THIRD POV
"Where's Annabeth?" Percy asked, turning to Grover, his voice edged with concern.
Grover, tapping his hoof nervously on the ground, shrugged. "I—I don't know. She split off a while back. She was supposed to be right behind me."
"Great," Percy muttered, gripping his sword tighter. "We're in a statue maze with a pearl-hunting assignment, and we lost her."
---
Meanwhile, Annabeth, the girl in question, had much bigger problems.
The Hysterical Woman dragged Annabeth further through the maze, her frantic muttering barely comprehensible between gasps of air. Finally, Annabeth had enough. She yanked her arm free, spinning to face the woman.
"Alright, stop! You've got to tell me what's going on! Who are we running from?!" Annabeth demanded, trying to steady her breath.
The woman's wild eyes darted around, her voice trembling as she pointed down the gravel path. "L-look!"
Annabeth turned toward the direction of her trembling finger.
"Leaving so soon?"
The voice, smooth yet dripping with malice, cut through the air like a blade. Annabeth froze. She turned slowly, her hand twitching toward her dagger.
There, standing ominously in the path, was a woman cloaked entirely in black. Her long gown swept the ground like a shadow, her hands pale and slender, almost skeletal. A black turban wrapped her head tightly, and dark sunglasses obscured her eyes. The air around her felt heavy, like the silence before a storm.
This... was Medusa.
"Leaving so soon?" the woman repeated, her voice deceptively calm, yet laced with menace.
The Hysterical Woman let out an ear-splitting scream, trying to back away. Annabeth instinctively stepped in front of her, every muscle in her body tensing.
Medusa tilted her head, sniffing the air delicately. Her lips curled into a predatory smile as her gaze fell on Annabeth. "You have such beautiful gray eyes..." Her voice dropped lower, almost reverent. "I've only seen eyes like that once before..."
Annabeth clenched her jaw, gripping her dagger tightly. "Who are you?" she demanded, though she already knew the answer.
Medusa let out a dark chuckle, her gloved hands rising to her turban. "Do you know what your precious mother did to me?" she hissed, her tone venomous now. "Athena... That bitch."
With a flourish, Medusa began to unwind the turban from her head.
"No..." Annabeth breathed, taking a step back.
"Oh, yes," Medusa purred, her movements slow, deliberate. "Right before she cursed me with this."
The last strip of cloth fell away, revealing Medusa's true face.
Her skin was a sickly green, cracked and distorted like shattered glass barely held together. Pulsating veins throbbed under the surface, her features twisted in permanent anguish and fury. But the worst part? Her hair.
Living, hissing, writhing snakes.
The serpents snapped at each other, their scales glistening like blackened steel, their eyes glowing with malicious intent. Their furious hissing filled the air that made Annabeth's stomach churn.
Annabeth stumbled back, her breath hitching.
"The daughter of Athena," Medusa sneered, her yellowed teeth flashing in the dim light. "Here, in my emporium. How fitting."
She strode over to the Coca-Cola cooler and threw it open with a casual flick of her wrist. Reaching inside, she lowered her head. The snakes hissed eagerly, their mouths opening wide to reveal razor-sharp fangs.
One by one, they snapped up the live mice inside the cooler, swallowing them whole.
Annabeth grimaced, fighting the urge to gag as she watched. When Medusa straightened, the snakes seemed momentarily calmed, their furious snapping replaced by ominous swaying.
"That's better," Medusa murmured, stroking one of the serpents like a beloved pet. She turned her attention back to Annabeth, taking a step closer.
Annabeth gripped her dagger tighter.
"You've inherited her arrogance, haven't you?" Medusa said, her voice soft yet dripping with disdain. "But that won't save you."
The snakes began to hiss again, their agitation growing. Medusa raised her sunglasses just slightly, enough for Annabeth to see the faint glow of her eyes beneath them.
Annabeth tried to keep her gaze averted, her heart hammering in her chest.
"I've seen your eyes," Medusa whispered, lowering her voice to a sinister purr. "Now, it's time for you to see mine."
In one swift motion, Medusa pulled off her sunglasses entirely.
"NO!" Annabeth yelled, snapping her head down to avoid Medusa's gaze.
But the Hysterical Woman wasn't so lucky. Drawn by some unholy force, she looked directly into Medusa's glowing, yellow eyes. Her expression slackened, her body stiffening as she fell under the monster's hypnotic spell.
