I hadn't thought about the beneficial aspect of the fact that there were gods up there in the sky, we knew where our problems came from and who might be responsible for them. At the moment, I was leaning towards Zeus as number one on the list of history's greatest bastards, but my opinion might not have been the most objective, because he'd probably just thrown a lightning bolt in my face.

We walked, me, Percy, Grover and Annabeth through the woods along the New Jersey shore, with New York behind us, turning the sky yellow with its lights, and the smell of the Hudson catching in our trembled and bleated, terror seizing his goat eyes.

"Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."He murmured.

Percy, too, seemed to be in a state of shock, a logical reaction when you've just been blown up by a bus and nearly died. The only person who seemed remotely rational was Annabeth, who kept harping on:

"Come on! The farther away we get, the better."

Percy spoke up: "All our money was back there," he told us. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight..."

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" He argued.

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."

"Sliced like a sandwich loaf," Grover added, "but fine."

"Yeah, a sandwich loaf out of the toaster no less," I said. " but fine."

"Shut up, little goat, and you too, peacock head," Annabeth said.

"Do you really have a nickname for every...?"

Grover to stop my question with a melancholy bleat.

"'Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

The ground was like sponge and we were advancing between trees that looked like nothing and gave off an unpleasant odor.
Percy and I were walking together when Annabeth appeared between us and looked at him and said:

"Look, I..." His voice faltered. "I appreciate you coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."

"We're a team, right?"

She remained silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest is over. This might be my only chance to see the real world."

"Don't worry even if I died you could still continue the quest with Kassi." he replied. "Even if I'm not too thrilled about dying."

"Percy you don't understand, you received the prophecy, you're the leader of the quest so you're the only one who can carry it out and therefore my only chance, so your survival is crucial."

I made my presence known and asked. "So you've really never left the camp since you were seven?"

She nodded 'no' and said, "For short field trips. My dad..."

"The history professor."

"Yes. It didn't work out for me to live at home. I mean, Camp Half Blood is my home." She rushed her words, as if afraid someone would try to stop her. "At camp, we train, we practice. And that's cool and all, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

"You're pretty good with that knife." Percy told him.

"You think so?"

"Yeah." I began, "Better than me with a spear and I have to say, surprisingly I'm pretty good."

"Anyone who can piggyback-ride a Fury deserves all our respect, right Kassi?"

"Yeah."

Oddly enough I thought I saw Annabeth smile.

"You know folks I need to talk to you on the bus... something weird happened..."

I never knew what she wanted to tell us because a shrill noise interrupted us, like some kind of animal close to agony or probably already before Hades.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" exclaimed Grover. "If I could just remember a 'find path'song, we could get out of these woods!"
He blew out a few notes, but the tune still sounded strangely like Hilary Duff.

Instead of finding his way Percy hit a tree and got a nice bump for his trouble. Personally, I slipped and luckily Percy caught me before I fell face first onto the ground (thanks to him). After a few kilometers walking like poor nomads, we found ourselves in front of a neon sign and the smell of mouth-watering food. I hadn't eaten anything since the camp, so my belly was screaming with hunger.

We kept walking until we came to a two-lane road that was completely deserted. On the other side was a gas station with a 90s movie poster and an open store where everything that had drawn us here had come from.
It wasn't a fast-food joint, but rather a bizarre old roadside store selling equally bizarre items, the kind of place where TV movie leads get murdered. Percy stared at the neon sign for a little while, then looked at me and said:

"Kassi what does that mean?"

"I don't know," I replied. To me the sign looked like incomprehensible gibberish.

Grover translated for us: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."

As the name suggested, the building was surrounded by smiling little bearded men. We were going to get killed going in there, that's for sure. Even the enticing smell couldn't compel me to go in there. The only problem in the equation was the unknown variable called Percy. He crossed the road without warning.

"Hey..." Grover warned.

"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."

"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully.

"Snack bar," Annabeth nodded.

"Are you two crazy?" said Grover. "This place is weird."

"I agree." I said, "Maybe we should get out of here."

"I didn't know you were afraid of garden gnomes, Kassi."

Percy replied, his voice taking on a slightly sarcastic tone as if he were mocking me.

"I'm not afraid, but I have a bad feeling."

"Would you feel a great disturbance in the force at the sight of this place, Master Kassi?"

"Yes. Now shut up and let's go."

So my attempts at dissuasion were veined and Percy and Annabeth ignored my warnings as well as Grover's.
The front yard was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the bagpipes, which gave Grover the creeps.

"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"

We stopped in front of the warehouse door.

"Don't knock," Grover begged. "I smell monsters."

"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "I all I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"

"Meat!" he says contemptuously. "I'm a vegetarian."

"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.

"Those are vegetables." He reminded me. Come on, let's leave." These statues are... looking at me.

Then the door creaked open, and before us stood a tall Middle Eastern woman by the look of her clothes. She was wearing a long black dress that covered her entire body, and from the looks of it, her hand was the only visible part of her body. She spoke to us with an accent that vaguely evoked the Middle East and a little of the countries bordering the Mediterranean.

" Children, it's too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"

"They're... Um..." Annabeth began.

