Freak || Percy Jackson x OC

One Hundred and Thirty-Five: Weird antics in the maze

SEN

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The metal door was half hidden behind a laundry bin full of dirty hotel towels. Sen didn't see anything strange about it, but Rachel showed the demigods where to look, and Sen recognized the faint blue symbol etched in the metal.

"It hasn't been used in a long time." Annabeth supposed.

"I tried to open it once," Rachel said. "just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut."

"No." Annabeth stepped forward. "It just needs the touch of a half-blood."

Sure enough, as soon as Annabeth put her hand on the mark, it glowed blue. The metal door unsealed and creaked open, revealing a dark staircase leading down. Sen felt an evil chill run down her spine as she realized she was going right back down there.

"Wow." Rachel looked calm, but Sen couldn't tell if she was pretending or not. She'd changed into a ratty Museum of Modern Art T-shirt and her regular marker-colored jeans, her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket. Her red hair was tied back, but she still had flecks of gold in it, and traces of the gold glitter on her face. "So... after you?"

"You're the guide." Annabeth said with mock politeness. Sen was feeling very awkward about the weird dynamic in the group. "Lead on."

The stairs led down to a large brick tunnel. It was so dark, Sen couldn't see two feet in front of her, but Annabeth, Sen, and Percy had restocked on flashlights. As soon as they switched them on, Rachel yelped.

A skeleton was grinning at Sen. It wasn't human. It was huge, for one thing- at least ten feet tall. It had been strung up, chained by its wrists and ankles so it made a kind of giant X over the tunnel. But what really sent shivers down Sen's spine was the single black eye socket in the center of its skull.

"It's a Cyclops." She announced. Whatever could kill a grown cyclops like that made her a little queasy, but she had to be strong, since Percy was being weird, Annabeth was being weird, and Rachel had never seen any of the horrors down in the Labyrinth. "It's old. It's not... It's not anyone we know."

It's not Tyson.

Rachel swallowed. "You have a friend who's a Cyclops?"

"Tyson." Percy answered. "My half-brother."

"Your half-brother."

"We need to find him." Sen sighed. "Him and Grover. They've been gone for a long time now."

Percy looked at Rachel. At the Hoover Dam, he'd been a little shorter than her. Now, he was about an inch taller. "Grover's a satyr."

"Oh." Her voice was small. "Well then, we'd better keep moving."

She stepped under the skeleton's left arm and kept walking. Sen followed. Annabeth and Percy exchanged looks. Annabeth shrugged. They followed Rachel deeper into the maze.

After fifty feet, they came to a crossroads. Ahead, the brick tunnel continued. To the right, the walls were made of ancient marble slabs. To the left, the tunnel was dirt and tree roots.