Chapter Seven
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan. I do own all of the OCs, exceot for Walker. He belongs to Star Holder Commander.
Adrienne's POV
"Gods, are we there yet?"
"No, Jade. We still have twenty minutes before we get to Hartford." Tristan says, grinding his teeth.
This had been going on since we left New Haven. We were all getting pretty fed up with her asking. I understood being bored in the car, but gods, even I didn't complain this much.
James reaches over and turns up the music, muting out pretty much everything. For once, I didn't mind having the music blaring in my ears. Whatever would block out Jade's voice was fine with me.
I lean my head back against the head rest and close my eyes. I wondered how long it was going to take us to get to mom and dad. What kind of person just snatches up two adults and a six year old? I have to remind myself that the person we were dealing with, wasn't exactly mortal, so to speak. This was Osiris, part mortal, and part empousa. Who knew just what went on in his head.
I hadn't even realized I had dozed off until I was being shaken awake. "Adds, come on, wake up!"
I open my eyes to see Jade looking at me. We were stopped at a 7-Eleven, probably in Hartford. Tristan was beside the car, filling it up, and James wasn't in the car, so it was safe to assume he was inside the convenience store.
"Let's go inside and get something to drink, I'm parched,"
"Okay," I yawn, unbuckling my seat belt and opening the door. We slide out and start heading inside.
As soon as we stepped through the door, I knew something was wrong. I could feel it in the air. James was no where in sight, in the bathroom probably - or at least, I hoped he was.
Jade speeds to the back where the drinks were before I could stop her. I glance around to see if anyone else was in here with us. The only other person was the man behind the counter.
He was balding, and slightly overweight. There were stains all over his shirt, and I could smell something awful resonating off of him. He glances over at me and smirks, his teeth showing for a half second.
I had to hold myself back from running out screaming. His teeth were all sharpened into needle-like points. I quickly make my way towards the back where Jade was still picking out a drink.
"Jade," I whisper.
"Okay, I've got it narrowed down to these two energy drinks. One is green apple and the other is red raspberry and pomegranate. Which do you think?"
"Jade, we have to get out of here,"
"What? Why?"
"The guy behind the counter, I don't think he's mortal,"
"What makes you say that? Did he offer to show you his sharp pointy teeth?" she snorts.
I glance behind us and pale. "Jade,"
"What?"
"Turn around,"
She does, and then drops the two drinks she was holding. They crash to the ground and roll under one of the end caps on the snack-food isle. Standing before us was the man from behind the counter. Except he wasn't exactly a man. More like a cat-man hybrid.
His lips were drawn back, revealing all of those pointy teeth, and his gums were black. His sleeves were pushed up, showing that his arms were covered in thick, brown and white fur. His eyes were an unnatural green color. His nails elongate into curled, black claws.
Jade and I back up slowly, until we're pressed against the drink coolers. The cat-man advances slowly, not making a sound.
"Now, now. Looks like I have myself a couple of new play toys," he purrs, licking his lips.
"No, you don't," I say, trying to sound brave.
He chuckles and advances. "Brave little soldier, you think you can defeat me? Do you know who created me?"
"I'm going to guess you're a child of the Sphinx and some fat guy?" Jade says, smirking. I elbow her in the ribs.
He growls. "No, you foolish child. Lord Osiris."
"He's going by 'Lord' now? How narcissistic is this guy?"
He begins to reach out to throttle Jade, his black claws looking incredibly sharp. I quickly draw out one of my throwing stars and toss it towards his eye. It slashes across his cornea and he reels back, screaming and gripping his bleeding eye.
I run forward and jump on his back. "Jade! Stab him!" I scream.
She runs her hand over where her sword would be, and the air shimmers and her sheath appears. I guess it was pretty cool being a decedent of Iris, you could manipulate light rays and hide objects if you so desired. She fumbles with the clasp holding her sword in the hidden sheath. I wished she would hurry up, I was loosing my grip on this thing.
"For the love of the Gods, hurry up Jade!"
"I'm trying! It's stuck!"
Out of nowhere, the bell above the door rings. "You guys okay? I heard screaming and—oh." It was Tristan. He runs over, unsheathing his double-edged, Imperial gold sword.
I jump off of the creature's back just in time. If I hadn't, my leg might have been impaled or cut off by the sword. I land over by the candy isle. I had partially jumped, but I was mostly thrown off.
The thing screams and falls to the ground, and Tristan starts hacking away at it. A thick brown liquid splatters everywhere, I assume that's its blood. After a few seconds, it stops moving. Tristan comes back up, breathing heavily. He wipes the brown stuff off of his sword and onto the thing's pants, and then sheaths it again.
