Chapter 5
Sleep
AN: shout out to the 5 to 10 people who have actually read chapters 1-4! Also In this Annabeth likes Percy from somewhere in the start. If you didn't notice the slight detail changes. Also, also try to guess who the mysterious character is (shown later) and how he knows Luke is bad. Also, also, also I use a mix of movie lore and book lore to make a semi canon part in this book. It gets really off topic too. Now read on .
I felt like there was greek fire in my stomach. A god has already caught on that I work with Kronos. I hope he doesn't tell the olympians if he isn't one. I had already forgot half of them in my nervousness.
"Annabeth, this may be a bigger issue than I originally thought. We need Percy right?" I said as Annabeth's eyes welled up
"He can't be dead, maybe a hostage, or he killed it. I don't know! He has to be alive!" Annabeth said somewhat loudly.
"Shhhhh! Annabeth we can't speak so loudly about that stuff in public." I said as several people shot us glances. One person said they would even pay for our food. As to not draw more attention, we accepted their offer and left. It was getting dark outside already.
"Wow, I didn't know mortals even had any kindness left." I said
"They don't, that person did that so their friends would think they are nicer, and start to get a better reputation." Annabeth said.
"Your creepy. Can you guess what I'm thinking." I thought of a cold coke in a can.
"Coke in a can." Annabeth knew.
"How do-" I started but was interrupted "You are easy to guess" Annabeth was scary. I saw someone I didn't recognize heading towards us. Always a bad thing.
"Annabeth let's go." I said not wanting to use my sword. I dragged her down an alley and looped around the building. The person turned towards us like the could smell, us. They probably could actually. We ran into some guy's house and slam the door shut locked it, ran to all the other doors and windows and locked them. There wasn't anyone hear, but monsters usually unlock doors in a snap. It was taking these ones some time though. I could hear something in the front door.
"Annabeth front door!" I whispered as loudly as I dared.
"Come on! We just want to sell some stuff to you. Do you have a problem with that!" an unknown voice yelled from outside. I tried to nod my head to the backdoor. Annabeth mouthed something like They want your head? Or maybe They ate your lead? This is gonna be an issue. I walked towards the back door hoping Annabeth would follow. Thankfully she did. We walked out back and saw them trying a gate in the yard. We jumped the fence opposite the gate and ran as far as fast as we could. Turns out monsters aren't as slow (or dumb) as they seem at first. These ones gave up the act and ran at us. Two of them
"Annabeth don't follow me. Once we deal with these guys head over to the casino right in front of us!" I said pointing to the brightly colored building with flashing lights. Annabeth got sassy "That's not a casino! That is a hotel! You need to lear-" She was cut off by a gunshot. Right between us. I went off down an alley. I heard one following me. I risked a glance back, he was gaining really fast. Why a gun not a bow? I had to face him, but were they truly monsters or were they mortals. Something smacked my foot into the wall. I stumbled, but didn't fall. I looked around. Fence to one side empty path the other or building in front. I heard loud stomping and saw Annabeth running with the second one behind her. Neither look like monsters, but looks can be deceiving. I tried to jump the fence, but they one chasing me grabbed me. I struggled barely holding on. My entire arm flaring in pain. My hand slipped a little. I swung my foot around and kicked my attacker in the face. I also managed to twist my arm off the fence and came crashing down on my face. My nose hurt badly and my head was throbbing. They dragged my head up one asked "where is your money." after finding none in my wallet. I had stuffed all my cash into my shoe
"Kid, give us your money. We will let you go and we pretend nothin' ever happened here." Annabeth's attacker said. That means they are mortal. They dropped my head, but I managed to keep it raised
"We just used all our money at the burger shop." Annabeth said. They kicked her.
"We know your lying to us. Someone paid for your food and that someone wasn't you!" My pursuer said. They were outside when we exited weren't they? How could they know? I grabbed for my bag, but they pushed it away.
"Your money in there kid. We can get it for you. He he." He chuckled
"No you can't it's in a mini safe that only I know." I said weakly. Voice slightly raspy from the pain.
"Look for the mini safe." one said as the other opened the bag. For some odd reason he threw my swords scabbard out for no reason. Right at me along with all my other junk. As quickly as I could I grabbed for it when he stepped on my hand.
