My Penance
Neither Mr. Brunner nor Grover paid my question any attention. Instead, they whispered in each other's ears like I didn't just murder my teacher.
"Hello." They looked up at me. "I'm still here if you didn't notice; covered in the dust of my least favorite teacher, but still here." They stared at me for a few more seconds, and even I had to admit it was uncomfortable. They snapped to attention surely enough.
"Mr. Jackson, Grover here is going to escort you home. We need to alert your mother immediately." Mr. Brunner finally spoke up. "Grover," he turned towards the kid, "make sure Percy gets camp safely." Grover turned away from him, blushing in what might've been embarrassment.
"Camp?" I asked. "What's my mom got to do with anything?" I questioned. I didn't want my mom to get involved in whatever this was; she already had enough on her plate.
"Your mom needs to know what's happening, and we need to move. Now." Grover spoke up too. He was holding an authoritative voice better than I thought he could.
"Fine, but I want my explanation on the way." I tried to demand from the two.
"Mr. Jackson, your explanation may have to wait until we know you're safe." Mr. Brunner turned down my demand.
"Safe from what?" I don't even know what's happening, and they insist on speaking cryptically.
"Not what, Mr. Jackson." Mr. Brunner turned his wheelchair around and wheeled into the next room. "Who." He finished as if I was supposed to get it still.
"Fine, let's go." I consented.
"We're gonna take a taxi to your mom's house," Grover said as we left Mr. Brunner in the museum. "Not the safest passage, but with that sword of yours, it'll be the fastest." I almost forgot I was still holding the bronze sword in a vice grip until he mentioned it.
"How do I put the sword away?" I asked Grover because he seemed to know everything suddenly.
"Either tap the tip against your foot or say the name of your blade," Grover explained. It sounded simple enough. I tapped the tip of my sword against my foot, and it instantly retracted back into its pen form.
"Seems convenient," I commented. Grover gave a nod of his head as I whistled for a taxi.
"That'll be the last time I'll ever hear you say that." He sounded resolute, so I had nothing to do but take his word.
The taxi I whistled for came to a stop next to us and let us in. Before I could get in, Grover felt the need to stick his nose into the car and take a long sniff. Now I knew he was crazy.
Nobody willingly takes a whiff of a New York cab.
"All clear." He allowed me in the cab after that. The driver didn't even bat an eye as he asked where we were headed.
"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I responded easily. Not even this strange day could make me forget where home is. I turned towards Grover.
"Why'd you sniff the car." I felt the need to whisper this.
"I can smell if we're in the presence of a monster." He whispered back.
"Sounds convenient."
Grover ignored me for the rest of the ride.
…
Grover paid for the ride as I got out onto the sidewalk. I stood in front of my apartment, taking it all in. As terrible as the place was, I was glad to be home. Grover hopped out of the cab and led the way as if he knew where exactly I lived. I followed him inside with a bittersweet feeling of being home.
As we got into the elevator I couldn't stop myself from asking, "What do I smell like." Grover whipped his head toward me incredulously. "I personally would think I smell good, but I might be biased." Grover stared at me as the elevator continued to beep.
"I couldn't explain it, but for people like you I usually smell auras." People like me? "The stronger the aura is, the stronger their smell becomes to me." Grover nodded to himself like that covered all his bases.
"So I don't smell good?"
The elevator opening to my floor saved him from having to reply. We made our way to the door of my apartment, and with a deep breath I let myself in.
As soon as the door opened, I remembered why a part of me hated this place. The smell was already nauseating from the doorway, and I couldn't help but think it'd get stronger inside.
"Let's get this over with." I made my way into the apartment, leaving Grover to stand guard outside.
All I found at first was a bunch of big drunk dudes passed out on the couches around their poker table. It wasn't that odd of a sight, considering one of them was my pig of a stepfather Gabe. I made my way through the rest of the house toward where I thought my mom might be. My first stop was the room she shared with Gabe, but she wasn't there.
Next stop; my room.
I found her standing in front of my window, doing something with the flowers she had on the fire escape.
"Mom." She turned around quickly at the sound of my voice.
