𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

꧁𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐘 𝐜𝐡𝟑𝟔꧂

PART 2:
TARTARUS

Percy

Falling. All I knew and felt is falling. I wondered what it was like to walk again, to have the sun of my face. I wondered about the smell of grass, the sound of a laugh. Dude, chill out. You are getting way too poetic here, I commanded myself.

I didn't know how long it'd been. I think I'd fallen  asleep a few times already, but I really didn't feel like I knew anything anymore.

Annabeth. Annabeth was the reason I was going to Tartarus. I was there to protect Annabeth and get her through those doors. I was there to get her through them and shut them at any cost. That's what I knew.

I still held her in my arms, my head resting on her shoulder. Her hands on my back gave me the only reassurance I had.

We kept going through constant changing temperatures, one second it'd be like we're back in Alaska, and the next I'd feel like I'm being burned alive.

Suddenly, a faint light surrounded us. It was still dark and hazy, but I could begin to see an eerie glow below. Finally, I thought. Wait, never mind, I am not excited to arrive. My small spark of excitement swiftly turned to relentless dread.

The machines Leo attached to the back of the rucksacks began to whir and I found Annabeth's glistening silver eyes in the dark. She was yelling something. What was she yelling? Her screams were lost in the wind.

Just as we cleared the hole and entered Tartarus' sky, something grabbed me, tearing me away from Annabeth. I yelled in surprise and pain. The creatures claws dug into my chest and I gasped in pain when they dug into my stomach.

Whatever the creature was, it had wings that were flying me away. Leo's detector worked and Annabeth's parachute flew out at loads of different angles, laced celestial bronze spreading out in an area of 20m squared at the very least.

I was dragged away from her and she couldn't do anything about it. She was screaming my name and I was screaming hers but I was being dragged further and further away.

All of a sudden, there was a popping noise from the backpack and the massive celestial bronze sheet shot out. The harpy (which is what I assumed it was) got tangled and we began to fall.

More falling - guess I'm getting kinda good at it now.

Plummeting to the ground, I heard the monster screech in confusion and terror, its claws sinking into my chest. I was just yelling and screaming - I couldn't get riptide out of my pocket.

I stole a glance below and saw that we were about to fall into a river. I wondered which one it was. I had a selection of guesses: river of hatred that would give me immense pain (the Styx), the river of misery (Acheron), the river of fire and more pain (Phlegethon), the river of loosing my memory (the Lethe) or the river of wailing souls (the Cocytus). Yes, I did my homework this time. And no, I didn't want to land in any of them. If I could take my pick, it'd be something cool like the river Nile or the Thames, but I'm clearly not that lucky.

My last thought before I plummeted into the water was dry.

I hit the cold, cold surface like concrete. The monster fell just to my right, and it was impaled on a jagged rock, before it disintegrated. At least one thing had happened in my favour. I began to sink. It was weird, like I had a powerful presence all around me, yet not a single drop touched me.