Take Me Away (Demigod Story)

I hate big, fluffy, thick coats.

     I froze in place until she yanked my arm towards her direction, Ms. Grace’s clearly fake nails slightly digging into my wrist.  I could only manage to jump out of the way of the trashcan that was between us, but for the rest of the way, the lady dragged me along as though I was a suit case.

     In attempt to slow down the process and possibly escape her grip, I used the bottom of my shoes to increase resistance of movement, but I was wearing the boots that cause me to slip.  Therefore I continued to be dragged along like a boat pulling a water ski.  An announcement rang up on the speakers, informing the students that there were only ten minutes left of lunch.

     “I haven’t finished my salad mam,” I panted loudly while I pulled against her again.  “I should go back.”  Ms. Grace didn’t acknowledge my complaint and continued to drag me along the green and yellow checkerboard tiles.  She led me through the open door that was near the counters of food.  A kitchen was on the other side of the door.

     The kitchen didn’t seem to be full of life at all, there was not any cooking going on.  There were only empty metal racks, various food-storing machines and large steel things that looked like a place where large portions of food would be cooked.  Everything was empty and spotless as though food had never been cooked with it.  While Ms. Grace dragged me past a room whose door was left open I peered in and discovered that it was the storage room…for the packaged food that they serve children.

     “Why do you do that?” I asked, momentarily forgetting that I was being dragged by a strange woman away from the rest of the students.  She didn’t answer me, I looked back at her.  I could only see that back of her head, but that didn’t give her a right to ignore me.  Without giving it a second thought, my hand went up and snatched the hairnet from on top of her head.

     The black hairnet came off easily, the action surprised Ms. Grace.  She stopped walking and twisted back to glare at me with such hatred that you would have thought that I had asked her what nursing home she belonged to.  I jumped back but was restrained from running by her hand that was still around my wrist.  It wasn’t the look that she gave me that terrified me, it was her hair.

     The hairnet was clearly there for a reason, and it wasn’t to keep her hair from falling into the food that she unpackaged.  She didn’t have any hair to worry about and I sure as heck wish that that meant that she was bald.  Ms. Grace had snakes for hair; the thin snakes were red with a black, ringed pattern around their bodies.

     “Medusa,” I muttered before I remembered that looking into her eyes would turn me into stone.  I quickly covered my eyes with my free hand and frantically tugged on my other arm in hopes of possibly breaking free from the monster.

     “I am not Medusa!” she whined dramatically.  “I am not some hideous, green Poseidon-lover.  Oh my, I never would stoop that low,” she claimed.

     “Well then, who are you?”

     “Are you an ignorant fool or something?” she questioned, seeming more like she was attempting to insult me.  “How uncultured these new generations are, even the poorest and must uneducated peasants of Greece were able to identify me within the first three minutes of my presence.”

     “Okay then, who are you?” I asked again; partly because I liked annoying her and also because I still didn’t know who she was.  The snakes that acted as her hair began to hiss and snap as though they were also offended by the insult.

     “At least you know of Aphrodite and her handmaids, yes?” she asked I was tempted to just nod my head and act as though it just came to me, but I honestly was curious as to who she was.  If I was going to die, I wanted to at least know who/what was killing me.

     “More or less,” I answered while I shrugged.

     “You know their title, yes?” she asked hopefully, but I shook my head in response.  “The Graces.  Oh my!  My sisters decided to play a trick on me and registered my name to be ‘Ms. Grace’, how does one not recognize that?”

     I shrugged.

     “It must be the hair, of course!” she decided.  Ms. Grace then yanked my wrist along with her as she walked and talked at the same time.  “As one of the Graces, it is of my many jobs to give Aphrodite fashion ideas.  One of my most successful ideas is what is now called ‘heels’.  Anyway, it was about a thousand years ago that I had the most brilliant of ideas.  I suggested to Aphrodite that she should wear a dress of a million owl feathers, which would require many deaths of thousands of owls, but they would have died for the right cause.”

     “Owls?” I asked.  “Why not peacocks?  Their feathers are beautiful and much more vibrant then those of owls.”

     The creature nodded, agreeing with my comment.  “Honestly, I had been trying to come up with an idea for what Aphrodite should do next in the fashion world, she was extremely eager to start yet another trend.  I secretly hoped that if I came up with the perfect idea, then Aphrodite would be so happy that she would grant me a raise or even bless me with charmspeak.  But I couldn’t think at all, not a single creative idea pitied me enough to touch me even with a ten yard stick.  Alas, it was night and I lay down to go to sleep.”

     “I honestly don’t understand how that explains anything about your hair,” I told her.

     “Patience!  Although I was exhausted, my eyes refused to shut comfortably.  It was not the fault of the stress but rather the ruckus of owls!  Oh, how their hooting annoyed me.  Then, the idea just hit me as if willed by the gods.  Owl feathers!  A million of them, all used to make the must luxurious, softest and thickest coats ever known to any creature!”

     Ms. Grace swung me into a dark room and shut the door behind her.  The lights switched on to show me that I was in an office, it contained a desk that was covered in layers of scattered papers and various supplies for school such as pens and rulers.

     I backed into the desk, facing the crazed woman as her voice steadily gained volume and passion as she continued the story.  She hissed at me, flaring the fangs that she possessed that ironically matched those of the snakes that acted as her hair.  Her eyes glowed a bright green, warning me of the blood lust that she had.  I knew that the only way that I could survive was to keep her talking, most creatures seemed especially talkative to the person that they are about to murder.

      “Why a million feathers?  Why not half a million?” I wondered.

     “Are you attempting to say that my idea of a million is too extreme?  Too extreme for the goddess of love?”

     “No, not at all.  How would a million feathers even fit onto a coat?”

     “Oh, you act as though you had gotten you education from a pack of wolves.  Goddesses can appear as large and as small as they wish to be,” she snapped, her eyes glowed fiercer as she stressed her point.  "Athena found out from one of the owls that had overheard my plan, or at least that is how she claims to have found out.  She then cast her evil powers in order to turn me into what I am today!"

     "But why do you have red snakes while Medusa has green snakes?  Why don't you turn others into stone?" I asked.

     "You have no need to know, it is none of your business!  Honestly, it is quite simple to figure out!  If she were to create two Medusas, then wouldn't that mean that she would have two arch enemies?  Two creatures that if they worked together, then they could completely wipe out the population of her children within weeks?  She couldn't risk such a thing!"  Ms. Grace continued insulting me, calling me long and complicated names that I was not sure whether she was speaking with a high vocabulary or if she was speaking in Greek.  Meanwhile, my arms searched the desk behind me.  After a few paper cuts, my fingers felt two things.  I glanced back and saw that they had located a stapler and a pair of scissors.