Hi guys!
Sorry, no song for this chapter, today :/ I only really include songs for extremely dramatic chapters, if you know what I mean hahahahahahahahai'msoannoying.
So anyway, extra long chapter today. I just really felt like writing, if you know what I mean .
I am serious, though. I just felt like writing today. So this came out. A long chapter. Yay!
Let it commence.
Percy
"How the heck do we get out of here?" Annabeth wheezed. It felt like we had been running in circles for hours.
We constantly had to hide inside these wooden buildings with beds, and once we had nearly been caught. We had ducked inside a room just as some guards walked by. They had seen us earlier and we'd managed to shake them off, but they had caught us. I had grabbed Annabeth's arm and thrown her under the bed and I crawled in myself. Two guards walked in, looking around.
"Where'd they go?" one guard asked.
"I saw them run in here!" the second said.
Annabeth had a vice-like grip on my arm. "Percy, what do we do?" she whispered.
I looked around under the bed and saw some shoes shoved in the corner.
"Don't move," I told her. When both the guards were poking around in the closet, I chucked the shoe out the door and it hit the opposite building with a thunk.
"I heard them!" the second guard said. They both ran out and around the corner.
"Wait a couple seconds," I said. After several killer seconds, we had jumped out from under the bed and ran in the opposite direction.
Now we were lost. This place was massive, and guards were everywhere. Apparently Frank hadn't been able to hold them off long enough, plus we'd wasted a day with Annabeth's injury.
"Wait," Annabeth said, stopping me. "There's a tunnel over there."
She was right. I saw a tunnel in the distance past a river. If we could just make it over there...
Annabeth looked at me. "How are we going to get out?"
I squinted at the river. I suddenly got an idea.
"I'm positive that there are tons of guards on both sides of the tunnel. Since I can control water, we just need to make it to the river, and I can channel it through the tunnel. It'll have to wipe out all of the guards."
Annabeth fingered the knife at her hip. She had found it in one of the rooms we'd hidden in, along with a sheath.
"Hopefully we won't have to do any combat," she said. I put my hand in my pocket, feeling the pen. This was supposed to be a sword. How? I was completely clueless. Was I supposed to stab people with the tip of the pen or something?
"Hopefully," I said. "Should we do it?"
She sighed, looking at the river. "It's our best bet."
I looked around, seeing if there were any guards. Once I'd made sure the coast was clear, I ran off towards the river, Annabeth right behind me.
"Hey, stop!"
"Percy, someone saw us!" Annabeth shouted.
"You think I don't know that?" I yelled.
"Make it to the river! I'll handle this guy."
"What?" I shouted. "You don't know how to fight!"
"I'll learn now," she replied. "Go!" She pulled out her knife and it glinted in the sunlight. She looked comfortable with it, and it fit her.
I realized I had stopped running and was staring at her. She ran after the guard, who charged. He swung wildly with the sword and she ducked gracefully, jabbing him in a chink of the armor. He howled and chopped down. She rolled out of the way and kicked his legs out from underneath. He toppled to the ground and she picked up his sword and hit him over the head, knocking him out.
My mouth was open in awe. I started choking when a fly flew in.
Annabeth looked at the guard, a confused expression on her face. She looked up and saw me staring.
"What are you doing? Go!"
"Oh, right," I mumbled. I turned around and splashed into the river. A power surged through me and I felt strong. The bruises and cuts I had gotten in the cell healed quickly. I suddenly knew what to do.
Feeling a powerful tug in my gut, the river suddenly stopped flowing. The pressure was incredible. I was almost knocked to my feet from holding the water back. When I couldn't handle it anymore, I let the water go, directing it towards the tunnel. The water was amazing. It shot towards the tunnel, roaring, and splashed through. I saw guards' eyes widen as thousands of gallons of water flew towards them, and I heard them yelling when it hit them. I willed the water to go harder and harder until I was sure it was clear. When I was done, the water fell to the ground in a tremendous splash. The river was now just a trickle.
I was exhausted. I turned around and saw Annabeth gaping at me, her knife lying on the ground.
"Oh, my..." she whispered.
"Come on," I said. "They won't be like this for long."
She jumped out of her trance and picked up her knife. She and I ran towards the tunnel and jumped over unconscious bodies of the guards. The tunnel was slippery, so I willed the water to separate so we wouldn't fall. I saw sunlight at the end, and we burst out, sprinting across the street and into the hills. We were free.
"Okay, so are we finding a library?" Annabeth asked.
"Yeah. I want to figure out as much as possible," I said.
"Alright," she said, and leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes. We were sitting at an outdoor cafe at a table, shaded by an umbrella. I was currently working on a large BLT, and Annabeth cleaned through a bowl of their soup of the day. We were starving when we left. We hadn't eaten in a day, and eating this sandwich was incredibly satisfying.
The waitress came out with the bill, and we handed her some cash from the backpack. Frank thought of everything.
"Um, excuse me," Annabeth said, "but could you tell us where the nearest library is?"
The waitress smiled. "Sure! The nearest is just a couple blocks down. The Oakland Public Library. It's a large building with tons of glass windows and some geometric rainbow banners on the walls. You can't miss it. Just keep heading down this street and you'll find it. Anything else I can help you with?"
"No, that's all. Thanks," I said. She nodded and went back inside the cafe.
Annabeth glanced at me, a weird look on her face. She then busied herself with messing around with the backpack.
"What? Did I do something?"
