madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-rewind to the 2013 dystopian fiction era-

completely unrelated and not even the same vibe as this chapter but listen to It's Called: Freefall by Paris Paloma for clear skin it's like the best cover ever made

 <3

Hazel's internal compass was spinning wildly.

She remembered when she was very small, in New Orleans in the late 1930s, her mother had taken her to the dentist to get a bad tooth pulled. It was the first and only time Hazel had ever received ether. The dentist promised it would make her sleepy and relaxed, but Hazel felt like she was floating away from her own body, panicky and out of control. When the ether wore off, she'd been sick for three days.

This felt like a massive dose of ether.

Part of her knew she was still in the cavern. Pasiphaë stood only a few feet in front of them. Clytius waited silently at the Doors of Death, lumbering and dark.

But layers of Mist enfolded Hazel, twisting her sense of reality. She took one step forward and bumped into a wall that shouldn't have been there, leaving a sore spot that would turn into a bruise on the side of her face.

Leo pressed his hands against the stone. The skin under his nails was white hot. He was looking around frantically, eyes wide with panic. Probably for the doors. "What the fuck? Where are we? What did she mean two?"

A corridor stretched out to their left and right. Torches guttered in iron sconces. The air smelled of mildew and emptiness, as in an old tomb. On Hazel's shoulder, Gale barked angrily, digging her claws into Hazel's collarbone. She winced.

"Yes, I know," Hazel muttered to the weasel. "It's an illusion."

Leo pounded on the wall, drawing blood on his hands. Judging from the fire under his skin, he looked fit to explode. "Pretty solid illusion."

Hazel grabbed his face. It might've been a little harsh, but she was panicking too. She shook him until his eyes began to blur, which also probably wasn't helpful. As she hissed at him, her voice grew higher. "Listen to me, she is playing tricks on us, so you have to ignore her if she says something bad, okay? We're useless if we panic."

"Pretty sure you're panicking," Leo wheezed, and then bumped into the wall again when she let go, spinning in a circle."

She glared at him, running a hand through her messed up hair, and tried to think. "Okay, it's just an illusion, so-"

Pasiphaë laughed. Her voice sounded watery and far away. After she spoke, an echo continued to ring. "Is it an illusion, Hazel Levesque, or something more? Don't you see what I have created?"

Hazel felt so off-balance she could barely stand, much less think straight. She tried to extend her senses, to see through the Mist and find the cavern again, but all she felt were tunnels splitting off in a dozen directions, going everywhere except forward. Useless.

Random thoughts glinted in her mind, like gold nuggets coming to the surface: Daedalus. The Minotaur locked away. Die slowly in my new domain.

"The Labyrinth," Hazel said. "She's remaking the Labyrinth."

"What now?" Leo frowned at her. "I thought the Labyrinth collapsed during that battle at Camp Half-Blood—like, it was connected to Daedalus' life force or something, and then he died."