"Nuh-uh." he said. I got them mixed up by now. Out of nowhere he fell over, his massive body teetering before slumping on the wall. His friend oblivious to his friends nap-nap time and still searching for money suddenly got his head smashed in my backpack. I saw a shadow, well not black more navy blue flip him over with the rest of my bag spilling out. I grabbed my sword and charged him. He blocked the shadows attack, but I smashed his head with the butt of my sword. Apparently this shadow can't tell the difference between victim and not victim as he used a sword to attack me. I parried it's attack, pushed it back and tried to knee him in the gut, but it jumped away before I could strike him.
"What do you want!" I yelled at it. It was still for the first time. Humanoid, definitely not mortal though.
"I want this world to be safe." It said through a mask. It was impossible to identify the voice. It wasn't very clear at all and I could barely tell what it said. It lunged at me and I smacked the sword away before it could hit me. My sword suddenly a little brighter than a grey. Glowing faintly. I ran at him sword above my head as he smacked my sword before I even lowered it a bit. To stay holding it I tipped over. Why that is a bad idea. I can't attack at all. Defense is now weaker, and I'm on the floor. I can't back up. If he wanted be could just smack me down until I finally failed to block his attack. I quickly deflected a soft strike, rolled away and got to a kneeling position before it got me in a lock. I pushed as best I could, but it was way stronger. I was back to building and slowly standing when someone clubbed it from behind in the head. Annabeth
"What took you so long," I asked her.
"I went to sleep when I hit the floor." Annabeth replied
"Good that you can sleep when we may have died at any moment in time. That's fine you can sleep in life threatening situations. Are you gonna sleep through the apocalypse." I said. Sirens sounded. The police always have to wait until after we won to show up. In my case that is good. Bad now because I have to be fast. We stuffed everything into our bag and ran. I kept my sword by my side. I snapped my fingers and suddenly my sword was transparent to me and invisible to mortals. The officers walked to us. One of them an older man. He stared at me for a while before approaching me.
"Aren't you that kid I said I would escort to your parents like 11 years ago." the officer asked. The memory flashed in my mind "Where is your mom? Or Pa?" He asked in a weird accent. Pa does he mean dad?
"My mom is just over there," I said pointing the wrong way "And my dad died in a car accident before I was born." The guy shot me a pitying glance.
"Want me to escort you there kiddo," Police guy asked. This was the same officer from before. I snapped my fingers using the mist
"You do not recognize me." I said. His eyes lost focus for a second before returning to Luke.
"Where you involved in this incident young man?" he asked. I snapped again and said "you do not want to question me." His eyes lost focus again as he turned away.
"I feel like a jedi telling people what they do and don't want to do." I told Annabeth.
"It is quite exhilarating isn't it," she replied, "that is why you have to be careful how much you do it. Especially since mortals will notice if someone forgets large pieces of there memory." That was a bit scary to me. We walked in silence after I realized my mistake. Some other officer would have realized he came to talk to me, but didn't question me. After a long silence I finally asked it, "Are the cops going to want us as suspects or witnesses." Annabeth probably knew the answer and that is why she probably didn't respond. I stumbled in a hotel, bought a room, and crashed more like a bomb than a man because I woke up in a dream world made out of bombs. Sounds weird, feels weird, weird, 3 more weirds. Yeah about usual. Of course they suddenly explode I start running, but I know it is hopeless. I saw an exit. Right before I get there the shadow appears out of nowhere and kicks me back into the bombs which sent me back at him. He turned into wisps of purple smoke and I went straight through the big metal door that said exit. I burned all over and I was hurting in a dream. Man, this is really bad. Only someone powerful with the mist could break barriers like reality and dream. Not even most gods could. Apparently the one I was fighting hired someone or was one of the few that could break the barriers. Or I just hadn't woken up yet. It took me a second to focus my vision on… nothing (or everything if you get technical) just a truly black world. I stumbled around and my leg gave out
"OW!" I yelled as I landed on something hard. I heard my knee pop. I felt something cut my arm as a very recognizable voice started talking
"I know what you will start, I know how it will end. Traitor." It was the shadow for sure. Definitely a him. 100%. Also it knew I work with kronos. I felt liquid dripping from my shoulder.
"You will have to suffer the pain of every death. Nothing is eternal, not gods, not monsters, not the underworld, not our world, not demigods." It said. Very hard to describe it's voice besides raspy. "So maybe your mortality will end you before I'm done with you."
