CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - I'M STRETCHED A LITTLE THIN

It was technically Annabeth's idea, but I was the one who suggested it. Hey, I have to use my knowledge of the future sometimes, right?

We loaded into the back of a Vegas taxi as if we actually had money, and Annabeth told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."

The cabbie chewed on his cigar, an unimpressed look adorning his face. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."

"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.

He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same with credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."

I handed him my LotusCash card, trying not to smile.

He turned it over in his hand, still not sure about us.

"Swipe it," Annabeth invited.

He did.

The meter machine started going crazy, lights flashing and motors whirring. After a few seconds, an infinity symbol appeared next to the dollar sign.

The cigar fell out of the cabbie's mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes shifting between me and Annabeth. "Where to in Los Angeles...uh, Your Highnesses?"

I smiled widely. "The Santa Monica Pier, please."

Annabeth sat up a little straighter, and gave me a sly smile. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

Maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say.

The speedometer never dipped below ninety-five all the way through the Mojave Desert.

*

"Based on how fast we're going now, we should get there in about three hours. Navigating through LA traffic will be a little tougher, but the drive to the pier isn't very difficult," I said.

Three hours. It gave us plenty of time to talk.

Percy told us about his latest dream, the one he had on the zoo truck. I knew bits and pieces of the dream as well, having read it for eight years, but the Lotus Casino muddled my brain. That got me frustrated. I couldn't even remember my own dream, I just remembered that it had something to do with Luke.

Percy wasn't having much luck either. He couldn't recall exactly whose voice the invisible servant's sounded like, and he couldn't remember what the servant called the voice. I couldn't, either.

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe..." Percy trailed off. He looked frustrated, and a little guilty that he couldn't remember.

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."

Percy shook his head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit...I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."

I wanted to bang my head against the cab window. I wanted to jump up and down and shout, "I know! I know who it is!" I wanted to be that annoying kid in the class who always got the right answer. But the stupid laws the Fates bound me to prevented me from doing any of that.

Annabeth's eyes widened, an idea forming inside of her head. She glanced at me, but I couldn't give her any sort of confirmation or rejection. I just stared back at her.

Percy looked between us. "What?" he asked.

Annabeth looked back at him. "Oh...nothing. I was just—No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong—"

"Like what?" Percy demanded.

"I—I don't know," she said. "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dream, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

Annabeth was pale, and when I grabbed her hand and squeezed for reassurance, her skin was cool and clammy.

"But if I'd already retrieved the bolt," Percy said slowly, as if trying to get his head around the idea. "Why would I be traveling to the Underworld?"

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."

I whistled. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Grover gave me an evil grin in response.

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," Percy countered Grover. "If the master bolt is one, what's the other?"

Grover shook his head, stumped.

Percy looked over at me and Annabeth. We were both a little worse for wear. Annabeth was silently pleading with her eyes, begging Percy to not ask his next question.

He did anyways. "You have an idea what might be in that pit, don't you? I mean, if it isn't Hades?"

Annabeth sighed. "Percy...let's not talk about it. Because if it isn't Hades...No. It has to be Hades."

Percy looked at me for a second, but then thought better of it to ask. At least he was learning that I couldn't tell them anything, even if they did get frustrated with me sometimes.

We passed a sign that said CALIFORNIA STATE LINE, 12 MILES. I was almost home.

Annabeth spoke up again. "The answer is in the Underworld. You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing."

It was a good thing that I couldn't say or do anything, because I was close to screaming. Once again, I couldn't help but question the Fates. They told me that I was there to stop a war, except they were preventing me from doing anything. I couldn't remember details that I was sure were crucial to the plot, and the ones I did remember, I couldn't tell anyone else about.

More and more, sending me to this world felt like a huge joke.

*

The taxi dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier.

I was the first to get out, letting the ocean air whip through my hair. I looked towards the pier, where a summer carnival was setting up. The lights on the Ferris-Wheel were just turning on. The sun was setting, turning the Pacific Ocean golden yellow.

Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and I walked down to the edge of the surf. I kicked off my shoes and socks and buried them in the cold sand, the water pooling over my ankles. I sighed in sweet bliss.

"This isn't a vacation, Avalon," Annabeth warned.

I turned around slightly and stuck my tongue out at her, playfully. "I'm well aware of that. But we're going to be here a while. Might as well enjoy it. I haven't felt the Pacific on my feet in years. Cut me some slack, Beth."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Beth?"

I froze, and looked back at her, wincing slightly. "Sorry," I said. "I know that you don't like nicknames all that much. That's just what I called you, you know, in my world. I tended to do that with all of you guys. Perce, Beth, Thals, the list goes on and on..." I was rambling now, trying to defuse the situation.

Annabeth huffed in annoyance, but didn't say anything else to me. She just turned to Percy and said, "What now?"

Percy looked out over the ocean, as if he was trying to see past the horizon. He had a look of awe on his face.

I gave him a big smile. "How does that saying go again? From sea to shining sea?"

