Hello to everyone reading this. First of all, let me thank you for reading this story. Warning: the first chapter might get a bit weird. However, I urge you to read on. Secondly, this is NOT a sequel to my previous story, Percy Jackson: Against the Ocean. I'm still throwing out ideas for that one. Thirdly, I will try to update this at least once every three days or so.

Comments, criticisms, and suggestions are all greatly appreciated (I don't care if you hate the story, but I would like it if you could tell me WHY).

Read, review, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.

I was falling. I don't know where I was or how I got there. I couldn't see anything around me; the darkness covered even my own body from my vision. There was no way to tell if I was falling for seconds or hours. Time became a blur as I continuously rushed towards the bottom of wherever I was going.

Someone once told me that all rational creatures fear the dark. I had never considered myself to truly be scared of it, but now I was. I guess it was because I had no way of knowing anything that was happening around me. For all I know, I could have been surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters, biding their time until they snatched me from my fall and decided to kill me.

I could feel the fear rising inside me, but there was nothing I could do to counter it. I felt inside the pocket of my jeans for my sword, Riptide. I pulled out it and let the Celestial bronze glow illuminate the darkness of my fall. The light spread out, searching for walls, but found nothing. I could only see further darkness. Still, it felt comforting to know that I had a sword in my hand and light showing me my path.

Suddenly, my eyes forced themselves shut. I felt my body smash against something much too solid for my liking. I swear I felt my bones break and heard the crunch as my head hit the bottom. I laid there for a minute, breathing heavily with my eyes closed. I had to be dead. There was no way that I could survive that fall.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. The darkness was no longer there. I was in a softly lit small cavern. I felt around for Riptide, but found nothing. It must have fallen out of my grip when I hit the ground. I stood up slowly and looked around. It was nowhere to be seen. I wasn't worried; it would return to my pocket soon enough. It always did.

As I looked around, I noticed a small tunnel in the back of the cavern. Cautiously, I walked towards it and entered into the tunnel. It was long enough so that I could not see the end, but I entered it, not knowing what awaited me at the end. The rock walls around me were an ominous shade of black. I walked on for about a minute until it emptied into a much larger room than the first one I was in.

I looked around at my surroundings. It was another cavern, but it looked man-made. The rock was polished almost until it shone. To my right, a faint glow appeared in the rock. I turned my head to see what it was.

Words, written in Ancient Greek, were carved into the rock. They were glowing brightly, but I could tell that they were fading quickly.

I rushed over to read them, nearly tripping on my way there. By the time I reached the words, I could only read the last two in the faint glow that they were providing. The words "fear itself" shone out into the emptiness of the cavern for a second until they disappeared as the rest of the words already had done.

I was left standing there in total darkness wondering what the words meant when I heard a loud crack directly behind me. I whirled around, searching for what had caused the noise.

The cavern lit up. The change in light blinded me momentarily, and I shielded my eyes with my hand until they adjusted themselves and I could see properly. When I took my hands down, standing before me was something that I had definitely not expected.

The Minotaur stood over me, breathing down on me as it glared at me with hate. Probably because I'd already killed it twice.

I sighed. Why didn't this thing stay dead? I'd killed it so recently, too. Can't I have good luck for one in my life and have a monster stay dead longer than a year or two?

"Hey Beef Boy," I said. "Back for round three?"

As I was talking, I casually reached into my pocket and felt around for Riptide. It wasn't there.

Riptide definitely should have reappeared in my pocket by now. Why wasn't it here? I guess I was just going to have to kill the Minotaur the old fashioned way.

I kept taunting him, trying to get him angry. "Hey, I have a question. Since we're underground, doesn't that technically make you Ground Beef?"

The Minotaur snorted slightly, sending steam out of its quivering nostrils. However, it didn't bellow or charge at me. Maybe it was finally learning some self restraint.

I tried one last time to get it to charge. "You look a little meaty there," I said, staring pointedly at its stomach. "Have considered a Vegan diet? You could just let me go right now and we can go out and get some fresh carrots."

Once again, the Minotaur didn't respond.

"I'll take that as a no," I muttered, right before I tried a classic tactic of mine: charge straight at the huge monster that could easily kill a demigod.

I ran toward him quickly, not wanting to give him time to lower his horns. If I could tackle him, then he would have no choice but to come after me. I knew from experience that it was easy to avoid him once he was charging.

I rushed towards the Minotaur. He looked surprised, but I guess that was to be expected. Right before I was about to hit him, I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

And ran into nothing. I kept on going as if I had hit nothing at all. My momentum carried me a few more yards before I stopped and turned around. There was nothing there.

Suddenly, the light in the cavern went away as quickly as it had come. I was plunged into darkness and stumbled back a few steps in surprise.

I heard a whisper in the darkness of the cave. The voice sounded like it was repeating the word "fear" over and over. Now I was seriously creeped out.

The voice grew louder and louder. I could hear it echoing off of the walls all around me. I put my hands over my ears, but the voice didn't even dim. I fell to my knees, and closed my eyes tight. The voice kept on growing louder until it was almost shouting. "FEAR. FEAR. FEAR." It was almost a chant. "FEAR. FEAR." "No," I murmured, too weak for my own ears to hear. "FEAR! FEAR!" "NO," I said, louder now.

The voice continued to shout. "FEAR!"

I yelled out, my own voice filled with power and authority. "ENOUGH!"

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily. I looked around me crazily, searching for the cavern that I had just been in. Nothing. It was just a dream.

I was sweating. Not surprising, really, considering what I'd gone through. I looked outside my cabin window. The sun was just beginning to rise. There was no point in going back to sleep, so I decided I might as well start the day off earlier.

I threw an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt on and went outside into the cool morning air for a run. I loved the weather at the end of summer. It was cool enough to be able to spend time outside, but not so cold that you had to wear too much. It felt great to be running in a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt.

After my jog, I sat down by the creek to rest for a minute. I enjoyed just resting there peacefully with my eyes closed and allowing the sound of the water flowing to wash over me. Bliss.

I should have known that it wouldn't last.

Barely a minute later, I heard Annabeth's voice off to my right.

"I thought I would find you here. Come on, Percy, we need your help."

I opened my eyes and looked up at her smiling at me. "Can't we stay here a while? It's nice. Have a seat."

Still smiling, Annabeth shook her head. "Nope. As much as I would like to, we have to work to do. And I think it's your fault."

I sighed, but stood up. "How is it my fault?"

"You'll see. Come on."

She grabbed my hand and we walked back to the Big House together.