They had been on a bus heading for the city for about two hours before smoke poured forth from the engine like smog, greasy black and smelling like battery acid. Penny thanked the ocean for the respite from Grover's unsubtle attempts to get her to trust the rose-colored glasses he was trying to sell her and immediately scrambled off the bus.

As Penny bounced up and off the fart-filled air of the bus she noticed a roadside stand on the other side of the road. Grover, making an anxious high pitch whining noise, made frantic grabs for Penny to keep her from approaching the small stand and the three knitting old ladies that were manning the counter. She whipped around and grabbed his flailing arm, "Give me your wallet." She ordered. He made a little meep noise and started to stutter something undoubtably pathetic, but Penny let go of his wrist only to grab his shoulder and dig her oval-shaped manicure into bone. "Give. Me. Your wallet. Now." She used the hand carving four little bruising crescents into his shoulder to make the ever-so-slightly taller boy bend enough that she could look down her strong Grecian nose at him with storm-grey eyes.

He pulled his wallet out and gave it to her with shaking hands.

Penny crossed the street to the three little old ladies and their fruit stand with a smirk, even if Grover was easy prey it was still fun to make him quake in his hooves. As she stepped into space on the roadside that could be considered 'theirs' the old ladies eyes all snapped up to lock onto her; all three had one sighted eye and one blind eye, each a different color. Penny just calmly pursued their wares unwillingly given wallet in hand. They had fruit, pressed juice, and honey, and all of it looked ripe and fresh and practically perfect. Fruit lovely enough to tempt a god.

She grinned a bit and picked out two fat, sweet looking oranges, one juicy looking apple, a little hand embroidered bag of dates, one package of blueberries, and (just because she was a little shit at heart) a heavy pomegranate. She brought her bounty over to where the three were sitting gently rocking and embroidering flowers onto a pair of socks big enough to fit a giant. The one with the piercing gold eye and the antique bronze bird wing scissors was the only one to stop rocking and lean forward even as the other two kept at their delicate work.

The one with a gunmetal-grey eye would tell the other what flower went where and hand over a needle already strung with a different thread, and the next sister with a jewel green eye would punch the needle in and out of the sock with a precision born from the ease of practice. Penny stood while a flower was finished up, a tiny Black-eyed Susan, when the final leaf was stitched into place the green-eyed sister gave her hoop over to the gold-eyed one. The gold-eyed one looked straight at Penny as she positioned her beak sharp scissors on the thread she meant to cut, and SNIP went the winged blades.

Penny refused to flinch when something primal in her head, the same little lizard brain instinct that drove her to the cold sea year after year, whimpered. She instead made careful eye contact with all three before she bowed her head, dug all of Grover's money out of his wallet, handed it to the green-eyed one and accepted the embroidered cloth bag from the grey-eyed one and make her way back to the bus right before the bus driver cussed at the engine one last time, pulled the slightly cooked corpse of a small animal out of the hood and shut it with a triumphant grin.

Grover looked like he'd either puke, shit his pants, or do both when she climbed back on the bus.

"D-di-did th-they c-c-cu-cut a-an-anyth-thing? Di-did they P-Penny?" He began twisting his wrists and knotting his fingers, looking so anxious the two college kids across from them moved seats in case he decided to do a real-life Exorcist. Penny smirked and threw his empty wallet in his face just to watch him fumble it then dug out the apple from her new bag.

"They sure did yeti-legs." She sunk her teeth into it right as he processed her sentence and let out a not-at-all quiet bleat of fear. Now the college kids were looking at them like they'd escaped a mental hospital. Penny just smiled to herself and ate her godly fruit as Grover fretted and cussed under his breath the rest of bus drive.

Penny stepped off the bus and into the familiar smoggy New York air with a sigh, she loved the green of upstate New York, but the city was her bread and butter. She'd sharpened her teeth into fangs on its nervous breakdown streets and hoped they'd keep shaping her into someone terrifying.

Grover tried hopping into her cab after she'd hailed one with a whistle that could be heard a mile away, but Penny pinned him to the sidewalk with a glare like a laser sight, "And who's cab does you think you're getting in?" She sneered. Grover began to stutter something along the lines of 'keep you safe' and possibly 'you could die' or some bullshit. Penny shut the door in his face and offered the cabbie an extra 20 to get her to her mother's apartment quick. The tires screeched as the cabbie put her foot down.

When the cab pulled up outside the apartments, she hauled out her duffle and suitcase and made her way up the stairs. As she bumped the door open Penny was greeted by the unpleasant smell of cigar smoke and the even more unpleasant laughter of her 'stepfather' Gabe Ugliano aka 'The Pig'.

