Helle // Apollo x oc

Part 24

Tuulis POV

Right- what the holy hell is this.

The entrance to the Underworld looks like a weird cross between airport security and a multi line highway...

There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that had some text. I think it said something about Erebus... or something? Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog who was supposed to guard Hades's door, was nowhere to be seen.

There were three lines. One of them was moving fine enough, the other two were crawling.

"What do you figure?" Percy asked Annabeth.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgement from the court, because it might go against them."

"There's a court for dead people?" I ask.

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare—people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward—the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

Thomas Jefferson? I want to talk to him. Does he know about the musical?

"And do what?" Percy asked

Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."

"Harsh," Percy and I say at the same time.

"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."

A couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.

"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.

"Oh, yeah." Percy said.

I didn't remember seeing him, maybe he was in the news or something? Percy and Grower seemed to recognize him.

Percy asked "What're they doing to him?"

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur—the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

"Fun..."

"But if he's a preacher," Percy said, "and he believes in a different hell...."

Grover shrugged. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn—er, persistent, that way."

Well now I get to see this place at least once... fun...

We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now it shook the ground at my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy monster. I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at me.

Percy looked at it for a bit, "He's a Rottweiler."

The dead walked right up to him—no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching