Chapter 7 - Battle of Bull Run

Nancy and her mom stood over me, inches from my face.

"You're too close," I said.

"Good morning." Nancy snarked.

"We're ready to leave but the weather is getting a little dicey. Maybe it would be better to go tomorrow?" Nancy's mom said.

"Bad weather only makes it more of an adventure."

"That's what I said." Nancy puffed out her chest.

We were drenched by the rain before we even made it to the car. Nancy's mom drove and we were in the back. Nancy awkwardly clasped to me for warmth.

You could barely see out the window even with the windshield wipers going at full blast, so we drove slowly. We were heading to the tip of Long Island, the same direction Percy and his mom went, but they had left in front of the storm. The rain pelted the car so hard, you might think it was hail. Lighting and thunder landed shook the car. The flashes of light provided most of the light to see the road.

The storm only got worse as we entered the countryside.

"Are you sure we shouldn't turn back?" Nancy and her mom asked in unison.

"The greater the storm, the greater the rainbow. Just think of the stories. Have you ever felt a storm like this?"

The wind pushed the car and made it groan, but I provided some supernatural assistance to keep the wheels gripping the road.

"If we die, I'm going to punch you," Nancy said.

After a lot of shouting, we made it to the tip of Long Island. Dirty beaches could be seen now and then through the trees. We turned onto narrower roads, past farmhouses, wooded hills, and white picket fences.

"This is the hilliest place around. Your place should be around here. I doubt we could make it out though."

The rain made it hard to make out any details. But I was only looking for one detail. A single tree on a very large hill.

"What are we going to do if we find it?"

"I imagine that something amazing is going to happen." I smiled.

I reached around to Nancy's mom's head, and put my fingers on her temple. She stiffened as I tried to make her more resistant to the mist that obscured mortal's vision..

She regained her steering.

"What did you do?" She asked,

"You'll see," I replied.

I spotted the single, gigantic pine tree on the same hill with the same barn. I made Nancy's mom stop the car at the side of the road, and I told them to stay in the car while I went outside.

The rain hit me so hard that I knew I would be bruised tomorrow. The wind whipped and cut at me. I wanted to head towards the tree, but I stayed there in the rain, waiting. I don't know why or what for. I just looked down the road. Anticipation flooded my veins made my stomach light.

Lightning flashed only a hundred meters away. It blinded me. The thunder made me dizzy. But I could still feel it, the screech of wheels and the crumpling of metal and the shattering of tempered glass.

I ran towards it, slipping on the wet concrete. Gabe's car was crashed into a ditch. The windows were blown in and it was red hot, sizzling in the rain. Grover, Percy, and his mom were inside.

Another flash of lightning and I spotted the silhouette of a giant man wearing a helmet. But I knew it in my bones that it wasn't a man.

I rushed over to the car and tore at it. The metal doors turned to paper under my hands.

"Sem?" Percy said.

"Who is this?" Sally asked.

"Food." Grover moaned.

"No time to explain. You have to get out of here. Just run that way." I shouted.

I helped them out and felt the ground quake. The silhouette had gotten larger and everyone saw it.

It wasn't close enough to make it out, but it was already taller than me. The grunting and snorting noises coming from it could be heard over the beating and howling of the storm. Its thick and long horns on its head made it obvious who it was.

"Percy, see that tree? Go over the hill and into the valley." Sally said.

"Come with me!" He said.

"All of you go that way, Now!" I shouted. "I'll carry Grover."

I slung Grover over my shoulders and ran with them. Towards the tree on the hill.

Percy looked back and I saw the horrified expression on his face. I did the same and truly felt weak. He was a mountain of a beast, standing at least nine feet tall. His corded arms and legs dwarfed every man who's held the title of the strongest. Veins ran tight against his skin like a demonic map. He had hooves for feet, bleaty eyes on a bull's monstrous head, and razor-sharp black-and-white horns. Thick hair matted his form. A massive brass ring pierced his snotty nostrils. The only thing not marking him as a beast was a single loincloth.

This wasn't a minotaur. It was The Minotaur, straight out of a nightmare.

"That's-"

"Pesiphae's son," Percy's mother interrupted him. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min-"

"Don't say his name," She warned. "Names have power."

The tree was still at least a hundred yards uphill. The Minotaur was only fifty feet. Its eyes hadn't caught us since we were moving slowly. It was mostly bull after all. It was sniffing the car.

"Most of the time." I slowly handed Grover off to Percy and Sally. "Keep going. Slowly."

"What are you doing?" She hissed.

My blood was pumping, making my eyes bulge. "What I was born to do."

"Thank you." She said, limping along with Percy and Grover.

I don't know if it was for them, but I was eager to face the challenge. But I wasn't going to die. I would win.

I moved around him slowly until I was directly behind him. He picked up the crashed Camaro by its torn roof, and with a roar, he threw it over his head and down the road. It skidded for half a mile before stopping. The gas tank exploded with a boom.

I knew Gabe would cry when he found out.

The Minotaur started sniffing for a scent, and before he could catch onto Percy, I charged.

I jumped onto his back and scrambled up to his head where I wrapped my legs around his neck.

He roared and scrambled with his arms to get at me, but his arms and chest were too big to come at me from the front, and his horns were too large to hit me from the side.

I wrapped myself around him for dear life and tried to tighten my legs around his neck, but his oxygen supply was more bull than human.

He jumped and jerked and I managed to go with the rhythm. I got my hands around the brass ring in his snout and with his next attempt to get me off, I twisted it free, producing a bloody roar that made me vibrate like a speaker.

Then he started running towards the hill. It wasn't going straight for the tree, but I knew I couldn't let him do what he was doing either way.

