Disclaimer: See something familiar? Not mine.
Sorry for this hideously late upload, I had my hair dyed and had to catch up with Bloodlines' update too.
Chapter 12: I Kill My Dad's Ex
I was too dazed to move at first, but I heard my other friends scramble off. I was lying flat on the ground, looking at Aunty Em's sandaled feet for a few seconds before Jools began to pull me up. Thalia cursed behind me. I could hear this weird rasping sound above us, and my eyes began to rise to Aunty Em's hands – which suddenly turned gnarled and warty. And what's with those bronze talon fingernails? So two thousand years ago.
I would've looked higher, but Jools almost whacked my head off my body just to keep it down. "Don't. Don't."
I heard more rasping, like dozens of tiny snakes hissing at me from where Aunty Em's head should be. Mind whirling, I turned to see Thalia and Nico scrambling away. Grover let out a bleat that probably meant for us to run and raced off the gravel. With his magical command, his sneakers took flight.
Dazed and suddenly terrified, I kept my eyes on Aunty Em's dangerous claws. I tried to fight off not just the fear but also the groggy trance that the old, apparently evil woman put me in. I felt Jools tugging at my shirt, but I couldn't move.
"C'mon, dingbat," Jools hissed.
"Such a pity to destroy such a handsome young face as yours," Aunty Em murmured soothingly. "You can stay with me for all eternity, Percy. It's not that difficult. All you have to do is look into my eyes."
The urge to obey crossed my mind and I bit it back. I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres that people put in gardens. I think it's a gazing ball. I saw Aunty Em's dark, distorted reflection in the orange-tinted glass. Her headdress was gone, and her pale, shimmering face was revealed. Her hair moved angrily, like writhing serpents.
Serpents. Aunty Em. Aunty "M." I'm a freaking idiot.
I tried to think of how Medusa died in the myths, but i can't kickstart my stupid brain. Something kept bugging me, because I remembered that Medusa was sleeping when she was attacked and killed by my namesake, Perseus. And she's definitely not asleep right now. If she wanted, she could rip us to bloody ribbons with those talons instead of turning us into stone.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa murmured. She didn't sound like a monster at all. In fact, her voice was softly inviting me to look up and sympathize with a poor old grandmother who lost everything in her world. "Annabeth's mother, that blasted Athena, took away my beauty as a young woman and turned me into this. A monster!"
"C'mon, man!" Jools said, his voice breaking. "We gotta run."
"Don't listen to her," Annabeth pleaded somewhere around us. "Run!"
Medusa let out a terrifying snake shriek. "Silence!" Then, her voice modulated back into the lulling purr of before. "See why we must destroy the girl, Percy? She is my enemy's daughter. I will crush her statue to dust. You and the rest of your little friends need not suffer. You, yourself, will even grace my very own garden for all eternity."
"No way, grandma," Nico shouted.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" asked Medusa. "Especially you, Percy, Thalia and Nico? Do you know what will happen when you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the mad Olympians, little dearies. You would be better off as a statue. It's less painful than the the fates the gods have in store for you. And you, Jools. Your friendship with the child of the South Wind will tear you both apart, like the tragic lovers in the stories you were both named after."
"Percy," hissed Jools. "Duck!"
Behind me came an annoying buzzing sound, like a giant hummingbird that was trying to do a nosedive. I ducked and turned. Grover was hovering against the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering madly. He brandished a thick tree branch angrily. Believe me, it was more terrifying than it sounded. His eyes were shut really tight, his head twitching repeatedly from side to side. I bet he was navigating by ears and nose alone.
No fair, that would be a cool power.
"Duck!" he yelled. "I'll get her."
Jools and I nodded to each other and crouched lower. Knowing Grover, he would probably miss Medusa and hit one of us instead. We dove away from each other, and there was a thwacking sound.
I thought that Grover smacked into a tree at first, but then, Medusa roared angrily. "You miserable satyr!" she hissed. Her agitated snakes began to snarl. "I won't regret adding you to my collection!"