He turns around and looks at me. "You okay?"
I nod. "Yea,"
"Hey, do you guys think we could get some supplies here?" Jade asks, holding onto her two drinks and browsing the isles.
"I guess, but we should still pay for anything we get, we're not descendants of Hermes,"
"Oh come on, we're related to him!"
"Not necessarily. Gods don't have DNA, remember?"
"Pleeease, Tristan? We don't have much cash, and we just killed the shop owner. Just take out the security cameras and destroy the footage they recorded,"
Tristan gives her a hard look, then sighs. "Fine. Adrienne, help me smash the cameras and find the footage. Jade, go grab a bag and get whatever. And if we're doing this, go ahead and raid the cash register. Might as well."
Jade grins and runs to the front of the store to grab a shopping bag. I follow Tristan around the small store and smash the two cameras. Their red lights were on before we smashed them, so that told us that they had actually been on through the whole battle.
We head to the back where the bathrooms and the employee break room was. We stop short when the bathroom door knob starts to wiggle.
Tristan draws his sword and I take out two of my throwing stars. The door opens, to reveal James. He jumps upon seeing us ready to attack.
"Hades, don't do that. Are you two trying to give me heart attack?"
"Where the hell were you?!" Tristan asks, shoving his sword back into its sheath.
"Uh, bathroom?"
Tristan closes his eyes and shakes his head. "Come on, help us find the security footage,"
"Why?"
"We have to destroy it,"
"Did I miss something while I was in there? I was only gone for a couple of minutes,"
"The cashier was a monster, he cornered Jade and I, I slashed one of his eyes and jumped on his back, Tristan came in and basically hacked it to pieces. The whole time the cameras were recording us. So I think you can guess why we need to destroy the evidence," I say.
"Uh, wow. Yea, come on. Before I went to the bathroom, I snooped around the break room. There's another room that's locked. I'd say that's where the footage is,"
"Lead the way."
A/N:
Bit of a long chapter, I bet you guys love me for it. Oh, the blood that the cat-man was spewing wasn't like, dirt brown. Y'know how when you mix green and red and you get that ugly brownish color? That's about the color that it was.
As I was writing this chapter, and it got to the part where Jade was fumbling with her sheath's clasp, I was trying to figure out how you'd conceal a sword when you're most likely wearing shorts or something like that and no coat or anything to cover it up. So I got creative and thought, 'Well, she is a daughter of Iris, why not play with that a little?' And viola, the power of bending light rays was invented!
Ung, so on Wednesday I have to leave my house at about 5:30 to catch a 6:30 flight to Texas. I'm not incredibly psyched about that. I might as well not sleep. I'm just really not looking forward to this trip. I never really do look forward to my trips to Texas. I mean, yes, I get to see my mom's family and that's great, but if my dad is coming - which is pretty much every time - it's an obligation that we must go down to fucking Houston and see my half-siblings. I know, I know, I've talked about this a million times and you guys are probably pretty damn sick of reading about it.
But I think I finally figured out why I hate it so much. I mean, besides the obvious that I highly dislike the oldest sister and her creepy husband and their kids. But, the other sister's oldest son is a fucking genius. Literally, I'm not kidding. He's just a few months older than me and he's been taking college classes for two fucking years. He's either already graduated high school or he's about to, and it'll be two years early. He should be finishing college by the time he's 19 or 20, I can't remember when exactly.
But anyway, it's not like his mom brags about it, but I can't help but feel like an idiot when I'm around him. I mean, he's my favorite of the distant nieces and nephews, he's really easy to get along with, but still.
And the oldest sister intentionally makes you feel like an idiot. She does it to my mom all the time, and she's starting to do it to me too. It'll just be a little remark, or correcting you when you're in the middle of telling a story or something. It's so damn infuriating and makes me want to scream my lungs out.
Then the brother's just kinda sorta rich and any time we go to he and his wife's house, I feel like I'm in a goddamn mansion and I'm the smallest particle of dust on the planet.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I hate going down there because they make me feel so fucking worthless and it's just really awful.
So yea, there's that. And by next Monday when I hopefully update again, the trip will be almost over.
I just need a lot of good vibes.
M/A:
"'But there's one thing, and overtone of rain.
Pick me up and out of me,
Soon as I can see the rain.
Out the door into the trees, I can hear my thoughts again.
Half across the world and back nostalgia's come to take a hit.
I say hit me till I'm lit, with a light that takes my mind back home'"
Rain by Emily's Army.
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25
