Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Nineteen

Our Worst Fears Come True

I sat up, rubbing my head where I must've fallen. Jeez, I really had to be more careful about these things. I rubbed my eyes and looked around to see myself in a pure white room. There was a metal bed-type thing in the middle, a little movable tray with all sorts of doctor's tools, and a completely metal wall with all these drawers.

Where was I? Last I remembered, we had been in the ruins of the Oracle at Delphi when Andee was saying that something didn't feel right and Annabeth said it was a trap…damn, I should've listened when Andee said it the first time and gotten us all out of there right away. Where was everyone else?

"Annabeth! Grover! Andee!" I called out. My only response was my voice echoing against the walls. I cursed under my breath before standing up and looking around a bit, not that there was much else to look at.

"Do you have the files?" someone asked right before a doctor came breezing through a door that I hadn't even noticed was there. An assistant rushed in behind him, holding a pile of files.

"Yes, right here, doctor," the assistant said, handing a few of the folders over to the doctor. The doctor skimmed through the files before handing them back to the assistant.

"Excellent, everything seems to be in order – bring in the body," the doctor said.

Body?

The assistant rushed out of the room before coming back with a gurney in tow. Oh gods, this was disgusting – I was in an autopsy suite! The body had been moved on to the operating table but was still covered.

"So we have four bodies to look at – two already in the freezer, one on the way, and then the one you just brought in, correct?" the doctor asked and the assistant nodded. "Perfect. Let's take a look at the first one."

They pulled open a drawer and revealed a body. I was horrified at the thought of a body being right there in front of me, but my curiosity got the best of me. I looked over to see Grover's body lying there, paler than normal and his eyes glazed over. He was completely naked except for a cloth covering his groin. There was a y-shape cut into his torso that made me nauseous.

This couldn't be real – I couldn't let it! Grover couldn't be dead – he was with me just a few minutes ago!

"Satyr," the assistant mentioned. "Name's Grover Underwood. Died carbon monoxide poisoning." He pushed the drawer in casually as if there wasn't a former living person lying in it before pulling open the next one.

That was my friend. My oldest friend, the one person who has stood by me through it all – the bullying, the monster attacks, the quests. And he was dead.

"Now which one is this?" the doctor asked, looking at the body. I was afraid to look, but with my ADHD, my curiosity always got the best of me.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena – she got bitten by a black widow spider. The doctors couldn't find out what was wrong until it was too late." Annabeth was lying in the metal drawer, her usually tan skin paler than I'd ever seen. This time they had a cloth covering her chest as well as her groin.

"And where is the bite?" the doctor asked, incredibly interested in this.

"Side of the neck," the assistant said, moving Annabeth's hair out of the way to show a huge, swollen area with a smaller kind of hole that had crusty, yellow stuff in the middle of it.

Not Annabeth too. Not my best friends. This couldn't be happening! What was I supposed to do? I should have protected them!

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" I screamed at them. I tried to open the door to get out, but it was no use. The doors were locked tight from the outside. I wasn't the person to openly cry, but this was all too much. I couldn't hold back anymore. My chest felt completely hollow as tears streamed down my face.

Now, onto our newest friend here – the one looking quite interesting in the police report," the doctor said, who I had now figured out was the mortician as he walked over to the autopsy. "Apparently the third out of the four in the group to be murdered."

"No," I whispered pleadingly, not wanting to know who was next. Unfortunately I had a horrible feeling that I already did. "Please, no."

"Andee le Fay," the assistant read off the file. I let out a cry of rage and pain. I couldn't do this – I'd rather die than have to witness all of this.

"What a shame, she was such a pretty little thing," the doctor said, barely a trace of sympathy in his voice as he touched her deathly pale face.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER, YOU ASSHOLE!" I screamed, trying to punch him but it had no effect. My first just went right through them. They didn't even know I was there.

Andee looked different than the other two. Her normally piercing green eyes were open and glazed over, the area around her eyes sunken in. I could see the fear in her eyes, How terrified she had been before she died. Her lips were slightly parted and limp and her pale skin had a bluish tint to it now.

"Where are the wounds on this one?" the doctor asked and the assistant flipper her body over carelessly, like she hadn't once been a living, breathing person and showed the doctor her back. It was torn to shreds, making it resemble ground meat. There was no flesh left, her muscles and even some bone exposed. "Those hellhounds can be pretty ruthless."

