"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
I frowned at the letters Grover read out on the small sign above us.
"Who wants to go in and see Gnomes? They're short and creepy. I don't like them." I pouted.
"Who said there were gonna be Gnomes inside anyway? Also, I just want some rest. Or food." Annabeth retorted, annoyed by my unwillingness to go in.
"Who knows? After that shit with the three fur-I mean, kindly ones on the bus," I replied, quickly changing my wording as Annabeth and Grover glared at me, "I'd rather not go into some suspicious place which has the word 'Gnome' in it, 'cuz at this point I'm not sure if I can say with confidence that Gnomes don't exist."
Annabeth and Grover were silently looking at me, before Annabeth's stomach growled. "But…"
"Okay, fine! We're going in there, getting food and immediately getting out. I don't want to see any goddamn Gnomes," I spat, and though I may have sounded harsher than I meant to, my two companions seemed to not care as they immediately settled for a mad dash into the place. "Oh, fuck off." I sigh, as I followed them into the Emporium. My guts told me something was very, very off.
"Okay…what is this?" Was my first thought as I entered. The place was filled (and I meant filled) with statues of all shapes and sizes. I saw a hoplite, a legionnaire, a satyr that looked eerily like Grover, and some more random people dressed in clothes or armor. What the hell was going on? I didn't know.
All statues had something in common though-terror etched on their faces. I didn't know if the person who sculpted them specialized in this or what-but it was very, very creepy. My instincts screamed at me to leave the place-I screamed back that I needed to find Annabeth and Grover before we left.
I found them soon enough, rummaging through a dust-covered fridge that surprisingly still functioned. Most of the stuff inside was expired, but there were heaps of stuff in there. Some even had mold on them. I guess the place was abandoned quite some time ago, and I let my guard down just for a bit-until a voice piped up behind us.
"My, my! Three children searching through my fridge- that's not very polite, is it!" A sweet sounding middle aged female spoke behind us. I whirled around to see…a middle aged female with her head covered in a shawl. She looked like one of those so-called "hippies" who would see your future through a crystal ball.
But it wasn't her appearance that made me feel a bit weird. Her aura felt wrong, and I think Grover felt it too. It felt like Mrs. Dodds all over again, but this time I had two companions at my side who knew what we were dealing with.
"Grover," I whispered, "come with me." He nodded, puzzled, as I left Annabeth alone to talk with 'aunty em'. Once we were out of earshot, I urgently whispered, "do you feel anything off? Auras, scents, anything?" He shook his head.
This was odd.
Only when I motioned him to go back over to Annabeth's side, did I realize his eyes seemed to be glazed over. Like some sort of enchantment had befallen them.
"Oh, my dear, would you like something to eat?" Aunty Em's overly sweet voice almost made me jump out of my skin as I whirled around to face her. "Uh…no thank you," I said, before I hastily added, "Aunty Em." She smiled, and her smile was unnaturally wide. It sent shivers down my spine looking at it. Her eyes were also…weirdly off. They were yellowish-green, with slits as pupils.
"Seen something you like, dear?" Aunty Em smiled (it looked more like a snarl) as she casually pushed a strand of green hair back-at least, I thought it was hair. My heightened demigod senses and ADHD made me focus on her movement, and when I realized it was moving in it's own and had little yellow eyes and a forked tongue sticking out of a slit, I realized it was a snake.
She had snakes for hair.
This confirmed, beyond a doubt, she was a monster. But which monster had snakes for hair, liked making statues, and had the letters 'em' in their name?
That's when it hit me.
I backed away in fright, eyes wide. "M-Medusa."
Aunty Em-no, Medusa-simply sighed.
"And I was hoping for some time to chat with you three youngsters before I petrified you. I guess I'll have to move that plan forward a bit…" she moved her hand to her shawl, and I instinctively shrunk back in fear. Her hand was about to tug off her shawl, before she stopped.
"Actually…would you mind to chat? I've been kind of bored lately, and…I'd like to catch up on the latest gossip before I get sent to reform in Tartarus again."
-line break
"Why did you do that?" Annabeth yelled at me, an alien fury present in her voice. "Medusa is a monster! She should deserve to die, after turning all those-all those people, into fucking statues! Not get a new place to live and sip tea with your fucking stepfather!"
"She was miserable, okay? She was turned into the monster she is by a petty rivalry amongst gods! It's my decision to let her go free!" I yelled back. "It's not like we haven't suffered like her anyway, have we?"
Annabeth went silent, anger still visibly present on her face. She was just about to yell at me again, when Grover finally spoke up. "Guys, come on, stop it! It's not like we're gonna achieve anything by yelling at each other, let's just get this over with quickly! The sooner we get this done with, the better."
