Alstroemerias {Percy Jackson}

31

The Gateway arch was about a mile away from the train station. Normally, Maggie didn't mind that walk, but whatever had made her dizzy in the morning had left behind a nasty headache that she would rather not deal with. Another factor to her dislike for the mini field trip was the fact that the snack bar had been out of gummy bears, so she was stuck with jelly beans instead.

Maggie turned to Percy who looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole in order to get away from Annabeth's constant stream of architectural facts. She passed him a few blue jelly beans which seemed to make him perk up a bit.

"You smell anything?" he murmured to Grover.

"Underground," the Satyr said distastefully. "Underground always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

However everyone in the group still kept a lookout for any monsters that might pop up along the way.

"Guys," Percy suddenly said. "You know the god's symbol of power?"

Annabeth, who had been in the middle of reading a blurb about the construction equipment used posted in a sign, finally began to pay attention to the others. "Yeah?"

"Well, Hade-"

"We are in a public place," Grover interrupted. "You mean, our friend downstairs."

"U, ok?" he continued. "Our friend way downstairs-"

"Oh my gosh!" Maggie sighed. "Just say Hades! It's not like anyone is going to notice or care!" Grover glared at her. She refused to break eye contact until Percy stepped in between the two.

"Anyway.... Hades, the man downstairs, whatever.. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"

"You mean the helm of darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."

"He was there?"

She nodded. "It's the only time he's actually allowed on Olympus, the darkest day of the year-"

"Why do you guys always go on field trips without me?" Maggie pouted before becoming more serious. "Sorry, this is important. I'll shut up now."

Percy gave her a grateful look.

"But," Annabeth continued, "his helm is much 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. Everyone stepped closer together.

"Well that makes me feel a lot better. Got any blue jelly beans left?"

"Here," Maggie said, giving him the handful she had picked out and passing the rest of the bag to Annabeth.

Percy had almost mastered his jumpy nerves when he set eyes on the tiny little elevator they had to ride to the top.

"I can wait down here with you, and Grover can go with Annabeth." Maggie suggested. "That way no one gets left alone."

"No, it's ok. I'll be fine." Percy took a breath before taking hold of the smaller girl's hand. "Come on."

The group were then ushered into the car with an old lady and her dog.

"No parents?" she asked them.

"They're below." Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."

"Oh the poor darlings."

The chihuahua growled.

"Now, now, sonny. Behave."

" Sonny?" Percy asked, trying to ignore how cramped the elevator felt with all five people. "Is that his name?"

"No," was all the lady said. She smiled as if that cleared everything up.

The top of the arch wasn't much better for Percy. Even though it was considerably larger than the elevator, it was still a small space packed with a significant number of people. And the fact that it was about 600 ft in the air made him ready to leave pretty quickly.

Maggie wasn't as calm on the observation deck either seeing as turning to one side meant that the drop toward the Mississippi river was visible. The grip the two kids had on each other's hands was probably too tight to be comfortable, but neither wanted to let go.

Annbeth spent the entire time talking about structural supports, and how she would have made the windows bigger, and designed a see through floor. Maggie made a comment about how she would despise Annabeth as an architect if she ever made her go to the top of that monstrosity. Percy finally managed to herd his friends back to the uncomfortably small elevators when the park ranger announced that the deck would be closing in a few minutes.

Together, he and Maggie carefully maneuvered Grover and Annabeth around the other people toward the exit, pushing them into the car. The green-eyed duo stopped when they realized that there was only room for one more person because two tourists were already inside. "We'll get out and wait with you guys." Annabeth said. "So we can all ride together."

"Naw it's ok. Maggie, you go with them and i'll see you guys at the bottom."

"Are you sure?" Maggie turned to him.

"I'll be fine."

She begrudgingly removed her hand from his before taking a seat next to one of the tourist ladies.

Now, the only people left on the deck were Percy, a small boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the lady with her chihuahua.

He smiled uneasily at the lady as they waited. She smiled, back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth. He only had a moment to contemplate everything he thought was true about the world once more when everything went to hell and the dog changed into a chimera.

"Oh, great." Percy muttered. "Is this going to happen every time I want to go somewhere nice?"

Chaos ensued as everyone was screaming and crying while Percy tried his vest to keep the Chimera from eating the small little boy. For about two seconds, it seemed like Percy might have a chance of winning when the stupid snake bit of the monster caught his ankle and he was left with no other choice but to jump.

To jump from 600 ft in the air, and plummet in the river below. 

i finally updated the story! my plan had been to do a lot during spring break so i could actually be a good person for once. But the world hates me and i got a bad case of food poising and was pretty miserable so.... oops. BUT, hopefully things will get better once school finally ends for this year? 

I hope you all had an amazing easter!!!! Thank you so much for reading!

love you all! 

- Ellie <3

P.S. My spelling skills/typing skills are terrible (i think i managed to misspell Annabeth six different ways because of that) so if there are any mistakes that i didn't catch before posting this please leave a comment or something and I'll happily fix it!