"Apparently they're her only weakness," the assistant said, bringing the file over to the doctor. "Daughter of Apollo, has almost perfect regenerative abilities. Her files show evidence of an attack when she was about ten years old that almost killed her. Guess it did, this time."

"NO!" I screamed, but it was no use. I rushed to Andee and held her limp body to mine. "I'm so sorry, baby, I love you. I love you so much. I should've told you that when you were alive, but I love you. I love you so, so much. I should have been there to protect you. I love you, baby, much. I'm sorry!"

I couldn't stand this. If she wasn't alive then I didn't want to be either. A part of me had been ripped out and I was now in more pain than I could possibly handle.

There was a knock on the door. Both the assistant and the doctor turned to look at it. "I have the last victim ready for you."

"Excellent!" the doctor proclaimed. "Get this one out of the way – there's nothing more to do with her."

The assistant scrambled to open an empty drawer and lifted Andee into it and shut it. I couldn't stop crying, trying to open it and see her but it was useless.

The door opened and another covered body was brought into the room.

Would this never end?

"This one is pretty straight forward," the person who brought the body said, handing the files to the assistant.

"When will these people learn that it does nothing to go against Kronos?" the doctor said with a sigh, looking through the file. "Silly mortals getting involved in a war meant for gods and titans. Let's take a look."

Mortal. What mortal?

They took off the sheet and my heart was ripped out from my chest.

My mom was lying on the table.

"Mom," I whimpered, crawling in my pain to try to get close to her.

"Single stab wound through the heart," the mortician said, leaning in to get a better look. "Do you see the black around the wound?"

"That's strange – is it an infection?" the assistant asked.

"Oh no, it was a surprisingly quick death," the doctor said. "The black there is from where the soul was separated from the body. All of these people were killed under direction from Kronos, but this woman – Sally Jackson – was stabbed by Kronos himself."

"NO!" I screamed, my lungs raw. What was the point of living? Everyone was gone. Everyone I loved had been killed. And they had been killed because of me.

Every piece of my heart and soul was gone with them. All I wanted was to wake up from this nightmare.

Nightmare…that's what this was! It was a nightmare! I suddenly fell backwards and when I opened my eyes again, I was in a pitch black corridor. I took out Riptide and the celestial bronze gave off a faint glow, barely allowing me to see a few inches in front of me.

It was better than nothing. I took a few minutes – maybe it was an hour, I couldn't tell time here – to calm myself down. Grover, Annabeth, Andee and my mom weren't dead. They were alive. Andee, Annabeth and Grover were just…lost. Somewhere in the darkness. Hopefully they weren't going through what I just did, but I doubted that. I knew one thing for sure – when I found the others, I was going to remind them that I loved them. Especially Andee, no matter what the consequences of that would be.

I walked around aimlessly, occasionally hitting a wall which gave me the impression that this was some sort of demented maze. I didn't know where I was going anymore. Hell, I didn't know where I was to start with. I didn't know where anyone was and I didn't know how to get us out.

After running into a wall for what had to have been the tenth time, I got pissed off and kicked it, deciding to kick it and slice it with my sword until there was a Percy-size opening. As soon as I was about to walk through the opening I'd made, it was like a barrier held me back.

"No, no, no," a female voice said. It seemed like the voice was coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once. "Silly little demigod, that's not part of the game."

"Who's there?" I called, spinning around with my sword at the ready.

"You'll find out soon enough – you've got to finish playing my game though," she said, two male voices cackling in the background. "And there's no cutting through walls in this game. You're the rat and you've got to find the cheese the old-fashioned way."

"Just give me my friends and let us all go!" I called, which made all three of them laugh like hyenas.

"Like we'd really do that," she said. "You've got to play the game fair and square and then we'll talk – face to face. Now if I were you, I'd hurry because I don't know how long your satyr friend will last in the fire."

"What? What fire?" I demanded, but they didn't reply. Apparently, they thought they had already given me too much information.

"NO!" a familiar cry alerted me right away. I bolted in the direction of the sound with Riptide held firmly in front of me. I came to a skidding stop when I saw Grover leaning over something invisible. I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to get his attention, but instead I was dragged into his nightmare.