The Invisible Demigod

Marry - XVII

Sometimes being a demigods sucks, especially if it means you have to leave your half-eaten McMuffin behind.

It was early morning and we were at McDonalds much to everyone's dismay. It was the first place we could find.

We had ordered and were sitting down, ready to eat. I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten anything so fatty, but people need to make sacrifices for a quest and gaining a little weight it worth saving our friends.

"Do I know you?" We all looked up to see a teen with bad acne standing over us. He wore a name tag that said he was the manager. I didn't the look on his face, his eyes were narrowed and he was surveying us with suspicion etched all over his face.

"No, I don't think so." Claire mumbled and looked down. His eyes widened.

"I do know you," he said. "You four are the kids from the news!" I was seriously confused, we were on the news? He turned to a TV and turned it on. A news channel appeared.

A women in a pantsuit was in the middle of saying something.

"...still no sign of the four adolescents, but police are on alert." Now my head was spinning, why were the police involved? A video started to play, it was shaky and a little grainy, but I could easily recognize us.

I saw the two hellhounds attacking us, then Nico finishing off the last one. The head was left on the pavement, then everyone started to scream and run around. The camera zoomed in to focus on the hellhound head, the person videotaping gaged.

"That's just sick." They muttered.

"Guys," Nico murmured. "Let your eyes go out of focus, then we can see what the mortals see."

I obeyed, letting my eyes slip out of focus, but still focused enough where I could see the screen. I felt my stomach turn, it was the head of a bear. It's eyes glazed over and it's mouth hanging open. The mortals think we killed two bears?

In the video, it looked like Nico and Claire had long poles that had electricity surging through them. I had a gun still, so did Sam.

The manager turned back to us when four grainy picture appeared, each one had been taken off the video, it was us.

"That's not you?" he demanded. He crossed his arms impatiently. "Give me one good reason why not to call the cops."

"Because we aren't here." Sam said and flipped the table. The manager let out a cry of shock and we bolted. I sadly left my food behind and pulled out my gun. It wouldn't hurt mortals, but it could scare them. Sam pulled out his bow and people screamed, ducking as I passed them.

We jogged through the crowded street, the manager came out bellowing for us to stop. I dodged annoyed pedestrians, parked cars, and street lights. We tried to run in zigzags, it's hard to find people in a crowd when they're not moving in a straight line.

"Head over there!" Claire said, pointing to a dark alleyway up ahead.

We swerved and were plunged into semi-darkness. The tall buildings shading the small alleyway. I leaned against the cool brick, panting and trying to catch my breath. Sam sat down, arms propped onto his knees and head bowed. I saw his sides heaving with every breath.

I heard sirens and we all froze. The police cars zoomed past and we all let out a sigh of relief. I wiped sweat from my brow, glad that we weren't caught. Apparently, killing bears was a big no-no.

I helped Sam to his feet, he leaned against me and I felt my pulse quicken like it usually did when Sam was close.

I helped him out into the sunlight and we made our way downtown, away from the police cars. I was surprised that Sam had been able to flip that table and run, but now he was paying the price for it.

I wished we could do something, ambrosia helped but too much could kill him. He was having trouble breathing from the two wounds, the one in his chest was the problem. It must have damaged his lungs, ambrosia could only do so much.

I couldn't believe that the police would actually arrest us for killing monsters! Sure, they might think we were killing bears, but it still wasn't fair.

I scanned the buildings around us, I had learned to try and be as prepared as possible for any monster attacks. They usually came when I least expected it.

Suddenly, a bright orange flyer caught my attention. I stopped because I was too shocked to make my legs work. Sam stumbled and Claire turned back to see what was happening.

"Marry?" She asked. I raised a hand and pointed at the flyer.

Mr. Geryon's Petting Zoo!

Bring the kids!

Don't worry about monster bites!

Don't worry about rabies!

Open Mondays-Sundays

from 7am-9pm

Closed on national holidays

It looked like someone had written "Don't worry about monster bites!" then realized their mistake. They obviously thought it was too much work to reprint, so they just crossed it out.

"'Don't worry about monster bites'?" Nico asked, walking over to the flyer and pulling it down. An angry expression passed over his face when he read it. "Geryon." he muttered, the flyer crinkling where he gripped it too hard. "Not him again."

"Who?" Claire asked, taking the half crumpled paper gently from his hands then rereading it.

"He's this jerk that has a ranch and deals out favors for manual labor. I did it once, then he tried to kidnap me." He crossed his arms angrily, I could sense something else to the story he wasn't letting on. Like I said before, I can tell when something has to do with romance or love and Nico was remembering something about love that was connected to his encounter with Geryon.

"Well," Sam said. "If he makes deals, maybe he can give us a car." Nico shook his head.

"Absolutely not." he said. "I'm not going back to see that three bodied jerk."

"Nico," Claire said, giving him a look. "I know about our," She glanced at me and Sam. "Disagreement." She finally said. "But will you please come, for me?" She smiled hopefully and I had to hand it to her, she knew how to get boys to do her will. Nico groaned, but came along anyway. Complaining the whole time.

We followed directions from strangers mostly, taking care to leave as quickly as possible before anyone recognized us. There were a few more flyers that had arrows pointing towards the petting zoo.

I was expecting a barn with monsters on the inside, but instead there was a giant fence off area by a small shed. The shed said "Tickets and Gifts", I couldn't believe this evil monster guy had a gift shop.

 I saw that the fenced off area was at least fifty stalls. Monsters were in each one. Ever. Single. One.