Chapter 10

Maddi POV

"Uh.. A toll station? Are you kidding?" What time was it now, four in the morning? That seemed about right. According to the GPS built under the handlebars, we still had more than three hours to drive before we finally reached Cleveland. The dim lights rose suddenly and became brighter as we neared the stations. They weren't empty, per say, but they weren't exactly packed either.

"What are we gonna do?" I turned back to Derek. His head was slumped back, exposing his chin. He was snoring softly and occasionally twitching and grabbing his chest. I sighed. He wasn't going to be any help anyway.

I rolled up slowly and stopped, putting my shoe down to hold the bike up. Derek shifted slightly but managed to stay on the bike somehow. The man behind the window looked over and tapped on his microphone.
"Your total is twelve dollars and eighty cents; please drop it in the basket." As if on cue, a wicker basket dropped down the booth, waiting to be filled.

I made sure my helmet was tight around my head when I reached into my jeans pocket, fingering around for some cash. Unfortunately, when my clothes had been exchanged, so did everything in the purse I'd been carrying with me. Meaning, I was stuck with ten dollars I'd never used at the dance and some lint.

I turned around and slapped Derek on the shoulder. He woke with such a start the bike almost fell over and crushed my leg. "Derek," I hissed, "We're at a toll, I need three bucks." He muttered something sleepily and shook around in his pockets before coming up with a five. I dropped it in the bucket and waited quietly.

The man behind the window was very young looking, almost childish. He was tall enough to be a man though, much taller than both Derek and I.
"I'm going to come out and inspect your vehicle." He said, without even taking the money. I shifted anxiously. The longer we waited here, the more time the man could take to find out I was obviously underage – my deep voice would only work for so long if he kept speaking to me.

When the man came out I realized something. While his top half, behind the glass screen that is, looked much like an officer, when he came out from behind it the shirt was huge. It stretched down to his feet, which were covered in bright red and yellow socks. I heard Derek stifle a laugh; this seemed more like a few children stacked atop one another for Halloween than something like a serious cop.

The cop came over and checked the bike out quietly while time ticked by on the GPS. I could feel the cold against my jacket and curled further into it until the cop came to the front.

"Ma'am, we have reason to believe you are an underage driver. Please remove the helmet." I swore silent and grabbed the handlebars gingerly. Maybe if I were quick enough, Derek and I could speed away and he wouldn't be able to catch us. I was an okay driver for thirteen, but how would I handle in darkness and at the speed of light, that was a tricky question.

My foot slammed the pedal and we shot forward like a bullet. Derek grabbed my waist before he could fall off, but unfortunately so did the cop – or should I say the seven three year olds who made up the cop.

The seven of them probably wouldn't have been so scary since they were only three years old – but they were insane. They all wore cloth pants like something from a medieval movie and a few wore black tank-tops. They had olive colored skin, dark eyes, and dark brown hair. The one at the end of the chain had the longest hair, tied in a bright red and white tie.

The one formerly composing the head of the toll booth guy reached forward and grabbed my hair, planting its chubby legs on my shoulders like I was some kind of horse.
"Calo, tattu!" He shouted in some other language, stamping on my shoulder to further emphasize his point as the "owner".

I threw my shoulders and head back as far as I could, and swerved the bike as I did. It was four in the morning and I was not in the mood to go stabbing some foreign kids. Behind me, Derek was uttering a mixture of laughter and horror as five of the children crawled around on him like their own personal jungle-gym.

The boy on my shoulders, their leader, covered the lenses of my helmet. Everything was dark and I felt weak and scared, like at any point I could run head on into a pick-up truck and I'd be lost to leave the prophecy to someone else. I immediately thought of my little brother – annoying, very stupid, and absolutely evil. I had to help him though; I couldn't stand to think about what might happen if the Gods got to him.

That's when I heard a piercing screech. The boy released my eyes and turned back to his little friends. The girl had leaned back to far and gotten her long hair caught in the wheel of the bike. She squealed in pain, stretching her arms out for her brothers and sisters to help her.

The red lights of a stopping truck on the side of the road made me do an immediate, sharp turn. Derek and the rug rats rolled until somehow only the leader was hanging on, his feet wrapped around the tailpipe and his arms grasping his siblings. The girl with the long hair had her face meet the road and affected her like sandpaper, probably whittling her face away until she exploded into a dust cloud.

"One down, six to go!" Derek shouted, trying to pry the leader's legs off the tailpipe. I drove even faster, flying down the route faster than ever. But they held on, somehow managing to keep off the road in order to stay alive.

"Tivra!" One of the males at the bottom of the chain looked up at the leader. He shouted something over the pounding, brutal wind. Tivra nodded back and did something remarkable. He let go of the tailpipe. Before I could focus on driving again, though, the chain swung around and Tivra slapped onto my face.

He began to grab my helmet. For a three year old child, he had some amazing dexterity as he fingered the helmet. If he took it off, it would be too dark to see anything. We could easily ride right into a guard rail. I had an idea, though. The helmet passed over my eyes when it got stuck in my tangle of hair. Tivra began pulling on the helmet angrily, crawling onto my temple and tugging with all his might.

I whipped my head back and the helmet came loose, along with Tivra. They both hit Derek on the way but eventually fell to the passing road. The leader known as Tivra exploded into a flash of bright, sparking powder. The others were too busy watching their leader combust that they didn't notice Derek had turned on his side and delivered a clean kick to the child's temple, sending him flying along with his siblings. They finally disappeared in one huge dust cloud.

"Oh, the joys of being a demigod." Derek sighed, cleaning some dust off his shirt. "I hate those kids." I loosened my grip on the handlebars, permanently pressed with my hand prints and allowed my knuckles to gain their color again.
"What were those?" I gasped.

Derek tapped his chin thoughtfully – or, I think he did. His helmet was still on.
"Kalingoi. We don't know much about them, but that was a definitely a little herd. They give birth at age five and die at age eight. They attack in groups. I think they might be from India." This new information sent a chill up my back. Monsters in a toll booth? What next? I sighed and continued to drive, focusing on staying in the seat.

My eyes adjusted well to the darkness and before we knew it, we reached Ohio. Before I had time to stretch, though, the map began to bleep from the side satchel on the motorcycle. Derek reached over and took it out.
"Take the next exit." He said.
"No," I breathed, "We're going to Cleveland, not Akron."

"No, the map says we have to pick up a kid in Akron. An unclaimed-as-of-yet little guy." He said. I turned back to him. "You're...kidding, right?"

I took the exit and soon we entered a plain filled with apartments and homes for rent.

"Welcome to Akron." I sighed, imitating the fading sign in front of us.