§ Tasha's POV §

   Jacksonville was not what I imagined. Honestly, when I was told we had to go to Jacksonville, I thought it was a shrine for Percy Jackson. When I told Lovey this, she burst out laughing.

"A shrine? For that Kelp-Head?! No way!" she giggled. I rolled my eyes. She knew perfectly well that I hadn't been to Jacksonville before, after all, we had been living together during our lives in the mortal world.

"Guys, those goat people really do creep me out," Jack said, walking next to us as we walked off of the ship. Mark laughed.

"The satyrs? Nah, they're cool. Awesome at hacky-sack, too," he grinned. The four of us laughed happily. We could almost forget that we were on a quest, and just be four random friends on a trip to Jacksonville. But we knew we had a job to do.

   The four of us each had back-packs with clothes and supplies inside, and Lovey had the cornucopia tucked under her arm. We were all set, but as we watched the satyrs sail away, I wished I was with them. But, of course, I was one of the demigods of the prophecy.

"So... where are we going again?" Mark asked.

"Uhm... Cleveland city, if I remember correctly," I replied, "I have no idea where that is though."

"It's around 897 miles North from here, give or take a few," Jack replied. My eyes widened.

"H-how did you know that?" Lovey asked, her eyes wide too.

"I just Googled it," he replied, holding up his phone. In one fast movement, Lovey smacked the phone to the ground and stood on it, smashing it to pieces. Jack looked outraged.

"Hey!! What was that for?" he asked furiously.

"Monsters can track us with your mortal cellphones! That's why Lovey and I were so surprised you hadn't been attacked before! Our phones have been made monster-proof by Leo, a friend of ours," I explained loudly.

"Come on, let's just hide out in that diner over there... maybe the mortal smell will throw any monsters off-course," Lovey suggested. We followed her to the diner, Jack still grumbling about her breaking his phone, and took a seat in a large booth. A young waitress shuffled over.

"What would you guys like to order? I would recommend the salad," the waitress asked, staring pointedly at Jack. Lovey ordered chicken nuggets, of all things, but Mark, Jack and I weren't that hungry, so we just ordered a bunch of brownies to share, plus double-thick milkshakes.

"Hey, isn't that cannibalism, you eating chicken?" Mark asked Lovey when the food arrived. She shrugged, her face already stuffed with the golden nuggets, dipping sauce dripping down her chin. The son of Athena rolled his eyes at his half-sister.

"Hey, mommy! Look at the lady! Her hair's on fire!" a young girl shouted, pointing at our waitress. The girl's mother told her to stop telling lies, and to sit down, but the hairs on the back of my neck were prickling. I focused hard on our waitress, and her image flickered. Her skin went deathly pale, her eyes bright red, her hair flaming, with two odd legs. She was an empousa! Looking around, I saw even more monsters, veiled by the Mist. In fact... almost all of the people in the diner were monsters.

"Mark... Jack... Lovey... we need to leave, Now," I whispered urgently.

"Why? I'm enjoying these brownies," Jack grinned, his face smeared with chocolate. Lovey hardly noticed me speaking, her attention solely focused on her food, but Mark looked at me intently. At least he was listening to me.

"Is this something to do with the weird guy with one eye at the table behind you?" he asked softly. My heart stopped. There was a cyclops behind me? EEK!!

"Lovey, put down your chicken nuggets... unless you want to become cyclops food, we need to leave," I whispered urgently. She froze, her cheeks still stuffed with food.

"Fyfopf?" she mumbled.

"Yeah, cyclops. At the table behind us. And our waitress is an empousa," I replied softly. Her eyes widened. She called over the monster-waitress, and smiling sweetly, she requested the cheque. We were trying not to call attention to ourselves. They couldn't find out we were demigods, we were out numbered ten to one. They'd slaughter us!

   We paid for our meal, and were slowly walking to the door when the little girl from earlier screamed,and for good reason too. The emposai waitresses had abandoned their mortal disguises, and were blocking the doorway. We attempted to go through another exit, but that was blocked by a snarling hellhound.

"Ohhh crap," Mark swore. Lovey was holding her two daggers in her hands, Mark was brandishing a sharp knife he'd taken off of a table, and Jack had a broken bottle. Me? I had my hair-clip, which turned into my double-bladed quarterstaff, which I twirled threateningly.

"Well well... looky at these tasty little snacks," an empousa crooned, staring hungrily at the boys. My eye twitched.

"Not for you," Lovey snapped angrily, her knuckles white from gripping her daggers tightly.

"S-stay away," Jack stammered, little thorny vines cracking and crawling through the tiles of the diner floor. A cyclops laughed cruelly.

"Stay away," he mimicked, imitating Jack's voice perfectly. Then, in his own voice, the cyclops said, "These four are what the gods send to fight us? Pathetic."

  In the next second, that cyclops had one of Lovey's daggers lodged in his eye. As he disintegrated, the dagger clattered to the floor. When an empousa tried to pick the dagger up, the handle sprouted spikes which pierced through the monster-lady's hand.

"That'll teach you to call me pathetic," Lovey sneered. The monsters attacked, and the four of us began defending ourselves. At one stage, after deactivating the safety mechanism, Lovey tossed the dagger she had in her hand to Jack, and transformed into an owl. She attacked the cyclopes' single eyes, blinding a few of them.

   I killed the empousa that had Lovey's other dagger, deactivated the safety, and threw it to Mark. My quarterstaff blades froze anything they touched, which helped Mark and Jack, since they weren't as experienced at fighting as Lovey and I were.

   Suddenly, a cyclops hit me in the head, sending me crashing to the floor, and my weapon clattering against the tiled floor. A scream of pain that wasn't mine echoed through my head. Lovey. As I was passing out, all I remember seeing was an angry flash of red and green.

   Then, black.