Riley's POV:

Being trapped by anger razor-sharp beaked birds, and having your boyfriend slip through the ground was bad enough, but when Jared and Nico think they can save you, well, you're about as good as a speared demigod.

Nico shouted, "Riley! Just stand still, and no sudden movements!"

I muttered under my breath, "Not going anywhere."

The birds flew down from the sky. They landed on the soft earth, and I wished they had been pulled under instead of Jesse. I really wondered where he was…

Jared was holding a long sword, one that was glowing. Fire was breathing off the metal, scorching the sky. He grinned like Jesse did when he knew he had the upper-hand; I could see the family resemblance. Jared threw his sword like a Frisbee, cutting metal birds in half and in thirds. The rest of the birds squawked in dismay, showing their anger and remorse in their oil-like eyes. Jared yanked the sword out of the air, and hurled it again to the birds. This time, they disintegrated on impact. No freaky birds were left.

Jared looked me into my eyes, and asked, "Where's my brother? He was here, right?"

I looked down at my sneakers. "Jesse was here. H- He tried to stop the birds when a hand reached out of the ground, and… took him under…"

Jared glanced nervously at Nico. "I told you, Nico. Max did strike."

I looked up, tears filling my eyes. "Is Jesse going to die?"

Jared gave me a sorrowing glance. "If he does, we will bring him back."

Jesse's POV:

Max and Jean were shouting at each other, their voices morphing in response. I was trying to calm down, to just breathe. But, I was on the verge of dying and on a cliff. The air pressure was super high, too. Maybe it wasn't just me.

Jean shouted, "Maybe I should just be done with you!"

Max shouted back, "Sure! Go ahead!"

There was a blinding flash of black and red light. Jean stepped out of the raging fire behind him, and said, "Well, Jesse, time to die. And, no one is going to stop me this time."

He grabbed a few knifes to hold me down to the ground. He pierced them through my skin, crushing the bone on the way through. I could hear them screw themselves into the ground. Great, I was going to be tortured, then die slowly. It was a good thing I hadn't asked for super painful.

After Jean knew I was super secured, he left to go get his execution tools. It was basically a knife, sword, machine gun, and anything that was labeled Must Use Caution While Using. Yeah, there was a hairdryer in his kit. I didn't know how he was going to use it to kill me, but hopefully I'd be dead before he started to experiment on me.

I struggled against the knives. No flipping way was I getting out with my hands and feet attached. I grunted in frustration, eventually laying my head down against a hard chunk of rock. My arm was starting to burn, like a fire would. My hands burned also, but when I tried for a flame, I only got a pathetic black swirl.

As I tried to produce a more manly flame, I heard knives cling together. I glanced up to see a bronze knife about twelve inches long, with black and red accents. A metal decoration, something that looked like a black dragon head, was pressed against the tip of the handle. It's 'wings' wrapped around the wearer's hand. Jean was ready.

Jean clucked his tongue at me, in a tsk, tsk sort of way. "Now, Jesse. That's not very safe, now is it? What would happen if gasoline was … accidentally spilled?"

I gave him a cool angry gaze. "You wouldn't risk it, Jean. Using gasoline to kill me, would make a big enough explosion to kill you, too. Think of all the flying wooden pointy sticks in the air…"

Jean shuddered. I'd apparently struck a nerve. "No matter who it kills, it would kill you. That's all I care about. You'll bring the world to it's knees! You'll kill innocents! You… would be the downfall of Olympus, the downfall of human civilization! Do you want that to happen, Jesse?"

No, I didn't. Killing innocent humans and demigods wasn't something I wanted to do. I mean, who would? If my death saved millions of innocent people, then I was all for it.

"How do you know all of this? Are you some vampire/oracle hybrid?" I asked.

Jean rolled his full brown eyes at me. "What do you think this is, The Vampire Dairies? Who am I, Klaus? Oh, and let me guess, you're sweet little Stefan, come to save Elena from death, eh? Life isn't a fantasy, kid. Life is real shit. Shit you have to dig yourself out of with a plastic shovel. Grow up." (I'd watched The Vampire Diaries right before I'd gotten ready to type.)

I snorted, "How do I grow up if your going to kill me?"

Jean narrowed his eyes. "Not my problem." With that, he slid the dragon knife into my chest, piercing my heart.

