The Grace Curse

Chapter Nine

AFTER RUNNING OUT OF BED, BATH, AND BEYOND, BLAKE AND I FINALLY FOUND OUR WAY TO VERDANBURG TERMINAL. We took the van up to the large parking lot and managed to get a decent spot.

"What do we do with the van?" Blake asked.

I frowned. "I don't know,"

Ferrum let out a laugh, I was beginning to get aggravated with her. It wasn't every day I had a spear yelling at me. "I'm sure Hera will take care of it when you meet with her, let's just get inside,"

Blake nodded. "Good plan,"

The train station was overflowing with people, literally every two steps I was bumping into someone. I saw a giant stand labeled Ticket Booth. Hesitantly, I approached it. Standing in the window of the booth, stood a short red-haired woman. Her frizzy red hair instantly caught my attention.

"Blake let me handle this," He nodded and dialed someone on his phone.

"Hello honey, where are your parents?" (Was this lady actually serious?) I looked down at her name tag, Shirley. She looked like an oversized carrot in a blue conductor's suit.

"I..." I began to say.

"Use Glamour on her you idiot!" Ferrum ordered.

I ignored her. "What?" I asked. "What the heck is Glamour?"

"Hey honey? Are you ok? Do you need me to help me find your parents?" Shirley asked in a sweet tone. She so did not just call me honey. I didn't care for how she was treating me like a lost child at all.

"Glamour is like a form of hypnotism, it draws on the Mist, it's magic,"

"Yeah? And how do I do that?"

Ferrum laughed in my mind. "Easy, just put some desire into your words; make her feel what you want her to feel," That really wasn't much of a help. I looked back up at Shirley. This time I mustered up all the courage I had into my words.

"Actually...I was wondering if I could buy two tickets to the next stop to D.C." I said forcefully and put full emotion into my words. She narrowed her eyes at me and then stiffened like a wall; Shirley almost seemed overwhelmed by the flood of my emotions.

"Of course you can! That will be two hundred dollars please..." I swung my backpack out and opened it graciously. I wondered if I could have just Glamoured her into giving me a free ticket. Instead, I pulled out two hundred dollars out and handled this the "right" way. My hands were trembling from the amount of anxiety I was feeling. I needed to get as far from Verdanburg as possible; after all, Apollo could've been just two steps behind me, especially considering Hermes said he'd be here.

"Here you go," I finally said and snapped out of my mental haze. I handed her the payment and took a deep breath. She went back into her window and fiddled around with something. I guess my Glamour or whatever truly worked, because she came back with a slip of paper and brought it down to me.

"Here you are sweetie," She said. "The train departs at 12:30 PM don't miss it, have a wonderful day!" Blake came back over to me.

"Well that certainly went well didn't it?" Blake giggled.

"Blame Ferrum," I growled.

"Hey!" She spat.

"You may as well have made me glamoured her into giving me a free ticket," I yelled. I was wasting my time arguing with her. Blake and I were on limited time.

"Oh please, you weren't even that great at it," Ferrum chastised. I heard a loud clock ring. I looked up and saw a grand clock hanging above us: 12:15.