Trapped in a recording studio. Like a freaking mouse that was about to be eaten by a cat.
Thalia hated being dead. Who does want to go to Hades, anyways? All she did every single day was sit around like a fool and stare out the window to look at butterflies floating past. Occasionally, she would see a monster, but they always disappeared as fast as they appeared.
Thalia glared at Charon, who hadn't even noticed her since she came here a month ago. He was too "busy" telling other souls off for trying to get into the barge without paying, etc. etc. Gods, that was annoying...she was Artemis's former lieutenant and the daughter of Zeus, for the said god's sake! Wasn't there more to death then just sitting around while a fat man next to you took a long drag on a cigar?
"All right, all right!" Charon loudly said, jolting Thalia out of her dark thoughts. "Back off, and do not attempt to change the dial on my easy-listening station again, or I'll be sure to keep you here for another thousand years!"
She couldn't take it anymore. She didn't care if it landed her in the Fields of Punishment; she had to get into that damn Underworld right this instant. "One thousand years?"
All the spirits around her jumped, some of them sinking into the floor in fright as Charon took off is tortoiseshell glasses and stared at me. "Look here, girl, it is not your place to decide whether or not how long I decide to keep you here! Another thousand years to your waiting list for being—"
"Annoying? Irritable? Disrespectful?" Thalia offered, her temper rising like a crowd's excitement at a football game when a team scored a touchdown.
"Exactly my point, you lady," Charon agreed. Thalia rolled her eyes: You lady? "Now, if you will excuse me...I have some souls to ferry across—wait a moment. Come here."
Thalia glared at the man sitting next to her (she needed to vent at somebody) and stomped up to the big podium, which was kind of sad since Thalia was 5'10" (A.N./ Somebody tell me if that STUPID CAMP HALF-BLOOD WIKI changed her height again! I need to yell at it.) and she completely cleared the podium and Charon. "Changing your mind?" she acidly asked.
"Well..." Charon rubbed his chin, ignoring the wails of impatience emitting from the closed elevator door. "You're a demigod, right?"
"Yes."
"You participated in the last Titan War for the Greek camp."
"Yes, and got a statue of the queen of the gods dropped on my legs in the process."
"You got killed in the last Giant War."
"Yes. Your point being?"
"You were a tree," Charon said, clearly enjoying her heightened annoyance with him.
"Stop asking your stupid questions and get to the point!"
"All right," Charon said, pushing her forwards to her surprise. "In the boat, hurry up."
Thalia huffed in annoyance as she got smashed through a pair of little boys in togas that stared past her as if nothing had happened. "And you choose this time to ferry me across Styx?"
"Well," Charon said, mollified and closing the door behind him, "I haven't ever taken notice of you until five minutes ago, when you so rashly berated me on exactly how long I should keep you in that studio." He grinned at the daughter of Zeus, his Italian silk suit melting into a long black robe and his glasses disappearing, his eye sockets cold and empty.
Thalia resolutely glared at him as everything flashed around them and they gently plopped into the River Styx. "I don't need to give you any drachmas, do I?"
"That would be appreciated," Charon said most agreeably, dipping his long stick in the oily water, "but Lord Zeus, your father, has lain down some rule that all children of he and his brothers apparently get 'free passage' into the Underworld. Cerberus is not to harm you, and unless you have done nothing or something very bad in your life, you go to Elysium. Something like that."
"Hazel went to Asphodel, and her father was Ha—er, to say, Pluto."
Charon waved his free hand airily. "Ah, well, she did raise the giant Alcyoneus, and although she stopped him, her mother was the one who forced that girl to raise the nasty giant in the first place. Hazel, being the strange girl she is, agreed to take all the blame from her mother so that Marie wouldn't have to go to Punishment. Both souls were condemned to Asphodel. If you ask me, she should have just accepted Elysium and forget about what she did."
Thalia hollowly stared ahead as the boat crunched against the black sand of Erebus. "Thanks for the ride," she bluntly said, stepping out of the barge. Charon grinned a ghostly smile at her and began slowly ferrying back towards the other side of Styx.
Thalia glared at the three-headed guard dog, Cerberus. She had never liked canines in the first place, but three extra heads that were slobbering green drool? That was way over her tolerance point. She couldn't help but mutter an Ancient Greek curse under her breath as she passed through Cerberus.
Thalia glanced at the three lines, two of them crawling slower then a worm and one of them, aptly labeled "E-Z Death" was moving so fast that all the souls were a blur.
A podium suddenly materialized in front of her, and three men in flowing black robes and gold masks stood on it, facing her. All the other souls passed the podium without giving any indication that they noticed it.
The judges of the dead simply looked at her and began rifling through her memories. Thalia could feel it—it was like she had paper files in her head and some businessman/woman was rummaging through it as they tried to find a graph or something.
"Ran away from home when you were ten," one of them drawled.
"Got turned into the symbol of Camp Half-Blood's borders two years later," the second wheezed.
"Returned with the aid of the Golden Fleece, retrieved by Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, and Clarisse La Rue," the third said.
Thalia waited.
"Pushed Percy and Annabeth out of the way so that they wouldn't be crushed by Hera's statue," the second intoned.
"Killed a lot of demigods!" the first indignantly muttered. Thalia's temper flared up even higher, and her anger was still boiling from her previous talk with Charon. "Did you think I wanted to die in the Titan War?"
The judges ignored her and stared at her, the gold masks still and silent. "Hmm...you were the person that was mentioned in the second Great Prophecy, or the Prophecy of Seven: An oath to keep with a final breath. Isn't that right, daughter of Zeus?"
"Don't call me that!" Thalia snapped.
"I don't like her attitude!" the first complained. Thalia was sure that King Minos was under that mask.
"Her attitude has nothing to do with this, Cheese Fondue guy!" the third one huffed. Thalia had to stifle a laugh at that. "She's your half-sister, for Zeus's sake! Elysium, girl. Go on."
He waved his hand, and Thalia was suddenly sprawled on the ground in a grassy green field, the sun beating down on her.
"Stupid judges," she muttered, brushing herself off as she picked herself up.
"You're dead!" a boy with black hair commented dolefully. "How'd you die?"
"Do I know you?" Thalia quizzically asked, looking at her surroundings.
"Uh..." The boy waved his arms. "Michael Yew, son of Apollo? I died when I fell off that suspended cable."
Thalia threw her hands up exasperatedly. "Now, I know that I'm dead."
"Well, of course you are," Michael said conversationally, "but I never thought that you would. What happened to you?"
"Killed by Porphyrion," Thalia grumbled. "Don't ask. Please."
Michael smirked. "I never thought that I would hear Thalia pleading me to shut up."
"You have that effect on everybody," Thalia said, investigating a blade of grass. She stared at a Roman villa. "Michael, do you know where Luke is?"
Michael solemnly nodded his head. "He chose rebirth. He's going for the Isles of the Blest. I'm sorry."
Thalia inhaled the heavy scent of flowers. She wondered how Jason was faring in the world above. She wished that she could visit him.
"I'm paying Uncle Hades a visit," Thalia said, looking at the palace that rose above all of the Underworld. "Whether I can get to it or not. It's time that I apologized to my brother for all the inconvenience I caused him."
Hades, as if on cue, shimmered into existence in front of Thalia and Michael. "Five minutes, Thalia Grace," he rumbled. "Five minutes to visit your brother. Use your time wisely."
Thalia looked up to the artificial sunlight of Elysium and saw Jason sobbing, with Annabeth comforting him. "I'm coming, little brother. You just wait." She jumped into the picture, leaving a dumbstruck Michael behind her.
And that was the prequel to Jagged Lightning. Hope you liked it!