HAZEL couldn't breathe.

It was like an enormous pressure had settled on her lungs, making it impossible to inhale. She gasped, her head spinning. Was she dying? She wanted it to be over quickly.

All of a sudden, the world cleared. She was lying on a mattress with a flat pillow beneath her head. Sunlight streamed through a small window were one wall met the ceiling.

Hazel quickly sat up, and pain flared across her body. She winced and looked over her wounds; the cut on her neck, her scraped elbow, her bruised shoulder, even the shot foot. All bandaged. The latter, being the most serious of her injuries, seemed to be ensconced in a thick white cast.

Hazel hobbled out of bed, ignoring the sharp pain. She was locked in this room- she had to get out.

As soon as Hazel reached for the door, a majestic voice boomed through the room

"Hazel Levesque."

Hazel stiffened with surprise, glancing around her. She was alone in the empty room, and there was no communication device in sight; in fact, there was nothing at all but the bed she'd been laying on.

"Who is this?" She inquired nervously, eyes still scanning every inch of her prison.

"I have heard about you."

"Not much, I hope." Hazel replied. "I try to stay below the radar."

"I have my ways." Was the answer. "I have servants everywhere- in the gardens, in the forests, in the meadows…"

Hazel blinked. There was something about the places mentioned, something connecting them…

"Demeter." She finally said. "You're Demeter."

The voice chuckled, not unkindly. "Bright girl."

Hazel sighed. "Do you have my brother Nico? Can I see him?"

The voice hesitated.

"I do not have the Greek child." Demeter admitted. "Nor do I wish I had him. Hades is not someone whose family I wish to come in contact with."

Hazel felt dizzy.

"GREEK child?!" she asked, "That doesn't make any sense. All the gods are Greek. And my father is Hades, too."

"On the contrary, dear Hazel." Demeter sounded mysterious. "Your father is PLUTO."

And with that, the voice cut away. All that was left was the odd ringing in Hazel's ears.

Hazel asked to leave when Demeter's voice started talking again the following day. The goddess flatly declined all of Hazel's requests. Eventually Hazel started screaming and kicking the door, which resulted in the reopening of all her wounds. She got knocked out by Demeter's power and, after waking up seven hours later, was succumbed to her bed for a week. Every inch of her throbbed or stung or ached.

Hazel was lay in bed all day, getting her injuries bandaged again and again by one of Demeter's grain spirit servants. She was a little bit woozy, but Demeter insisted she get out of bed again. Insisted Hazel be a healthy little prisoner.

Soon enough the spirits started making Hazel's bed vanish as soon as they treated her with medicines. Hazel grumbled a bit in the beginning, but after a while began to accept her boring fate.

She started jogging. Laps around and around the cramped room. Hazel was a fast runner, but could only make four or so laps before her bullet wound began to bleed again. That annoyed Demeter's servants, and they made her stay in one spot the whole day. So Hazel stretched and did push-ups; anything to strengthen herself up. She knew she was being watched all. To tell the truth, she was biding her time until she found a tracking device.

Now she was doing fifty pull-ups again.

Hazel stopped, barely panting, and surveyed the room again. It had been two or three weeks since her capture, and Demeter still hadn't made the reason for it clear. Hazel was starting to get exasperated.

"Good afternoon, Hazel." Demeter's disembodied voice floated through the room again. Unlike the first time it had happened, Hazel didn't even flinch.

"Hi, Demeter." She said in a bored tone, but turned towards the door. "I'm asking once more: please tell me why I'm here."

She expected refusal; to her surprise, Demeter sighed.

"Very well. It is quite simple. I just… couldn't leave you there. You would have died for sure. As much as I hate your father (his Greek form, naturally), I do have a moral of helping the helpless."

Hazel frowned. "I wasn't helpless."

The air seemed to snort. Without a word, something like a television flashed on into Hazel's brain.

The guard lowered the gun and shot Hazel's foot. She screamed in agony and reached down to cover the gaping wound, but the guard yanked her up by her hair and smashed his gun over her head. Hazel collapsed, seemingly lifeless. The guard noticed Nico and yelped; skeletons were rising from the ground. The bones clawed at the guard, ripping his skin. He wailed in fear. Nico summoned more skeletons and dashed to Hazel. That was when Demeter arrived in a flash of gold, picked Hazel up and disappeared with her. Nico shouted at her, hoarse. The undead bones didn't understand that Nico was their master, and they swiped at him with their sharp fingers. Nico, very weak from the strong magic he used, fell over. The skeletons started dragging him towards the crack in the earth. Nico struggled away and started running far, tears and blood dripping down his face. The attacked guard raised a bloody hand and summoned more troops; they arrived immediately. Some chased after Nico, while the others battled the skeletons and treated the dying guard.

The pictures on Hazel's head stopped. She was standing, shocked, hand raised to her head. Stitched lined a small cut on her top skull.

"I thought those were headaches from being unconscious." She finally managed.

No reply.

Hazel coughed. "Thanks, Demeter."

When that didn't get an answer either, she went back to sit ups.

At some point, later that day, Hazel's bandage fell apart.

And she found the tracking device she'd known was somewhere.

Hazel crushed it underfoot and quickly started to follow her plan. It would only be a few minutes until Demeter's servants would discover a problem; she'd have to make those minutes count.

Hazel grabbed the wall. It was rough and full of grooves, perfect for climbing. The weeks of exercise did Hazel good; she easily managed to claw up the wall to the small window near the ceiling.

The one she'd pretended to forget about.

Hazel summoned a diamond. It had been a long time since she'd tried to use her powers; even this tiny gemstone made her stomach lurch.

Fighting back the nausea, Hazel used her magic to fashion a blade from the diamond. Then she began sawing away at the bars crossing the window.

It was tedious work, but Hazel was determined to manage it before Demeter or her servants returned. Too much time had passed.

The door made a clicking noise, and Hazel knew someone was about to burst in. She hacked with renewed enthusiasm.

"HAZEL!"

Hazel slammed down the knife and ripped away the bars, her fingers sore and bleeding. She frantically scanned the street for somebody to notice her.

Hand grabbed her ankles. She let out a squeak of surprise.

A burly, Asian teenager looked up from the pavement, towards her.

There. She locked gazes with him, pleading for help.

The boy's eyes widened- Hazel's last hope -and then she was dragged away from the window. Held by her feet, Hazel's chin slapped the floor, and she blacked out.