aphophis child

III. Imprisoned with Sadie and a Cat

Sometime during the explosions I randomly fainted, maybe Apollo just said 'Gonna make this guy faint' and did. So when I woke up, the police were rushing about as you might expect. They separated me and Sadie from Carter. I didn't really mind that part. He's a pain anyway, I don't even want to be here. And the police started freaking out about me and nearly called my aunt. But they locked us in the curator's office for ages. And yes, they used our bicycle chain to do it. Imbeciles.

I was shattered, of course. I'd just been knocked out by a fiery whatever-it-was. I'd watched Julius Caesar the second get packed in a sarcophagus and shot through the floor. I tried to tell the police about all that, but did they care? No. So I did the most logical thing, spit in their face.

Worst of all: I had a lingering chill, as if someone was pushing ice-cold needles into the back of my neck. It had started when I looked at those blue glowing words Julius had drawn on the Rosetta Stone and I knew what they meant. But I've only heard Annabeth talk about it, and she can't understand it.

Long after my gum had gone stale, a policewoman finally retrieved us from the curator's office. She asked us no questions. She just trundled us into a police car and took is home, well it was weird because that isn't really my home. Even then, neither of us wasn't allowed to explain to these two random people. They allowed me to stay because my mother is dead.  The policewoman just tossed me into Sadies room with Sadie and we waited. And waited.

I don't like waiting.

I paced the floor. Her room was nothing posh, just an attic space with a window and a bed and a desk. There wasn't much to do. Muffin sniffed my legs for whatever reason and her tail puffed up like a bottlebrush. I suppose she doesn't fancy the smell of museums. She hissed and disappeared under the bed.

"Thanks a lot," I muttered.

"Don't worry." Sadie told me.

I opened the door, but the policewoman was standing guard.

"The inspector will be with you in a moment," she told me. "Please stay inside."

I could see downstairs—just a glimpse of weird old man guy, we'll call him.. um shit. No we aren't calling him shit just who did Caesar marry again? I'll just use Cleopatra, wait so who's her dad.. Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysus? Okay so Neos or Dionysus. Well Dionysus is more Mr D so Neos it is, so Neos was pacing the room, wringing his hands, while Carter and a police inspector talked on the sofa. I couldn't make out what they were saying.

"Could I just use the loo?" Sadie asked the nice officer.

"No." She closed the door in our face. As if I might rig an explosion in the toilet. Honestly.

"Shit face." I murmured.

"Exactly." Sadie agreed.

I dug out my iPod and scrolled through her playlist. Nothing struck her. She threw it on her bed in disgust. When she's too distracted for music, that is a very sad thing. I wondered why Carter got to talk to the police first. It wasn't fair.

"I literally saved his life." I whispered.

I fiddled with the necklace I had given to me. The symbol was an ankh, the symbol of life, and a scepter, all mixed together. Carter had some weird eye and Sadie had some other one.

Why on earth had Julius Caesar the second asked if I still had it? Of course I still had it. It was the only gift I'd ever been given before camp that I kept, apart from Basil, and with his attitude, I'm not sure I would call him a proper gift.

But I still love him, he usually blends in and is tight around my neck. I don't care I can still breath, oh right. He's a snake.

I was spared by Ra, even though I'm the son of his arch nemesis. Then I was lied to, I was angry. I ran away at four and found camp in 2003, became friends with Annabeth and then questa happened.