Changing the Future

Chapter 3

The next few days were a complete blur as the four of us slashed and stabbed our way from Brooklyn to Manhattan. The trip shouldn't have taken more than a few hours, but with our rotten luck, we had to stop for a day after Luke was injured from an empousa's spear, which Grover treated with a whole lot of nature magic.

Although I had never visited the New York of my other Earth – I had lived in the middle of Ohio – I somehow knew the layout scarily well. It wasn't until we passed by a candy store called Sweet on America that I realized that this part of Manhattan was in the exact same set up as my own town.

I turned around, the familiar tingling lacing up and down my spine telling me that we were in danger. Annabeth and Thalia were both supporting Luke, as he had once again passed out from reopening his chest wound. Blood seeped through his shirt, staining Thalia's hands as she pressed on the wound to keep him from dying of blood loss.

"In here," Grover decided, waving towards the Sweet on America store. I would've picked a less conspicuous place, but when a bolt of lightning struck the skyscraper two blocks down, I knew that the monsters were honing in on us.

Suddenly, I remembered that Sweet on America was the candy store where Sally Jackson worked, and the meant I'd have time to warn her, too. I ran back to Luke, taking Annabeth's place by his side, and then we ran into the candy shop.

Thankfully for us, no one was in the store other than Sally, who emitted a meek yelp as we burst in through the door. "We need help," Thalia pleaded, lowering Luke onto the floor. I did the same, immediately going to work. I had loaded up on gauze from our last pharmacy visit and started wrapping Luke's wound, hoping to stop the bleeding.

"You're demigods, aren't you?" Sally questioned, sounding as if she had been sucker punched in the gut.

"Yes, and we don't have much time," Thalia replied. "There are monsters chasing after us, and our friend's been seriously hurt. Do you have anything that could help us?"

"She's a mortal," I reminded Thalia. Then, as I continued tying off the gauze, I said, "Could you please call Chiron at Camp Half-Blood and tell him that we're almost there?" I handed her the little business card Grover had given me earlier.

She paled but nodded, running to the back of the store, where I imagined the phone was. I called over Annabeth and told her to keep pressure on the wound as I pulled out a second roll of gauze, double wrapping Luke's spear wound. I cringed as I saw the edges tinged green, either from poison or infection. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the last of my ambrosia and forced it into Luke's mouth.

"We can wait five minutes at most," I told Annabeth, Grover, and Thalia. "Take a breather, re-bandage your wounds, but be ready to move."

Grover began to nervously eat the napkins from the dispenser, eating them the same way I ate cookies, which is to say like it was his last meal. Sally came back from the back room, her face an ashy shade of gray, but she put on a brave face for us, offering us some candy while we rested.

While Annabeth and Thalia took full advantage of the free candy, I gestured for Sally to follow me away from the others. I told her that I knew about Percy, which almost made her pass out, but I assured her that he was still safe for the time being. I promised her that I would keep an eye out for him, because I knew of the danger he was in. Just because I came to change the future, didn't mean I could step in every single time someone needed danger. They still had to earn their own reputation without my involvement.

"How long does he have?" she asked, her voice wavering. "Before he's discovered?"

"Until he's twelve. And I have one more thing for you, Sally," I said, reaching into my bag, my hand closing around a little gold charm that Salina had given me in a dream last night. The charm was of a shooting star, Salina's symbol. "As long as Percy keeps this on, his demigod scent will be better hidden. Instead of having the aura of a Big Three kid, it'll weaken it to as if he were a kid of a minor god."