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Chapter 17

Posy's POV

I was thinking about Sebastian. Redhead was behind me leading me on with her knife near my face and she sometimes kciked me just because she could and somewhere in the back of my mind, I toyed with the idea of dying. Oddly enough, the only thing I thought about was Sebastian, my baby brother tucked away safely in his crib back home. It was late. He'd probably be asleep right now and bet that he was dreaming of something beautiful and I hoped he was dreaming about me, somehow.

If someone asked me if I ever pictured myself puffy-eyed, held hostage with a razor-sharp knife just inches away from scarring my face and not too far away from some kind of heart attack, I would have said no. I just wasn't that type of person; bad things like this didn't usually happen to me and crime was just something that existed in movies and Forensic Files.

And yet, here I was, standing in Central Park with two thugs holding onto Nico, Landon, and the red-headed tramp who held my arms back and pressed her dagger against my neck. I would have liked nothing less than to punch red-head in the face and kick Landon in the jewels then and there.

But to tell the truth, I was feeling more terrified than angry then; my fear outweighed my fury. My sobbing had calmed down by the time we reached The Doors of Orpheus and my tears were now a silent river cascading slowly down my flushed cheeks and an occassional hiccup escaped my throat. The night was torturously cold; relentless winds howled like wolves and sank their icy teeth into our flesh. But there was nothing we could do about it.

"Open it," Landon barked, kicking Nico toward the Door and I winced. Nico looked back at Landon with a mixture of venom and sadness in his eyes, but said nothing.

"Dumbass," Nico whispered in a hoarse voice. Right then, Landon grabbed my arm and forcefully pulled me towards him. He pulled out his own dagger and pressed the tip on my cheek. It wasn't hard enough to run through my face, but forceful enough that I could feel it beginning to pierce and tear at my skin. I felt hot, sticky liquid beginning to pour forth and it wasn't my tears.

"Agh!" I yelled as the pain shot right through me and I jerked my head away from the sharp weapon.

"Stop it! Stop!" Nico yelled in desperation. He writhed in the arms of his captors but the thugs didn't move. "Music! You play music and the doors will open. Dammit, just get away from her!"

Landon pulled the knife away from me and my free hand automatically went up to the spot on my cheek where the dagger had touched me. It wasn't bleeding terribly, but the feeling of warm blood on my hand made me panic and I was sure that the spot on my arm where Landon held onto me was bruised. He had an iron grip on me.

"Thank you, Nico," Landon said, still holding onto me. Landon turned and looked at the red-haired girl who was fishing for something in her pack. "Roxana, if you'll do the honors?"

Red-head, whom Landon had called Roxana, finally pulled a flute-looking instrument out of her bag and started to play. I didn't recognize the song; it sounded like something you'd find on the soundtrack of some fantasy movie or a song someone would play in the pharaoh's court. If I weren't in such a foul state, I would have even liked the song, but hearing it then only made me feel nauseated. This was really happening. As soon as she hit the last note of the song, there was a trembling underneath us and the rocks covering the entrance to the Underworld crumbled away and revealed a dark passage.

Colder air rushed forth from the passage and me me shiver as Landon pushed me back to Roxana. Landon kicked Nico from behind again.

"Well, go on! Lead the way!" Nico looked back at me sadly and reluctantly entered the dark passage, followed closely by Landon and the thugs.

Roxana pushed me forward even though I fought to stay back. I, too, was a bit reluctant to enter the dark passage. The inside was black and the cold wind blowing echoed through it. It seemed sinister to me and my fight-or-flight reflexes were kciking in; they wanted to flee. But I didn't have much of a choice. The minute the last person set foot inside the Doors of Orpheus, the rocks piled up again and covered the entrance and we all stood silent in the pitch black.

Landon brought out a lantern and turned it on. The lantern shed some light on us and we could finally see. But almost as soon as we had settled into the cold rocky corridor, we heard an echo in halls. It sounded as though someone had dropped something very heavy and no one dared moved. And then out of nowhere came four skeletal soldiers running at us, full speed, waving their sword in the air. If you've never been chased by skeletons before, I will tell you now that it has got to be one of the most horrifying things on earth. Like Dawn of the Dead except the zombies have weapons, have no skin, and sprint at you. Not running. Sprinting, like a freaking marathon. On impulse, I let out a shrill scream and it resonated through the halls.

Roxana put her hand over my mouth before I could scream again while Landon brought out his own sword and cut through one of the skeleton soldiers. They crumbled at first but after mere seconds, they began to crawl on the ground and knit themselves together again and my heart was pounding in my chest like a drum.

"Put them to sleep!" he yelled at Nico while fighting off one of the soldiers. Nico pointed at each of the skeleton soldiers and one by one, the glow in their bony skulls died down and they sunk into a heap of dead bones. Things like these didn't surprise me anymore; Nico's power over the dead, I mean. Landon put his sword away and continued walking with the thugs following behind me.

Nico slowed down and bit and fell into an even paced walk beside me.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly, concern heavily apparent in his voice. He put a hand on my shoulder and spun me to face him. I knew that he was staring at the cut on my cheek with a few splotches of raw blood still on my face and I wanted to tell him about the results I got on the magazine quiz there, but it hardly seemed the time. I wanted to say anything, really, but I didn't know what.

