~ ☼ ~

When Kiera, the person I'd eventually woken up to take over my guard position (it was not Aria. We really needed to get her more arrows.) woke us all up too, it was past dawn. Blearily, we got our bags back on, looking around the mall, which was eerie in the daylight.

Somehow more than it was at night. At night, it felt like a horror movie, but the contrast between birds chirping outside and absestos (I really hope it wasn't actually asbestos. I didn't want the fox to be diagnosed with mesothelioma!) falling inside was uncanny.

None of my friends noticed the radio set up. I had mixed feelings about this. In the light of day, I was kind of embarrassed, but I also wanted them to all clap me on the back and tell me that was really thoughtful of me.

Call me self-absorbed, but I call it being an insecure 15 year old. Either way, when they all headed out, I decided to tell them to go on ahead, pretending I'd forgotten something inside.

Instead, I walked over to the radio and put on Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. As the sweet, dulcet, sorrowful bass line of Helena started, I felt a deep relief in my chest. I wished I had thought to write him a note or something, but I didn't. So I just left it running and ran after my friends, happy I'd found a kindred spirit once again.

~ ☼ ~

"Well," said Lucas, as we stood at the edge of the Merrill Park Mall parking lot. "I have no money left at all."

He pulled out his cargo short pockets, and indeed, all were empty. He was carrying all the camping gear, which at this point we might be able to sell off for money because we'd only used it once. I imagined putting it on E-bay with the description, Personally used by the Goddess Artemis! But I didn't think that would attract the kind of buyers I wanted.

"What the heck do we do, then?" I asked.

"Hitchhike," suggested Kiera, through a yawn. We all stared at her. Then I shrugged.

"Yeah," I said. "At this point, okay."

So we set off to try to hitchhike.

~ ☼ ~

Hitchhiking, by nature, is a very dangerous activity. Even more so when it's by kids. Actually, I would dare to say that kids should never, ever hitchhike. But we figured with all four of us together, we'd be fine. Hopefully.

We stood at the edge of the ramp onto the highway, watching the sun rise, with our thumbs out. Occasionally, Kiera would jump and try to catch a particularly nice-looking car's attention. But after an hour, we'd had no luck, and we were all getting restless.

"Come on," said Lucas, as Kiera and I moaned together. "Just a little bit longer. There has to be someone."

Indeed, like he'd predicted it - maybe he was the psychic one - just a few minutes later, a pick up truck slowed down beside us. It was red and horribly rusty, probably at least a couple decades old. The guy who was driving it looked exactly like you would think an old pickup driver in Ohio would look like. For a second, I wondered if I was in Children of the Corn instead of my life, then I remembered all the villains in that were kids.

"Hi," Lucas said awkwardly as the guy rolled his window down. "Can you give us a ride?"

The man considered it; he had on a cowboy hat and a muddy red flannel. "Where to?"

"As far west as you can take us," said Lucas.

The man considered it again. I wondered how long, exactly, he could wait at the bottom of the ramp and wait for. Then he said, "Sure. Hop on in, kids."

He gestured to the truck. Luckily, it had a backseat, so we wouldn't have to ride in the bed and possibly get arrested. Lucas got up front with him, making sure to slide all the way to the far end of the bench, while us girls got in the back. The man kicked the vehicle back into drive, then he pulled off onto the highway and set off at 80 mph.

Immediately, I almost told him to stop. Then he slowed down, laughing.

"Ah," he said, punching Lucas in the arm. Hopefully jokingly. Lucas recoiled, rubbing his arm, as the guy said, "That scared y'all didn't ya? I'm just pulling your legs, promise."

He held up both hands to do a double sign of the cross. This meant he was driving without hands, and as he began to swerve towards the edge, Lucas had to reach over and redirect it.

"I got it," said the guy. He took the wheel back, and I could see him smiling, amused, in the rearview mirror. "Don't y'all worry."

