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I 011. I
𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑮𝒐𝒓𝒆
❝ prize ❞
THROUGH HER STRUGGLE, THE CYCLOPS HAD OUT A GAG IN HER MOUTH. It had tied her up with a long length of chain, keeping her hands away from one another, preventing her from reaching for Lunacy and cutting through her chains.
Of course, she had tried the whole ordeal of using her powers, but every time she tried to grow a vine she was hit with a massive headache, and her powers stopped working. So, for now, she was stuck trying to make sure her friends were okay.
Gray morning light filtered through the hole in the roof. A few lightbulbs flickered, but most of the factory floor was still lost in shadows. But the smell—it was like burning motor oil and sour breath. She wanted to throw up at the stench.
One of the cyclops impersonated Piper, crying out, "Leo, help!"
If he was even there, he kept quiet. Ariadne hoped he was there. But she knew it was dangerous.
"Leo?" it called out again in Piper's voice.
Leo peeked around the machinery. Hanging directly above the assembly line, suspended by a chain from a crane on the opposite side, was a massive truck engine—just dangling thirty feet up, as if it had been left there when the factor was abandoned. Below it on the conveyor belt sat a truck chassis, and clustered around it were three dark shapes the size of forklifts. Nearby, dangling from chains on two other robotic arms, were two small shapes—maybe even more engines, but two of them were twisting around as if they were alive.
One of the forklift shapes rose. "Told you it was nothing," the cyclops rumbled. It's voice too deep and feral to be anything other than a monster.
Ariadne attempted to scream at them, but the gag caused it to be muffled out.
One of the other cyclops shifted, and called out in Ariadne's voice: "Leo, help me! Help—" Then the voice changed, becoming a masculine snarl. "Bah, there's nobody out there. No demigod could be that quiet, eh?"
The first cyclops chuckled. "Probably ran away, if he knows what's good for him. Or the girls was lying about a fourth demigod. Let's get cooking."
Snap. A bright Orange light sizzled to life—an emergency flare—and Leo was temporarily blinded. He blinked until the spots cleared from her eyes. Then Leo saw a nightmare scene.
The three smaller things dangling from crane arms weren't engines. They were Ariadne, Jason, and Piper. All three hung upside down, tied by their ankles and cocooned with chains up to their necks. Piper was flailing around, trying to feed herself. Her mouth was gagged, but at least she was alive. Ariadne seemed to be bleeding on her head, as there was something dripping onto the floor beneath her. Jason didn't look so goo. He hung limply, his eyes rolled up in his head. A red welt the size of an apple had swollen over his left eye.
