Chapter 16

We Take a Zebra to Vegas

The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew it was a trap," I said.

Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet the crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."

I shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."

Anthony and Gretel caught their breath.

Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

I said, "You're kidding."

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue neon backpack off his hand bars and tossed it to me.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a punch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

I said, "I don't want your lousy—"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Gretel interrupted, giving me her best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."

I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers—every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.

I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares night hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.

Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.

I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.

"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, little girl. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Perci Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.

Anthony said, "That was not smart, Perci."

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."

"Hey, guys," Gretel said. "I hate to interrupt, but…"

She pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Gretel said, "we need to hurry."

I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver.

We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.

The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

"This is kindness?" Gretel yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

She probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with her vine whip, and I would've helped her, but just then the truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.

We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feel sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Gretel talked to the animals, but they just stared at her sadly. Anthony was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.

I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.

Gretel calmed the antelope down, while Anthony used his knife to cut the balloon off his horn. He wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Gretel to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for the night.

Gretel curled up on a turnip sack; Anthony opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly, I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time.

On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods.

"Hey," Anthony said. "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Perci."

"That's okay."

"It's just…" He shuddered. "Spiders."

"Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"

Anthony nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."

"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Gretel did the fancy flying."

I thought she was asleep, but she mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"

Anthony and I laughed.

He pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "You know, it's rare for a daughter of Poseidon to have to power to control water. Mostly his sons do. Do you know what that blue hair streak of yours is?"

I brushed it and examined it. "My birthmark."

"Exactly. It's the birthmark of a daughter of Poseidon, it means you're special, and your father believes you can do great things. No to mention you're actually...the only daughter of Poseidon ever since ancient times."

I smiled when he said that, and I couldn't help but blush as no one has ever said anything like that about me, and now it was Gretel's turn to giggle.

Anthony was silent for a minute until he said, "in the Iris message...did Luke really say nothing?"

I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Gretel wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."

In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions. I could tell they thought it was time for me to learn the truth.

"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." Gretel's voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along.

"You were the keeper who tried to rescue Thalia, the Daughter of Zeus."

She nodded glumly.

"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp…" I looked at Anthony. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"

He put down his Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Perci, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were...amazing monster fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Gretel found us."

"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," she said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Anthony by themselves. I thought...I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. I wasn't exactly a pro at fighting back then before today, but if I'd just been a little quicker…"

"Stop it," Anthony said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."

"She sacrificed herself to save us," she said miserably. "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."

"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" I said. "That's not fair."

"Perci's right," Anthony said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Gretel. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."

Gretel kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest nymph ever, and I find the two most powerful demigoddesses of the century, Thalia and Perci."

"You're not lame," Anthony insisted. "You've got more courage than any nymph I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Perci is really glad you're here right now."

He kicked me in the shin.

"Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Gretel. You've got the biggest heart of any nymph ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the first nymph to find Pan."

I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Gretel to say something, but her breathing only got heavier. I realized she'd fallen asleep, and I knew she never snores in her sleep.

"How does she do that?" I marveled.

"I don't know," Anthony said. "But that was really a nice thing you told her."

"I meant it."

We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully.

Anthony rubbed his necklace like he was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.

"That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from you first year?"

He looked. He hadn't realized what he was doing.

"Yeah," he said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a tuxedo—now that was a weird summer…"

"And the college ring is your father's?"

"That's none of your—" he stopped himself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"You don't have to tell me."

"No...it's okay." He took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her….That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Yeah, well...the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."

"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"

He wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn't give up," I told him. "You should write him a letter or something."

"Thanks for the advice," he said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."

We passed another few miles of silence.

"So if the gods fight," I said, "Will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

He put his head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed his eyes. "I didn't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

I couldn't think of an answer for that. Fortunately I didn't have to. Anthony was asleep.

I had trouble following his example, with the albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes.

My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Perci. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.

Then the dream strayed from the usual.

I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy blue eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, Daughter of Zeus.

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here.

She's right, my dream-self thought. I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.

The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.

Perci Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see.

I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.

And she suspects nothing? It asked.

Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder. Nothing, my lord. She is as ignorant as the rest.

I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.

Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.

Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are well-named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly—

You? The monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.

But, my lord—

Peace, little servant. Our six months have brought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands...but wait. She is here.

What? The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. You summoned her, my lord?

