Chapter 2: Terminal Velocity

Percy's Pov:

Hesiod said that it would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus, had it been days, hours, minutes I couldn't be sure. The only thing I could see was darkness, the only sound I could hear was the rush of wind. My arm ached I think during my fall I dislocated my shoulder, that was something I needed to fix and soon. As I fell, I realized the vast hopelessness I faced, I was falling into the literal Hell, where I would have to fight my way through Gaia's elite forces to get to the doors of death, then close them and escape back to the mortal world, back to Annabeth.

I began to realize a flaw in my plan, if I continued to fall at this speed, I would become a demigod pancake in impact. I needed something to slow my fall, I began to wonder if I could fashion a parachute out of my shirt no matter if it was riddled with holes, that's how desperate I was.

Suddenly, the chute I'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below

me, Percy could see the bottom. For a moment he was too stunned to think properly. The entire

island of Manhattan could have fitted inside this cavern – and he couldn't even see its full extent.

Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape at least what he could see of it was.

rocky black plains punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To Percy's left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

I looked around for anything that wouldn't kill me on impact. Then I saw it, a glittering black ribbon carved its way through the black landscape, I hadn't even noticed it on first glance because the black landscape and black river blended together well.

As I fell, I spread out my body like a skydiver, letting myself fall towards the river. When I was above it, I tried to control the water, but it didn't work. fear and anger rose with in me and I gave a mighty shout as the river finally obeyed my will rising up to catch me.

The impact didn't kill me, but the cold nearly did, the oxygen was shocked out of my lunges, the rivers current pulled me down. I tried to breathe only to inhale the black water. Once I reached the bottom the voices started, "What's the point of struggling? they told her. You're dead anyway. You'll never leave this place." In that moment I realized how right they were, my determination to survive momentarily vanished and I gave in to death, then I heard a different voice, one that filled me with hope and power,

"seaweed brains get out of the water." My eyes snapped open and called the water to push me up, and this time I wouldn't take no for an answer a whirlpool pushed me to the surface, and I began to swim towards the shore ignoring the pain in my shoulder. I pushed myself out of the water exhausted, I winced as my palms burned on the ground, I looked down to realize that the riverbank was composed of small pieces of black glass shards, a few of which were still imbedded in my hands. Plucking them out and standing up I began to look around, I didn't know which direction I needed to go to get to the doors of death, but the black-glass beach stretched inland about fifty yards, then dropped off the edge of a cliff. From where he stood, Percy couldn't see what was below, but the edge flickered with red light as if illuminated by huge fires. I decided that was a good direction to go. But A hundred feet away, a familiar-looking baby-blue Italian car had crashed headfirst into the sand. It looked just like the Fiat that had smashed into Arachne and sent her plummeting into the pit.

I set off towards the car thinking that I could raid it for supplies, but as I approached, I noticed several things. One of the car's tires had come off and was floating in a back-water eddy of the Cocytus. The Fiat's windows had shattered, sending brighter glass like frosting across the dark beach. Under the crushed hood lay the tattered, glistening remains of a giant silk cocoon – the

trap that Annabeth had tricked Arachne into weaving. It was unmistakably empty. Slash marks in the

sand made a trail downriver ... as if something heavy, with multiple legs, had scuttled into the

darkness.

I opened the car door and climbed inside, I ended up finding a bunch of helpful things, a backpack, a few water bottles, a multi tool, a pair of gloves, first aid kit, and duct tape. All in all, I was psyched, I silently thanked the owner of the car and threw all of my supplies into the backpack before setting it down on the ground.

My arm was still dislocated, and my palms were bleeding worse than they should have been.

So first things first, the time had come to set my shoulder, without anyone else to do it I figured running into something shoulder first might do the trick. So I charged at the car and rammed my shoulder into the side of the car, pain flared up my shoulder and into my torso but it didn't pop into place, my eyes watered as the realization that I would have to do it again sunk in. so I charged again this time slamming into the car harder, but this time a satisfyingly deep CRACK told me I had succeeded, it hurst so much but as soon as my shoulder was back in place it started to feel slightly better.