"You are the traitor!" I said trying to sound brave, but failed miserably as my voice came out squeaky. The room lightened to a slightly lighter color. I started to run away from it, but just appeared right in front of it. My level of fear was rising. I was trapped in here with this thing. I can't run from it, I don't have a weapon, I could try to fist fight, but he has an advantage with his sword. Suddenly the dream was gone, but I still wasn't awake. I could see little, white particles swirling around me. It looked like night, but I couldn't tell because the particles around me. The ground was a dark, green grass moving in the wind. It was silent here. This might be torture from the shadow. Showing me the world. One last perfect spot, before he started toying with me again. The shadow could have done worse. As soon as I thought that cracks appeared in the grass. Oddly, just the grass not the ground. It started spreading to the ground. Is this just a jinxing box. This is just so rude. At least it wasn't burning. The cracks got wider as lava set the grass on fire and I was on a little piece of land. Well, the lava wasn't going to overflow or anything. Right? Then the lava started to rise.
"Oh come on. I just need to stop thinking." I said out loud. Of course that doesn't work because my thoughts run wild and crazy. Cows started to charge me. A poodle (scary beast) tried to drink lava and spit it at me. It got what it deserved. Then ice cream fell from the sky, crushed me, so I start to eat it. The ice cream tastes bad (how is this possible!) and I start to push it instead. Then the one thought I can hold on too, actually remember thinking it is, "show the god." Everything went dark. I could feel the ice cream, hear the cows charging, could smell burning grass, and taste poodle hair, (it was very crispy. Not exactly sanitary though) but could see nothing. Total blindness.
"You asked to see me. Except you can't see me, you can't touch me, you can't smell me, I'm happy to say you can't taste me, you can't hear me. Your brain can only partly understand me, you can grasp the idea."
"That would make you nothing." I said.
"I guess, but that is not what I am, notice I said you. Humans can't. Other gods can. Only one human can and that isn't you." it said. Which human though.
"Well, I have more important business than you right now, good night, or bad night for you I guess unimportant." it said. I woke up for real this time.
My head was cold and sweaty. Still dark outside though I saw some people walking about. A large flashing billboard was selling a movie, coming out tomorrow. Which was june 18. Time has really passed hasn't it.
"Annabeth wake up," I said, "It's pretty early, but we have to do this in 4 days." When I said that she bolted upright.
"We have to hurry then, the underworld entrances are closed on the summer solstice. So we really only have 3 days to get the thunderbolt," she said super fast. It's been so long since we talked about our mission I forgot what we had to do. The last time was… I remember it like 2 days ago, but it happened 2 weeks before the solstice. June 7. I don't remember the last 9 days.
"Don't forget we are were we are supposed to be. Hollywood can't be too far from here." I said still confused, "Annabeth do you remember the last 9 days. She started speaking so fast I couldn't keep up. All I got was she remembers a lot more than 9 days usually has to offer.
"Ok then, let's go and go to the underworld. I'm so happy." I obviously said sarcastically. Of course we didn't either. We took a bus as far as we could. We were like a football field away when the bus randomly had a crazy engine that took off at 9 million miles per hour. After using another one to get close again we had to deal with sand that ate you alive (no joke) and Annabeth was bitten by one jaw and she said it felt like sand trying to punch her. We gave up and just walked from the sand mouth. I walked up to one of the letters, the o in holly, and saw graffiti, but one stook out. One I could read with my dyslexia just fine. It said anoíxte ti Gi which i knew meant open the Earth. I said it out loud and a low rumbling started as a passage in the mountain opened with many falling rocks I entered to see a large cavern with a boat in the center with a man in a mask. He started paddling over.
"You are living I sense." this guy had odd powers. If he was another monster I'm going to beat him into the water and run him over with his boat.
"Yes we are, now may we proceed." I said as confidently as I could as I tried to step on the boat. He pushed me back.
