Mom hauled ass down dark country roads in Gabe's Camaro.

I sat in front, while Annie sat in the back with Percy and Grover. She looked miserable, since Grover smelt like wet animal. Or maybe the smell was reminding her of that one goat chasing after her during our kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo.

My mind seemed to be set on auto-play of: Percy's best friend is half-goat.

It was oddly quiet until Percy said, "So, you and our mom...know each other?"

"Not exactly, I mean, we've never met in person, but she knew that I was watching you three," Grover explained.

"Watching us?" repeated Percy.

"Keeping tabs on you three, making sure that you were okay," said Grover. "This was after I found out that you three are triplets. I'm not faking being your friend, I am your friend."

"Um...what are you, exactly?" asked Percy.

"He's a satyr, Perce," I replied.

Percy said, "So, from the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

Grover did his phlegmy "blaa-ha-ha" sound that I now recognized was a goat bleating. It reminded me of the sound that the one goat made before it charged at Annie.

"Goat," said Annie. "He's half-goat."

"Satyrs," said Percy like it wasn't clicking. "Like from Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?" prompted Grover.

"You kept telling us that Mrs. Dodds didn't exist!" yelled Annie. "Let me go, Percy!"

I looked back to see that Percy held onto Annie's arms.

"The less that you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," said Grover as if we should've known that. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination, but it was no good. You three started realizing who you are."

I thought that was a stretch to be honest. I barely knew who I was. Apparently I was the murderous one but that didn't mean anything.

"Who we – wait a minute, what do you mean?" asked Percy.

There was that weird bellowing noise and for a brief moment I felt terrified. I think I saw Mom look anxious and worried too, but it went away, as if she knew that I looked at her.

"You three, there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety," Mom said.

"Safety from what? Who's after us?" demanded Percy.

He was always the overprotective brother in a way.

"Oh, nobody much," said Grover, "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"But it doesn't make sense," I said. "In the myths, monsters go after—"

"Not right now, Addie!" bellowed Grover.

Annie started, "But we're not—"

"Please, not right now!" demanded Grover.

My mind was too frazzled by everything to heed his warning.

Mom turned left very hard. We drove past dark farmhouse and wooded hills. There was PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES on white picket fences.

But why would monsters come after us? Only monster go after demigods. I think in one myth there was a mortal girl who had to go into a maze of some kind.

But there was that person with a one eye, who I think was a Cyclops.

"Stop it, Addie!" ordered Grover. "Can you please drive faster, Mrs. Jackson?"

"Where exactly are we going, Mom?" Annie asked.

"The summer camp that I told you about," said Mom. Her voice was tight, like she was trying to make sure that she wasn't sounding scared for our sake. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place that you didn't want us to go," Percy grumbled.

"Please, dear, this is hard enough. Try to understand, you're all in danger," said Mom.

"All because some old ladies threatened us by cutting yarn?" asked Annie.

"Those weren't old ladies, those were the Fates. Do you know what it means – the fact they appeared in front of you three?" asked Grover.

"I refuse to believe that we're going to die!" I exclaimed shrilly.

"I didn't say 'you,'" said Grover.

"That's what it means," I said. "One of us is going to die!"

"No, it means that someone's going to die," said Grover.

"Then why appear in front of us?" I demanded.

"Children, please!" said Mom. She pulled the wheel hard and we swerved. I managed to get a good look at what she swerved to avoid.

It was a dark figure...with what looked like horns...but was it wearing tightie-whities?

"What was that?" asked Percy.

"I would say the Devil but I doubt it," I replied.

"Addie!" exclaimed Grover.

"Hey, man, lay off, okay?" replied Percy.

"We're almost there," said Mom, "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

"Something's not right," said Annie.

"That's because we're being chased after a guy in tightie-whities," I said.

"No," said Annie. "Not that."

The hair on my arms stood on end and there was a blinding flash and I screamed.

Annie groaned, and I agreed with her.

