𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒 | privation; a state in which things that are essential for human well-being are scarce or lacking.
Esmerelda had suffered through some pretty awful summer vacations before like that one time she was nearly sacrificed to a world-end...
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▬▬▬ CHAPTER SIXTEEN ▬▬▬
Another chapter title that came from a song, lol, I'm sorry 😂 If I can't think of any good chapter titles, I go to song titles for help
ETHAN WOKE UP INSIDE OF a box. No wait, a crate actually. He could tell because of the woody material and the thin slits between the boards, allowing light to enter his little area of space.
But... it wasn't just any light. It was sunlight. Real, actual sunlight. He could feel it's gentle warmth touch his pale skin, giving him the vitamin D he had been so dangerously deprived of. And not just that. The air he breathed was lighter and fresher. It didn't hurt to inhale it, and it didn't feel like he was dying every time he breathed out.
We're out of Tartarus, he realized, his eye growing wide with amazement.
They were out. They were out! A hysterical laugh bubbled from his throat, but the joy faded away when his current predicament dawned on him.
He was stuck in a box... and he had no idea why, or where Esmerelda and Nico even were. He racked his brain for answers on how he got stuck in this situation. The last thing he remembered was traveling through the heart of Tartarus with Esmerelda. There was a shit ton of monsters around them so she used the Mist to mask themselves but... but they heard Nico screaming in pain and she lost concentration...
Then after that were the monster attacks... They were everywhere. They bit them, they slashed them, stabbed, cut, clawed, they did every horrible thing they could think of. It was a miracle he and Esmerelda lasted so long trying to fend them off. In fact, he didn't think he should even be alive after all that.
He certainly didn't feel alive. Now that his joy had faded away, his body was now aching with pain. He could feel bandages wrapped tightly around certain parts of his body, as if someone had tried to cover the wounds up but he didn't think they actually tried to heal them. He could still feel every hit and cut he sustained littered all over his body, and he let out a low groan.
Okay focus, he scolded himself. How the fuck did I get here?
Right, right. Well, after he and Esmerelda alerted every monster of the vicinity of their existence and they nearly got mauled to death for it, he vaguely remembered a giant shoving their way through the crowd. One of the twin giants... Ephialtes, he guessed. All he could remember after that was the giant reaching out for them and then... blank.
Suddenly he heard a loud sound that pulled him away from his thoughts. It sounded like a plane about to lift off.
Am I at some sort of airport? He wondered, getting more lost by the second.
"There they go," someone commented. They sounded close, like they were standing right next to the crate he was stuck in. "I hope those twins know how to fly a plane right because if they screw it up and destroy the special package I sorted out for them—"
