Darkness.
Never-ending black surrounded the girl. She could sense something in front of her, but her eyes wouldn't corroborate the hunch.
Suddenly, a flash of light exploded in the girl's pupils, giving her vision once again. At first, all she saw was a river; after a minute, though, a small rowboat came into view. A man in a freshly pressed italian suit steered the vessel to the shore, disembarking and staring at the girl. He had pale white skin with gaunty eyes, and a creepy black hood draped over his head.
"Who am I?" the girl asked, hoping that the man would know.
Cracking a smile, he replied: "Silena, dear, do you have sufficient funds?"
"What?"
The man sighed and tapped her on her forehead. All at once, everything came back to her.
The drakon had hit her with its fatally poisonous spit, searing her flesh burning through her insides. She looked up at her friends-how bitterly had she deceived them!- and revealed, in her final moments, that she was a traitor.
Still in her hand was the silver scythe charm. Silena despised it, but she had to live with the fact that chose Kronos over her companions. That she had helped the one who killed the love of her life.
A torrent of guilt washed over Silena, remembering for the first time about him. Charlie, her boyfriend and the camp's master blacksmith. The camp, it was all he cared about; Charlie gave up his life to save it. His warm smile, his reassurances that he would be fine, all amounted to nothing. And it was all her fault.
As all this ran through Silena's head, the scythe charm suddenly grew hot. She released it, only to find that it was floating and giving off a glow.
The metal, formerly a polished gray, was now a molten orange-red. The biggest change, though, was in the shape of the charm: it had morphed from a scythe to a dove.
"The symbol of Aphrodite," explained the creepy man, referring to the greek goddess of love.
"She's your mom, huh?"
"How'd you know that?" inquired Silena, puzzled that he knew she demigod. Silena never recalled telling this man about how the gods still exist, or how she was the daughter of one.
Reading the puzzled look on her face, the man decided to introduce himself.
"I'm Charon. Ferrier of mortals to the underworld, servant of Lord Hades, ready to carry you across for one small payment of a silver drachma."
"I don't have one," Silena replied.
"Oh, you do. Look down."
Silena stared at her hand, realizing that the charm had once again shape-shifted. Now, it was a silver coin, with an image of an owl engraved upon it.
"I'll take that," Charon said, swooping up the drachma. "Thank you for doing business with Underworld Ferries, Inc."
Silena stepped on the boat, followed by the creepy man. It was at that instant that an earth-shaking growl almost tipped over the boat.
"What was that?" the girl asked, frightened by the noise.
"Um… nothing," Charon replied, doubling his pace at the oars.
"Seriously. Something very large sounds very angry."
Charon did not reply, but instead rowed quickly to the opposite shore. Hurrying Silena off the boat, he turned for a second and said:
"Once again, thank you for choosing our services. Welcome to the land of the dead."
And then he vanished.