Her transformation began instantly. Her hand—still clutching Annabeth's arm—hardened, turning gray and rough. Stone crept up her arm like ivy, spreading faster than Annabeth could react.
"Let go!" Annabeth yelled, trying to yank free. But the woman's grip was like iron.
The petrification reached the woman's face. Her features froze in a mask of terror, her lips parted mid-scream. And then... she was gone. A lifeless, stone statue stood where the woman had been.
Annabeth staggered back, her chest heaving as panic clawed at her throat. Medusa smiled, a sickeningly satisfied expression.
"You'll look lovely in my garden," she hissed, her snakes snapping eagerly.
Annabeth tightened her grip on her dagger, forcing herself to stand tall despite the fear flooding her veins.
"Not today," she spat, her voice shaking but defiant.
Medusa's smile widened. "Brave... Foolish. Just like your mother."
Medusa moves her face to within inches of Annabeth's face. The snakes "Feel" Annabeth's face, as if they were the fingers of a blind person. Annabeth keeps her sealed.
"What a wonderful addition you'll make to my collection. Or perhaps I'll send you back to Mom. One piece at a time."
---
The two huddled behind a pair of crumbling statues, trying their best not to breathe too loudly. Percy gripped Riptide tightly in one hand, his knuckles turning white. His voice was a low whisper, laced with anxiety.
"How are we supposed to fight something we can't even look at?" he asked, shooting Grover a glance.
Grover, reached into his pocket and pulled out an iPhone. He held it up, tilting it to catch a glimpse of Medusa in the reflective back.
"You can look at her reflection," Grover whispered. "In a mirror or something. Just don't, you know... make eye contact."
Percy snatched the phone from Grover's hand, inspecting the screen. Sure enough, there she was—Medusa, standing tall and ominous, her snake-hair writhing as if they were ready to leap off her scalp and strangle someone.
"This might actually work," Percy muttered, then shoved the phone into his pocket.
"What's the plan?" Grover asked, clearly hoping Percy had some secret weapon or divine strategy up his sleeve. Spoiler: he didn't.
"You get Annabeth while I distract Medusa," Percy said, trying to sound confident.
Grover blinked at him. "You sure about that? Because—"
"No time to argue, G-Man. Let's go!" Percy hissed.
Grover muttered under his breath, "This would've been easier if Thad was here."
Percy rolled his eyes as he tightened his grip on Riptide. "Yeah, well, he's probably just chilling and having it easy right now."
---
Thaddeus was definitely not chilling.
"C'mon, you concrete fucks! I'll take you all on!" he roared, fending off a group of stone creatures with his staff in his one good hand.
The truck door swung open beside him, serving as his makeshift battle station. The stone creatures were relentless—cracked Roman soldiers, crumbling gargoyles, and a really pissed-off cherub who apparently skipped leg day.
Thad swung his staff in a wide arc, flames bursting from the tip and incinerating one of the statues trying to flank him. "What in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is this bullshit?!" he yelled, his voice dripping with frustration and just a pinch of hysteria.
Another statue lunged at him—a gargoyle wielding what looked like a medieval mace. Thaddeus ducked just in time, the mace slamming into the truck door and leaving a massive dent.
"Great," Thad grumbled, unleashing an ice spell that froze the gargoyle mid-swing. "Guess I'm not getting my security deposit back on this thing."
But the statues kept coming. One of the Roman soldiers lunged, its stone sword glinting ominously. Thad parried with his staff, sparks flying as fire and stone collided.
"Have you ever heard of personal space?!" he yelled, slamming his staff into the soldier's chest. The impact sent cracks spider-webbing across its torso before it shattered into a pile of rubble.
Another cherub tried to get the jump on him, but Thad whipped around, blasting it point-blank with a burst of fire magic. The cherub exploded into a cloud of dust and pebbles.
"Next!" Thad snarled, spinning his staff like a damn action hero.
---
Percy let out a deep sigh, psyching himself up. His plan (if you could call it that) was to sneak up on Medusa without turning into a lawn ornament. Easy, right?
With the iPhone clutched in one hand and Riptide in the other, Percy crept along the maze of statues, ducking behind a particularly large gargoyle. Slowly, he raised the phone, angling it to catch Medusa in the reflection.
There she was—still terrifying, still talking.
Medusa loomed over Annabeth, who was frozen in place, her head turned to avoid looking directly at the monster. Medusa's snakes hissed and snapped as if mocking Annabeth's every breath.
