chapter IV

🌷 Daphne was beginning to dislike the pink poodle more and more. It kept hissing and barking at the squirrels in the trees, making them scurry away in fear.

Listen, she knew that she didn't look her best. She'd been on the streets for so long now she couldn't count the months, and showers and hairbrushes were really hard to come across. Daphne's hair was naturally so curly that brushing it would've turned it into a horrible fluffy mess anyway, but she supposed anything would've been better than the mess which hung around her shoulders, matted with knots and dried blood. But it didn't give the poodle an excuse to growl at her, and for Grover to respond with "No, it's okay, I wont let her hold you. She won't ruin your fuzz."

He looked at her apologetically, but the insult had already sunk. Daphne watched the poodle with loathing: she was always more of a cat person, anyway.

Before Medusa had caught her she was miserable. Wandering in a daze, knowing she wouldn't be fast enough to catch up with her friends she'd made promise to run, but still stumbling half blind along an unpaved pathway. She might've died from exhaustion if not frozen in stone. But getting rid of Gladioa was the happiest she'd felt in a while. It would be hard to miss the stupid pink poodle.

The owners had gratefully handed them $250 for their reward which they spent on train tickets and some extra food for their travels. Before they boarded, they found a public restroom which Daphne used to clean off most of the dirt and grime from her. They stopped off at a souvenir store and bought her some slightly oversided jeans since hers were ripped enough to be falling from her legs, but couldn't afford to replace her tattered and dirty pink shirt. She hid it from the mortals by sipping up a ski parka.

They spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain. Daphne took the time to relearn everything about her friends and discover what she'd missed. Turns out, Annabeth had hardly ever left Camp, and neither had Grover. But it was still nice hearing about it, even if it made her heart ache.

She thought about Luke and Thalia a lot in those hours where everybody else was asleep. Grover told her his passion for obtaining a searchers license and Annabeth had expressed her love for architecture; Daphne wasn't surprised - on the streets, they'd all guessed she was a daughter of Athena. They had never quite cracked the case on who Daphne's mother was, though... she wondered if they ever would.

They weren't attacked once, but nobody relaxed, especially Percy or Daphne. Soon the time came where she couldn't feign not being tired anymore, and kept nodding off in her chair. She was awoken each time by the memory of Medusa's horribly reptilian eyes, her snakes dancing around her head as though they were charmed.

They were hissing at her, biting and baring their sharp fangs. Daphne recoiled from them, still trying to swing at them with her sword. It was a futile attempt, and she felt something spread along the bottom half of her body. It halted her from moving, no matter how hard she wriggled and writhed. She felt it spreading, along her legs, trailing up her torso...constricting her like a cast made of solid marble.

Before she could scream, the stone had trailed up her throat and she couldn't breathe.

She awoke in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. In her arms was a newspaper she was reading before she fell asleep.

The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as Percy had got off the Greyhound bus before reaching Medusa's lair. He had a wild look in his eyes, the sword was a metallic blur in his 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 two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.

Daphne promised to herself that she'd keep the newspaper clipping for future blackmailing purposes if they survived the quest.

It was reaching morning outside, and Daphne decided to focus on watching the sun dip between the clouds in the sky to calm her labored breathing. Percy was asleep on Grovers shoulder, and Annabeth sat up with a yawn from where she was wedged beside Daphne.

"Sorry if I woke you up," she whispered to her.

Annabeth stretched her arms. "No, it's okay. The train should be stopping soon, anyway." she glanced at Percy and Grover. "Did you manage to catch him drooling?"

Daphne laughed quietly. "No, I didn't. Y'know, I'm not sure you weren't lying, Annabeth."

She turned to her with offence written all over her features. "I'm not lying! I told you, I saw it!"

"Huh?" Percy said groggily, pushing himself up. "Saw what?"

"Nothing." Daphne said hurriedly. "Good morning."

Grover stretched, Percy moving having jostled him. Before he was even fully awake he moaned, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth commanded, standing up and pulling their bags out with her. "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"The Gateway Arch," she explained with a roll of her grey eyes. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"

Grover and Percy exchanged looks. He looked like he wanted to say no, but figured that if Annabeth and Daphne were going, they couldn't very well let them go alone.

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. They threaded their way through the underground museum together, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept listing off interesting facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing Percy jelly beans, so he seemed contented. Daphne noticed that they were all blue, but didn't question it.

It was nice stretching their legs after being on a stuffy train for so long. Under the sun, Daphne felt rejuvenated. She snacked on a trail mix as she listened to Annabeth, beaming when her eyes shone as she spoke about the architecture.

Percy kept looking around at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" he murmured to Grover.

He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

Something about the expression on Percy's face made Daphne think he wasn't convinced.

"Guys," he started. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"

Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the
Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"

"Well, Hade-"

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

"Way downstairs." Daphne corrected him.

