AN 5/23/15: Hey so busy week, lots of things happened so remembering to post this fell to the side, as compensation I will post this chapter and the next today.
Once we got to our stop Grover rushed into the bathroom, leaving Percy and I to wait out front.
"Come on, let's go." Percy said suddenly once Grover was out of sight, grabbing his bag.
"Percy, what are you doing? We have to wait for Grover."
"Yeah, I know, but he is really freaking me out. Like, a lot. Look, let's just go home? Please?"
He begged. After having to look at those baby seal eyes for a solid minute I relented. I knew he wouldn't give up until I agreed. It was better that I went with him than him go alone. We hailed a taxi and made our way back to the apartment.
Once we arrived home we opened the door to find ourselves stepping into the center of one of Gabe's poker parties with some of his smelly friends, if you could even call them that. ESPN was blaring and chips and beer cans were littered everywhere. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the men. I had made a promise to myself a while back that I would make sure he got what he deserved once he died. He was horrible to Sally and was a complete jerk to Percy. I personally tended to just try to stay out of the way and try not to be noticed, but Gabe was a jerk through and through. Artemis and her hunters would have a field day with him.
He glanced up from his cards, and talking around his cigar he said, "So, you're home."
"Where's our mom?" Percy asked, taking in the scene around him.
"Working, got any cash?" Pig. That was all he had to say after Percy and I returned from being away for months. He was looking more and more like an actual pig as the years went by too. Just from Christmas break he had put on a lot of weight. He wore cheap, filthy clothes and had almost no hair on his greasy head.
All that man did was collect paychecks and spend money on cigars, gambling, and beer. He wouldn't last a day if he had that mentality in the time I grew up in, he would starve within his first two weeks. Growing up in the Great Depression really shaped me. My mother and I had been fortunate enough for her to have a small job and the majority of the rest of our key expenses paid off by my Father, which I only found out later in life. But having lived in the Dust Bowl, things were just that much harder to get than other places at the time. We had to live sparingly. A lot of the time people had to leave town and move around, finding Hoovervilles to live in temporarily on their search for work. We were fortunate, others were not as lucky. I had to stop myself multiple times in the past from snapping at him. This was one of those times.
"We don't have any cash," Percy told him and he tried to lead us away. Gabe stopped us though, he was giving us a skeptical look. As if he could actually be capable of normal brain functions in the first place. But sniffing out money was his thing.
"Took a cab from the bus station, paid with a twenty or so. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, they ought to carry their own weight. Am I right Eddie?"
Eddie was the super of our apartment building. He might be one of Gabe's buddies, but he looked at us with a bit of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe. The kids just got here."
"Am I right?" Gabe repeated, looking to his other companions for agreement. Eddie just scowled into his snack bowl as the two other men passed gas in harmony. Disgusting. Gabe had not so subtly made it clear that we were supposed to provide some of his gambling funds, "or else" a few years back. He did mainly say it to Percy, but I was included in there too. If I ever saw that man lay a finger on Sally or Percy, he would be begging for death. He already had it coming to him once he entered my father's domain.
"Come on, Percy. Let's go." I insisted as I pulled him away. I grabbed the change from the cab ride and smacked it down onto the table as we passed. Percy threw in a "Hope you lose." on his way too.
"I wouldn't be acting so snooty," Gabe shouted after us. "Your report card came in, brain boy! And you wouldn't even be here if I had the choice, girl! 'S bad enough with one brat in the house."
Percy slammed the door shut as I set my bag down beside my bed. I pushed aside the boxes and old newspapers that were littered on the blanket and laid down turned to the wall, eyes closed, slowly turning a bracelet around on my wrist in thought. I heard Percy set down his stuff and sit on his bed. The tension in the air was strong, it was as if we were being watched. The air seemed to grow colder and I pulled up the sides of my blanket to cover me. The recent events were all swimming in my mind. Alecto, the summer solstice deadline, the Fates. What did it all mean? What was happening on Olympus that I didn't know about, and what were the Fates warning me about?
"Percy? Allison?" I heard Sally call through the door, then I heard her open it a second later.
"Oh, I can't believe it." She said after a moment of what I assumed to be her surveying the room. "You've grown so much since Christmas!" She walked across the room, taking a moment to brush some hair out of my face and give my shoulder a slight squeeze. I caught a whiff of her as she walked by, the odor of chocolate, licorice, and other delicious candies still clinging to her. I heard her sit down on the bed, the creak as Percy scooted over to give her a better place to sit. I was still fiddling with one of my bracelets - the old habit has never left me.
