CHAPTER ELEVEN ━━ VIVA LAS VEGAS

EURYDICE'S TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY STARTS WITH A DREAM. She can feel the hum of her breathing she stares around at the dark room, as if it's swallowing her whole itself. She can hear a clicking of shoes on the ground. But her eyes are only fixated on the ground of the dark room. She can feel herself taking a step forward, and within seconds. And It feels as if she's falling.

She gasps, but she can't hear anything. She breaths in shakily, but she can't hear any of her breathing. She can't scream. She can't breathe. She can't feel anything. She feels a blood curdling scream claw at her throat, but voice is void of any sound to scream it out. The silence is deafening and it kills her. There's ringing in her ears as she squeezes her eyes shut. The ringing in her ears subsides as she keeps her eyes shut. Horrified, she breathes again.

All she can make out is someone shaking her awake. Her breathing settled and she hesitantly opens her eyes. A woman is in front of her and she smiles. The woman is beautiful, she has gorgeous blonde hair and grey eyes. It's weird how painstakingly familiar the woman feels to her. The woman, taller than her bends down to her level. "Hello darling." The woman grins and runs her fingers through her hair.

It reminds her of the way her mom always would. She stared at the woman in confusion. "Who are you?" She laughs, a bright and beautiful one. And Eurydice is somehow even more confused now. "What a dream huh? Luckily I got here before you could have a nightmare little demigod." The woman winks at her, and she can feel her face burning slightly for no reason at all.

She takes a look at her surroundings and realizes that she's in strange looking van. "Uhm.. Miss? Where am I?" She asks the blonde haired woman in confusion. She takes in her surroundings and all she can see is bright pink.

The woman smiles again, laughing melodically. "Oh, honey. You don't have to call me Miss. We're family after all! Well not technically but you get the idea." She chuckles. Eurydice's confusion only doubles now. "What?" She mutters in confusion. The woman huffs slightly. "Silly girl aren't you? I'm Aphrodite, darling." She winks at her again, a smile forming at her lips. Eurydice's eyes widen in stunned silence.

For a second Aphrodite looks at her with amusement as she gapes at her like a fish. She blinks for a moment, momentarily breaking herself out of her haze. "You— You're Aphrodite?" She mutters in confusion. She hates the feeling of her cheeks heating up again as the woman giggles. "I am!" She smiles widely and she can't help but realize that the woman has the same smile as Percy. She chokes on her spit once she has that thought.

The woman's grey eyes are warm, the colour reminds her of Annabeth. But the warmness in the woman's eyes reminds her of her mother. She frowns slightly at the thought. Aphrodite smiles again, all perfect chubby cheeks and blinding white teeth. She didn't expect the goddess of love to look like this, a little too familiar for her liking. Her best guess was that she took on the appearance of people she loved, like her friends for example and her mother. Or Aphrodite just really looks like Margot Robbie.

Aphrodite clears her throat, and suddenly Eurydice realizes how pink the van they're in really is. It's the pinkest van she's ever seen, full of feather boas and multiple outfit changes all in all different shades of pink. It reminded her a bit of how a real life version of Barbie's dreamhouse would look. But instead it was cramped into a much smaller space. It was a little too weird how lately gods had been ignoring her up until now.

She grimaced as she stared at the blonde woman. "You seriously had demigods do your dirty work so you didn't have to get caught by your husband?" She glared at goddess accusatorially. Aphrodite just laughed in response. "Of course he already knows." She waved her hand at the demigod dismissively. "Wasn't it worth it?" She asked her wink a smirk. Eurydice blinked in confusion, completely lost. "No? What are you talking about?" Her eyebrow raised in concern.

Aphrodite giggled. "Oh, honey." She ran her fingers through her hair slightly, and patted the top of her head patronizingly. "You don't know don't you?" She felt her blood run cold for some unknown reason. "What?" She muttered in confusion, again. The goddess smiled sadly now. "I sense that your love life is going to the saddest one I've seen in a long time. Ever since the original Eurydice." The demigod blinked in confusion.

