Chapter 19!

Grover, Leo, and I stood on the streets of Manhattan, the Empire State Building in view. I looked at all the people on the streets, walking, running, even dancing, to work or school or their favorite coffee shop, completely unaware of the havoc that was going on with the Luck in their lives.

"So which way is the Mojave Desert?" I asked.

Grover looked up at the sky, then sniffed the air, then looked amongst the crowd of New York people nervously, but didn't say anything.

"Come on," Leo said. "The train station's this way".

As we walked through the streets, I started to notice something weird.

I was walking alongside Leo and Grover, when some guy ran into me and spilled his coffee all over my shirt.

"Ahh!" I said. The man kept running, as if nothing had just happened. I looked at his retreating figure, then increducely at Leo and Grover.

"That was rude," Grover said.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said, taking the towel offered by Leo, who had somehow grabbed it out of the small pocket of his tool belt. Probably magic.

After a while, just when the coffee had dried from my t-shirt, a car drove by, splashing muddy water all over me. Somehow Leo and Grover had managed to avoid it.

I groaned and took another towel from Leo, wiping my face first.

"Your t-shirt just can't take a break today, can it?" Leo said, laughing.

I grumped and continued to wipe my face. Then I got an idea. I smiled and said, "You think that's' funny, huh? You know what else is funny?"

Leo gave me a confused look.

"It's funny how much I love my friends!" I tackled Leo in a hug, covering him in mud. Leo yelped, trying to pull away, but by the time he did, he was just as dirty as me and laughing harder. Grover stood half laughing, half bleating, nearly knocking his fake feet off.

"Come on Goat Boy," Leo said. "Join the group hug".

Grover shook his head, but couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

Leo and I looked at each other, nodded, and tackled Grover as well, and soon we were all filthy, but laughing even more hysterically than ever.

I calmed down enough to say, "There's the train station. I'll go get tickets".

I walked up to the line for the ticket booth and waited. And waited. And waited. "What is the hold up here?" I mumbled.

"I'm sssorry, did you say something to usss?" asked the person in front of me. She turned around and looked me in the eye.

"Oh, no mam," I said. "I was just wondering why this line was moving so slow".

"It's only been five minutes," she said. Her eyes narrowed. "Are you ADHD?"

"Um…maybe just a little," I admitted, even though I was in fact very ADHD. Those five minutes had seemed like five hours. It was then in my mind that I realized something. "Wait, did you say us?"

"Yesss," the woman said. "Me and my twin sssister". She stepped aside to reveal another woman of exact features. I mean, these two women looked even more like each other than the Stoll brothers. Scary. They both had the same ruby-red hair, same topaz eyes, same almost serpent-like figure, same long slender hands with long, well manicured nails. They even dressed in identical cherry red suits. "I'm Sssilvia, and this is Viola".

"Nice to meet you," I said. "I'm Jo".

"Jo, what an interesssting name," Viola said. The twin sisters even shared the same lisp. "I've never heard of a girl with that name before".

I shrugged.

"Ssso where are you headed, Imp?" Silvia asked.

"Imp?"

"Impatient one," Silvia corrected herself.

"Umm…" Something was not right here.

"Money please," said a voice. I looked ahead of me and saw that I was at the front of the line. The ticket salesman sat behind a glass window with a bored expression.

I pushed past Silvia and Viola and said, "Three tickets to LA please" frantically stuffing the money in the hole in the window. I snatched up the tickets and hurried away from the creepy twins. I had just thought I lost them when I felt a vise-like hand grip my shoulder. I turned and saw the twins, smiling in a not-so friendly way. They smiled, flicking their forked tongues. Wait, forked?!

"My dear young lady," they said in unison. "Were you never told it isss rude to cut in line?" then they began to change. Their legs morphed together, until they were attached together, like a crude joke of Siamese twins. Their arms disappeared. Their skin began to take on a greenish color, forming scales. Finally they blinked their eyes, which now had the split pupils of a serpent.

Yes, Silvia and Viola had turned into a two headed snake, with one head at each end. Silvia, who I could only distinguish from Viola because she had slightly more vicious eyes, shot out, and I ducked, missing her fangs by an inch.

I unsheathed my dagger, but I didn't really know how it could be very useful against the viper. Such a small weapon didn't give me much length to strike without getting too close to the monster.

Mortals screamed and fled, not really helping the situation. Viola struck, but this time I stabbed with my blade. Viola screamed in agony. Blood that steamed with acid dripped onto the sidewalk.

Suddenly I heard a flute-like sound, and Grover and Leo were beside me.

"Geez Imp," Leo said. "Can we leave you for one minute without you getting into trouble?"

Viola and Silvia hissed and shot out at Leo. Fortunately Leo ducked, and Silvia's fangs sank into the concrete, taking a huge chunk out. She spit it out and roared in rage.

"You may have some friends," she said, "But you still can't run away from your fate".

"Please," I said. "Running away from fate is my favorite thing to do!" filled with newfound strength, I did something only an impulsive ADHD kid would do. I charged the two-headed snake. I stabbed with my dagger, Ataxies, and Silvia screamed as she was hit. What I did was brave, but I wasn't prepared for what happened next. Viola, whom I didn't even notice was behind me, sank her fangs into my arm, just above the elbow. I yowled in pain and fell to the ground, clutching my bleeding wound.

"JO!" I heard Leo shout, but his voice sounded watery. My vision blurred, and I couldn't hear anything but the roar of blood. Breathing became harder, my limbs lost all feeling, except for the snake bite. That hurt more than anything. It burned and ached and throbbed, making it almost impossible to think about anything else.

I managed to open my eyes, and I saw Grover knelt over me. He was inspecting the snake bite.

"Jo," he said when he noticed I was still conscious. "Just keep your eyes open. I'll try and put a nature blessing on you to delay the poison from spreading further".

"The snake," I rasped. "What about—" suddenly I heard a shout, and I tilted my head to see Leo fighting the two-headed snake with a sledge hammer. He dodged and smashed, but he obviously couldn't win. A hammer wasn't enough to kill it. He would get tired soon.

Then something really weird happened. Leo dropped his hammer, but it was purposefully, like he thought he could fight the snake with his bare hands. Then, before my eyes, his hand caught fire. He reached in his tool belt and retrieved a flask of oil. He threw it at Silvia and Viola and it shattered all over them. Then he shot a stream of white hot flames at them, and they writhed in pain. I watched in amazed shock as they shriveled and turned to ash.

Leo came rushing over, extinguishing the fire with a mere flick of a wrist. "Jo, are you all right?"

I wanted to say, "No, not particularly, after being bitten by a two-headed poisonous snake" but the poison, or perhaps the shock of what had just happened, hindered my ability to speak.

Suddenly I heard a train whistle, and Grover said, "We need to get on the train. We'll figure out what to do from there".

"Ok," Leo picked me up, for the poison had paralyzed me, and carried me to the train, where he set me down in a seat. Thankfully the train car was empty, what with the mortals all leaving from the havoc. I lay down on the seat, shivering and just barely breathing, feeling like I was about to die.