Yeah, it's another one! I have no clue why I'm so enthusiastic when I'm writing but all down and sad when I'm not. That probably confused you. Sorry. There will be some songs in here. I hope you like them, because these are two of my favorite songs of all time, even if I did find them about a week ago. I should let you go on to the story before I talk anymore. So, um, read. NOW!
It's been about a week since Nico left. We're still in New York, but I feel like we should be somewhere else. I can't seem to lose the feeling. I asked Izzy if she felt it too. She answered yes.
Right now, we're in some random McDonalds. What can I say? We love burgers from Mickey D's. I had a double cheese burger and Izzy had a Big Mac. We really aren't the type of girls to watch what we eat. When you live on the streets, you eat what you can get your hands on, and burgers from McDonalds are cheap with the small amount of money we have.
"Where do you think we should go?" I asked, yawning. We hadn't slept in about two days. We couldn't find a safe place to sleep.
Izzy was leaning on her hand, moments from passing out when she mumbled, "Underworld." Then she was out.
Where the heck did that come from? I wanted to yell. She hadn't been able to answer that question when she was awake. Maybe she was having one of those freaky-always-come-true-dreams.
Without much more thought, I fell asleep.
In my dream, I was still in a McDonalds, but everyone had gone. Everyone, except some random woman, that is. She was sitting across from me. She was beautiful. She had brown hair and pale skin. He eyes were like the most wonderful flower of all. She was the woman who always visited me in my dreams.
"Hello, Samantha." She smiled at me. Her voice was soft but regal.
"Don't call me that," I grumbled. I hated it. It made me think of someone who wore pink all the time or something. In other words, it made me feel like Izzy. At least her name fit her well.
The woman ignored me and said, "Your sister is correct."
"What?" I honestly didn't have a clue what she was talking about. I defiantly wasn't the one with the smart jeans in my family.
She shook her head, sighing through her nose. "You two need to travel to the underworld."
"And how do you suppose we get there?" I asked.
"They are some boulders in Central Park. You might need music, but they will open." She looked me directly in the eye. "Once you get to the underworld, I want you to find me. I will be in the palace throne room. Get there as soon as you can, Samantha."
I nodded, but I was still mad that she kept calling me Samantha. Did I ever mention I hate my name? Cause if I didn't, I hate being called Samantha.
She smiled at me. "You must wake now. Good luck."
With those parting words, I woke up to an angry McDonald's worker.
"We need you to leave!" He yelled. "We don't permit to have homeless people sleeping in our store. Leave!"
Izzy had already been woken up. She grabbed my upper arm and pulled me out of the fast food place.
We walked for about twenty minutes before she spoke. "That lady you said came to you in your dreams, um, well… She came to me."
"What'd she say?" I asked, knowing what she probably said.
"She told me that we needed to get to the underworld, and to do that we had to find some boulders in Central Park and make music to open them," She explained quickly.
"She told me the same thing."
"Okay then." We walked toward the park.
It was only about five o'clock so we had time. The streets were full of people, like always. We were shoved and pulled all over the place since we were short. I hate being some short twelve year old. Most twelve year olds would be at least five feet by now, but were barely four and a half. It's really sad.
After walking for what seemed like hours, we finally arrived at the park. The boulders were there and in plain sight. They were impossible to miss. They were like any other pile of boulders would look like. They were larger, gray, and boulder…ish.
Anyway…
We stopped in front of them and stared. I'm sure we got a couple weird looks from passing people. I mean, who looks at boulders?
"What music do we, um, play?" I asked.
"How should I know?" Izzy took a step forward. "Should we sing to it?"
"Sure, but that's going to have to be you. You've heard me sing before. I sound like a dying donkey." I took a step back ready for whatever was going to happen.
Izzy started to sing in her wonderful way. Her voice was scratchy, but it sounded good to me. She sang our favorite song that we always listen to when we get a chance: Carry Me by Dead by April. [I highly suggest this song. I found it about three days ago and… WOW! Loved it!]
I am still alone, turn into stone
where did you go, what did you find
where did all this come to an end
Carry me, embrace me
what if I win or lose
this is not true
Carry me
She didn't have to sing anymore because the boulders started to crack and move, forming some sort of tunnel. It was dark and quite creepy, but it was where we had to go.
"Ready?" By the way Izzy's voice shook when she asked I could tell she was scared to go in too.
I was afraid my voice would come out a squeak, so I just nodded. I may dress in darker colors than normal preteens, but I hate the dark as much as anyone else.
Izzy grabbed my hand and we walked into the terrifying tunnel.
The thing was made out of a dark kind of rock, and mud. What tunnel doesn't have mud in it? Just like it looked from the outside, it was dark as night. Actually, it's darker because at night you at least have the moon to give you light, and the stars to lead you. In here, I can't see my hand right in front of my face, and there is no light to lead me to a safe place. The rocks had closed as soon as we came into the tunnel, so there was no way we could get out of here through there. We had one option: forward.
Gripping Izzy's hand, I started walking. The air was musky and had a rotting smell to it. I felt like I was walking to my death. Under my feet, the ground was uneven and sticky. The only thing that kept me from crying and begging to get out was the way Izzy held my hand. She felt the same way, but her confidence showed that she wasn't going to give up now.
That doesn't mean I'm not still about to pee my pants. Don't tell anyone I said that. You'd probably feel the same way if you had to come done here.
"Izzy?" I asked softly, afraid of what might be in the tunnel.
"Yeah." Her voice was just as soft as mine.
"C-can we keep talking because I'm about ready to have a panic attack?" I admitted.
She squeezed my hand reassuringly. "Yeah, but what about?"
"What are we going to do once we get out of here?" I asked, because I honestly had no clue.
