Unlikely Heroes

Chapter 84: A Taste Of The Labyrinth

"I fucking wished I listened to Annabeth."

Clarisse leaned against a stone wall, breathing heavily. Bruises and small cuts covered her arms and legs. I am pretty much the same, but my wounds seem to heal much faster. Clarisse looks exhausted, terrified, and done with this place. I totally agree. This place is a nightmare.

In the last few years, I have seen some terrifying shit. I looked directly in the eyes of Nyx, Lady of the Night. I faced all the Olympian Gods without fear, which should have made me shit in my pants. Traversed the Underworld without much effort. Held up the fucking sky! But this place...

This is place is pure horror personified. The first time I delved into the dark with Clarisse, it was okay. No monsters, no deadly obstacles, nothing. It made Clarisse very suspicious. She was constantly on edge, but we didn't come across anything. The dark maze caused us to be lost and appear somewhere around China. But that's it.

The second time... the true horror started to show. It is as if the first try was meant to study me and Clarisse. To prod us and suck out everything we fear. The labyrinth will then take it and bake a specially crafted horror for you. I saw hallucinations of Annabeth being dead. Bianca and Nico's disembodied voices spoke to me as they said every insecurity I had to me. How I failed them. That they hate me. I felt myself cracking and breaking down. I knew it was not real, but it felt so real. The lifeless body of Annabeth. My own siblings hating me... I never felt so small in my life.

After we managed to escape, we didn't dare enter for at least two days. This mental agony seemed to be only directed at me for some cruel reason. Clarisse wasn't seeing anything but suffered some minor wounds at that time. I don't know why or how, but this place is evil. Gods would even find it difficult to navigate that place. It shifts, it remakes itself, it recreates itself so it can show you the next nightmare that will break you.

It wasn't just mental pain. No, this place will switch between mental assault and physical. The third time, we saw no mental images, but we were met with traps, undead monsters I couldn't dismiss, and I barely saw them coming. It is as if a thick invisible mist prevents us from seeing anything.

Clarisse glanced toward me as she readies herself to push onwards. "Aren't you supposed to be a Godly being? I find you rather weak."

"Excuse me, but this place is made to trick anyone. It feels as if someone made it to hide here. Not just from mortals, but from the Gods too. I can't pierce this magic or mechanical nightmare," I say pushing myself off against the dark stone wall.

Clarisse scoffs a bit. "We need to keep moving. Let's hope we can find a place where you can teleport us out," she says through a sigh. We soon started to walk again at a tense and wary pace.

"Sorry. I am just on edge. At the moment, I just want to get out of here," Clarisse says softly, eying the walls and every dark pocket we see in suspicion.

"I know. This place only spells bad things. I just don't understand how Luke is going to use it. How many entrances have we found so far?"

"Six, but all were far away from camp. I guess the closest was the one in New York," Clarisse says.

"Yeah... at least we could just plop down in the hotel. I was exhausted. We should-" I say but was cut off by Clarisse. One index finger on her lips as she shushed me.

"Shh, hear that?"

It began softly. The muttering of sounds that I recognize as words but held no meaning. Incoherent words are strung together to form a sentence. I glance at Clarisse as we shared a confused but tense expression.

"Left is right... no, no, straight is left! Yes. Yes. And then down to Mary..." a voice mutters. It's clear this person is driven insane by the Labyrinth. If it wasn't the Labyrinth, it would have been one of the many monsters or ghosts that wander around.