He looked at me funny, but started to laugh all the same.

I nudged him towards the water. "Go on," I said. "We'll wait here for you."

Without giving me a response, Percy stepped into the surf.

"Percy?" Annabeth said. "What are you doing?"

He kept walking, up to his waist, and then his chest.

Annabeth called after him, "You know how polluted that water is? There's all kinds of toxic—"

That's when his head went under.

"—chemicals," she huffed.

"Oh, he's fine," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "His father's magic will protect him."

Annabeth gave me the stink eye, and sat down hard in the sand.

Grover came over to me, as I was sitting down and leaning back, my elbows supporting my body. I watched as the surf churned across the beach, and tried to count the sand-crabs that scuttled back into the sand as the water pulled back.

"Looking out at the ocean, it almost makes me forget about the problems in nature," Grover mused.

"Until you look back at the beach," I grumbled, gesturing to the trash that littered the bank. He let out an irritated bleat in response.

I looked over at Annabeth, who was intensely staring out over the water. "She doesn't like me very much, does she?" I asked Grover.

He shrugged. "Annabeth has a complicated past. I think that it bugs her that you know so much about her, and she knows nothing about you. While she makes plans and wants everything to be precise, you're more of a 'go with the flow,' kind of person. She has problems trusting people like that, especially when they don't like her friends." He gave me a pointed look.

I rolled my eyes at him in response. "As I told Percy and Annabeth before, I don't know why I don't like Luke. I just, don't."

Grover held up his hands. "Hey, I didn't say anything. I just think that Annabeth hasn't figured you out yet. She doesn't know if you're friend or foe."

I didn't answer. Truthfully, I was feeling a little put-out. Here I was, on a quest that I had been dreaming about since I was twelve, with three of my favorite characters in the world, and one of them didn't even trust me enough to like me.

I looked back down at the wet beach. When a wave pulled back, I stuck my hand down into the sand and brought out a sand-crab. I watched as it scuttled across my fingers, trying to get back home. "When I was younger, I used to go to the beach a lot with my sister," I told Grover, a sad smile on my face. "It was one of our favorite places. We would bury each other in the sand and make castles. One of our favorite things to do would be to go searching for tide pools. There were always a couple around the rocks. We would sit there and try to name all of the creatures in the pools," I paused, and looked back up at the sky, trying to keep my eyes from tearing up. "And here I am, at one of the most famous beaches in the country, and she's not here with me."

The reality of my situation hit me like a brick. For the last few months at Yancy, I tried to tell myself that there was a reason why my sister wasn't writing me. She was in a different school, or she lost the address, or something. And when Chiron told me that my family basically didn't exist, I didn't want to believe him. I wanted to believe that he just hadn't looked for all of the possibilities. Like, maybe my mother never married.

But Chiron was right. I don't have my mother, or my sister. I don't have my best friend. So, sitting at the beach, her favorite place in California, it felt downright cruel.

I put the sand-crab down, and watched as it buried itself down into the sand. Grover didn't say anything, he just scooted closer to me and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug. I guess with reading my emotions, he knew that talking wasn't something that I needed at that moment.

We stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until Annabeth stood up and pointed down to the water. "Look," she said. "He's back."

When Percy reached the beach, his clothes dried instantly. He told us about his talk with the Nereid, and showed us the pearls.

I have to admit, I was relieved when I saw that there were four.

Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "No gift comes without a price."

"They were free."

I sighed, and hung my head in defeat. "That's not what she meant, Perce."

Annabeth nodded. "'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."

"Come on," I said, giving the ocean one last glance, before turning my back to it. "Let's go find the Underworld."

*

Since my backpack was completely empty of cash, we used some spare change from Ares's pack to buy bus passes into West Hollywood. We sat up front, and Percy showed the driver the delivery slip he took from Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium.

"Sorry," the driver said. "Never heard of DOA." He looked at me and Percy more closely. "You two remind me of people I've seen on TV. You child actors or something?"

I gave Percy a panicked look, but he had an excuse up his sleeve. "Uh...we're stunt doubles...for a lot of child actors."

"Oh! That explains a lot."

We didn't stay on the bus for long.

The four of us wandered for miles on foot. At one point, when we ducked into an alley to avoid a cop, Percy sighed in exasperation and turned to me. "You said that you lived here! Don't you know where it is?"

I glared at him. "First, I said I lived in a suburb of Los Angeles. I've only been to Hollywood maybe three times. And second, in case you forgot, I come from a world where either a) I'm completely mortal, or b) there are no gods. Even if there was a DOA recording studios, I'd have no idea where to look."

He hung his head and ran a hand over his face. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. This is just annoying." He started walking out of the alley again, once Grover said that the coast was clear.

As we passed by an appliance store, I stopped in my tracks. "Not as annoying as that," I grumbled.

Percy froze as he looked at the television in the window. It was playing an interview, with a very pudgy man who had a grand total of three hairs. His eyes were red and bloodshot, which he seemed to be trying to pass off as grief, but it looked more alcohol-induced than anything else.

