chapter VI

🎀 The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy. It almost made Daphne sad; one of her biggest dreams was to go to a theme park. With her track record with luck, it almost made sense that the first one she would ever see would be broken down.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

Daphne winced.

"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."

"And beautiful." Daphne added for good measure. She wasn't sure if she had made it up, but she almost felt her hair becoming a little less greasy.

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.

"Who is she? Echidna?"

Daphne wondered if Percy ever knew how to shut up.

"No, Aphrodite," Grover corrected, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," Percy frowned. He thought on it for a minute before clicking his tongue with recognition. "That's right. Hephaestus."

"What's your point?" Grover frowned.

Daphne suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?" she asked, squinting up at the barbed wire.

Then, Grover did something that Daphne hadn't expected at all. He called, "Maia!" and his shoes suddenly sprouted white feathery wings from the laces. It wasn't the weirdest thing she'd seen by far, but it was still creepy, and she didn't want anything to do with them as she recoiled.

Grover unsteadily flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, and grinned as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"

Annabeth, Percy and Daphne had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as they crawled over the top.

The shadows grew long as they walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit? Daphne was especially fond of the Hook - A - Duck station, though the water had all been drained and she could only count four ducks in the makeshift pond. Well, three after she slipped one into her coat pocket.

Though no monsters came to get them and nothing made the slightest noise, Daphne couldn't find herself able to let her guard down. The waterpark had an eerie quality she couldn't put her finger on, and she'd been running from monsters for so long it was written into her nature to be wary.

Annabeth was leading the front, as usual. For a moment, Percy fell into line with Daphne as Annabeth and Grover started talking to each other about some inside joke neither of them were a part of. It was awkward, at first, and Daphne couldn't handle it. She said the first thing which popped into her head.

"I've always wanted to go to a water park." she blurted out. "Go on one of the rides. I never have before, so this sort of seems like the perfect opportunity."

Percy looked at her, unconvinced as to why anybody would ever want to be there. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't want to come here?" she grinned. "But seriously. You have to admit...this is pretty cool."

"Yeah, I guess it is." he relented.

After couple of seconds of quiet, Daphne piped up again. "You think we can go on a ride here?"

Percy looked at the decrepit and broken rides surrounding them. "Sure, but it'll probably be the last thing you do."

Soon enough, they found a souvenir shop with the backdoor wedged open by a brick. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-

"Clothes," Daphne breathed in awe. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah," Percy frowned. "But you can't just-"

"Watch us." Annabeth pushed past him, Daphne following giddily in tow.

She snatched an entire row of stuff the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later Annabeth came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.

"You look like a walking billboard," Daphne giggled, grabbing the clothes Annabeth held out for her and disappearing into the same changing room. She relished in finally being able to peel off her dirty and tattered shirt, replacing it with a replica of Annabeth's, but blue. She kept her trousers in her backpack in case the summer nights got colder, but changed into the same shorts. Daphne didn't change her warm winter boots, but made sure to grab some extra socks.

"Whattdya think?" she posed for Annabeth.

She grinned. "You look like if a walking billboard got hit by a truck."

Daphne punched her arm feigning annoyance. For the first time of the trip, she was full with fries and blissfully happy. All she needed now was a lovely hotel with an immersive arcade, and she would never be happier.

"What the heck." Grover shrugged. "Nobody's been here in years, we might as well."

"Don't tell me you can explode a national monument but won't take something from an abandoned store?" Daphne grinned teasingly at him.

"It's called stealing." Percy sulked, but relented.

"It's borrowing." Daphne corrected him. Soon, all four of them were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

They continued searching for the Tunnel of Love ride, and Daphne got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath staring at her.

"So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy ventured. Daphne turned to him, trying keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth sighed. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?" he asked cluelessly.

"Well, you know," Annabeth caught that tone she used when explaining something she knew a lot about. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"

"She likes bikers." Daphne nodded. "Creepy bikers."

"And Hephaestus knows?"

"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."

She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."

In front of them was an empty pool that Daphne heard Percy mutter, "would've been awesome for skateboarding." It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side of them, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

"Thrill ride o' love..." Daphne recounted for Annabeth and Percy who were squinting up at the sign. "'This is not your parents...?' What in Hades does that mean?"

Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

"Why didn't we question why Ares would bring his shield on a date?" Daphne whispered as though speaking louder would make any nearby monsters pop out. "Even for the god of war, that's weird."

"Aphrodite likes strength." Annabeth shrugged. "No matter how obnoxi-"

"This is too easy," Percy shook his head in disbelief. "So we just walk down there and get it?"

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."

"Grover," Daphne glanced at him. "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

"Nothing like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" Percy retorted. She wondered if his sarcasm was a choice or just ingrained into his speech.

Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry." he took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but Daphne got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

"No," Percy interrupted him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."

Grover puffed up his chest a little, and Daphne beamed at the boost in his confidence. Annabeth had told him that after she and Thalia didn't make it to camp, his self esteem had taken a hit. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling." Percy admitted. "Daphne, come with me-"

Suddenly, she was a 12 year old girl again, squirming at the idea of boy cooties. "What?" She looked at him as if I'd just dropped from the moon, her cheeks a bright rosy red.

