Hello! Here it is: the second chapter.

I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own what I do not own. Which is pretty much everything in this story except for the plot.

The house was abandoned, despite it being in top shape and identical with every other occupied house on the street. Clarisse had already figured the house had some weird mythology connected to it, and had even investigated several times when she was younger.

"This is it?" Annabeth asked. She was dressed in her armor, despite the heat. Clarisse was used to it, but Annabeth was no doubt dying under the hot sun. She was definitely sweating a lot.

"Yep." Clarisse marched up the pathway and kicked the door in. She grabbed her spear and hoisted it as she entered. Behind her she heard Annabeth draw her knife.

The first floor was clear of anything mythical. No monsters or killer maze entrances.

"Basement would be the best bet." Annabeth stated.

"Houses here don't have basements," Clarisse replied. "Let's check the yard."

Clarisse investigated the empty pool while Annabeth checked the fence. Both came up with nothing.

"Upstairs?" Annabeth suggested.

"Can't be anywhere else, can it?"

Annabeth checked the railing while Clarisse ran her fingers over the wall, looking for anything that said "secret door", and when they got up stairs they split.
Clarisse was already in the master bedroom when Annabeth found something on the railing at the top of the stairs.

"What is it?" Clarisse asked, running up next to her.

"This post, it's different from the rest." Annabeth stated. "It almost looks like a lever."

"So pull it.

Annabeth jerked the post back, something shrieked, and floor beneath them rumbled. The railing opened up as a flight of stairs unraveled. Downstairs the carpeted floor separated and more stairs were coming up to meet the descending flight.

"So wait, we have to go up a flight of stairs to go down a flight of stairs? That's stupid."

"It's supposed to be hard to find. Not many people would go upstairs to get to the basement, would they?"

"No. Because it's stupid."

"Exactly. No one would expect a genius to do something so redundant. The genius is in the stupidity."


The Labyrinth was the definition of dark and creepy, even though it was well-lit and not at all old-looking.

"We probably shouldn't travel too far," Annabeth stated. "We don't want to get lost."

"The Phoenix area is pretty big." Clarisse stated.

"This is The Labyrinth we're talking about. Real dimensions might not even matter."

"Worst comes to worst we can just turn back the way we-" Clarisse took a step forward, but her foot didn't find any floor to land on and, with a curse, she flew forward into a pit of nothing. When she did land, she instinctively rolled and managed to stand up with her.

"Clari-ah!" And a second later, Annabeth landed next to Clarisse.

"So much for going back the way we came." Clarisse mumbled.

"It's like we're in a whole different tunnel," Annabeth observed. Clarisse looked around and couldn't help but agree.

Before, the tunnel had felt like every house in the neighborhood - cream walls and tile floors. She hadn't really paid any attention because it felt so normal. Now it was something foreign-looking in Phoenix - wooden walls and dirt floors. The cliff they had just fallen from was covered in moss. Even the air smelled woodsy.

"Well, there's only one way to go from here," Clarisse stated, and they trudged forward.


Immediately the walls forked.

"Now what?"

"The left way looks more like the Phoenix architecture - that's our best bet."


"I'm pretty sure that frost means we're far from Arizona."

"It's trying to trick us."

"If it's trying to trick us, how do you know we're going in the right direction?"

"Logic."

"But isn't logic what got us lost in the first place?"


"House fire," Annabeth observed, wrinkling her nose. "That happens more in the New England area, since there are more old houses."

Clarisse didn't bother commenting this time. They had been walking now for what felt like weeks, had already fought ten monsters, and she was hungry.

Annabeth was tracing the wall with her hand, looking for something to signify and exit. Clarisse was doing the same with the other wall.

"I wonder how long we've been gone." Clarisse muttered. "I hope Chris is okay."

"He'll be fine. I just hope your mom didn't call an amber alert or something."

Something bumped underneath Clarisse's hand.

"I think I found something."


"The Hades are we?" Clarisse asked, looking around.

"The basement of... somewhere," Annabeth replied. "Looks like a hotel."

"It smells like salt and bird droppings."

"We must be near a beach. I think I can hear the ocean."

"Great. There should be food here."


They had ended up in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

After a quick call to Chiron, they reserved a room in the hotel they had come up in (demigods had a network for getting free hotel rooms). Argus would be driving down to pick them up soon, but the girls resolved to have a plan by the time he got there

What actually ended up happening was after grabbing a bite to eat out of a vending machine, they crashed on their beds and didn't wake up until Argus found them in the morning.