We stopped at a Super Eight and boy was I grateful. I was beat and a real bed sounded awesome. Running for your lives from two sisters of one of the most well known monsters ever was exhausting. 

Chance grabbed her army-sized backpack stuffed in the gun and knife which I found impressive as I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out into the cool evening air. "Let me take that," I offered holding out my hand for it. "Isn't the guy supposed to carry the bags? It would look more normal." I had no idea if that was true, or if Chance would slap me for being so old fashioned but this girl deserved a break from carrying everything, my shoulder was fine now, it was weaker of course from being bound for so long, but I figured I'd better work on getting it back into shape.

She nodded and handed the backpack to me, straps first. "Go up to the stairs if you can, I'll check us in and get the key, we don't want the employees studying us for too long. I think I've hidden our weapons pretty well, but better safe than sorry." I nodded once and   I hefted the thing onto my back and instantly I wondered how the hell Chance could stand upright. What was in this damned thing? My guess was lead from all the pressure it was putting on my spine. I was going to look like Quasimodo after tonight. 

I stumbled along, grunting with pain to the door of the Super Eight while Chance walked calmly by me. When I stumbled over the threshold Chance walked quickly up to the desk. “Do you have any available rooms? Or just a room is fine.” she asked as I panted and drug myself over the threshold, Chance is not carrying this by herself anymore! I decided, she's gonna break her spine!

“We have one room,” she answered handing over a key even as she spoke, eyes darting between us looking very curious. Guess Chance and I were a little worse for wear. I mean I hadn’t showered since we left Alexa’s place. And that had been what? A month ago? Gods I have no idea how long ago it was! Only that it was long enough to leave my face dirty, my hair dirty and long, and not to mention my B.O.On my good days after basketball I smelled like roadkill, I'd been in the same clothes for gods know how long always running for my life ninety-five percent of the time. I probably smelled like a zombie that wore garlic clone. I wrinkled my nose though I couldn't smell anything horribly unpleasant, but then again you usually couldn't smell your own B.O. unless you smelled your laundry.

I wanted to stay by Chance, help her out with the acting normal and not-carrying weapons kind o deal but I did exactly what I was told and started trudging up the stairs to our room as I felt my spine get even more curved as the incredibly heavy backpack pressed against it.  After what seemed like forever I made it to the top of the stairs safely out of site of the desk lady and set the backpack down and was sure it shook the walls on impact. Panting I scanned the hallway for our room; which was what number...? Oh dammit all. I shrugged the lead-lined backpack onto my shoulders and waited rather impatiently for my crazy traveling companion. She took too much time to get there into the hallway; a few minutes at least. I was sure  my spine had suffered permanent damage from standing there with that on my back. I wanted to get out of here, I didn't like being where people could see me, I had to look weird, and I got enough attention from the  gods, I didn't want to tack mortals onto the list too.

“We’re room number two-oh-three,”  Chance said walking past me and leading the way as I trudged down the hall after her counting down until I could drop this sucker on a couch without someone seeing the contents. We walked a little farther and I caught a faint smell of a very strong chemical everyone always recognized. They had a pool and a weird sense of joy filled me up from my head to my toes. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed things like swimming until now.

“Chance let’s go swimming,” I said as she unlocked the room revealing one bed, couch and some closed door that was probably a bathroom. Praise Hesita and Thanatos, the only two gods that weren't complete assholes. I set backpack down on the couch and collapsed on the stiff cushions  back already aching and the promise of a pool was looking even better.

She raised her eyebrows at me like she thought I was nuts, but then she smiled. “Maybe we should at least rinse off first, you and I are dirty as Hades. We’d turn the pool into a cesspool with all the crap on us.” She gestured down to her clothes and I had to agree, her jean jacket was covered with stains of everything, grass,  human blood, monster dust, dirt,  good blood and everything else in between. Her jeans and grubby green t-shirt looked the same way. I didn’t think of  all the filth on us and I looked down at my clothes.

They looked even worse then Chance’s, grass, dirt, bits of road, monster dust and everything else I could think of and a few I couldn't dug into my blue sweatshirt and beat up jeans.  “Good idea.” I said getting up as I said it but she was already moving.

“Me first!” she exclaimed sprinting towards the bathroom like her life depended on it. I heard the door slam shut and the water started to run.

I flopped back down on the couch.  “Save me some hot water!” I shouted digging around in her possibly lead-lined backpack for something to eat. Running from gorgons takes a lot of energy. I found an apple, which was a little bruised but I started munching on it anyways ignoring the squishing feeling. As I chewed my mind did what it always did when I ate and had quiet; my mind wandered.

