PLEASE READ THE REWRITE INSTEAD OF THIS. THIS IS ONLY UP UNTIL THE REWRITE IS COMPLETED. PLEASE READ THE REWRITE TO PREVENT LOSING THE BOOK BEFORE YOU'RE DONE.
Veronica Westcourt didn't like Camp Half-Blood. She didn't like the fact that she hadn't...
The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. Rachel showed the trio where to look, and Veronica recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.
"It hasn't been used in a long time," Annabeth said.
"I tried to open it once," Rachel said, "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."
"I doubt it." Veronica stepped forward. "You're fully mortal, so it's rejecting your touch. This thing just needs the touch of a half-blood."
As soon as her hand was on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down.
"Wow." Rachel looked calm, but Veronica could already sense the maddening paranoia filling her mind. She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her regular marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, flecks of gold still in it, and traces of the gold glitter were still on her face. "So... after you?"
"You're the guide," Annabeth said with mock politeness. "Lead on."
"You've got this," Veronica said, smiling as politely as she could force herself to.
The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark Veronica could barely see two feet in front of herself, but the half-bloods had restocked on flashlights.
"What's that, Roni?" Rachel asked.
"What's—" Veronica replied.
She was cut off when the flashlights were turned on, making Rachel yelp.
A skeleton was grinning at the group. It wasn't a human skeleton. It was huge, for one thing—at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant X over the tunnel. But what made it so creepy was the single black eye socket in the center of its skull.
"A Cyclops," Annabeth said. "It's very old. It's not... anybody we know."
It wasn't Tyson, she meant.
Rachel swallowed. "You have a friend who's a Cyclops?"
"Tyson," Percy said. "My half brother."
"Your half brother," Rachel said slowly.
"Poseidon got around," Veronica said. "Percy, you're part horse, right?"
"Oh, hush," Percy said, rolling his eyes. "Stop saying that. Anyways, we'll hopefully we'll find Tyson down here. And Grover. He's a satyr."
