ENTRAPPED ₂

91

MADELEINE COULD NOT REMEMBER EVER FEELING TIME MOVE SO SLOWLY AROUND HER. Twelve minutes was an eternity.

Her consciousness wavered as the overhead lights flickered and the easy-listening music played on an endless, hellish loop. She could see the doors shuddering, see Percy's white fingers straining for a grip and Annabeth's teeth digging into her lip. Ethan had his arms wrapped around Madeleine, clutching her shirt in both fists. She could feel him shaking, or maybe she was the one shaking.

The elevator shuddered. Percy grunted. Annabeth let out a terrible, strained sort of breath.

Twelve minutes.

Madeleine could feel her life flashing before her eyes, like the three Fates were hovering somewhere in the elevator, showing her her own eternity. There was Madeleine as a baby, delivered to her father's doorstep by Hermes. There was Madeleine dancing around the kitchen with her dad. There was Hermes and her father on the couch, talking softly, Madeleine as a toddler slumped between them, her pajama pants too short.

She was fifteen and she could see her face from an aerial view, sheer and white and panicked, being dragged down to Tartarus by Luke's flying shoes. She was sixteen and she could see herself and Annabeth pulling a facedown, unconscious Percy from the ocean. She was seventeen and she was holding the sky, sweat matting her hair to her forehead, arms shaking. She was eighteen and Ethan was bashing Luke's head into concrete so he wouldn't kill Madeleine. She was nineteen and she had just killed Prometheus. She was nineteen and Ethan was holding her and she was contained in the Doors of Death, a single, frail human body, covered in blood.

She was nineteen. She was still alive. She only needed twelve minutes.

The elevator shuddered to a stop with a pleasant ding! For one horrible moment, the Doors didn't open.

Then, as if hit by something, they opened with a hiss. Black smoke billowed in, blinding Madeleine. She heard bodies hitting the floor, and Ethan made a low sound in the back of his throat. Madeleine grabbed him, pulled him close to her in the blackness, dizziness and drowsiness overwhelming her. She heard a girl sobbing from what seemed like several miles away, and then the world faded out completely.

⎯⎯ ୨ entrapped ୧ ⎯⎯

Madeleine was back in the elevator, but Percy and Annabeth were gone. In their place was Tartarus. He was much too big to fit, but he somehow managed. He was standing over Ethan's broken body, crushing his bones, and Ethan was screaming until his voice cracked. Madeleine tried to shift forward, to move, to help him, but her body refused to comply.

Then Leo was there. He stood, hovering by the Doors. They were not being held shut anymore but they were closed anyway, and Leo stood watching Ethan be tortured, and Madeleine screamed Leo's name but he did not move and no sound came out of her mouth, anyway.

"You left her," he said. His brown eyes, which were usually so warm, were icy. "You left Calypso. You left her all alone."

Tartarus crushed Ethan's knee. Ethan screamed.

The dream dissolved into smoky shadow. Madeleine was back in Tartarus now, and Damasen lay crippled on the ground, his throat slit, golden ichor pouring from the wound. The drakon was gone. Somewhere distantly, where Madeleine could not see, Bob was calling for the giant hoarsely.

Madeleine tried to call for Bob, to go to him, but her body was useless and heavy and her voice still wouldn't work.

Everything went black. Sound stopped. Then a shimmering, silver image appeared: Zoe Nightshade.

Madeleine knew this was not real, knew that Zoe had passed on a long time ago, knew she would never see her again, had accepted this reality. Her brain knew this, but every time she saw Zoe, it always felt like she was being gutted. It didn't matter that she was gone.