"Shut up! That was for Uncle Ferdinand," yelled Grover.
I spotted Nico ducking behind a statue and scrambled toward him as Grover swooped down for another hit. After another successful sound, Medusa yelled, her snakey hair hissing and spitting angrily. I reached Nico, who crouched, white-faced and trembling. "I don't want to turn into a statue," he said.
"I know," I muttered. "What can we do?"
Right behind us, Annabeth's voice said, "You guys!"
Nico and I jumped so high, one of us might've cleared a garden gnome. Nico flinched. "Jeez, woman, are you trying to kill us?"
"Stop doing that," I told her.
Annabeth materialized after she removed her Yankees cap. "One of you have to cut her head off. Thalia is already thinking of the best way to do it, but I don't think she's the one who'll manage to behead her. I mean, being Poseidon's son and all…"
"You have to be kidding us," Nico said, rolling his eyes. "We have to go, before one of us gets stoned or something."
"He's right. We can't even see her properly," I muttered.
Annabeth sighed. "She's a menace. An evil, evil, foul creature. I'd kill her myself, but…" Annabeth swallowed, like she was forced to drink bitter medicine. "You've all got better weapons and besides, none of us could get close to her without being sliced to bits. Especially me. I think you've got the best chance."
Nico looked at me. "I think she's right. We can't just let her keep turning innocent people into statues," he mumbled, pointing to a pair of statue lovers – a man and a woman with their arms around each other, equally terrified looks on their faces. "I can't stand it."
Backed into a corner. Oops.
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a pedestal behind her and handed it to me. "Polished shields work better. Its convexity could cause a lot of distortion, and the reflection's size should be off by a factor of…"
"Dude, speak English," I said.
Nearby, I heard Jools and Thalia rush forward, eyes on Medusa's feet, sword in hand. Annabeth let out a huff of irritated breath. "I am!" She glared at me. "Just look at her in the glass. Don't look at her directly."
"Guys?" Grover yelled somewhere near Thalia and Jools. "I think they knocked her unconscious!"
Medusa roared, brandishing her talons to keep my friends back. I uncapped my pen, the bronze blade of Riptide elongating on my hand. Nico pulled out his sword too. "Hey, you might need a bit of backup," he said with a nervous laugh.
Eyes on the gazing ball, I followed the hissing, spitting sounds of Medusa's snakes. I can see her reflection, not the real thing, but I was still freaking out by what I saw. Medusa managed to grab Grover's stick as he flew lower and pulled him off course. He cartwheeled through the air and smashed against Jools and Thalia. Luckily, nobody got turned into skewered meat. Medusa stalked toward them.
"Hey!" yelled Nico, advancing with his eyes closed. He brandished Nightmare angrily. "Get off them!"
I kept moving forward, eyes on the glass ball. It wasn't an easy task, especially as Medusa was about to charge at Nico and he would be practically defenseless. Medusa froze as she saw me head toward her. Nico headed for our fallen friend, sword hand steady but the rest of his body close to trembling.
I could see the reflection on her face – and believe me, no face should be that ugly. I hoped that the green swirls of the gazing ball just distorted it into that monstrosity. Her snakes reared back. "Would you dare harm an old woman, Percy?" she asked softly. "I'm sure you wouldn't."
"Don't you dare listen to her, or I'll kill you myself," Thalia growled, trying to disentangle herself from Jools and Grover.
I hesitated then, fascinated b the face that was reflected – true, distorted, but still reflected – on the glass. Her eyes seemed to burn right through the orb, making my eyes wander up and my arms go weak.
"Please don't look up," Nico pleaded.
"Too late," Medusa cackled, lunging at me with her razor-sharp talons.
I yelled. My friends yelled. We all yelled.
I slashed up with my sword and heard a sickening, soft ripping sound. It was followed by a loud hiss, like wind rushing out of a newly-opened cavern. I knew that sound. I've heard it before when Mrs. Dodds and the Minotaur disintegrated.