"What's the problem now?" he demanded.

"Why can't Annabeth go with you?" she felt herself burning up. "What - what if someone sees me go with you? Into the love ride?"

"Who's going to see you? We're the only people here," Percy snapped, but his face was creeping with red now too. "Fine, forget it. I'll do it myself."

But when Percy started down the side of the pool, Daphne followed him, muttering something about him being clueless. The hotness of his cheeks didn't cool, and he guessed it was because he was embarrassed.

(He didn't mean anything by it. But after she had told him she'd never been on a ride before, he guessed now was a great time.)

Forget it. he shook his head. He'd die trying to understand girls.

"I'll come with you." Annabeth called after them, sliding down the side of the pool far more gracefully than Percy or Daphne had. "It feels...weird down here. Grover, will you be ok-"

"I'll be fine!" he said hurriedly, as though he was trying to prove his worth.

They reached the boat. Behind him, he heard Annabeth mutter something to Daphne which set the two of them off into giggles. He was starting to wonder if it was a good idea inviting her into the quest after all.

The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. Daphne tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here: Gods in a junked up amusement park? It didn't make any sense.

She looked up, noticing something she hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. She could see herself no matter which direction she looked, and shivered. "Creepy," she whispered. But that must've be it - while Ares and Aphrodite were kissing each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.

Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. He smiled, a little dreamy, and Daphne felt herself doing the same as the floral scent invaded her senses. She went forward to touch the silk, but before she could, Annabeth ripped it out Percy's hands and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic, you two."

Daphne looked up in confusion. "What?"

"Just hurry up and grab the shield, Percy." Annabeth sighed. "This place is weird."

The moment he touched the shield, Daphne knew they were in trouble. His hand must've broken through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, she thought, but then she leaned forward to looked at a strand of it on Percy's palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.

"Wait!" Annabeth yelled.

Too late.

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta." she realised, eyes shining in fear. "This is a trap."

Noise erupted all around them of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.

Grover yelled, "Guys!"

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before the idea to take cover could leave Daphne's lips, they shot - but not at them. The statues fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arching over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

Just like the myth, Daphne realised. Hephaestus was trying to catch them in his spiderweb.

"We have to get out," Percy stuttered.

"Seriously?! Duh!" Annabeth yelled at him, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and starting to pull him away.

He grabbed the shield and they ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.

"Come on!" Grover shouted in encouragement, but Daphne didn't think it was helping at all. He was trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool,
blinding them with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."

"Olympus?" Daphne recoiled. She turned to Percy. "How's that for 'nobody's going to see you'?"

Before he could retort with something probably mean, Annabeth interrupted them.

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid. Eta is H. He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"

They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out. Daphne's ears were muffled when Annabeth screamed - the same horror-filled scream from a frightened seven year old in an old alleyway.

It was an army of wind-up spiders: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward them in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth whimpered. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"

She fell backward into Daphne's arms in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots. Annabeth was scrambling so much that she almost pulled Daphne down with her, despite her best efforts to keep them upright.

They would've toppled right over if it wasn't for Percy grabbing Daphne by the back of her shirt and helping her pull Annabeth into the boat in the middle.

The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding the boat. Daphne repeated in her head that they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral and bite them and make them look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And they weren't gods - but they were plenty stupid.

Finally, Percy and Daphne had managed to drag Annabeth over to the boat and climb in themselves. Percy started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard, and Daphne was hitting them off with a piece of old board she found on the floor. Percy was yelling at Annabeth to help them, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.

The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie them down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. Percy kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of his new shoe. It didn't die, so Daphne had to stomp on it with her old boot to stop the electricity sizzling. At one point, she had to whack one off of Percy's shoulder, and she was sure he thought she was attacking him.

Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge. Daphne couldn't think, she had no idea what to do. She kept hitting the spiders away from Annabeth as they came, scuttling towards her best friend with the blond braids.

The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. They could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders. No exit.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.

Daphne turned to him helplessly. "What do we do?" she yelled over the sound of clattering metal, and screamed as a spider leaped onto her head.

Percy stretched forward and slapped it off of her hair. In any other circumstance she would've been annoyed, but he had a pretty great excuse. "I've got an idea," he promised her. "Trust me."

Daphne still felt hesitant, but their main idea-thinker was currently incapacitated, so she nodded.

"Grover!" Percy turned and yelled up at their helpless satyr friend. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"

"But-"

"Do it!" He insisted. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off, and Daphne was starting to loose energy protecting both of them. She thought about using the knife she had strapped against her calf, her only weapon she'd had for years. Though it could extend into a sword, Daphne knew that it wasn't sharp enough to pierce through the spiders metal.

Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.

"Five, four-"

Grover looked up at Percy hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting them know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.

Daphne turned to Percy again and was about to shout at him for more instructions, but found him with his eyes closed in fierce concentration. She didn't want to interrupt him, but now she was defending all three of them from the spiders. Her shoulders were beginning to ache as she swung her cardboard and kicked her legs at the spiders.

"Two, one, zero!"

