No. This isn't where I wanted to be! No! She said he'd be here- she said he'd be here plain as day! All I could see was a large dark hole surrounded with trees and debris blowing into the endless pit.
I let out an irritated growl. Where was he? I stomped my foot in anger and crossed my arms. Great. Just great! That idiotic goddess lied to me! Ugh, why did I even listen to her? Oh, yeah! I was desperate to find my boyfriend, that's why! He'd gone to find the Doors of Death and never came back!
The earth goddess, Gaea, told me he'd be here. I know, I know. I was so incredibly stupid to listen to her, but I was also so incredibly desperate. My boyfriend was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. He left me one day, saying he had to look for the Doors in the Underworld. I told him it was a bad idea. "Oh," he'd said. "I'll be fine," he'd said. "I won't get hurt- I can go anywhere in the Underworld. My dad's the king!"
Yeah, screw Nico's dad. Screw Nico! He left me with no one but my cousin, Percy, and my half-brother, Jason. But that's not even considering the fact that they were in a whole other camp for half-bloods!
That stupid, stupid boy. He was so going to pay. (We were talking about Nico . . . )
Now I knew what my friend, Annabeth, was probably thinking when Percy disappeared. She probably went out of her mind with worry, like me. I bent down in the dead grass and put my face in my hands. I shook my head. I never cried. Well, of course, if you really wanna get specific and ask "what about when you were a baby? A toddler?" Yes, I cried then. But ever since I finally got control over my emotions when I was about 8, I hadn't cried.
And I wasn't going to start now.
I forced my hands away from my face. I dug my fingernails into the earth, trying so hard not to break down in sobs. I tried to keep my breathing under control. Breathe in (one, two, three seconds), breathe out. Again, and again I did this.
I stood up.
"Pull yourself together, Sky," I told myself. "Crying won't make him come back. It'll just wear you out so you can't look for him!"
I took in a deep, shaky breath. We should probably make our way back to the Argo II, don't you think? I thought to myself. In this time of loneliness, my only friend was myself. If even that.
Everyone else: my brother, Jason Grace, his girlfriend, Piper McLean, my best friend, Hazel Levesque, my other best friend, Leo the Awesome Valdez, Frank Zhang (Hazel's boyfriend, I think), Annabeth, my third best friend, and even Percy, my cousin. I had pushed away when they tried to help me. That was one of the worse mistakes I'd ever made.
I stood up, brushing the dead grass and dirt off my jean shorts. As I did this, I heard something beneath me crack. I froze. Regaining my courage, I bent down as slowly as possible on my hands and knees, and checked how far down the fall would be. I couldn't see anything, though. My backpack! I thought. I gently reached behind me, resulting in a few more cracks beneath my knees, but I didn't stop. Once my red and gray L.L Bean backpack was safely in my arms, I dug out one of those glow sticks. I cracked it and it immediately started to brighten a glow worm green. I cautiously dropped it into the nearest crack I could find.
The glowstick tumbled down the hole and I leaned forward to see it fall for another minute or two. Then it was out of sight. I straightened my back. Apparently, it was a very, very long fall.
Two minutes later, when I was trying to figure how to get off this stupid island I had been trapped on, I heard a very faintboom!. There was a feeling in my gut that told me it was the glowstick.
I cursed silently, which isn't something I do normally. Actually, it's extremely rare.
There was a loud rumbling from underground, which at first I mistook it for thunder. But that wasn't possible, I reasoned. Thunder only comes when my father is or I am angry. Anyway, I dismissed the thought. The loud rumbling appeared again, but worse. The floor below my feet rumbled and I had trouble keeping myself balanced.
There was one time when it shook so hard, I almost took a little tumble off the platform I was standing on. I sat back down, digging through my backpack. I had to try to get ahold of someone, but I had to do it quickly. Was there a way to Iris Message my friends even though it was cloudy? I had a phone- maybe I could call Piper. She kept her phone on her most of the time, even though she didn't use it. But that was my last resort.
I prayed to my father and Iris to help me with an IM. I quickly summoned a large, spitting blast of water and hoped the sun would shine. It did. I grinned and a misty rainbow appeared in front of me. I dug a drachma out of my pocket and tossed it into the rainbow.
"O, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering- Oh, you too, Fleecy." I thought about Jason's face. I noticed the flittering image appearing through the rainbow. I could see my half-brother Jason's face. Only . . . he was kissing my friend, Piper. I scrunched up my nose and watched for a few seconds. I couldn't take it anymore. I cleared my throat.
Jason and Piper jumped apart. They looked at me and gasped.
"Sky!" Piper exclaimed. "Where are you? You were supposed to meet us an hour ago!"
I sighed. "Good to see you, too. Listen, I'm trapped, okay? I can't get out. Can you send, like, Frank or someone to get me out of here?"
"Yeah! Sure! But . . . why Frank? Where are you? Did you find . . . did you find him?"
I shook my head. "I didn't, no. And I said Frank because he can turn into an eagle and come get me. I'm not too far away, actually. Just about 10 miles away from where we were last."

"Okay, well, I have to tell you something," Piper said. "Um, Frank, Hazel, and Leo are gone right now. Jason, Percy, and I are gonna go look for, you know, Nico."
I cringed when she said my boyfriend's name. Piper sighed sadly and muttered something about picking me up. Jason started to speak.
"Hey, sis," Jason said. "I can come get you."
I nodded. See, Jason could control lightning and the airwaves. I could control the rain, clouds, lightning, thunder, hail, and all that jazz. Actually, if I tried really hard, I could make it snow. But I couldn't fly. I could never fly. I'd tried once by jumping off a cliff. Jason had to come save me along with Frank.
"Okay," I said. Just then, a heavy rumbling started. It was worse than the others. I gasped and lost my footing.
"SKY!" Jason and Piper screamed. I looked at them during the last seconds of our connection.
"Listen! If you can save him, which I know you will, tell Nico I love him. I love you, too, Jason, and tell Percy I love him. Piper, good luck with my brother. Goodbye."
The connection broke with Piper in tears, screaming my name, and Jason clawing frantically at the mist, as though to reach out and save me. I fell on the small platform. I shouldered my bag right before the shaking threw me over the edge and into the large chasm.

OLLO! Hey, guys! Tell me if you like the story. It takes place in the late Mark of Athena and will go into The House of Hades (which, hopefully, I can guess what'll happen since I've been told it hasn't come out yet . . . ) . Okay? Thank you!
~Danie 3