Chapter Two – We Brave the World's Hardest Maze On Flying Nikes

I was shrouded in darkness, breathing heavily, heart racing hundreds of miles an hour. A shadow of a childhood fear settles inside me and I wish I had a flashlight. It's literally pitch black at there. When I looked down, I couldn't even see my hands. Mara, you're fourteen turning fifteen in a few days, I told myself, You shouldn't be scared of the dark. But all I could think of was when I was younger, seven or eight, and trying to convince myself there were no monsters in the dark. Staring up at cheap glow-in-the-dark stars stuck up on the ceiling, bathed in the glow of a night light. Obviously, there was never anything lurking beneath my bed or anything, and I got past that silly childish fear of monsters but as soon as I heard the laugh I was pretty sure that fear hadn't completely gone; it wasn't even gone at all.

Daughter of Hecate, a deep, ancient voice says from somewhere below me. The earth below me rumbles and when I strain my eyes, I can just make out a pit in front of me, I can see you know nothing of this world. But I can also see your potential. A child of a minor god, yes, but you have certain … abilities that raise you above your brothers and sisters. Join my cause. We shall overthrow the gods.

That voice was so terrible, like an earthquake speaking, slipping beneath my skin and into my bones and rooting themselves there. I shiver. "Why?" I call out, sounding pathetic, my voice quivering with fear, "Who are you, anyway? Do you live in this pit?"

A laugh, malicious and cold. I have watched you for much of your life, Mara Raine Lewis. Alone, forsaken, abandoned by a father who never had time for you. Hounded by monsters again and again. The darkness shifted into bright colors and I suddenly found myself in a memory. Playing in a sandbox with Sandra, one of my only friends at that time, and then a rabid dog chasing after me. I had barely escaped without any injuries. Me, in grade six, standing outside waiting for my dad to pick me up. After leaving ten voicemails for him, some creepy guy wearing a trench coat in the middle of June started stalking me. I ran to the back of the school just as my dad pulled in, looking annoyed. The man was gone.

The scene faded to darkness again and I was standing at the edge of the pit again, trembling even more from the terror of those memories. As if sensing how scared I was, the voice laughed again. The gods are foolish; they find a mortal, they fall in love and they leave, as if their child means nothing to them. But my army and I…we shall cut them to pieces and punish them. Join me.

I didn't know what to say. He had a point. According to my dad, Mom just left us a few weeks after I was born. Of course, I can't grieve something I never had, and I had forgotten her absence over the years, but now that he brought it up. Even when those empousai brought it up… it made my chest hurt. I mean, come on, it wouldn't hurt to see your kid once in a while.

But still, she was a goddess. I didn't think she had enough time to visit her loser children—like me—or see her old lovers. I guessed my dad wasn't the love of her life, seeing that she was immortal. But then, since she's immortal, the ADHD part of me said, then how do you chop her up into pieces?

As if reading my thoughts, the voice said, I am immortal, demigod child, but the gods sliced me to bits and scattered me all over Tartarus thousands of years ago. I am reforming, as immortals do, and soon as I shall rise again to my full power. I will create a new Golden Age, daughter of Hecate, and if you choose to join me, you shall be a part of it.

Golden Age. I dimly remembered Mrs. Weiss saying something about that. Something about me and destiny too… I shook those thoughts out of my head, not sure how to reply to him. This guy who lives in the bottom of a filthy hole talking about killing gods and Golden Ages was crazy. But then, he knew about those freaky stalkers and who my mother was…

I can see you are undecided, child, the voice said softly, And I can also see that you're in much trouble. You will soon be faced with a choice, Mara Raine Lewis. Both lead to pain and misery—Great, I thought, How encouraging—but if you choose the right path, that suffering will not last long. Choose the other, and you will endure a pain equal to Eternal Punishment. So choose wisely.

"How soon?" I called down to the pit, "How soon until my choice?"

Later. But for now, you must wake, the voice grew softer, less distinct…

I'm dreaming? I thought, before I felt the ground beneath me disappear and I was tumbling head over heels into the pit, screaming. This doesn't feel like a dream; I'm actually falling. I'm still falling… and then I plummeted to the floor. Pain exploded in my head, and I opened my eyes, hungrily gasping for air. I wasn't in the dark anymore, and when my vision focused, I found myself staring right into my science teacher's face, inches away from mine. And trust me, someone's face up-close isn't something you want to wake up to, no matter what face it is.

"Holy shit!" I yelled loudly, skittering away. Mrs. Weiss wasn't an empousa anymore, but the normal teacher I remembered. Her platinum-blond hair was tied up into a tight bun, not the flames that I remembered. Her skin was still pale, but not the frightening white that I saw before, and her eyes were their usual chocolate brown. Maybe I was just dreaming about her turning into a vampire with bizarre legs.

