ℙ𝕁𝕆 // 🅵🅴🅼🅿🅴🆁🅲🆈 // 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕖𝕗

13: Great, let's dive to death

OH MY FUCKING GODS?????? YOU MADE ME PRAY TO MY FATHER??? YOU BITCH?????

We spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain. We weren't attacked once, but I didn't relax. I felt that we were travelling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.

I tried to keep a low profile because my name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as I got off the Greyhound bus. I had a wild look in my eyes. My sword was a metallic blur in my 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 travelling with two teenage accomplices. Her stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me. "Mortal police could never find us." But Non-mortal things would.

The rest of the day I spent alternately pacing the length of the train (because I had a really hard time sitting still), or looking out the windows.

Once, I spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught my eye and waved. I looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptop computers or magazines.

Another time, towards evening, I saw something huge moving through the woods. I could've sworn it was a lion, except that lions don't live wild in America, and this thing was the size of a tank. Its fur glinted gold in the evening light. Then it leaped through the trees and was gone.

Our reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so we dozed in our seats. My neck got stiff. I tried not to drool in my sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to me.

Once I got bored, I tried to get my dreams out of my head, the possibilities of what could happen kept invading my mind. The possibilities of what I must have done, what Eren must have done made me honestly shudder. There was blood everywhere, bodies piling on top of each other. As I've heard from the Apollo cabin, a demigods dream isn't just a manifestation of unconscious desires but also of the future, warning us or telling us what is to come, in, unfortunately, a riddle like way. But I got the message in mine. Whatever comes in the future, was death and painstaking decisions that involve the words 'must' and 'should'.

Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking me up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and I had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," Annabeth asked me, once we'd got Grover's trainer readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

I was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time I'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered me so much I finally told her, all in detail, except the Eren and Magenta haired girl one.