νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 3-17: I fail my first test EVER

ANNABETH

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I wish I could've put the mechanical spider on a leash. I also wish it had been something nice, like a dog. It scuttled along the tunnels so fast, most of the time I couldn't even see it. If it hadn't been for Tyson's and Grover's excellent hearing, we never would've known which way it was going.

We ran down a marble tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Tyson grabbed Percy and hauled him back before he could fall. The tunnel continued in front of us, but there was no floor for about a hundred feet, just gaping darkness and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical spider was about halfway across, swinging from bar to bar by shooting out metal web fiber.

I felt a little glimmer of hope. "Monkey bars. I'm great at these."

I leaped onto the first rung and started swinging my way across, eager to catch up to that little death machine. I was just hoping that once we reached Hephaestus, I could smash it to pieces.

Tempest was behind me and she scoffed. "You're afraid of spiders, but not of plummeting to your death. Go figure."

I rolled my eyes and jumped to the other side, not stopping even as I looked back at my friends. I saw Tempest right on my tail, keeping her gaze on the spider, and Percy was watching Tyson giving Grover a piggyback ride. The big guy made it across in three swings, which was a good thing since, just as he landed, the last iron bar ripped free under his weight.

We kept moving and passed a skeleton crumpled in the tunnel. It wore the remains of a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie. The spider didn't slow down. Percy slipped on a pile of wood scraps, but when Tempest shined a light on them we realized they were pencils- hundreds of them, all broken in half.

The tunnel opened up onto a large room. A blazing light hit us. Once my eyes adjusted, the first thing I noticed were the skeletons. Dozens littered the floor around us. Some were old and bleached white. Others were more recent and a lot grosser. They didn't smell quite as bad as Geryon's stables, but almost.

Then I saw the monster. She stood on a glittery dais on the opposite side of the room. She had the body of a huge lion and the head of a woman. She would've been pretty, but her hair was tied back in a tight bun and she wore too much makeup, like a flight attendant in a travel catalog- entirely fake. She had a blue ribbon badge pinned to her chest that took me a moment to read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED EXEMPLARY!

Tyson whimpered. "Sphinx."

I glanced at Tempest. "It's fine. I know what to do."

She wouldn't look at me. "Then go."

I started forward, but the Sphinx roared, showing fangs in her otherwise human face. Bars came down on both tunnel exits, behind us and in front. Immediately the monster's snarl turned into a brilliant smile.

"Welcome, lucky contestants!" she announced. "Get ready to play... ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"

Canned applause blasted from the ceiling, as if there were invisible loudspeakers. Spotlights swept across the room and reflected off the dais, throwing disco glitter over the skeletons on the floor. Tempest spit some out of her mouth and frowned.