Ella Jackson- Apollos legacy

9

A mattress store.
It looked as scary on the outside as in the inside. Me and Percy went in first.
It was quiet and the lights flickered. This was the kind of place you could die in, and not want to die here. Percy looked like he was planning out what to say. He gulped and moved his fingers a lot around his backpack strings. They didn't tell me much of the plan so I figured I was a distraction.

The mattresses were old looking. I smiled when I saw one of the last ones in the row. I looked at Percy and quickly went towards it. It was a water bed! I heard about them before and it just sounded so funny. If I could get one, I would get pet fish and put them in it so I could watch them swim at night! Percy said maybe that wasn't the best idea, but he didn't have the best ideas anyway. And I really wanted a new goldfish, since the one I got from the fair only lasted 3 weeks.

As I was about to jump onto the bed, a voice came from the dark corner of the store.
"Hello there!" An old voice said trying to sound happy.
"The mattress here are all 50% off and great quality for the price!"
The man walked out from the corner in a green suit and had the worst greasy thin hair in the world. It looked like it would fall out if you even touched it! He was a very skinny older man and seemed to give off the same vibe as the store.
He was going to speak to me again until he turned and saw Percy coming towards us.
"Ella. Come away from the bed. That's how he traps people." Percy said in a stern voice without looking at me. He was serious.
"Your Procrustes. Son of Poseidon and murderer of travelers."
The man looked surprised at Percy's words but also not at all.
"I do?" He said with a small smirk.
"Somewhere here is how we can get to the underworld." Percy said while gesturing me behind him.
"You have daddy's eyes. And are missing mommy, hm?" His smiled widened and he waved at me from slightly behind Percy.
"Let us through. Please?"
He turned his attention back to Percy from me.
"These beds are the best in town! They help you ..fit. And fitting in is what's hard for people like us.. Right?" He steps slowly closer to Percy. I grab his green plaid jacket as Procrustes grabs Percy's shoulder.
"I think we got off the wrong foot, call me Crusty, hm?! Now, this bed here that your sister was going to go on is the best of all the mattresses here! It even has a heating system!"
Percy looks up at the creepy god and looks at the bed.
"Ok. You first."
Crusty makes a confused face and in a second landed on the water bed and the bed immediately folded around him and almost tied him to the bed itself.
Annabeth then took off her hat and showed herself. "So that was the plan." I said while looking at the two of them. They both smiled as Grover came running into the store with the shoes on that Luke gave Percy before we left camp.

We went into the back room where Crusty's desk was and opened the door behind it.
"People go into it but don't come back!" Crusty yelled as we all walked into the portal.

The underworld looked like what you would expect. Dark, a little scary, cold, smoke, and more dark with weird noises. There were tons of people in a line that never seemed to end.

Percy pushed through all of them. It was the funniest thing about this whole being in the underworld thing.
Next wasn't so funny.
There was a dog with three heads and was the size of a skyscraper. We all ran so fast you couldn't even think where we were going.
The dog or dogs was called Cerberus. I remember that because I told mom I also wanted a pet Cerberus. It's three dogs in one! It was perfect! And I had her tell me the story of them each night. I even drew them constantly at school- which my mom and Percy found funny after I put a picture of them under our "pets" at home paper.

They were still running but I couldn't anymore. I was tired. I watched them run so fast they ended up in the smoke until they were gone. I turned around and saw the puppy.
"Awww" I smiled. Why were we running in the first place? Percy must have heard me saw "aw" because I heard my name from the distance.
The dog was huge and kinda intimidating but their eyes were so cute! I pulled out half of a sandwich and tore it into three pieces for them. I threw them up one by one and they caught them! I laughed and jumped up and down. They were just puppies! I went up to one of their legs and started scratching it. Their back leg started itching underneath them and made the ground shake. I went back to where I fed them before and pulled out an apple.
"Come here, puppy!!" I yelled so they could hear me. The puppy's face in the middle came right to me.
"You're a big boy!" I laughed and stroked his nose. I then climbed up and went towards where I heard Percy and the others. They were in a cliff calling my name.
"Guys! I did it!" I yelled back.
I could now see them through the fog and they all slowly backed up and stoped talking.
I jumped off Cerberus and threw the apple as far as I could from the cliff.
They all looked at me so surprised.
"It was just a puppy!? They were cute!"

We finally got to the gate.
Before that ; Grover almost died thanks to the shoes from Luke and the entrance to Tartarus, Annabeth got stuck—it wasn't a good adventure, but we finally got to the end, where mom was. We walked in and were entered by Persephone. She was graceful when she walked and had a calming voice. Her white dress dragged on the floor.
Then we all went to a room where we met Hades. The hades. It seemed impossible that he was right here. He lead us to our mom. She looked like she was covered in gold. She looked sad. It was almost scary to go and touch her. Me and Percy stood maybe 5 feet away from her even though all we wanted to do was hug her.
Hades looked back and forth between us.
"So are you going to give it to me to get your mom back, or.."
"So this was all a trap? You just worked with Ares this whole time to get the bolt and to get me down here?"
Hades put his hands through his black hair and Persephone came and almost laid herself onto hades.
"My helm, kid. I don't want your bolt. So, if you could just give me that, you can take your mom, who I saved by the way! A thank you would be nice..."
"Thank you." I joined in.
Hades pointed over to me. "See? Easy."
"Your helm?"
"Yes. My helm."
"We don't have your helm."
Hades sighed loudly.
Percy was thinking over everything because his face turns when he's thinking. His eyes squint and his mouth goes into a straight line. 
"Kronos. That's why we almost got pulled into Tartarus.. he wants the bolt to get back at Zeus for putting him there. He wants to start a war between brothers.."
"Kronos? Well if that's the case, you guys need to ask me for protecting because you won't last long without me. You can be right by your mom, and I'll do the goat too because I'm nice."
"No."
"No? You're making a mistake, kid if you think you can still get the bolt to Zeus and not have a war.. and if it's soon, I'll take the bolt to protect me.. us." He says as Persephone slightly nudges him, making sure he's careful about what he says next.
Percy looks at me and nods. He blinks to me and looks back into Hades view.
"We will get your helm."
With that, Percy drops the pearls that his dad gave us and we are back on the beach. Except this time the sky was grey and cloudy. Just like we felt about leaving our mom there again.
"Percy? Can we do it?" I say quietly to him so only he hears.
"I'm your brother. I'm here still. I'll protect you, Ella. I promise." He takes my hand and squeezes it tight. We lay down on the sand and look at the sky.
Something is coming.