"We're orphans," I said.

"Orphans?" said the woman. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But my dears! Surely not!"

I was about to resume with one of the best excuses I could muster, but Percy interrupted by saying:

"We got separated from our caravan, our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"

"Oh, my dears," said the woman. "You must come in, poor children. I'm Aunty Em. Go straight through the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."

We thanked her and went inside.

The inside of the warehouse was filled with statues, all different in their positions or even in their outfits. I don't think my garden could have taken all her statues or even if I would have wanted her in my garden, some of the statues had scary faces.

We finally got to the dining area, at which point I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go between the nacho and soda machines or the fast-food counter with grill, my anxiety gradually fading. What's more, the few tables in front of the counter were enough to put us at ease.
Auntie Em put both her hands on my shoulders and said,

"Sweetie, don't just stand there, go and sit down, you kids too, don't be embarrassed."

"Awesome," Percy said beside me.

" Um...," Grover advanced regretfully "we don't have any money, ma'am."

I was going to object, even though my purse had exploded, I still had a few dollars lying around in my pocket, though it certainly wouldn't have been to pay the woman in front of us.

"No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."

"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.

Auntie Em stiffened as if Annabeth was bothering her for some reason, it was so fleeting, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.

"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."

It was long afterwards that I realized that none of us had introduced ourselves and that she couldn't possibly know our names.
Our good hostess disappeared behind the counter and in no time served us plastic trays filled with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL portions of French fries.
I confess I devoured the fries, but only the fries. The others enjoyed their meals with appetite, except Grover, who didn't seem to want to touch his meal.

"What's all that hissing noise?" he asked.

I hadn't heard anything.

"hissing?" said Auntie Em. " Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."

"I take vitamins. For my ears."

"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."

Auntie Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward, interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. This woman was really unsettling, she said nothing and stared at us continuously, or rather I had the impression she was staring at us, we couldn't see anything of her face.

"So, you sell gnomes," Percy said, breaking the silence between us.

"Oh, yes," Auntie Em replied. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statues are very popular, you know."

"'A lot of business on this road?"

"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars they do not go this way anymore. I must cherish every customer I get."

The hairs on my neck bristled, statues were looking at me, I was sure, you've probably felt that way before, like when you walk into an unfamiliar place and all eyes were focused on you. It reminded me of the statue of Hera at the camp half-blood.

"Ah," said Auntie Em sadly, " you notice some of my creations do not turn out well. " They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."

"Do you make these statues yourself?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time,I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I only have my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company."

The sadness in her voice was so deep and real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her, but there was something behind it, I was sure.

Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat up and said, "Two sisters?

"It's a terrible story," said Aunt Em. "It's not one for children, really. a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young.I had a…a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on.
They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."

"Percy?" Annabeth shook him to get his attention.

"Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting for us."

I understood this woman was a monster, we were surely in the lair of Medusa, the Medusa, the one cursed by Athena.

"Such beautiful grey eyes," Auntie Em said again to Annabeth. "My, yes, it's been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."

She held out her hand toward Annabeth, who backed away instantly.

"We really should go."

"Yes!" Grover swallowed his wax paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

"Yeah we should go," I said.

"Please, dears," pleaded Auntie Em. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" asked Annabeth warily.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statues set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Annabeth shifts from one foot to the other. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy..."

"Come on Percy, Annabeth is right we have to go."

"Of course we do," he said. "It's only a photo, Kassi. Annabeth, what's the harm?"

"Yes, Annabeth, Kassi," purrs the woman. "There's no harm in it.

I could see Annabeth didn't like it, but she let Auntie Em lead us back to the front door, down the street, into the statue garden.

Auntie Em directed us to a public bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The two young girl in the middle, I think,and the two young gentlemen on either side."

"There's not much light for a photo," I pointed out.

"Oh, enough," said Auntie Em. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?

"Where's your camera?" asked Grover.

Auntie Em took a step back, as if admiring the photo. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."

"Grover," Auntie Em chastised, "look this way, dear."

She still didn't have a camera in her hands.

"Percy..." said Annabeth.

"Percy listen to me..."

"'I will just be a moment," interrupted Auntie Em. "You know, I can't see you very well with this cursed veil..."

"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.

"'Wrong'?" said Auntie Em, reaching out to undo the veil around her head."Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What would be wrong?"

"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.

"Look away from her!" shouted Annabeth. She pushed her Yankee cap over her head and disappeared. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me and Percy off the bench.
We all had to separate, so Annabeth and Grover did, I was going to go but I saw Percy staying on the ground, he was going to look at Medusa, I rushed towards him and forced him to keep his head down.

"We mustn't look her in the eye!". I told him instantly.
More noises... the sound of small snakes, just above me, from... from where Auntie Em's head would be.

"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him run across the gravel, shouting,"Maia!" to get his flying sneakers started.

We couldn't move.

"It's a shame to destroy such beautiful young faces," she told us soothingly."Stay with me, Percy, Kassi. All you have to do is look up."

I looked to the side and saw one of those glass spheres they place in gardens, an observation ball.
I could see Auntie Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress had disappeared, revealing her shimmering pale face. Her headdress had disappeared, revealing her face as a pale, shimmering circle. Her hair moved, twisting like snakes.

