"DINNER!" Something screeched. Instinctively, I raised my dagger and spun around towards the creature. It was the small shy demon from Nyx's mansion.

"Woah woah woah, I'm your mom's delivery man, remember? You don't want to kill me!" I promised.

The demon licked its lips. "I am the goddess of betrayal. I don't care if you work for my mother. I'm hungry."

Oh, well. I guess that was a good enough reason to eat me.

"How did you find me?" I asked. We circled each other as we talked.

"You have a secret. A secret is a form of betrayal. I am the goddess of betrayal, and there aren't many secrets for me to find in Tartarus."

Nyx did not throw you into Tartarus. You ruined you own life, not Night.

My secret.

And now Charlie will die because you didn't tell him. He will die alone at the hands of the Aeternae.

The Aeternae? That was the name of the creatures that had taken Charlie? Wait, if the Arai knew that then they weren't just leaving voices in my head. That mean they actually were in my head. I thought they influenced my own dark thoughts, but I didn't know the name of the monsters that took Charlie. The voices in my head did. The Arai were literally in my head. Not just their curse. The beginnings of another panic attack began to take hold, but another problem revealed itself just in time.

"Now, I shall eat your betrayal!" The goddess lunged forward and I side stepped. I wasn't powerful enough to defeat a goddess. Even if she was an evil minor god that nobody even knew about.

"But it's not a secret! Other people know!" I protested. My parents were there, Casey was there. They knew.

The demon smiled wickedly. "There's another secret. A secret that nobody knows. A juicy delicious secret you haven't even acknowledged." She licked her lips again. Another secret? I didn't have any other secrets. Did I?

Nobody will ever know why you jumped, Jason

Why I jumped. I jumped because of Charlie, because he was falling.

That's not why. Not the whole reason. The reason you jumped is never going to leave you, especially after Charlie Valdez is dead.

You will never be able to forget

You will be here forever

"It was because of Charlie, that was my reason! It's not a secret!" I yelled. The demon reached for me so I slashed at her with my sword. I nearly tripped when my sword sliced cleanly through her. There was a gaping hole in her side from my sword but it didn't stop her. What looked like black vines grew and tightly wound themselves around the wound with a sickening squirting blood sound. Soon enough, she looked just as ugly as she normally did

"Your secret is delicious, I shall feast on it tonight," she hissed, growing closer.

She just had to know my secret, then it wouldn't be a secret and she couldn't eat it. But I didn't understand.

Why are you in this situation? Why have you killed yourself?

The Arai sounded more sarcastic than usual. Guess they inherited a bit of my own personality when they broke into my mind. But their questions got my thinking. Why am I here now? To find Charlie. But why did I need to find Charlie so badly?

The demon goddess raised her hand and I felt myself growing tired. It was a feeling I can only describe as being attacked by a dementor. But instead of happiness, she was taking my life.

"Because I love him!" I confessed. Her hand was still raised, but the pain stopped. It had worked. She hissed in anger and tried again but it didn't work. "I jumped because I love Charlie, and I wasn't going to let him fall in here by himself."

The goddess had gone quiet. She stared at me strangely.

"I love him," I whispered. Charlie and I had been stuck here together for more than six months and there hadn't been a moment that I had doubted this. But I had never said aloud. Or even in my head, just to myself.

The goddess began hissing hungrily as she faded away. She clawed at me, only landing me insignificant cut on my arm before she was gone.