"First pay one silver drachma, then you may proceed to the underworld," he said as I flicked a silver coin with Zeus's temple on it. It felt good to not have to run or fight my way through this. The cave turned from a dark underground cavern to a lavish boat party. Still using candles, but they were brighter and ghost boats appeared with ghosts dancing on them. Some had more flesh and bone then others, but they were all obviously dead. One with an eyepatch and a bullet hole in his rib cage showed he was probably a pirate, another was more recent with only a slightly blue tinted skin, they were old for sure, but passed away in a peaceful way. We saw many more different ghost/zombie/skeletons on the way. Many having fun, several leaping into the water fading into a white form of gas before reforming at the top of the water. After what seemed forever the laughing and banter of the party faded into screams of pain and moans of sorrow. A lava stream was snaking across a dark and barren land were the pain was coming from. A large castle made from black material. It looked like Olympus except a true shade of black. More intimidating and menacing then olympus appeared. I resorted to my nervous habits when we got closer. I looked down and saw we were on floating water. The trip was going to be a quiet one. As we got closer we saw a piece of land outside the castle. I remembered Cerberus the triple headed dog who guarded the underworld. Was he on the island. Through the howls of pain I heard a dog growl. He was there.
"Be on guard," I told Annabeth who surely knew about Cerberus. The boat driver heard this
"There is nothing to worry about Cerberus is quite the nice dog, if you get him right below his ear." The sailor said in a very matter-of-factly tone. We were pretty much there, how are we supposed to get up to his ear? I have 2 options here, fight, or scratch his ear. Those are the 2 completely wacky options I have. Option A is as likely going to let me live as jumping off a 100 foot cliff, or option B, which is about as likely going to let me live as walking into a shark's mouth. Neither sound great, but I understand fighting, but Hades will hate me more if I kill his dog… I drifted into thought about what I should do. As the boat lurched forward
"We have arrived," said boat man in a flat voice. I saw the Cerberus. there/he/she/it has black, glossy fur that shone in the darkness, He is massive atleast 10 feet tall or Maybe even 15 or 16. It is so hard to tell because he is so big it is like looking at a skyscraper. The three heads were all sniffing air. How it smelled us will always confuse me because there was no wind. Cerberus looked right at me, it's green eyes boring into my skull, looking for any weakness in me. I returned it's stare right back in there(?) eyes. It was hard because there were 3 sets of them. He growled a low growl. There were 2 lines. "EZ death" and "supreme court of the dead." If I wanted to get to Hade's… or do I. If I went to him, they discover sooner that Kronos is rising. Every hour matters as when I left we were getting 20 to 30 monsters every hour. Maybe more now. I started walking slowly towards EZ death line and nodded Annabeth to follow. Slowly we walked to the back of the line as some guy noticed us
"Am I dead?" He questioned. I mean, the line said Ez death so isn't it obvious
"I don't know at all dude, why would you be dead?" I said knowing he was dead, but telling him the sad truth would have to be for someone else, hoping for me and him (against Camp-Half Blood) that the line was a very, very long line.
"Hey buddy if I'm not dead where am I? In a prison camp? The mountains with limited supply of food? The middle of the ocean on an artificial island that the government created for troubled beings and I was accidently picked? I don't know anymore." Man he rambled on and his imagination was better than my ADHD mind. I noticed that Cerberus started sniffing again, this time growling and staring at me. The six ears perking up too. They (the heads) were on to us.
"Buddy I wouldn't worry about how you ended up here, I don't remember how I got here either, oddly." it was a lie, but hopefully one that he fell for. Cerberus was now stomping towards us, his massive paws thumping on the ground. Apparently the mortals saw the dog as several different dogs as they petted the paws of Cerberus. More like patted real quick then dodged out of the way as he continued stomping. He got real close to Annabeth who was silent until now, well even now, as he sniffed her like 18 times. He finally decided that we were alived and slobbered everywhere. It was a mess. He tried to leap but tripped on his own saliva and flailed in the air before landing clumsily. 2 Heads tried to bite Annabeth, but they ended up biting eachothers ears and snouts. The one head on me was stretching farther than it should have and a whining of pain come form the huge mouth. I didn't realize where we were until I looked straight and saw the Supreme court of the underworld. No this was bad.
