Luke Jackson: My Story

Stone Heart

Maybe my decision to let Lauren sleep through the night wasn't my smartest idea. Since the second she woke up, Lauren was pissed at me at morning for not waking her for her shift last night. Fortunately for me, couldn't stay mad at me for long though, she could never hold a grudge.

We had tracked down the general whereabouts of Medusa, according to Chiron who had iris messaged us earlier this morning. He said they'd tracked her down to an old abandoned plant nursery.

We took the bus to the old town where the nursery was located. The town looked deserted, which was unusual for the D.C. area. The driver gave us a strange look when we got off the bus, the town was called Stone Heart, it seemed to fit Medusa perfectly. The old buildings seemed to be crumbling with age, dead trees intertwined with some live ones.

"This place is so sketchy." Marcus observed.

"Yeah it is." I agreed.

"Come on, let's go the sooner we catch her, the sooner we can get out of here." Lauren walked confidently forwards into the town, Marcus and I gave each other a look but jogged to catch up,with her. We followed quickly at her heels towards the nursery located at the end of the small town. The windows were cracked and the humid air from the building leaked to the outside air.

"Are you sure this is it?" I murmured.

Lauren must've heard me, "yes Luke, this is it. It's the only building with plants inside it. Also it says 'plant nursery' on the sign back there. Come one, let's go in." Lauren pushed open the door without another thought. Marcus and I exchanged looks, we both knew that even when Lauren was at her strongest, she'd always pause for a second before taking action. She had to collect her thoughts and ground herself before jumping into battle. Seeing her act like this was not like her at all.

"Are you two boneheads just gonna stand there or what?" She scolded us from inside and we before slowly trailed after her.

The moisture in the greenhouse sucked the water out of my body. I felt dry on the inside but was a sticky, sweaty, nasty mess on the outside. My navy blue t-shirt clung to my skin and sweat caked my face and forehead. Lauren, Marcus and I were on a quest to kill the rebirth of Medusa, someone everyone thought would never rise again. The greenhouse, more like a mansion with a forest growing inside it, was much too big for the three of us to cover in a big group. We each had split up, in order to cover more ground.

This was Lauren's idea, not mine. I was opposed to leaving her by herself, especially in an unfamiliar place like this one. But I didn't want her knowing that I didn't like the idea. But as usual, she was right, in order to find Medusa as quickly as possible, the three of us had to split up. Still, I was not keen on the idea and I don't know why I hated leaving her by herself, but I just felt so helpless when I knew couldn't protect her. I was never going to let her know that of course because she'd probably judo flip me or kick my ass.

Marcus on the other hand, thought this was a fantastic idea. He claimed that he'd decapitate Medusa with one slash of his sword. So, after some snarky remarks from Lauren and I, we finally split up; each covering a designated area in the giant green house. I uncapped my sword from its coin form, I'd heard a branch snap, "who's that?" I raised my voice.

I waited a second, there was no answer. I pulled out my phone and used the screen to see around the corners, just in case Medusa was planning some sneak attack or something. I heard another branch snap, "Marcus? Lauren? That's not funny, stop it." I said, raising my voice, sounding more confident than I'd anticipated to be.

"Luke?" A deeper voice called out.

"Marcus, where are you? I think she's close by." I called out to him.