I awoke in darkness.
Now generally, waking up after dying is the type of thing that would alarm most people but…okay, look, I'm not very quick on the draw after just waking up. If there's a monster or something attacking me, I can snap into action in a second, but at six in the morning, two minutes after waking up, I don't think anyone's that smart. If there's someone who's capable of thinking seriously about the implications of life, death, and having the former after the latter first thing in the morning—stay away from me. My most common first thought after waking up is 'waking up is horrible; why do I bother?'
Plus, you know, something else stole the prize for my attention. Just as I was about to roll over and go back to bed, several things became glaringly obvious. First off, I wasn't in bed—whether mine or anyone else's. Two, something was keeping me from rolling over. Three…
I was trapped. I tried moving and all I ended up doing was bang my knees and elbows on something hard. I was completely locked up, as if I were in a box. Hell, maybe I was in a box—how would I know?
But whether it's a box or not, it doesn't matter. I'm a Son of Poseidon—I don't like being restrained.
Also, I may be a little claustrophobic. When it comes to being locked in a box with no obvious way out, I think everyone is.
I immediately started looking for a lock or catch of some kind, trying to find a way out. I'd gotten in here, after all, so there had to be one, right? But if so, I didn't find it, which is the type of thing that gets to you when you're locked in a maybe-box.
As such, I promptly switched gears and started working on Plan B—make my own way out.
Straight through the side of the maybe-box.
One of the upsides of being a Demigod is being able to do stuff like that. Although, truthfully, even I was surprised at how easy it was to break out; I didn't exactly have a lot of room to move so I was working on nothing but weak punches and little kicks, yet the wall started breaking like an eggshell the moment I tried hitting it. In just a few seconds, I had an opening large enough for me to tip over and awkwardly sprawl onto the ground. Sadly, being a Demigod can't fix everything.
In the process, however, I immediately confirmed one thing—the maybe-box was definitely a not-a-box. Instead, it was a wall of some kind that I'd somehow gotten inside off, which was a fairly odd way to wake up even by my standards. I don't know a lot of people who'd put me in a wall while I was sleeping. Kill me? Sure. Put me in a cell? Possibly. But trap me in a wall that I could easily get out of? That was a new one.
And then I remembered what had happened. I hadn't gone to sleep.
I'd died.
Not gonna lie, that was kind of a downer as morning wakeup calls go, but I've had worse…sort of? I mean, unless I was imagining things because of the blood loss and slow death at the end—which was always possible—I'd kicked Kronos pretty hard in the face while he was taking me down. I'd chalk that up as a win, given that it was more than I had any real right to expect. And besides, death was…not something I'd wanted or anything, but not a huge deal for me? It was a known factor in my book, something I'd kind of been expecting for years, and more than that…I knew what would happen after I died. I'd been to the Underworld and had seen what it looked like, what was expected, all that. I had a friend who was a son of Hades for crying out loud. And given that I'd died for the sake of Olympus, well, my friends and I should all have been bound the Elysian Field treatment, which was pretty good from what I've seen of it.
I looked around at the walls of dimly glowing stones that cast shades of purple and across everything in sight. Barring the hole I'd made, that was all there seemed to be, though after a ways, the tunnel seemed to turn.
Still…call me crazy, but this didn't seem like the Elysian Fields to me. For one, there was a lack of fields. Also, it was poorly lit and I was alone.
I wondered, a touch belatedly perhaps, if Hades was the type of guy to hold a grudge after getting beaten up.
But no, more importantly, was this even the Underworld? I wasn't Nico or anything, but I'd been to the place a few times and I didn't recognize anything here. It didn't seem like the Fields of Punishment or anything, which was probably good news, but…I don't know. I supposed that if I'd failed, Kronos or whoever else was in charge of this place now might have renovated it, but I'd have expected a worse fate in that case. Strange walls and weird paths didn't really make me think of Hades. If anything, it kind of reminded me of the Labyrinth.
How did I get here if I died, though? Where was here, anyway? What happened to Olympus and the Gods and New York?
I waited for another moment in case any answers saw fit to spontaneously present themselves, sighed when they didn't, and started walking. The sooner I got somewhere, the sooner I could find answers, and since I had no idea where anything was, picking a direction was as good a way to get started as any.
And yet, after taking only a few steps, I came to a halt as a question crossed my mind that I hadn't considered. I mean, in my defense, it was a fairly weird thing to even consider under most circumstances. But…
If I had been trapped inside a wall…what if there were other things in there, too?
And…why did that thought make me sweat?