Luckily the airbags didn't deploy or that would've made everything worse.

"Ow," Percy groaned.

"Percy! Annie! Addie!" called Mom.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Me too," said Addie.

"I'm okay," added Percy just to ruin the theme.

We had somehow swerved right into a ditch after being struck by lightning. At least we weren't dead. The driver side door was wedged right into mud and the roof was split right open. Rain was pouring in.

"Grover!" called Percy, sounding worried.

"Food," groaned Grover. I rolled my eyes.

"You three, we have to..." Mom trailed off.

I looked back. Through a flash of lightning and the mud-splattered windshield, I saw a figure lumbering towards us.

It was a huge guy who had upraised hands giving him the impression of having horns, but he actually had horns.

"What. Is. That?" asked Percy.

"Get out!" ordered Mom. "Addie, get out through the passenger seat! Run to that big tree, which is the property line! Get over the hill and to the big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back! Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

I struggled with the door and got it open.

I climbed out, and helped Percy, who helped Annie out. We had to get Grover out of the car, but it was hard to do when he was dead-weight.

The man was getting closer.

"Someone, run to that farmhouse and yell for help!" ordered Mom.

Annie was the fastest, so she took off running.

Grover was practically useless, so Mom and Percy had to carry him, but I got irritated with him and picked up his feet – er – hooves, to make the load lighter. We glanced back.

The thing was probably seven or eight feet tall, with his muscles bulging like one of those overly muscled men on Muscle Man magazine.

It was the Min – no can't say it. I don't want to say it. It couldn't be true.

Percy started, "That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," said Mom. "I wish I'd known how badly they wanted to kill you three."

Percy started, "But he's the Min—"

"Don't say his name. Names have power," said Mom.

The pine tree was still way too far, I could hear Annie running, so she hadn't quite made it to the tree yet.

"How about we just leave Grover here?" I asked.

"No, he's coming with us," said Percy.

The man-bull roared and I looked over Percy's shoulder. He had picked up Gabe's Camara and raised the car over his head. He threw it down the road. It slammed into the asphalt, flipped right into the air, bounced two times, and skidded in a shower of sparks for a while, before stopping.

The gas tank blew up, startling me.

Gabe had said, Not a scratch.

Oops.

Gabe was going to kill me, that is, if the man-bull didn't kill us first.

"When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way – directly sideways. He can't change directions very well, once he's charging," Mom explained. "Do you understand?"

"How do you know so much about him?" I asked.

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you three near me, especially with triplets. I should have given one or two of you away when you were four, but I couldn't. I loved you three so much," explained Mom.

For a brief moment, I wondered what life would've been like if Mom had given either Annie or me away. I had no doubt that she would've kept Percy.

There was another bellow for the man-bull and I noticed that he was stomping up the hill.

The hill was getting slicker and Grover was getting heavier.

"Go, you two! Separate! Remember what I said," Mom ordered.

Percy ran left and I ran right. I looked back to see that the Minotaur had decided to go after Percy.

"Percy, jump!" I yelled right as the Minotaur charged at Percy. He jumped out of the way and the Minotaur bellowed again.

Where the hell was Annie at? She must've been halfway to the farmhouse by now.

The Minotaur was eyeing Mom, who was backing down the hill slowly.

"Run, you two! I can't go any farther. Run!" ordered Mom.

The Minotaur charged at Mom and she tried to side-step, but the Minotaur grabbed her by her throat. She struggled and hit the air trying to get away.

"Mom!" Percy and I shouted.

"Go!" Mom choked out.

The Minotaur squeezed Mom's neck and she dissolved into a golden mist. There was a blinding flash and she was gone.

"No!" Percy yelled for the both of us. I was to much in shock and the Minotaur bore down on Grover.

"Hey!" yelled Percy, "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

The Minotaur roared, as if offended at being called ground beef instead of stupid.