"Oh no Hades' palace was closer to EZ death line than here. Here there are underworld gods, most of them, I don't think Hades is here." Annabeth was proving this was the right spot for me to go. I took my shoes off as I ran keeping pace with Annabeth as I ran, though I could go much faster than her. I tried to put my winged shoes on, but that slowed me down and Cerberus caught up to me he slid across the floor. I turned around, with one shoe on, and ran as hard as I could that way, one head was on Annabeth and tried to drag the body along with it, but was overpowered and switched targets to me again. I got my second shoe on and got a lead on Cerberus. If he was partly like a modern dog he would want to chase something. All the ghostly trees around would make big enough sticks, at least a limb would do. I started sawing away and was Nearly done before Cerberus, too excited to think straight and eat me, smacked me with his paws. I got some pretty good height as my winged shoes kicked back in and I started falling. Slowly and in circles. The shoes would try to rebalance, but being spinning I was going down slow, down fast, down slow, down fast. Eventually I hit the ground, fortunately my neck is still connected and I have 2 arms, 2 feet, 1 body, and 1 head. So I felt pretty good about my flying skills. The massive dog was trying to paw for me, but one defiant head was trying to go the other way. It was Annabeth, obviously trying to be helpful, but was gonna get herself eaten by a dog. Not wanting to speak I picked up the ghostly stick that I had sawed off. I threw it straight into the middle of the heads. All three of the heads tried to get it and bit each other. They seemed to have lived, bot they were missing ears that had faded into dust, or there snouts all together.
"Annabeth run! Why did you come back anyway! I had it all handled!" I yelled to her. Her answer was running away from the dogs lying on their belly whining. Not exactly that scary as I was as tall as his stomach. I ran towards Annabeth, which was sadly towards the castle. I could stop the quest altogether, but that would blow my cover. The castle seemed to get farther away as we ran towards it, eventually even I was tiring out. I knew Annabeth wasn't doing better, she was way slower.
"We should be there in, like, 2 minutes," She said gasping for breath. I was not going to waste precious breath answering, but that did not seem like a 2 minute run from here to the castle. We kept going, ⅓ stumbling, ⅓ tripping, and ⅓ actually running. It felt like it had been two minutes.
"Luke stop!" Annabeth yelled, as I ran straight into a wall. I groaned, and thought about the last time I ran into a wall-ish thing. This time the feeling wasn't excitement, it was dread. I didn't want to go and fight a god for something he doesn't have. I don't want to Sit in a dungeon rotting, I don't want to go and look for something that I hid from people like me. A little too late for that last one. With my second black eye from solid objects that weren't controlled by evil gods, monsters, or crazy manic people who see through the mist. I marched to Hades' front door, and knocked. I heard a deep low voice "Finally that pizza delivery guy arrived, it's been 23 years since I ordered!"
"That isn't that long, you know." said a very high pitched voice, "The pizza may be a little moldy or maybe the pizza guy is dead." Great they think I'm pizza delivery boy. The guards (who were just now appearing from thin air) started pointing pilos, machine guns, bows and arrows, and best of all, pencils at us. Hades himself opened his door, and to his surprise it was 2 demigods wielding a sword and a knife.
"Hmph I should've known that it wasn't my pizza. What do you brats want." He said. Grossly overconfident in his abilities
"Give us the lightning bolt, and we can leave without a fight." Annabeth said in her dangerous tone that was slightly down played by all the gasping from us.
"Well, you can barely stand up, why should I worry about you two, I could snap my fingers and you would wither away, or fall in a bottomless pit, or get devoured by my many dogs, or, the worst, have to die to math." he said with a devious smile on his face. That explained the pencils; math was by far the worst, I can speak, memorize things that seem plausible, and pour this into that (about 3% of the time) but math… I can't just memorize it I have to think. My legs were wobbling super badly. I wouldn't be surprised if I smacked the floor, with my face. How am I going to hunt down Ares without angering Kronos, or showing my true alliance. I have to hope Ares is stupid and hands the lightning bolt over to someone. Then Kronos won't doubt my ability, well not entirely, and I won't have to blow my cover. Hades was still standing, his fingers prone to snap now.
"Not math!" I squeaked very loudly fearing a test. Annabeth had to hold back a giggle, and after I realized how it came out my feeling of pure terror outweighed how funny my gravestone would be like "The mighty Luke Castellan, hero of Olympus, died to math. After trekking the perilous path to Hades' castle he was shot down by a simple math question, what is the square root of 4." That would be the most embarrassing gravestone ever. I have never seen one like it either. Hades laughed so loud the floor shook a little bit.
"Hmph you want the lightning bolt, well I don't have it, but hey you can join the ranks of dead heroes in Elysium before the gods join you, then you get sent to tartarus because Kronos owns it all and he decided he doesn't want you there. So, do you agree?" He asked
"That wou-" Annabeth started to say before being rudely interrupted
"Ok, thank you for choosing death. Also, too bad Percy had to ride a train downtown. I had his mother in captivity, oh well. Could still be used to get my helm of darkness back from Poseiden." Hades said. This guy sucks. He can't stop blubbering.
