madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-walk her like a dog, sis, walk her like a dog-

Losing her sight had been bad enough. Being isolated from Percy had been horrible.

But now that she could see again, watching him die slowly from gorgon's blood poison and being unable to do anything about it—that was the worst curse of all. He was slowly getting paler and paler, only his lips stayed a deep red like the bags around his eyes.

She didn't have Teqi with her anymore either, she'd had to tie their hands together with a chunk of spiky vines that cut into her wrists so the stumbling girl wouldn't get left behind.

Annabeth still didn't know what curse had hit her, but her friend just followed wherever she was dragged, her purple eyes glazed over. It was worse when she'd cover her ears with her hands and close her eyes though. She'd tried to talk to Teqi, wave her hand in front of her face, all the usual things, but if they'd worked then Annabeth wouldn't be wondering why Teqi's head kept twitching to the side every few minutes.

Bob slung Percy over his shoulder like a bag of sports equipment while the skeleton kitten Small Bob curled up on Percy's back and purred. Bob lumbered along at a fast pace, even for a Titan, which made it almost impossible for Annabeth to keep up, let alone drag Teqi along behind her.

Her lungs rattled in her chest. Her skin had started to blister again. She probably needed another drink of firewater, but they'd left the River Phlegethon behind a while ago. Her body was so sore and battered that she'd forgotten what it was like not to be in pain.

"How much longer?" she wheezed.

"Almost too long," Bob called back. "But maybe not."

Very helpful.

The landscape changed again. They were still going downhill, which should have made traveling easier; but the ground sloped at just the wrong angle—too steep to jog, too treacherous to let her guard down even for a moment. She had to plan out the easiest way to walk every few meters, and then nudge Teqi along and around the obstacles. The surface was sometimes loose gravel, sometimes patches of slime. Annabeth stepped around random bristles sharp enough to impale her foot, and clusters of...well, not rocks exactly. More like warts the size of watermelons.

If Annabeth had to guess (and she didn't want to) she supposed Bob was leading her down the length of Tartarus's large intestine.

The air got thicker and stank of sewage. She'd started breathing through her mouth because of the smell, but the air lined her throat with welts instead. The darkness maybe wasn't quite as intense, Teqi's eyes still lit up a path, unless she started closing it again, and Annabeth could only see Bob because of the glint of his white hair and the point of his spear. She noticed he hadn't retracted the spearhead on his broom since their fight with the arai, Annabeth assumed he'd had to slice up all the demons, she hadn't been able to see any of it herself.

Percy flopped around sideways, causing the kitten to readjust his nest in the small of Percy's back and continue purring. Annabeth concentrated on the sound, pretending she was back on the Argo II in the cluster of couches with her friends, eating mini MnM's while Leopard purred like a giant lawnmower.

Jason threaded his fingers through the thick rolls of fur on Leopard's neck and held his sword tight in the other hand. He took a deep breath but kept it quiet as he turned in a circle, eyeing the dusty columns that created menacing shadows around them.

Nico stood at his back, glaring into the darkness, and for once Jason was glad to have the guy's company. That sounded a bit mean, but the shorter boy did freak him out a little bit, especially when he sat in the corner of the room and just watched everything happen with that distant look on his face.