Invisible ― Jason Grace

viii. good news, right?

ONCE THE MONSTERS were gone, the blinding rainbow shut off like a spotlight. Camilla, Hazel, Frank, and Percy were left alone in the dark, staring across the road at a closed-up convenience store. 

"That was different," Frank muttered. 

Percy shuddered violently. Seeing that army seemed to have triggered some kind of memory, leaving him shell-shocked like someone had thrown his brain in a blender. 

They needed to get him back to the boat. 

Then again, a huge stretch of grassland stood between them and the beach. Those grain spirits probably wouldn't stay gone for long, and it was the middle of the night. 

"Let's go to the store," Hazel said. "If there's a goddess inside, maybe she can help us." 

"Except a bunch of snake things are guarding the hill now," Frank pointed out. "And that burning rainbow might come back." 

They all looked at Percy, who was shaking like he had hypothermia. 

"We have to try," Camilla said. 

Frank nodded grimly. "Well... any goddess who throws a Ding Dong at a giant can't be all bad. Let's go."

◈

They were twenty yards from the convenience store when something hissed in the grass behind them. 

"Go!" Frank yelled. 

Percy stumbled. Camilla and Hazel helped him to the porch. Frank shot an arrow at the sound, and a flare lit up the monster in the grass—a lime-colored snake, its head was ringed with a mane of spiky white fins. 

Camilla held back a shudder. Gods, she hated snakes.

She and Hazel got Percy up to the porch as Frank and the snake studied each other . 

"Nice creepy reptile," Frank said. "Nice poisonous, fire-breathing reptile." 

"Frank!" Hazel yelled. "Come on!" 

The snake sprang at him. It sailed through the air so fast, Frank only had time to swing his bow and smack the monster down the hill. It spun out of sight, wailing, "Screeeee!" 

Frank's bow disintegrated into dust from the snake's venomous skin. 

Frank ran for the porch as two more snakes hissed farther downhill. Camilla and Hazel pulled him up the steps and away from the advancing snakes. All three of the monsters circled in the grass, breathing fire and turning the hillside brown with their poisonous touch. 

They didn't seem able or willing to come closer to the store, which was good for them—well, until they needed to leave, at least.

"We'll never get out of here," Frank said miserably. 

"Then we'd better go in." Hazel pointed to the hand-painted sign over the door: Rainbow Organic Foods & Lifestyles. 

As they stepped through the door, lights came on. Flute music started up like they'd walked out onto a stage. The wide aisles were lined with bins of nuts and dried fruit, baskets of apples, and clothing racks with tie-dyed shirts and gauzy Tinker Bell-type dresses. The ceiling was covered in wind chimes. Along the walls, glass cases displayed crystal balls, geodes, macramé dream catchers, and a bunch of other strange stuff. Incense must have been burning somewhere. It smelled like a bouquet of flowers was on fire. 

"Fortune-teller's shop?" Frank wondered. 

"Hope not," Hazel muttered. 

Percy leaned against Camilla. He looked worse than ever, like he'd been hit with a sudden, brutal flu. His face glistened with sweat. "Sit down..." he muttered. "Maybe water."