"Ummm, I'll be your temporary pizza delivery guy if you let us go and tell us where the lightning bolt is," I said as nonchalantly as I could possibly be.
"Luke you know wha-" Annabeth was cut off again as I rudely interrupted her this time.
"Remember I mean temporary in mortal terms not god terms so, 3 pizzas worth of delivery," I said finishing off my first thought. Hades smiled a large, evil smile and nodded so slightly.
"Luke Castellan, you are a hero of Olympus as well as a hero of the underworld," Hades' booming voice echoing off the buildings, "return quickly Luke Castellan, for we shall all rejoice with 3 pizzas!" Now my ears were hurting. A slight ringing from Hades' voice of partying? Fun? Whatever you call an evil gods sort of fun party.
"Let me quick travel you to Pizza Hut, it should be right…" He was saying as he pulled out his fun and tapped ferociously on it, "AHA! Here. Stomp 4 times when you have 3 pizzas. OK? If you don't return in, 24 hours, I will summon a zombie army to kill you. Got it."
"Mr. Hades if I do say so myself this is not a party we can sta-" Annabeth started to say before being interrupted again. I'm starting to notice a pattern. Guess there is a first for everything right? We ended up at a dominos, not a pizza hut. Probably because pizza hut practically doesn't exist anymore. I saw the menu and thought Hades would love the fiery ham n' hot peppers. So I ordered 2 of those and 1 regular pepperoni and sausage. I grabbed my wallet trying to look like I was going to pay. I opened the money pouch, and oh, yeah, Percy had all the money. I reached in my other pocket and nothing. I re-looked in my wallet and found nothing besides a fake ID from Hades probably.
"I don't know where my money went, one moment please." I kindly, and somewhat patiently, said to the cashier.
"Annabeth! Do you have money!" I whisper yelled. A skill I'm surprisingly adept at.
"I have a credit card that isn't mine actually. I never owned one," she replied. She walked up to the cashier and swiped the card.
"We don't take credit cards here," the cashier said in a tired voice, "Right over there is an ATM. Please swipe there to receive the cash." I dug into my pockets again and felt something hard. I pulled it out was a checkbook.
"Neat," I said and filled it out, from Hades' flamin' fiery pizza party palace. Sounds like an organization. 50 dollars receive the change. I get to take some money from Hades. I handed it to the cashier (again) and was rejected (again).
"We only take cash, was I not clear before?" The cashier asked. Hades was definitely doing this on purpose.
"Well, Annabeth gotta swipe the card I suppose," I managed to get out without throwing the whole building on the cashier.
"No," Annabeth simply replied. Great now we have to talk about her not wanting to waste any cent at all unless necessary. I deemed it necessary so I snatched the card out of her hand and swiped it.
"Luke! That was money you wasted! I could have bought a chocolate bunny with 3 dollars," she said exasperated and angry. I took the money and the pizzas were nearly done by that point. I held 2 of them and stomped 4 times. My vision darkened and I was back at the palace gates. I knocked and the guards came, but Hades was ready for his pizza.
"Hmm not Pizza Hut, bu- OHH -what is this. Fiery Ham n' Hot Peppers! This is my favorite one, also a pepperoni for the Asphodel folks.
"Hades, are you sure this is enou-" Annabeth, cut off again. Definitely a pattern.
"More than enough this is a TON of pizza!" he exaggerated a ton, a ton. Annabeth frustrated with being cut off threw her knife, and missing by a long shot.
"Annabeth is your aim that bad," I joked hoping that I could lighten the mood enough to save Annabeth's life, without stabbing a god. That's a bad way to make friends with him. To my surprise Hades laughed.
"I know it's only a threat, but throwing a dagger at someone is a way to make that threat show, I like it!" He barely got it out he was laughing so hard. His eyes even teared up as he laughed.
"Ok before you leave I have no idea where the lightning bolt is. Buh bye," Hades rushed out before the world swirled into view. Not the dark gates of Hades palace. We were at a gas station. I saw the worst thing possible. Ares and Aphrodite. Hades somehow knew that he had it, or it was coincidental, but that seems unlikely. Ares saw us and his eyes widen. He placed his hand on his weapon. He walked out to say hi in a bloody way. He opened the doors and drew his weapon.
