A Whole New Beginning

Chapter Nine

A dark figure stood in the shadows, watching the demi-gods clutch each other as they fell down into the pit. With a backwards glance to his prisoner, he laughed. It had all been so much easier this time, a this time, he got to stay in his own form, that had waited or him for so long down here in Tartarus. He was so much more comfortable that way.

He walked back to his prisoner, the young demi-god he'd had his helpers take. He was lying there, chained to the board, covered in his own blood and vomit. His scars were hidden, and when the dark figure went to the prisoner, he flinched and tried to hide from the torturers hand. The figure laughed, the slapped the demi-god across the face, on of the nicest things he had done.

"Time for the water," mused the figure, and his prisoner, young Perseus, furrowed his eyebrows. He was brought over to a glass container of water. Percy felt his broken bones shift as they carried him. He resisted the temptation to scream. It would bring his torture endless pleasure.

With confusion, Percy looked to the container of water. But he could breath underwater. With a rough hand, his head was submerged into the water. It was freezing, and with a shiver, Percy took a deep breath. Immediately, his lings filled with water, and for the first time in his life, Percy felt what it was like to drown. He kicked and struggled against the hand pushing him down, but it just pushed harder. He forced his eyes open, and saw that the blood had washed off of him, and the water was completely red.

With his last bit of air, he kicked again, and was brought up from the water and dropped on the the stone floor, landing on his broken arm, which he cradled gently. He chocked and sputtered, water trowing itself from his mouth, grabbing at his throat, swearing and praying that he would never take air for granted again. He rocked on the floor, his tears finally coming to his eyes.

With a sharp kick in the head from his torturer, Percy was unconscious. He lay on the floor, slick with his own blood, soaking wet, the brand of his torturer cruelly engraved into his chest.

A golden scythe.

In the pit, it was ear-splitting loud, the air filled with screams and cries and shouts of pain and horror, so much unlike the quiet, black fog that they had endured just minutes before. The four demi-gods kept hugging, their legs shaking and breathing hard.

With a shuddering gasp, Annabeth broke free from the tight grasp of her friends. With a sob, she fell to the rough, tar-like ground and curled up.

The tears that she had been holding back since the meeting in the rec room came out of hiding, and she felt like a complete idiot crying on the floor to Tartarus.

She felt someone kneel next to her. The lingering scent of Cass's strawberry shampoo wafted through her nose, telling her who was there.

"Come on, Annie," she said sweetly, using Nico's nick-name for her. "Everything will be alright. We just gotta keep going."

With a tear filled nod from Annabeth, Cass helped her up. Annabeth avoid Nico and Thalia's eye.

"We should go," said Nico nervously, glancing around. "Someone was bound to see us fall."

The demi-gods scouted around, the blackness of the pit not helping them at all.

"Guys, I think I found something." Cass's voice floated over. "A tunnel, or something."

Nico, Thalia and Annabeth joined her. Cass pointed down the tunnel. After a few feet, it split into four different ones. Nico gasped. He knew about these tunnels. But of he told them, they wouldn't go in, and they had to, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Dead and alive, unite together, Search alone, in the nether," recited Thalia. "We gotta split up."

"I'll take the far left," said Cass, a little too quickly, her adrenaline pumping.

"Far right," said Nico.

"I'll go beside Cass," said Annabeth, and Thalia nodded to the only tunnel left. With short nods to each other, they split up and went into their separate tunnels.

Mere seconds into the tunnel, Annabeth turned to go back, but there was no exit. Only three other tunnels. She blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes, but it was no hallucination. The exit was gone; she was on her own.

With a sigh, she pulled out her dagger, the bronze glinting in the darkness. She turned back the way she'd been facing when she entered, and sprinted down the tunnel.

Cass ran into her tunnel, not looking back, a certain feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins as she felt her hair bounce against her back as she ran. She ran with her bow in her hand, and arrow positioned down, ready for anyone or anything to attack. The tip of the arrow gleamed, and Cass felt her heart beat faster and faster as she ran down the halls like she knew where she was going. Nothing could stop her.

The tunnels were quiet, save for the thundering of her big black combat boots and her loud breathing as she paced herself, and a small part of her wondered why it was so silent, but that thought was pushed away by the demi-god fighting instincts in her, the godly blood the ran through her veins. She bounced on heels as she ran and a wicked smile, almost dangerous, spread across her face.

Aside from children of Aphrodite, Cass knew that children of Apollo were considered the weakest. Because they fought away from the war. Because they had behind their bows and shot from above. But Cass knew differently. It took courage. It took strength. It took aim and patience and precise training. As she ran in the tunnel, feeling her heart beat, she wished her father could she her. He knew he would be proud. Because here she was, making history, putting a child of Apollo on the map, writing the story of Cassandra Alicia Summers, daughter of Apollo, and explorer of Tartarus. And it felt good. Because she knew that this was what she was made for.

Thalia gasped in surprise and confusion the moment she stepped into the tunnel. Because it wasn't a dingy old tunnel anymore. It was a dingy old hallway, one that was way too familiar. It was the hall in a house she knew. The stupid, ugly house that she had lived in before she met Luke.

Like she was in a dream, she walked from room to room, peeking in her door and seeing her old toys and soft animals lined up on her bed, like they had been when she was seven.

The familiar bumping and laughing sound came from her mother's room, only now she knew what it was, unlike when she was seven, so young and naive.

With a shake of her head she was back in the kitchen, broken bottles covered the floor and the lingering smell of alcohol filled Thalia's nostrils.

The front door opened, and Thalia ran into the hall to see who it was. It was her father

"Dad?" asked Thalia, her chest pounding, but it wasn't Lord Zeus anymore. It was Annabeth. Then Percy. Then Grover, Nico, Cass, Rachel, Travis, Conner, her mother, Katie, Pollux, Castor, Chiron, Phoebe, Bianca, then the twelve Olympians gods, then Luke. Thalia's eyes widened with horror and fear. Where was she?

"Join me, Thals. Come on. You know you want too," whispered Luke softly to her, lovingly.

Thalia shook her head violently, and Luke produced Annabeth's dagger, covered in blood. "That's was Annie did."

And Thalia screamed.

In his own tunnel, Nico heard a female scream. His heart jumped, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it.

He had heard rumors about these tunnels by prisoners who had plead guilty in front of his father after being down here.

They were enchanted, each of them different. One showed you your past mixed with your worst nightmare. One twisted you mind, driving you insane. One showed you your fatal flaw in a way you couldn't resist. And one pushed you into a death match with Tartarus himself, with only those you've lost to help.

If you survived, or could think enough to get out, every curse ended, and the tunnels came together, and Nico remembered something about rosebushes. The roses took you wherever you wanted to go. Anywhere in the world.

Nico had no idea which one was which, but he was certain the scream came from who ever had chosen the tunnel of you past. He'd heard that that one was the worst.

He was worried about himself, but about Annabeth, too. Nico knew that she wouldn't be able to last long in these tunnels.