Untitled Percy Jackson Fanfiction - Chapter 3 on pg4

[Kess]

After what seemed like hours, the limo stopped in front of a mansion. Shelley looked up at it and stared in awe. All her life, she’d lived in dinky little shacks with her mother, hating her life and wishing she could do something to help her mother, who had always had poor-paying jobs and could never afford to send Shelley to proper schools.

“All right, everyone,” Artemis broke the silence as everyone stared, awestruck, at the house. “Out of the limo, bring your things, and don’t look at anyone.” There was an ominous sound to her voice and she gave them all serious looks, which just made her look much more powerful and goddess-like.

Shelley heaved her bag over her shoulders, pulled her hoodie over her head, and followed Artemis through the iron gates of the mansion and up the stairs towards the biggest house she’d ever seen in her life. The building, on the outside at least, was composed entirely of warm red bricks, which seemed to welcome the demigods to the mansion. The grounds were well-groomed, with perfect green grass and shrubberies growing around the perimeter of the house. Flowers lined the walkway, and trees dotted the landscape ocassionally. Shelley marveled at the beauty of the grounds. If it was this nice outside, it had to be great inside, too, right?

When Shelley got inside the mansion, her jaw dropped as far as it could go. The mansion was covered from head to toe in expensive-looking furniture, paintings, and other decor. Beside her, Jack shrugged and said nonchalantly, "I grew up in neighborhoods like this. My family was a little bit more well-off than most. My stepdad was a lawyer." Shelley shuffled her feet in the carpeting.

"My family was dirt poor. My mom barely made enough money to buy me clothes and food." As soon as Shelley said this, Jack's entire expression morphed into regret for his words.

"Sorry, Shelley...I hope you don't think I was mocking less-fortunate people," he said, sounding as sincere as anyone could possibly sound. Shelley shrugged and ran to catch up with Artemis, Dan, and Tanner, who had all gone down the hallway of the humongous house. Shelley was in awe just THINKING about how anyone could live in such a big house. All this stuff must cost a fortune for upkeep, she thought

Up ahead, Artemis turned into a doorway. Shelley followed closely, not wanting to get lost in this mansion. Who knew how long it'd take before someone found her? When Shelley came into the room, she saw a brilliant white light and several gold sparkles. "Shield your face!" yelled Tanner in his squeaky voice. "It's Aphrodite, revealing her true form to converse with Artemis!" Shelley covered her eyes and staggered backwards, ramming into Jack. She muttered an apology and turned away from the lights.

After what seemed like hours, the lights died away and Artemis called, "Demigods, come. This is Aphrodite." Shelley turned to see a drop-dead gorgeous (gorgeous as in, model-Heidi-Klum-type gorgeous, only 10X more) woman sitting in a draping red and gold dress. Her face glowed with beauty and sweetness as she looked on the four demigods. "Hello," she said. "I'm sure you may all wonder why you are here. This mansion was once owned by a daughter of mine, whose name was Elizabeth Taylor. Ah, what a beautiful girl she was...took after her mother, I suppose. Splendid acting career, too!" Aphrodite looked wistfully into the raging fireplace, then smiled. "I'm sorry...I tend to veer off topic. So, you are searching for the sword of Hades, and you come here, to Elizabeth Taylor's former mansion. The reason for this is because I have a...map. Of sorts. This map can show you where great sources of power are."

Shelley raised an eye brow. "Won't it just show everything then? Electricity is a great power source, right?"

Aphrodite snickered at her. "Silly thing. It only picks up the power from supernatural things. Zeus' Lightning bolt, for instance. Or maybe the sword of a god." The goddess reached over into a deep chest and pulled out a wrinkly, yellowed paper with instructions written in Greek and glowing orbs all over it. It was only a US map. Four orbs were glowing on it, one in California, one in Texas, one in Florida, and one in New York.

"Thank you so much, Aphrodite," said Artemis. "This will assist us greatly." She stood up, gave Aphrodite a peck on the cheek respectfully, and the five of them proceeded from Elizabeth Taylor's house. Aphrodite waved farewell, a loving smile plastered on her face. She kept waving until the demigods were out of sight.

The five quest members walked in silence back to the limo. Jack and Dan were looking at the map and discussing it in hushed voices. Shelley walked next to Tanner uncomfortably. She didn't know Tanner much, having almost never talked to him, so this quest made her very uneasy. Her closest friend was Jack, and she hardly knew him since he'd come a few weeks ago.

Shelley walked up to Artemis tentatively. "Where are we going to look first?" Artemis pointed to the New York orb. "Closest," she said. "We're only 17 miles into New Jersey." Shelley looked up at her, shocked. “New Jersey? Weren’t we in New York only a half hour ago, when we came here?”

“Yes,” Artemis said, raising an eyebrow. “This limo goes rather fast, Shelley. The mortals don’t notice it, because of the Mist, but we were going at 120 miles per hour."

Shelley clutched her stomach instinctively. Traveling on the ground, especially in a car, made her ill already, without going 120 miles per hour. She let go of her stomach and looked curiously at the page. Now, a few smaller orbs were glowing in some of the mid-northern area of the United States map. "What are those?"

Artemis looked over at the map too. "Smaller things, like perhaps an item from Olympus that fell or was taken. Or a god conversing with a demigod."

Shelley nodded speechlessly. A god conversing with a demigod? What must that be like? To meet her own father...if she could meet her father, it would be the most exciting thing ever. He was, after all, the king of the gods, right?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Jack poked her in the shoulder. "You look kind of thoughtful. What's on your mind?"

