It had been seven days since they met the goddess of the Phlegathon.
They had so many questions but the goddess refused to answer them, only giving them a direction to follow and a scarce message.
He will come
Not much to go on but they wisely didn't argue much, even though Annabeth and Clarisse had to be restrained from physically assaulting river goddess.
With the Phlegathon healing capabilities helping them manage somewhat, they continued their grueling trek, unaware of the dangers ahead.
And none of them caught the glare that the Lady Phlegathon shot at Annabeth.
Jake Mason was a walking dead man.
They assumed the worse as soon as he collapsed.
But it was much worse than that.
The endless walking for days on end pushed each hero to their breaking points, even the Stolls had stopped making jokes every two seconds to control their labored breathing.
Jason tried to rush to his side but with him practically carrying Piper, he could only stumble and kneel at Jake's side.
"Jake, speak to me, come on, we don't have time for this," pleaded Jason despairingly, reaching out to shake the son of Hephaestus awake.
"Don't touch me,"
Jason recoiled as if struck.
Somehow, impossibly, Jake slowly picked himself up and faced the exhausted heroes, his head tilted towards the rocky ground.
"Dude, are you okay?" Connor asked nervously.
Jake looked up or what was left of him.
His previously well-built form used to tower over all of them. Now he was a hardly a human being.
His gaunt features, covered in blood and ash only brought the term desperate to mind.
But more so than that when he fully looked up and they could see the literal decay of his eyes.
Before their very eyes, the entire left side of his face started to decay and crumble to dust, his skin turning black as if he were infected.
He managed one last word before his body went rigid,
"RUN!"
Katie turned into Travis' shoulder and sobbed, both in fear and in sorrow.
Rachel froze up and glanced at Annabeth in fear, "We need to go now!" she screamed
Annabeth broke from her stupor and was about to speak when the words died on her lips.
It started slowly but built to a crashing roar, pummeling the heroes, surrounding them in a fury of anguish and hatred, pure malice freezing them in place.
It was laughter.
Cold, harsh laughter.
The laughter of a killer who seeks out his victims for amusement and slaughtered the innocent.
And it came from Jake.
His body lurched forwards, his skin darkening faster and faster, the crimson blood that covered his body turning black.
"What the Hades!" shrieked Piper only to wake up to see an inhumane copy of Jake.
Leo lit his hands on fire, "I don't know what you have done with Jake but I can assure you, if you don't leave his body now, we will have blowtorched monster chow for dinner,"
From the creature in front of them, came an unearthly cackle, as it turned to face them, "You might as well halfbreed, your friend is already dead,"
Leo hesitated, but their time in Tartarus gave them a few gifts.
As soon as the monster in front of them lunged at Jason, Leo blasted it back with fire, they could hear shrieking pain from the creature until it inexplicably stopped.
None of them were prepared for what happened next.
The collapsed body, now completely and utterly destroyed beyond recognition, rose once again, lurching towards them slowly.
"I always come back, this body is now mine and there is no escape for you," its hauntingly empty voice hissed at them, "Flee, little demigods, for there is no place in my prison where you can hide."
Chris turned to them, "Run now," he told them calmly, unsheathing his sword.
"What! There is no way we are leaving you behind Chris!" Clarisse raged at him.
"I will hold it off long enough for you to escape, you need to leave!" The tone of his voice changed in a second. He turned towards his girlfriend and kissed her deeply, "Go kill some monsters for me," Chris whispered in her ear and turned back to his adversary, who ever so slowly lumbered towards them, its dead eyes focused on Chris.
"I love you Clarisse, never forget that," Chris said, his eyes never moving from the creatures place, he slowly took a battle position.
With one last hopeless look, Clarisse was frozen in place until Annabeth grabbed her and pulled her away, "Don't let his sacrifice go to waste, we need to leave,"
Slowly, but surely they managed to leave the son of Hermes and whatever monster that was behind them, only able to hear shouts and the clang of metal with the occasional horrendous laugh.
A testament to Clarisse's strength, she did not weep until they were a safe distance away.
She turned and managed one look behind her, to see the rise of the hill behind them, where surely her boyfriend was fighting for her life.
"I love you Chris," she whispered, tears finally cascading down her face.
For the first time in her life, she did not wipe them away.
As she eventually walked back to the main group, fortunately or unfortunately, she could not hear the deadly silence that had overtaken the hills behind her.
"Here, take my hand,"
Katie looked up to see Travis holding his hand out, he was a few boulders ahead of her.
They were at their final obstacle.
Or at least they hoped.
A moderate hill, stood in their way, not even appearing that daunting.
But in Tartarus, even such a simple hike took agonizing hours of crawling and fighting off winged beasts on unstable ground.
But for some reason, no monsters flocked towards them, it was as if this hill and what lay beyond it was a safe haven.
Or so they hoped.
Travis hoisted up Katie and help her steady as she tried to regain footing.
"I might as well ask this while we are still alive," he fidgeted nervously, "Will you go out with me when we are topside again,"
She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "If you can focus right now, maybe we will," she teased.
They were interrupted by a shout farther ahead and they both hurried to join the others.
As they scrambled to the top, all of the survivors couldn't help the audible gasps that escaped them.
Before them was a paradise indescribable by words. But even before they could fully comprehend what they were seeing, a ghastly howl tore through the air.
Behind them, at the base of the hill, were two grotesque beings, warped beyond recognition.
The survivors understood, even if some were slower on the uptake.
One of them used to be Jake Mason.
And the other used to be Chris Rodriguez.
They were once before two heroes.
Now, they were nothing more than monsters.
It has been a very long time I know, but I finally found time to write. I thank all of you who have stood by my side and all of you who have joined recently.
I dedicate this chapter to PhoenixRevenge for including me as an OC in her story Like Poison.
Please go check her out she is awesome.
Also you can meet and chat with other wattpadders of the PJ fandom on the mobile app of KIK
Our group name is #WattpaddersUnite
Hope to see you soon!
Catch ya on the flipside Pixels!
-PixelUp