Nearly choking on her spit she yelled out. "What?" Aphrodite continued, ignoring her obvious confusion. "You already love them too much. Isn't that sad? To love someone so much but to not get that love back?" She felt her insides twist painfully at that. "I don't think that's true." She shook her head at her in confusion. The goddess sighed softly. "You're so little now. But one day, you'll understand." Somehow Eurydice didn't believe that she'd ever understand.

The blonde smiled again, her white teeth blinding her again. "But I believe in you. You won't end up like the original Eurydice. I won't let you. You're much more of an Orpheus anyways." She chuckled. Her confusion was somehow even more heightened. Now the goddess's claim is just ridiculous! "I don't understand anything that you're saying but why are you here?" The goddess sighed. "Your father wanted me to send you a message." The goddess scoffed slightly. "He couldn't be bothered to do it himself."

Eurydice immediately deflated at that. He didn't want to talk to her? The love goddess pouted. "Ohh! You poor thing." She pinched her cheeks slightly. "Ow, ow, ow!" She complained, grimacing at the prodding nails on her face. The goddess let go of her with a gentle laugh. "That isn't entirely true though. Zeus practically banned him from contacting you in any way. Even in your dreams." Her voice had taken on a more serious tone now. She wasn't even aware that the goddess of love could sound this serious.

She frowned slightly as the goddess patted her head again. Aphrodite felt like one of those weird aunts you only see at family gatherings who kisses your cheeks with an obscene amount of lipstick on. The goddess grimaced slightly. "Your love life is going to be... hard. I'm sorry. But, you're not going to remember any of this after you wake up." She said this like it was nothing.

Eurydice was stunned. "What? Hold on what are you even talking about—" The love goddess stopped her. "We'll be seeing each other again soon, darling." She winked at her again. She hated the way she could feel her face burn. "But you won't remember any of this. You'll wake up with the news that your father is warning you not to go to the underworld." She stared at her in confusion. "What?" If there was an award for the most confused demigod, she'd be winning it at this point.

Aphrodite continued. "He wants you to know you cannot help your friend save his mother. But I think Hades can be swayed, with love." She grins and Eurydice can feel an uneasy feeling in her stomach. "Since love is the most powerful thing you can have after all." She laughs, the dimples on her face fully showing with her smile.

The woman grinned at her as Eurydice began to get even more uneasy. She felt like none of this information was properly processing itself in her brain. She was still asleep, right? She wasn't sure anymore. "We'll be seeing each other again soon, Eurydice." Aphrodite smiled at her one last time. Looking at her with a knowing like, like she could see right through her. The goddess's blonde hair seemed to glow in the sunlight reflecting off the van. "I'll leave you with a parting gift." She winked at her again.

Eurydice's eyebrow narrowed in confusion. "Uh, what kind of gift because if it's something weird I'll—"

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EURYDICE WOKE UP WITH A START. The first thing she noticed was that she was wearing something she didn't have on before. There were two golden star earrings now hanging from her ears. She touched the sides of her ears in confusion. "What the—" The studded sparkly earrings wouldn't get off her ears no matter how hard she tried to tug them out. She tried to pull them out again, but to no avail.

"You've got to be kidding me." She muttered to herself with a grimace. "Why won't these come off come on!" She complained as Grover eyed her with a concerned look. "Are you okay?" Eurydice sighed. "Long story, but help me get these off!" She complained as Grover ran to her side and attempted to help her pull them off. "Why isn't it working!" Dangling earrings weren't practical on a freaking quest! Seriously Aphrodite?

Grover had tried his best but they weren't coming off even remotely. "Uh... Eurydice I don't think it's working." He winced slightly as Eurydice gave him a freaked out look. "Oh no." She turned to look over at Annabeth and Percy who were looking at her in confusion. "Oh hey..." She gave them finger guns as she awkwardly attempted to stand up. Come on, act natural.

She nearly screamed once she saw the a holographic rainbow coloured version of Luke Castellan in font of her. "Is that Eurydice? Is she alright?" Luke asked in concern as she fell off the haystack she had been sitting on. She groaned in pain as she felt her head hit the ground. Curse her clumsiness! She groaned in pain as she laid on the ground.

Annabeth and Percy immediately helped her up. "Are you okay?" They both asked her in concern at the same time. The two of their turned to look at each other for a second once they realized they had said the exact same thing. Eurydice dusted herself off and begrudgingly got up. "I'm fine." She winced slightly. "Why the hell is Luke in a rainbow?" She muttered in confusion as she stared at the mirror like rainbow image of the son of Hermes questioningly.

Annabeth sighed softly. "That, is an Iris message. From Iris the god of rainbows." This did nothing to help Eurydice understand anything at all. Luke cleared his throat. "Anyways, what were you saying Percy?" He asked him in confusion. "We know who stole the bolt." Percy said. Luke gave him a confused look. "How do you know?" He had a worried look on his face.

Annabeth explained for all of them. "We ran into Ares, and Grover got him talking and realized Ares knew who the thief was but was covering for them. So, who would Ares cover for other than..." Luke seemed to be on the same line of thinking as Annabeth. "His favorite daughter. Clarisse is the lightning thief." He announced, a look of realization on his face.

Eurydice couldn't shake the odd feeling she got about Luke. It hadn't been there before, but it was weird. She hid it in the back of her mind. Annabeth trusted Luke so she'd have to trust him too. Percy nodded in agreement. "Chiron's gotta arrest her, find out what she knows. There's more to this than just the bolt, something bigger. Don't ask me how I know, you just gotta trust me."

Something about Clarisse being the lightning thief didn't make sense to her. Sure, Clarisse was a bully but that didn't mean she was evil. Right? From what she knew about Ares was that he didn't seem to like demigods in general, even his own kids. So it didn't make sense to her that Ares would help his daughter if he claimed to not care about her.

Luke nodded. "Okay, I'm on it. So, Ares, huh? What was that like?" He asked them with a narrow of his eyebrow. Eurydice winced. "It was... something alright." She grimaced once she thought about the video the god had shown to her of her mom. Percy shrugged. "Well... compared to the Chimera on Monday and Medusa on Sunday, could have been a lot worse."

Annabeth shook her head at him. "Medusa was Saturday." She insisted. "She was?" Eurydice muttered in confusion. "I don't even know what day it is.." She trailed off slightly. "I thought Sunday?" Percy added in confusion. Annabeth shook her head at them. "No monsters on Sunday. Monday, you died in the river." Eurydice had a look of realization. "Oh right! I forgot about that." She grimaced again.

Percy nodded. "Right. So, Medusa on Saturday." He realized. Meanwhile Luke was extremely confused. "Guys, what is this?" He asked them in confusion. "What?" Percy and Annabeth muttered in unison. Luke eyebrow narrowed again. "When did you and Annabeth turn into an old married couple?" Eurydice immediately burst out laughing. The two of them glared at her in response.

She choked down her laughter. "Sorry! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I swear. That was funny—" She took a breath in from the laughter bubbling up in her throat. "Grover- Grover gets it right." She pointed at the satyr to help her out. Grover blinked in confusion from the other side of the truck. "Huh?" Eurydice frowned. "Nevermind." She shook her head at him in disappointment.

Percy awkwardly cleared his throat. "Not to change the subject, but I'm gonna. We could use your advice on something. We're headed to Las Vegas to find your dad..." In a flash of light Luke's figure disappeared out of sight. If Eurydice hadn't just woke up right now she would have started freaking out.

Mythological world magic was weird.

Percy stared at Annabeth in confusion. "What was that about?" The girl sighed deeply. "You can't ask Luke about his dad." Annabeth said defensively. Percy blinked. "Well, now I certainly can't." He shrugged. Annabeth sighed again. "If you tell him we're going to see Hermes, he's gonna try to talk us out of it. We don't need that right now."

Eurydice frowned slightly. "Oh, I'm guessing they don't get along then." She winced. Annabeth nodded. "At all." She sighed. Meanwhile Grover had come back from his trip to visit the animals that were in the truck with them. "Okay, got some updates. The men driving this truck are not nice people. Traffickers." He seemed upset that the poor animals were being treated like this. Eurydice winced. "Oh, that's not good."

