We took a bus to the Emporium, but it stopped a bit away so we had to walk the rest of the way

This place was seriously gross, it needed major redecorating

"This place definitely needs a extreme makeover," Grover commented, I nodded in agreement

It was all statues of Greek people, and leaves were everywhere, it needed serious work

"Hello!" Percy shouted as we walked in the building

"Hello? Anybody home in Auntie-ville?" Grover questioned

"Check this out, they got free sodas," Grover chuckled, but once he opened it a bunch of rats were inside

He and Annabeth shrieked as Grover closed door, "Okay, that's nasty. The health department needs to give this place a F. Ooh..." Grover sighed

"Hey, guys, check this out," Annabeth spoke, leading us to another set of doors, the picking up some coins in a fountain,"Look at this. Gold drachmas."

"That means we're on the right track," Grover spoke

"Here. How are we going to find a pearl in this place?" Annabeth spoke, handing the coins to Percy

"That's a good question," Grover replied

"Okay, let's split up. Check everything," Percy spoke

"Got it, Annabeth and me will go one way. You and Grover go another," I ordered, they nodded and we went separate ways

Walking around gave me a bad feeling, all these statues radiated something that seemed off to me

While walking someone latched onto my shoulder, scaring me and Annabeth

"Get out! She's coming!" This lady spoke with fear

"What? Who?" I asked

"We stopped--d-directions. My poor husband! Help me! Please, help me!" The lady cried, harbinger my arm and dragging me with her, Annabeth following closely behind

"Please, we have to leave before she finds us!" The lady cried, dragging me as we ran

"Who?" Annabeth asked

"She turned my husband to stone!" She cried

"Who?" I asked as we kept running

"Were lost! We'll never leave!" The lady cried, then stopped as a woman was in front of us

She wore all black, and black sunglasses

"Don't move," I warned, keeping the lady behind me as she coward in fear

"Well, this is a fabulous surprise. It's so. . . heartening to have such young visitors. We get so lonely here. Don't we?" She spoke, I heard a hissing sound as she talked, "That's why I create my statues. They're my only company. . . daughter of Athena. Daughter of Zeus."

"How do you know us?" I questioned as the lady kept a tight grip on my arm

"You both have such beautiful hair. I once had hair like that," she spoke, coming towards us and touching our hair, we kept our gaze from hers, "I was courted, desired by many suitors. But that all changed because of your mother--the woman who cursed me. Who turned me. . ."

She began to unwrap her headdress, "Don't look!" Annabeth ordered, we all closed our eyes

I felt my other senses take over, my ears picking up the hissing of her snake hair

"Into this!" She spoke, I heard her snakes hissing at us, "They say the eyes are windows to the soul. I hope you find my eyes...attractive."

The snakes hissed and rattled, waiting for us the victims I open our eyes, "So rude, not looking people in the eyes. Come on. . . sneak a peek." Her voice taunted

I felt the lady who held my arm turn to stone, trapping me in her grip, I struggled to break free from her grip

"You'd make a wonderful addition to my collection. We'll be friend forever. Do you mind?" I heard something set on the lady holding me in place

"Annabeth when I say run you get out of here, go find Percy and Grover," I whispered

"Not without you," she whispered back

"I'll tell you when," I whispered as I heard the snakes creep up behind us

"Sooner or later, you will open your eyes," she spoke, I felt her snakes slither on my face, making me turn away in disgust

"Open your eyes, lighting girl. I heard they're to most beautiful shade of electric blue," she taunted, snakes hissing in my ear

I felt her move to the left, away from Annabeth and towards the statue of the lady

"Don't look Zay, Annabeth. Don't open your eyes," I heard Percy speak, I heard her head turn away from us

"Who's that? Another Demi-god," she spoke, I heard her move away

"Go, find Grover and get out of here, I'll break free," I ordered

"I'll find Grover and bring him back," she spoke, I felt her hand let go of my wrist and her footsteps fade away

I tried to get out of her grip, but it was so tight it was to hard to get out, I heard hissing in the distance and kept my eyes shut

I felt a hand in my shoulder and I didn't move, Medusa won't get me easily

"Need a hand?" Grover spoke, I opened my eyes and saw Grover and Annabeth over my shoulder

"Hurry, we have to find Percy," I spoke

I pulled myself back and Grover him the lady's arm with his crutch, breaking me free of her grip

"Let's find Percy," I spoke, they nodded and we ran to find Percy

Next thing I knew, Annabeth was driving a truck and had smashed through the wall, dust going everywhere

"Are you guys okay?" She asked

Grover yelled and laughed, "Yeah, I'm okay!"

