We spent the night in some random barn that we had spotted from the road. It was old and musty and smelled like mold, but it was better than sleeping in the cabin of Louis' truck. I spread out a spare blanket in the barn loft and the girl- I had learned her name was Kayla- called first watch. Louis and I didn't complain. We ate a small dinner that consisted of pop tarts and trail mix (not the best combination), and then settled down for the night. Few words were said, and I knew that Louis and Kayla were giving me some space so that I could digest everything they had unloaded on me.
After the "You're father is a god" revelation I had been pretty shocked. I had accepted the fact that my father was some deadbeat who ran when my mother became pregnant. Learning that what I had been told was wrong had me reevaluating pretty much everything. Sure, I was still angry at him, he had still left my mom and me, but somehow it was different now. After I accepted the fact that they were either telling the truth, or weren't giving up the joke for some time, my first question was: who. They didn't have an answer for me though. Apparently I have to be claimed. I did learn that Kayla was a daughter of Apollo, hence the bow, and that Louis was a satyr. I had refused to believe that little statement until, in his frustration, Louis pulled off his shoes and showed me his hooves. Well, that explained his awkward walking. After Kayla and Louis finished explaining how I was basically half god, and know that I knew monsters were going to hunt me down and try to kill me, and that we needed to get to the only safe place for half-bloods, we left the park. The three of us bundled into Louis' truck. It was a junk truck. The paint was peeling and there were several long deep scratches trailing down the length. The engine could be heard from a mile off and it couldn't drive faster than seventy five miles per hour without vibrating violently. I had ridden in it before, and was not thrilled to be riding in it again. Louis now informed me that the scratches weren't from another car like he had said before, but from a particularly nasty griffon. We drove east, heading to New York, which was where Camp Half-Blood was hidden by the Mist. The Mist. That was another concept that I was finding difficult to wrap my mind around.
My thoughts kept whirling around my head at tornado-like speeds, and I thought sleep would never find me. However, I did eventually fall asleep, only to be woken some time after midnight by a large clap of thunder. The promised storm had finally reached us. Kayla stood at the entrance of the barn, bow held loosely in her hand, peering out at the night sky. A jagged flash of lightening streaked across the sky, throwing the shadows into sharp relief and a second, grander, boom rolled over us. Louis jerked upright.
"Wha's goin on?" He slurred. His hat sat crooked on his head, one of his horns was visible.
"A storm." Kayla gave us a wry smile. "I hope you didn't leave your windows down, Louis, it's going to be a wet night."
The rest of the night was miserable. The barn did little to keep the rain out, and great peals of thunder and flashes of lightening left little opportunity for sleep. The storm began to give out at around four in the morning, and I was happy to see the sun finally show its face after our long night. We set out nearly after first light, anxious to get moving. Louis drove and I sat in the passenger seat. We let Kayla sprawl out as much as she could in the back. She had taken the first watch last night, and therefore had even less sleep than we did. Louis and I sat in comfortable silence, occasionally making quiet small talk so as to not wake Kayla, who, according to Louis, was grouchy in the morning even on a good day. The countryside passed in a blur and we crossed the state border into Indiana by ten o'clock. Kayla woke up around noon and we decided to stop for lunch. Louis turned off of the interstate at the next town.
"So guys… what's it going to be?" He asked as we slowly drove down Main Street. It was a small town; it reminded me of my home-No. I had to stop thinking of it like that. At the moment I didn't have a home. My new home would be wherever I chose.
"McDonald's." I said immediately. I was craving a burger. Less than ten minutes later we were arranged comfortably in the bed of Louis' truck parked in the McDonald's parking lot, wolfing down our food.
"So," I said around a mouthful of fries, "about how long does this trip take?" Kayla sucked noisily at her straw before answering.
"If nothing goes wrong we have around ten more hours of driving." The older girl answered. Louis bleated nervously and began to eat the wrapping of my burger. I shot him an odd look and Kayla shook her head slightly, as if to say don't ask.
"And if something goes wrong?" I prompted. Kayla finished off her chicken nuggets.