"Hmph! Watch your language, Miss Lewis," she said, frowning, and standing up, "Next time I hear that, you'll have detention, assuming you live that long of course." She snickered, and half-covering her mouth with her hand, she morphed back into the terrifying empousa with the metal-and-donkey legs.

"Where's Jaysen?" I asked, my voice unsteady. Then, seeing her bared fangs, I narrowed my eyes, "You didn't eat him, did you?"

Mrs. Weiss wrinkled her nose. "Of course not! Us empousai do not prefer flesh over blood. Unless you meant me drinking his blood…well, he's alive," she said grudgingly, pointing behind her, "and untouched. On your orders, obviously."

I went around her and found Jaysen sprawled on the floor, lying on a small pack I hadn't seen before. He looked more asleep than unconscious, but he was behind me and should've taken the worst of the fall. Still, I grabbed his shoulders and shook him hard. In response, he muttered no over and over again.

"Jaysen!" I said, slapping him across the face again and again, "Wake up!"

"Meh?" he groggily opened one eye, looked at me and sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning, "Had a dream … capture the flag back at camp … team lost for the eighth time in a row … had to steal the prizes …" he looked up at me. "Mara? Hey."

"Hey," I replied, "Do you know where we are?"

Rapidly blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he looked around, but he seemed as confused as I am. "Nope," he said, brushing out blond strands of hair out of his face. He seemed pretty relaxed, though, up until he saw Mrs. Weiss standing behind me.

"You freaking little—" he roared, leaping to his feet and drawing his sword. I quickly moved out of the way as he lunged forward and slashed at her. The empousa moved away, though a little to late. The bronze blade sliced cleanly down her shoulder and before I knew it, her arm dropped onto the ground, spilling golden fluid before dissolving into yellow powder on the floor.

Mrs. Weiss hissed, incensed. "Foolish son of Hermes! You think my death will be enough to save your little camp? My lord Kronos is rising and your camp shall be the first to burn! He will destroy your precious Mount Olympus after, brick by brick…"

"That is enough coming from you," Jaysen said, though he paled at her words. As our science teacher surged towards him, he sidestepped before whirling around and stabbing his sword at her. It was probably aimed at her chest, seeing its angle, but she crouched and the blade sank into her head, hilt-deep. I could see the other end sticking out of the back of her head and I prayed that I wouldn't puke all over them. Mrs. Weiss screamed, the flames in her hair crackling even louder, angrier and he pulled out his sword, backing away as she began to dissolve. In no time, all that was left in front of us were two piles of powder.

I stared at him in amazement, wondering where he had gotten those crazy ninja skills. He looked a little surprised at himself, too, staring at the remains of the empousa, then at his weapon. Jaysen turned his emerald eyes to me, chest heaving a little. He looked shaken, and I could tell it was Mrs. Weiss' words that bothered him the most.

"What did she mean, burning your camp? Don't you live at Sofremento, like me?"

Jaysen sighed heavily and sat on the floor, sheathing his sword calmly as if he hadn't just stabbed someone—or something, whatever—in the head with it. Uneasily, I sat down next to him and his expression grew distant, even when he looked at me.

"There's something I need to tell you," he said, "Something about this world."

"Greek gods exist? Another empousa told me."

"When?"

"When you were fighting Weiss the first time. I killed her after."

"Good job," Jaysen nodded, impressed and a little thrill of happiness went through me, "Anyway, I'm probably guessing she didn't tell you all of it. It's hard for gods to break their habits; thousands of years ago they had children with mortals, thousands of years later they are still. And, well, there's a lot of children, called demigods or half-bloods. I'm a son of Hermes, like Weiss said. Anyway, demigods attract monsters so we tend to die easily, unless we're trained well to kill them. We go to Camp Half-Blood to train. We go on quests to prove our bravery."

"So? What's that have to do with me?"

"More than you think. Children of the minor gods, too, go to camp, but what's strange is that you don't have a protector, looking after you so the monsters don't kill you before you get there. So I'm surprised you're still alive… I mean, I've been going to camp since I was seven and before then I always had a protector."

"But… weren't you attending the Sofremento School for years? I've known you for two years."

