Penny Ranger and the Lightning Thief

Chapter XVII: Poseidon's Ex Tries To Kill Us

My number one priority quickly became getting out of that place. But that wasn't the case for Percy. He was still sitting there with a smile on his face, apparently feeling very sorry for the gorgon thanks to her story.

Thankfully, Annabeth had also realized the danger we were in.

"Percy? Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." she told him.

"Such beautiful grey eyes." Medusa noted.
"My yes, it has been some time since I've seen grey eyes like those."

She reached out to touch Annabeth, but my friend quickly scrambled away.

"We really should be going." I agreed.

I sent a look towards Grover, signaling that we had to go. Fortunately, he understood my unspoken message.

"Yes! The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"

Okay, maybe I was a bit too eloquent in my look.

"Please dears. I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?" she asked sweetly.

But after realizing who she was, that tone couldn't fool me anymore. She had something planned, I knew it.

I quickly glanced at Annabeth. She seemed to be thinking the same thing I was.

"A pose?" she asked warily.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everybody loves children." she explained.

I didn't buy it for a second. And neither did Annabeth.

"I don't think we can ma'am. Come on, Percy."

"Sure we can. It's just a photograph, Annabeth. What's the harm?" Percy said out of nowhere.

He was looking at Annabeth scoldingly, as if she were being extremely rude. Did he seriously not realize in just how much danger we were in?

"Yes, Annabeth. No harm." Medusa agreed.

I think she was aware that Annabeth and I already knew who she was. And she was also aware that we weren't going anywhere without Percy. She held almost all the cards.

I wanted to just stick an arrow in her or chop off her head and be done with it. But there was no way for me to do that without being turned to stone.
We were instead forced to follow her into the garden filled with stone statues.
'Her victims.' I realized with a shudder.

She sat us down on a park bench, Annabeth and I between the boys. She then stepped back to examine the positioning.

"Not much light for a photo." Percy pointed out.

I felt like hitting him. He could notice that but not the monster that wanted to turn us to stone!

"Oh, enough. Enough for us to see each other, yes?" she reasoned.

"Where's your camera?" Grover asked her.

She ignored him and kept studying us.

"Now, the face is always the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"

"That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand." Grover commented, looking at the satyr statue we passed when we arrived.

"Grover, look this way dear." Medusa said.

I was getting nervous. We were almost out of time and Percy still hadn't snapped out of it.

"Percy..."

"It will be just a moment." Medusa cut me off.
"You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil..."

My heart began beating faster as she began unwrapping the veil. Our time was up.