I woke up with a gasp. I was disoriented, and my head hurt. My nose felt like it was about to fall off, and I looked down at my shirt and saw dried blood. I gazed around me. I was in a dark room, with only a spotlight glaring down on me. I shifted in my chair, and I realized my hands were tied behind my back. Where was I?
"Hello?" I called out. My voice echoed off the walls.
"Chica," said a voice I immediately recognized as Leo's. I couldn't move my head to see him, because he was right behind me, in a chair of his own, his own hands bound in rope. We sat back to back, each staring out into one's own darkness.
"Leo," I said, staring ahead. "Where are we?"
"I don't know," he said. "But I don't think we're guests, wherever we are. Where's Grover?"
"I dunno".
We sat in deafening silence for a while. Then I said, "I'm sorry".
"For what?" Leo sounded surprised.
"I don't know," I said. "For playing that prank, for hating gift shops" I looked down at the floor "For convincing you to go on this quest in the first place".
"Jo," Leo said "You didn't convince me to go on this quest. I came along of my own free will".
"But I should have tried to persuade you not to," I said, feeling tears sting my eyes. "I knew it would end badly. Everything ends badly for me" by now the tears were streaking down my cheeks "I should never have let you come and share my fate".
"Jo, what are you talking about?" Leo asked. I felt his fingers brush mine. "What do you mean, things always end badly for you?"
My tears were flowing heavily now, but I managed to speak. All of the sudden I blurted out my whole life story; my birth, my step-mom, my dad and his death, how even my own real mother, Ate, was ashamed of me. I had never told anyone everything before, but it felt good to finally get it out.
Leo listened intently, especially about the part of my dad.
"When I was ten," I said, just barely managing not to choke "my dad died in a car crash".
"I'm so sorry," Leo said in a voice no bigger than a whisper.
I shook my head. "No, you don't understand. My dad, the reason he died, it's my fault".
"Jo, it's not your—"
"Just listen to me". I gulped and took a deep breath. "That day was just like every other day..."
Jo woke up that morning with a smile on her face. She stretched, yawned, and jumped out of bed joyfully. She looked in the mirror. Her wild mane of black hair was a mess, but it was always like that. She didn't care much. The alarm clock on her desk went off, and she slapped it, pulled on a t-shirt and jeans, and raced out of the room and slid down the hand rail, flying down two or three stories and making little sounds like airplanes. Jo was an unusual kid, even for a ten year old, but she didn't care.
When she reached the bottom, she was greeted by the sour face of a pretty blonde. The woman had icy blue eyes and flawless skin. "Jo," Holly Goodrace scolded, "What have I told you about sliding down the hand rail?"
"To not to," Jo said, mimicking the tone of voice Holly had used.
Holly rolled her eyes. Then they moved on to Jo's clothes. "Jo, what are you wearing? And your hair looks like a lion just got caught in a tornado". Holly whipped out a hair brush and, with much protest from the ten-year-old, brushed the rat's nest down so it looked decent. "Now go and change our clothes. No daughter of mine is going to school with a stained t-shirt and beat up jeans".
Jo stuck out her tongue. "You're not my mom! And you're not the boss of me! besides, I like this shirt". It was a souvenir from the Grand Canyon Jo's dad had bought her while they were on vacation, back before Holly.
Holly looked about to say something, but just then, Jo's dad, Aaron Goodrace walked into the room. "Well if it isn't my two favorite girls," he said, a smile spread wide on his face.
"Dad!" Jo said, running over and hugging him. Aaron dropped down to his knees and hugged the girl back.
They broke apart and Jo whispered in her father's ear, "I made something for you".
"Did you now?" he asked.
Jo smiled and reached in her pocket. She pulled out a small bracelet made of yarn and beads. It was misshapen and lumpy, but Aaron picked it up and tied it around his wrist, beaming proudly like it was the greatest piece of art in the world.
"It's for good luck," Jo said.
"Ah, I see," her father ruffled her hair. "And good luck I'll need. For my interview". Aaron Goodrace was supposed to have an interview for a job promotion that day.
Mr. Goodrace gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek, his wife a kiss, and he left.
"I didn't know that that was the last time I was going to see him," I said. "That night, after school, Holly got a phone call saying that he had died in a car crash on the way back from work. He had even gotten the promotion too, but he never got to fulfill it".
"I don't get it," Leo said. "How is it your fault?"
"The bracelet I gave him," I said in a shaky voice. "I never realized until after I was claimed the connection…Leo, that bracelet wasn't a good luck charm. I was a bad Luck charm. It killed him".
Leo sat in stunned silence. Then he said, "Jo, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know—"
"I didn't know, yes, but it killed him nonetheless". I shook my head. "Oh, what's the use? It's not like you'd understand having your parent die because of you anyway".
"Actually," Leo said, "I know exactly what you mean".
I raised my eyebrows.
"When I was eight," Leo said quietly "My mother died".
"Oh," I said in a shameful whisper.
Leo told me the story of his mother, of how she had died from an uncontrolled fire that Leo had caused in a workshop. He told me about Gaea, and how she was the one who had visited him and caused him to lose control. He told me about Tia Callida, who had actually turned out to be Hera, his syco babysitter. But he also told me about the good times with his mom. How she loves him, how she called him mijo, how he always spent his free time with her in her workshop. It was sweet, and I wished his mom was there so that I could have met her. I had never expected a guy to just spill his guts like that, especially Leo, who seemed like the world was his big joke box. For a while we just sat there, ruminating our dead parents, and despite the fact that that we were tied up in a dark room, I would remember that day as one of the best. I guess it was that for years I had had to carry the weight of it, and I just needed to tell it to someone, and it was nice to finally find someone who understood.