Gabe leaned back from the poker game he was only winning because his lackeys had to lose. "Back again you frigid little bitch? Finally, gonna be sweet to me or do I need to convince you again?" He leered, teeth clamped down on a cigar that absolutely stunk, and lift one pudgy hand to motion her closer. Penny set her stuff down and stepped closer to the disgusting Pig. When he tried to grab her ass, she struck snake quick and grabbed his thumb to bend his whole arm back, flicked a stiletto out of her jacket and put it to his throat. Releasing a startled ah! Gabe froze under her glacier white glare.

"Why is it that every year before I leave for school I have you trained up nice and pretty into something almost resembling human and then I come back and you're a shit eating pig again?" She gently petted the flat of her switch blade on his ugly, patchy scraggly scruff-wannbe-beard creating a soft scraping sound. Penny took a moment to enjoy the rare fear in his face, he knew the only reason he hadn't turned up face down in an alley with his throat open and castrated, with his lungs full of sea water was because Sally was the more merciful of the two Jackson girls. "It's almost like you like being treated like a misbehaving dog by a teenage girl." Penny tapped the blade on his bulbous nose and smiled at the squeak she got. "Now then, unless you want me to break another of your ribs you will not. Touch. Me. Or my mother ever." A tap to the corner of his right eye emphases her point. "Clear?" He sniveled and nodded, and Penny let him go so he could slump over the table shaken and went to her room.

Once inside she let go of the tension in her jaw but kept what was in her back for when she finally laid eyes on her mother again. The fountain filled with sea water on her dresser filled the room with the scent of salt and the soft musical noise of a brook. Penny tossed her stuff on the bed and went over to the little fountain to stick her fingers in the water and feel the sugar fine sand on the bottom. She let out a sigh like a world weary dog and let the water sooth her. By the three faces of Hekate she needed a nap.

"-by, Querida, Cariña. Wake up, I want to talk you." Penny woke with a gasp pulling salt air into her lungs, her dream was a hazy impression of something absolutely catastrophic and she reached desperately to grasp the wispy edges of it. A slightly rough hand traced her check, the sent of candy reached her nose, and she finally sighed out the tension in her spine.

"Mama." Penny turned and cuddled into her Mama's lap breathing in her sweet sent and finally truly relaxing for the first time in months. In the back of her mind was always the lingering worry that her lovely Mama would be hurt either by a monster or by Pig Gabe.

"You worry too much Nina, you'll have a back like an old spinster before you hit 50." Sally Jackson was the most beautiful woman to ever live. She had wild brown curls that Penny had proudly inherited, a lovely strong nose, soft light brown lips, beautiful brown eyes, and a full hour glass figure. She worked two jobs, one at the candy station in Grand Central Station and the other writing articles for both print and online newspapers. Sally made blue cookies, and muffins, and whatever else she could get enough food coloring into just because it made Penny happy. She was kind and smart and funny and pretty and all the good soft things Penny couldn't understand or even really want to be. Sally handled all the nice and Penny had all the naughty well in hand and they both liked it that way.

Sally tapped at the top of Penny's head to get her attention and then started finger combing her riotous curls, it never got entirely straight no matter how high Penny turn up her flatiron. "Querida, how was your year? What did you score on your finals? How are the girls? Did they like the cookies I sent?" She fired off her first round without hesitation and with perfect aim. Penny almost picked her head up to begin scowling as her spine started stiffening back up but a few well places scratches settled her back down.

"Well, I expanded my candy sails to two other schools, and got the girls moving on squashing any possible rejections, I scored in the low 80's on my final, the girls loved the care package you sent and Mandy send her thanks for the cute new knit crop top it fits perfect, and …something, else happened Madre." Sally brushed hair from her daughter's face and saw a rare emotion being reflected back at her from peaceful sea glass eyes. Fear.

Sally framed her daughter's face to focus her attention, "Mi corazón, there is truly nothing that would ever make me turn from you. And you know this, so why such doubt Nina? Do you not remember your Mama loves you?"

"No, no. I know you love me Mama! I know that before I know my own name sometimes. I just didn't want to make you sad. You know I hate doing that." Penny curled tighter into Sally tucking her face into her warm stomach and memorizing her beautiful sent.

"I know you don't honey but I have a right to be sad for or even because of you okay? You feeling too scared to talk to me makes me sad, so just bite the bullet and tell me Darling."

"They rigged my finals Mama. I know I aimed for a low B and my test came back with a perfect A plus. They have awarded me a transfer to an exclusive private school here in the city. Our time may be running out Mama, I …. saw the Three Wise Ones on my way home and the Winged Woman that was sent to kill me finally attacked at the beginning of the semester." Penny confided. Sally hummed.

"You knew no matter how unlike them you smelled or how good you were at staying under their radar you'd be found and brought into their circle. It's time to show them that the Jackson girls aren't fucking around Dear."