Chapter 12
God's Box
The lively music had been muted, reduced to faint background noise.
Above Percy bright colors and lights blurred together. Filtered through the pool's surface
The water almost looked like a swirling portal; inviting him to a world of bright colors and blaring music.
Percy didn't want to leave the pool. He really wanted to stay down, submerged by murky water.
The water was extremely dirty. Fruit Flies awaited him above the surface while litter and plastic surrounded him underneath.
But water was water, no matter how much it looked like a slug.
Percy lifted his arm to study it.
The wounds had been healed. His skin, revitalized. Not even a single scar.
At least that still worked.
After confirming that all the metal shards had been expelled from his body Percy got up and kicked himself upwards.
His head emerged from the water as his hands reached for the ladder.
With his other hand he put the invisibility cap back on.
He climbed over the edge and got to his feet.
His senses were immediately overwhelmed by the music.
A fair like tune, fitting for a carnival or circus, came from the speakers hidden everywhere. The melody had stopped sounding cheerful long ago and was now reduced to a wailing, crackling song played on repeat and left long forgotten.
Laid out in front of Percy was a massive amusement park with flashy lights coming from all directions, inviting him to join the Mirror House, Carousel and the huge rollercoaster bridging overhead.
Reluctantly Percy moved away from the mini pool and headed deeper into the park.
He considered his options. South and West had been fully explored and yielded no results. He only found trouble.
His choice was between North, to the Rollercoaster of Death, or East, to the Spooky Scary Mansion.
Percy really didn't want any of that but he was running out of options and he was running low on energy.
His journey through the woods had slowly eaten up all his resources and now he was stuck with a burning hunger in his stomach.
The nearest city was still two days of travel away and the hunger was threatening to eat him alive.
All that was left for him was this abandoned amusement park placed in the middle of nowhere.
He had checked out the restaurants and café in the other sections but those had been raided already.
With a heavy sigh Percy chose North.
The once bright attractions had started to fade and decay at a rapid pace. Peeling paint and half rusted bars held up an enormous Ferris Wheel in the center of the park.
Murky red and brown were splattered everywhere. Just like in normal theme parks there was litter everywhere but instead of plastic bottles and paper cups Percy found glass, bullet shells and severed appendages.
Percy didn't know what was worse, the smell or the fact he'd grown used to it.
The teacup ride was still turned on but the machinery screeched everytime it made a turn.
Just as Percy passed it the ride came to a screeching halt.
The gates opened and a red liquid spilled out from the tea cups.
Percy kept moving forward, turning his head away from anything human looking.
Everytime he heard an unexpected sound he stopped dead in his tracks. Ready to fight.
A small blessing was the lack of zombies. That was also the only blessing.
Next to him an attraction suddenly starts to move. A device nicknamed "Freedom" suddenly came down. It was a freefall device but it didn't slow down.
When it hit the ground with a loud crash Percy swore he heard something going splash underneath it.
Percy found a food stall. This one looked slightly better than the others. It was mostly intact and didn't have entrails on display.
Carefully he moved over to it. Nothing happened.
He leaned over the counter and saw several bags of nacho chips and popcorn, still sealed and in great edition.
Percy immediately grabbed several of them and stashed them away in his backpack. He opened a cabinet and found 2 multipacks of soda bottles.
He retrieved those as well but stopped when the music abruptly stopped playing.
In one quick move he uncapped Riptide and turned around.
A shuffling noise was coming from behind one of the other food stalls. Percy slowly backed away from his own stall.
A figure emerged from behind the counter. It was a mascot suit, a pink cat, like the one on the park's logo.
With janky motions the mascot crawled over the counter. Pushing prizes and plates as he did.
The pink fur of the suit had turned almost completely dirt brown from all the mess stuck to it. Its overgrown head turned around. Revealing a huge grin and vacant lifeless eyes.
Before it could start pursuing him again Percy ran forward and impaled the mascot through his left eye.
The figure slumped backwards, it's grin still present as it watched the young demigod heave heavy breaths.
It moved its left arm, twitching it into Percy's direction.
Percy didn't wait and pulled his sword free, only to have it tear the cat's face in again.
"Eeeeerror." A robotic voice came from inside the suit, eyes and grin still focused on Percy.
It dropped to the ground, hitting it with a loud clanging noise. It remained unmoving.
Metallic black substance began to drip out of its face. Turning its fur black.
Percy pulled Riptide free, alongside some wires and gears. From behind the eyes he could see circuit boards and more wires. Finally the insides of the automaton matched the outsides.
