𐌙/𐌍 Ᏽ𐌵𐌀𐌋𐌄 & 𐌕𐋅𐌄 Ᏽ𐌐𐌄𐌀𐌕 𐌌𐌙𐌕𐋅𐌔 ¹

Chapter 13

13 | Police Wanted

I wish I could say I was brave, I agreed to my fate, or I talked to Thanatos, face-to-face, and wasn't scared that I was going to die and all that. But that wasn't the case.

All my mind was thinking were prayers to my mom. And I was crying, it wasn't much, but I was.

The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

And then my body that was facing up to the sky, suddenly turned to face the ground against my will and I just stopped. In the middle of the air.

I slowly opened my eyes to look at the ground, I had almost hit it, but I was now hovering with about 15 feet above the floor and slowly falling, like a feather.

My arms seemed like they were now open to each side of my body, I was feeling way lighter than usual. Maybe because I was falling, but mainly because I was scared.

Or because of the fact that I only noticed after I looked around my body that was: I was now a bird. A buzzard, to be more specific. And I was gliding down to the floor, like I'd be doing that my entire life.

I tried lifting my arms, and I started falling forward faster. Out of feat, I pushed my arms down and clapped the wind to lift myself before I could hit the ground.

I let my body fall slowly into the ground like I was doing before, after, I only rolled over on the ground to lay on my back.

I closed my and puffed out, a feather slipped out from my lungs, when I opened my eyes I felt my body way heavier, and definitely burned. I was back to being, well, me.

I looked over in the sky, the sun was still up, but I knew that I could still talk to my mother, like I did just minutes ago. "Thank you, mother," I muttered in the air.

I felt a hard breeze ruffle my hair and disintegrate in the skies. I guess she did hear me.

A little girl near me poked my head, "Are you awake?" she asked while stabbing me with her finger.

"Yeah, I am." I playfully widened my eyes. "Crazy right?" I whispered.

"Mama! This boy fell from the sky!" she shouted to he mother.

"That's nice, dear," the woman simply ignored her daughter, instead looking over to the ambulances driving close.

"He was a bird!"

"That's nice, dear."

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth, Percy and Grover were okay.

"Okay, sugar, I gotta go," I told the kid and patted her head before standing from the ground and walking away.

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"... an adolescent boy," another 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 ..."

I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter.

Uniformed offi-cers and news reporters were everywhere. I'd almost lost hope of ever finding the three when a familiar voice called, "(y/n)!"

I turned to see Grover quietly bouncing on his hooves, he was sure happy to see me. "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!" Percy stood by his side with a relieved smile.

Annabeth had called out to me, her face was trying to force itself on a mad frown with a glare. But the happy smile was still fighting its place on her mouth. "We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"I went sky diving," I placed my hands on my hips. I was sure the burn holes and stains of blood on my camp half-blood shirt were still visible, so they obviously knew I was joking.

"(y/n)! On the Gateway Arch?"

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "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." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"

I nervously giggled and started to back away. But it quickly turned into a sprint with me pulling Annabeth behind me, Grover and Percy were quick on their feet to run away, too.

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

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the bird-thingie.

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

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

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

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station with-out getting spotted. We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.