I took hold of his horns like handles in a reverse grip, and I twisted over and over, trying to make him trip, make him change directions.

I remembered falling multiple times. I remembered the creaking and cracking of my bones. I remembered to ragdoll and protect my head.

I had bounced up the hill, and like Jack, was preparing to stumble right back down it, but Percy and Sally were there to catch me.

I looked down and the Minotaur yanked his head out of the hill, pulling chucks for grass and earth from it.

I got up easily.

"Sem, you're bleeding," Percy said.

I looked down and my shirt was rapidly turning a purplish red. I didn't even feel it.

"All the better." I wrenched off my shirt, waved it, and shouted. "Hey, Toro! Here Toro! If you come here and get your beating nicely, I'll drive the stake into your heart quickly!"

He roared and charged up the hill.

"That was stupid!" Sally shouted.

"You guys jump left. I'll lead him right." I continued waving the makeshift cape with the thundering of his hooves.

Then he was upon us. They dodged left and I twirled right. He continued up the hill and slammed against an invisible barrier that rippled in the air with the impact. He shook his head and I tried to catch his attention again, but he snorted at me and charged toward the others.

In one quick motion, He grabbed Sally by her neck and squeezed. Her form melted into a shimmering gold light.

"Percy!" She screamed.

Then she was gone.

The Minotaur sniffed at Grover lying helpless.

Percy ran towards him and did what I did with his red rain jacket.

"Hey, Stupid! Ground Beef"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned towards and charged.

I thought Percy might get pulverized. Maybe he would dodge out of the way, but the bull held his arms out to stop that from happening again.

A miracle happened.

Like a crackhead, Percy jumped onto the beast's neck and rode it. It smacked into the tree and lodged itself in it. It wrenched itself free and not bothering itself with Percy, started gearing up to charge the moaning Grover.

With a SNAP, Percy wrenched the monster's horn free.

The beast bellowed and shook Percy off. He landed with his head against a rock but managed to stumble into a kneeling position with the beast's horn in his hands.

The beast charged at him and Percy plunged the horn into his stomach. The beast doubled over and I thought it might be over.

We were not that lucky.

He took the horn from his stomach and wrenched it free, red ichor spilled from the chasm. It tried to rush back at Percy but before it could, a car came out of nowhere and rammed into it, and pinned it against the tree.

It was Nancy and her mother.

Time seemed to slow down.

The beast roared and reached its hands through the shattered windows and around their necks.

I swear it looked at me when it did it. Like it took pride in it,

They weren't afforded the moments to scream as they went out in a flash.

The beast continued to bleed and the rain washed it away. It didn't have the strength to move the car off it.

Percy didn't notice a thing. He just stumbled over to Grover.

I locked eyes with the beast and I lost it at its snort of pride.

I steeled my wobbly legs and came face to face with it.

"You might be as smart as a human, but you're just as dumb as one, you know that?"

It squinted in confusion.

"I'm going to do you and your mother a favor by teaching you a lesson."

Its words were awkward and in Ancient Greek.

"Οἷος διδαχή ποιέω σύ échō νεανίας?" He gargled. "What teaching do you have, boy?"

I cradled his head and looked deep into his bleaty eyes.

"You can do whatever you want to your enemies as long as you understand that you can have far worse done to you." His eye filled the palm of my hand.

He squealed when I dug my fingers into his eye socket. He squealed louder when I ripped the eye from him.

"I hope you remember this next time we meet. But know that if you attack me for this, then it's not revenge, just the proof that shows that you're more Beast than Man. What I'M doing IS Revenge." I said into his ear.

He thrashed when I went to his other eye, but he didn't have the fight in him.

I made sure to look into it for a second before tearing it out. Maybe he would know how it felt when he made me and Percy watch.

"How does it feel, Minotaur?" I whispered into his ear.

He grew enraged then stopped.

He probably expected to feel stronger from the saying of his name, but I wouldn't let it. He deserved to feel powerless.

"I'm a man of my word, Minotaur. You've taken your beating. But I also need an apology now. You give me an apology, and I'll end your life quickly."

"Autoí eimí zōḗ" He groaned. "They are alive."

"I KNOW THAT. AN APOLOGY BEFORE YOU DIE!"

"Autàr kairós. Échō soutimōría." He said. "Next time. Have your revenge."

I grabbed a shredded piece of metal and plunged it into his skull.

His final breath of hot hair blew on my face. It was a pyrrhic victory.

I felt his body getting ready to disappear, but I wouldn't let it happen. If he wanted to come back, then he would have to get a new body, I would not be robbed of my spoils.

The rain washed away my adrenaline and with that came the pain, the physical kind. The traumatic loss of my only friend would settle in later. This is not how I wanted to introduce Nancy to my world. I could feel they weren't dead, but that doesn't mean they are in a good place or are far off.

I didn't dare look at my wounds.

Percy and Grover were long gone.

I hopped off the bent roof of the car and it backed up slowly with a lot of resistance. I flipped the Minotaur rover while it turned around. Then I plopped the tow ball hitch into the Minotaur's eye socket and fell into the driver's seat.

The door fell off. Gravity dragged us down into the valley towards the lights of the farmhouse.

Tiny waves of adrenaline tried to keep me awake, but my body didn't have anything left. My head fell limp, and I saw bone.

The last thing I remember is falling on a wooden porch, being blinded by an old yellow light, and the horrified expressions of a familiar bearded man and a pretty girl. Her blond hair curled like a princess's.

I touched it and laughed. "Loopty-Loo."

"How's he alive?" She asked.

"Bring him inside, Annabeth, quickly." said a man I couldn't see.

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