Percy Jackson's Sister

So, No One Else is Gonna Bring Up Dogzilla? Okay.

           Considering I was just starting to fall asleep, I wasn't too happy to get up.

        As I reached for my glasses a voice came on the intercom. For some inexplicable reason, the guy had an Australian accent.

      "Good morning passengers!" He said in a way too happy tone to deal with this early in the morning. "We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the pool side mambo party? Don't forget million-dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one o'clock, and for our special guests, disemboweling practice on the Promenade!"

      I immediately turned to Annabeth to make sure I had heard right. She stopped in the middle of her failed attempt to tame her hair. I couldn't be judging, I wasn't too sure I looked any better.

     She popped her head into Percy's room and asked if we'd just heard the same thing.

      We both quickly tied up our hair and changed into a fresh pair of clothing. Annabeth stuffed her baseball cap in her back pocket and I decided to ask.

    "Hey," I said, "what up with the hat?"

     Instead of answering, Annabeth smiled and dropped her bag. She put on the Yankees cap and vanished. I was taken aback until she spoke.

    "A gift from my mom, Athena," the voice spoke directly behind me so I turned around.

   "Handy," I admired. She put the cap back in her pocket.

    We stepped out of our room and into Percy and Tyson's. They were just about ready to go.

    I took out a chocolate bar and opened it. Before I could take a bit Annabeth slapped it out of my hand.

     "Cassidy, are you crazy?" She practically yelled. "I told you not to eat anything from here, that chocolate could kill you!"

     I walked over to pick up my candy.

     "Relax, Chase," I said, dusting off the chocolate. "I stole this from the Hermes cabin."

   I took a bite as she and Percy exchanged a look somewhere between shock and confusion .

     "You stole a candy bar from the super secret Stoll stash, from the cabin of the god of thieves?" Percy asked.

     I nodded. "Simple really, just had to-"

     "As much as I'd love to hear how you accomplished that, Cas," Annabeth interrupted, "and trust me, I really want to know, we should probably get going."

    She was right, every minute spent talking about my minor accomplishment was a minute wasted.

     Surprisingly, there were more people on board. We saw a dad with his kids, an old lady sunbathing, which by the way I could've gone my whole life without, and a middle aged guy golfing. Nobody paid mind to us, though.

     A family passed by us on their way to the pool, the dad said, "We are on a cruise, we are having fun." I had seen enough zombie movies to know that this guy was in some type of trance.

     To add on to the spook factor, the three kids with him spoke in perfect unison,with the same dead voice as him, "Yes, we are having a blast. We will swim in the pool."

    As they walked off I turned to Percy to say something but a crew member beat me to it.

    "Good morning," he said. Making direct eye contact I could see his eyes were glazed over. "We are all employees on the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day!" He too wandered off.

    "Guys," I turned to face them. "I know I'm new to this and all but I don't exactly think that's normal behavior."

    "It's like they're in some kind of trance," Annabeth speculated.

     We passed the buffet and had to put a hand over my mouth to silence my gasp. There was a huge dog, not regular huge like grizzly bear huge, eating away at the eggs. The weirdest part was that no one seemed to mind. They disregarded it as if it were a regular dog. Or even a regular human.

    "Hellhound," Annabeth told me. "A baby by the looks of it, it's small."

    "Small?" I asked, in a whispered yell.

     She cracked a smile. I guess she enjoyed watching me get frightened by a dog that defied the laws of nature.

   "Not hungry anymore," Tyson muttered.

     Before I could agree with him we heard foot steps approaching the corridor we were in. Annabeth hurriedly shoved us all in the girl's bathroom. Percy turned slightly red, though he looked more scared of the voices than embarrassed to be in the girl's room.

    I heard two sets of footsteps walking past the bathroom we were hiding in. Definitely not human.

    "Yessss," the voice that spoke was reptilian and gave me chills. "He drawssss them, sssoon we will be ssssstrong."

   Annabeth spoke. "We have to get out of here."

    "You think I want to be in the girls' bathroom?" Percy hissed.

   I peeked my head outside to check if the coast was clear. As I turned my head to the right, I saw someone else approaching. I didn't stay out long enough to see their face, but it was definitely a guy. I silently closed the door hoping he didn't see me.

    "She means the ship, dummy," I said to Percy.

    "Smells bad," Tyson agreed. "And dogs eat all the eggs. Annabeth is right. We must leave the restroom and ship."

    Now that everyone was in agreement, our next plan was to find out how to get out of here.

    "We can't leave right now," I lowered my voice. "Someone's coming."

    As if confirming my statement, we heard a voice. "—only a matter of time. Don't push me, Agrius!"

      Percy and Annabeth both exchanged worried looks. I followed with an inquisitive one.

    "Luke," Percy said.

    I swallowed hard. I wasn't ready, not yet. My eyes scanned my surroundings, anything to get us out of here. But I knew we couldn't. This is why we had come and we needed to face it sooner or later. I needed to face it. Face him.

     Percy seemed to have noticed my panic rise. He eyed me suspiciously but dropped it. He knew better than to discuss it in front of Annabeth.

    Tyson whimpered. "Leave now?"

    I knew the look on Percy and Annabeth's faces. We all agreed.

    "We can't," Percy broke the news to the trembling cyclops.

    "We have to find out what Luke is up to," Annabeth said. "And if possible, we're going to beat him up, bind him in chains, and drag him to Mount Olympus."