Chapter 4
Percy's POV
After lunch, Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, and I met at the top of the hill beside the Pine Tree with the Golden Fleece hanging from the fattest branch 6 feet up.
"You guys ready to go?" Thalia asked us.
Nico and I nodded. Annabeth asked:
"Where are we going?"
Crap. She's forgetting more things more often now. We need to hurry up this freaking quest. "So," I started, "I don't think we're going to go all the way to L.A., so should we take the Door of Orpheus?"
"Well, it's quicker and easier, so sure. There's no where else to go other than those two." Nico stated.
We took a cab to the South side of Central Park, got out and walked to the pile of useless looking rocks, but it's really powerful in our world. A.K.A., the Door of Orpheus.
"So," Thalia said. "This is it?" Oh yeah! Only Nico and I've gone through this when we were in the middle of the battle last summer.
"Yep." I said.
"Uh, Percy? Do you remember how to get in?" Nico asked sounding worried.
"Of course! You need mu-shit." Incase you don't know, you need music to get in this passage to the Underworld. Because Orpheus was the dude with the lyre; and he used music to create this passage to get his wife's soul back. So, to re-open this path, you need music. "Shit." I repeated.
"What?" Thalia asked confused.
"We need music." Nico said sounding defeated.
"I knew we should've brought Grover…" I muttered under my breath.
"So… do we go to L.A.?" Nico asked.
"No." I said, "It would take to long. Annabeth has about a week of memories left."
"We need to Iris Message Chiron. We need help." Thalia said.
"Does anyone have a drachma?" I asked.
"What's a drachma?" Annabeth asked innocently.
Thalia sighed sadly. "It's one of those shiny gold coins."
"Oh!" Annabeth cried happily. When I thought she was going to say she had one, she said, "I saw them in my cabin, but I didn't think they were important enough to pack…"
"Well now what?" Thalia cried. "We can't just go back to camp with Annabeth in this condition, saying 'hey Chiron! We need to borrow Grover to paly us some music so we can get on with our quest. Okay, bye!' We would look stupid."
"No, but this isn't about being heroic looking! It's about getting Annabeth back to normal!"
"Thalia, Percy has a point-" Nico cut himself off and looked like he was sensing something. Don't ask me what it was about, it must be some 'Child of Hades' thing. "Does-does anyone else hear that music?"
I was about to call him crazy because I couldn't hear anything but the birds chirping in the trees, but then I heard it as well. "Yeah, I hear it to!"
Thalia looked around and then gasped. We turned to look at her, and then at what she was looking at. She was looking at Annabeth, sitting on top of a rock, legs crossed, and softly humming along to the song she was listening to on her I-Pod.
"Annabeth," Thalia gasped in amazement. "You have an I-Pod! Why didn't you tell us you had that? Why do you have that?"
Annabeth shrugged. "I didn't know you guys wanted music. I have my I-Pod because I didn't know exactly where we were going, so I packed for every possibility."
"Annabeth," I asked slowly. "Could we borrow that please?"
Annabeth shrugged and gave me her I-Pod. I unplugged her ear buds, and tossed them back to her. I put the volume up to full blast, pressed play, and held out the I-Pod to the cluster of rocks. Suddenly, Misery by Maroon 5 started to play.
After a few moments, the rocks started to shift silently. Soon, there was a small triangular crevice in the rocks.
We grabbed our backpacks and went over to peered into the hole. There were steps leading down into complete darkness.
"So, onwards and downwards." I said and we made our way down the steps that led into complete and utter darkness.