𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕎𝕒𝕣||HoO

𝐈

WHERE THE hell am I? That was the first thing that Maisie Solace thought as she woke up. She was sitting in the second to last row of a school bus with kids around her age sitting in front of her. She definitely was not in Los Angeles, which was where she was expecting to be. You're probably wondering, "Why would she be expecting to be in Los Angeles?" and to answer your question, because that's where the most common entrance to the Underworld is.

"Why would she be at the entrance to the Underworld?" you're probably asking now, and the answer is she's dead. Or is supposed to be. The last thing she remembered was laying on the ground as her brother tried to heal her, while her girlfriend gripped her hand like it could keep her from dying.

She lifted her shirt, expecting to at least see a cut where she had been injured, but there wasn't even a scar. She had died, and there wasn't even a scar to show it.

She looked around the bus. Everyone seemed normal. Then again, when Lina had explained her first quest going to the Underworld, she had said it looked normal. Maybe this was like a bus to the Underworld, or something to make it easier for teenagers to get used to being dead. That had to be it.

She quickly turned to the boy sitting next to her. He had brown hair, and an elfish face, and was fidgeting with something.

She took a deep breath, and asked a question that would probably be awkward, "How did you die?"

The boy gave her a confused look, although he didn't stop fidgeting, "Excuse me?" he then burst out laughing. "Maisie, are you joking?"

A pit of dread settled in Maisie's stomach. So she wasn't dead.

"Never mind," she mumbled, then looked out the window.

The bus was driving through a desert, which also meant she was nowhere near New York. She also noticed most people were dressed like it was winter. Even she was wearing a jean jacket and a yellow beanie on top of one of her mom's tee shirts. Which meant it most likely wasn't August anymore either.

"All right, cupcakes, listen up!" a teacher at the front of the bus shouted, snapping Maisie out of her spiral.

She looked over and saw said teacher, who was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he'd eaten something way past the expiration date. His buff arms and chest pushed against a polo shirt the same color as the shirts at Camp Half-blood. He wore spotless white workout pants and Nikes. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. Something about him seemed familiar to Maisie, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

He stood up in the aisle, one of the kids shouted, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!" probably because he stood up about five foot zero.

"I heard that!" the coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes landed on someone behind Maisie, and his scowl deepened. Then he noticed Maisie and his eyes widened in surprise.

The pit of dread grew. The coach obviously knew Maisie wasn't supposed to be here. She was worried he was going to call her out. Or, even worse, maybe he was a monster and he was going to attack her, and she didn't even have any weapons on her.

The coach did not attack her, or call her out. He looked away, and cleared his throat, "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."

He picked up a baseball bat and made a motion like he was hitting a homer. Maisie squinted and blinked a few times, because the bat seemed to be blurred around the edges, similar to what it looked like when the mist was hiding something. She blinked, and that's when she realized it wasn't a baseball bat, but a club. It looked like it had been taken right off a tree, and still had twigs and leaves attached. It reminded her a lot of some of the weapons satyrs used when they fought.