As if in answer to my suspicions, the walls all around me began to crack and chip away. I felt a shiver run down my spine as I looked towards the nearest one, peering into the darkness that was slowly being revealed.
Hey, I thought even as my hands slid to my sides, grasping the weapons that were thankfully still there despite my apparent wall-based afterlife. Just because I was a demigod didn't mean that everything that happened to me had to be bad, right? I mean, I'd been in there; maybe other people had somehow gotten in there, too. They might be friendly. Hell, they might be my friends, coming out of the walls the same way I had. Yeah, I might have been looking forward to meeting up on the fields of paradise instead of inside a weird and creepy hallways, but I've had worse reunions. Several of my long-lost siblings had turned out to be monsters that wanted to eat me; I'd take what I could get if it meant being among friends.
But after another moment, a large piece of the wall broke away, revealing a bright red eye and promptly dashed that hope. Looking around, I realized why I had such a bad feeling about this and accepted that my luck was unchanged.
They were monsters. Monsters were coming out of the walls the same way I had—and there were a lot more of them then there were me. I wasn't the best counter in the world, but…there had to be hundreds. Maybe even thousands, if it wasn't just the walls here that were breaking.
Which was…really bad. I mean, as a demigod, I really didn't like monsters much in general, with a few rare exceptions. More to the point, however, monsters really didn't like me. I don't know what it is about us demigods that causes it, but we're like catnip for them—and they can travel quite a ways to get to us. Finding yourself surrounded by monsters on a walk home from school, or even at school, was an unfortunate possibility for demigods in general. And since my dad's Poseidon, one of the eldest gods, I had it especially bad.
So finding myself surrounded by slowly emerging monsters was kind of worrying. I wasn't helpless by any means, but getting surround by an unknown amount of unknown monsters in an unknown place in an unknown situation didn't sound like a winning proposition. So I did the obvious thing.
I started running.
Now, I didn't believe for a second that I was going to escape, just to make that clear. One of the things you learn pretty quickly as a demigod is that you almost never seem to escape, at least not for long. Even if you outrun the monsters, they always catch up eventually, whether because Tartarus has a good workout program or because they can home in on us demigods from a mile away. And when you find yourself trapped and alone with some monsters, however smart or quick or clever you were, it was never as easy as just running away or sneaking past them. There was always something to make matters worse and getting out always meant putting yourself in danger to get there. One day, I might walk away from a horde of monsters without any trouble, but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be today.
But just because you couldn't run away didn't mean you had to fight on their terms—and since fighting on their terms usually ended badly, I generally recommend against it. Being a demigod came with its advantages, but so did being a monster, and for the average demigod, a fight was always a risk. You might win, but you might lose, and losing means death. As such, you should cheat as much as possible; your life was on the line, after all, and you shouldn't leave stuff like that to chance if you can help it.
Standing alone in a hallway that was spawning monsters was pretty obviously a bad idea. Yeah, I was pretty strong as demigods went and I might have been able to take them—but without knowing what was going on, there was no way of knowing that for sure and being wrong would get me killed a second time. As such, I did my best to turn things to my advantage, starting with the obvious.
I went looking for water. When Poseidon's your dad, that's a pretty good answer to most problems; people fought you near water at their own risk. When I was close to water, I was stronger, faster, fought better, could heal from most wounds, shrug off most poisons, and more. I could also call upon it to do all sorts of things, from attacking to defending—plus I could breathe in it when most things that tried to kill me couldn't. As advantages in a fight went, being the only one able to breath was usually a fairly good one.
And I could sense water, too, which helped a lot in finding it. And as it happened, I could sense it now, right—
Above me?
No, not just above me. I could feel water moving below me, too, quite a ways down. It wasn't a single body of water in either direction, either; I could feel everything from puddles and mist to what seemed like rivers and lakes, each with varying distances from me. I could sense salt water and fresh water, too. Where was I?
Wait, more than that…if there really was water like this at various depths, both above me and below me…was I underground or something?
That…wasn't good. I didn't have many good memories of being trapped underground with monsters; it wasn't a great place for demigods in general. Really, though, this place was reminding me of the Labyrinth more and more by the minute—
Especially when I turned the corner and came face to face with a dead-end.
