So I re-entered the House. The doors were open, the sounds of pursuit gone. An eerie silence hung over the ancient walls.

I ran to the cells. Each door had a number. I tried them all.

The ones that turned easily I ignored before the door was open. The locked ones I sliced through with my knives.

Some were empty. Some had items.

And in the second to last one, there were two figures, sitting on their chairs.

"Garrett?" I asked. "Calen?"

"Who…" came a voice from one. "Alyssa!" shouted the other one.

I was engulfed in a huge hug. They were indeed my friends. Unharmed, (for the most part) and happy to see me.

"Guys, guys," I said. "We have to leave. My enemy—our enemy—is looking for me. He'll be here any minute. We have to go."

They followed me down the hall. Past the last door, and into the entry hall.

"Wait," Calen said. "What about that door?"

"The last cell?" I asked. I went to the knob and turned it.

Well, tried to turn it. It didn't turn.

"Let's see what's behind here," I said, slicing through the door with my knife. The knife went in an inch, until…

It was stopped.

"What's blocking it?" I muttered to myself.

"Let me," Calen said, having taken his own weapon from the rack. He took a swing. The blade went to where the knife had stopped. It bounced back, but Calen said, "I think I got it!"

He swung again. The blade went through.

After that, it was a few seconds until the door was down and we stepped through. The first thing I noticed was that the room was incredibly bright. Floodlights lined the walls of the twenty-by-twenty foor room. The second thing I noticed was that it was occupied.

"Hello?" I asked. "Who are you?"

It was a man. Black haired, wearing a gray prisoner's suit. For a moment, I thought it was my father. But…this man didn't seem like it. He was paler, longer hair, but seemed…not evil.

He nodded to us. "Hello. Who are you three?"

"Alyssa," I said. "Daughter of Percy and Annabeth Jackson."

His eyes widened for a moment. "You…you're…" Then he controlled himself. "All right," he said. "I assume you're going to help me. Let's go."

"Wait!" I said. "What's your name?"

"My name is Nico," he said. "Nico di Angelo."