Suddenly, water exploded out of the pipes. Daphne dropped her piece of board in surprise as it roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. She fell back, breathing heavily without getting the chance to look at Percy with an unspoken awe and ask, "did you just do that?"

He pulled Daphne and Annabeth into the seat next to him and fastened the seat belt over them both just as the tidal wave slammed into the boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing them completely in water, but not capsizing it. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool. Daphne clung onto Annabeth and the side of the boat as she screamed, squished right against her side as there was only two seats in the boat.

The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.

Spotlights glared down at them. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus, But Daphne could only concentrate on holding Annabeth down and not throwing up over the edge. As her head whipped back and forth, she held one arm over Annabeth's shoulders and the other on the front of Percy's shirt, gripping it as though it was a lifeline.

At least it's not breaking into a million pieces, Daphne prayed. Actually, now that she thought about it, though the boat was spinning and whipping around, it was almost like it was still being controlled somehow. They spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred them against the metal net.

"Oh, no." Daphne wheezed, seeing where they were headed.

"Hold on!" Percy yelled. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.

Annabeth seemed to gain mobility again, hugging Daphne tight as she gripped onto the two by her side. All of them were screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other disgusting Valentine's Day stuff.

It was all a passing pink blur to her, but she was still grossed out by the lovey-doveyness. Daphne had never done well in dark enclosed spaces, but the Tunnel o' Love ride didn't give her enough time to think about that particular detail.

In fact, Daphne didn't have time to think about anything apart from one thing: AAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Finally, they were flushed out the tunnel, the night air whistling through their hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit. Percy and Annabeth's screams deafened her own in her ears, and she felt her nails digging into his shirt and her shoulder.

If the ride had been in working order, they probably would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before them were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.

We're going to die, Daphne decided.

"Unfasten your seat belt," Percy yelled to her left. She and Annabeth turned in unison.

"Are you crazy?" Daphne screamed. Her eyes must've looked wild and rabid, her hair whipping in the air behind them.

"Unless you want to get smashed to death." he strapped Ares's shield to his arm. "We're going to have to jump for it."

The idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, they would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. She'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, they would land in the pool.

But as Daphne had come to learn recently, her luck wasn't in its proper shape.

Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped onto Daphne's hand as the gates got closer, and Daphne in turn held onto Percy's so hard she was sure she would've broken it.

"On my mark," He yelled.

"No!" Annabeth shouted. "On my mark!"

"What?" Percy turned to Annabeth as though she was insane and overbearing. Which, she was.

Daphne didn't dare to open her mouth in case she vomited.

"Simple physics!" she cried. "Force times the trajectory angle-"

"Shut up!" Daphne yelled. "On your mark, Annabeth!"

She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"

Crack!

Their boat smashed into the pileup and Daphne, Percy and Annabeth were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt. If Daphne wasn't winded by the air catching in her throat, she'd be screaming as they plummeted towards the ground.

Something bumped into her from behind, and she was terrified that it was a bird.

"Ouch!" Annabeth yelled, which made her panic more. If it was big enough to knock the air out of both of them, it was probably more the size of a plane.

But... no. Not only did it not make sense, but planes didn't wheeze in your ears. It wasn't a bird, it wasn't a plane. It was Grover!

In midair, he had hooked his arms under Daphne's as she kept hold of Percy and Annabeth's hands, grabbed Percy by the shirt and Annabeth by the arm. He was trying to pull them out of a crash landing, but the falling ones had all the momentum.

"You're too heavy!" Grover cried. "We're going down!"

They spiralled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall. Daphnes arms felt like they were on fire, her hands still having a vice grip on her friend's ones.

They smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Daphne fell on top of him, rolling off and hitting a fence post with a groan. Annabeth and Percy tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still miraculously on his arm.

Daphne scrambled up as she caught her breath, running to Grover and helping him pull his head out of the photo-board. Annabeth and Percy joined her after they managed to get over being winded, and together they rescued him from the wood trap.

"Thanks," Daphne wheezed, coughing over her last words. "Gr- great planning."

"Yeah," Annabeth spluttered, gasping for air and falling back against the ground. "Thanks."

Percy looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding and their boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates. A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming and the statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on them, the spotlights shining harshly in their faces.

"You think we got a good rating?" Daphne asked tiredly, falling to sit beside Annabeth and Grover.

Percy stumbled over closer to the cameras. Daphne heard Annabeth mutter an exasperated oh no, when Percy yelled, "Show's over! Thank you! Good night!"

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool.

He hefted the shield on his arm and turned back towards them, still breathing heavily with a new sort of stormy anger in his usual docile sea-green eyes. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

♡ ࿔･ﾟ𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆
🪷🫧🌷

   ʚɞ wait 50 chapters and they'll have their first date at a theme park 🥰

♥︎  don't be mad at me for putting Annabeth in the ride too please...just think about how chaotic it is with three people who don't all fit in the seat?? it's SO funny to me. and I think it's a very pivotal moment for Annabeths character, with the spiders and everything - if there's one thing I hate about fanfics, it's when they take away from other characters.

WHAT DID U THINK OF THIS CHAPTER & what would you like to see going forward??🫶