Narrator POV
Percy frowned at the bulging pack on his shoulder. They had scoured the room throwing in the pillow and blanket into the bag they found hanging just outside their door.
They even discovered a secret panel filled with nine water bottles and some weird food packet in the form of powder. It was as if they were in a survival game...
"So who is this he you were talking about." Percy asked trying to pry his mind off such an absurd idea as he took a glance around. There was nothing beside trees encased in black surrounding them. He could make out a figure or two in the distance, but that was all he saw.
"No one knows who he is." She paused for a moment as if she was in a trance. "But all we know is that he is the one that put us here. He is the one that controls whatever this place is."
"Did he ever say why?" Percy kicked the ground and red dust flew up.
"No, just that we were here to see who was the greatest, the most capable. The best of the best."
"I guess the Fates really does hate me." Percy sighed.
"Fates? Who are they?" The girl looked at him with a glimmer of curiosity within her red eyes.
"Well they are three really old lady, like millions of years old. They all share one eye, and a teeth." Percy stopped, but she motioned him to go on.
"They basically determine everyone's destiny." Percy eyes quickly darkened and his voice hardened. "I guess I am one of the unlucky people who have a messed up destiny. The Fates apparently love to cause pain, particularly to me."
"What is this destiny you speak of?" She tilted her head to the side like a little child and Percy resisted the urge to ruffle her wavy hair.
Despite the painful memories that was flashing in his mind, he couldn't help but smile at her innocent expression. He found himself telling her of his battles which quickly escalated into his betrayal and his death.
She took it well seeing that she was silent instead of overwhelming him with pity. Percy was grateful. Pity and sympathy was the last thing he wanted, despite how messed up his past life was.
They walked together in silence taking in the strange comfort of the twisted, distorted trees that seemed to be the only other sign of life.
"Since I told you my about my screwed up life, why don't you tell me your life story?" Percy gave her a toothy grin. But before she could say a word something stopped them in their tracks, and it petrified them. A sight worse than Medusa's head.
They smelt it, the scent of rotting flesh lingering in their nose. .
She clutched her stomach and renched. Percy managed to swallow down the sour bile trying to make its way out of his throat. Bodies of several people were hung up by their feet on a shriveled and gnarled tree. It was sadistic, the way their milky white eyes were opened, the dried blood that caked their faces, that fact that their skin was decomposing, slowing peeling off in long strips.
Even in the dark he could see that their neck had been split open and it seemed as if their blood had dripped down, watering the tree. He couldn't imagine how they felt hanging upside down, feeling their blood leave their body.
What was worse was the stab marks indicating that something impaled the poor victims and took its sweet time torturing them.
Most likely when they were still alive. Percy noted when he saw the spooked emotions on each of their faces.
It unnerved him to know that someone was capable of doing such a thing. Even monsters wouldn't be so sadistic.
That was when he fully took notice of his surroundings, how there was barely any light, how the disfigured trees seemed to act as wall preventing them from escaping or foreseeing what other horrors would befall them.
There was no River of Fire to heal them. no swords to protect them.
He had finally found a place that rivaled Tartarus, and he wasn't liking it. Not one bit.