"Luke!" the old lady cried happily.

She looked like someone who enjoyed sticking her fingers in electrical sockets. Her white hair stuck out in tufts all over her head. Her pink housedress was covered in scorch marks and smears of ash. When she smiled, her face looked unnaturally stretched, and the high-voltage light in her eyes made me wonder if she was blind.

I took a step backwards. My heart rate had accelerated. I instantly felt sick to my stomach, and an itching tingle in the palms of my hands. The longer I stared at her, the heavier my chest felt.

"Something's wrong! I can feel it! We need to leave!"

"No! We need answers. Come on Nora, this is for Percy!"

I looked at him, my eyes huge in fear. I could feel the panic right at the surface. There was something more to this than just a crazy old lady. I had a bad taste in my mouth.

"Oh, my dear boy!" She hugged Nico.

I was trying to figure out why she thought Nico was Luke (they looked absolutely nothing alike), when she smiled at Percy and said, "Luke!"

She forgot all about Nico and gave Percy a hug.

"And you brought your little friend along! How nice!" She cried letting go of Percy and pulling me into a bone crushing hug. She smelled like burned cookies. She was as thin as a scarecrow, but that didn't stop her from almost crushing me.

"Come in!" she insisted. "I have your lunch ready!"

She ushered us inside. The living room was even weirder than the front lawn. Mirrors and candles filled every available space. I couldn't look anywhere without seeing my own reflection. Above the mantel, a little bronze Hermes flew around the second hand of a ticking clock. I tried to imagine the god of messengers ever falling in love with this old woman, but the idea was too bizarre. I expected to also see hoards of cats. She struck me as a crazy cat lady. But the house was cat free. (Probably a good thing- Miss O'Leary would have ripped the house apart looking for them to chase.)

Then I noticed the framed picture on the mantel making my blood run cold and I froze for a moment staring at it. I smacked Percy's shoulder a few times getting his attention. I indicated with my head to the picture on the mantle. Percy just about tripped, and landed on his face. He lost all colour in his face. His eyes went wide and we glanced at each other and then back to the mantle.

The picture was exactly like Rachel's sketch- Luke around nine years old, with blond hair and a big smile and two missing teeth. The lack of a scar on his face made him look like a different person—carefree and happy. Like a child he was. How could Rachel have known about that picture?

"This way, my dear!" Ms. Castellan steered Percy toward the back of the house. "Oh, I told them you would come back. I knew it!"

Nico and I followed. She sat us down at the kitchen table. Stacked on the counter were hundreds- I mean hundreds- of Tupperware boxes with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches inside. The ones on the bottom were green and fuzzy, like they'd been there for a long time. The smell reminded me of boys in sixth grade, their lockers had a similar smell- and that's not a good thing. I wrinkled my nose. I knew Tyson wouldn't appreciate the wasted Peanut butter.

On top of the oven was a stack of cookie sheets. Each one had a dozen burned cookies on it. In the sink was a mountain of empty plastic Kool-Aid pitchers. A beanbag Medusa sat by the faucet like she was guarding the mess.

Ms. Castellan started humming as she got out peanut butter and jelly and started making a new sandwich. Something was burning in the oven. I got the feeling more cookies were on the way.

Above the sink, taped all around the window, were dozens of little pictures cut from magazines and newspaper ads- pictures of Hermes from the FTD Flowers logo and Quickie Cleaners, pictures of the caduceus from medical ads.

My heart sank. I wanted to get out of that room, but Ms. Castellan kept smiling at Percy as she made the sandwich, like she was making sure we didn't bolt. The sick feeling in my stomach intensified and the gross taste in my mouth got worse. I couldn't pin point the taste, yet I remembered it but from where I couldn't remember; but it was making my anxiety and panic even worse. It was becoming hard to breath. Percy and I both looked at Nico. This was his idea...

Nico coughed. "Umm, Ms. Castellan?" He asked. Taking the lead in the conversation.

"Mm?"

"We need to ask you about your son."

"Oh, yes!" She nodded.

Nico started to translate so I wouldn't have to try and focused on lip reading. He kept glancing at me, I could quite clearly see my panic.

Nico continued to translate. "They told me Luke would never come back. But I knew better."

She patted Percy's cheek affectionately, giving him peanut butter racing stripes.

"When did you last see him?" Nico asked.

Her eyes lost focus.

"He was so young when he left," she said, her face was wistful as she spoke. "Third grade. That's too young to run away! He said he'd be back for lunch. And I waited. He likes peanut butter sandwiches and cookies and Kool-Aid. He'll be back for lunch very soon. . . ." Then she looked at Percy and smiled. "Why, Luke, there you are! You look so handsome. You have your father's eyes."