As I felt the red warm liquid flood onto the floor around me, my gaze drifted to the side of the cliff. There stood Riley, Nico and Photo-Boy - Jared. They all looked shocked, their faces growing pale.

I grimaced in pain as Jean twisted the knife. My could feel my pounding heart start to weaken, start to sputter and cough. I gasped for air like a fish out of water, still struggling against the bonding knives. This was the worst way to die - tortured in front of people I cared about.

I had a feeling, before I passed, that this wasn't over.

My eyes drained of color, and I materialized in front of two glass doors, a huge sign telling me I was at DOA Recording Studios.

Jared's POV:

I watched my younger brother's eyes drain of light as he passed into my father's domain. Anger, sadness and resentment flowed through my veins. My eyes flashed with intense anger, and I yanked my flaming sword from my belt.

I felt myself be taken over by anger. I swirled my sword over my head, and looked up to see a flaming stake. I rushed toward the vampire-killer, and thrust the wood into his chest.

The vampire turned into sparkling dust the moment the wooden tip hit skin. The sparkles dispersed, and I was staring at my newly-dead brother. I gulped down a sob, and knew one thing: I could've saved him. I should have been faster.

Jesse's POV:

I rushed into the department, going right up to a dark man in a suit. When he saw me, his sun-glasses almost fell off his face. He regained his composure, and said, "Oh, um, are you, um, Jesse Dread?" The guy seemed seriously nervous, as if he had just seen a ghost.

I looked around, and saw all of the wispy mist-like people idling around the main entrance. Well, um, this is awkward.

I turned back to the man, and said, "Yeah."

The guy started ushering me toward the elevator, while pushing and shoving out other ghosts. When we were the only two in the elevator, he replied coolly, "Would you like some chocolate-flavored ambrosia? I swear over my dead body, it's the best stuff since BC."

I said, "Uh, no thanks. I don't think ambrosia could bring me back to life."

The man looked at me with brown eyes. "So, how'd you die?"

"Um," I started, because, all of a sudden, I couldn't remember. "I… was… stabbed..?"

The man shriveled up his features, and said, "Ouch. Well, don't worry. We have the best Elysium dorms; they're even better than Olympus's! I can hook you up with room 212. It's your brother's old dorm. You'll be staying with Luke Castellan and Charles Beckendorf. They love newbies."

The guy, who's name was Charon, told me about a bunch of discounts on the rooms, and how we got this awesome channel on the plasmas that showed what was happening in real life. I'd have to find my mom on there first; she'd be heart-broken to hear of my death. I wished that dead people could Iris Message, because I'd ring my mom up this very second.

Charon dropped me off by a bronze door. When he left, I knocked on the door, and someone's gruff voice yelled, "Shut up! People are trying to sleep!" I really doubted they were sleeping in till noon, so I used the little key to opened the door.

I was right. A twenty year-old with sandy-blonde hair laid on his stomach, his fingers a blur on the videogame controller. He barely glanced up, and said, "You're our new roommate?"

I took inventory of all the crumpled bags of chips, and wadded up candy wrappers. Even I wasn't this much of a pig. "Um, yeah. Jesse Dread, nice to meet you-"

I was interrupted by the guy screaming, "Die Zombie scum! Die, die, die!" He pounded on his videogame controller, eventually hurling it at the wall. He looked up at me long enough that I could see bright blue eyes. "Sorry about that little outburst; I was on the last level. I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes." He said his father's name with fondness. I shook his outstretched hand.

"Are you Jared's little brother? Tell him he owes me fifty bucks," Luke said, as he walked away toward a dark mahogany door with a Caution sign. He knocked loudly on it, and said, "Beckendorf! Jared's little brother is our new roommate! Wake up!" Maybe I wasn't so right after all about nobody sleeping.

I heard someone unlock the door, and a bleary-eyed dark-skinned sixteen year-old scowled at Luke. "Dude, let me rest in peace," was all he said.

Luke rolled his eyes, and turned to face me. "Beck went out partying all night at the Elysium Club with his girlfriend yesterday." He got in closer to me and whispered, "I think they drank a bit too much of the clubs' happy juice."