"It's just a little scratch," I said, not wanting him to worry. I looked into his face, at the bruises on his cheeks and small traces of a black eye beginning to form and I realized that with all his scratches and bruises and wounds, he seemed almost, but not entirely, unrecognizeable. I was too used to seeing him clean and healthy, teasing me about cats and arguing with me in front of my school.

How had it all come to this, I asked myself. And I realized that this was the hole that all demigods dug for themselves. The hole that Nico had warned me not to fall into. And I had already fallen.

He tried to smile, but the attempt was a failure and the grin disappeared almost as soon as it came. Roxana urged us on with a forceful tug on both our sleeves.

"I'm sorry," he said without looking directly at me. "I'm sorry that I let it get this far. I'll get you out if it's the last thing I do." We didn't get to say anything more after that because Roxana pulled me away from him and pushed Nico forward and onto the gravel. "Get up front, you little insect!" Nico mumbled a little as Roxana pushed him down to the ground. I didn't hear what he said, but I'm pretty sure I picked out the word "bitch" somewhere in there.

After some more walking, we finally exited the dark passageway. There was no way I could have been prepared for what we saw next.

There are no words to describe what it feels like to behold the Underworld with living eyes. You can't detect anyother color other than black and gray and the the occassional red of fire. We came to stand on the bank of what seemed like a river with black waters, rushing powerfully as though it were trying to drown the land beneath it.

The mere sight of it left me feeling slightly less alive, especially when my eyes started tricking me and every wave of water was ominously shaped like a body; like the dead pale corpses of those who had drowned and their souls left forgotten in their watery graves. It was something straight out from a Gothic novel.

Every gush of water resembled a hand, an arm, or a leg reaching out with white rotted flesh. They seemed to want me to come nearer and take hold of them and they would pull me down down into the black depths to be dead with them, stuck at the bottom for all eternity and like them, I too would also reach up and pull others into the darkness.

There was no sky in the Underworld, as expected. When I looked up, I saw only a vaulted ceiling made of onyx stone and there appeared to be a white haze like souls floating there, too. The air tasted like death, as well and it seemed that breathing became a little more difficult as well, like the Underworld was squeezing the life out of you... literally.

I felt Roxana shiver next to me and thought that she might be feeling this way, too. Even a tough titan girl like her could be scared after all. Nevertheless, she still stayed close to me with the knife drawn and I knew that a girl like Roxana was highly capable of using it to kill me.

I stared at it with a mixture of awe and terror. Terrified for human reasons: it could be used to kill me. But in my situation, death was beginning to seem inevitable and if I were going to die, then why not do away with me now? Of course I knew why. I was the bait, their leverage. I was what was going to get Nico to play along.

It was a thought that all at once, annoyed me because I was not a fan of this whole damsel-in-distress thing, scared me because I might die soon or they might kill Nico, and also filled my head with girlish romantic thoughts of Nico saving me and us riding away to his kingdom together. But in my case, the Underworld was his kingdom and I wasn't liking it so far and didn't have many plans on going back here anytime soon.

"The River Styx," Nico whispered quietly under his breath and one of the thugs pushed Nico forward yet again.

"Lead the way, demigod," the thug said. But Nico was silent, a fact that seemed to worry me. His head was tilted forward and his eyes were cast down on the river. He looked as though he were deep in thought or somewhere else. Where are you, Nico? What goes on in that head of yours?

Landon drew his sword and touched Nico with the tip of his blade and I was afraid that he might cut Nico the way he did my face. Don't, I found myself saying in my head.

"Forward, son of Hades," Landon breathed. "This isn't the time to reminisce. Now get us to that urn, you miserable shit!"

Nico brought his head up slowly and opened his eyes. He stared at Landon with hatred-filled eyes and his mouth quivered. He looked as though he wanted to lash back at Landon, but he knew that it would only make things worse. His breathing was heavy and I knew that he was fighting himself not to insult Landon back.

"I'll take you to the urn if you let her go. She's mortal, Landon, she has nothing to do with this war. This is between you and me. Let her go and I'll give you what you want."

All was quiet but then Landon threw his head back and laughed coldly and his evil laughter echoed through the hallowed halls once more.

"Let her go? What? And have her running to your half-blood friends asking for help? How stupid do you think I am? No. I don't think so. She's perfect leverage over you and with her in our control, you'll have to do everything we ask of you. I think we'll keep her right here until we're completely finished. Now to more important matters: the urn, if you'd be so kind. Lead the way!"

When Landon had finished saying this, the thug pushed Nico forward again and he fell to the floor. I yelled his name but Roxana jerked me backward by my hair and then punched my gut. The wind was knocked out of me and while I writhed on the floor a little, I knew what was coming soon. They would kill me. They would kill me and Nico, the both of us, because we couldn't be trusted even after the job was finished.

There another sound like something heavy being dropped and our head all jerked upward toward the vaulted ceiling searching for what caused the noise. Landon pointed his sword at Nico again.

