. My blood isn't on the menu." I grinned. "But before I decapitate you, tell me something. Who took my mother? Who do you work for?"

She laughed, making her knife teeth look even more terrifying. "why, the great one, of course! Everyone fears him, even if they don't know it! You will meet him soon enough, after I end your miserable life!"

"Hm.. Don't really plan on dying today." I said. "Come back next week, maybe my schedule will clear up, but for now..."

I swung my sword at her neck, only to be parried off with her dagger fingernails. I took a step back, motioning to take another crack at her neck. As soon as she lifted her hand to block it, I moved my sword down, slicing at her leg. It immediately fell off, crumpling into a pile of golden dust.

She bellowed in anger, slicing her fingers at my arm. They sliced through my skin like a knife slicing through cheese, but fortunately, they weren't very deep. It stung a lot, and blood poured out of five new lines on my arm that would soon become scars. Definitely not the worst injury over gotten, not even close, so I was able to keep going.

She looked very off balanced, leaning on the door for support. I sliced my sword at that side, knowing she'd be slower to react. Her arm came straight off, and she collapsed against the floor.

"Arg! You foolish demigod! You will pay for this!" She said, pulling herself up.

"Don't have any money on me, but do you accept decapitated heads as well?" I swung at her neck, slicing her head clean off. Her body crumbled into dust, and her head flew against a few boxes, knocking them over. I walked over to them, seeing a pile of golden dust next to a duffle bag. I opened the duffle bag, digging through until I found a t-shirt. I used the shirt to wrap my arm in, attempting to stop the blood. There was some nectar in my backpack, so all I had to do was make it back to my table.

As I walked, some people gave me funny looks. I couldn't blame them, if I saw a teenager with a blood-stained t-shirt wrapped around his arm on a train to Montreal, I'd be slightly disturbed too.

I saw my table from a distance, my friends (and Shane) looking around as if they were confused. With the empousa dead, they were probably snapping out of her magic.

"Hey." I said, sitting down next to Tanner. "Got any nectar?"

Jessica's eyes immediately widened, grabbing my arm and pulling the shirt off of it. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I winced as the shirt ran across my cuts, but shrugged it off. "Oh, you know, monster tried to kill me. It clawed at me, but I cut her head off. Normal demigod stuff."

Jessica didn't seem to like the words 'normal demigod stuff' after hearing the first few sentences. If that's normal, she probably wouldn't like it.

"Normal? That sounds like hell!" She examined my arm, turning it slowly to look at all the cuts. "My dads a doctor.. So I can help, sort of. What's nectar?"

Tanner had pulled out a small block from my backpack, handing it to me. "It's the basic medicine for gods and demigods and all that fun stuff. Mortals can't eat it, but it tastes great for us."

I took it from him, tossing it in my mouth. It tasted like the cookies that my grand-mére used to cook in France. All fresh and warm as if they had just been taken out of the oven. It made me forget about my gashed up arm for a second.

"I'll be alright." I said, adding a hint of charmspeak to settle her. "I'm just gonna take a nap, when I wake up, the cuts will probably already be scars."

I woke up, feeling the train jolt to a stop. I looked around, seeing the rest of my group sound asleep. I also noticed that I was right. Where the cuts used to be, there were healed up scars with patches of dried blood around them. I looked out the window, seeing what I could recognize very easily. It was Montreal, my second home.

"Wake up." I said, pounding the table with my fist. "We're here!"

I started to sing the Canadian national anthem in French. Sure, I wasn't actually Canadian, but if you spoke French in the particular part of Canada, they certainly made you feel at home.

"Shut up, Max." Tanner said to me, and we stood up, grabbing our bags and making our way to the exit.

Once we exited the train car, I looked around in the crowd of tourists. Finally, my eyes settled on the warm, smiling face of my father.

Hey! I appreciate you reading this far, and I know I lack authors notes so, I thought it would be nice to drop one here. Got anything you don't like with the story? Anything you do like with the story? Any suggestions? Please comment! All types of criticism welcome. Happy reading!