"I think we have to try and find that woman from our dream. That should be a good place to start." She was starting to ramble like she always does when she's scared, which is actually a rare sight. "We both know what she looks like, so it shouldn't that hard. Plus she told me that she was in the palace. That shouldn't be that hard to miss. I mean, what palace is about the size of a cracker?"
Where the heck did she get cracker from? Never mind… At least I was feeling better!
"Maybe we should sing a song!" She said suddenly. "I like singing. How about Shadows by Red? That song seems fitting!"
She started singing. I believe she's hit her breaking point, but I let her sing her song.
Sunset, I close my eyes
I pretend everything's alright
drowning in anger from all these lies
I can't pretend everything's alright
Please don't let me fall forever
Can you tell me it's over
There's a hate inside me
like some kind of master
I tried to save you but I can't find the answer
I'm holding onto you
I'll never let go
I need you with me as I enter the shadows
This song really is fitting for this situation.
She hummed the pause in the song
Caught in the darkness
I go blind
But can you help me find my way out
Nobody hears me
I suffer the silence
Can you tell me it's over now
There's a hate inside me
like some kind of master
I tried to save you but I can't find the answer
I'm holding onto you
I'll never let go
I need you with me as I enter the shadows
She sang lala the next break. I actually like this song coming from her, even if a guy originally sung it.
I'm holding onto you
I'm holding onto you…
There's a hate inside me
like some kind of master
I tried to save you but I can't find the answer
I'm holding onto you
I'll never let go
I need you with me as I enter the shadows
She stopped singing, because it was the end of the song, and we had reached the end of the tunnel. At the end there was a river. It was black and filled with junk. This river was almost as bad as the ones by New York City.
Izzy must have thought the same because she said, "Poor river."
We looked around for something that we could use to find the palace, but we didn't need it. There was a huge, dark, scary palace on the other side of the river. We would have to swim across, but something told me that wasn't a good idea.
"Izzy, do you see a boat?" I asked.
She helped me look around.
"Nothing!" She exclaimed.
I looked to see if there was a way to go around the river, but it stretched for as far as I could see. I could use the freaky water powers I have, but I don't think those would work here. Izzy!
"What?" I didn't realize I said that out loud. She looked at me like I was crazy.
"Your wind powers!" I said excitedly. "Those can get us over the river!"
"Oh!" She grinned. "Give me a minute, and come here." She held out her hand to me, which I took knowing what was going to happen.
She took a deep breath, and suddenly we were floating across the river. Yes! In a matter of second we were safely on the other side.
I high fived Izzy. "Awesome! You rock, Iz."
She grinned and bowed. "Why thank you, Sammy." She used a fake British accent.
I grinned back at her. "Come one, we still have a lot of ground to cover."
For the first time that we were here, I looked at the millions of ghosts wondering around. Some were in a giant field of black grass, some were in lines to get somewhere, some were being tortured, and others were in some happy little town-like-thing.
I recalled something about this stuff from old Greek myths. That just proved Nico right. We were Half-bloods, or demigods I guess.
I wonder who our parent is…
As we walked through all the fields, and around security, I thought about who our mother could be. She was probably the woman who came to use in our dreams, but what goddess has power over wind, water, shadows, fire, light, and multiple other things.
Izzy can control wind, shadow travel, breath underwater, create light with her hands (but that one tiers her out a lot) , make weird creatures out of bones, see into the future (like her dream she had a while ago), turn things into flowers, and turn into a hawk.
I can control water, call down lighting (but when I do I get stiff and pass out) breath underwater, start myself on fire, control shadows, lower the temperature in average sized rooms, turn things into flowers, shadow travel (not as well as Izzy though), talk to wolves, and turn into a wolf.
Also, we have those creepy things we can do with our eyes. There's no way there's a goddess out there who can do all that, and not be on the Olympian counsel. If there is, this world is more messed up than I realized.
During all this thinking, I didn't notice that we had been approaching the entrance to the palace. It was pretty in a sort of way. There was a garden made out of diamonds and other jewels. The palace had a sort of black glow to it. I could feel the dark power radiating off of it. I guess it was pretty cool, even the skeletons guarding the door were pretty cool.
They let us walk right past without even a first glance at us. Maybe we were expected by them. I guess that would be why we got in here so easily. I remember from the Greek Myths that Hades was cruel and wouldn't let anyone into his domain willingly. A thought hit me. What goddess would be in the underworld? Persephone. That was the woman from my dreams, I'm sure of it.
Once Izzy and I were in the palace, we ended up in the throne room. I'm not sure how, but we got there without even turning a corner. At least we didn't get lost, that would be bad.
We both looked up to see the lord of the dead sitting on his throne of bones looking right at us. He was wearing a robe that had souls trying to get out. I wonder what they did to become his clothing…
Sitting next to him on a flower shaped throne, wearing a beautiful flowing black gown, was Persephone. She was the woman from the dreams. Izzy must have come to the same conclusion as me because she didn't look too surprised.
Hades just glared at us, but Persephone got up and shrunk down from about twenty feet to normal size.
She smiled. "Hello, girls. I'm glad you made it so quickly, but it isn't too much of a shock. You two don't have very many places to be."
I tried to pretend I wasn't annoyed by that comment, but I was. She pretty much just told us we don't have much of a life.
She looked back at Hades, who nodded and gestured to a door to the far right.
"Come, we have a lot to talk about." With that, she turned and walked to the door, with us on her heals.
There. This one's longer than the others. Sorry those were short. On the document the look long, but out there they're short. I'll try to make all my other chapters longer. I hope you like it. It would be great for you to share your thoughts in a review. That would just make my crappy day… not… so… crappy. Yeah. That. Check out those songs too! You can't get the full effect of the song if you don't listen to it with music. =D
Words: 2,673
Pages: 6
Time: 2 ½ hours