"Percy." She put her flowers down and rushed to embrace me. I welcomed the hug with a smile and the same enthusiasm. Despite seeing her only about two weeks ago, I will never get tired of seeing my mom. She pulled away to kiss the top of my head before bringing me back closer.
My mom's name is Sally Jackson, and she's my proof that the best people have the worst luck. I'll admit that she's the only person in the world I have a soft spot for, and it was a well-deserved one too. No matter how hard I made life for her, she always had it in her to give me her best smile and tell me it was ok. I hated to be the one to disappoint her.
"Mom, something happened on our field trip." She pulled away enough to see my face now. By the time I finished the whole story she was looking over my whole body, checking for any injuries. I watched her contemplate for a while; her brain was moving fast in thought.
"We need to go." She concluded. "Go get your friend, and I'll be out in a second." She kissed my head one more time before going into her bedroom.
Not being one to question my mom, I went back into the hallway where Grover was keeping watch.
"Do you know where we're going?" Grover looked at me now. "You three keep talking about needing to go somewhere, but I still don't get it. Go where?" Grover looked as if he forgot that he didn't explain yet.
"It's a haven for people like you," was his cryptic response.
"People who see demon ladies and turn them into dust?"
"Yes."
My mom came out of the house at that, Gabe's car keys in hand.
"We don't have much time, Ms. Jackson," Grover told my mom. "We have to get to camp." That's what Mr. Brunner said too, but what camp were they talking about? My mom seemed to understand because she immediately made her way to the elevator in haste.
"Do you two know each other?" I asked as we boarded the elevator.
"She knew we were watching you, but we've never met before today," Grover replied. "We hoped this day wouldn't have to come." He made it sound like the apocalypse or something.
"Percy," my mom called for my attention, "I haven't been honest with you about your father."
My father? Mom always told me that he was lost at sea. How did all of this revolve around him?
"I haven't even met him before, so how could this involve him?" I asked as we made our way outside.
"I'll explain in the car honey." As soon as we got in the car she stepped on it."Your father was an important person," she started to explain, "A powerful one too." Grover seemed to lean into her words as she talked too.
"There's a reason I told you that he's lost at sea, honey," Grover tensed up next to me, "and it's because he's not dead." She had me on a thread now too, because I always thought she used him being lost at sea as an excuse for herself. "He can't die." My eyes bugged out.
"What are you talking about, mom?" I could feel a tingling inside of me like something was awakening.
"Your father is immortal, Percy." Mom looked at me in the rearview window. "He's a god."
If it was anybody else, I would've laughed in their face without a care in the world. But this was my mom. She wouldn't pull a joke like this.
"A god," I repeated. I stared out of the window, watching a large storm cloud starting to make its way over us. "My dad." Grover leaned forward again.
"Do you know which god, Ms. Jackson?" My mom eyed Grover in the rearview window.
"Names have power Grover, and with my son in the car I wouldn't dare invoke his name." She answered. Grover looked down in his lap in embarrassment, but my mom continued. "He is the son of the sea god." Grover's head shot up.
"Ms. Jackson?" He gave my mom a look of awe. He turned towards me and gave me the same look.
"I trust that this will stay between us, Grover." She gave the kid what I liked to consider "the mom stare." He nodded quickly.
"You have my word," Grover agreed with her.
"The sea god?" I finally asked. "What are we talking about here; which pantheon of gods?" I could tell it was a loaded question with the way mom deflected her attention back to the road. Grover answered for her over the sound of the storm brewing.
"The gods we learned about in Mr. Brunner's class." He gave me an easy connection. I almost started blurting out names before I remembered what mom said about them having power.
"Seems convenient." I tried to ease the tension, but Grover stayed silent in his seat next to me. "Where are we going, mom?" Grover answered for her again.
"A summer camp for people like you."
"But it's winter." Last I checked, Christmas was just a few weeks ago.
"So?"
"So how is it a summer camp?"
"Still a camp."
"But where's the summer?"
"Boys!" My mom stopped our back and forth.
We drove in silence after that, choosing to let the ambiance of the storm fill the car. I looked out the window curiously at the storm cloud; just a few minutes ago it was barely visible, but now it was directly over us in a menacing swirl of darkness in the sky.
