This time, this place,
Misused, mistakes.
Too long, too late,
Who was I to make you wait?
Just one chance, just one breath,
Just in case there's just one left…
Cause you know, you know, you know…
I love you! I loved you all along!
And I miss you, from far away for far too long!
—"Far Away"
We saw the smoke first, from miles away, rising in the gloomy twilight. The dead forest was behind us. My arms still hurt, badly, but the pain was ebbing away slowly.
"I'm sorry." Annabeth said abruptly, breaking the silence as we walked along quietly. "I shouldn't have gone… in Rome. I shouldn't have left you. Not after everything that happened." I weighed her words for a moment, thought of comforting things to say back. I heard her stomp something, and turned to see her grinding her heal against the ground.
"Nope, you shouldn't have gone." I said honestly. "You really should have stuck with me, and we all could have fought some giants and gone home." She looked at me, surprise on her face. She looked torn between wanting to smack me and a faint smile.
"Aren't you suppose to tell me I did the right thing, like a supportive boyfriend?" She asked wryly. "I went on a quest for a goddess, my mother, so it was worth it?"
"If your mother cared that much about recovering that statue, she would have been willing to send a half dozen of her kids at once, not one every few years to die alone." I shrugged. "And I love you enough to be honest with you." She was silent for a few minutes, and I wondered if I had angered her. It wasn't on my list of concerns at the moment. I still remembered Athena basically threatening to incinerate me if I broke Annabeth's heart—only for Athena herself to disown Annabeth a few years later. Granted, that was more Minerva, but still…
"Love you too, Percy." Annabeth said quietly, bringing me back to our surroundings as we climbed a hill, the smoke looking closer. We reached the top—and both froze at what we were seeing.
It looked like New York City. A bombed, burning New York City. The twilight was broken around the city by dozens of fires, and I thought I could hear screams, even though the city's edge looked four or five miles away, at least.
"What is this?" I asked, too stunned to be further horrified.
"You're getting closer." A voice said. "Just need to get higher, now." We both turned. The old man we knew as Morpheus was sitting on a rusted park bench, staring at the ruined, burning copy of New York City. It looked like it had been attacked and maybe bombed—towers with chunks blown away, buildings lying in heaps of rubble, and smoke rising to the sky.
"What's waiting for us in there?" Annabeth questioned. Morpheus shook his head sadly.
"Many things. One of which, you are well aware of." Morpheus told her. He looked at me. "This isn't going to be easy, Perseus. The being you met in the forest—is a lesser soldier. There are not many, but if you attract more of them, they will destroy you both with ease."
"Any helpful advice?" I asked. He smiled faintly.
"Have you told him what is following you?" He asked Annabeth. She shifted uncomfortably. Morpheus sighed. "Child, did you think those spiders were drawn to you for no reason?" I looked at her.
"I've always had a problem with them." Annabeth said quietly. "She… she has to be dead."
"Yet she is not. Not dead enough to be no danger here." Morpheus said gently. "She knows your destination, and will try to trap you there. Once you have fought your way to the top."
"The top of what?" I asked.
"This place is a cruel shadow of the real world." Morpheus explained. He pointed to a tall building, just visible amid the fires and smoke. "The doors of death—are at the top of that tower."
"What are those screams?" Annabeth asked. Morpheus gave her a hard look.
"What do you think they are, child?" He said. "They are the screams of people who committed sins so terrible they deserve the highest punishment. They are tortured day and night, forever. Do not stop, or try to help them. Touch no one."
"Not much forgiveness here, huh?" Annabeth muttered, looking at the hellish city.
"Forgiveness is only ever given only to those who repent." Morpheus said. "Hence why pride is such a dangerous flaw." Annabeth hesitated for a moment, and I saw something flicker across her face. She had told me in the Sea of Monsters that hubris was her fault, deadly pride.
"I'm working on it." She said weakly. Morpheus sighed.
"Yet you are here because your pride overcame your intelligence." He said, sadness on his face. "And because of your actions, Percy is here as well. No man is an island, child."
"I'm here because I chose to be." I snapped, putting a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "Don't go blaming her."
"You are here because the girl you love foolishly went on a suicide mission." Morpheus shook his head. "Didn't Athena tell you your flaw was being too loyal? Annabeth went on her quest, knowing that dozens of her siblings had gone and died. Ergo, she went on a dangerous quest knowing her love would move heaven and earth to find her again, even if it meant going to hell." I glanced at Annabeth. A tear was silently rolling down her face. Morpheus noticed as well, and his expression softened a little. "Show me the weapons you found." I numbly yanked the icy handgun out and handed it to him, then took Annabeth's knife, and provided it as well. Morpheus closed his eyes, holding on weapon in each hand. The rust, the age, faded away. The knife looked newly made and polished. The handgun was gleaming. Silently, he handed them back, then reached into his pockets, pulling out a brown paper bag that he set on the bench.
