Published: August 7, 2021
Edited: July 17, 2022

~✰~

We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

We tried to keep a low profile because Percy's name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as we got off the Greyhound bus. Annabeth was invisible minus a blur of blonde and Grover was not to be seen. Percy and I however, were easily noticeable. Percy had a wild look in his eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.

The picture's caption read:

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with three teenage accomplices, one of whom resembles Jackson's twin sister who was reported missing only weeks after her birth. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told Percy, who had gripped the newspaper so tight that it had torn slightly. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still) or reading my Marine Biology book. Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. When I did manage to get some sleep my neck became stiff and sore. Once, Grover shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Percy and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," Annabeth asked us, once we'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?" Percy asked evasively.

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

I looked at Percy sharply. I knew he had the same dream we had last night, about the pit. The one that was much too like Tartarus for my liking. I never kept things from Annabeth though, so I told her about the dream we had.

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

"He offered our mother in trade. Who else could do that?" Percy pointed out.

"Anna is right, it doesn't remind me of Hades voice but I guess...if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask us to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

Percy shook his head, while I sat there wishing I knew the answer. I thought about what Grover had told us, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.

Where is it? Where?

Maybe Grover sensed my tense emotions because he snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.

Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns again. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. Dia knows that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time-"

"This time?" Percy prodded. "You mean you've run into them before?" My hand crept up to my necklace. I fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of my clay end-of-summer tokens, the one that represented Thalia's death.

"Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead." I muttered angrily, my knuckles turning white against the bead.

"You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom." Annabeth added, like she knew exactly what Percy and I planned to do.

"What would you do if it was your dad?" Percy asked, looking conflicted.

"That's easy," Annabeth snarled. "I'd leave him to rot."

"You're not serious?" Percy sounded incredulous.

"No she's dead serious." I assured him, dropping my necklace.

Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on me, but her gaze was distant, like she was seeing the seven uear old Neridia that she had picked up from the orphanage. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said dully. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

"But how...I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital...."

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife. My dad told her about my mom and she hated me for it."

"Helen picked me up from a Virginia orphanage when I was six. It's just her luck that I happened to be a Demigod. They never knew for sure but she and Fredrick still had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend we didn't exist." I added bitterly.

Percy stared out the train window, his eyes sad.

"My mom married a really awful guy," Percy told her softly. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. The ring was her father's. I often wondered why she wore it if she hated him so much.

"He doesn't care about me," she whispered hoarsely. "His wife- my stepmom- treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children and Neridia whenever she could. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened- you know, something with monsters- they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away, Dia came along."

"How old were you?"

"Same age as when we started camp. Seven."

"But...you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourselves."

"Not alone, no." I agreed. "Athena watched over us, guided Annabeth towards help. We made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of us, for a short time, anyway."

Percy seemed to want to ask what happened, but Annabeth and I were lost in sad memories.

~✰~

Toward the end of our second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, we passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis.

Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to me like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.

"I want to do that," she sighed wistfully.

"What?" Percy asked cluelessly.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years." I mouthed the words along with her, I knew them by heart.

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?" I smacked the back of his head.

Annabeth's cheeks flushed angrily. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

I watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below and Percy winced like the blonde had slapped him.

"Sorry," Annabeth amended softly. "That was mean."

"Can't we work together a little?" I pleaded.

"I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?" Percy added.

Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess...the chariot," she ventured tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?" I proposed.

We rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.

"I suppose," she relented at last.

We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told us we'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.

Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he grumbled, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth laughed, "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"The Gateway Arch," I explained as Annabeth bounced on her toes trying to see the exit. "This may be her only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"

Grover and Percy exchanged looks. Grover shrugged.

"As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."

~✰~

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. We threaded our way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other artifacts from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling us interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing me and Percy jelly beans, so I was okay.

I kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" I murmured to Grover. He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff.

"Underground," he muttered distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

But something felt wrong to me. I had a feeling we shouldn't be here.

"Guys," Percy mused. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"

Annabeth and I had been in the middle of reading a plaque about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but we looked over.

"Yeah?"

"Well, Hade-"

Grover cleared his throat loudly. "We're in a public place....You mean, our friend downstairs?"

"Um, right," Percy changed his track. "Our friend way downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"

"You mean the Helm of Darkness," I said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."

"He was there?" Percy asked, his dark eyebrows raised.

Annabeth nodded, moving towards the next display. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus- the darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true...."

"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed, still munching on a yellow jelly bean. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"

"But then...how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" Percy asked quietly.

Annabeth and I exchanged dark looks.