"You have such beautiful gray eyes," Medusa cooed, her voice dripping with venom. "It's almost a shame to turn them to stone. Almost."
Annabeth's jaw tightened, but she didn't respond.
Percy's grip on Riptide tightened as well. "Okay, Percy. Just don't die," he muttered to himself, inching closer to the showdown.
The Cobra statue nearby lay shattered, the pearl long gone from its eye. Percy stepped carefully over the rubble, trying not to make a sound.
Medusa tilted her head, as if sensing something. "What's this?" she murmured, her snakes turning in unison toward Percy's hiding spot.
"Shit," Percy whispered.
Medusa's hiss echoed through the maze, low and menacing, like nails dragging across the stone. She turned back to Annabeth, her cracked green face twisted into a smug grin.
"It doesn't matter, little girl," she sneered. "Sooner or later, you will open those big gray eyes. The temptation to look... it's too hard to resist."
Annabeth, bound by stone hands and the sheer force of her willpower, didn't falter. "I could resist your unholy-ass-face. We'll be here for a while." she shot back, her voice dripping with defiance.
Medusa's grin faltered for a moment, a flicker of irritation crossing her grotesque features.
Meanwhile, Percy, the certified Master of Stealth™, accidentally stumbled into a plant pot.
CRASH!
The ceramic pot hit the ground and shattered into a hundred pieces, the sound as loud as a gunshot in the stillness of the maze. Percy froze, his heart leaping into his throat.
Medusa whipped her head around, her snakes snapping and hissing in agitation. "Who is that!? Who's there!?" she shrieked, her voice reverberating through the maze.
Percy cursed under his breath, gripping Riptide in one hand and the iPhone in the other.
Medusa slithered toward the sound, her black gown brushing against the gravel. She reached the edge of the statue maze, sniffing the air like a bloodhound on a trail.
"I can smell you, Demigod," she purred, her voice sickly sweet. "Come out, and I may just let you live."
Percy ducked behind a statue of a particularly buff centaur, peering at Medusa through the iPhone's reflective back. He moved cautiously, slipping from statue to statue like a character in a stealth game, praying his sneakers didn't crunch on any stray gravel.
Medusa's smile widened as she caught the faintest hint of his scent. "I'll make it quick, little hero," she cooed, her voice honeyed with malice. "Or... maybe I won't."
---
At the same time, Grover had managed to sneak his way over to Annabeth. He crouched next to her, whispering urgently.
"Hey, Annabeth, it's me. Grover. Open your eyes. It's safe."
Annabeth hesitated for a moment before cracking one eye open. Relief washed over her face as she saw Grover's goat-like features instead of Medusa's stone-cursed gaze.
"Grover! Thank the gods. Auntie Em is—"
Grover cut her off with a frantic shake of his head. "Medusa. We know."
Without wasting a second, Grover lifted his crutch and slammed it into the stone arm of the Hysterical Woman statue gripping Annabeth. The arm crumbled into dusty shards, freeing her.
Annabeth staggered to her feet, rubbing her wrist. "Where's Thad?" she asked, glancing around the maze.
Grover winced, his face a mix of concern and guilt. "Uh... you don't wanna know. Me and Percy thought he was just chilling, but then..." He paused, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"What?" Annabeth pressed, her brows furrowing.
Grover sighed. "I might've heard some distant screaming... like, really distant... somewhere... around."
Annabeth just stared at him, her lips pressed into a thin line. "You left him!?"
Grover threw his hands up defensively. "Hey! He wanted to stay outside! Said something about doing his job and keeping an eye out!"
Annabeth muttered something under her breath, but before she could say more, Medusa's voice echoed through the maze again.
"Come out, Demigod. You can't hide forever."
The two exchanged a look. "Where's Percy?" Annabeth whispered.
Grover nodded toward the direction of Medusa's voice. "Doing something probably really stupid."
Annabeth sighed, tightening her grip on her dagger. "Of course he is."
And with that, the two sprinted off to find their friend before Medusa turned him into her next garden centerpiece.
Meanwhile, Medusa was tearing through the maze like a predatory missile, the snakes on her head actively searching for movement, their beady eyes scanning in every direction. Percy darted ahead, his heart pounding like a war drum. He kept his gaze locked on his iPhone's reflective surface, tracking her every sinister move.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Medusa's voice slithered through the air, sharp and venomous.
Percy, ducking behind a particularly chonky gargoyle, steadied his breathing. "The name's Percy Jackson," he replied, his tone deliberately casual, even as adrenaline coursed through him.