Beckendorf gave Luke a shove, and said, "We only drank a little bit. It's not like you haven't gotten drunk. I know Jared hasn't." He turned to me, and gave me a warm smile. "I'm Charles Beckendorf, but you can call me Beckendorf. By the family resemblance, I'd think you're Jared's little brother."

I nodded, and gave a nervous laugh. "Is that how everybody knows me? 'Jared's Little Brother'?" They both gave nervous laughs in return, that only got me to thinking about how my rep was going down.

Luke hopped over the couch, and laid down on it in a relaxing pose. "So, Jesse," Luke drawled. "Would you like to see how everyone's taking the news of your death? Want me to check your mom, brother, father-"

"My girlfriend, Riley Catcher. Could you find her?" Luke nodded, and scooted up into a sitting position. Beckendorf sat beside me on the couch, as Luke clicked a red Play button on the remote.

An image of Riley showed on the screen. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she seemed to be saying something. She was wearing a black dress, with an orange camp sweatshirt over it. She wiped some mascara onto her sleeve, and gulped down a sob. Her hair was a blonde tangled mess, and I wished I was there comforting her.

The camera swiveled toward my brothers. Nico and Jesse both wore matching black tuxedos, and shiny shoes. My father sat beside them, his pale face down and depressed. My mother was on the opposite side of Jared, sitting next to Jeremy (funny, when I'm dead, I call him by his real name). Brad was behind Riley, and he walked up to the podium. I realized, this was my funeral.

All of the Camp Half-Blood campers stood to the side, and Chiron clopped up to the podium after Brad said some words. Chiron looked saddened as Brad helped him bring out a black skull-and-cross bones flag. I watched Riley take a match and burn the flag. I could hear everybody crying as I was declared dead.

Hades and Jared, along with the help of Nico, brought up a black neon spray-painted coffin with my name engraved into the side. It was shiny and black, if I'd been there I would've been able to see my reflection.

Percy and Annabeth both stood up, and placed some purple roses onto the coffin after my mother and brothers had sprinkled flower petals on it. Riley had a handful of carefully arranged red roses, and she placed them on the top of the black box. Then, they slowly lowered it into the ground.

White fancy script flowed onto the screen: Jesse Dread's Funeral; October 23, 2011.

"It's been two months already?" I asked incredulously.

Luke nodded sadly. "Time flies when you're dead. That's why Jared thought you were two when he came back to life. He thought you were still a baby; not so much, right?"

I stared at the screen intensely. I couldn't believe it. I stood up, and whirled around to face my roommates. "Is there a way to get out of this place?" I asked sharply, my eyes glancing up and down the room.

Luke gave me a Don't be stupid look with his blue eyes, and Beckendorf was giving me a concerned look. I rolled my eyes, and ran over to the door. I tried yanking it open, but with my luck, I ended up sprawled on the floor. I stood back up, and punched the door. "Why won't it open!" I yelled.

Beckendorf stood up and said, "It's for safety measures! They don't want ghosts roaming the halls!"

I turned back to face him. "But, I'm the son of the Dead. Doesn't that make me special or something?"

Luke laughed. "You don't get a special treatment just because you're dad's Hades. It's like, if I wanted to go through Olympus mail, just because my dad's Hermes. They really don't care who you are; they care what you are."

I felt my brows crinkle together. "What?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Like, if you had a hero's death, you get sent here. If you had a normal death, you get the Asphodel fields, and if you get, I don't know, killed in a gang-thing because you killed somebody, you get the Fields of Punishment. It all depends on your life before you died."

I sighed. "But, I didn't die a hero's death! I wasn't a hero; if I was, I should be on the list of The Most Pathetic Heroes To Ever Walk the Earth."

Luke grinned smugly. "The Stoll brothers are almost done printing that list out."

I looked around, and then got an idea. Bones.

I hopped over the couch, and yelled, "Bones, come here, hellhound!"

A big black Newfoundland dog appeared in a puff of black smoke. His red eyes were big and taking inventory of the room; his sleek black fur was longer and blacker; and his tail whipped behind him.

I smiled, and dropped to my knees, hugging the old mutt in the middle of the room. Bones licked my face, and barked, "I thought you were dead."

I glanced up to his eyes, and said, "I am dead. Bones, do you think there's a way you could take me to Riley?"

Bones gave me a wolfish grin. "Sure, and let's that try to fall onto our butts this time."

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