Greek Times for a Future Girl

I Knock Myself Out Trying to Get to the Underworld

I found myself falling and screaming my ears off through a kaleidoscope of bright colors and no exit in sight. I didn't know how long I was falling, but I did come to a stopping point as I landed on my back with a very hard THUD!

"Note to self: Never have three old ladies teleport me to Ancient Greece without a soft landing." I groaned as I pulled myself off the ground.

My back was sore, and I'm pretty sure I got the wind knocked right out of me, but that was something I could easily shake off. The second I pulled myself up, I felt warm, sunny weather on my face. 

"Now I know I'm not in Salem anymore." I said to myself when I opened my eyes.

I looked at my surroundings. There were no rain clouds, no skyscrapers, no coffee shops. Nothing I grew up with was in sight. I looked like I was in some sort of field, but none like any I've seen. It was sunny -like really sunny and not what I was used to back home in rainy Salem. It was also grassy, full of life, and it was surrounded by a huge forest. It was beautiful. I was very curious about exactly where in Greece the Fates had sent me. I didn't recognize it from the movie, so I might've been lost.

I then shifted my head and saw an obvious, darker part of the forest. I gulped and shook where I stood. I know that people aren't supposed to go into the woods by themselves -especially since it was a classic horror movie trope.

I'm not big on horror movies, but the ones I have seen have bubble-headed blonde sluts going into the woods by themselves, and every single one of the are killed by some creepy hatchet-wielding maniac. But hey- I was smarter than those sluts. I knew that if I didn't have sex, didn't say "I'll be right back" , or follow any strange noises, I'll live. And it's a good thing I was both alone and asexual for those first two tropes. All I had to really worry about was to not follow any strange noises. Easy peezy. And who knows? Maybe I would bump into Hades to make the trip easier?

I knew my decision.

"Well, here goes everything." I said as I took a deep breath and headed towards the dark woods. 

Five Minutes Later

My decision was a terrible one.

Everything was dark, foggy, and creepy noises filled the air. The smell of dying trees and plants surrounded me as I walked through that fearsome flora; Yep. Add that to the list of things that feel like a horror movie. You'd think I'd be used to walking alone in the woods, well- I wasn't. I didn't exactly leave my house a whole lot back home, so I didn't have much experience with walking in the woods. Unless you count Girl Scout camping trips, but even those occasions weren't enough times to consider me a "nature girl". I really hoped this path is where I needed to go, otherwise I'd literally had to die trying to get to the Underworld, and I knew that wasn't an option.

I tried to hum a happier tune to calm my nerves, but that did nothing, because every creek and chirp was creeping me out. I heard a branch snap and my head snapped upward; a startled noise escaped my throat before I could stop it. I started to shake so much my eyes kept twitching. I kept thinking that I was better off in that field than I was in this place. Leave it to me to make a bonehead move such as this.

I had to shake away that thought. There was no way I was backing down now. Not when I was this close.

"Find Hades, work for him." I kept repeating to remind myself why I was there in the first place.

Just as I thought my problems couldn't get any worse, I felt something hit my head. I was afraid it'd be a frog or something, but there was no disgusting amphibian on my head when I felt the spot where something hit me. Not even a second later, something else hit my nose and then my head again. The next thing I knew, it was raining cats and dogs and I was running to find shelter. Normally, any Oregonian would love running out in the rain, but I was a bit different. I hated getting wet unexpectedly, and an unexpected rainfall in the middle of a Grecian Forest was no exception.

"This sucks!" I yelled. 

I tried looking around to find shelter in the nearest and driest place possible, and as if my problems could not get any worse, the second I turned back around I was greeted by a cloud of dark smoke with a booming voice coming out of it.

"QUAKE IN FEAR, YE FOOLISH MORTAL!"

Inhuman noises escaped my throat as I tried to run away in the opposite direction, only for my forehead to meet a low tree branch with a very hard SMACK. My body fell hard onto the wet forest floor and the next thing I knew, I was unconscious. The last things I saw were flashes of magenta and teal.

Panic's POV

"Well, that didn't go as well as we thought." Pain remarked as we materialized in the mortal world to see that our trespasser had knocked herself unconscious.

"I told you that warning was a stupid idea." I snapped at my brother.

The only reason we scared her was to make sure she knew that she was trespassing in Hades' domain so she'd leave. Hades really hated it when mortals just walked onto his turf, and he suggested that we did something to stop them from entering. I hated to admit it, but Pain's idea really did work, just not in the way either of us had planned because now we were stuck out in the pouring rain with a strange unconscious girl lying on the forest floor.

"Hey, Hades said to make sure the mortals don't trespass. And that was the only idea I had!" he yelled back.

I rolled my eyes before turning my attention back to the girl. She looked young, about fifteen or sixteen years old, was slim, and wore the weirdest looking chiton I've ever seen. The top part was gray and was long sleeved, while the bottom part was dark blue and separated her legs- which strangely enough, not revealing anything, and her black sandals covered both of her feet but looked really comfortable. She had one some sort of soft light blue helmet that covered the top of her wet mousy-brown hair, and a small braid slid down her face while avoiding that deep cut on her head.

Wait. A deep cut on her head?!

I did a double take and looked at her again. There was a deep cut on her head, just above her left eyebrow, forcing blood to stream down her face like red tears. She must've hit her head on that tree branch harder than Pain and I thought.

"She's hurt!" I exclaimed.

Pain noticed the cut on the girl's head as I rushed over to see if she was still alive. "Geez, how hard did she hit that branch?"

That was my question. How could someone hit a tree branch so hard they cut their head open? I tried shaking her awake, but it was no use. She was out like the flame of a lamp. The only sign she gave of still living was that her chest was still moving, knowing that she was still breathing.

"I think she's still alive." I sighed a breath of relief. I made my way to her legs in an attempt to move her.

"What are you doing?" Pain asked me.

"We gotta help her before she bleeds to death." I turned to Pain as I grabbed a hold of the girl's legs. "Grab her arms, I got her legs."

"Are you crazy?" Pain shrieked. "We bring a live one to the Underworld, and Hades will be really flamed off!"

"Look at her!" I yelled at him, gesturing to the girl. "She's lost and scared. And unfortunately, we're the only ones who can help her now."

"Then whaddya suggest we do? Hide her in the Underworld and pray Hades doesn't find out?" Pain cynically asked me.

"You got any better ideas?"

Pain eyed at the girl and then at her cut on her head. "Okay, fine! We'll help her."

He got over near the girl's upper half and grabbed her by the arms, and the two of us shapeshifted into eagles to try to lift the girl up so we could bring her to the Underworld. Which proved more difficult than we both thought.

"Sheesh. She's heavier than she looks." Pain remarked.