Medusa's head snapped toward the sound. She grinned, her serpentine hair writhing with excitement.
"Son of Poseidon," he added, stealthily shifting to a new position.
Medusa followed, her snakes snapping their jaws with glee. "So it is true. The mighty Poseidon has sired a child. How quaint." Her voice was laced with a dark, mocking amusement.
Percy didn't take the bait. He kept his mouth shut, his fingers tightening around the familiar weight of his pen. The maze felt suffocating now, each twist and turn closing in on him as Medusa drew nearer.
"You can't hide for long, Lightning Thief," she hissed, her tone growing sharper, more vicious. "These statues are not just my victims..." She paused dramatically, unleashing a chilling, guttural hiss that echoed off the stone walls.
The air around Percy seemed to shift. Statues near him began to creak and groan, their rigid forms cracking to life.
"They are my slaves," Medusa declared, her voice dripping with malice.
Before Percy could react, cold stone hands clamped down on him. A Roman soldier grabbed his arm. A tourist latched onto his other side, her cement fingers digging into his skin. Percy struggled, but the statues had him pinned like a bug under glass. His iPhone slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground.
Medusa emerged from the shadows like a specter of nightmares. She loomed over Percy, her twisted, cracked face inches from his own. He squeezed his eyes shut as her snakes hissed in unison, their fangs dripping with venom, poised to strike.
"I'll give you a choice, little Demigod," Medusa purred, her voice cold and deadly. "Surrender the lightning bolt... or die by the poison fangs of my serpents."
---
Thirty seconds earlier, in the chaotic yard outside Medusa's lair, Thaddeus was doing what Thaddeus does best: making a spectacle of himself.
He stood atop a pile of shattered statues, his staff raised high like a makeshift war banner. The light of his latest fire spell still flickered faintly on the debris. Thad tilted his head back and let out a ridiculous battle cry that sounded suspiciously like a Tusken Raider from Star Wars.
"Eat shit!" he shouted, punctuating his words with a triumphant stomp on a particularly unlucky gargoyle head.
Grover and Annabeth sprinted toward him, their expressions caught somewhere between exasperation and desperation.
"Thad!" Grover yelled, waving his arms like a lunatic.
Thad spun around, nearly losing his balance on the rubble. When he saw them, his face lit up with equal parts relief and confusion.
"Holy shit, you guys are alive!" he called, then squinted. "Wait... where's Percy?"
"Not enough time to explain! Get in the truck!" Annabeth barked, already making a beeline for the rusted pick-up that had been Thad's personal karaoke booth minutes earlier.
Thad blinked at her, then pointed a triumphant finger. "Joke's on you, Princess Brainiac. There are no keys in that thing. I searched it top to bottom. It's a giant, rolling paperweight."
Annabeth rolled her eyes like a fed-up babysitter dealing with a particularly annoying child. "I'm sure you're searching diligently...in all the wrong places."
Five seconds later, she triumphantly produced the keys from the truck's sun visor. Thad's jaw dropped.
"Well, screw me sideways," he muttered as he climbed into the truck bed, clearly unbothered by the fact that his injured arm probably made this the worst seating choice possible. Grover slid into the passenger seat next to Annabeth.
The truck sputtered to life. Annabeth gripped the wheel with an intensity that suggested she was prepared to drive through the gates of Tartarus itself.
"Wait!" Thad shouted, eyes narrowing at the front cab. "Why the heck are your eyes closed?! Are you trying to kill us?"
"Shut it, Ice Cube!" Annabeth snapped without looking back. "Close your eyes too!"
Grover chimed in nervously, his hands clutching the dashboard. "She has a point, man. Medusa's still around. You wanna turn into a lawn ornament?"
Thad groaned but did as told, flopping back dramatically. "Fine, but if I die, I'm haunting both of you."
Annabeth floored the gas pedal, and the truck lurched forward with a loud vroom, barreling straight into the statue maze like an unguided missile.
---
Back to the present, Percy was in the fight of his life. Medusa hissed and circled him, her snakes snapping hungrily. Percy's grip tightened around his pen-turned-sword, Riptide, as he dodged and weaved through her attacks. The statues around him seemed to move closer, shadows stretching unnaturally.
"Son of Poseidon..." Medusa cooed, her voice dripping with venom. "You can't run forever. Surrender the bolt, and I'll make your end painless."