I sat there for a long moment before I finally looked at Kiera and Aria. They were both shaking their head.

I got out Liakada, knowing the guy would see it as a pen or a drumstick, but did nothing else.

"Well," said Lucas. He cleared his throat, trying to be a proper lawyer's son. "Uh, what's your name?"

"Name's Tito." He reached into his console and pulled out a toothpick, which he used with one hand while continuing to drive the truck. "And you?"

"I'm-"

"I'm Alison," said Aria quickly. "This is... Emily, Hanna, and Spencer."

I frowned at her, but Kiera caught on quick. "Yep. I'm Emily."

I guess that made me Hanna. I guess that was a fine name. I wonder where she'd come up with it.

"Hm," said Tito. "Nice names."

"Thanks."

"Where ya heading?" he continued. He eyed us each in the rearview mirror, and I realized they were both blue -  too blue, like Thalia Grace blue. Her eyes had shown that she was a Daughter of Zeus, easily.

I felt uneasy.

"Detroit," said Aria.

"Detroit," repeated Tito, slowly.

"Yep."

Suddenly, before any of us could add anything, Tito swerved the car. We nearly went off the side of the road, making my heart jump. I glanced backwards and saw he was avoiding roadkill in the middle of the road.

Tito followed my gaze, then spat. "I hate vultures."

I hated vultures too, I guess, but the man had just spat. In his car. Without lowering the window. I stared at Aria and Kiera, who were shaking their heads even more rapidly now. Then I glanced at Lucas, who looking at me with the same panicked look.

Shoot.

Lucas brought out his phone. Then he typed something in. Then he said, "Oh, AJ, by the way, here's that game I wanted to show you-"

I was too impressed by his quick lie to criticize his bad acting skills. Luckily, Tito didn't seem to think anything of it as Lucas passed me his blackberry. Rather than a game, it was a text halfway to somebody named Ethan.

Vultures. You know what that means?

I looked back up at him. He was looking at me, waiting for my reaction; upon meeting his eye, he quickly looked away. I swallowed, then said, "Oh, yeah. This is really cool. I don't... really get how it works, though."

"Oh."

Lucas leaned between the front seats as much as he could without touching Tito's burly body. I leaned forward to help him, and he grabbed the phone.

"Let me see," he said. "Oh, yeah. It's on hard mode, that's why. I'll change that real quick."

I really liked our fake facade here. We were good liars, even with Lucas' lack of subtlety. Finally, still leaning back, he passed me the phone again, meeting my eye on the way up; for a moment, we looked at each other, and his stormy eyes told me we were in deep, deep danger.

And they made me feel sparkly and warm all over.

The new unsent text said: It's Tityos. He was chained in the underworld to have his liver plucked out by vultures. He tried to r*pe Leto. Leto was Apollo's mom

Why he had to write in full grammar, I couldn't say. Remind me never to give this guy my AoL.

More importantly, we were screwed.

I swallowed, audibly enough that Tito glanced at me. Quickly, I jerked Lucas phone like I was rage quitting.

"Shoot!" I said. "This is seriously easy mode? It doesn't feel like it."

"Well, just keep trying," said Lucas, casually. Out of the side of his mouth.

Tito didn't notice, thank gods.

I had to think quickly. I had to come up with something without them talking to help me. I could just reach around and stab Tito, but- not while we were going 65 mph on the highway. That was the fast lane to both a crash and possible police involvement.

I thought and thought. What could I do?"

Unbearably, my mind went back to Apollo. Maybe he had been warning me about this. I could see him thinking hitchhiking was a stupid choice, and this was someone who had assaulted his mom...

He'd told me to use music. How could I use music to get out of this?

"Hey, Tito?" I asked. "Can we get some tunes going?"

"Huh?" Tito was distracted. Whatever he'd been thinking of, maybe planning my unlikely demise, he was pulled away from it now. He shrugged. "Sure, kid."

