PERCY
The world was a grey blur as Percy fell into eternity.
It happened too fast. Or it happened too slow, Percy thought. Can eternity take any longer? He would sooner die of boredom.
A thud, a crack, a yelp; it all happened in slow motion as he and Annabeth hit the bottom, hard.
"Percy," she groaned. "Can you get up? I can't."
"Don't ask me," Percy replied, grateful that Annabeth wasn't dead. "I think my nose is broken. And my hand."
"I broke a rib, I think."
"This feels worse than Hades."
"I think we passed him thirty miles ago."
We laughed nervously at that.
Percy opened his eyes. Not that there was much to see. Cold fog covered the air like paint. Annabeth could probably explain why it's so thick. Tartarus, he reminded himself, can't even be explained by a genius. Albert Einstein would probably crack his skull over that...
He finally mustered enough strength to get up. The ground was mushy and soft, almost soft enough for you to start sinking, like the muskeg. He shivered at the thought, and for moment it felt like he was suffocating.
"Annabeth?"
"Here," she said.
I pinpointed her voice, until I stepped on a hand.
"Ow! Don't break my hand, too," she yelped lightly. Annabeth pulled a flashlight out of her backpack. "I found my backpack. It was lying near me." she paused. "Tartarus is weird, 'cause it's like time is in a trance. This flashlight will never go out until we reach the surface, and you don't need to eat or drink down here."
"How do you know?" My girlfriend was smart, but Tartarus gave me the creeps. Creeps, I thought, dazed. Arachne could be back. No, there would be worse. I tried not to think about it.
"I did some research on it. You know, Daedalus's laptop."
"Being me, I think I don't know."
She chuckled.
We had some ambrosia 'n necter. I knew the meaning of 'food of the gods' now. Down here, in a place without gods...
Tartarus had a aura of dread to it. The hairs on my neck stood straight, like one of those black cat decorations for Halloween. Isn't there a superstition on that? If there was, than certainly he had walked past a black cat.
"Watch out, Tartarus plays tricks on you..."
Annabeth packed her backpack fast. The faster we walked the sooner we reached the surface. Hopefully, that was how it worked down here. Hopefully.
We walked off without a word. We walked off into a dark wilderness.