Percy stumbled back into a stone column, knocking over a potted plant. The crash gave him away. Medusa turned, her glowing eyes narrowing.
"I can smell you, Demigod," she hissed. "So young. So arrogant. Just like your father."
As Medusa inched closer, Percy tried to think of an escape. But then... the distinct honking of a truck horn cut through the tension like a sword through butter. Medusa whipped her head toward the sound.
Out of nowhere, the rusted pick-up truck came hurtling through the statue maze like a battering ram, smashing through rows of statues.
Inside, Grover screamed. Annabeth's knuckles turned white on the wheel. And in the back, Thad yelled something completely unhinged.
"We're all gonna die! But at least I'll go out with style!"
The truck smashed through another set of statues, sending chunks of stone flying. Medusa leaped back, narrowly avoiding the chaos. Dust and debris filled the air, momentarily blinding her. She snarled, whipping her head around to regain her bearings.
When the dust settled, Medusa's glowing eyes zeroed in on something shiny in the rubble: Percy's dropped iPhone. She picked it up, turning it over curiously. Her reflection glimmered faintly on the back of the device.
Behind her, Percy stood silently, sword in hand. His reflection loomed large in the shiny surface of the phone. Medusa's snakes hissed as if sensing something was off. Slowly, she began to turn around...
"Hey, Medusa,"
"Add this to your playlist." He says coldly.
Percy swings Riptide in a clean, decisive arc.
Whack!
Medusa's head detaches with a grotesque finality and arcs through the air like the world's worst football. It slams into the windshield of the truck, leaving a smeared trail of greenish-black ichor, then slides to the ground with an unceremonious thud.
For a moment, there's a stunned silence.
The trio emerges from the truck, eyes cautiously open now that the immediate danger has passed. They gather near Percy as the writhing hair-snakes on Medusa's severed head begin dragging it away, their bodies coiling like slimy, demented worms.
Thad, blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. "Oh, now what fresh hell is this—oh, God, nope, nope. Ew! What the McNugget?!"
Grover stares, "That's... uh... definitely something you don't see every day." His expression is a mix of disbelief and morbid fascination.
Thad grimaces, "Yeah, can I bleach that image out of my brain? Preferably yesterday?" taking an exaggerated step back.
Annabeth, crosses her arms and speaks with the kind of calm that makes you question her sanity. "We should take it with us."
Percy's head snaps toward her. "The head? Are you serious?"
Thad throws his hands up like she's just suggested collecting toxic waste barehanded. "Yeah, I'm gonna go with a hard 'no' on that one. I'm not touching it. You can't make me."
Annabeth glares at him, her voice firm. "Yes, you will."
Thad glares back, unbothered. "Nope."
"Yes."
"No. Annabeth, for the love of all things normal—no. Please."
Annabeth rolls her eyes and explains, "Her eyes still work, dead or alive. You never know when something like that might come in handy."
Percy and Thad exchange a look, the kind of silent agreement that only happens between people united by sheer disbelief. Finally, Percy sighs. "Fine. Grover, give me your jacket."
"What?" Grover looks up, startled.
"Your jacket. We need something to wrap it in. Unless you wanna carry it out here raw like it's the special of the day." Percy motions toward Thad. "And no, Thad, you're not exempt from this. We're in this together."
Thad groans dramatically. "This feels personal. But fine, if we're wrapping it, we need something better than a jacket. Can we, like, find a hazmat suit? A reinforced bucket? Anything that doesn't involve fabric?"
Grover reluctantly shrugs off his jacket, grumbling under his breath. Percy grabs it and quickly wraps the head, avoiding touching it more than absolutely necessary. As he ties the jacket closed, he tosses the wrapped bundle to Grover, who immediately panics and fumbles it like a live grenade.
"Why me?!" Grover yells, lobbing it toward Annabeth.
Annabeth, unfazed, catches it with ease and promptly tosses it into the back of the truck. It lands with a wet squelch.
Thad grimaces again, "Great. Now the truck's cursed." hands on his knees like he's about to gag.
Percy, ignoring the dramatics, holds up the green pearl he retrieved from the cobra statue. It glimmers faintly in the fading light, a beacon of hope—or at least progress.
"One down, two to go," he says with a small, victorious grin.
Annabeth dusts off her hands and starts heading for the driver's seat. "Next time, someone else drives," she mutters.
Thad, "Fine, but if Medusa's head starts moving back there, I'm bailing at the first stop sign."