Chapter 9

Percy POV

"Stop those kids" The truck driver yelled. "hurry my lord they're gaining on us" the Zebra said. "Go save yourself" I shouted to him "we'll be fine". "yes my lord" he said darting off. 'Finally' I thought, as crazy Vegas is having a Zebra following you still makes you stick out like a sore thumb. "guys in here" Grover said ducking into some casino. "I got a bad feeling about this" I said going in after him. Two steps and the man who I assumed was the door greeter or something was already walking towards us, probably to say we can't be here without an adult.

"Hello kids" he said grinning ear to ear "welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino, your room is 405 on level four and here is your room key". Grover glanced at me and Annabeth "Um we don't have any money for that". "Oh how silly of me, I forgot to give you these" He said handing us each a green card "these will work for everything in the casino and don't worry about bill that's already been take care of". I wanted to tell him there had to be a mistake but he was gone before I could say anything "Looks like we're staying here tonight" Grover said.

20 minutes later I was walking out of the shower feeling better than I had all week. Grover was laying on one of the water beds and Annabeth was watching TV "What'cha watching" I asked. "Documentary on mid 16th century architecture" she said. "Well while you're up here boring yourself to death Me and Percy will down in the arcade". To be honest the documentary sounded good but I let Grover drag me down the hall. A few hours later Annabeth joined us for a round of dance dance revolution then disappeared amongst the games. The next few hours seemed to blur together, we played games, grabbed a bite to eat, etc.

In the middle of a Pinball game I started to feel dizzy and just collapsed. After a few minutes the room stopped spinning, I decided to check the clock figuring it was close to midnight or something. "It's 11:00 am!" I shouted. Forgetting completely about my pinball game I raced in between the games and eventually found Annabeth playing some kind of city builder game. "Annabeth" I said but she just ignored me. "Annabeth look at me" I said again shaking her but she shoved me away. 'fine time for some tough love' I thought dragging her away from the game.

"Hey let me go" She shouted. "Annabeth stop and think about this" I said "why do you want to play that game so much". Annabeth stop fighting me for a moment "The name of this place is the Lotus Hotel and Casino, as in layer of the Lotus eaters". I wasn't sure how I knew but as the words came out of my mouth I could feel the truthfulness in them "we need to find Grover" she said. I let her go hoping she had come to her senses and she darted off completely ignoring the her game, leaving me to stubble after her.

Admittedly I lost sight of her for a bit only to find run for dear life from a couple of hotel chefs with Grover in tow. I parted my lips to ask what happened only to be silenced by Annabeth with a quick "not now". As we reached the entrance the door master tried to stop us but I took care of him by using a food cart as a battering ram.

Nobody followed us outside but we took a run down the street just to be safe "How…did you...figure...it out" Grover panted. I leaned against a rubbed my head which had one hades of a headache. My memories were becoming clearer but it was still incomplete "I kept having time skips hours passing in what felt like minutes. Wait what day is it!". "Thursday" Annabeth said holding up a newspaper "three days since we went in". I flagged down a cab and ordered everyone in "Los Angeles" I said to the cab Driver.

"That's a quite a distance there" he said "you sure you have enough to pay for that". "Do you take hotel cards" Annabeth asked holding her Lotus card up. "Some of them" the man said taking the card and giving it a swipe, the machine made a sound like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine and an infinity sign popped up on the screen.

His jaw dropped "Right away your majesty". Annabeth sat up a little straighter obviously liking being referred to as royalty "get us there in a hurry and you can keep the change". Personally I don't think she should have said that to him because I never once saw the speedometer drop below 78, I was scared for my life.

When we finally reached LA I practically dived out of the cab, never before had I been so happy to walk again. As I stood up I noticed I had the backpack from Ares slung over my shoulder which perplexed me be I was sure it had been left behind when we fled the casino

Annabeth POV

"Any ideas on what we should do now" Grover asked. "We go to D.O.A. recording studios" Percy said "I saw a few of Medusa's statues had been sent there for Persephone when we looted her register". "Okay I just don't get you" I said "from all the records we have back at camp half blood all your half brothers are insanely loyal idiots, so why are you so smart".

"Because my brains came from my mother, even my dad admits that much" I said. "She must be one brilliant woman to counter Poseidon's DNA so well" I said. Percy scowled "Okay, yes we all make fun of my dad but that's taking it a little too far". "Sorry" I said, we didn't talk the rest of the way to D.O.A. recording studios which turned out to only be three blocks down. From the outside one would have thought that this was just another store but if you looked carefully you'd notice how no one would look at it, people walking past it quickened their pace as if had been spooked.

However once on the inside nobody would mistake this as a place for the living. The walls were a dark grey, the air reeked of death, not to mention all the ghost sitting around. Grover was trembling and while Percy was a bit unnerved but he hid it well. I did my best to act normal as I walked up to the only solid person in the room, but unsurprisingly it's very difficult to do when surrounded by dead people. "Name and cause of death" the man said. "Um Billy, Bob, Jane, and drowned….in a pool" Percy said smoothly. The man looked up from his notepad "Hmm the three of you are quite young that could be a problem, normally we'd just add an extra charge to your last bill but with you so young…I better call it in".

"But we have money to pay" I said dropping six drachma on the table. He gave off a low whistle and picked up one of the coins "how refreshing I never get these any more not since….Greece" he said giving us a hard look. "Demigods of course" he said tiredly "please refer to the board". Just below to top of his desk was a simple sign that read

Transportation Prices

Gods/Immortals 1 drachma

Dead 2 drachma

Undead 3 drachma

Living 20 drachma

My eye's bulged at the price for the living and I silently thanked my mother Medusa had a lot of drachma in her register as I dropped the coins on the table. The man quickly scooped them up and ushered us into the elevator, I cringed as he pressed a button that had a skull on it. As we descended I prayed that this wouldn't be a one way trip.

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