No. The full force of the monster's attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast her father's blood—he is too changeable, too unpredictable. The girl brought herself hither.

Impossible! The servant cried.

For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled. Then it's cold power turned back on me. So...you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.

The scene changed.

I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.

I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realize that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.

The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!

I woke with a start.

Gretel was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," she said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Anthony hissed.

He had it easy. He just put on his magic cap and disappeared. Gretel and I had to dive behind feek sacks and hoped we looked like turnips.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" One of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" He asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

The lion roared in indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.

Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Gretel tensed. For a peace-loving nature spirit, she looked downright murderous.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wide-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say: Free me, my lady. Please.

I was too stunned to react.

There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.

The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What's ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Knock, knock, knock.

Outside, Eddie yelled, "What bagging?"

Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Anthony appeared next to me. He must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. He said, "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Gretel said. She paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind, making me rub the side of my head.

"We've gotta free them!" Gretel said. She and Anthony both looked at me, waiting for my lead, but then they noticed that I was rubbing my head. "You okay, Perci?"

"Yeah, it's just...I heard the zebra talk, but not the lion." I said.

"Just the zebra?" Gretel asked, then looked down in thought.

"Maybe it's just another learning disorder."

Gretel then perked up in amazement. "No, it's your dad. He's the Father of Horses since he created horses out of the crest of waves, remember? You can understand every equestrian animal, like their feelings, thoughts...you're just full of surprises."

I couldn't agree more.

The zebra said, Open my cage, my lady. Please. I'll be fine after that.

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, my lady.

Gretel held her hands and said something to the zebra like a blessing.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.

Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"Now would be a good time to leave," Anthony said.

"The other animals first," Gretel said.

I cut the locks with my sword. Gretel raised her hands and spoke the same blessing she'd used for the zebra.

"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.

Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.

"Will the animals be okay?" I asked Gretel. "I mean, the desert and all—"

"Don't worry," she said. "I placed a sanctuary on them, a satyr and my Aunt Juniper taught me."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," she said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect Perci," Anthony reasoned.

"Hey!" I protested.

"Kidding," he said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.

I put my long hair up in a ponytail to keep it from sticking to my sweaty face. We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick.

I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west.

We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossoms, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.

The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in. Inside, we took one look around, and Gretel said, "Whoa."

The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.

"Hey!" A bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with moths designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

I stammered. "Um, but…"

"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed us each a green plastic credit card.

I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?"

His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.

"Oh, goodness," Anthony said. "This place is…"

"Sweet," Gretel said. "Absolutely sweet."

There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.

I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.

I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something...I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.

I came out of the bedroom and found that Anthony and Gretel had also showered and changed clothes. Gretel was in her nymph form and her flowers looked very healthy and beautiful, and her green hair streaks looked healthy green, and she was eating potato chips to her heart's content, while Anthony cranked up the National Geographic Channel.

"All those stations," I told him, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"

"It's interesting."

"I feel good," Gretel said. "I love this place."

Without her even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of her shoes and lifted her a foot off the ground, then back down again.

"So what now?" Anthony asked. "Sleep?"

Gretel and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.

"Play time," we said in unison.

I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.

I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the water slide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Gretel a few times, going from game to game. She really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Anthony playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Anthony loved it.

I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong, possibly when I began hearing waves crashing in my head after several minutes.

Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night.

We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, girl. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."

Groovy?

Later while we were talking, I said something was "sick", and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.

Then I heard a loud noise on my head like ocean waves being crashed onto the shore, I actually dropped my gun and clapped my ears over them, until I heard a deep voice of a man whisper, Persephone…

I froze and uncovered my ears.

I looked around at the other people on their games, but none of them were looking at me; they just had their eyes glued to their games. Wake up...

I picked up my gun again and processed what the booming voice said in my head before I glanced at the guy. "You okay?" He asked before he immediately turned back to the screen.

I shook my head a little. "Y-yeah, just...nausea, I guess."

He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.

I said, "Hey, Darrin?"

"What?"

"What year is it?"

He frowned at me. "In the game?"

"No. In real life."

He had to think about it. "1977."

"No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really."

"Hey, girl. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."

After that he totally ignored me, so I just walked away.

Perci, look around you, the same man's voice inside my head said, which almost made me freeze my tracks. Focus. This place is a trap, the games keep you prisoner here. Wake up. You need to escape. Remember!

