Chapter 12

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The missing, the missing. There were so many missing.

Maria di Angelo had been driving for hours. Surely she'd be out of state lines by now. But the scenery hasn't changed at all, and the sky has long turned dark. She couldn't remember the last town she went through.

She saw a sign giving the distance to the next town. It's an hour away. She drove on, and twenty minutes later, she saw another sign giving the distance to that town. It is still an hour away. It has been an hour away for as long as she can remember

Thalia Grace stood waiting for the train. The next train will arrive in 5 minutes. Days have passed; winter is setting in. The next train will arrive in 5 minutes. It will arrive in 5 minutes...

Five minutes goes on forever, and forever and forever. What even were minutes anymore?

The lake bores holes through cliffs, crushes stones beneath its waves. It will erode you, too, given enough time. It eroded Bianca, it eroded others. It almost got Percy Jackson.

Don't swim in Lake Erie. Don't swim in Lake Erie. Don't swim in Lake Erie. Don't swim in Lake Erie.

Don't

Swim

In

Lake

Erie

Travis Stoll had sat by the cornfields, had made the mistake of standing still. A small boy appears in the cornfields around him. Travis asked him where he came from. The boy says nothing, but reaches for Travis' hand. He presses his finger into his palm. Travis is never seen again.

The corn gets taller every year. And every year, the screams coming from the fields get louder.

Too many people went missing by those fields.

Corn. Corn corn corn. corncorncorncorncorncorncorncorn. The Ten Commandments. corn. death. Hell is real.

Don't forget, Hell is real.

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