Chaos Descends

He Doesn't Care or Where I Almost Loose My Cool

"We're running out of time." I groaned as we got ready to board yet another bus. After out encounter with Leucothea, we had waited for another sign or some sort from the gods or a dream about Nico to tell us where he was going to be next but nothing came. It was now Day Eleven, coming up on Night Ten and we were nowhere closer to finding Nico or figuring out who tried to poison me.

"We're always running out of time." Percy said with a shrug. "It's our specialty." I glared at him a little as he said this but he wasn't wrong. Time was never on our side.

When Leucothea had disappeared back into the lake last night, the four of us decided to head a bit further into the woods nearby and make camp for the night. We made a small fire, and ate some food from our backpacks before going to sleep. I had hoped, prayed really for another dream revealing something to me about Nico or whoever was after him but I slept almost blissfully dreamless. The same happened for the others. Nothing woke us up and nobody dreamed about anything.

We decided that morning over breakfast to head out of Long Beach and move to Los Angeles. Maybe Nico would be there, maybe he wouldn't. In any case, we could go to the entrance of hell and call upon my hellhound. "It's more like a waiting room situation though you know." Percy told us as we headed back into town to buy our tickets.

"A waiting room? To the entrance of hell?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, some people don't have the right payment you know like drachmas."

"So they're just waiting in there? For eternity?" I asked feeling a pang of guilt. All those people who didn't know about the gods see just stuck in a waiting room? That didn't sound fair.

"No, sometimes Charon takes people across because he feels bad for them." Percy said with a shrug.

"Who is Charon?" Axel asked.

"He's the guy who ferries people, on the boat you know." Hazel replied.

"Oh right, right like in the movie Hercules. He takes Hades back through the underworld." Axel paused. "So you've been on that boat Percy?"

"Yeah. Made me sick to my stomach." Percy replied clutching the area.

"Why?" Hazel questioned. "You love boats."

"I know. But it was like.. I don't know it felt like I was dying. Not a fun experience." As we boarded the bus to Los Angeles, I realized it was finally my turn to sit with Axel. While he didn't seem as jazzed by the idea either, I didn't want to ask Percy or Hazel to switch with me. We were all supposed to get a chance to sit with each other, our time just came when the bus ride was going to be the longest.

Sighing, I sat down at a window seat and Axel slid in next to me. Percy and Hazel sat behind us, probably to supervise and break up any fights if necessary but I was too worn out to fight with Axel. I just wanted to have a quiet bus ride to Los Angeles and find my boyfriend.

"What will you do if Nico becomes immortal?" Axel asked surprising me ten minutes into our ride.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning to face him. Axel frowned and brushed some of his blond hair out of his eyes.

"I mean, what will you do. You gave up your immortality right?" I nodded my head slowly. "So you're going to you know, die one day and if he becomes immortal, he won't."