The House of Hades

Chapter 11: One More Death. . .

Percy's POV:

The spider lunged toward us. I grabbed Annabeth and shoved her to the side, but didn't have enough time myself to duck. The spider slammed into me, throwing me high into the air, then crashed onto the sharp rocks. I could feel the rocks' sharp edges breaking my skin open, cutting deep into the tissue. I could hear Annabeth's shriek against my eardrums.

"PERCY!"

The air was punched out of me. My sword landed between my divided legs, just below my "sensitive place" as my stepfather would say. I took in a shaky breath and climbed to my feet, groaning as I pulled Riptide from his place. If my sword just landed a half an inch closer, I shuddered and pulled my mind from the sickening possible reality.

I looked up and saw Arachne go towards Annabeth, drool coming out of her mouth. Annabeth cried out and slammed her body to the right, pulling up at the last second into a roll. The spider hit the wall and crumbled to the ground, shaking its head as it tried to get back up. Annabeth ran toward the darkness, bending down and picking up. She spun around and tried to limp toward me. Then I saw the spider turn around and started to try to get Annabeth.

"Annabeth!" I yelled at her.

She twisted around, cried out, and limped/ran even harder. I knew she hated spiders, but this was horrible. How could we kill the beast without getting us hurt at all? The spider hissed as she started to chase Annabeth. The ground shook as the spider's legs hit the ground. Percy grabbed his fallen sword and ran after the monster.

It was dark, and I could barely see what was going on around me. All I could see was Annabeth's glowing blonde hair and the reflecting light of the dagger.

"Come back to me," Arachne hissed, "you can't run from me!"

Annabeth once again cried out as she tripped over a rock. She rolled on the ground, hit her broken leg on a different rock, and just laid there. I screamed for her as the spider loomed over her. Then Annabeth made her move so good I will forever be impressed with her. The spider loomed over her, putting Annabeth into the shadow. She stuck, twisting her upper body to face Arachne. With dagger in hand, she stabbed it.

Arachne screamed and stumbled back, possibly cursing, in an unknown language. Dark liquid streamed down her back and onto the different parts that belonged to spiders. For some reason I couldn't remember what made the back ends of the regular spider.

"You will pay for this, daughter of Athena!" Arachne screamed.

From the rigid position of Annabeth's seeable body, I could tell that Annabeth had lost all sense of control. Her body shook and I heard the clap of metal against the ground. The spider woman continued to scream in pain and stumble around. I took my opening and ran toward Annabeth. I slid underneath the spider's legs and got to her. Annabeth had this look as though she had loss all the sense of sanity she had.

I grabbed her hard and forced her to her feet. Annabeth only trembled against me, shaking so hard as though she had hypothermia. I could distantly hear the spider slowly stop talking in her language.

"Annabeth," I breathed.

She gripped me hard, squeezing my midsection, and started to cry. Then I glanced up. The spider was coming toward us once again, her ugly face with a pissed off expression. Guess she wouldn't be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon with that horrible looking body. Designers wouldn't be able to do anything with the spider legs than the midsection worse than my mom. But- I hate to be rude- it was so true.

"Come on!" I yelled.

I twisted Annabeth and started to run with her. With a fluid motion of my body, I lowered my lower half and snatched the blade with a sticky black blood on it. Annabeth was dragging us both behind, stumbling over rocks. I twisted around, stuck the blade in my mouth, and grabbed Annabeth. In another fluid motion I had her in a bridal position as the spider continued to go after us. I ran with everything in me, which I have to say is fast.

The sharp rocks bit into my feet hard and tried to attack me. Annabeth was still shaking in my arms, but she was also crying hard on my neck. I could hear the spider screaming behind me, the ground vibrating. Suddenly I had a strong feeling on how Alex was trained at the camp.

Suddenly, there was pain ripping my spine apart. I yelled out in shock and then screamed in pain. I felt as though I had a sword take out half of my spine. Annabeth sailed out of my arms and landed a few feet ahead of me, rolling before coming to a stop.

"Percy!" She shrieked.

I fell to my knees, my stomach rocking inside. The pain, I felt it before. The feel of my body losing itself, the feel of emptiness before it was taken to the feeling of a deep pit was forming itself into me.

It was the feeling I got when I found out Alex died.

I couldn't breathe.

I could see the darkness staring to attack me.

Annabeth screamed, her cries slowly being lost in my leaving body.

So this is what it feels like when you die.

Then everything went dark.