"Never better!" I spoke, laughing lightly

Next thing I heard was Medusas gasp and something falling to the ground

"Hey, guys. It's cool to open up your eyes," Percy spoke, tapping the hood of the truck

"Annabeth, that was great demi-god driving," Grover spoke, fist bumping Annabeth

"Thanks," she breathed

Then we looked to see Medusa's severed head laying before us

"Ugh!" Grover commented in disgust

"We should take it with us," Annabeth spoke

"The head? Oh, no," Grover groaned

I dug a giant bag out of my back pack, I kneeled down and picked up the head while the others argued over whether to take it or not

I carefully put it in the bag, careful not to touch it, and tied up the bag with the head inside, standing back up

I tossed it to Grover and he groaned with disgust

"Not stop whining on whether to take it or not, we're taking it," I told him

"Hey guys, look. The pearl," Percy spoke, looking at her arm and seeing the pearl on her wrist

"One down, two to go," Percy spoke

"Here, I'll keep track of 'em," I spoke, Percy stood up and handed the pearl to me, when he put it in my palm I felt a small spark

We looked at each other for a bit before I dug in my bag and pulled out a smaller bag, placing the pearl inside and tying it up

We took the truck to the next location, me and Percy in the back, Annabeth and Grover up front

"Would've been nice if Luke had earned us about Medusa," I commented

"Maybe he just didn't know," Annabeth mentioned

"GPS from the gods, where to next?" Grover asked

"Let's see," Percy spoke as he took a map out from his backpack

"The Parthenon in Nashville," Percy spoke

"Nashville?! Aw, great. Home of my least favorite music. Yee-haw!" Grover spoke, making me laugh

"Who said you had to listen to it?" I chuckled, making him roll his eyes in the mirror

We have been driving for what seemed like forever until Me, Percy, and Annabeth dozed off, Grover was still driving

I woke up on Percy's shoulder, getting up quickly and seeing Grover in the wrong lane as a semi-truck almost hit him

"Grover!" I yelled, he snapped away and jerked to the other side of the road, all of us jolting awake and screaming as Grover swerved in and out of different lanes

"Let's stop for the night! Let's stop for the night!" Percy exclaimed

"Yeah," Grover spoke, "Good idea."

We arrived at a motel in no time, Grover and Annabeth went to check us in while me and Percy would get the bags from the truck

"Good news and bad news," Grover spoke coming towards us as we had their bags

"What's the good news?" I asked

"Their biggest room is available, the bad news is it's only two queen beds a a couch, someone's taking the floor," Grover spoke

"We'll figure that out later, right now we'll order something to eat and freshen up, come one let's go to our room," I spoke, they nodded and we went to the room

We got to our room and put the bags on the desk and dresser their

"Write down what you want, Grover order the food over the phone, K? Make sure to order something huge for tomorrow morning before we hit the road again," I spoke, Annabeth took a pen a paper from the desk and wrote down what she wanted

She passed it around and then once we were done we gave it to Grover to order

He sat down to order it and Annabeth went to shower first

"I'm gonna head out to the pool for a bit, clear my head," Percy spoke, I nodded looking at something in the nightstand and heard the door close as Percy left

Grover was ordering the food and I tossed him my bag of money to bag the guy, he nodded in thanks

Once he finished ordering Annabeth came out of the shower and Grover went in next, Percy had been gone for a bit so I was gonna check on him, also hopefully clear my head a bit

I grabbed a towel from the closet in the room and headed out to the pool

So I walked out there with a towel and rolled up my jeans a bit, so I could sit next to the pool at least

I saw Percy sitting at the bottom of the pool, just thinking until he looked up and saw me, I smiled a bit as he came up to the surface

"Hey," I spoke, sitting down at the edge

"Hi," he spoke, swimming next to me

"Nice work today, Medusas not so easy to take down," I spoke

"Thanks," he spoke, slightly smiling

He then looked at my arm, "What happened to you?"

He saw my red marking of the lady's handprint from when she turned to stone, he lightly grabbed my arm and looked at it

"Oh, nothing the lady holding me had a tight grip. It'll heal though," I shrugged

"Check this out," Percy spoke, he then had the water run up past my wrist and slowly heal the wound, making me slightly smirk

"Impressive, but I could do better," I smirked

"Oh yeah? Let's see," he smirked

I focused on the water in front of me, I made a small wave and it crashed onto Percy, making him go under the water and come back up, spitting water out of his mouth, I chuckled

