madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-oh no! they made studio gibli...EMO!-

Once they reached the ledge, Annabeth was sure she'd signed their death warrants. Which wasn't very nice of her, but considering the way Percy was wheezing next to her and slipping on the shards of glass, there wasn't many other options.

The cliff dropped more than eighty feet straight down. At the bottom stretched a nightmarish version of the Grand Canyon: a river of fire cutting a path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces. Annabeth wouldn't have been surprised if they started moving on their own, like 2D monsters made of dark paper.

Even from the top of the canyon, the heat was intense. The chill of the River Cocytus hadn't left Annabeth's bones, but now her face felt raw and sunburned. Every breath took more effort, as if her chest was filled with Styrofoam peanuts. The cuts on her hands bled more rather than less. Annabeth's foot, which had been almost healed, seemed to be reinjuring itself. She'd taken off her makeshift cast, hacking at it with the bigger chunks of glass, and leaving the tangle of Styrofoam behind, but now she regretted it. Each step made her wince.

Assuming they could make it down to the fiery river, which she doubted, her plan seemed certifiably insane.

"Uh..." Percy examined the cliff with narrowed eyes. He pointed to a tiny fissure running diagonally from the edge to the bottom. "We can try that ledge there. Might be able to climb down."

He didn't say they'd be crazy to try. He managed to sound hopeful. Annabeth was grateful for that, but she also worried that she was leading him to his doom.

Of course, if they stayed here, they would die anyway. Blisters had started to form on their arms from exposure to the Tartarus air. The whole environment was about as healthy as a nuclear blast zone. Teqi hadn't said anything in the last five minutes, so Annabeth glanced back, making sure the girl was still with them.

She was watching the rocks and rivers in front of them with a pained face, her breath becoming jagged for the first time. Annabeth was shocked at how fine she looked down here, her skin only blemished with previous scars and a single cut across her cheek. Teqi's voice was wobbly though, and her eyes moved across the landscape quickly. "Why are they- what..."

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked, moving to the edge of the cliff and looking down with a grimace.

"You can't see-" Teqi paused, her eyes dim. "Oh, Nico was right."

Teqi could see through the mist that was protecting her and Percy from the true horrors. Annabeth squeezed Teqi's arm, trying to reassure her, but even she didn't know what of. "Just, lets focus on getting down to the river."

Percy went first. The ledge was barely wide enough to allow a toehold, let alone support a person. Their hands clawed for any crack in the glassy rock. Every time Annabeth put pressure on her bad foot, she wanted to yelp. She'd ripped off the sleeves of her T-shirt and used the cloth to wrap her bloody palms, but her fingers were still slippery with sticky blood and trembled under the strain. Teqi was above Annabeth, her platform shoes would have made it harder to climb down without slipping, but that didn't seem to be the biggest problem.

"Don't close your eyes!"

Teqi looked down, and opened one eye slowly, like she was scared of what she would see, "What-what do you think this cliff is made of, Annabeth?"

"Glass?"

"Oh." Teqi faltered, and then kept slowly climbing down, her eyes on the charred ground far below them. "Okay, well, just don't get any of it stuck in your hands."