"It's not real. You think we can walk around carrying weapons in front of mortals, regular people? There's something called the Mist that hides certain things, like monsters' true appearances so they look like something ordinary. Sometimes the Mist is so powerful, it can even alter memories and fools demigods. Mara, I only arrived at Sofremento two days ago. The Mist just changed your memories so you think you've known me for two years. I only came because I'm on a quest to eradicate a monster-infested school. After brief studying, I noticed you were the lone demigod, and many of the students and teachers were just waiting for a chance to kill you and—"

Hiiiiiisssssss. It was a barely audible sound, but Jaysen heard it immediately and cut himself off, on his feet and sword drawn in an instant. I followed suit, stumbling after him. Hiiiiiisssssss. Jaysen turned to me with a finger to his lips and I nodded, remaining silent. He quietly grabbed his pack off the floor and slung it over his shoulder and with the grace and silence of a cat, he crept towards the source of the sound.

"Are you crazy?" I whispered, "Let's run!"

"Are you crazy?" Jaysen hissed back, "You see a monster, you kill it. You don't run."

"Yeah well, we're not seeing any monster. Let's—go!" I tugged at the hem of his shirt, turning the other way, and stifled a scream as I saw a sight worse than the empousai. Five monsters advanced towards us, wearing heavy armor and bearing spears. They looked like women, but their skin was scaly and snake-like tongues darted out of their mouths every few seconds. Hiiiiiisssssss. This time, I heard it from both sides of us, and as I whirled around, I knew we were surrounded.

I tugged at his shirt harder, drawing my knife, which was for some reason tucked into the waistband of my skirt. "Ten on two. Now do we run?"

"How? Both ways are blocked by dracaenae!" Jaysen said, looking more panicked by the second. Then his eyes glazed over a little. "No, wait a minute. I think I could…"

And before I could protest, he sprinted towards the monsters, waving his sword in the air and yelling something incomprehensible. The dracaenae hissed even louder, seeing the bait and advanced quicker, armor clinking. Just as they lifted their spears to strike, Jaysen slashed at them, whirling around and trying to stab at chinks in the armor, cutting off spear tips and dashing about so quickly I could barely see him.

Beautiful, I thought, as he knocked a shield off a dracaenae and stabbed at her.

Hiiiiiisssssss. I spun around and found the other five monsters right behind me, smiling widely as if they could already tell I was an easy kill. But they didn't raise their spears, strangely. Instead, they dropped their weapons and one of them grabbed my arm. I instinctively recoiled at the strange moist, scaly texture, but I couldn't pull away. They were too strong.

"Yeeesssssss," the monster holding my arm said, "She issss the one."

"Are you ssssure?" one asked,

"A daughter of Hecate, they ssssssaid… sssskinny, with ssssshort black hair and blue eyesssss… she fitsss the dessssscription perfectly. And anyway, it would never hurt to find new recruitsss." the first one argued, her snakelike eyes turning to me. "What issss your name, girl?"

Faster than I expected of myself, I whipped out my knife and stabbed the dracaena's arm and she hissed in agony, grabbing her wounded forearm. The other dracaena tensed, hastening to pick up their weapons but I only backed away. I heard the clang of weapon and weapon from behind me as Jaysen continued to battle the monsters.

Just as the other four dracaenae were ready to attack me, the first one hissed, "No! Massster Luke ordered for her to be delivered ssssafely." Master Luke? Who the hell is he? I thought, wondering if was one of those stalkers—who were probably disguised as monsters, I realized—from my childhood. "Jusssst take her and go! She hasss nowhere to run. The Labyrinth issss inessscapable."

That didn't sound so good. Instead of continuing to slowly back away, I turned and ran, just as Jaysen faced me, offering me his hands. Four of the five dracaenae seemed dazed, lying on the ground, and one had already vaporized. I grabbed his hand and he yelled something incomprehensible to me and suddenly my feet weren't on the ground. We rose to the air quickly, too quickly, as if we were slingshot into the air. I heard a soft thunk as Jaysen's head bonked against the ceiling.

"Crap," he muttered, then lowered a little. The dracaenae were right below our feet, looking up at us quizzically. Then we were speeding off down a hall, flying. The hissing of the dragon lady monsters were unheard in a matter of seconds. I could have been in Neverland if it hadn't felt so cramped. When I looked down, I noticed that Jaysen's Nike high-tops had sprouted wings on the sides and were flapping frantically to keep us airborne. Son of Hermes, he had said. No wonder.

I felt Jaysen speed up, zigzagging around corridors. He was smiling and laughing like he thought it was fun, but I felt like my face was ready to peel off. And anyway, at this speed the fear of crashing into walls got to me amd I found myself ducking my head every time he turned and shutting my eyes.

Forty miles per hour…fifty miles per hour…seventy miles per hour, I heard a voice inside me say, and I squeezed my eyes closed. Oh God. The usual nausea with air travel—even air travel only six feet off the ground—began in my stomach and with my free arm I wrapped it around myself, willing my stomach not to eject the grilled cheese sandwiches served at lunch.

When we eventually we slowed down and lowered to the ground, I was ready to puke all over those winged Nikes but Jaysen, seeing my expression, stopped me. His sword was already drawn, ready to taken on any new nasties coming our way. But all was still. We were still in a hallway with stone walls, trapped here, yes, but safe anyhow. For now.

"You okay?" he asked, bending over to examine my face, "I'm sorry, that was the only way to get out, and I've been dying to test my birthday present from Dad for ages. I didn't know you would react that way. Forgive me."

I waved him away, doubling over for a few seconds before straightening. "It doesn't matter. Let's go."

Jaysen didn't move. His brow was furrowed and he looked a little lost. "I saw those monsters speaking to you. What were they talking to you about?"

I blushed. I thought he was going to inquire more about me, but obviously that wasn't going to happen, even though we had just held hands. I wanted to hit myself for 1) still thinking that was going to happen and 2) still thinking about my love life when I could have been killed by monsters or taken to their "Master Luke".

"They recognized me and wanted to take me to see their Master Luke," I explained, and the color drained from his face again, "and when I was going to run, they said that the Labyrinth is inescapable or something like that. Any idea?"

Now Jaysen looked like the one ready to hurl. "Yeah. I know this Luke," he said, voice strained, "Luke Castellan. He's my brother. Half-brother, actually. Son of Hermes too. He was a nice guy and everyone liked him but two years ago he went all evil and betrayed us, going to Kronos's side."

"Kronos?"

"The leader of the Titans and the Lord of Time. He lost to his children, the gods, during the Titan War thousands of years ago and is in Tartarus, sliced to pieces. But apparently he's reforming now and he wants revenge on the gods and all their children. We're readying to fight him—well, er, his army."

Lost to the gods …. in Tartarus now …. sliced to pieces …. reforming now and wants revenge on the gods… My eyes widened. Didn't I have a dream about a voice speaking to me from a pit he called Tartarus, who told me he was in pieces, was reforming and wanted to conquer the gods? That was Kronos? And I was talking to him in a dream, offered a chance to join him? Jaysen's enemy?

Don't tell him, I decided, He'll think you're just like Luke Castellan, a traitor.

"Oh, uh, great." I said, "But what about that talk about the Labyrinth? What's that?"

Jaysen sighed and looked at me as if to say, Really? But he replied, "A maze that can take you anywhere, created by the architect and inventor Daedalus. Impossible to navigate, unless you have Ariadne's string or you're Daedalus himself."

My spirits fell. So we really were trapped here, in a maze said to be impossible to traverse. And if we ever got out, we could end up in Arizona, hundreds of miles away from Washington. Maybe we were already thousands of miles away from home. I shuddered at the thought, then thought of my dad, waiting for his daughter to come home for the spring break but her never showing up. Alone, without a wife, probably thinking of a woman who left weeks after the birth of her child fourteen years ago.

I opened my mouth to respond to him but suddenly, a rumble shook the Labyrinth and I heard shouting from around the corner. Footsteps raced towards us and Jaysen grabbed my arm, pulling me behind him. There were multiple clangs! before cries of pain and then silence. Not even the slightest sound of a foot hitting the ground.

"What just happened?" I whispered to Jaysen, who looked even more rattled than I felt.

"We'll have to find out," Jaysen murmured, and we crept around forwards, towards the next turn, just as we heard footsteps again, but this time lighter and faster. Someone was running—running from us? I sprinted towards the sound now, turning and finding—nothing. Jaysen caught up behind me.

The hallway was deserted. I found six piles of monster powder on the floor, spoils of war littered all over the ground. But when I looked up, I barely saw a thin figure in black darting around the next corner, unmistakably human. Something inside my breathed in relief. We weren't alone.

"HEY!" I yelled, running after him, despite Jaysen calling me back. Pouring in all my energy into my legs, I sped towards the bend and made a sharp right turn, nearly running right into a sword pointed right at me.

I stopped only inches from the tip, breathing heavily, heart pounding to a frantic rhythm. I saw a hand holding the hilt of a sword, then a pale, skinny arm, connected to a body…I dared to look up and found myself staring right back at the face of a dark-haired boy who looked no older than fifteen. He was pale and thin, with a Japanese profile, but he was handsome too, despite a frayed black eye patch covering one eye. His other eye was set into a glare, fixing me with a venomous look.

I took a step back and he didn't clear the gap between us. Instead, his face softened a little and he sheathed his sword, turned and ran. I didn't follow him.