"We don't," I whispered.

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Percy rolled his eyes. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"

~✰~

I'd almost mastered my jumpy nerves when I saw the tiny little elevator car we were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and I knew I was in trouble. I hate confined places. They make me nuts. And confined spaces that were going to take me up in the sky, close to an angry Zeus was ten times worse.

We got shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. I figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.

We started going up, inside the Arch. I'd never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and my stomach wasn't too happy about it.

"No parents?" the fat lady asked us with a simmering smile that made me nervous.

She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.

"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings."

The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious.

Percy said, "Sonny. Is that his name?"

"No," the lady told us. Then she smiled, as if that cleared everything up.

At the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminded me of a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything I like less than a confined space, it's a confined space six hundred feet in the air. I was ready to go pretty quick. I held on to Percy's arm like it was a lifeline.

Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor. She probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for me and my acrophobia the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.

Percy and I forcefully steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and I was about to get in myself when I realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for us.

The park ranger said, "Next car, sir, ma'am."

"We'll get out," Annabeth assured us. "We'll wait with you."

But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so I waved her off, "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."

Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.

Now the only people left on the observation deck were me, Percy, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.

I smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.

Wait a minute.

Forked tongue?

Before I could decide if I'd really seen that, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at me. I reached into my pocket and gripped Whirlpool.

"Now, now, sonny," the lady scolded. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."

"Doggie!" Cried the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"

His parents pulled him back.

The Chihuahua bared his teeth at me, foam dripping from his black lips.

"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."

Ice started forming in my stomach. "Um, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"

"Chimera, dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."

She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, I saw that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.

The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar. The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster. The Chimera was now so tall its back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA-RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS-IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS- EXT. 954.

I realized I hadn't even clicked my sword. My hands were numb. I was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and I knew that as soon as I moved, the creature would lunge.

The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honored, Little heroes. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"

"Isn't that a kind of anteater?" Percy asked stupidly.

"POSIEDON'S UNDERPANTS PERCE, NOT THE TIME!" I wailed.

Echidna howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"

The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. I managed to leap aside and dodge the bite. To my relief Percy did as well. I ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors.

I couldn't let them get hurt. I pulled out my sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!"

The Chimera turned faster than I would've thought possible.

Before I could swing my sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at me.

I dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off my eyebrows.

Where I had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.

Great, I thought. We just blowtorched a national monument. Percy dodged around the Chimera and stabbed at it's paw. As the Chimera turned, I slashed at its neck. That was my fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. I tried to regain my balance, but I was so worried about defending myself against the fiery lion's mouth, I completely forgot about the serpent tail until it whipped around and sank its fangs into my calf. My whole leg was on fire. Percy yelled and tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around his ankles and pulled him off balance, and his blade flew out of his hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.

I managed to get to my feet, but I knew we had lost. I could feel deadly poison racing up to my chest. I remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to Percy, but there was no pen in his pocket. Maybe it had fallen too far away. Maybe it only returned when it was in pen form. I didn't know, and we weren't going to live long enough to figure it out.

I backed into the hole in the wall, leaning heavily on Percy. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips. Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"

The monster growled. It seemed in no hurry to finish us off now that we were beaten.

I glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. I had to protect these people. I couldn't just...die. I tried to think, but my whole body was on fire. My head felt dizzy. I was facing a massive, fire-breathing monster and its mother. And I was scared. There was no place else to go, so I stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.

If we died, would the monsters go away? Would they leave the mortals alone?

"If you are the children of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Neridia Jackson and heal yourself. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword Perseus Jackson. Prove your bloodline."

Yeah, right, I thought. I'd read that jumping into water from a couple of stories up was like jumping onto solid asphalt. From here, I'd splatter on impact. But then again...

The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast.

"You have no faith," Echidna told me. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."

She was right: I was dying. I could feel my breath slowing down. Nobody could save me, not even the gods. I backed up and looked down at the water. I remembered the warm glow of my father's smile when I was a baby. He must have seen me. He must have visited me when I was in my cradle. I remembered the swirling green trident that had appeared above my head the night of capture the flag, when Poseidon had claimed us as his children.

But this wasn't the sea. This was the Mississippi, dead center of the USA. There was no Sea God here.

"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward my face. I dodged and threw Whirlpool like a boomerang into it's mouth, hoping it would come back.

"Father, help us!" Percy screamed to the sky.

He turned and jumped, pulling me with him. Percy's clothes were on fire, poison was coursing through my veins. We plummeted toward the river.

~✰~
Word Count: 3684