"How can you do that?" He questioned

"You dad gave me the gift of controlling water," I spoke

"But why?" He asked

"When I was born, I was sick. The doctors thought it would go away after all the medicine they gave me, but a few weeks later I became really sick. So my dad brought me to Olympus to ask Athena for her help, and in order for me to live I needed a gift from each of the gods and goddess on Olympus to live. So I'm more powerful than anyone back at camp," I explained

"Woah," Percy mumbled

"I know, sob story. But it is what it is," I shrugged

"No, I mean it's cool, well not cool that you almost died, but cool that you have all those powers," Percy rambled

"Meh, it's alright I guess," I spoke

"I think I should give you pay back for splashing me with water," Percy thought

"Oh yeah? How you gonna do that?" I smirked

"Like this!" He grabbed my hands and dragged my into the water, I shrieked as my body hit the cold water

I went completely under and came up, spitting water out of my mouth, Percy was laughing the whole time

"You're so gonna get it," I warned

"And what are you gonna do?" He taunted

I created another wave, splashing him over and over again with that wave, laughing as he struggled to stop it

He then went under the wave and swan towards me, grabbing my waist to make me stop

The water was still, our breaths were the only thing between us

We leaned in closer, I put my arms around his neck, we were inches apart until

"Percy, Zay! Get in here, guys. This is ugly," Grover yelled from the balcony, breaking us apart, I let go of Percy and swam towards the ladder, climbing out and Percy close behind

I grabbed the towel from the chair and tossed it to Percy, I grabbed the one for another chair and wrapped it around myself

"Perce, check this out, man. You're in TV," Grover spoke, all our food on the table by the window

"...surronding the missing boy, Percy Jackson, and his mother, Sally Ugliano. But their relatives have some interesting theories," One lady on the screen spoke, then it turned to some guy and another lady

"So, Mr. Ugliano, talk to me about your son, Percy Jackson," The blonde reporter asked

"No, he's not my son. He's stepson. He did not come from these loins. Ever since he started with the drugs and the alcohol, he's never been the same. Five nights ago, he tried to kill me and he threw his mother on the ground, and his cripple friend then attacked me from behind and knocked me out. When I woke up, Sally was gone. She was kidnapped by Percy. She would never leave without..." Percy's stepfather spoke

"Oh, shut up, Gabe," Percy hissed, turning off the Tv, "Great. Now I'm a fugitive."

"See? That's what I'm talking about, man. Gabe's always running his mouth. He's just mad because I busted him up with my crutches. Oh! Guys. . . I can't pee with her watching me," Grover groaned as he saw the Medusa head in the sink with ice

I quickly closed the curtains as a maid was passing by, making sure she didn't see us

"What are you thinking! If she saw that we'd have to run, put it in the bag," I scolded, hitting Grovers head

"Sorry! Geez, I didn't put it in the sink with ice," Grover groaned

"I'm gonna shower in the other bathroom, we'll get some rest and leave first thing in the morning," I spoke, they nodded

I grabbed my bag from the desk and headed to the bathroom, showering quickly I put on some black shorts and a white tank top

I put my hair in a French braid and head back into the room, I sat on the bed and put my bag next to the night stand

Annabeth and Grover packed up the remaining food and divided it out between us, putting it in our bags

"I'm just gonna go take a walk, I'll be back later," I spoke, grabbing my leather jacket and putting on my combat boots

"I'll come with," Percy spoke, getting up and putting his shoes on

I grabbed the room key and headed out with Percy to take a walk, it was getting slightly colder but I dealt with worse

"So, you're mom, what was she like?" Percy asked, breaking the silence

"She was a cool mom, let me stay up late, got me whatever I wanted, she did everything she could to make me happy and to protect me," I spoke, remembering everything she did for me

"What happened to her?" He asked

"She was killed taking me to camp half-blood. A mechanical bull crashed her car and she died from severe injuries, she-she basically died in my arms. On my birthday to which made it worse," I spoke, tears welling at the memory

"I'm so sorry if I hurt your feelings, I shouldn't have asked," Percy said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously

"It's okay, you'd find out sooner or later. Anyways that's not important, we should head back we have a long day tomorrow," I spoke, he nodded and we walked back to the room

I used the key to get in, Annabeth was asleep in the bed and Grover was passed out in the couch

"I'll take the floor," Percy offered as he took off his shoes by the door

"You don't seriously think your sleeping in the floor right? Just stay on your side and we'll be cool," I spoke, sitting in the edge of the bed and putting my jacket by my bag

"You sure?" He asked, I covered myself up in the bed

"Positive, just stay in your zone and we'll be fine, goodnight," I spoke, laying down and closing my eyes

I felt the bed shift as Percy climbed into the bed, staying in his side

"Goodnight, Zay," was all I heard before I fell asleep