I began to listen to what the voice in my head told me to do. I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.

Then it occured to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?

I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother...for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name. Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.

"Is there a problem, young lady?" A security guard asked me as he blocked my way. He seemed concerned, but at the same time...he looked a little suspicious like I was some lost kid who was blending in.

I gave him my own suspicious look. "No...I'm fine." And I walked the other way to find my friends.

I found Anthony still building his city, and Gretel watching in amazement.

"Come on," I told them. "We've got to get out of here."

No responses.

I shook Anthony. "Anthony?"

He looked up, annoyed. "What?"

"We need to leave."

"Leave?" Gretel asked. "What are you talking about? He just got the towers—"

"This place is a trap."

They didn't respond until I shook them again. "What?"

"Listen to me, you two. The Underworld. Our quest!"

"Oh, come on, Perci." Anthony complained. "Just a few more minutes."

"Anthony, Gretel, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."

"So?" Gretel asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"

I grabbed their wrists and yanked them away from the game.

"Hey!" They screamed and Anthony hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.

I made them look directly in my eyes. I said, "Wake up! Spiders. Smugglers. Large, hair spiders. Cruel, disrespectful smugglers."

That jarred them. Their visions cleared. "Oh my gods," Anthony said, looking at Gretel then back at me. "How long have we—"

"I don't know." Then I noticed something across the room. I saw the guard who blocked my way, and he tapped another guard's shoulder and then pointed at me and my friends. I was getting the feeling they don't want to give us permission to leave here. "Guys...we have to go. Now!"

We ran up to the waterslide, but we were surrounded by security guards who were shouting, "Stop, kids! Stop where you are!" We tried to find a way out and none of the visitors seemed to notice the commotion.

"What?" Gretel said like she was trying to sound upbeat. "I thought we were here to have some fun. Seriously? Do you want to hit a couple of normal, helpless kids?"

Her hand crept to her vine scarf and snapped out her whip. She snapped it around a guard's ankle and pulled on him as she tripped him to the ground like he was doing a split. She rapidly snapped her whip on the ground, making a few guards back up a little. One lunges at Gretel as she grabbed him instead and she flipped overhead, slamming him onto the floor unconscious. She elbowed one, back-hand-slapped him hard in the face, and kicked him in the guts, knocking him out. She ran out into the crowd as she held up her whip and battle cried to finish off more guards.

I have seen her so brave, and it amazed me what a competent fighter she was.

One lunged at me, but I jumped back into a pool behind me, and spun underwater, making a funnel of water splash a few guards away. I jumped out with my new strength and new senses. Anthony and I ran from the circle of guards, but a few kept coming from in front of us. I knocked one away, out cold, with nothing but a rookie.

I saw a guard about to attack Anthony from behind. "Anthony, look out!" I warned.

Just in time, he back-kicked the guard away, flipped a guard sideways with nothing but his might, and we both smiled at each other. I punched another out, and I flipped right over his head the other, making his spine crack a little and handled him by going back-to-back and grabbing my arms to his. Anthony kicked him in his sweet spot and groaned in pain. When I let him go, he fell to the ground.

"James Dean, out of the way!" Gretel shouted as she runs past the visitors, her whip strapped around her shoulder again. "Come on, guys!"

As we followed her to the door, the smell of food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once….

Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.

Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trashcan in room 4001, but at the moment we had other problems to worry about.

As Gretel ran to the nearest newspaper stand, Anthony and I had to catch our breaths. My enhanced strength had disappeared when we left.

"Of course!" Anthony said in frustration. "Now it all makes sense!"

"What?" I asked.

"That was the lair of the lotus eaters: they've been luring people into their traps since ancient times. Be lucky you've ever snapped out of it."

I was thinking about how someone was speaking inside my head, the voice that helped me wake up from the games. It sounded like a gentle, yet powerful man and I even heard waves crashing in my head before I heard him. It sounded vaguely familiar somehow...

Gretel came up to us with a newspaper with a frightened face. "Guys," she said, holding it up to us. "It's the same year, thank the gods, but...today's June twentieth."

"No, no, that's impossible," I stuttered. "Today's June fifteenth."

"No," Anthony said, shaking his head. "Tomorrow's June twenty-first. We were in there for five days."

"It felt like a couple hours," Gretel added, baffled.

"Then tomorrow's the summer solstice. We have one day left to complete the quest!" I said.