Sally I knew could tell I was in one of my quiet, thinking moods just by one look, so she took the opportunity to catch up with Percy in the mean time. I heard a slight ruffling of a bag and Percy exclaim, "Candy!" and I had to smile. He was still such a kid sometimes, but he was after all just twelve. Sally asked him about how we were, how the ride was, etcetera.
The happy reunion moment was broken by Gabe yelling, "Hey, Sally-how 'bout some bean dip, huh?" I rolled over more, clutching the covers to stop myself from getting up and going at him. I was silently getting angrier and angrier at him. Sally was one of the nicest people I have ever met, she didn't deserve to cater to a pig like Gabe, or cater to anyone at all. But that was just the reason why she felt she had to, she was doing it to protect me and Percy. I thought back to all the times I had plotted to make misfortunate things happen to him, smiling slightly at the memories. They were a nice distraction.
Percy picked up the conversation again, noticeably trying to keep it more upbeat, smoothing over some of our stories. Then the museum came up.
"What? " Sally asked. "Did something scare you?" I held my breath in anticipation.
"No, Mom." I knew Percy never liked lying to her, but telling her the truth would just worry her so much more. My thoughts traced back to Grover, how he must be panicking now that we had vanished. Sally and Percy were talking about going to Montauk. I liked going there myself, but the ocean wasn't for me. That was more Percy's speed.
I heard somebody with heavy, loping steps coming down the hallway and into the doorway. I knew what was about to happen.
"Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?" Gabe growled. I turned and glanced over at Percy and Sally for the first time to see Percy visibly trying to restrain himself, at least to the knowing eye. Sally's eyes were warning him not to do anything stupid.
"I was on my way, honey. We were just talking about the trip."
"The trip? You mean you were serious about that thing?" Gabe questioned, eyes narrowed.
"He won't let us go, I knew it." Percy muttered. Sally made an excuse to calm Percy down and negotiated the trip. Gabe wanted an apology from Percy and I for interrupting his poker game. Fat chance in hell. Just by the look on Percy's face I could tell he was having similar thoughts.
"I'm sorry," he finally muttered. "I'm really sorry for interrupting your incredibly important, life altering poker game. Please, go back to it right now." The part about him getting his smelly self out of our faces sadly left unsaid. I turned my head back over and closed my eyes, shutting Gabe out.
"Well?" He promoted. I just stayed there, pretending to not be paying attention. It was better than what I was stopping myself from doing to him.
"Gabe, she's tired. Let her rest." Sally covered. I felt bad for causing her more grief like that but there was no way that man was getting an apology from me, as it was I wanted to turn around and hurl my knife at him.
"The girl is always tired, all she does is take up space and waste money. You should have just left her, Sally, so we wouldn't have to deal with her. One is bad enough." Gabe grumbled and walked off, back to his poker party. I turned sharply and made a grab for my knife but stopped myself at the last moment, tensely unclenching my fingers. It would be so easy just to use it, he didn't yet know how dangerous a daughter of Hades could be when she wanted to be.
I noticed Percy's eyes widen slightly upon seeing the motion. Sally would freak if she saw it, it wouldn't get us very far with Gabe at the moment either. You just perfectly described yourself, you waste. My knuckles were white but I knew Sally didn't share the same thoughts as him. She was the one who took me in when I woke up, I had been left here for a reason. The meeting with the Fates earlier just further reinforced that. Luckily, Sally didn't catch the move, she was looking out the door where Gabe used to be.
"Thank you, Percy." She said. Then she got up and walked over to me. "You and Percy are worth the world to me." She gave me a tight hug and walked to the door. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about.. whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?" There was hidden anxiety to her voice, she knew something was up. She left the room, closing the door softly as she went.
After a moment of silence Percy spoke up, "I bet Gabe couldn't even tell a prune from an M&M." I appreciated the effort, but I decided that I needed to re-pack my bags for the shorter stay at Montauk. I had a feeling that I needed to pack to be ready to move too. A gut instinct that trouble was on its way.
Once I had packed everything I would need as if I were going on a quest in a dark backpack (better for my type of camouflage) an hour had passed. I had spent my time packing picking at the candy Sally brought us and thinking about events. Percy was already packed so we headed out the door.
"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy." Gabe warned from the steps by the screen door. "Not one little scratch." Percy closed the trunk and opened the car door. Gabe walked back toward the building and I saw Percy make the warding off evil gesture Grover used earlier on the bus, accompanied by a shoving motion toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut, launching him miraculously up the staircase inside. Who knew a screen door could launch a man that size so far? I laughed as Percy rushed into the car, quickly closing the door and telling Sally to get us out of there.