Percy shook his red raincoat at the Minotaur. The Minotaur charged and Percy jumped straight up in the air, jumped right off the Minotaur's head, turned and landed on the Minotaur's neck.

I was in awe and surprise, "How did—"

The Minotaur slammed right in the tree, and he staggered around, trying to shake him off. The Minotaur looked right at me and I picked up a stick, and swung it around at the Minotaur. "Back off! I know how to use this! Don't make me use it!"

The Minotaur swung at me and I did the cool Matrix back bend bullet dodge. I straightened up and hit him in the stomach with the stick. It broke and the Minotaur pushed me onto the ground, so my moment of awesomeness died, along with my pride. I held up the two sticks and swung it at the Minotaur as if that would protect me.

He started advancing and then stopped, standing up straighter.

Snap!

The Minotaur screamed and flung Percy right off of him. Percy flew through the air and hit a tree, back-first.

"Percy!" I screamed. Percy was holding the Minotaur horn. I ran over to Percy and helped him up.

The Minotaur charged. Percy and I tugged on the horn and when he came forward, we plunged the horn right into his furry rib cage.

The Minotaur roared in agony and flailed, clawing at the horn, but he started disintegrating, not in a flash of light like Mom, but in sand, like Mrs. Dodds. The wind started blowing the sand away and then the Minotaur was gone, along with the rain.

Percy was shaking as he picked up the Minotaur horn, and Grover started moaning and saying 'food.' I probably would've found it funny, except Percy ended up collapsing right into my arms.

People decked out in what looked like armor came charging through the trees.

There was a girl with curly hair, who was probably the same age as me, stopped and looked around.

"Where is it?" demanded the girl.

"It turned into sand," I said. I was beginning to shake as the adrenaline I didn't know I was feeling started dying down and exhaustion started to creep in.

Two guys tried to take Percy from me, but I screamed at them to not touch him.

"We need to get him to the infirmary," said the blonde girl.

"I'll help my brother, you go get Grover," I snapped at her.

Who did she think she was? The high-priestess?

The girl glared at me and the others went to help Grover, who once again, moaned for food. I tried lugging Percy over the hill and a guy must've took pity on me and took one of Percy's arms.

"Did you really fight Minotaur?" asked the guy. I looked at him and was surprised to see that he was probably around my age.

"Yeah," I replied. We walked down the hill and to the farmhouse.

When we got there, a guy in a wheelchair sat talking to Annie.

Annie turned and looked at us.

"You look like crap," Annie said.

I flipped her off and Annie looked at Percy.

"Oh, my god, is Percy going to be okay?" asked Annie.

"He will be once we get him to the infirmary," said the guy who helped me with Percy.

"In fact, I think the three of you should get to the infirmary," said the wheel-chair bound guy, he looked worried. "You have been through a terrible ordeal."

I was beginning to buckle under Percy's dead weight and exhaustion, so Annie helped shoulder me and we climbed up the staircase to where the infirmary was apparently located.

"Thank you Annabeth, Corey, Nick, and Luke, you can go back to your cabins once you get Grover onto a bed," said...Mr. Brunner?

"He has to be the one," said Annabeth.

"Why are you talking about our brother like that?" asked Annie.

"Your brother?" asked Annabeth confused.

"Yeah, my and Addie's brother," said Annie, motioning to me and then Percy.

We got inside the infirmary and I kind of just pushed Percy onto the bed and he fell off. Annie glared at me and we put Percy on the bed.

"You're siblings?" replied Annabeth. "Like half-siblings?"

"No, we're triplets," I said.

"Triplets?" Annabeth said slowly like she never heard of the word before.

"Yeah, three children born from the same mother on the same day," Annie explained.

As I got on a bed, Annabeth was looking from Percy, to Annie, and then to me.

"This complicates things," said Annabeth.

"You all need to leave, they need rest," said Mr. Brunner again.

"Sweet dreams, sis," said Annie in a slightly mocking tone.

I flipped her off, "Screw you." I then passed out.