I looked down just in time to see us drive by a massive figure in the road.
"Ms. Jackson!" Grover cried as she dodged quickly, and we both looked back to see the thing hunch over as if getting ready to sprint. "Go!"
My mom stepped on the gas harder, the Camaro peeling out of there as fast as possible.
"What was that thing?" I asked Grover. He looked back at me with wide eyes.
All I could make out as we passed was what looked like a seven-foot mound of fur and a pair of white underwear, which would've been funny under different circumstances. Something about it felt familiar though, like a story out of a myth.
Like the myths that we learned about in Mr. Brunner's class.
"The myth of Theseus," I answered my own question. Despite the situation, my mom and Grover managed to look at me in surprise. "I remember stuff sometimes." I shrugged.
"Pasiphae's son." My mom added. I didn't know who Pasiphae was, but I definitely knew who was after us.
The Minotaur.
I turned to ask Grover how he was involved in all of this, but before I could, the roof exploded.
I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise, and the storm above us let out a resounding boom! I couldn't remember much of what happened when I came to, but I felt the aftermath. My body felt almost stunlocked in shock for a second before I regained my bearings. My mom was moving in the front seat, and Grover was already looking for an exit. I looked at the roof to see the rain pouring through the steaming hole. It was cracked open in a single strike, with the jagged edges hissing in heat.
A lightning strike.
"We have to move." Grover started taking off his pants for some reason.
"Why are you taking your pants off?" Before I could turn away, I caught a glimpse of… fur? "What the…"
"This is my job, Percy." He lifted his hoofed feet and bashed them against the passenger's side door, sending it flying out of sight. "Let's move."
Mom and I followed him out of the passenger's side and looked around as best as we could through the rain. Grover led us uphill.
"The tree, Percy." Grover pointed at the big pine tree at the top of the hill. "That's the property line. Let's go before he smells us."
"We make it there, and you're safe." My mom interjected. She sounded like she was trying to reassure herself more than me.
"Will you be too?" I asked on a hunch. Grover made it clear that this was a haven for people like me, and with the revelation that he had hoofs for feet, that probably included him too. My mom was normal as far as I could tell, and if that was true, then she couldn't get in with me. Before she could answer, there was a loud bellow from the direction we were running.
The minotaur was sniffing around the car we escaped from, and seeing(smelling?) that we weren't inside he flipped the car down the road. The shrieking sound of metal against the asphalt pierced our ears, and just when it came to a stop, another bolt of lightning struck the car; the car exploded with the power of this one.
I hope Gabe has insurance.
We picked up our pace, moving up the hill as fast as we could. I would glance back at our pursuer at every chance I got, certain that he would eventually come pawing his way toward us. When I looked back for what might've been the fourth time, I could see the bull-man hunch over again in his charging position.
"He's coming!" I yelled over the rain.
"Percy!" Mom pulled me close. "When he charges, jump directly sideways at the last second." I gave her a nod of understanding, but it was obvious when she pulled away to latch onto Grover that we'd be going in different directions.
The monster tromped its way up the hill at a blazing speed with his head lowered so his horns could skewer us.
"Now!" My mom yelled as the three of us split. She and Grover spilled over the grass as the monster prepared for another charge at them and could do nothing but watch in fear-induced shock. Instead of just lowering his head this time, the bull-man also put its arms out in a grabbing position.
"No!" I cried out as the Minotaur caught my mom by the throat. Grover still lay on the ground watching. She kicked furiously and relentlessly against the beast, but he wouldn't let her go. She made eye contact and reached out to me one last time.
"Live."
That was the last word I heard before the Minotaur snapped her neck.
Author's Note:
Hello to anybody reading this. I would like to say thank you for the reviews (if you do), and thank you for giving my writing a chance. I'm new to writing stories that I actually publish, so I don't know how to use this app's functions too well. When I get settled I'll update the summary as suggested (thanks for the review) and start directly replying to any and all reviews. I won't have a publishing schedule right now because I'm a college student, but I will say that the more traction this gains the more motivation I'll have. I'm a pretty avid Percy Jackson fan so I don't see myself going anywhere anytime soon.
Thanks again, and let me know what you think.