Something round and heavy thudded to the ground, right next to my foot. I fought hard against the temptation to look. Warm ooze soaked into my sock as dying little snakes tugged at my shoelaces. Somewhere to my left, Jools moaned and retched.
"Eurgh," Thalia said half-heartedly.
"Yuck," Grover said, his eyes still closed. "That's the grossest thing I've ever seen. Lately."
Annabeth arrived, eyes fixed determinedly on the sky. She had Medusa's black veil in her hand. "Don't move, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she knelt and wrapped the monster's head in black cloth. She picked it up shakily, the veil dripping green juice. She looked at me. "Are you okay?"
I guess." I felt like imitating Jools and throwing up, though. But I fought hard against the double cheeseburger that wanted to get out. "Why didn't – why didn't it, uh, disintegrate? The head, I mean."
"Spoil of war," Grover mumbled.
"Meaning?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Seaweed Brain, remember your minotaur horn? Once you sever a part of a monster, it becomes a spoil of war. You get to keep it – but don't unwrap that head. It can still petrify you."
"Gross," Thalia groaned.
Nico nodded. "Very. But imagine using that to fire killer petrifying beams at enemies!"
"Good idea, but I'd rather not," I told him.
Grover stood up shakily, his rasta cap askew. His fake feet got knocked off his hooves, and his magic sneakers hovered angrily around his head. "That was fun, but I don't want a repeat performance."
"The Red Baron," I said, giving him a high-five.
Nico laughed. "You did great, Grover!"
"Hitting her with a stick? Really fun," Grover replied, head down with a bashful smile. "Crashing was not fun." He snatched his shoes out of the air, and I thought he would bite into them. Luckily, he just proceeded to put them on.
"Anyway, think we could find something important in that warehouse?" Jools asked with a shiver. He tapped his sword and it wrapped around his wrist in cuff form once again. "I mean, stuff that we could use, maybe?"
"Maybe." Annabeth frowned, watching the rest of us recap our swords. "It's worth a try."
We stumbled back into the warehouse, keeping close together in case some sort of danger lurked around us again. Though still brightly lit, the place became much more menacing now that we knew that the statues used to be real people. We returned to the snack counter and fished out some old plastic grocery bags – apparently even evil snake-headed grandmas had to go on grocery shopping every once in a while – and wrapped Medusa's head with the entire pile.
Exhausted and shaken, we sat around our table and let out a collective sigh. Thalia glared pointedly at our little "package." "So, we have Athena to thank for that abomination?"
"Abomination is too harsh," I said. "Terrifying snake-headed evil grandma from hell would fit her better."
Annabeth frowned. "Poseidon, actually." She glared at me. "Don't you remember the stories? Medusa was his girlfriend, and they decided to meet in my mother's temple. Of course Athena would turn her into a monster! They disrespected her temple. Besides, Medusa was my mom's priestess. Anyway, her two sisters who helped her sneak into the temple became gorgons too. That's why Medusa hated me so much but wanted to preserve you. She's still sweet on your dad and you probably reminded her of him."
I was sure that I was blushing. "Right. So now it's my fault that we met Medusa?"
"It was just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?" She didn't really do a good imitation of my voice.
"Forget it," I growled. "You're impossible."
"And you're insufferable."
"Guys. Guys." Nico slammed his hand on the table, making us both flinch. "Can't you cut it out? We have more important things to do right now. Save that for later."
Grover nodded. "He's right. You guys are giving me a migraine – and satyrs don't get migraines. Ever. Believe me. Anyway, what are we going to do with the head? We can't lug it around with us, it'd make us look suspicious and weird."
Thalia let out a shaky laugh. "Weird is an understatement. Who would like to get caught bringing a package that is obviously a head with them?"
I stared at the package and noted the little dead snake hanging out of a hole in the plastic. Really, really obviously a head. A snakey head. Anger bubbled in me – and not just with Annabeth or her mom, but ith all the gods that caused this quest, for getting us blown off the road and get into two major fights in only our first day out of the camp. At this rate, we won't make it to L.A. alive, in one piece, and much less before the summer solstice.
