Chapter Sixteen: Alexia and the Eye-less, Horrifyingly Cool, Snake Creature

----------------------------------------------------

Alexia's head hurt.

Mostly because of the bleeding wound caused by those metal-beaked birds, but partly because of the sign she was trying to read.

It was bad enough that her head was still dizzy from the slight pain on her forehead. But trying to read a neon-red cursive sign when you have dyslexia?

Nope.

They were currently in front of an abandoned looking emporium. Somewhere off the main highway, Alexia didn't  remember ever being in this place before,but it somewhat looked familiar.

Judging from the looks of the others, she could tell this was the right place.

Stone statues was positioned at the front of the building, some in dramatic poses, others in normal looking ones, all life-sized.

Now she may not be much of an artist, but she could tell that these statues were made by  an artist. Clear from the stunningly realistic details and facial expressions.

Strangely, most had horrified expressions on their faces, like they all had just watched a horror movie.

So she thought maybe the person who made them was some kind of horror movie fanatic.

"What does it say?", Drake ask, pointing to the cursive neon-red sign.

"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium", Chuck  and Clark stated, in unison.

"You can read?",Drake asked Clark, frowning.

Clark shrugged, "I'm not dyslexic. So I can read English but have a hard time at Greek"

"That seems unfair", Drake replied, pouting.

Alexia agreed to this, most half-bloods had ADHD and dyslexia. Even though it was useful for their survival. It sucked, big time.

Especially when you had to watch dubbed animes instead of subbed ones.

Suddenly Clark's face lost color. "Someone else is here", he said, almost as pale as Drake.

Surprised at this piece of information, Alexia scanned her surroundings, but there was no one else in sight.

"Are you sure about that?", Alexia asked, frowning.

Clark nodded, "Yeah, I sense magic"

"I agree", Gwen said suddenly, "I feel as if something isn't right"

"I smell a snake", Chuck muttered, sniffing the air with his small nose.

Alexia mentally panicked, she hated snakes. Sure, the ones that she took a picture with in the zoo were cute and seemed harmless, but she had watched too many 'Anaconda' movies to make her ever trust a snake again.

Not to mention she nearly died when a snake-lady shot an arrow at her.

"I don't sense anything", the dark-haired son of Hades said, frowning.

"This way", Clark stated, pointing towards the entrance of the emporium.

"Were going in there?!", she asked, eyeing the dark, abandoned structure fearfully. She had a bad feeling about this.

Outside of the building was a flag pole. The others might not have noticed this, but she did, the tattered flag was a few feet away from them, and it had the symbol of a scythe, the one the grim reaper always carried, to reap souls.

The flag was enough to give her chills.

As they entered the building, weapons drawn, they couldn't help but feel anxious. There were more statutes here than outside. And the daughter of Demeter couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched.

Gripping the flashlight with her right hand her dagger on the left, she tried to stay calm, but seriously, how can you stay calm when there were statues everywhere of terrified animals, humans and even weird looking creatures.

Was that a satyr?

Noticing the statue of a very detailed satyr, Chuck stiffened and pale.

Alexia thought it was weird that he reacted like that. It was a life-sized statue, nothing wrong---

Suddenly, she froze.

She realized that these weren't just statues. The horrified expressions, the detail and the size... How could she have been so clueless?

They were there, in Medusa's lair.

And there she was admiring the realistic details of the statues. Cue facepalms.

Clark froze, and he yelled at them to duck, and they all dropped to the floor as a blast of magic soared over their heads.

"WHAT THE F----"

Drake clamped a hand over her mouth and shot her a disapproving look.

"Mars Almighty!",Fred yelled, "What in the world was that?!"

Hissing was heard and they scrambled to their feet, grabbing their weapons frantically. An odd smell filled Alexia's nose, a smell that  reminded her of the times she went on feild trips to the zoo and passed the snake's habitats.

A roar erupted from somewhere and another shot of magic shot out from above them, narrowly missing Clark's head.

"Split up!"

She didn't know who screamed this, but she was happy to oblige.

Grabbing her flashlight, she stood up and ran to the different direction from the others.

Alexia could've sworn she saw a thick snake's tail slithering on the floor behind a woman's figure, but that was impossible, so she thought it must've been her imagination.

Well, she hoped it was.

A rough hand suddenly clamped over her mouth and she let out a muffled scream. Quickly, she kicked the person behind her with her leg and it let go of her with a yell.

She was about to pull out her dagger and bust out some moves she had learned when watching karate movies, when she realized it was only Drake.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?!", she hissed at him.

"Hey! I wasn't the one who kicked---"

"Duck! ",Gwen's voice rang out and the two of them immediately hit the floor, a magic spell narrowly missing them.

Groaning, Alexia raised her head and gasped as she saw the hideous monster before her.

The person in front of her had long dark hair and a distorted face. Her skin was wrinkly and old looking, as if this person had never heard about moisturizing lotion.

But what was worse, from the waist up, she was a wrinkly old hag who wore an old looking dark grey coat, below the waist, was a long, scaly green-ish tinted scale.

And where the eyes should have been were empty sockets, as if someone had gouged her eyes out. Which was both horrifying and cool...  So basically horrifyingly cool.

Seeing --well not really seeing, since she had no eyes-- Alexia's horrified and curious stare, the creature hissed, a fork tongue slithering momentarily out from her mouth, in between her two pointed canine.

"What a lovely girl you are... ",she hissed, her empty eye-sockets staring deep into her eyes. "You will make a fine meal!"

Alexia screamed and rolled away as the serpent-human creature lunged at her.

Using her foot, she kicked her hard in the stomach and the creature doubled over, groaning in pain as she clutched her stomach.

"Run!", Drake yelled and grabbed her hand as they made their way deeper into the garden gnome emporium.

The female snake version of Chiron sneered and cursed in a language she recognized was Greek. Being a dyslexic half-blood ,she understand most of her curses.

And to sum it up, taking away all the unappropriate words, the reptalian-humanoid was telling them to come back and give her the meal she deserved.

Alexia wasn't an idiot to follow her demands.

"What in the world was that thing?!",she whisper-yelled to Drake as they stopped to catch their breaths.

"She's too powerful to be a dracanae",Drake said, panting.

"Then what is she? "

He stared at her like she was an idiot.

"How should I know? ",he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do I look like I ever pay attention to the Greek Mythology lesson? "

Alexia facepalmed, "Then we're doomed"

A scream came from behind them, a scream that came from Fred.

"Fred!",Drake yelled and drew his midnight black sword.

Alexia stepped back, afraid of coming close to the wickedly sharp sword.

Drake shrugged off his bag and looked at her with determination. "You stay here, alright?"

She could only nod. He looked so serious,she never knew Drake, the idiotic dork could ever be so concerned for someone.

He glanced to where Fred's scream came from, a determined fire flickering in his eyes. "I gotta go save my bro"

And with that he sprinted away from her.

Gripping the flashlight tightly, she dropped her backpack next to Drake's and gritted her teeth.

"I'm sorry Drake",she muttered, determination and excitement bubbling up in her.

With a flick of her finger, she opened her flashlight, a gift from Demeter she had never used before.

It was both dangerous and deadly.

She may not have used it ever before, and it could possibly damage her health.

But it was a good day to kick some reptalian butt.

***************************

A/N:

Lucille's POV in the next chapter.

I'm a bit of a hurry right now. But, yeah.

I'm happy that I updated and am quite satisfied with the cover I made

(#ProudOfMyself)

Do you guys like the chapter?

Do you like the cover?

No? Yes?

Comment!

Anyway, thanks for reading. I have to go now.

Bye!

~It's Lu, not Lucille.

*************************