She turned toward the pictures of Hermes above the sink. "Now, there's a good man."
She focused on me, and patted my cheek, her hands were unusually cold. She left sticky peanut butter prints on my face now. "Yes, indeed. He comes to visit me, you know."

I glanced at Nico, pleading to leave.

"Ma'am," Nico said. "What, uh . . . what happened to your eyes?"

"Well that was rude!"

"We'll look at them!"

"I'd rather leave."

"Uh yeah me too...but...but look!"

Reluctantly I looked back up at her and looked at her eyes. Her gaze seemed fractured- like she was trying to focus on us through a kaleidoscope.

"Why, Luke, you know the story. It was right before you were born, wasn't it? I'd always been special, able to see through the... whatever-they-call-it."

"The Mist?" I suggested as Percy said it out loud.

"Yes, dear." She nodded encouragingly. "And they offered me an important job. That's how special I was!"

Percy glanced at Nico, but he looked as confused as he did. I however felt my gut drop out, and the taste in my mouth felt even worse. I wanted to spit and brush my tongue, the taste was terrible. I was starting to understand. Sort of. I gulped.

"Nico...I have a bad feeling...but ask her what sort of job?"

"Do you know what she's talking about?"

"Maybe. Just ask."

"What kind of job?" Nico asked. "What happened?"

Ms. Castellan frowned. Her knife hovered over the sandwich bread. "Dear me, it didn't work out, did it? Your father warned me not to try. He said it was too dangerous. But I had to. It was my destiny! And now . . . I still can't get the images out of my head. They make everything seem so fuzzy. Would you like some cookies?"

She pulled a tray out of the oven and dumped a dozen lumps of chocolate chip charcoal on the table.

Ms. Castellan murmured something. I looked at Nico to translate. "She said, Luke was so kind. He left to protect me. He said if he went away, the monsters wouldn't threaten me. She told him the monsters were no threat! They sit outside on the sidewalk all day, and they never come in."

She walked over and picked up the little stuffed Medusa from the windowsill. "Do they, Mrs. Medusa? No, no threat at all." She beamed at us. "I'm so glad you came home. I knew you weren't ashamed of me!"

I shifted in my seat, and noticed Percy shifting uncomfortably as well. I imagined being Luke sitting at this table, eight or nine years old, and just beginning to realize that my mother wasn't all there.

"Ms. Castellan," Percy started.

"Mom," she corrected.

"Um, yeah." He glanced at me and then Nico, nervously. "Have you seen Luke since he left home?"

"Well, of course!"

I didn't know if she was imagining that or not. For all I knew, every time the mailman came to the door he was Luke. But Nico sat forward expectantly.

"When?" he asked. "When did Luke visit you last?"

"Well, it was . . . Oh goodness . . ." A shadow passed across her face. "The last time, he looked so different. A scar. A terrible scar, and his voice so full of pain..."

"Ask about his eyes! Pre Kronos or post Kronos!" I signed quickly to Percy while her back was turned.

"His eyes," Percy said. "Were they gold?"

"Gold?" She blinked, turning back to look at Percy. "No. How silly. Luke has blue eyes. Beautiful blue eyes!"

So Luke really had been here, and this had happened before last summer- before he'd turned into Kronos.

"Ms. Castellan?" Nico put his hand on the old woman's arm. "This is very important. Did he ask you for anything?"

She frowned as if trying to remember. "My- my blessing. Isn't that sweet?" She looked at us uncertainly. "He was going to a river, and he said he needed my blessing. I gave it to him. Of course I did."

Nico looked at me satisfied and Percy glanced between us. So it seemed whoever wanted to go for a swim in the river Styx, needed the blessing from a parent. Nico looked at me triumphantly.

"Thank you, ma'am. That's all the information we-"

Ms. Castellan gasped. She doubled over, and her cookie tray clattered to the floor. Nico and Percy jumped to their feet. I felt the tug in my gut. The awful tastes intensified and it took on a flavour I wished to never taste. Once was enough; sour green candy, acid and smoke. I knew what was happening now. I doubled over.

"Ms. Castellan?" Percy said.

"NORA?"

I opened my mouth and green smoke same out. All I could think of was no no no. Boho hippy Granda mummy isn't even here! My eyes rolled into my head and I felt myself collapse off the chair.

The three demigods were running through the woods. It must've been a wild few days. All of them looked beat up, like they'd seen some battles. A boy about fourteen and a girl about twelve. I realized with a start that the boy was Luke. The girl was Thalia, daughter of Zeus. I was seeing a scene from back in the days when they were on the run, before Grover found them.