He turned on the radio, and immediately classic rock came on. I don't know what it was - it was the kind of misogynistic hair metal that my parents never listened to. My mom preferred classical and my dad was a singer-songwriter fan. Briefly, I missed listening to Johnny Cash with Alec; I would've rather sappy stuff than this.

"You know what?" I said. "Can we change the station?"

"I'll do it," said Lucas quickly, to my relief. "You just say when."

He turned the dial; it was country. "Next," I said.

Again, and this time it was pop. "Next," I repeated.

This time, it was rock; I heard Fall Out Boy, and I almost screamed. It physically pained me to say it, but... "Next."

We did this continuously until we'd gone through every station. That is not an exaggeration. That is the truth, because the same song was playing.

When I started to say, "Next!" again, Tito finally slammed the radio off.

"You know what?" he said, with thinly disguised rage. "How about y'all get a ride with someone else? Would that work? I think it would."

He gave me a fake, toothy grin in the rearview mirror as he pulled into an empty rest stop somewhere outside of Akron. We were in the boonies, which meant that either of us could get away with anything. And he knew it; I could just feel that he was itching to do something.

He pulled into a parking space and put the truck into park. He reached for the console again, starting, "Well-"

"Well," I said, "You fucking asshole."

Immediately, I swung my sword around to rest against his neck. He quickly stiffened, eyes blazing.

"What the hell?" he snarled.

"Tell me who you are," I said, "So I know I'm not killing an innocent. And maybe I'll let you go."

The man spat once again, and it landed on his dashboard. I almost recoiled in disgust, but I held my ground.

"I told you," he said. "My name is Tito."

Lucas, watching him, scowled nearly as much. Then he reached forward and opened the console all the way. It was more of a glove box, really, beneath the radio next to the normal glove box, and when the door fell open a bunch of stuff fell out with it. Including a knife.

Lucas quickly picked it up, even as Tito strained for it. "Give me that!"

But there was no use; if he moved forward, his throat would be-

Well, you know what it would be.

Lucas lifted the knife, examining it and showing it off to us. Indeed, it was celestial bronze. That was all I needed to know. Carved on it were the words, in Ancient Greek, I will not let the gods stop me.

It disgusted me. It felt like a redneck's homemade hunting knife, with some conservative message on it, but instead fitting our world. Tito locked my eyes in the mirror, and immediately I saw deep darkness in them, amongst the blue. This man had assaulted my grandmother.

It did not take me more than a minute to turn my sword and stab him in the heart.

"Ah!" yelled Kiera, squirming backwards as the very tip of Liakada came through the back of the seat in front of her.

Tityos slumped backwards; then he disappeared in a poof of golden dust. We'd made the right assumption. My heart was beating like crazy.

"My gods," said Lucas, after a long moment of silence.

"My gods, indeed," I said, pulling out Liakada. "Hades yeah."

I felt alive. Not because I'd killed someone, of course, but because I'd totally outwitted him. Whatever plan he'd had in picking us up, maybe even stalking us to this point since it was such a specific person - unless he just hung out in Cleveland, Ohio, waiting for random children of Apollo to pass through - he didn't even get to start it. I'd saved us. maybe I was worth something more than just being slashy slashy after all.

I grinned. Then I crawled over the front console and into the front seat, thinking of Apollo as the sun shone over the tree tops. Thanks, Father, I thought.

I put the car back into drive, running on pure adrenaline. Everyone was staring at me; then Kiera grinned, too.

"Hades yeah," she echoed. She patted me on the shoulder. "That was so clever."

"That was really smart," Aria admitted, looking a little shaken but proud nonetheless.

"Aren't you 15?" Lucas asked.

"I have a permit," I said, smiling at him. "Let's go to Chicago."

Then we got on the road again, heading straight for the bean.

~ ☼ ~

A/N: Hanna is the best liar and you can't tell me otherwise :') iykyk