poison tree ✴︎ - perseus jackson

012. hermes, you disappointing whore.

  𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐊 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 working the Lotus Hotel and Casino would stop four kids (well, looking kids) from entering the casino, but it wasn't even a struggle to get inside. All they had to do was walk straight through the doors.

  The four of them were in complete awe when they walked inside. Upbeat music played over the chatters of the people that filled the casino. Every one of every age either gambling, drinking, eating, or playing videos games had a look as if they were having the best time of their lives. In the front of the casino displayed a car that glimmered in the pink and purple lights. It was absolutely beautiful.

  "I know we're supposed to be saving the world, but would it be unprofessional if we just hung out here for a bit?" Percy asked, the same look of awe as his eyes scanned the casino.

  Annabeth stopped him, pulling him by his shoulder to stop him from forgetting what they were really there for. "We find Hermes," she reminded "we get him to hook us up with a ride to Los Angeles and a plan to get into the Underworld, and we are out of here ten seconds later."

  "I was kidding." Percy said, looking at the girl dumbfounded before starting to walk again, this time Grover stopping him.

  "Wait, hold on."

  "What?"

  "Your mom told you all the stories. Did she read you the Odyssey?" Grover asked.

  Hope sorta zoned out when Grover explained the story, looking around the casino as her mind started to go slightly blank. She started to forget what she was thinking about before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking, she saw Annabeth in front of her.

  Hope shrugged her hand off, not catching the confused look Annabeth had shot at her before speaking. "Do not eat anything. At all. We can't afford any of us forgetting anything. Alright?" Annabeth repeated, looking at the girl as Hope just glanced at her from her hands.

  "Okay." Hope said quietly, nodding her head slightly as Annabeth just nodded her head, looking at the boys that were looking at them and motioning to go forward.

  As they walked around the casino together, looking the god of traveler and thieves. The place was crowded. Like really crowded that Hope could feel her claustrophobia creeping in.

"This place is a lot bigger than it looked from the outside." Grover said, looking around the place. "He could be anywhere."

Hope looked behind her, feeling eyes on her. When her eyes scanned to see who was looking at her, she noticed a man.

  The man was old, maybe in his forties or fifties, had a black beard and was dressed like a normal. Not formally dressed or poorly dressed, just normally dressed. When Hope looked at him, he suddenly disappeared. Not like ran away or was lost in the crowd of people. He just vanished, like he turned transparent as a ghost.

Hope felt a tug at her hand, finally looking away from the spot the man was just in to see Percy looking at her. She felt the irritated scars on her hand sting, the sting paining her like when she got poisoned by the Chimera. Hissing at the contact, she pulled her hand away, shaking her wrist to get rid of the pain, the stinging only going away slightly as Percy looked at her in concern as she looked back again before pulling the sleeve of her jacket over her hand. She definitely gonna need to bandage up her hands when they get back to camp.