Eurydice would have been more empathetic to the animals if the truck didn't smell so bad. She's gonna be smelling like a bunch of farm animals for the rest of the week! She highly doubts that she's going to find a shower wherever they're supposed to go next. That's a one in a million chance. What she would give for a break for once.

Annabeth crossed her arms at the satyr slightly. "We can do our best to help all these animals escape, but not if it means we're jeopardizing the quest." She told him with an unhappy look on her face. Grover shook his head frantically. "Oh, no, no, no. They've already got a plan to get themselves out. And us, too." He said.

He put an arm on top one of the cages the animals were in. "I mean, some of these guys, so smart. They were really only missing, like, one piece of the puzzle to get the cages unlocked." He told the three slightly concerned demigods with a chuckle.

Percy blinked. "What's that?" He asked. "Thumbs." Grover answered like it was obvious. Eurydice shook her head sympathetically. "Even geniuses have their limits. And... these animals one seems to be having no hands." She joked slightly. Grover nodded. "But we're here now, so... all good." He grinned, tapping one of the cages enthusiastically.

Annabeth, however still didn't look convinced. "And once the cages are open, they have a plan from there?" She asked. Grover nodded with a smile. "Yeah. Really elegant. I mean, these guys, they're... they're like artists." Eurydice snorted. "Good for them." She said, a smile on her face. She tried really hard not to laugh. But it was hard.

They haven't died so far, so what do they have to loose?

Okay, in hindsight Eurydice didn't expect the animals plan to be THIS dumb. She watched in horror as a crowd of animals ran out into the streets of Las Vegas. Her eyes were wide in horror as she watched a camel and a bunch of cows loiter in the middle of the street. A million of cars honked at the animals, all of them stopped as they weren't really interested in running over lost zoo animals.

She heard people shouting swears angrily at the animals as the four of them stood on the sidewalk watching intently. "Oh... wow. This... this sure is something Grover." She shook her head slowly. "Wow." She was too stunned to speak. Percy nodded, equally as horrified. "This seems dangerous." He muttered. Grover chuckled. "Oh. They'll be totally fine." He waved his hand dismissively.

Grover smiled, sounding like he was proud of himself. "I gave them a Satyr's blessing, so they'll be able to reach the wilderness safely—" He reassured with a wave of his hands. A few seconds later they watched an ostrich interrupt traffic by stepping into the street while a car honked its horn at it.

Percy interrupted him. "I meant for the people." He corrected. The horns and yells of angry people began to get louder. "Oh..." Grover muttered, trailing off. "Them." He muttered. The four of them could hear shouting in the background as the ambulance sirens got louder.

Eurydice slightly grimaced. "I... I don't think they're happy Grover." She told him with a wince. The satyr laughed nervously. "Well, I mean, I'm sure they'll... Yeah, I don't know. But the animals are all set." Annabeth sighed deeply. "Okay, come on, before the cops show up." They could hear a siren blaring in the distance.

Eurydice's eyes widened anxiously. "Yeah! We should go." She looked behind them to see a large fine in the distance. There were rollercoaster tracks all around the building that oddly resembled a flower. There were children her age screaming as they rode the rollercoaster. It just might be the coolest thing that she's ever seen. By the looks of it, they have to head over there if they wanna see Hermes. 

Percy, ever the bright asked. "So, how do we know which hotel is the Lotus?" Annabeth stared at him for a second, considering making fun of him. She turned around to point out the large dome behind them. "I'm guessing the one with the giant lotus blossom on it." She smiled in amusement.

Percy immediately looked back to see the sign as he had just realized. "Ohh.. You were like two seconds ahead of me. Seriously." Eurydice laughed. "Idiot." She muttered fondly as she followed Annabeth into the direction of the lotus. Percy scoffed. "Okay, Sometimes, it might be okay to just let the easy ones go. Can we agree to just try it, maybe?" He asked as the four of them walked towards the building.

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As soon as they stepped into the Lotus Casino. Eurydice was bombarded with kids around