Annabeth Chase and the Lightning Thief

Chapter 32 - I get a new dog

The entrance to the Underworld didn't have as tough a security as I thought they would. Then again, they were looking for people trying to break out, rather than in. Like seriously, who would want to break into death? You'll end up there anyway.

There were a few black-robed ghouls around, but most of them weren't really paying attention to anything around them. There were three entrances into the Underworld, all connected under a a huge black archway that proclaimed: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Pass-through metal detectors mounted by security cameras were at the end of each enterance, watched over by security guards.

Two of the three entrances were marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY and the third was EZ DEATH. If you wanted to get to death quickly, then choose the EZ DEATH line. It was moving along quickly while the other two barely seemed to move at all.

In the distance, I could hear more howling, and I shivered to think we'd be facing the source later on. I prayed to Athena that the plan would work.

"What do you figure?" Percy asked me, gesturing at the lines.

"The fast line must go straight to Asphodel," I answered, thinking. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"There's a court for dead people?"

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare - people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward - the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Fields of Asphodel."

"And do what?"

"Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas," Grover answered. "Forever."

"Harsh."

"Not as hard as that," Grover muttered. "Look."

I followed his finger to see him pointing at some ghouls apprehending a spirit, frisking him at a security desk. I didn't recognize him, but Percy and Grover both did.

"He's the preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.

"Oh, yeah," Percy said.

There was no news in Camp Half-Blood, so that's why I'd never seen him before, but the boys told me he'd raised millions of dollars for orphanages only to spend it on upgrading his mansion, like adding an indoor pool and gold-coloured sheets. Apparently, he'd died in a police car crash when his "Lamborghini for the Lord" had sky-dived off a cliff.

"What're they doing to him?" Percy asked.

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fu - Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

Percy shuddered. I didn't feel much better. I liked them less than he did.

"But if he's a preacher," Percy said, "and he believes in a different hell . . ."

Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. They're very stubborn - er, persistent, that way."

We were getting closer to the gates, the howling getting so loud that it was almost bursting my ear drums. But I couldn't see the source until he suddenly appeared directly in front of us. And by appear, I don't mean that he poofed into existence like a fairy (which don't exist, by the way, they're actually a myth), but that he was always there, just so transparent that we couldn't previously see him.