Annabeth then decided to wheel on him, her rage palpable. "The sooner we're done? We ain't done anytime soon!" She yelled at a frightened Grover. "You were the reason! You were the fucking reason our Family got split, and you're talking about us being done? How dare you little-"
"ANNABETH!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, "CUT IT OUT! THAILA WAS HADES' FAULT, NOT YOURS! NOT GROVER'S! NOT LUKE'S!" She stared at me, stunned at my outburst. "Besides, why are you bringing up Thaila now, out of all the things we could have talked about? I know she's your friend, and believe me when I say this, but she is my cousin for god's sake. I want to bring her back more than anyone, and I know she is undeserving the fate that befell her. If there's a way, I promise to help you bring her back."
Annabeth seemed stunned and defeated at these words, but she still forced a small smile onto her face. "You're Right…Sorry Percy. It's my fault, bringing up Thaila and blaming it on Grover. I'm so sorry." She apologized to both of us, and while Grover was hesitant to approach, I quickly closed the distance and hugged her shaking form. "It's alright…I know you're mad, I know you have a lot of pent-up frustration. I do too, but let's let those loose on whoever made us go on this quest, not each other, alright?"
Annabeth nodded as she cried into my shoulder.
-line break
"Come on! The Arch is a literal architectural marvel! I probably can't get another chance at seeing it-please, can we go see it? Just this once?" Annabeth pleaded at me and Grover, and though we were equally uninterested, Annabeth's pleading eyes got me in a soft spot.
"Fine…Just this once. And you're doing my chores back at camp for a week." Annabeth's eyes narrowed, before she nodded. Guess she wasn't passing up the chance to see the arch, even if it meant more hard labour for her. She quickly pocketed some money and ran to the ticket booth, swiftly returning with three tickets-and even more cash?
"I stole some." Annabeth said nonchalantly, and I could only nod at her, wondering where she learned those skills. Luke didn't seem like a pickpocket…but again, he was a son of Hermes. Annabeth could have picked up a trick or two from him.
(Following part is probably inaccurate- I am not an American, nor am I willing to go on Google to get the following stuff correct. Suck on that.)
The St. Louis arch towered over the Hudson, spanning across the entire width of the river. Annabeth was spewing architectural facts all the way up, and though I wasn't really happy about her fangirl behaviour-it attracted stares, which was definitely a bad thing. The view at the top of the arch paid off though, and I was taken away by the stunning skyline of (I forgot which city this was. Seattle? Atlanta? New York? I'm not American, nor do I wish to memorize every single American landmark in existence). Towering skyscrapers gave way to shorter buildings in the distance, and though it was nowhere like the sea, the view was still magnificent-to think mortals built all of this in years was quite fascinating.
As I looked down, the Hudson waters shimmered beneath us, reflecting sunlight off the waters of the river. It wasn't the normal sea-green colour of water I expected, but it was still beautiful enough to make me mesmerized within.
A small bark caught my attention. Not far away was a plump woman and a small chihuahua. The woman looked hideous-her makeup too overdone, her dress too bright and obnoxious. The chihuahua wasn't any better, it's fur bunched up in some areas and drooling all over the place.
The pair made me very uncomfortable, and I suddenly wanted to get out of here. "Hey Annabeth, when-ow!" I yelped mid-sentence as a sharp pain pierced my leg. I looked down in annoyance as I saw the Chihuahua yapping at my get, desperate for another bite. Luckily, the first bite wasn't bad-just a few minor yet crude punctuations- but the wound itself had begun to smart painfully. "Percy, you good?" Annabeth asked, concern filling her eyes as she helped me steady myself. "Yeah, I'm good…but isn't it time to go? We're gonna miss the train if we don't."
She glanced at a digital clock nearby, and her eyes widened. "Oh shit! Uh…we're actually running late. Quickly!" She said, as she pulled me and Grover towards the elevator-not that we weren't both hurrying towards it already.
But as we reached the elevator and attempted to cram ourselves in, I realized one thing-there wasn't enough room to fit all three of us.
I made a decision.
Shoving Annabeth and Grover in, I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it.
"Percy, what the hell are you doing?"
"Saving your asses first."
"Persia Amphitrite Jackson, don't you dare! Wait NO-"
I could only smile sadly at them as the elevator door slid shut. Through the glass doors of the elevator, I watched as the people packed in the elevator looked uncomfortably at Annabeth's wailing form while Grover chewed on a tin can. As I watched the elevator begin its descent, my gut twisted uncomfortably, and I turned to face the fat woman and chihuahua behind me.
Only to back into the elevator door as the chimera stared at me with it's beady little eyes, while a half-reptile lump of a woman (who I assumed to be the chunky woman from before) stood laughing behind it.
After a few uncomfortable seconds of hair-raising laughter, the woman stepped forwards and looked at me, a forked tongue protruding from between her lips.
"Persia Jackson. How nice to have finally met in person. It's unfortunate that I must eradicate you, sea spawn."
A/N: Finally, I'm back alive and posting after almost a month of inactivity.
Sadly, this story is no longer my priority, but I'll keep updating this hopefully once a month.
As usual, you can contact me via Reddit, or discord. Or leave comments down below, either way is fine.
FFN: Le-idiot
Reddit- user/Fat_corona_cat/
Discord- Fat corona cat #4269