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

On the two days that they were stuck in the train, Annabeth and Daphne were given time to catch up. She found out that Annabeth had only left the camp a handful of times since arriving, and on her last field trip on her twelfth birthday they visited Mount Olympus. It was then when her mother had gifted her a magical Yankee cap, which held the power to turn her invisible.

"So..." Daphne smiled teasingly at her. "Who did you end up being claimed by?"

Annabeth turned to look out of the window embarrassedly. "I'm not admitting you were right."

Percy glanced between the two of them. "Did you guess she was a daughter of Athena?"

Daphne laughed, nodding her head slightly. When she looked at Annabeth, it was with a sort of nostalgic smile. "We had a lot of time to kill. Between fighting monsters and waiting for more monsters to come, we sort of looked to the future to keep us going. Guessing each others parents was a great way to sort of forget what was going on. And after Grover taught us about them, it was easy to guess Annabeths one."

"You were wrong about Luke, though!" Grover piped up. "Son of Hermes now, not Apollo."

Percy could understand that she made the connection between him and the sun god. He had sandy blond hair and a deep sunny tan, and the sort of trustable smile which lit up a room.

"Well, I was close. Need a tie breaker..." she hummed for a minute before her eyes caught Percy's with a grin. "Wait, don't tell me who yours is. Let me guess, okay?"

"Did Annabeth not tell you?" he mused, wondering why his face felt warm as she studied his features.

She chewed on the bottom of her lip, eyes flickering from his eyes to his hair. "You're gonna have to give me some time to guess for this one. I'm rusty." she admitted. "What do I get if I win?"

"You can have Percy's last jellybean." Annabeth offered her.

"Hey-" he started to protest.

"Deal." Daphne interrupted him.

"My jellybean." he said helplessly. Grover patted him on the back sympathetically.

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

"He was there?" Daphne asked in surprise.

She nodded. "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. "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. Annabeth and Grover exchanged looks.

"We don't," Grover said.

Daphne paled further than her already pearlescent complexion. If Hades so decided, he could reclaim Daphnes soul in a matter of seconds.

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Percy said unhappily, and Daphne agreed. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"

Percy'd almost mastered his jumpy nerves until he saw the tiny little elevator car they were going to ride to the top of the Arch, and he knew he was in trouble. He hated confined places. After being enclosed in a tomb of stone for five years, Daphne had to agree.

They got shoehorned into the car with a creepy-looking lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. Daphne figured maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it.

They started going up, inside the Arch. Daphne had never been in an elevator that went in a curve, and her stomach wasn't too happy about it.

"No parents?" the creepy lady asked them without sympathy. 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.

Daphne wondered if she thought they were all siblings. Annabeth with her beautiful dark complexion and Percy with his deep suntanned one. Grover with his mocha skin and Daphne with her deathly pale hue. She hadn't been as light before Medusa, so she wondered if some time in the sun would give her some pigment.

"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.

Daphne shifted, having already decided that she didn't like dogs, especially ones that gave her a side-eye about her dirty hair or ones that growled at them for no reason. Her hand drifted towards the sheath on her thigh where her knife sat.

"Sonny. Is that his name?" Percy asked uncomfortably.

"No," the lady told him.

She smiled, as if that cleared everything up. Daphne shifted uncomfortably.

"I like your necklace." she lied. The lady only answered her with another grin, flashing her pointy teeth.

What felt like it couldn't be soon enough, they finally arrived at the top of the Arch, the observation deck reminding her 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 Daphne had always been repulsed by cities. She preferred natural state of the countryside where you could see the trees without looking beyond a grey skyline.

She had never been able to sit still for long, and starting fidgeting within minutes. She was ready to go pretty fast, but didn't voice it because of how much fun Annabeth looked like she was having. She 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 them, the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.

Percy must've been feeling the same was as Daphne, because he was quickly steering her, Grover and Annabeth toward the exit and loading them into the elevator. He was about to get in when he realised there were already two other tourists inside. No room for an extra.

The park ranger said, "Next car, sir."

"We'll get out," Annabeth interrupted, looking a little nervous. "We'll wait with you."

Percy waved it off. "Naw, it's okay. I'll see you guys at the bottom."

Daphne looked alarmed. Her bad feeling since the elevator ride hadn't gone, and the idea of leaving someone behind rang the bells in the back of her head.

"Seriously, we can stay." she added with worry, but the door was already closing. The last thing she saw as the doors closed was Percy standing there awkwardly, his hands in his pockets. Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous as their car disappeared down the ramp.

They reached the bottom soon enough, and Daphne was quick to stand in the sun away from the shade. The instant feel of relief was quick hitting, the wind soothing her anxiety slightly.

