𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 | 𝐩. 𝐣𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧

Rock paper scissors gun

If Evangeline had to choose, she definitely wouldn't choose left. The left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns. It was also a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, they ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind them, the sound of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor.

"Tyson," Percy said. "Can you-"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover urged. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!" The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room, and they dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth said.

They all got on the other side of the boulder and the brunette moved the rock with her powers. Whatever was chasing them wailed in frustration as she heaved the rock back into place and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," Percy said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

"We?" She arched a brow at the raven-haired boy.

"Evangeline helped," The brunette shot him a look.

"Evangeline trapped it." He corrected, looking at the brunette who had an amused smirk.

"What the dad?" The brunette saw a row of cells through the bars in a ring around a dark courtyard of at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks. "A prison?" She asked.

"Shh!" Grover said. "Listen."

Somewhere above them, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound a raspy voice muttering something the brunette couldn't make out. "What's that language?" Percy whispered.

Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

"What?" The Cyclops grabbed two bars of their cell doors and bent them wide enough for him to slip through.

"Wait!" Grover called. But Tyson wasn't listening, they ran after him. The prison was dark with only a few dim fluorescent lights flickering above.

"I know this place," The blonde spoke. "This is Alcatraz."

"You mean that island near San Francisco?" Evangeline furrowed her brows.

Annabeth nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum." From New York to California, in less than a day, possibly done in four hours at most Evangeline was guessing. They popped out of the Labyrinth on the other side of the country.

"Freeze," The satyr warned. But Tyson kept going, he grabbed his arm and pulled him back with all his strength. "Stop Tyson!" He whispered. "Can't you see it?"

Evangeline looked at where Grover was pointing and on the second-floor balcony, across the courtyard, was a monster. It was sort of like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up. 

But instead of a horse's lower body, it had the body of a dragon twenty-foot long, black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs were sprouting snakes, hundreds of vipers darting around looking for something to bite. The woman's hair reminded the brunette of Medusa.

Around her waist, where the woman part met the dragon part, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of animals like a bear, or a lion as if she were wearing a belt of ever-changing creatures. Evangeline had never seen or heard about this monster before.