"No. You didn't do something."
I raised an eyebrow. "Why are you mad?"
"I am not mad," she scoffed, shooting daggers at me.
"Whatever," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "If you won't tell me, then how am I supposed to fix it?"
She rolled her eyes. "You can't fix it. It's...something else."
"What-"
"Let's just find the stupid library," Annabeth said, scooting her chair back roughly. She shouldered the backpack and started walking off in the direction the waitress said. I followed her, looking quizzically at her back.
Annabeth
That waitress ticked me off. She was acting stupid around Percy, flipping her hair and reapplying her lip gloss for the tenth time. Percy just looked at her blankly, not understanding what was going on, but I did.
Then I was mad at myself. Why did I even care? It wasn't like I liked Percy. Sure, he was extremely good-looking, but sometimes he was annoying and laughed at dumb things. He always poked me in the side and grinned at everything I said.
Ugh. Just shake it off. Just find the library. You need answers.
I stormed past a building without thinking.
"Uh, Annabeth?"
"What?" I snapped, turning around.
Percy raised his eyebrows and just pointed to the building I'd passed.
It was the library.
"I knew that. I was just seeing if you were paying attention," I said, trying to make it sound obvious.
"Yeah, okay. Come on."
He waited for me as I stalked towards him. I climbed the steps and he beat me to the top, holding the door open for me with a ridiculous smile on his face. I walked in without saying anything.
I didn't know why I was acting like this. Just seeing him sitting there with the waitress just made me feel mad.
I was jealous.
Gods, why was I jealous?
"There're some computers over there," I said, pointing at a row of humming monitors. The library was practically empty except for the librarians behind the desk and a couple browsing through the Young Adult section.
I scooted out a chair. A search engine website was already up.
"Okay, what do we need to figure out first?" I asked.
Percy pulled out the note. "The Underworld."
I typed in Underworld in the box and hit enter. Hits came up, and I clicked on a Wikipedia article titled 'Greek Underworld'.
I narrowed my eyes as I read the screen:
"The Greek underworld was made up of various realms believed to lie beneath the earth or at its farthest reaches. This includes:
The great pit of Tartarus, originally the exclusive prison of the old Titan gods, it later came to be the dungeon home of damned souls.
The land of the dead ruled by the god Hades, which is variously called the house or domain of Hades, Erebus, the Asphodel Meadows (where the neutral souls are sent), Stygia and Acheron.
The Isles of the Blessed or Elysian Fields, where the great heroes of myth resided after death.
The Elysian Fields ruled by Rhadamanthys, where the virtuous dead and initiates in the ancient Mysteries were sent to dwell.
The five rivers of Hades are Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (the river of lamentation), Phlegethon (the river of fire), Lethe (the river of forgetfulness) and Styx (the river of hate), which forms the boundary between upper and lower worlds."
I sat there for a minute, thinking. Percy didn't say anything; he just stared at my drumming fingers.
"Wait a minute. The River of Forgetfulness? What if-?"
"That happened to us?" Percy finished. "Seems likely. Search Hypnos."
I typed Hypnos in the search box.
"In Greek mythology, Hypnos was the personification of sleep; the Roman equivalent was known as Somnus," I read. "His palace was a dark cave where the sun never shines.
At the entrance were a number of poppies and other hypnogogic plants. His dwelling has no door or gate so that he might not be awakened by the creaking of hinges.
Hypnos' three sons or brothers represented things that occur in dreams (the Oneiroi). Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasos appear in the dreams of kings. According to one story, Hypnos lived in a cave underneath a Greek island; through this cave flowed Lethe, the river of forgetfulness."
"Hmm," Percy said.
A librarian suddenly walked over to us, placing either hand on our shoulders. "Can I help you dears with anything?"
I looked up. She had enormous glasses on her face, and had a floaty blouse paired with a venomous green pencil skirt.
I shook my head. "We're just working on a...school project."
"Alright. If you need anything, let me know," she said. As she straightened, her nails dug into my shoulder painfully.
"Okay," Percy said. She walked away and returned behind the desk.
Percy lowered his voice. "So all we need to do is find out how to get inside the Underworld. How the heck do we find that?"
I sighed, biting my lip. "I have no idea, Percy. I wish all of this didn't happen." I tried to keep my breathing even. I wasn't going to lose it in front of Percy. All of this was just so discouraging.
Percy leaned back in his chair. "Well, what do we do now?"
I turned off the computer. "Find out how to get to the Underworld. I don't think there's anything else here for us to do."
"I guess you're right. Hey! I saw an ice cream parlor on the way down here! We can get some ice cream!"
I rolled my eyes. "And how is that supposed to help us?"
"Ice cream can give inspiration."
"Ugh, whatever," I said. "Let's just get out of here."
I scooted back my chair and stood up. I was about five steps away from the door when the librarian spoke:
"Leaving so soon? You haven't checked out any books!"
"Um, we didn't need to," I said. "We found everything we needed online."
"No, no, stay! I'm sure I can find you something to check out."
"No, thank you. We've got to get home," Percy said.
"Oh, that's a shame," the librarian said.
And then she exploded.
A small disclaimer:
THANK YOU TO WIKIPEDIA FOR THE ARTICLES. I ACTUALLY DID TAKE THEM FROM WIKIPEDIA, AND I AM GIVING THEM THE CREDIT THE AUTHORS DESERVE.
Alright. Good.
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OKAY BYE.
R&R Annabeth's jealousy...