"A lot," Shelley admitted. "My entire life has basically been a huge whirlwind this past few days. Being claimed is...tiring." her hair still felt prickly thinking about when Zeus had claimed her. His lightning bolt had actually hit her and shocked her enough to make her faint. Apparently, the King of the gods was serious when he claimed his children. If only he could've been gentler about it...

Jack shrugged. "Wouldn't know...I certainly hope my godly parent claims me soon. I'm really curious. Aren't you?"

Shelley blinked and slung her backpack into the limo, then slid in after it. "Never really crossed my mind," she admitted truthfully. "Honestly, being claimed is much more...complicated than it may seem. Didn't you see the way everyone treated me like a disease?" Shelley kept her lower lip steady; she already felt like crying. Jack's expression wilted.

"Hey, now, I'll hang around you all the time, no matter what others think," Jack said. Shelley felt her heart turn mooshy. Jack was so nice. Why couldn't everyone be that way? He was honest with her, too, considering they had met only two days ago.

Artemis was the last into the limo. Shelley leaned against the window and dozed off. She hadn't gotten much sleep lately, what with being claimed and whatnot. In her dream, Shelley was running in a cornfield, holding a dangerous looking dagger in one hand and a corn husk in the other. Screeches came from behind her and up ahead stood Jack, also holding a dagger. When Shelley ran up to meet Jack, he pointed his dagger inward towards his stomach. Before Shelley could react, Jack ran himself through with the knife. He convulsed several times and vomited up blood. Shelley’s head spun with disgust and sadness. “Jack!” she whimpered. In her dream-world, the word echoed and softened as it bounced in the corn maze.

“Did you just call my name?” someone poked Shelley in the side and she looked up, eyes wide. Jack was staring at her curiously. She shifted uncomfortably. “Erm, no, I uhm...” She looked up at him. His eyes were full of curiosity.

“Okay, fine,” Shelley confessed, “I did. I had a really...uh...weird dream.” Thinking fast, she said, “I had a dream about my cousin and me playing in a corn maze, and ironically, he’s named Jack, too. So anyway, I got lost in the maze, and I was calling for my cousin.” She smiled persuasively. Jack shrugged. “All right. I was just wondering.”

Shelley tried to hide her face from the others so they wouldn’t see her blushing. What would they all think if she admitted she was having dreams about people dying? They’d probably shuttle her off to a crazy person school. That’s all I am, she thought. Crazy. They all probably hate me, anyway.


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Soon enough, the limo arrived in New York City. Shelley looked around at the glowing lights and huge screens. She’d never been to New York City; it was overwhelming her already. She stared at the screens displaying images of famous people holding up various products and smiling, probably saying how much they loved the product. Artemis pointed to a screen portraying Jessica Simpson holding a perfume vial and said, “Ah, Jessica Simpson. Beautiful daughter of Aphrodite.”

Shelley stared at Jessica’s face. She saw a few similarities between her and Aphrodite, such as the long golden hair and the perfect smile. With this knowledge, Shelley looked at the other stars on the screens, wondering which of them were children of gods and godesses.

The limo stopped in front of a forest. Shelley looked at it in confusion. "What're we doing here...?" she asked. Artemis nodded at the woods. "Here is where our first map point is located. Somewhere in that forest."

Great, though Shelley, woodland animals... Inwardly, she shuddered. Snakes in particular scared her, but so did spiders and foxes. The woods contained all three of those things. Shelley popped out of the limo followed by Dan, Tanner, and Jack. Artemis came out last, looking at the map with an excited smile.

“This is the way. There has to be something in there.” She basically trotted into the forest with Dan, Tanner, Shelley, and Jack running after her nervously. Shelley was afraid of spiders more than anything, and she actually had a strong case of arachnophobia. Hopefully those stupid arachnids would keep far away from her and save her an anxiety attack.

Artemis turned around several trees, looking as if she was close to finding...something. Shelley peered carefully at the ground, observing for unfriendly wildlife, when she bumped into Tanner. “Sorry,” he muttered, then pointed at Artemis. There she was, in front of a huge, floating cup. Shelley took a closer look at the cup, almost completely shocked by what she saw in front of her. The cup was silver and it was glowing green as it floated above the pine needles scattered on the forest floor.

“Wow,” Jack said from somewhere behind her. “That’s pretty cool.” Shelley didn’t respond, but watched Artemis as she sighed and stepped away from the cup. “This isn’t the sword,” she grumped. “We’ve got to go to Michigan for the next one.”

Shelley groaned inwardly. More traveling. Great.

[Nicnova]

I luv it <3

[Kess]

LOL, why is it that everything I write hypnotizes people on here? XD

[Nicnova]

Cuuz its awesome XD

[Kess]

Yeah, I am pretty awesome, aren't I? Just kidding...I'm not vain. But I have been studying creative writing for at least three years of my life and I have pretty much been writing since I was nine or so. I've got plenty of practice.

[Nicnova]

I make up random stories in my head when im bored XD Which actually turned out to be pretty useful for roleplaying

[Kess]

When I'm bored, I take dreams from my past and make up how I wish they had gone or how they could have ended. XD

[Nicnova]

I do that when i wake up from one XD

[Kess]

Same, especially if it's a really great dream.

[Nicnova]

Yea, i hate it when i have a really great dream and I wake up before it ends D:<