the archer, percy jackson

009. revenge is best served cold

chapter nine
009. revenge is best served cold!

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    THEY COULDN'T escape out of the front door with Alecto still in the driveway. There was no way they could fight Medusa head-on, either. Their best chance at surviving this was finding a place where they could stay hidden long enough to come up with a plan, and even then, pray to every God out there to give them a fighting chance. As soon as Percy came rushing out of the kitchen, silent and urgent, he found the rest of them ready. Annabeth urged them along, none of them risking a word until she found the entrance into what seemed like a basement. In the dark, the three demigods and satyr descended a steep staircase and huddled together in the corner, surrounded by shadows. 

    Wendy couldn't see, but she knew the whereabouts of the basement door and the staircase. She held her breath, her heart racing, feeling Annabeth and Percy's shoulders pressed close on either side of her. She heard Grover's teeth clattering. They all listened for Medusa's footsteps▬for her voice to get an idea of her location. 

    The silence was deafening before Annabeth whispered a few shaky words. "O▬Okay, this is okay. We're okay. We just gotta find a way to stop her ... without ever meeting her gaze. Otherwise, we'll be turned into stone. It'll be fine. Fine. We're fine."

    "About to die," whimpered Grover.  "But yeah, fine. Perfectly fine!"

    "We were fine," whispered Percy harshly, "until Wendy decided to insult Medusa."

    Wendy glanced at where she heard Percy's voice beside her. "What?" she replied in the same low whisper. "How is all of this my fault? We warned you about her▬"

    "You couldn't admit that you were wrong," he cut her off, annoyed. 

    "I wasn't."

    "What if you were?"

    "I wasn't," Wendy's face burned in her frustration. She clenched her hands, her heart pounding from both the fear of what was happening and her stubbornness even though deep down she knew Percy might be right. "My mother doesn't act irrationally. Your father, however▬"

    "Forget it," Percy grumbled. "You're being impossible right now."

    "And you're being insufferable▬"

    "Guys!" Grover interrupted, sharp and urgent. They went silent immediately, especially when they heard the slight scuff of shoes on the floor above the basement. They all held their breaths once again, hitched and terrified as Medusa's footsteps grew closer to their hiding place. 

    The door to the basement creaked open. There was silence. And then, something sparked▬warmth flooded the room as two rows of flames trailed across the length of the staircase and down towards them, illuminating the room into a devilish, hellish glow. 

    Percy stumbled backwards, only to feel something scratch at his back. He turned out and let out a startled gasp to find himself face to face with a statue▬A screaming statue of not a monster, but instead a person. An innocent person. 

    Wendy, Annabeth and Grover turned around, too. Their eyes widened. This wasn't a basement. 

    Medusa's warehouse spread out before them▬leagues and leagues that seemed as though had no ending and no beginning. An entire garden of statues very different from the ones outside. Screaming people, screaming families▬people who had wandered across Medusa's path, ignorant of the fate they had led themselves into. The garden was so big, it seemed covered in a thin layer of fog. Flames burst to life in brackets, bordering aisles upon aisles; an entire maze of death and terror.