Percy Jackson: The Light Bringer

Too Sticky For My Taste

   The mercenary gasped and coughed up blood. With seconds, he was taking his final breath. I let go of his neck and he immediately crumpled to the ground.

   A pool of blood formed around his wound and I felt a strange sensation in my chest. It wouldn't call it unpleasant but rather accentuating. 

   I looked under my shirt for the source to see a red light. While emitting red light, or light of any sort, from your chest was concerning... something told me it was normal.

    Already reaching my maximum tolerance of craziness for a day, I just scoffed at myself and turned to walk away. I saw Andromeda standing a few feet away from me.

    Her expression was that of shock...not anger, not sadness, not fear...just plain shock.

   A looked down in shame. Shame not for killing a person, but rather for enjoying it.

   "Listen An-" I tried to explain myself but Andromeda put up her hand, signalling an end to the conversation before it even began. "Let's just go and get this over with" she said without any emotion in her voice. I was left speechless and just simply nodded. 

   We walked in silence for a few minutes, with Andromeda coughing once in a while. I led the way, walking towards the direction that I felt was the right one, the one that I felt a strong pull from. The feeling on my chest kept increasing. However, I just ignored it and kept walking.

   "It's alright" I heard Andromeda say, breaking the silence. "What?" I asked, the speed in which I turned my neck giving me slight whiplash. 

   "I said it's alright, what you did back there." She repeated once more. "It's just a part of demigod life: death." She said and coughed once more.

   A silence settled on us once more, but this one not as grim as the first. This was more of a comforting silence. Yet I knew that things would never be the same after this.

   While I would soon prove to be right, I could not ever have fathomed by how much the things would change.

   "Over there," I said, pointing to a huge rock the size of the Statue of Liberty. "We can get a good view of our path from the top."

   I got a nod in reply, which I considered sufficient and jogged over to the base of the boulder. I took a moment to assess my path, a dangerous one with only a few places to grip while climbing but numerous sharp spikes and edges.

   Determined to do this, I carefully gripped the irregularities on the surface and made my way up. Again, I felt the constant pull of this place on my strength; slowly depleting it like a parasitic leech. 

   I reached the top after a tedious climb, my breathing elevated and heart racing. Looking down, I saw that I was at least three hundred feet above the ground. The air up here was cold and sent shivers down my spine as it brushed past me.

   I saw andromeda sitting on the ground, dreamily drawing pattern on the sand. She was but a speck from this height. She looked weary from the travels. I wondered what she was thinking.

   Focusing back to my task, I turned towards the direction that I felt the most pull towards. Even from up here, there seemed to be no end to this journey. The terrain stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions. The entire landscape reminded me of Tartarus, which I guess made sense.

   Barren and devoid of any living creatures, the place radiated evil. The effect of staying here, even if briefly, was clearly visible...with every step we took, we felt more and more weary. The whole ordeal was much worse for andromeda, her mortal body rejecting the air and the surroundings.