"Fast!" he said. Behind us, the skeletal soldiers had reformed with even more resolve to stop us now. Nico turned around in panic and started running in a random direction. Landon, the thugs, and Roxana who held me, we all ran behind him into the unknown. The skeletons continue to sprint toward us and at one point, the thugs slowed their pace to fight them off and Landon pulled Nico's back by his jacket and ordered him to put the skeletons to sleep again.

Nico seemed to have had enough of the ordering around and as soon as Landon had whipped him around to face him, he balled up his fists and slammed one right into Landon's jaw. Slightly dazed, Landon wrapped a hand around Nico's neck and Roxana bent and twisted my arm around my back and I let out another shrill scream. Landon threatened to break arm and Nico obeyed and put one of the skeletons to sleep. In my peripheral vision, one of the skeletal soldiers, one that hadn't fallen asleep, had run its black sword right through one of the thugs and the blade protruded from him back.

Landon kicked Nico in the torso again before running toward the one thugs who was still left standing and slashed through the skeleton he was fighting. Roxana stopped twisting my arm and produced a bow and shot an arrow at another one that was running towards them and Nico put the rest of them to sleep.

"There are too many!" Roxana yelled to Landon in desperation. Landon and the thug looked back at her and nodded and killed one more skeleton before running towards us again. Roxana roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me along. In front of us, there was a bridge.

"What is that?" Roxana said. Nico ran toward it.

"It leads to safety," he said. "The skeletons can't go there, we have to cross the bridge." The five of us sprinted toward the rickety bridge that led us to the one place we could be free of skeletons. I was hesitant at first but Roxana half pushed and half lifted me across the unstable bridge. The skeletons ceased to chase us.

Nico fell to his knees on the ground, catching his breath and the thug did the same. Landon looked back at the army of skeletons that had gathered at the other end of the bridge, waving their menacing weapons at us and screaming in some dead language. The expression on Landon's face was both hateful and sad. Roxana suddenly dropped me onto the floor next to Nico and she ran toward the bridge yet again.

"Wait!" Landon ran and pulled her backward and Roxana crashed to the floor just before touching the bridge.

"You asshole!" she yelled at Landon. "Why'd you stop me?"

"Because you're stupid!" he yelled at her. "You want to die across that bridge trying to save Bryce?"

"That's my brother over there!" she yelled angrily, getting up to her feet and looking like a deranged woman looking for a kill. She got close to Landon's face but he pushed her back again.

"Well, goddammit, he's dead now, Roxana! If you go over there you'll get killed. You're too late!"

"You could have saved him-,"

"But I didn't and that's just too damn bad!" Landon shut his mouth and stared at Roxana hard and she was enraged and her body shook with her anger. Her red hair started to resembled fire. Roxana wasn't any taller than Landon himself, but in another life, she looked as though she would have towered over him.

"Don't forget our mission, Roxana," Landon said flatly but as he said so, the fire in Roxana's eyes seemed to dim a little. "Retrieve that urn at all costs. And you will stick to that mission until death, you hear? If we succeed, then Bryce's sacrifice won't be in vain and if we're lucky you may just be able to see him somewhere in here. Now suck it up and do as you're told!"

Roxana was still quivering with fury and she stared daggers at Landon but neither of them moved. Finally, after a few seconds, Roxana whipped around, letting her red hair hit Landon's face like a slap. Nico was asking me if I was alright but I hadn't answered before Roxana grabbed my arm again and jerked me up to a standing position and brought out her dagger. Again with the knives.

Then something weird happened. Almost at soon as we had taken another two steps, the scene around us changed. Not in color, it was still black and grey alll around. But he were suddenly surrounded by tall black grass about four feet high. A wind was blowing and it swayed the grass to and fro and made it look as though the earth was forever shifting and changing. Tall dead poplars stood a ways away and huge blocks of stone were scattered around. And it seemed this way for miles and mies and miles in every direction.

It made me feel depressed and lost and disoriented. Landon must have felt this way too. He marched straight up to Nico and lifted a hand to slap him. Nico caught his first attempt with his own hand, but Landon slapped him on the other side with his other hand.

"Next time you try anything like you did back there, Nico, I'll break her arm. Now where are we?" he demanded. His voice seemed to get louder every time he yelled. Nico was brooding as well.

"Don't touch her," he said through gritted teeth. "Don't you dare hurt her! If you do, I swear on the Styx, you will never reach that urn. Ever!"

"You don't make the rules around here anymore, half-blood," Landon said. "I'm the one who has the upper hand here. We may be in your realm but I'm the one who has her hostage and until I get that urn, I will twist and stab her as I please to force your cooperation. You could have avoided this but this is what you chose!"

Nico tried to punch Landon in the face again but Landon caught his fist. Nico lifted his leg to kick him in the chest, but Landon had punched him before he could. Nico fell back into the dust black grass and coughed.

"Where are we?" Landon demanded yet again. I looked around at where we were. It looked like an endless wheat field in Kansas but with less gold wheat. I don't know how, but somehow the wind brought me the answer.

"The Fields of Asphodel."

TBC