"Let's hope that doesn't happen. Hopefully we'll be at camp by tomorrow, or the day after that at the latest." Kayla said. We finished our lunch and began to climb back into the truck.
"What's New York like?" I asked. "It's one of the only states I've never been to."
"What do you mean?" Louis said as he turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, deafening as always. I shrugged uncomfortably.
"My mom and I move around a lot. I've lived in almost every state." I said, watching the buildings grow fewer and far between as we left town. Kayla threw her feet on the dashboard of the truck and settled into the seat.
"That is mildly impressive." She said, twisting to look at me from the front.
"Well, it's not that fun." I grumbled.
"Feet off the dash!" Louis snapped, swatting at Kayla's shoes. She ignored him.
"Aw, come on. Moving around like that has gotta be exciting. I mean, I have lived in one town my whole life and it is so boring. I wish my mom would do something interesting for once." I frowned.
"I would give anything to stay in one place for more than a year." I told her, stuck a hand out to the console and cranked up the music. Hopefully they would get the message that the conversation was over. Kayla seemed to get the hint and turned to fiddle with the radio, searching in vain for a station that wasn't playing Country music.
I pulled out Harry Potter and was soon absorbed in Harry's detention with Umbridge. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Louis lean over and physically push Kayla's feet off of the dashboard. We made good speed for the next hour or so, the silence filled with Kayla singing along to the radio when she recognized a song, which was nearly every one. It reminded me of the long hours my mom and I spent on the road, traveling from town to town. And while I probably would have tried to tune out my mom's off-key singing, I didn't mind Kayla. She was actually very good. Thinking about my mom sent a pang of regret through my chest. She was probably worried out of her mind. Had she called the cops? Would she think that I was kidnapped? Or would she realize that I had run off? I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt the car slow to a stop. I shut my book, I hadn't been actually reading for a while, and looked up. Traffic.
"What time is it?" I asked. One o'clock was the answer.
"It's too early for us to be hitting Indianapolis rush hour traffic." Kayla said. Louis groaned as the minivan in front of us inched a few more feet forward. It all went downhill from there. An hour and a half later, when we finally pulled free from the traffic, I reached one conclusion: ADHD demigods and being trapped in the cab of a small truck don't mix.
Ten minutes in we gave up on I Spy when my shoe was the chosen object three times in a row. Fifteen minutes in Kayla was trying, and failing, to count the number of petals in a patch of Queen Anne's Lace that was growing in the ditch of the interstate. Yes, we were moving that slowly.
25 minutes in we were engaged in a rather intense battle of Rock Paper Scissors.
30 minutes in Louis declared that he had to use the restroom.
"Louis, are you serious?" Kayla shouted. Louis blushed and muttered something unintelligible.
"Why didn't you use the restroom when we ate lunch?" I asked.
"I didn't have to go then." Louis defended.
"Well, you're gonna have to hold it." Kayla said resolutely, making a broad sweeping motion at the mass of cars we were sandwiched between.
40 minutes in-
"I have to go to the bathroom so bad!"
45 minutes in-
"Ughhhhhhh."
"Well here is an old soda bottle if-"
"What is wrong with you?"
I began to translate Harry Potter from Italian to German on a napkin. It was good practice.
50 minutes in-
Kayla broke the small lapse of silence we were experiencing.
"Is that kid staring at me?" We all looked to the car to the left of us, where indeed, a small child was staring directly at Kayla, his nose pressed flat against his window.
"What is with that?" Louis muttered. Kayla leaned forward and backward in her seat. The boy's eyes followed her like a cat follows a mouse.
"That's creepy as Hades."
"Make him stop."
"He isn't blinking." I noted mildly. We were all relieved when traffic once again shifted, taking the odd child out of sight.
1 hour in-
"Louis, can I paint your nails?"
"Kayla, I'm driving." A small pause, "Mina, can I paint your nails?" I looked up from reading an old car magazine I found on the floor of the truck.
"What color?"
"Yellow, of course." I wrinkled my nose.
