𝐅𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 - jason grace

03. FOLLOW THE DEMON CHEERLEADERS

MAIA WAS JUST about done with Tartarus. She and Jason had been following the demon cheerleaders for far too long, and she was really getting tired of their annoying voices and shitty attitudes.

If it wasn't for Jason's hand in hers, reminding Maia that there was a reason for her to not just throw her life away like it was nothing, she probably would've lunged at them by now.

They followed the River Phlegethon, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices, and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of them.

It was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep Kelli and her comrades in view through the dark hazy air.

Maia and Jason trailed the demon chicks closely, hiding around corners and behind any sort of cover they could find. A part of Maia was fearful they'd get discovered through smell– she knew demigods had a particular scent monsters could pick up on almost immediately, and she worried she was leading Jason straight into his demise.

She was miserable. Her mind was spinning in circles, and the idea of her being the reason Jason didn't get to go back and live his life had slowly been crawling back into her thoughts. Maia would hate herself if she was the reason Jason was stuck down here.

She didn't care if she'd ended up alone, she knew it wasn't right that he was here. Yes, Jason had jumped in after her, and they'd agreed to go through the pit and find the Doors of Death together, but Jason didn't deserve this. This was her punishment, not his.

She was the one that pissed Gaea off enough to even consider sending someone down here. Not Jason. Not any of her friends. It was up to her to make it right. She didn't even want to think about all the shit her friends must've been going through on their way to find the doors on their side.

Jason, however, didn't seem to be minding. He looked at peace, maybe not totally happy with the situation they were in, but Maia knew he was glad he'd gone after her. But that just made her feel worse.

They were in the den of evil. The home of all the monsters that would always go after them. And Maia didn't even know how long they'd been there for.

Time was impossible to judge. They trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately the empousai weren't exactly speed walkers. They shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the Doors of Death, which pissed Maia off even more.

If anything, she wanted to find the doors as quickly as possible, for Jason's sake. For her friends' sake. She knew they needed to be reunited with their crew, that they needed to be working together.

Tartarus was draining. Step by step, Maia knew they were heading deeper and deeper into dangerous territory, right at the heart of the pit. It wasn't like she was losing her energy or will to live, or anything like that, but, the longer Maia spent down there, the more lost she felt. It was like, every single good thing Maia had grown to think of herself was slowly slipping away–she grew quiet and pensive as the seconds ticked by, and the Maia that had blossomed in the past couple of weeks was teetering on the edge of shutting down completely.

Her head was pounding, and Maia felt dizzy. She almost wanted to stop right there, and give herself over to Gaea and the forces she'd fought so hard to ward off, if only to guarantee Jason and her friends' safety.

It's the pit, she thought, it's meant to drive you crazy.

In retrospect, Maia knew it was everything in Tartarus trying to turn her against everyone, trying to manipulate her, use her, but she couldn't help but question herself for it. Was she really so weak?