When all was said, and silence once more filled the air, I heard something. "Leo, someone's coming". I heard footsteps.
A big door was opened, flooding the dork room with light, and a short, stout figure walked into the room. I recognized it as Sefo. Behind him was Grover, bound in rope at the wrists.
"Grover!" I said in relief. "Where were you?"
"Be quiet Imp!" Sefo roared, a loud and sonorous sound for such a small package. "He was being questioned. Now it is the fiery one's turn". Sefo walked—well, hopped—to Leo and unbound his wrists. While he did so, I caught Leo's gaze, and he winked mischievously at me, making me grit my teeth. Why was he so good at making the mischievous looks? That was my expertise. But when he winked, I understood what he meant.
Sefo growled at Leo, making him back away a step, even though Sefo was half the size of him. I waited one second, two, three…
"NOW!" Leo yelled, and socked Sefo in the nose. Sefo, stunned temporarily, hunched over in agony. When he recovered, I leaned in my chair with all my might, knocking myself over and tripping the skaipod. He lie, unconscious, beside me.
Leo knelt and picked up my chair, untying the rope and helping me up.
"Thanks," I said.
"Don't mention it".
"Hey, I'm still here," came Grover's voice. Leo and I ran over to him at the entrance. I unknotted the rope around his wrists.
"How do we get out of here?" Leo asked.
"I don't know," I said. "Do you remember a way out when you were out there Grover?"
Grover thought hard, then nodded. "Follow me".
We ran out of the room, and what I saw was frightening. We seemed to be underground—I could tell because Grover had said so; he can smell it—and all around me, in the dim flickering lights, were cages. And in those cages were animals of every kind, and more. Everything from dogs and cats to tigers and bears (oh my!) to unicorns and hydras. They all looked sad and underfed, and I was horrified at the sight of it all. I couldn't even help but be sympathetic for the monsters, who looked at me with sad, but hopeful eyes as if to say, I'm so hungry. Are you food?
"Oh my gods," Grover said, choked. "What are they all doing here?"
"Hey guys," Leo said. "Look".
He was pointing to the wal. We looked and, after a few minutes to get my dyslexia out of the way of interpreting it, I read a sign that said, Skaipod's Animal Asylum. We catch them for your zoo, so you don't have to! I couldn't believe it. Was it even legal to hunt monsters for the zoo? I thought not. And they had the nerve to use such a cliché motto! Why, it made me wanna…wanna…
Hey!
I stopped my thoughts.
Hey you!
I looked around. Had I really hard that?
I said, HEY YOU!
I turned a full circle. Where was that voice coming from? It sounded musical, like bells. "Hello?"
Over here, said the voice.
"Jo?" Leo asked. "Who are you talking to?"
"Where?" I asked, ignoring Leo.
Look at the flashing light, dummy, it said at out of the corner of my eye I saw a faint flash, like a fire fly. I whirled around and saw a little light in a little cage. I walked over to it.
"Hello?" I asked.
Would you get me out of here, you monkey-brained muse? The little light chimed. I looked closer and realized it was not a light but a tiny person enveloped in light. She tugged on the toothpick-like bars of her cage with her wee little hands.
"Wow," I said. "What are you?"
What kind of a question is that? she said. Help me, you dodo-headed milk worm!
"Um, ok," I said, taken aback by the little fairy's language. I picked up the cage and snapped off the door. The little creature flew out and around the room merrily, singing with joy. Free at last! Free at last!
"Jo, what did you do?" said Leo, whom I had forgotten all about.
Why she freed me, hapless log-brain, said the little person. She floated down to me, landing on a box at eye level. To whom is the name of the girl I am forever in debt?
"My name is Jo," I said.
The little person laughed a musical giggle. What an odd name.
"Oh yeah," I said. "What your name?"
"Wait," Leo said. "Jo, are you communicating with that thing?"
The girl sniffed sharply, crossing her arms. I am not a thing, thank you very much.
"Can't you understand her?" I asked, ignoring her comment.
Leo shook his head. "All I can hear is bells. What is she anyway?"
"A pixie," Grover piped up. "I didn't think they existed".
Oh, you'll pay for that, goat boy, the pixie said, and I had to hold her two little wings back before she could do anything to Grover.
"So," I said, turning my attention to her, "What's your name?"
The pixie turned to me and said proudly, Taliabingfernolepippernia.
I raised my eyebrows. "Ok, um Taliabing—tal—pippernia—um, I'll just call you Talia".
Talia didn't seem too pleased with that, but didn't object to it much.
"So how come only I can understand you?" I asked.
Talia shrugged. How should I know, Horse Breath?
"Oh," Grover said, realization dawning on his face. "Pixies are creatures of mischief. That's probably why".
"Yeah," I said, catching on. "It's because of my mother Ate—"
Wait, Talia said. Your mom is Ate?
I nodded.
Oh my sparkle covered wings! She said, and knelt down on one knee in the air. Praises be to your mother, princess of mischief. Please, let me serve you.
"Um…" I said. "Sure. We can use all the help we can get".
Talia brightened at this—literally.
"Can we get going?" Leo asked. "We're kind of on a time crunch here".
Talia, as if noticing for the first time that Leo was there, zipped over to him and examined him, inches from his face. Who's this guy? He smells like fire. She laughed. I think I'll call you Twinkle Toes.
"Um, his name is Leo," I said, but couldn't help but laugh. "And he's right, we need to get moving".
As you wish, fellow prankster, Talia said, and we all raced in the direction Grover thought was the exit.