"Ew, no." Kayla's normally sunny face cooled.
"Excuse me?" Her tone was polite, with shivering undercurrents of malice. From the driver's seat Louis looked frightened. "Yellow is my favorite color."
"I'm sorry?" She just turned away, the atmosphere grew awkward. Louis started humming.
1 hour and 10 minutes in-
"Louis if you don't stop humming this instant I will take an arrow and shove it through your throat!" Louis shot Kayla a dirty look and pushed her feet off of the dash for the fifth time.
"Violent much?" He muttered. Kayla looked up from repainting her nails.
"What did you say?" Louis bristled, finding the rare courage to argue back.
"I said, vi-"
"Hey, are they watching a movie?" I interrupted the brewing argument. They followed my finger to where it was pointing. Through the back window of the minivan in front of us we could clearly see a movie being played.
"Oh yeah! Finding Nemo!" Kayla exclaimed, argument forgotten. We spent the rest of our time in traffic unashamedly watching the movie being played in the other car.
Louis actually had the nerve to be upset when the traffic broke up and the minivan pulled away from us.
"No! We haven't found out if Marlin ever finds Nemo again." He cried. Kayla and I stared at him.
"Are you saying that you have never watched Finding Nemo before?" I asked.
"Ya, so?" Kayla just shook her head and looked away
"That's pathetic."
We pulled over at the first opportunity and Louis had barely put the car in park before he ran off to the bathroom. I threw the door open and all but collapsed onto the pavement.
"It's been days!" I declared dramatically. Kayla rolled her eyes and slid into the driver's seat. I looked around, stretching. We were at a rundown gas station in the foothills of some mountain range whose name I didn't care to know. The hazy peaks cast a purple shadow over the land.
"Hey Mina, go buy more trail mix." Kayla said. She leaned out of the truck window and handed me some cash. "I'm going to fill up the tank." I nodded and walked, on slightly numb legs, into the gas station store. A blast of cold air hit me as I opened the door. A soft bell rang through the seemingly empty store. The inside of the store was washed out with sickly yellow lighting; the only sounds were the buzzing of flies and the gentle hum of the refrigerators in back. It was certifiably creepy.
I walked deeper into the store, rubbing away goose bumps. I couldn't shake the feeling that somebody was watching me. I threw a glance over my shoulder, but the store was still empty.
"Get a grip." I told myself and scooped up the stuff we needed from the shelves. I turned, my arms full of granola bars and trail mix, and found myself face to face with another person.
"Agh!" I jumped back, the granola bars went flying across the aisle. The person, a girl, laughed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sneak up on you." She said apologetically. She looked like a teenager, but she was probably the prettiest teenager I had ever seen outside of a movie. Her sandy blonde hair was perfectly straight, and swept elegantly off of her shoulders. She was tall, tan and had round brown eyes. Her smile revealed pearly white teeth. The red employee vest she was wearing identified her as Kelli.
"Um…its fine, you didn't…I…uh." I stammered, and she laughed again. It was a nice laugh, not too loud, seemingly genuine. I hastily picked up the food.
"Do you need to check out?" Kellie asked and I nodded. We moved to the register at the front of the store, my cheeks flushed a bright red. I dumped my items on the counter and Kelli began to slowly ring them up.
"Are they your brother and sister?" She asked conversationally, nodding at the truck, which was visible from the door. Kayla and Louis were standing next to the truck, they appeared to be arguing.
"Oh, no, not really. They are just my friends." I said, though it occurred to me that Kayla at least, was technically related to me. Heck, she could even be my sister, since I still didn't know who my father was. I really doubted that though, because I couldn't sing well to save my life.
"Oh, well they seem nice." She said. "Especially that Louis, he looks good enough to eat." I was halfway through nodding absentmindedly before I actually registered what she said. I never said any names.
"Yeah…wait-what?" I looked up at her sharply. She began to transform before my eyes. I watched in horror as her hair flickered into flames and her eyes turned red. Her lips bared in a hiss and I saw that her previously perfect teeth were now fangs.
