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Chapter 10

Jacob

"Guys!" I said. This was freaky. "Come back!"

They just walked forward, hypnotized. Nikki opened the font door, and they all poured inside. Iris was a beagle again, and barked at them. We followed regardless. I held out my sword, just in case.

Iris whimpered once we walked in. It was an odd place.

The shop looked like the outside. Rotten wood and old, but I could only see the floors, because the walls were covered in tapestries. But what was different, was that what looked to be a tiny place on the outside, was ginourmous! It was about the size of Walmart. Except the only thing they sold were the home-weaved creations. It was creepy. Everything was coated in dust. At the back, there was an empty counter with a cash register. A huge, creaky door behind that. Next to us, was a worn out, splintered loom. It was covered in duct tape, as if it had been smashed. Wait a second... This is-

The door opened. A middle-aged woman, with a blonde bun apeared. As she walked out, I heard a weird ticking noise. Behind the desk, she seemed pretty tall. She gasped when she saw us.

"Welcome!" She said happily. "I'm so glad you're here! I haven't had a customer in years! Apparently the demand for tapestries have gone down drastically." She looked down and fiddled with her red blouse. She then looked at us with a grin. "But you're all here now! Welcome demi-gods!"

She knew that we're half-bloods?... The rest of the gang just stared at her adoringly. "You can all call me Erica," said the woman. "And you are daughter of Aphrodite, son of Hecate, daughter of Apollo, son of Posiedon, daughter of Bia, and finally..." she looked at me for a moment. Then, she narrowed her eyebrows. Her lip twitched into a frown. And with hatred in her voice, she said, "Son of Athena."

Iris turned into a snake, and slithered up my arm. She hissed at Erica. Erica hissed back. The creepy woman kept her eyes on me. She suddenly smiled at turned to my friends. "So!" she said, clapping her hands. "What would you like to buy?" She gestured to a hanging. It was the image of a bear biting the head off of a deer. "Only 5 drachmas!"

Val tilted her head. "I like that one."

The rest walked over to different tapestries throughout the store. I couldn't have been more weirded out. No way Six would be interested in something so dainty as a flowered wall deceration. I would have laughed, if I wasn't scared.

"OK, um, Erica?" I asked. Iris became a spider and darted across my shoulders. I shivered shook Iris off. Like most Athena children, I have an extreme case of Arachnephobia. Iris turned back into a dog, just to pout. "Erica" ignored me.

I rubbed my temples. This was so weird. Maybe if I-

One of the floors had a nail jutting out. As I stepped forward, it sunk in through my blue converse, piercing my big toe. "AHH!" I yelled, clutching my foot. I hopped around one-legged, as Erica snickered. But then I slipped, and was sent tumbling into the loom.

Erica shrieked. The loom was completley demolished. As I got upfrom the rubble, the pissed off clerk looked at me. Void of emotion. Then her eyes were on fire. With intencity, she yelled, "You arragant, prideful son of-"

"OK!" I said quickly. "I didn't mean to!"

"I was going to say 'Son of Athena'!" she yelled. "Now, die!" She flipped over the counter she was still behind. And I saw it.

Imagine a female centaur. Then replace the horse with a freaking huge Black Widow spider. That was this "Erica". But her real name was Arachne.

The story was that there was once a great weaver named Arachne. She claimed to be better then Athena herself. Offended, Athena challenged her to a contest. Who ever could create the better tapestry was the best. Well, Arachne's subject was so disgraceful, Athena turned her into a spider, and smashed her loom. Looks like history repeats it's self, eh?

Anyway, giant-spider-girl flipped the counter over. She trotted towards me with all eight of her legs moving in unison. The chirping noise they made were freaky. I nearly threw up.

Iris jumped into the air, turning into a lion. She growled at Arachne. In response, she turned, her "backside" facing her. The abdomen twitched, and it sprayed a giant string of web at Iris. She was thrown backwards, sticking to the wall.

The others were completley oblivious to all of this.

As Iris was struggling to free herself, Arachne loomed over me. "You're just like your mother," she said with disgust. "You're haughty, brazen, aloof," She lifted her front leg. It was dagger sharp. "I can't kill that goddess, so I'll have to settle for you." She slammed her leg down, aiming for my face.

I couldn't grab my sword in time. So instead, I grabbed a piece of wood from the loom. As I shielded my face, her leg broke the wood in half. I chucked the pieces at her face. That made contact, and she stepped backwards.

As she shrieked, a terrifieing sound, I rolled away. I picked up my sword and got ready. The she-spider growled and charged. I swung my sword in a large arch from my left. As it connected with her leg, my whole body shook. Her exoskelaton was a strong as three layers of armor. She laughed.

I stumbled backwards. I emidiatley bumped into Nikki. We fell, and a tapestry fell on top of us. I struggled to get it off. Once I did, I helped her to her feet. She looked pretty dizzy, but she didn't seem hpnotized anymore. I guess I shook it out of her.

"What?..." she said. "All I could think of was tapestries... What's going on?..." She gestured to the spider crawling towards us.

I squeezed her shoulder. "It's Ok," I said quickly. "Just take care of Iris. Get her out."

Nikki nodded and ran to the shape-shifter. Just as I turned, Arachne kicked me back nto the bowels of the store. Why did this place have to be so big? At least I saw Nikki cutting Iris out of the webs.

The moment I turned around, I was kicked to the face. I was sent flying into the bowels of the store. Why did this place have to be so damn big? I groaned and tried to get up with no luck.

The beast loomed over me again. I held my sword out threateningly. She laughed. "Son of Athena?" she said mockingly. "You're nothing but an imbicele!"

That was the last straw. You can atempt to impale my head, you can kick me in the face, but you can not question my intellect. My lip twitched and I held my sword by the blade. I squinted my eyes as she lifted her dagger leg yet again. And I threw it.

Arachne was paralyzed for a moment. She wasn't expecting it. The sword went flying through the air at her. Unfortunatley, I was only able to hit her right forearm. She suddenly unlatched her mouth. Her botom jaw seemed to be seperated, and split into two parts. She looked more like a spider than ever. She uttered the horrible, ear-peircing shreik as she grabbed her arm. She stumbled, trying to steady all 8 of her legs.

I gulped. I lost my sword. So I ran as fast as I could into the back of the store. Maybe I could postpone my death until Nikki got Iris out.

But Arachne shot a string of web at the ceiling. She pulled herself up, blood still oozing from her arm. Spidey latched herself onto the rotten wood with her sharp legs. She was now upside down, looking at me from directly above. This was like a horror movie.

I swore under my breath, and did what I do best: I ran.

She followed, eerily crawling on the ceiling behind me. Crap! What can I do? I stole a glance at Nikki. She hadn't made very much progress freeing Iris. I wasn't surprised. Spiderwebs were stronger then steel.

I lept underneath a display cabinet, showing a tapestry of an Earthen woman surounded by smaller figures bowing to her. I normally would have found this intruiging, but I was preoccupied. Arachne was yelling vulgar things. She was trying to get to me with out damaging the artwork. I got an idea.

I lept out, and in a second, smashed the display case. I grapped the tapestry, and held it in a threatening way. "Step back," I said. "Or the thingy gets it."

She gasped and walked back. I hated that chirping noise. "You wouldn't," she said, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, I would," I said. I pulled out my match box. "And I'll burn this place to the ground if take a step closer."

She might have laughed. She might have cried. But I would never know, because the Amphisbaena charged in.