It's been waaayyyy too long, and I'm sorry :( I hope I can make it up to you guys somehow..!
I bolted into the arena and whistled. Mrs. O'Leary bounded over to me.
"Hey, girl," I said, scratching her behind the ears. "I hate to ask this, but can you shadow travel again?"
She let out a little sigh, but seemed okay with doing it. I whispered something into her ear (Nico had taught me how to do this) and climbed onto her back. She dashed toward the forest and soon, everything went black. When the world came back into view again, we were on a beautiful hill. On one side, a nice house lay, and on the other, a highway. Mrs. O'Leary yawned and laid down. Soon, she was snoring. I smiled and patted her head one last time before heading down to the house.
"Mrs. Castellan-" I heard someone try as I came to the door.
"Don't call your mother 'Mrs.', Luke," a voice that was obviously Mrs. Castellan answered.
"Okay, Mom, would you please listen? Only you have the key."
"Oh, yes, the key. You know, your father gave it to me. Stolen from Hades? Yes, yes, something like that."
"Where is it?"
"Have a cookie, Luke, you're so thin."
I rang the doorbell. The talking ceased, and footsteps clattered to the door. Nico opened it.
"P-P-P-Percy!?" he cried.
Someone knocked over a chair in the kitchen, and I saw a flash of blond before it suddenly disappeared.
"Move," I said, angry. He obliged and watched me walk into the kitchen.
"Luke!" Mrs. Castellan cried. "I knew you'd come home! Here's you're lunch!"
She handed me a paper bag. I felt bad, so I took it, then set it down when she turned to make more.
"Nico," I muttered, turning to him, "where's Annabeth?"
He looked around the kitchen desperately. "I don't know."
"Nico-"
"I really don't know! She must've put on her Yankee's cap!"
Someone coughed on the chair in front of me. I'd spent so much time around Annabeth, I knew how tall she was, and I managed to knock off her cap with perfect aim. She looked at me sadly.
"Hey, Percy," she said.
"What's going on? Why are you with Nico? And what's this 'key'?"
Nico sighed. "I can't tell you. But Annabeth told me what happened at camp, and I promise, nothing is between us. Okay? Trust me, you don't need to worry about that."
Annabeth punched him in the arm. On normal occasions, he would've flinched, but it was too weak.
"Where's this disease?" I asked, calmed down a little.
"If you want to help me," Annabeth said, "then we can't tell you, okay? You can still help."
"How?" How was I supposed to help cure a disease that I couldn't know anything about?
"Find the key," Nico said. "Back in the 40s, when I was little, Hades put a new entrance into the Underworld. It was supposed to clear up the lines. His keys that he owns can seal up or open any entrance. This particular entrance is sealed. Well, Hermes had a child a while back that needed to get into one of these sealed entrances, so he permitted his child to steal the keys and get into the Underworld. He didn't come back alive. It's a nice story."
"Where are the keys now?" I asked.
"Hermes got them back from his child right before he went into the Underworld. For whatever reason, he gave them to May. Of course, she won't tell us where they are..."
"Why do we need them?"
"Percy," Annabeth said, gripping my hand, "please, just help us find the keys. I'll-" She coughed. "-be okay then. Okay?"
"Alright. Where should we start looking?"
"We've searched May's whole house," Nico said, "except the kitchen." He looked sadly at the piles of moldy peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and cookies. There was literally years worth of rotten food in this place. "Guess we'd better start."