Chanel Hastings & The Treasures of Aphrodite Book 1: The Magic Girdle

Chapter 10: My Train Ride Turns Into A Dogfight

OOTD: My camp shirt, my ivory puffer coat, fleece leggings, and comfy brown winter boots that I can run in

Makeup: Just some lip balm; I couldn't bring my makeup or skincare, so no full glam for me until I get back

Hairstyle: A neat, low bun with an ivory heart-shaped barrette to match my winter coat

Fragrance: My good luck fragrance of course; the one and only 'Chanel No. 5' (in travel size!)

Dear Diary,

Thirty minutes.

That's how long it took for things to immediately start going wrong.

I mean, that's gotta be some kind of record, right? Is there a Guinness or Ripley's book that I can apply for? 'World's Quickest Demigod Mission Gone Bonkers?' or something? I guess I'll have to ask Chiron when I get back.

Well...if I get back.

You see, diary, Argus, Mikhailo, Tharika, and I were cruising comfortably down the roads of Long Island. Argus was supposed to drive us all the way into the city, and drop us off at the station near the west side of Manhattan. From there, we would catch the bus to Washington and start searching for the girdle.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Well, that was the plan, until the monsters started attacking.

The first sign that something was wrong happened when we were about midway through Long Island. Mikhailo was in the front seat with Argus, fiddling with the radio station to pick up news about weather conditions, and staring at a different map of the National Mall in D.C. Tharika and I were sitting in the back. Normally, I would have tried to strike up a conversation, but between her tense reaction to me bringing up her mother and the embarrassing PDA moment with Philip, she wasn't in the mood to chat. She leaned her head against the window for a power nap instead.

As much as I wanted to nap too, I felt too anxious to sleep, so I settled for staring out the window and watching the world pass by. It felt so weird to be out of Camp Half-Blood and seeing the real world again, seeing how people were just going about their day and living normal lives. It almost made me homesick for my old life, when I was just a teen girl, and the closest thing I had to enemies were Gemma and Troy. As sad it sounded, I almost felt like I would've preferred dealing with their mean comments than dealing with this.

Just as I lost myself in thoughts about life before camp, a sudden sensation of fear and doom crashed into me. My body automatically kicked into fight-or-flight mode, and I felt more on edge than I ever had before.

Wait a second, I thought to myself. This seems really familiar. When have I had this feeling before?

And that's when I remembered. I rolled the window down and began jerking my head all over the place to see if I could spot it.

"Hastings!" Mikhailo called from the front seat. "What on earth are you doing?"

Even Tharika had started waking up from her nap. "Chanel? Are you good?"

I ignored both of them as I continued to search around frantically. It was here, wasn't it? It had to be here. I wouldn't have felt so much terror if it wasn't here.

Then, in an instant, I spotted it. It was perched up on the pole of a traffic light just up ahead of us. Its shining gray-white feathers stood out against the gloomy winter sky, and its talons looked as sharp as ever.

Angry Bird had come back for me. And it looked just as furious as ever.

I expected the bird to swoop down and try to attack me like it did the first time we met. But to my surprise, all the bird did was give me an ominous look before launching off the pole, and flying away.