"I usually don't kill girls, but getting you out of the way will be entirely too easy." With that she leapt over the counter. Her talons dug into my shoulder and I hit the ground hard. I brought my knee up into her stomach, and Kelli rolled off of me, wheezing. I scrambled to my feet; she was quick to follow.
"What are you?" I asked wildly as I ducked under a swipe and ran down another aisle. Kelli tore after me.
"You half-bloods are so ignorant these days!" She screeched and vaulted the rack of barbeque sunflower seeds I had thrown over. "I'm an Empousa!" I turned sharply and came to an abrupt halt. I was trapped in a corner. Kelli slowed as she saw my predicament. A cruel smirk played across her lips.
"What did I ever do to you?" I asked, willing my voice not to shake. My back hit the wall and I felt something protruding from it. My fingers closed around a smooth cylinder and I grasped it, hoping that it was what I thought.
Kelli laughed that same nice laugh like earlier.
"It's simple," She said, and slowly walked closer to me, "you exist." With that she lunged forward and I swung the fire extinguisher desperately. It made contact with her head with a sickening crack. The empousa flew sideways into the wall and sagged to the floor, unmoving. I wasted no time in running back to the truck, pausing only to scoop up a pack of M&M's that I had intended to buy. Because even though I almost just died, I still had priorities. I tore out of the store and across the parking lot. As I neared the truck, now gassed up, I caught a snippet of Kayla and Louis' argument.
"-and the rubber ducky incident-"
"Oh, would you let that go already? Holy Hera, it was two years ago!" Louis cut in angrily.
"I will not-" Kayla began, but I interrupted her.
"We gotta go! We gotta go now!" I exclaimed as I reached the truck. Both of my companions' faces showed bewilderment as I pushed them into action.
"Mina, what the Hades is going on?" Kayla demanded. She paused, half way into the truck, taking in my disheveled appearance.
"No time! I'll explain…" I was cut off as an unearthly shriek sounded from inside the gas station store. Kelli burst out of the glass doors, sending one swinging crazily off of its' hinges. Her flaming hair burned brighter than before and her eyes screamed murder. Beside me Kayla paled.
"You're right. Time to go." We all scrambled into the truck and Louis put his foot on the gas. The tires protested loudly as we peeled out of the gas station. New black skid marks now scarred the pavement. I watched from the back window as the furious form of Kelli grew smaller and smaller. Kayla turned around in the front seat to look at me.
"Just what happened in there?" I caught my breath before answering.
"Well, you see, I was attacked and-"
"No shit, Sherlock. What happened?" Kayla interrupted, ever so rudely. Louis cast a worried glance over his shoulder. I glared at her.
"I'll tell you, if you stop interrupting me." I said pointedly. The daughter of Apollo huffed but remained silent. I quickly filled them in on the sequence of events. Kayla looked as if she were about to comment, but Louis spoke up first.
"What did you say the empousa's name was?" He asked eyes still on the road.
"Kelli. Why?" His bushy eyebrows shot up.
"I'm impressed you managed to hold her off with no weapon then. Most untrained demigods would have fallen to a senior empousa like her."
"You know her?" Louis nodded and Kayla made a face.
"She is infamous among us satyrs. She is…" He paused, searching for the right word, "not nice." Kayla snorted.
"That's not the word I would have used." The blonde said. There was a short pause.
"What's an empousa?" I asked. I wished I hadn't; as they went on to explain how the empousai were basically female vampires with one goat leg, and the other made of bronze. Well, that explained why she was wearing pants.
"Oh." I said in a small voice. Paranoid, I once again looked out the back window to make she we weren't being followed. Satisfied that we were still safe, I opened my bag of M&M's.
Louis sniffed.
"What are those?" I held the bag of candy close to my chest protectively.
"M&M's." I answered slowly. Kayla whipped around to face me.
"Where did you get those?" She demanded.
"Back at the gas station." The duh at the end of the sentence was implied. Kayla held out her hand expectantly.
"Well, let me have some." It was cute how she thought I was going to give up any candy. I scoffed.
"I risked my life for this candy!"