cacoethes |PERCY JACKSON| [book 2]

XIII

SELENA AND TYSON WALKED THROUGH THE WOODS. He kept talking about Rainbow, the hippocampus until he stopped suddenly and Selena bumped into him,

"Tyson? What's wrong?" Selena asked, stepping around him and looked at the store that was in the middle of the clearing,

"Donuts!" Tyson exclaimed before walking inside. 

On the store's marquis, in huge black letters that even she could read, it said: MONSTER DONUT. A cartoon ogre was taking a bite out of the O in MONSTER.  It looked brand new, with brightly lit windows, a parking area, and a little road leading off into the forest, but there was nothing else around, and no cars parked in the lot.

Selena made herself invisible before following Tyson.

It looked like a regular diner, with booths and neon lights hanging in the window, and at the counter was different flavors of donuts. Tyson was at the counter, giving his order to a teenager with a bad case of acne.

The place smelled good, like fresh-baked chocolate donuts.

Once Tyson got the donuts, Selena went outside with him and made herself visible again, "We need to tell Percy and Annabeth." Selena said to Tyson before the two made their way back to the camp.

"Powdered donuts!" he said proudly, holding up a pastry box when they went back to the hide-out.

Annabeth stared at them, "Where did you get that? We're in the middle of the wilderness. There's nothing around for—"

"Fifty feet," Tyson said. "Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!"

Selena nodded, "It's true."

"This is bad," Annabeth muttered before the group left to get a look at the donut shop. They were crouching behind a tree, staring at the donut shop in the middle of the woods.

"This shouldn't be here," Annabeth whispered. "It's wrong."

"What?" Percy asked. "It's a donut shop."

"Shhh!" Annabeth hissed,

"Why are we whispering? Tyson went in and bought a dozen. Nothing happened to him."

"He's a monster." She replied,

"Aw, c'mon, Annabeth. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters! It's a chain. We've got them in New York."

"A chain," Selena agreed, "But don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to get donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods?"

Percy seemed to think about it for a moment before Annabeth spoke, "It could be a nest," she explained.

Tyson whimpered. Selena doubted he understood what Annabeth was saying any better than Percy did, but her tone was making him nervous. He'd plowed through half a dozen donuts from his box and was getting powdered sugar all over his face.