𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗗 ⋆━━⋆ percy jackson

𝐯. they go to prison at sixteen

EROS was the deity of desire, most mistook that desire for carnal desire.

But desire didn't have to be for a person, it could be for glory, life, money, love,...

What made the children of Eros so alluring was their aura of desire, when most saw them they saw a fragment of what they most desired.

What did Cassie desired? At first it was to survive, not live, but she was sixteen and had already died (and came back to life). What did she desire now?

She was yet to figure it out. And even though she thought she had toughened up that past year, a part of herself remained that Cassie from ages ago; romantic at heart Cassie.

They'd tunnelled straight into a cell. They were in a six-metre-square cement room, and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars.

They didn't budge. Through the bars they could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard - at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks. And not the fun catwalks Cassie adored.

"A prison," Percy said.

Cassie tried forcing the bars. "Maybe Tyson-"

"Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

Somewhere above them, deep sobbing echoed through the building.

There was another sound, too- a raspy voice muttering something that Cassie couldn't make out.

"What's that language?" Percy whispered.

Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

"What?" The brunette asked. "You're killing me with all the suspense."

He grabbed two bars on their cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"Wait!" Grover called.

But Tyson wasn't about to wait. They ran after him.

"I know this place," Annabeth told them. "This is Alcatraz."

"You mean that island near San Francisco?"

She nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

Cassie looked around. "A very ugly museum."

Grover grabbed Tyson's arm and pulled him back with all his strength. "Stop, Tyson!" He whispered. "Can't you see it?"

Cassie looked where he was pointing, and her stomach did a somersault.

On the second-floor balcony, across the courtyard, was a monster more horrible than anything she'd ever seen before (and she'd seen Luke in San Francisco).

The monster looked like a mix between a medusa, a dragon and a very ugly half-formed woman.

"It's her," Tyson whimpered.

"Get down!" Grover said.

They crouched in the shadows, but the monster wasn't paying them any attention.

It seemed to be talking to someone inside a cell on the second floor. That's where the sobbing was coming from. The dragon woman said something in her weird rumbling language.

"What's she saying?" Percy muttered.

"Hopefully booking a session with a good stylist."

Percy laughed. "She sure needs it."

"Right?"

Tyson closed his eyes and began to speak in a horrible, raspy woman's voice. "You will work for the master or suffer."