ANNABETH
Had I had a better weapon and more energy, I may have been able to stand a chance. But as I looked at the four furies hissing at me and the dust left by the other, I didn't think I had any chance at all.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm my heartbeat. Panic began to flood my system, but panicking wouldn't help me out of this situation. I needed to stay calm and rational to think a way out of this.
An Empousa pounced on me. I dodged out of the way, directing the Empousa to my left to bump into another one. Behind me, Kelli grabbed a hold of my shoulder and I flipped my glass dagger and plunged it into her stomach, keeping a grip on it as I kicked her back.
Another Empousa jumped to attack me on my right, but I ducked, allowing it to fly over me and land on the glassy ground, allowing the shards to scratch her as she slid. I turned to face Kelli, who was now recovering from my attack, but one of the two Empousai earlier had grabbed my arm and kicked my back, forcing me to fall forwards. Mustering as much strength as I could, I flipped her over me as I fell, both of us landing on the glass.
Kelli made her way toward me, and I realized that in the midst of the fight, I lost my glass dagger. I took a handful of gravel and threw it at her face before another Empousa had taken a hold of my forearms, so I couldn't continue.
I struggled to escape out of her grasp. On the plus side, the Empousa below me seemed subdued enough for me not to worry about her.
Kelli chuckled bitterly, wiping the gravel from her face.
I kept trying to get out of the Empousa's grip, but it seemed to me that it wasn't going to happen. My heart beating in my chest and my chest heaving up and down from my laboured breaths, I desperately looked around for any kind of help.
Help.
I remembered. Years ago, Percy had told me about a Titan he had blasted with water from the River Lethe. What was his name? Steve? John?
"Bob," I muttered.
His name was Bob!
"Bob!" I yelled, to the confusion of Kelli and the other Empousa.
Silence.
I was sure I was doomed.
"What's wrong, Annabeth Chase?" Kelli teased. "Trying to—"
A shadow had fallen across where I had been standing, and a deep war cry echoed from above, nearly shaking the ground I had been kneeling on.
Stomp.
I thought I had lost every bit of my sanity.
It wasn't that I was unhappy to see a giant, silvery figure stomp on Kelli—it was just unexpected.
Apparently, the Empousa holding onto me thought so too.
Her grip on me had loosened, allowing me to escape from it. Moving as fast as I could, I took a shard of glass from the ground and threw it at her. It lodged itself in her neck, prompting her to fall back into the ground.
I looked up at the giant figure that had helped me. He seemed to be a Titan with silver hair and eyes in a janitor's uniform. I dug back in my memory, recalling Percy saying something about a kind Titan in the underworld.
That being said, I had never met said Titan.
"Hell—Hello," I croaked out. The janitor knelt beside me, causing me to flinch. He's friendly, I reminded myself.
I hoped.
"Ouchie," the Titan frowned. He tapped the wounds left by the empousa that held me by my arms, and they had miraculously healed. He grinned. "All better!"
"You—you must be Bob," I said.
"Yes!" He cheered. "Yes, that is me! I am Bob! I am helping! I heard my name being called by someone I didn't know, but no command to clean, so I came! I saw you fighting, and I thought maybe you called. People don't normally call unless there's something to clean. Bob, sweep up these bones. Bob, mop up these tortured souls. Bob, a zombie exploded in the dining room."
I should ask Percy about that.
"And then I heard you call! And I thought: adventure! Bob gets to go on an adventure!"
"I—"
"Oh, time to talk later," Bob said, his smile quickly dissipating. "We must go. They are coming. They are watching."
"They?" I asked, before reminding myself of Arachne. "Do you mean Arachne?" I whispered, but Bob didn't answer.
"Bob knows a way," Bob said, ignoring my question. "Come on, friend! We will have fun! We will go on an adventure!"
Bob started walking. While a part of me told me to walk the other way, I figured that he was my only chance out of here alive. I clearly needed some sort of companion or ally here, especially while I didn't have a proper weapon.
Or, at this point, no weapon at all. Following Bob was the best chance I had, so I did.
Meanwhile, while walking, I made a mental note to thank Percy for splashing the Titan with water from the River Lethe. Even a world apart, he was still saving me.
"So," I began, hoping to start a conversation. "How did you get to Tartarus, Bob?"
"I jumped!"
It took my brain a moment to process what he had said. He just decided to jump into Tartarus because… Because what? I'd understand if it had been Percy—at least he knew Percy—but I'm just a stranger to him.
"You jumped," I said, uncertainty coating my voice. "Because I called?"
"Yep!"
Okay then.
"It's okay though. I was tired of sweeping the palace. Come along! We are almost at a rest stop!" He told me, walking a little faster. Which, unfortunately, meant that I was now moving in that odd mix between a jog and a walk.
It's hard to keep in line with a 10 foot Titan, okay?
As I walked, it felt like my stomach was burning with all the acid just sloshing around in it with nothing to break down. My mouth watered at the thought of food, despite my lips being so dry from a lack of water. Wherever Bob was taking me, I hoped that it had water and food.
As if.
I didn't think that there were worse rest stops than the ones that Thalia, Luke and I would pass by when we were homeless and then I went here. At least those terrible rest stops had food and water. It may not have been good food, but there was food, you know?
Wow. I never thought I'd think of when I was homeless as one of the good ol' days just for having resources to fulfil our basic needs.
A chuckle escaped my lips, leaving me so shocked that my hand had flown to my mouth. I pressed my lips into a thin line, trying not to laugh at the whole ordeal. It wouldn't be smart.
Now, walking and suppressing giggles, I was wondering if my brain was being overwhelmed by so many emotions that it resulted to hysteria. That would definitely be something the gods would be surprised about—a daughter of Athena at wit's end that can't stop laughing at everything tragic.
