Percy Jackson's Sister

Off With it's Head(s)!

"This is bad," Annabeth muttered. Tyson and I had interrupted a conversation they were having and dragged them to the donut shop. We all crouched behind the tree I had previously hid behind.

"No kidding," I whispered. "What do we do?"

Annabeth seemed lost in thought. "This shouldn't be here. It's wrong."

"What?" Percy asked, loudly. "It's just a donut shop."

"Shhhh!" Annabeth and I quieted him. He looked half offended and half scared.

"Why are we whispering," he now dropped his volume like ours. "Tyson went in there and bought a dozen donuts. Nothing happened to him."

"He's a monster," I said.

"C'mon, Cas. Monster Donuts doesn't mean actual monsters. It's a chain, we've got them in New York."

"A chain," Annabeth said in a questioning tone. "And don't you think it's a little weird that one appeared here, in the middle of nowhere, right after you told Tyson to go get donuts."

Percy's facial expression contorted into confusion. He seemed to find Annabeth's reasoning logical, and so did I.

"It could be a nest," Annabeth suggested. I looked at her in fright. I didn't need any more trouble than we already had. I didn't want to ask, but it slipped out.

"A nest for what?" Annabeth tensed up and dropped her voice even lower.

"Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so quickly?" She asked. "One day there's nothing and the next- boom, new burger place or coffee shop or whatever. First it's just one store- then two, then four. Next thing you know they're everywhere."

"Like Starbucks?" I asked.

"No, that's different."

I wasn't sure how that was different. I'd never even seen a Starbucks commercial, yet they were everywhere.

"I think you're the only one that's ever thought of that," Percy told Annabeth.

"Percy," she said in that exasperated sigh I was sure he was used to by now. "Some of the chains multiply so fast because all their locations are magically linked to the life force of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed—"

She froze mid sentence. Percy and I exchanged a look of confusion.

"Breed what?" I asked, but she did not move.

"No-sudden-movements," she told us, barely moving her mouth, spacing every word so we heard loud and clear.

"Turn around-" she saw me and whisper yelled, "slowly! Very slowly! Turn around."

Percy, Tyson and I followed her instructions. Then we saw it.

I had seen pictures in books and bad computer animations in movies, but nothing could prepare me for the real thing. It was about the size of a rhino and wore a bib that said I'm a MONSTER DONUT KID. Just that it wasn't one bib. It was seven, one for each of its heads.

Percy reached inside his pocket and I slowly slid my bracelet off. Annabeth held her hand out behind her. A warning, not yet. I stayed as still as possible.

The Hydra was close, but it didn't seem to notice us. It's diamond shaped heads sniffed the air, trying to catch our scent. Two of its heads was ripping apart something yellow that I couldn't quite make out. A part of me wished I had kept my glasses on. The other part was yelling it was better to get a blurry picture.

Then behind me, I heard the snapping of a twig. Tyson must've gotten scared and backed away. The Hydra turned all seven heads towards us. Too late to hide in plain sight now, onto plan B.

"Scatter!" Annabeth yelled and we all dove in different directions. Except for Tyson.

He stood in the same place, frozen in terror. Two Hydra heads were headed straight toward him and I pulled out the charm, revealing my sword. The bronze glow was enough to turn all heads toward me, buying Percy enough time to push Tyson out of the way.

My first instinct was to swing, but Annabeth yelled me back into reality. "Cassidy, don't!"

I remembered the myth, cut one head off, two grow back.

I did the only thing I could do. I ran.

Percy uncapped his pen, Riptide springing to life. That caught half of the heads attention, causing the whole body to turn to him. Now he was the target.

Percy must've not been thinking, he swung his sword.

"No!" Annabeth and I yelled.

"Percy, you just opened up another Monster Donut shop somewhere!" Annabeth cried.

"I'm about to die and that's what you're worried about?" He yelled back while running away.

"Can't you do anything else than cut its head off?" I yelled.

"Yeah, I could melt into a puddle of acid!"

Arguing was getting us nowhere. I yelled and flailed my arms to get the Hydra's attention back to me. It worked to some extent, now with an even amount of heads the focus could be distributed more evenly. I felt myself panic as four of the heads snapped in my direction. I knew what was coming and I had just enough time to curse before getting the chilling feeling. I spoke the only Latin words I knew.

The last thing I heard Annabeth say was, "It's not cold?"

I blacked out, knowing I had just added on to the problem.