I wondered if Mom was okay. I hadn’t exactly left her on the best of terms... I mean last time she saw me I was being torn out of our car by a three headed monster the size of a skyscraper. I should call her if I can find a payphone, if they make those anymore. Everyone had cellphones these days so I wasn't wholly sure.  Or use the hotel phone maybe. Just let her know that I’m okay. That I'm still here, still alive, still fighting to make it. Though I was not going to tell her what I was fighting against, if she had trouble breathing now, knowing what I was doing really would make it impossible for her. I'm sorry Mom, I thought like I could send my thoughts to her. I know this is nuts but I have to try or I'm dead. Or I got back to the prison and that's worse than death. It's not living, it's existing. I promise I'll do everything I can to come back home and hug you.

The bathroom door clicked open, shaking me out of my thoughts and Chance stepped out with wet hair and clean-ish clothes. A dingy white t-shirt and some black shorts, her legs looked like she'd shaved, or I guessed she did. I didn't spot any orange fuzz on her legs.  “I have some extra clothes laid out for you over the toilet. When you’re all showered put them on and toss your clothes into the sink. I’m going to try and get them-our clothes-semi clean before we leave tomorrow.”

I nodded and bit off the last chunk of  meat off the apple. “Thanks,” I muttered as she sat down on the couch even as I walked into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and found some faded “Go Army” shirt and basketball shorts spread out over the (thankfully) closed toilet. Just like she said; guess Alexa’s brother had some more extra clothes for me. I kind of missed her, she was nice and made good peanut butter sandwiches. Pretty too, and any girl brave enough to hug Chance deserved an award for bravery. 

Sighing at the thought of the nice girl who saved my life and that I'd already thought of my mom I stripped out of my grimy clothes and stepped under the warm spray of water. I scrubbed at my face, arms, legs; all of me and watched as dirty black water swirled down the drain.Yuck, but damn did it feel good to be sort of clean. I’d wash up with soap after I’d gone swimming. Doing a full out wash right before I jumped into a pool just seemed stupid to me.   I'd have to jump right back in and scrub the chemicals off from the pool. I turned the handle and grabbed one of the towels on the nearby shelf. I dried off and tossed on the shorts and stepped out of the bathroom.

“Come on,” I told Chance with a bob of my head, as I tossed two dry towels over my shoulder.  “Let’s go have some fun.”

Chance smiled at me, eyebrows up like she thought I was crazy, but she got up and grabbed her towel. “Okay, that sounds nice.”

I smiled back; she was starting to trust me and maybe if I was lucky she'd loosen up for a while and stop calling me an idiot every three sentences.I walked out into the hallway and heard Chance walking behind me, I hurried down the stairs, the scent of chlorine  making my eyes kind of burn, but I was so happy for it. It was normal, so almost normal for someone my age I could've cried if I hadn't been on this suicide mission. If things didn't go the way we wanted I'd have more imporant things to cry about.

I stopped walking for a second and I decided something. I decided that I was going to act like I was five again. I was going to play pretend while I swam. I was going to pretend I wasn’t running cross-country from the Olympian gods, trying to find the Fates-three ancient hags that can tell us how to defeat them. I’m going to pretend that the reason I’m so damn skinny now is because I’ve got a crazy metabolism not because I’m running for my life so much now and a lack of decent food. I’m going to pretend that those scars on Chance’s arms came from some freak accident not from some punishment from a Fury. I was going to pretend that I was totally normal. The very thing I used to think I was until I discovered I was a demigod.

So that is exactly what I did. I sat in the hot tub and cooked like a lobster. I did a cannonball into the pool to cool off and played chicken with some others that were swimming. I played pretend. I ignored the real reason why I was here, or what just happened a few hours ago with the gorgons. I had a moment of normality, a thing I wasn't going to have for a very long time after this.

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So this chapter was a bit less fast-paced than the previous one! I hoped you all enjoyed it regardless of it! So it seems Xander's getting smarter and Chance is learning to trust him, some things are possible after all ;) What'd you guys think of this chapter I'd love to hear it! So please don't forget to COMMENT and VOTE if you enjoyed this chapter!

Dedicated to one of my favorite writers here and my newest reader on this stry: Angel_Davis who started this story today and got all caught up! I'm so glad you're liking my book Angel! I hope you like this chapter too! =)