Freak || Percy Jackson x OC

One Hundred and Twenty-Four: I can tell our next fight IS GOING TO BE A BIG ONE.

PERCY

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There was no morning in the maze, but once everyone woke up and had a fabulous breakfast of granola bars and juice boxes, they kept traveling. Percy didn't mention his dream. Something about it had really freaked his out, and he didn't think the others needed to know that.

The old stone tunnels changed to dirt with cedar beams, like a gold mine or something. Annabeth started getting agitated.

"This isn't right." She said. "It should still be stone."

"I told you." Sen sighed. "You can walk five feet and go from a medieval torture chamber to a speakeasy."

The group came to a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling. In the center of the dirt floor was a rectangular pit, like a grave.

Grover shivered. "It smells like the Underworld in here."

Then Percy saw something glinting at the edge of the pit- a foil wrapper. Percy shined his flashlight into the hole and saw a half-chewed cheeseburger floating in brown carbonated muck.

"Nico..." Sen whispered.

"He was summoning the dead again." Percy confirmed.

Tyson whimpered. "Ghosts were here. I don't like ghosts."

"We've got to find him." Percy ddin't know why, but standing at the edge of that pit gave him a sense of urgency. Nico was close, he could feel it. He couldn't let him wander around down here, alone except for the dead.

Suddenly, Sen shot up. "Nico!" She began running.

"No, wait!" Annabeth protested.

Sen didn't listen. Percy followed her. They ducked into a tunnel and saw light up ahead. By the time Annabeth, Tyson, and Grover caught up with them, Percy and Sen were staring at daylight streaming through a set of bars above their heads. They were under a steel grate made out of metal pipes. Percy could see trees and blue sky.

"Nico!" Sen called out.

"Where are we?" Percy asked.

Then a shadow fell across the grate and a cow stared down at him. It looked like a normal cow except it was a weird color- bright red, like a cherry. Percy didn't know cows came in that color.

The cow mooed, put one hoof tentatively on the bars, then backed away.

"It's a cattle guard." Grover said.

"What?"

"They put them at the gates of ranches so cows can't get out. They can't walk on them."

"How do you know that?" Percy asked.

Grover huffed indignantly. "Believe me, if you had hooves, you'd know about cattle guards. They're annoying!"

Percy turned to Annabeth. "Didn't Hera say something about a ranch? We need to check it out. Nico might be there."