Chapter Thirty-Five

Percy

"Excuse me." Annabeth's tone borders on a snarl and her nails dig into the hard linoleum of Aunty Em's table. The older woman doesn't seem to care, but instead lets out a harsh little titter of a laugh that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

"You have your mother's eyes, my dear." It seems like such an innocent statement, but something about the way she says it twists my stomach into painful knots. Annabeth looks like she's either going to burst into flames or throw up any second.

"How did you know my mother?" She hisses; all attempts at decorum thrown out the window. I try to kick her under the table, but only manage to smash my toe into the center pole. I'm not going to lie, that hurt, a lot, and I pull my foot back and remind myself to never try that again.

"Oh my dear, the world is not as big as you think it is." Aunty Em tilts her head, and her veil ripples slightly. The back of my neck tingles and a chill arcs down my spine. Suddenly inhaling that burger doesn't seem like such a good idea.

"Okay, can we pause for a moment here…um… what is going on?"I butt in, but no one responds. Annabeth is still heatedly glaring at Aunty Em, so apparently she's out of the running. Aunty Em's shoulders are more relaxed, and her hands are still calmly folded on the table. Either way, her face is still angling towards Annabeth directly, and she didn't adjust even a millimeter when I spoke. This is awkward.

"Excuse me; can someone explain what's happening here? Annabeth, I get that you're pissed, I know family is sort of a-" I start, but Annabeth growls, freaking growls, and continues her intense stare down with Aunty Em. "Okay, um….so… Mrs. Aunty Em… Mrs. James?" My voice squeaks slightly, which I'm sure sounds wicked intimidating and assertive.

"Yes, handsome?" Okay that's creepy; really, really creepy. This woman knew my father, she could be my mother. Yup, I'm going to have nightmares about this for a very long time. I lock eyes with Grover across the table, and he frantically shakes his head at me. He's positively shredding his Styrofoam cup now, and it wouldn't surprise me if he burst up from the table and ran away screaming at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, his hands still and he forces his shoulders to relax. He looks up at Aunty Em and Annabeth and clears his throat.

"Excuse me, could I ask a question?" Grover steps in and Annabeth finally breaks her gaze off of Aunty Em's veil and glares at him. He clears his throat and the poor guy seems to be fidgeting without even realizing he is. Aunty Em's head bobs in a way that could be perceived as a nod so Grover takes a shot in the dark and tries it. "There's a statue out on your lawn that looks a lot like Percy, was it made after his father?" Aunty Em seems to relax a little more, and turns to look at me.

"Oh yes, almost all of the men I've sculpted were modeled after your father, he was quite fit you know." Well, I'm going to throw up. Apparently, it's obvious on my face, because Aunty Em titters again, which doesn't help. I saw a few very buff men out on that lawn, yup; this is going to require extensive amounts of therapy to recover from.

"But, what happened?" Annabeth cuts in; her nails still digging into the table and her voice sharper than a needle.

"She happened. I was younger than your mother by two years, and for some reason she thought that meant I should kneel down and kiss her feet whenever she walked by." Aunty Em's hatred rears its ugly head and takes no prisoners.

"My mother wouldn't-" Annabeth starts to protest ferociously, but Aunty Em cuts her off.

"I knew your mother for sixteen years, how many years did you know her for?" Annabeth stares down at the table, not meeting anyone's eyes. Grover reaches out and puts his hand on top of hers. She looks up at him and blinks blankly for a second before she seems to check back in.

"I thought she was my friend, and I looked up to her, but she never cared about what happened to me." Bitterness drips off of every word, and the malice radiating from Aunty Em is unmistakable."She treated me like a disposable part to a machine she didn't really care about. If she needed me she'd call for me, but otherwise, I meant nothing to her."

Aunty Em pauses, and she must be shaking her head, because her veil sways back and forth. "Most of the people in this horrid town didn't even know I existed, and if they did, they didn't care about me in the slightest." She pauses and her fingers curl up to dig into her skin.

"Your father was different, very different. You see, he was noticeable; his father was a CEO of some big company, and they moved here to scope out the area. We met one day, when I was with your mother, Athena," She said the name as if it was the worst cuss she had ever heard, "had decided to let me tag along with her and her friends, as if it was some great honor. She didn't like Perseus very much, he didn't care for her either though, and it was perfect. We were in love, and that witch had no control of me anymore."

I could picture it, the pretty girl from the picture walking around with my father, cruelly smirking at a woman who looked just like Annabeth, and finally feeling happy.

"He was just as popular, just as powerful as she was, maybe even more so, and I felt invincible." Em's glee reeks of revenge, and she pauses, her voice wavering, "But she couldn't handle me being happy, no she had to get involved. God forbid someone else mattered in her world!" She laughs harshly. "I was on a date! We went to the same diner she and her friends liked to go to, and we got seated at their favorite table. Perseus and I didn't care, why should we? It was a table!" Aunty Em bursts out of her seat, and starts pacing angrily, weaving around us like some crazed hyena. "So she went outside, and went to where my car was parked, and she painted these horrible things on my windshield. She found this awful picture, I don't know how she faked it, but she had to have made it up! He was never unfaithful to me, never!" Annabeth looks at me, her eyes wide with fear; and Grover whimpers a little under his breath when Aunty Em pauses in front of a statue of a witch, hunched over and sneering.

"You know, this was supposed to be your mother." She laughs harshly and shoves the heavy stone; it smashes and crumbles on the hard cement floor. Annabeth flinches and jerks away from our apparently insane host. She's not done yet though.

"I thought that was the end of it, but of course it wasn't, your mother was crafty -most snakes are- she went into my car and frayed the wire that connected the brakes. I got to a deserted road, before they gave out." I gasp, staring at Aunty Em with fear. "I hit an electrical pole, and got injected with more sparks than a bolt of lightning."

My stomach twists imagining the hell this woman went through and Grover whimpers again, louder this time. Annabeth just sits there, shaking her head frantically, but doesn't say a word. "Most of me healed fine, but the burns… they couldn't repair the burns, and our insurance wouldn't cover plastic surgery." She steps back towards our table, and stops right in front of us.

"I expected sympathy, I expected regret but do you know what that wicked woman, Athena, did?" Annabeth shakes her head, her hands trembling and her eyes watering with fear. Aunty Em shrieks, with cruel cackles of pure joy, malicious joy.

"She laughed! She laughed, and told me to "wear a paper bag over my face." Her veil ripples one last time, and bile rises up in the back of my throat. "What do you think, Annabeth?" She shrieks, and yanks at the silky fabric.

A/N: Thanks goes out to me Beta, HopelessDove, for responding crazy quickly. Sorry I was so late, and for the cliff hanger. The next one will be up soon!