"That's your stepfather, isn't it," I whispered to Percy. He nodded, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

Gabe Ugliano was talking to Barbara Walters, like he was some big celebrity. They were in a small apartment (I could only assume that it was Percy's), in the middle of a poker game. A pretty blonde lady was sitting next to him, patting his hand.

He was saying, "Honest, Mrs. Walters, if it wasn't for Sugar here, my grief counselor, I'd be a wreck. My stepson took everything I cared about. My wife...my Camaro...I—I'm sorry. I have trouble talking about it."

I puffed up my cheeks, like I was going to throw up. "Gah, people actually fall for that?"

Barbara Walters was talking now. "There you have it, America," she said, turning to the camera. "A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with serious issues. Let me show you, again, the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver."

The screen cut to a grainy shot of the four of us, and Ares, outside the Colorado diner. Once again, mine and Percy's faces were displayed clearly, while Annabeth's and Grover's were partially hidden.

"We have identified the girl next to young Mr. Jackson, as one Avalon Green," Barbara Walters said. My breath hitched in my throat, and I started to cough. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover all looked at me with wide eyes. "Avalon Green was a classmate of Jackson this past school year, and has been reported as very close to the young man.

"But who are the other children in this photo? Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or perhaps the brainwashed victim of a frightening new cult? When we come back, we chat with a leading child psychologist. Stay tuned, America."

I backed away from the store window, and sat down hard on the curb. Percy looked down at me, but his expression was hard to place. Was it fear, or concern?

"Who could have identified you?" Annabeth demanded. "I thought you said that you didn't have a family. How could someone know who you are?"

I took a few deep breaths, and then stood up. "It must have been someone from Yancy," I said, looking between Percy and Grover. "Maybe my old roommate." I turned to Annabeth, and snapped at her, "Because you're right, Annabeth. I don't have any family."

Annabeth's mouth dropped open in surprise. I was a little surprised myself. I didn't usually let my temper flare like that. But I was too upset with the knowledge that, now, people are looking for both Percy and myself, to care.

*

One problem with LA. It always got dark way too quickly.

We got lost easily, finding ourselves at dead ends, walking down the same street twice, things like that. Percy was constantly looking over his shoulder, and I was doing the same. The number one thing my father had taught me at a young age—never find yourself in LA at night.

As we passed the entrance of an alley, a voice said, "Hey, you."

Like an idiot, Percy stopped.

In no time at all, we were surrounded by six teenagers, each with a crude sneer on their faces. I immediately crouched down, trying to make myself look small, but threatening at the same time. In my experience, if you look like you're going to fight back, they leave you alone.

Percy took it one too far, however. He reached into his pocket and uncapped Riptide.

When the sword appeared, five of the kids backed off. But the leader just kept coming, a switchblade in his hand.

I was ready to place a well-aimed kick, when Percy swung his sword. The kid yelped, looking down at his chest in confusion, trying to figure out how a blade passed right through him. "What the..."

Percy grabbed my hand. "Run!" He screamed at Annabeth and Grover, and he tugged me along.

We pushed two kids out of the way and raced down the street. At that point, we had no destination, we just needed to get away from the kids.

"There!" Annabeth shouted.

A small shop at the end of the street was still open, its windows glaring with neon. The sign above the door read something like CRSTUY'S WATRE BDE ALPACE.

"Crusty's Water Bed Palace?" Grover translated.

Before I could protest, Percy ducked into the doors, pulling me along with him, with Grover and Annabeth in tow. The four of us ducked behind a water bed, and a few seconds later, the gang kids ran past outside.

"I think we lost them," Grover panted.

"Lost who?" A voice boomed.

We all jumped.

Standing behind us was a behemoth of a man. He was easily seven feet tall, and he reminded me of a turtle. Gray, leathery skin, thick-lidded eyes, and a cold smile. He moved towards us slowly, like he was soaking up energy, waiting for the precise moment to strike.

I'm Crusty," the man said.

Percy looked at him slowly, up and down. "Sorry to barge in," he finally said. "We were just, um, browsing."

"You mean hiding from those no-good kids," Crusty grumbled. "They hang around every night. I get a lot of people in here, thanks to them. Say, you want to look at a water bed?"

Percy looked like he was about to protest, but Crusty clamped a huge hand on his shoulder, and steered him towards the back of the store.

"This is my most popular model." He spread his hands proudly over a bed covered in black satin sheets, with built in Lava Lamps on the headboard. "Million-hand massage. Go on, try it out. Shoot, take a nap. I don't care. No business today, anyway."

I narrowed my eyes, and leaned into Percy. "Bad, very bad," I whispered in his ear. "I know who this guy is. We need to leave."

Percy squeezed my hand and gave me a sly nod in response. "Um," he said, "I don't think..."

"Million-hand massage!" Grover shouted, and he dove in. "Oh, you guys! This is cool."

"Grover!" I snapped. "You really shouldn't."