"So..." Grover trailed off. "When he gets back down, where do we go next?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to reply, but as she did, the voice of a little girl screaming interrupted her. The trio turned to the source quickly, seeing the child with pigtails pointing up at the arch.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion as Daphne looked up to find a ragged, gaping hole in the side of the arch. The metal at the sides were steaming.

Great, she thought. Right as I join the quest, we blowtorch a national monument.

"That was Percy's car!" Daphne finally realised, stepping forward in fear.

"What do we do?" Grover yelled above the sound of the innocent civilians screaming. They both turned to Annabeth, and for once she was clueless. She had no answers.

Then, Daphne screamed again. Someone was falling from the arch, blazing through the sky as though their clothes were on fire. They were plummeting towards the river. Annabeth started running, pushing her way through the crowds towards the river. Grover had to pull Daphne along to knock her out of her shock, but soon enough, she was running too.

Out of breath, they stopped by the shore.

"His dad will save him," Annabeth insisted. "He still needs him."

"His dad?" Daphne coughed, breathing heavily from their run. "Is his dad Jesus? How the hell-" she leaned over again, overcome with coughing.

"Poseidon." Annabeth corrected her. Although she was keeping herself together, she still looked worried. "We need to look for him."

That explained all of the gaps in Daphne's belief about their quest. Why they couldn't travel in the skies, why Zeus was adamant that it was Percy who stole it. He never trusted his brother. It also explained why everybody seemed to be trying to kill him, just as they had tried with Thalia.

The sound of sirens came into focus as a few fire trucks and ambulances had arrived. Professionals jumped out from the vehicles, ready to assess the situation.

Daphne wondered if they'd tell her what happened. She felt clueless.

"Does he often destroy national landmarks?" Daphne asked them. They didn't answer her, which didn't give her much hope.

After a few minutes of searching to no avail, they were starting to get a lot more panicked, their efforts of calming Daphne going to no avail. She pushed her way through a crowd into the police line, trying to catch what they were reporting to the news. Grover bumped into some highly expensive camera equipment and had to step back a bit.

"... an adolescent boy," a reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities ..."

Daphne backed away and started searching for any bowed heads of familiar messy hair. Percy would've had to go a long way around the police perimeter: uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere. And from the newspaper she read earlier, he was already being searched for.

"Oh, this isn't good!" Grover said tearfully. "This is not good. Not at all. Oh, where is he?"

"Shut up and look for him!" Annabeth snapped.

"I am looking!" he cried. "That's what all of us are doi- Perrr- cy!" Percy turned and immediately got tackled by Grover's bear hug-or goat hug. He bleated, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see him. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I sort of fell."

"Sort of?" Daphne cried. "Percy! Six hundred and fifty feet? How do you sort of fall six hundred and fifty feet?!"

"Six hundred and thirty." Annabeth corrected her. "But honestly, Percy, what happened up there?"

When Grover finally released him, Daphne pulled him in for a short hug. They hadn't known each other for more than a couple of days, but she couldn't help but feel like they'd already made an unbreakable bond.

Behind them, a cop interrupted by shouting, "Gangway!" Daphne let him go as the crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. They recognised her immediately as one of the last people on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic coaxed. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." she was crying out. Then she saw Percy. "Look! There he is! That's the boy!"

He turned quickly and pulled Daphne, Annabeth and Grover after him to disappear back into the crowd. Daphne muttered apologies to the people she bumped into.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

Percy took a deep breath and started. "This is gonna sound weird, but you have to stick with me."

He started to recount what had happened on the elevator, followed by why he'd fallen from the sky. Apparently, the growling chihuahua had turned into a chimera, hellbent on killing him. Daphne didn't hide her awe as he told them how he defeated the beast, and plummeted to the ocean below as his last resort. He mentioned that he heard the voice of a woman through the waves, sending him a message from his father. Poseidon, Daphne now knew. She decided to pretend later that she guessed it before she was told so she could have the last jellybean.

"Whoa," Grover marvelled when he finished. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Before Annabeth could respond, they passed another reporter doing a news break, and Percy almost froze in his tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

Daphne poked him in the back to keep going, and they ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First things first," Annabeth promised. "We've got to get out of town.

Somehow, they made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. They got on board the
train just before it pulled out for Denver without drawing too much attention to themselves. Grover tripped twice and brought Daphne down with him once, but they still managed to make it by the skin of their teeth. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind them.

Daphne slipped into the seat beside Percy and whispered, "You owe me a jellybean."

♡ ࿔･ﾟ𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🪷🫧🌷

ʚɞ how cute would it be if I make "you owe me a jellybean" a them thing? 🥺🥺

♥︎ I'm not sure if you noticed, but the chapters are getting longer and longer!!

OK SO IVE FINISHED THE ENTIRE FIRST BOOK!!!! I have chapters to release but im only gonna release them if you guys show me some love okay 🙄🙄🙄