" "The Gray-Eye One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this.."

"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shrieks, somewhere in the statuary. "Run!"

"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated into a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy this girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, don't have to suffer; you can even stay with your friend Kassi for eternity."

"No." He replied, trying to get to his feet.

"Do you really wished to help the gods? Medusa asked. "You know what awaits you at the end of this foolish quest, you two forbidden children, pawns of the Olympians. You'd be better off as statues, less suffering for you.

"Percy! k.C.!" Behind me, I heard a buzz, like a two-hundred-pound hummingbird swooping. Grover yelled, "Duck!"

I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying from noon in his winged shoes, Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. He was holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were closed, his head bobbing from side to side. He navigated solely with his ears and nose.

"Duck!" he shouted again. "I'll catch it!"

That's what spurred me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and catch me. I dived in on one side and Percy on the other.

Thwack!

At first I thought it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with ire.

"'You miserable satyr,'" she snarled. " I'll add you to my collection!"

"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" retorted Grover.

I ran off and hid in the statues while Grover swooped down to make another pass.

Ker-whack!

"Arrgh! Medusa screamed, her snake hair hissing and spitting.

Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"

He leaped so high his feet nearly obliterated a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!

Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible.
"One of you has to cut his head off."

"What? Are you out of your mind? Let's get out of here."
Percy replied.

"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if about to make a difficult confession. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd cut me to pieces because of my mother. you've got your chances."

"What? I can't..."

"Look, do you want her to turn more innocent people into statues?"

She pointed to a couple of statue lovers, a man and a woman, their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.

Annabeth grabbed a green ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of..."

"Could you speak English?" asked Percy.

"I am!" She tossed him the glass ball. " Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."

"Hey, guys!" Grover shouted from somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"

"Roooaaarrr!"

"Maybe not," Grover corrected. He made another attempt with the tree branch.

"Hurry ," Annabeth told me. "Grover got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."

He picked up his pen and uncapped it. Riptide's bronze blade lengthened in his hand. He kept his eyes fixed on the disco ball to see only Medusa's reflection, Grover was coming in for another inning, but this time he was flying a little too low. Medusa grabbed the bat and swung it off course. It tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly with a painful "Ummphh!".

Medusa was about to lunge at him when I shouted

"Hey Medusa look over here!"

I closed my eyes directly and pulled out Asteri in sword form.

"What are you going to do darling, you can't even see me, come on, you can open your eyes like this, you can at least try to attack me."

"To be perfectly honest with you, Medusa, I'm not trying to kill you."

"What do you mean? "

I think fate has already decided whose honor it is."

I laughed in her face, which I'm sure she didn't appreciate as she charged me. How did I know? I couldn't see her, but I'll tell you in advance, Medusa isn't silent when she attacks. I stepped back, but before she could even reach me, I heard a shlock! Sickening and the sound of a monster disintegrating. Something fell to the ground, but I kept my eyes closed and finally Annabeth and Grover arrived and placed what they said was the jellyfish's head in its veil.

"Are you all right? "asked the blonde.

"Not bad, except we almost got killed by Percy's dad's ex."

"Hey."

"Sorry."

When Percy saw the bundled head he looked like he was about to throw up.

"Why didn't it disappear with her? " I asked.

"It's a spoil of war, like Percy's minotaur horn, the head can still petrify."

Grover groaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a large wound on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns and his fake feet had been ripped from his hooves and his fake feet had been ripped from his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.

"The Red Baron," Percy said. "Good job, man."

He sketched a shy smile. "It really was not fun. Well, the hitting her with a stick, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."

He snatched his shoes out of the air. I turned my sword back into a ring.

Together, we staggered back to the warehouse.
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We placed it on the table where we'd had dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.

Percy finally said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

Annabeth gave him an irritated look. ""Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and
her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."

"You could say it's both their fault really."

My two companions looked at me as if I'd said the hardest thing in the world for them both to admit.

"The story of Medusa is a little confusing. Athena, your mother, never answered her prayers, and your father, Percy, took advantage of this to go to her, so in a way they're both guilty of creating this monster."

He looked at me blankly.

"So what are we going to do with the head?" Grover asked.

"I'll be right back," Percy said suddenly.

He searched the back of the warehouse to Medusa's office. Her account book showed her last six sales, all shipments to decorate the garden of Hades and Persephone. According to a freight bill, the Underworld billing address was DOA Recording Studios,West Hollywood, California. We returned to the picnic table to pack up Medusa's head and fill out a packing slip.

The Gods Mount Olympus 600th Floor,
Empire State Building New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON and Kassi Knight.

Yes, I'd decided to sign, too, after all the trouble we'd gone through to kill her.

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

Percy poured a few gold drachmas into the pouch. As soon as I closed it, a cash register noise was heard a cash register noise. The package came off the table and disappeared with a pop!

"We're being impertinent", we said.

Annabeth placed her two fingers at the root of her nose and said, "Besides, they're synchronous."

We glared at her, waiting for her to comment. She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that we had a great talent for upsetting the gods.

"Come on," she mumbled. "We need a new plan."