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

Chapter 19: We Get Robbed By The Monkey Brothers

OOTD: Same as before!

Makeup: None!

Hairstyle: Loose!

Fragrance: Poppy seeds and lemon...

Dear Diary,

You would think that after our run-ins with the Astomoi, hippalectryons, and the drakon, the Fates would show a little mercy and finally cut us some slack (or should I say 'string'?).

But nope!

The Fates clearly thought that we hadn't had enough torture, so they took the suffering dial and cranked it up even further. Yay me!

Here's what happened. Our bus to Washington rolled into the station perfectly fine, offloading all the passengers who were staying in Baltimore and getting ready to pick us up. All seemed well when we got on board and pulled away from the station.

So far, so good.

The ride was supposed to be only fifty minutes, meaning that we would have arrived to Washington by late afternoon. We were about halfway into the drive on the '95, when all of a sudden, the bus driver announced on the overhead system that something was wrong with the bus engine, and that he needed to pull over.

Tharika rolled her eyes as soon as the announcement was over. "Let me guess. A monster is responsible for this somehow."

"I don't doubt it," said Mikhailo, standing up to join the crowd of passengers filing out of the bus. He rubbed the back of his head, where his injury was. "Stay vigilant."

We headed out of the bus. Outside, the passengers were being asked to grab their things just to make sure they weren't damaged in case anything went haywire with the repairs. As we all gathered on the opposite side of the road, the driver called for roadside assistance to figure out what was wrong. We were surrounded by nothing but grass and trees, with other roads far off into the distance.

I scanned the passengers around us, trying to look for anyone or anything that might be suspicious. But everyone looked like a normal person, even after I'd rubbed and squinted my eyes to make sure I wasn't being fooled by the Mist.

"Nothing funky," Tharika concluded after some time. "This might be a regular mechanical problem."

"Don't be so sure," said Mikhailo, unconvinced. His arms were folded, his eyes darting back and forth between the crowd. "Someone out there is determined to stop us from completing this quest. Keep your guard up."

As we reached the crowd, we took a spot next to a group of four kids, who were playing with some toys and were all bundled up in thick winter gear; I could barely even see their faces. I looked them up and down a few times, but they just seemed like regular children.

The road side bus mechanics arrived, and got to work right away in helping the driver figure out the problem. As we all waited and waited and waited, I got a little hungry. I set my bag down on the snow, and began rummaging through my things for a snack.

I had just barely lifted out the butterfly-decorated gift bag to grab a back of chips from underneath it, when out of nowhere, one of the kids beside me made a dive for my backpack, and snatched it right up.

"Hey!" I screamed. "What on earth are you doing!?"

"Sorry, ma'am!" yelled one of the kids. "But we've been paid a pretty coin to take you down. Sucks to be you, yeah?"

For whatever reason, their voices sounded really animal-like...and British (no offense to my British friends; that's honestly just what they sounded like. Please don't kill me.)