Clang clang clang.
Metallic footsteps echoed through the park.
Percy closed his eyes. Counted to three in his head, and turned around.
A faded yellow suit strumpled from the Tea Cup ride. Shuffling forward with its dog-like head broken in a twisted angle. Turning its plastic smile into a grin.
Percy wondered if the dog recognized him as the one who broke his neck.
The music began booming from the speakers again. The tune was faster than before, matching Percy's heartbeat.
Lights flashed everywhere around Percy. Practically blinding him on the spot.
Attractions began to activate on their own as the dog automaton stumbled towards him. The merry-go-round's horses started going up and down in the spotlight, revealing headless corpses stuck to the poles.
In the distance the Loveride activated. Its lights turned red pink as stitched together bodies began to float out of the exit.
The sounds of kids screaming came from the speakers, assaulting his ears.
Percy convulsed.
He wanted to cry but a small part of him told him to focus on staying alive.
With great struggle Percy focused on the yellow dog that had gotten closer, clearly seeing him despite his cap.
Percy turned around to face the Western path but two more mascot suits came from that direction. A blue Hippo and a red Duck.
Both of their suits were stained with blood and equally terrifying.
Overhead the roller coaster car sped over the tracks. The rusted wheels were screaming every turn they took and it looked like these worn down rails could break at any moment.
As if Hepheastus heard him, the pillar holding up the rails suddenly snapped and fell down.
Percy dove to the side to avoid the rain of metal, bolts and rails.
He barely survived the collapsing rails but the next problem didn't wait for him. Headlights were coming his way. Without wasting a second he scampered away from the rails.
If he had been a second later he would have been crushed like roadkill.
Almost mocking him, the carts came to a stop in next to him, showing rows of dead passengers in various states.
Percy backed away from it.
A yellow hand closed around his neck from behind.
Percy let out a guttural scream.
The very earth he stood on began to shake. Metal creaked and screamed as the ground continued to rumble.
The dog's paw that closed around his neck faltered. The ground briefly shook while Percy desperately crawled away from the dog mascot.
When the rumbling stopped Percy had already decapitated the dog mascot.
From all directions more animal suits came wandering in. Enough to fill an entire mechanical zoo.
Meanwhile the music and attractions happily continued playing.
This place was hell. Pure evil.
Percy opened his backpack and began to dig through his stuff, painfully aware of the crowd around him.
He found what he was looking for and reached for it. His hand folded around a small plastic object.
The blue hippo was now within's armslength.
Percy ducked and focused on the oil bleeding from the decapitated dog. With sheer will power he managed to wield the substance up in the air and towards the hippo. It temporarily blinded the hippo but more importantly. With a kick to the chest the blue monster stumbled backwards.
Percy lit the zipper and tossed the small fire at the oil drenched hippo.
It caught fire immediately. Orange flames sprouted from the belly and began to eat away at the fur.
The mascot stumbled backwards in panic and brushed against the duck.
The brief moment of contact was just enough to light the duck up, turning it into a walking torch.
Percy had to admit it was a beautiful sight.
He turned to focus on the other automatons and spread out his hands.
Black liquid burst through their eyes and flew towards the half molten hippo.
The fire jumped to the oil which Percy directed back again to its source.
Again a brief touch of the liquid fire was enough to set them ablaze.
With a grin Percy began to run through the crowd, extracting oil from the monsters before having them catch fire.
Percy ran past the tea cup ride and set it ablaze as well. He turned around and set the freefall on fire. Burning the wood, metal and poor bodies left in this horrible place.
Along the way Percy set more parts of the theme park ablaze. The food stalls with human entrails, the Haunted Mansion and the human Ferris Wheel.
Everything burned and it was beautiful. As every horrible tragedy and trace of the past was being burned away, he felt like the world had gone beautiful again.
By the time Percy was done the entire park had been turned into a massive pyre.
He kept waiting the entire night until the first rays of sunlight shone through.
After the smoke cleared Percy finally could go to sleep.
The world out there was still hell.
But this one had ended at last.
A/N A discord friend said the last chapter wasn't fluf enough so I tried to add some extra to this chapter. Hope I did it right!
Mmm, the next chapter is number 13, wonder what it will bring?
Anyway, if you like this story. Consider dropping a review and sharing your thoughts. It does help improve the story and as always see you next chapter.
(Review)
Gamermisogi: How are the other pantheons letting this happen?
A: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
-CaptainMoonShine-