I slid to a halt with disbelieving eyes before gritting my teeth. Honestly, I probably should have expected this, but…
Glancing back the way I came, I saw more and more monsters tear their way free from the walls. I didn't recognize most of them—and what few I did, I kind of wish I hadn't. There were dragons with heavy black scale tearing their ways from the walls, fire hanging like froth from their mouths—and they were big, with the smallest I saw a good twenty feet long. I wasn't sure how they even fit in the walls, honestly, but everything that looked like it wanted to kill me seemed similarly huge. There were massive skeleton soldiers that each had a solid five feet on me and pitch-black armor, twisted beasts with too many eyes and mouths that resembled tree roots from hell more than anything else, and a variety of other horrible things. I was as badly outnumbered as I'd expected and, worse, the walls around me had started cracking the moment I got close. Soon, I'd be completely surrounded.
Okay, no water. Big deal. What did I have?
I had my armor. My clothes, too, thankfully. It was in better shape then I remembered dying in, but I decided to think about that later, because while I appreciated all the help I could get, I was well aware that it wouldn't keep me alive on its own. Luckily, I also had Riptide and Annabeth's Dagger—and thanks to the Curse of Achilles, I was invincible.
…Wasn't I? It was hard to describe, but I was feeling worryingly vincible right now. I wasn't feeling the unstoppable confidence I'd gotten used to in the face of battle right now, either.
Suddenly doubtful, I pressed my thumb lightly to the edge of my dagger—and was immediately rewarded for it with a slight stab of pain and a few drops of blood.
Okay, I thought, heartbeat picking up. Not invincible. That wasn't good. If I'd still had the Curse's support, I might have considered trying to fight my way out of here, despite the numbers I was facing. But without it, against at least hundreds…that didn't seem like the best idea. Even if I managed to win, I'd still need to get out of here afterwards, and I was pretty sure I was trapped in a maze again and would probably get lost. And from the way monsters were coming out of the walls everywhere I went, I had a worrying feeling that I would have to fight every step of the way.
For a moment, I wondered if maybe I was in the Fields of Punishment, doomed to run around futilely like a rat in a maze until the monsters caught up to me and tore me apart—and then do it again and again. I'd seen stuff like that when I walked through the fields before, but this seemed like a lot of effort just for me. I guess I'd left an impression on someone. Maybe Kronos didn't appreciate that dagger to the eye. Maybe Hades didn't appreciate me beating up him and all his troops. Maybe I should be more careful when it came to pissing off people who could decide my final destination. It was something to consider.
But I didn't give up yet. My sword and dagger weren't going to get me through this on their own and it didn't look like I'd be getting to water any time soon, but I had something else, something maybe even more valuable.
My friends.
Taking a deep breath, I gave a genuine, New York whistle; the type a cab driver could hear from a block away and across heavy traffic. As I did, more monsters slid from the walls, the ones nearest me beginning their approach. They moved slowly, probably waiting to surround me to ensure I couldn't escape before tearing me apart, but at this rate it'd only be a few seconds before something mobbed me.
When there was no response to my whistle, I began to worry—and surprisingly, not about the monsters. Had something happened to her? Had she been killed in the fighting without me noticing? Was something keeping her away? But even if I was in the Underworld or the Labyrinth or wherever, she should be able to hear me. Then…
Just as my heart began to drop, however, I saw something move in the darkness. In the open walls, beneath the feet of the approaching monsters, all around me, something was moving—and then the shadows exploded with enough force to toss away the nearest monsters. A massive dog, larger than a garbage truck, rose as if hidden beneath the ground and shed liquid shadows like they were water. She snarled once and then barked, the sound loud enough to make my brain shake and make me think of heavy artillery, the mere sound momentarily halting the monster's advance, especially when she clawed at one of the skeletons that was too slow in getting away from her. Black armor tore with a groan and she snapped up the skeleton as it fell, jaws working to chew armor and bone and swallow even as she continued to growl.
I wasn't an expert on monster body language—except when it came to my own continued survival, of course—but they looked a bit worried to me.
"Mrs. O'Leary," I sighed in relief, looking at my oversized hellhound. "You're okay—"
At the sound of her name, she snapped her head towards me and snarled again before lunging at me. Before I even had time to wonder what she was doing, I was snatched up in her jaws and she was biting down on me hard. I felt dagger-like teeth stab deeply into my chest, tearing into my stomach and snapping ribs like sticks. I felt one of my arms break in an instant, felt my bones grind, felt blood flow into my mouth.
"Mrs. O'Leary!?" I tried to shout, but I think her teeth were in one of my lungs. She lifted me easily in her mouth and with another jump, I felt us slide into the shadows. It was dark and cold and screaming fast and, for all that I normally enjoyed riding with her, not at all reassuring while I was caught between her jaws. Abruptly, we were somewhere else, somewhere dark, and she was shaking me back and forth like a chew toy. It was a miracle my neck didn't snap.
I screamed anyway.