Luke had a short sword. Thalia had her spear and shield of terror, Aegis. Luke and Thalia both looked hungry and lean, with wild animal eyes, like they were used to being attacked. There was a young girl with tangled wild blond hair, she looked exhausted and her eyes were wild, she held a bronze dagger in one hand. With horrible realization, I knew it was Annabeth.

"Just a little farther!" Luke promised. Annabeth stumbled, and he took her hand. Thalia brought up the rear, brandishing her shield like she was driving back whatever pursued them. She was limping on her left leg.

They scrambled to a ridge and looked down the other side at a white Colonial house- May Castellan's place.

"All right," Luke said, breathing hard. "I'll just sneak in and grab some food and medicine. Wait here."

"Luke, are you sure?" Thalia asked. "You swore you'd never come back here. If she catches you-"

"We don't have a choice!" he growled. "They burned our nearest safe house. And you've got to treat that leg wound."

"This is your house?" Annabeth said with amazement.

"It was my house," Luke muttered. "Believe me, if it wasn't an emergency-"

"Is your mom really horrible?" Annabeth asked. "Can we see her?"

"No!" Luke snapped.

Annabeth shrank away from him as though his anger surprised her.

"I...I'm sorry," he said. "Just wait here. I promise everything will be okay. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll be back-"

A brilliant golden flash illuminated the woods. The demigods winced, and a man's voice boomed: "You should not have come home."

My eyes snapped open. I felt every muscle and joint hurt, my head was pounding. Green smoke had stopped issuing from my mouth and nose, the terrible taste still lingered, and now I could smell it, it mixed with burnt cookies and moldy peanut butter

"AHHHH," May Castellan straightened. I scrambled away on my hands and feet and slammed into Nico, because her eyes- her eyes were glowing green. Like the Orical at Camp. The same green smoke that billowed from me just now, and back when the Orical breathed into me, was coming from May Castellan.

"My child," she rasped in a much deeper voice, but I heard her voice rattling around my head, like hissing voice of the Orical, it rattled and hissed inside my head. "Must protect him! Hermes, help! Not my child! Not his fate- no!"

She grabbed Nico by the shoulders and began to shake him as if to make him understand. "Not his fate!" Her voice suddenly went silent, and I heard nothing again. Everything was silent. Nico made a strangled scream and pushed her away. He gripped the hilt of his sword. "Percy, we need to get out-" he reached down and yanked me to my feet.

Suddenly Ms. Castellan collapsed. Percy lurched forward and caught her before she could hit the edge of the table. He managed to get her into a chair.

"Ms. C?" He asked.

She muttered something incomprehensible and shook her head.

"Goodness. I... I dropped the cookies. How silly of me."

She blinked, and her eyes were back to normal- or at least, what they had been before. The green glow was gone, the churning in my stomach eased and the awful green smoke was finally gone.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Well, of course, dear. I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

Percy glanced at Nico, who mouthed the word Leave, and was also trying to support me. I still felt woozy and dizzy and terrified of the crazy lady.

"Ms. C, you were telling us something," Percy said. "Something about your son."

"Was I?" she said dreamily. "Yes, his blue eyes. We were talking about his blue eyes. Such a handsome boy!"

"We have to go," Nico said urgently. "We'll tell Luke... uh, we'll tell him you said hello."

"But you can't leave!" Ms. Castellan got shakily to her feet, and Percy finally backed away.

I felt silly being scared of a frail old woman, but the way her eyes had changed, the way she'd grabbed Nico...the way I felt as soon as she changed, the vision I had seen. My eyes went huge. The vision.

"Hermes will be here soon," she promised. "He'll want to see his boy!"

"Maybe next time," Percy said. "Thank you for-" I looked down at the burned cookies scattered on the floor. "Thanks for everything."

Nico was pulling me towards the front door.

She tried to stop us, to offer us Kool-Aid, but we had to get out of that house. On the front porch, she grabbed my wrist and I almost jumped out of my skin. "Luke, at least be safe. Promise me you'll be safe."

I felt something like electricity jolt through my skin. If I had a voice I would have screamed. Her fractured eyes started to cloud with the bright green light again, the terrible taste in my mouth got worse. I panicked and yanked my wrist free. My legs just about gave out and I stumbled. I was shaking uncontrollably and I couldn't breathe. Percy pulled me to my feet, his arm protectively around me. He glanced at Luke's mom again.

"Promise me you will be safe, Luke. Promise me!"

"I will . . . Mom." Percy said awkwardly.

That made her smile as she closed the front door. I could see her mumbling something, but my head was pounding and spinning too much to try to lip read.

As the door shut, Nico and Percy both grabbed my hands and we ran. The little beanbag animals on the sidewalk seemed to grin at us as we passed.

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Crazy!

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Also here is a board for Rachel! I have it up on the Author's Notes as well. But just in case, Rachel Elizabeth Dare