𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝐏𝐉 𝟐

𝟎𝟎𝟑.𝟒

The impact didn't kill them, but the cold nearly did.

Freezing water shocked the air right out of their lungs. Their limbs turned rigid, and They lost their grip on each other. 

Juliet began to sink. Strange wailing sounds filled her ears – millions of heartbroken voices, as if the river were made of distilled sadness. The voices were worse than the cold. They weighed her down and made her numb.

What's the point of struggling? they told her. You're dead anyway. You'll never leave this place.

She could sink to the bottom and drown, let the river carry her body away. That would be easier. She could just close her eyes ...

Annabeth gripped her hand and jolted her back to reality. She couldn't see her best friend in the murky water, but suddenly she didn't want to die. 

Together they kicked upward and broke the surface. Juliet gasped, grateful for the air, no matter how sulphurous. Though she couldn't make out their surroundings, she knew this was a river. Rivers had shores.

"Land," she croaked. "Let's go sideways."

Annabeth looked near dead with exhaustion. Annabeth hooked one arm around Juliet's waist and both of them struggled across the current. 

The river worked against them: thousands of weeping voices whispering in their ears, getting inside their brain.

Life is despair, they said. Everything is pointless, and then you die.

"Pointless," Juliet murmured. Her teeth chattered from the cold. Shee stopped swimming and began to sink.

"Juliet!" Annabeth shrieked. "The river is messing with your mind. It's the Cocytus – the River of Lamentation. It's made of pure misery!"

"Misery," Juliet agreed.

"Fight it!" Annabeth kicked and struggled, trying to keep both of them afloat. Another cosmic joke for Gaia to laugh at: Annabeth dies trying to keep her best friend, the daughter of Apollo, from drowning.

Not going to happen, you hag, Annabeth thought.

She hugged Juliet tighter, "Think about Percy," she demanded. "What were you guys plans for college?"

"Percy......" Juliet mumbled, "Miss...Percy,"

"Yeah, Percy! We have to see him again! Go back up!" Annabeth urged her on, "We'll find him again,"

"Find him," Juliet murmured. The fog started to clear from her eyes. "Find Perce, get back home,"

Annabeth started making progress against the current. Her limbs felt like bags of wet sand, but Juliet was helping her now. She could see the dark line of the shore about a stone's throw away.

"Home," she gasped. "Back to New York?"

'Y-yeah,' Juliet agreed, a little more confidently, "Camp, New York, I want to go to school again,"

"And then college," Annabeth agreed, "What would you study, Julie?'

"Medicine," she admitted, "Don't think I would actually have to study it though,"

Annabeth laughed, and the sound sent a shock wave through the water. The wailing faded to background noise. Annabeth wondered if anyone had ever laughed in Tartarus before – just a pure, simple laugh of pleasure. She doubted it.

She used the last of her strength to reach the riverbank. Her feet dug into the sandy bottom. She and Juliet hauled themselves ashore, shivering and gasping, and collapsed on the dark sand. Annabeth wanted to curl up next to Juliet and go to sleep. She wanted to shut her eyes, hope all of this was just a bad dream, and wake up to find herself back on the Argo II, safe with her friends (well ... as safe as a demigod can ever be).