All I could remember was the pain. Hot, acidy, searing away at the very fibers of my being. It was more than I could bear. The world was dark, and I felt like I was floating in lava. I couldn't move, couldn't do anything about the pain. Then I heard a voice, faint in the vast darkness. "Jo," it said. "Jo". It sounded concerned. I wondered why. And who had it come from? The voice sounded awfully familiar, and for some reason I wanted very much to call out for it, but I couldn't speak. The voice became louder, but still watery, like it was coming from someone who was screaming underwater. I slowly started to shift around, the pain melting, the voice getting stronger.
"Jo," said the voice. "Jo".
"Wha—wha?" I said, opening my eyes. I lay on the seat of a train car, though the whole car was empty. I groggily sat up and looked around. Outside the windows, the world zoomed past at a speed that made my poisoned self nauseas.
"Jo, thank the gods you're ok," said the voice I had heard in my dream. I looked in the seat in front of me and saw Leo, his curly hair in a tangle and dark circles under his eyes.
"What—what happened?" I asked, rubbing my eyes. Then I winced as I felt a shot of pain in my arm. I looked and saw the upper part of my arm wrapped in a thick bandage.
"We were attacked," said Grover, who sat next to Leo.
"Oh, yeah," I said, remembering.
"You were bitten, and Grover used his nature magic to save your life," Leo said.
Grover's ears turned pink. "It was nothing" then his tone turned more serious. "But I'm still worried about what bit you Jo. Do you realize what that was?"
"It was a two-headed snake, " I said, "but I'm assuming you mean it's relation to mythology—I mean, history". I still had a tough time grasping that all the stories that had been drilled into my head as myths were real, and a part of history.
Grover nodded. "It was the Amphisbaena. A two-headed snake that feeds off the corpses of young heroes. It was originally born from the gorgon, Medusa's, blood when Perseus was riding through the Libyan Desert with her severed head".
My stomach did a flip flop. "Gross".
"But it's only supposed to live in the desert," Grover pondered. "Why was it all the way in New York? What's more is that it usually only feeds on flesh that's already been killed, like a scavenger. It never attacks living heroes like that".
"Ok, that's really gross," I said, clutching my stomach.
"What I want to know," Leo said, "is why we had a monster attack so soon. It usually takes a few days for the monsters to pick up on our scent".
I bit my lip. "Oops".
Leo and Grover looked at me.
"Why did you say oops?" Grover asked. "It's not like it's your fault the monster attacked".
"Actually," I said, "I think it might be. Do you remember how I kept having all these unfortunate events before the attack? That's because of my aura, or something like that".
"So are you're saying your hopelessly unlucky being sent the monster," Leo said.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sort of".
Grover furrowed his eye brows and said, "So, if your aura attracts misfortune, we'll have to deal with things like that the whole way?"
I nodded sheepishly.
Grover and Leo groaned.
"How do you live with life beating you up all the time?" Leo asked.
I chuckled. "You get used to it after a while".
The train ride had, for the most part, a blithe spirit after that. I promoted that. After learning that we'd be having bad Luck following us for the quest, Leo and Grover had seemed to have wet blankets on their dispositions. But I did the best I could to lighten the mood and soon we were all having a normal teenage conversation, laughing and making a general joyous ruckus. Because, when you've been living a life that's always beating you down, you learn to just get right back up again. I mean, what more can you do?