I remembered Medusa's words, about being a pawn of the Olympians. I stood up immediately. "I'll be back," I muttered.
"Are you having another of that ADHD poster boy moments of yours?" Grover asked warily.
"Please don't do something stupid," Annabeth pleaded.
Of course, I ignored them both.
I fumbled through the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. I scanned her account book and found her six most recent sales. It took me a little more time than it should for other people, but I figured that they were all shipments to the Underworld – decorations for Hades and Persephone's garden. The billing address was one DOA Recording Studios in West Hollywood, California. I grabbed the bill containing that address and stuffed it in my pocket, right beside Riptide.
I grabbed a wad of cash from her cash register – it was around a hundred dollars – and also a few golden drachmas. We had our own stash of those, but a little more won't hurt. I also found packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express that had little leather bags attached for coins. I also found the box that was just the perfect size for my suddenly brilliant – or stupid – idea.
I went back to the picnic table and boxed Medusa's head quietly. My friends fell into a hushed silence, watching me fill out a delivery slip to the gods in Mount Olympus – 600th Floor, Empire State Building. I even added a "Best Wishes" for good measure, and signed my name with a fluorish.
"You're either brilliant or crazy," Jools said. "Maybe even both."
Thalia went white. "My – my… dad… will blast us to bits."
"Oooh, the gods won't like that," agreed Grover. "They might think that you're impertinent."
I added a few golden drachmas to the pouch, and as soon as I closed it, there was a loud sound like an old-school cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a loud pop. I caught Annabeth's gaze. "Don't stare," I told her, daring her to criticize. "I'm impertinent."
Annabeth sighed, apparently resigned to the fact that one of us had a major talent for irritating the gods. "Let's go. We need a new plan." She shook her head.
We stumbled out of the warehouse, not wanting to spend the night with those creepy statues. Sure, Medusa was gone, but what else might end up finding us in there? It seemed like having Nico's scent mixed with ours wasn't enough to fully keep monsters out.
We walked through the woods, looking for a suitable campsite. Thalia and Nico walked beside me, both lost in their own thoughts. Nico kept muttering something about the petrified people being dead, and Thalia just kept staring at both of us and shaking her head worriedly.
Soon, Jools joined us. He looked more troubled than us, though. He was paler than usual, and he kept running a hand through his snowy hair. "I didn't understand what Medusa meant with the child of the South Wind, but I had a feeling that she was telling the truth."
"The girl on your picture – the one in red…" I began.
"Romina Habagat. Rommy." Jools looked down, his cheeks burning. "Her mom's from the Philippines. Grew up in my hometown though, living with her mom. She was pretty weird and cool, but she never met her dad."
"Child of the South Wind… Could she be the daughter of Notus?" asked Nico.
Jools let out a huff of breath. "Probably. From what I heard ever since I found out that I'm the son of Boreas though, seems like he has a rivalry with Notus. I just hope that her powers are minor enough for her to stay safe from monsters."
Thalia grinned. "You… liked her. Didn't you?"
"This isn't the time to joke," Nico scolded.
Jools pursed his lips thoughtfully for a few seconds. "I liked her. I guess. I might go home for school this year. I don't know. Maybe I could also try sending her a letter or something. But if our dads really are rivals…" He shuddered.
"Look man, this isn't the time to think about that," Nico said reassuringly. "You'll sort things out soon. Don't listen to Medusa. She's just trying to rattle us."
"Yeah… I guess so."
I had a feeling that somehow, Medusa knew what she was saying – and she was telling the truth the way she saw it to rattle us.
Again, thank shoutout to eveningstars! I do appreciate your reviews and hope you guys liked this chapters! Seriously, I appreciate your comments, opinions, suggestions, everything!
And would you mind a bit of Thalia x Nico here? And meeting Piper and Leo early?
