gnossienne
n. the realisation that you didn't actually know someone as well as you thought you did
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'Look, I never wanted to be a half-blood.
Let's start from the top, shall we?
My name is Cassandra Jackson, but everyone usually calls me Ca...
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Annabeth was the first to collect herself.
She loaded us into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had any real money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please." It was one of those cabs that had six seats facing each other so we had plenty of room to sprawl out.
The cabbie chewed his cigar and eyed us up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay upfront."
"You accept casino debit cards?"
He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em, first." Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card. He looked at it sceptically.
"Take it," Annabeth invited.
He did.
His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.
The cigar fell out of his mouth. He looked back at us wide eyed. I sent him an innocent smile. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?" I huffed, sinking into my seat as Annabeth sat a little straighter.
Why couldn't I be the royal one?
Percy nudged me, grinning at my face. I stuck my tongue out at him as Annabeth said, "The Santa Monica pier." I could tell she enjoyed the title. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."
Let me tell you, the cabbie defiantly went fast. His speedometer never dipped below ninety-five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.
On the road, we had plenty of time to talk. Percy and I exchanged stories about our latest dream, but the details were fuzzy. The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited our memory.
I tried to explain that I recognised the servant's voice, but even awake, I still couldn't place a face to it. Percy told them the servant had called the monster something... urgh... something beginning with The, but neither of us could remember what.
"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades." I shook my head. Neither of them sounded right.
"But, that voice from the pit... it didn't sound like a god." Annabeth's eyes widened at me.
"What?"
Annabeth assured us it had to be Hades. We swapped theories on how the servant messed up. None of them good.
"The answer is in the Underworld." Annabeth reassured us again. It wasn't working very well.
I looked out of the window as we hurdled towards Los Angeles. Something felt off, like in Math Class trying to find x. I was so close to figuring out the answer, but no matter how hard I tried to work through the problem, the answer still eluded me.
I thought about the casino. Did... did I meet someone? Already, I seemed to be forgetting about my time inside the casino, details slipping away. I shrugged. Whatever it was, it must've have been important.