Dismissing the thoughts, I kept my focus on Bob as he led me toward this "rest stop." His janitor's uniform were ripped between his shoulder blades, as if someone had tried to stab him. Cleaning rags stuck out of his pocket. A squirt bottle swung from his belt, and the blue liquid it contained swayed with each step Bob took.
I remembered more about how Percy had met Bob, and I felt my heart sink. They had left Bob in the Underworld to be taken care of now that he was no longer a threat. Persephone promised he would be taken care of. Now, looking at him, I felt like I was looking at some sort of slave. He was obviously being mistreated, and the only thing he seemed to be allowed to do was clean.
No wonder he jumped in here the second I called.
He's not your friend, my mind reminded, shooing away the sinking feeling in my heart. I still had to be careful. Who knows what Tartarus—the place monsters go to regenerate—might do to his memory. I should be ready, just in case he remembers his old identity and turns against me.
Maybe he did that ages ago and he's just leading you to your doom, another voice in my head said. I sighed, hoping it would fly away with my breath. I couldn't be paranoid about Bob right now—I was paranoid enough about every sound I'd hear in the place. If I gave myself another thing to panic about, I had no doubt I would go insane—if I already hadn't. Right now, all I knew was that Bob was helping me. That's all I had to worry about for now. Other concerns can be dealt with later.
Like Arachne.
It seems that my initial thought of her protecting me was false—she seemed to offer no help with the Empousai, if that was her initial plan at all. Still, I knew that she wanted me alive long enough to see Tartarus. It was only a matter of when she'll attack.
I had heard conflicting descriptions of Tartarus—from it being a bottomless pit, to a fortress surrounded by brass walls, to an inverse of the sky. The latter seemed the most accurate, but the more I walked, the more I was convinced that wasn't it.
The ground I walked on seemed like skin, with monsters forming in little pockets (or zits) in it. We had passed one of the "zits" earlier. Inside of it was the tiny half-formed body of a drakon. Bob had speared it without a second thought. It burst in a geyser of steaming yellow slime and he just kept walking.
The more I thought about it, the more I wished I would stop thinking about it. Now I wasn't only paranoid about Arachne, Bob, or the threat of monsters jumping out of nowhere and attacking, but the possibility that what I was talking on was another monster.
It was better than feeling.
"Here," Bob said as he abruptly came to a stop, causing me to nearly trip over my own feet.
We stopped at the top of a ridge. Below them, in a sheltered depression like a moon crater, stood a ring of broken black marble columns surrounding a dark stone altar.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Hermes' shrine," he answered. My eyebrows shot up in surprise. I didn't expect there to be a shrine of any god in Tartarus. Seeing my confusion, Bob decided to elaborate. "It fell from somewhere long ago. Maybe the mortal world. Maybe Olympus. Anyways, monsters steer clear." I nodded. "Mostly."
While I would have preferred the statement without the last word, I figured it was the best we would get in Tartarus.
"How did you know it was here?" I asked.
Bob's smile faded and the life in his silver eyes seemed to vanish. "Can't remember."
Right.
Before Bob was Bob, he had been Iapetus. Like all other Titans, he'd been imprisoned here for eons, so of course he knew the place like the back of his hand.
My heard skipped a beat as I came to my next realization: if he remembered that, what else could he remember?
Not wanting to continue that train of thought, I climbed into the crater and entered the circle of columns. As soon as my foot hit the marble, I collapsed, too tired to take another step.
"You—" I said, in between breaths. Finally, my lungs screamed, space to breathe. "Earlier, you said that 'they are watching.' Who's they?" I asked.
"They are watching, yes. They know you are here. Giants and Titans. The defeated ones. They know," Bob answered.
Brilliant, I thought to myself. Dealing with each Giant and Titan with Percy throughout the years seemed impossible—and that was with Percy and one monster at a time. Now, I don't have the luxury of either.
"Why are we stopping, then?" I asked, getting ready to stand, but my legs groaned with each movement, feeling like they had been filled with sand. "We should keep moving."
"Soon," Bob assured me. "But mortals need rest. Good place here. Best place for…oh, long, long way. I will guard you."
I bit my lips into a line. Being with a Titan was unnerving enough, but trusting that Titan to keep me safe while I rested?
I wished I wasn't so alone. At least then I could come up with a better arrangement.
Still, Bob was right. Mortals needed rest. My entire body felt like it was ready to come apart if I took another step, let alone a couple thousand more. A lack of rest could also be detrimental to your health—mentally and physically. It was bad enough that I had a bad leg and virtually no weapon. I needed to take care of my body as much as I could. It was my best bet out of here alive.
"Okay," I surrendered. Every muscle in my body seemed to rejoice at my mind's submission. "Okay."
"When you wake up, food should be here!" Bob told me, a smile on his face. I couldn't help the smile that appeared on mine.
But as quickly as the smile on my face broke out, it was replaced with a heavy feeling in my chest. My neck felt clogged up and my head started to ache. I was so tired, and so hungry. I didn't know if this feeling of just wanting to cry was coming from being here, being separated from Percy again, or being tired and hungry, or relief at the mention of food.
I dismissed each of those concerns. I couldn't cry right now. I needed to stay focused on the problem at hand. I just needed to stay alive and get to the doors.
"Thank you, Bob," I said. I never thought that I had felt such conviction in my words as much as I did in that moment. I never thought I could in this situation, but I did. Bob saved my life and, on top of that, brought me to a place where I could rest and recuperate—a place I would have likely never run into without him.
Bob smiled, but he didn't say anything. He just kept watch.
I curled up on the marble floor—which, in that moment, I found more comfortable than any bed I had ever slept on in my life—and I slept.