Pistanthrophobia

Chapter 1 - Helia Falls to Her Death

She was falling.

Falling where? She doesn't really know.

You know that feeling when you wake up and you just go where the hell am I? That uncomfortable feeling crawling its way through your stomach eventually latching onto your throat and erupting into a blood curdling scream. That moment when it feels like all time slows down to an abrupt halt as if the world is pointing a finger at you and laughing right in your face saying what a small little fool, she would never survive in the real world. That moment where you actually believe it. But then you come back to your senses and realise what just happened. You regain your memories and remember that you are you and that's ok.

Because that quite literally just happened to Helia. She fell, got lost in the weightlessness that came with it but eventually realised what had happen and what was about to happen.

She had been betrayed and was slowly but surely falling to her inevitable death.

Helia never thought it would go down like this (no pun intended). She thought that she'd die a hero, that she'd go down in history as brave and courageous, sacrificing herself for the better of her friends and maybe even the world. But no. Of course not.

She had been in the middle of perhaps the most important quest in the past 100 years and of course she had to die in the middle of it. Great.

In the middle of her racing thoughts Helia wondered something.

How long had she been falling?

It had to have been a while right? She could no longer see the edge of the cliff of which she had been pushed off of. Holy cow, how far does this pit go? Then something hit her.

Pit? Where the hell was she? All she could see around her was the endless void below, above and around her. Helia had read just about every book in the camp library and there was only one place she read about that had been described with such disturbing features as the one she was currently located in. That couldn't be possible. That shouldn't be possible. If what she was thinking about really was true then... No. It couldn't be.

No longer did she only have to worry about trying to survive the longest fall probably ever but know if she some how managed to live then she had to worry about surviving somewhere no other living person had ever survived before.

Tartarus.

In most peoples eyes the situation would have already seemed dire but for Helia it had only been amped up. For a moment, that last bit of hope that she was grasping onto for dear life, that maybe she would survive (gods know how) had diminished. Pulverized into nothingness. It all felt hopeless. Every bit of strength that Helia used up trying to discover a plan on how to survive and get out now seemed hopeless.

With the little bit of strength that she could physically muster Helia shut her eyes and did the only thing she could. She prayed. She prayed to her father because that's what she always did. Usually it was just to catch him up on everything even though he could probably see that quite clearly, but this time it was different. She prayed that he would somehow magically save her and that everything would be ok. She would survive this, she would be able to go home and see her little brother again like nothing happened. But that's just it.

Nothing happened.

Like always.

Apollo never answered his daughters prayers.

No matter how many times Helia spoke silently to her father, he never answered. Not a single attempt to contact her. Not a sudden burst of warmth through her body, not a beautiful sing song from a passing bird. The hearth at camp didn't even grow brighter when she sacrificed half of her food for him. Nothing. In fact, the one thing he gave her, he wasn't even there to present her with. He had taken his time to visit Chiron and had him pass along the gift. Without even so much as a note or a petty excuse for his actions. But she cherished that bow and arrow more than anything. She always had to come up with excuses for him, just so she didn't feel as hurt.

Maybe he had a meeting with the gods or some other immortal business to attend to.

There's something you need to know about Helia. Being the child of Apollo, naturally, she sometimes tends to glow. Considering it only usually happens when she's happy so you can imagine her surprise when she opened her suppressed eyes to the realization that she was glowing. Obviously in her state, she was not going to be in a very happy mood so she had no idea why on earth something like this would ever happen.

That's when she looked across at her arms and legs and noticed bright, golden tendrils clawing their way up, slowly getting tighter and tighter. Even while living in a world consumed by gods and mythological beasts, nothing like this had ever happened to Helia. She was hit with a sudden burst of adrenaline and strength. Now in no other circumstance would you ever catch Helia Orisa Velis being so careless and take such large risks, but something came over her better sense of judgment. She flung her arm out to the side of the cliff that she was near (is this thing even a cliff?), grasping onto its rocky surface. The whiplash almost caused her shoulder to be dislodged from its socket, but in that moment, she felt a weird sense of invulnerability.

She tried to pull herself up but ultimately started to feel the strength wear off. Then came the adrenaline crash, causing to pass out and fall from the edge in the process.

(992 words)

Hey so this is the first official chapter of Pistanthrophobia!!!! I'm really excited to share Helia with you guys cause I love her sm. I would just like to point out a couple things before we move on.

I'm only 14 years old so of course my writing isn't going to be great. I'm working to improve it, and that starts with actually writing in 3rd person for once in my life. Obviously, I'm no professional writer so my writing needs a lot of improvement so you guys can come along with me for that ride.

If you have any problems with what Helia says or does, then get over it. This is not an x reader so if i see any comments saying "I would never do that" then istg. If you act and talk differently to Helia then good, that means I'm doing my job right.

Im Australian so just keep in mind that i spell words differently to some others. Also, my editing program is American i think and i don't know how to fix it so oh well.

Before i roll on out i would like to point something out. I always give my characters names with meaning sooo interpret that how you will i dunno.

I'm currently on school holidays for 2 weeks and i don't have a social life so i should be writing quite often but i ain't promising anything. (bro you havent updated in a month💀)

Anyways i hope you guys will have as much fun reading about Helia and her adventures as i have had writing them. Thanks for reading and i shall see you next time adios - spiderman

the playlist i was listening to while writing

(should i do this very chapter?)