Chapter I: Surprisingly, I Don't Die
Falling. That is all I am doing. I can't stop our death. It's rushing towards us every second that passes as we plummet to Tartarus. How are we supposed to survive this fall? We won't. It's always one thing after another. We are demigods; nothing ever goes right for us. We are pawns to be played with by the gods. Annabeth and I deserved some peace for saving Olympus; and the entire world for that matter!
"Percy, I'm sorry." Annabeth said disrupting my thoughts. "This is all my fault. I should have checked the webbing that was attached to me. Then we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Annabeth, this is not your fault. It was Arachne, not you. It's her fault were down here. And Gaea's. They did this to us." She looks into my eyes. "You're right, I know. I just wish I could have stopped it."
I sigh. "Somehow we'll get out of this, I know we….Ahh!" I suddenly see the bottom of the pit, and it's nothing but jagged rock a far as the eye can see. I quickly turn in mid-air putting my body underneath her and hug her as tightly as I can. I need to save Annabeth; she has to survive this fall. She realizes what I'm doing a few seconds too late. "Percy, no! You can't…" Then everything goes black.
"Mmmm…" Everything is hurting, I can't see. My right leg feels like it got split by an axe, my shoulder blade feels like it is on fire, and my head feels like I got hit by a Lastrogian giant. "Oh my gods, Percy, why did you do that?" I can tell she's crying. Both sad and angry at me. I finally come to, and the first thing I see is her gorgeous face right above me. It's dark, but I can see the webs in her hair and blood trickling from her lip. She's also covered with dirt. Beautiful. I could stay in this moment for the rest of my life, minus the pain of course.
"You could have killed yourself." Annabeth whispered. "Better me than you." I whisper back, trying to fight off the pain, "How bad is it?"
"Well you broke your leg, dislocated your shoulder, and you most likely have a concussion on the back of your head. So, yeah, you're lucky not to be pushing daisies."
I sigh. How are we going to make it out of here? We both have broken legs, and I'm knocking on death's door. Wait, not the real Death's door, the saying or whatever. Argh! Never mind.
I'm finally able to take in the surroundings. There a faint light, kind of like in the underworld but somehow darker, if that's even possible. There's nothing but gray rock everywhere and I hear moaning and roaring sounds in the distance. Great! We have an endless army of monsters headed our way. Annabeth must be reading my expression because she says "I don't think they're after us. At least not yet." "How do you know?" I interject. "Because, Seaweed Brain, their voices are moving farther away."
Suddenly, the pain gets intense. I take in sharp breaths. "Ambrosia? Nectar? Pepto-Bismol? Anything to take away the pain?"
"I do have some left in my pack." She says gloomily, "I have a few sips of nectar and four squares of ambrosia. It won't be enough to last us but a few hours in this Hell hole." She feeds me a square of the ambrosia. I immediately feel the pain lessen but it's still excruciating. "We need to get going before we have all of Tartarus on our tail. Come on, Seaweed Brain, I'll help you up."
We walked (more like limped) for what seemed like days, but was actually more like two hours, until we finally made it to a dried up creek. Annabeth's bottle was empty so we found a small puddle of water and filled it up. That's when I heard it. It was a screeching noise like nails on a chalkboard coming from right above us. Just our luck, three chimeras who most likely want to rip us to shreds. I pull out Riptide and slice it through the first. I expect to see it disintegrate into dust but she just laughs like the witch out of the Wizard of Oz. "Heeeheeeheee! That doesn't work here, dearie! We're already in Tartarus! Gaea sent us. She wants to make you pay for disrupting her plans in Rome." I have no strength left to fight back and my injuries prevent me from running. I see Annabeth isn't doing much better. They all pounce at once and have us chained up in less than a minute. So much for swords.
After a painful 2 mile walk, they take us to a dungeon-looking room you would expect to see in a medieval castle, with all the smells, chains, and torture rooms. You know, the works. Annabeth and I collapse on the floor. The chimera I tried to kill comes and stands right in front of me. "This one first. I want to hear his screams." She starts dragging me over to a pair of shackles hanging from the ceiling. I hear Annabeth screaming my name, struggling to get free while they drag her away through a door on the far side of the room. Icky (as I have now named her) chains me to the ceiling and walks over to a table laid out with knives, whips, and all other manner of torture devices that I don't want to mention. She picks up a whip with pieces of metal hanging in the cords then rushes over and rips off my shirt. "Now dearie, remember to cry out for dear Daddy, I know he'll love the screams of his only demigod child, as will your girlfriend. " She backs up five feet away and raises the whip smiling like she's having a picnic. "All kneel before the Hero of Olympus!" The whip makes its first strike.