I had yet to make it to the cliff, but when I did, I sure didn't expect to see what I did. Percy was sure he'd signed his own death warrant. The cliff dropped more than eighty feet. At the bottom stretched a nightmarish version of the Grand Canyon, a river of fire cutting a path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces. Even from the top of the canyon, the heat was intense. The chill of the River Cocytus hadn't left Percy's bones, but now his face felt raw and sunburnt. Every breathing took more effort, as if his chest were filled with Styrofoam peanuts. The cuts on her hands bled more rather than less and his shoulder which had started to feel better began to ache worse than ever.

Then I spied a to a tiny fissure running diagonally from the edge to the bottom. "I might be able to climb down that" I thought allowed, but before I could try, I heard a noise behind me. As quick as I could I spun riptide elongating in my hand and swung, I had a brief glimpse of the horrific face of Arachne before she exploded into a cloud of dust. On the ground where she stood was a huge pile of spider silk. That made me even more hopeful, I might be able to use that as a rope to reach. It could have taken me 4 hours or ten minutes; time was hard here.

After I was finished tying the woven silk to the car frame and throwing it over the side, I realized that it was about ten feet short. I would have to drop the rest of the way, in preparation I put some gauze on my still bleeding palms and then I put on the gloves I had scavenged from the car. Climbing down was slow going Percy had to be careful not to tear the silk on the sharp obsidian above. Once I reached the end of the rope, I dropped the final ten feet landing hard stumbling.

The heat of the river was very intense, blisters, boils, and burns had started to form on my arms and my breathing was becoming more and more labored. Percy suddenly realized the air was poisonous, noticing that the river flows down further into the pit, unfortunately he decided that that was the best way to go, the doors of death would be in the most dangerous part of this place.

As I continued to walk, about a mile into my trek I heard voices, I quickly ducked behind a rock, effectively only hiding his body. Whatever they were might eb able to smell him, I could only hope that he stench of Tartarus would cover his demigod scent. I heard the scap clunk scrap clunk, of footsteps as they came up-river, the pace of the uneven rhythmic didn't quicken so he could only assume that he was safe for now, as they walked towards my hiding spot I skirted around my boulder until I was behind them. By this point I was close enough to hear what they were saying,

"soon?" one asked, her voice raspy and jagged,

"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl getting exasperated with her friends at the mall she continued, "You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here." I knew that voice, it was one from long ago. Keli the Empousai, the one who had twisted Luke to keep him loyal to Kronos. I peeked out from behind my hiding spot to see maybe half a dozen others following her.

"I wonder," said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first, "if perhaps you do not know the

way, young one."

"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," said the mall girl. "When's the last time you escaped too the

mortal world? I was there a couple of years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're

facing up there. You don't have a clue!"

"The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" shrieked a fourth voice.

More hissing, scuffling and feral moans – like giant alley cats fighting. At last the one called

Serephone yelled

"Enough!" The scuffling died down. "We will follow for now," Serephone said. "But if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of Gaia "

"I don't lie!" snapped the mall girl."Believe me, I've got good reason to get into this battle. I have

some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. Just leave one special morsel for me

– the one named Percy Jackson. Believe me,"said the mall girl. "Gaia has called us, and we're going to have so much fun."

I considered my chances of taking them all, one on five, and empusa were very dangerous to men, they were very powerful charm speakers. When I was fifteen I had almost been killed by two of them, I know I had grown up and I was a lot stronger than I used to be but still I would have to face three times as many.

Then I realized that they must be going to the doors of death, I might be slow but I always get there in the best bed was to follow them for as long as I could, I didn't like the idea of hiding from six powerful monsters for three days as I followed them to my certain doom, but I had to if I ever wanted to see Annabeth again.