"Percy, Annabeth… even now, there is hope." Morpheus said. With that, he turned and strode away, fading and blurring with every step until he vanished.
I saw a video interview of a man, who had died for several minutes in a hospital. He was screaming when they revived him, and tried to flee room, shrieking that 'they' were killing him, ripping him apart. The doctors managed to calm him down, talked to him. He said there had been fire, burning… when the doctor tried to get him to keep talking, the man just refused and started sobbing, terrified of whatever he had seen.
I didn't blame him.
"Please… I'm so cold." Another voice. A man, wearing some sort of uniform. Blood was pooled around him, and horrible wounds laced his chest. He looked like he should have been dead, there was no way a person could live through that. "I'm so cold…" I pulled Annabeth along. The skyscraper was one of the few buildings still standing, visible above the ruins. I held Riptide, the glowing blade ready to fight. The street was littered with rubble, burning cars, bodies. Many of them weren't intact. Horribly, most of them were moving, if only crawling and moaning. It looked like a massacre had happened.
"Alley." Annabeth whispered, pulling me towards it. I complied, and she flattened herself against the side of the dumpster, gesturing for silence. I peeked around the side, wondering what she had seen.
One of those creatures landed in the street, wings folding back as he took several steps. Like the other one, he had a huge scimitar, standing seven or eight feet tall. It looked around, eyes scanning the darkness. I tried to shield Riptide, hoping it wouldn't notice the faint glow, but too afraid to risk retracting the blade. Apparently not seeing us, it turned away and walked out of sight. I heard a guttural moan, a cry of pain, as if it had run one of the bodies through. Annabeth tapped my shoulder, pointed towards the far end of the ally. She was breathing rapidly, fear written on her face. I motioned her to go, slowly.
We crouch-walked, using our hands as much as our feet, trying not to make a sound on the rubble. Ahead of me, Annabeth flinched and jerked backwards from something, letting out a tiny cry. I held Riptide up.
A tarantula was crawling towards her, raising its forelegs, little mandibles clacking. Maybe it was the dark, but it looked bigger than the ones you see at petstores. They were usually four inches or so, from front to back. This one looked more like eight, or ten. I grabbed a small chunk of brick and dropped it on it.
It pushed the chunk off itself and kept going, ignoring me. I scowled, then just stabbed it with Riptide, like a bug on a display board. I reared back and heaved forward, sending it sailing off the sword's point and against a brick wall farther down the alley. There was a small splat sound. I glanced at Annabeth. She pointed at me, then forward. I nodded and took point.
At the end, I paused to look up and around again, keeping my eye on our destination. Annabeth was just a foot behind me or so, holding the celestial bronze dagger we had found on the mountain…
I moved back into the street, keeping to the shadows. Hopefully there wasn't too much worse lurking around the city. We passed a variety of shops, that looked disturbingly like what I'd see in the real city. Little specialty stores, a burned out grocery store, even a Starbucks that looked on verge of collapse. Overhead, streetlights flickered once in a while. I wasn't sure if we were safer in the light or out of it… I doubted anything here was afraid of light.
When we got closer, I noticed two things. Namely, the building we needed to get too—was across a freak river. But there was another building on our side, that connected to it by skybridge. I hoped it was intact. I could make out some of it, but not all…
"That's where she will be." Annabeth murmured, looking at the skybridge through the broken window. "Perfect trap." We were in the back of an abandoned gas station. No food to be seen, of course. But there had been a few wafers of ambrosia in the paper bag Morpheus left us.
"Maybe. Or maybe she's dead." I countered. "She did fall to Tartarus. What could survive that?" I could hear screams, not too far. Now and again, a roar of something. I kept scanning the darkness around us.
"What if we are dead?" Annabeth wondered.
I froze. Seconds ticked by as her question dawned on me. My heart literally skipped a beat. Annabeth noticed the look on my face.
"What if we're dead, and just escaping like all the monsters?" Annabeth asked, an unreadable expression on her. I hesitantly put a finger to my own neck, praying to God that… yes. I'd never been so happy to feel my own pulse. I reached over and put a hand on Annabeth's neck.
"We've both got pulses." I said, relieved. She relaxed a little.
I resumed breathing.
Remember to please review, if you liked it. And Merry Christmas!
