PJO HOO one-shots. PercyAU

Revised The Love of Night

The Love of Night

Percy POV

The wind screamed in my ears, pulling at my clothes and hair as I plummeted through the black void. My stomach flipped as the air rushed by in a chaotic blur. I had no idea how long I'd been falling or where I was going—my body felt like it had separated from my mind, and my thoughts were scattered.

But I couldn't escape the memories. They kept playing on loop in my mind, like some twisted video I couldn't stop.

"You insolent demigod!"

Zeus's voice thundered across the council room. It echoed off the marble walls, filling the vast space with rage. His eyes—those piercing storm clouds—were locked on me with nothing short of hatred.

"You shall be cast into Tartarus for your crimes!"

His words sliced through me. Tartarus. The worst place imaginable in Greek mythology—the prison of the damned, the home of the Titans, and something no living soul was meant to endure. I was going there, apparently.

But then...

"Zeus!"

Father's voice, full of desperation, echoed through the room. Poseidon, the God of the Sea, stood tall, his trident raised in a protective stance.

"You will not send my son to Tartarus! He didn't commit any crime!"

Zeus's stormy glare snapped toward my father. The room went silent, thick with the weight of the gods' power. The Olympians watched, some with sympathy, others with cold indifference.

"Brother," Zeus said, his voice dangerously low, "if you so much as look at me funny, I will wipe you off this planet."

Dad staggered back, his face darkened with defeat, but he didn't raise his trident again. He knew better. Zeus wasn't someone you defied lightly, even if he was your brother. And I wasn't sure what had gotten me in trouble this time—maybe it was the prophecy, or maybe it was something even darker that had happened while I wasn't looking. Either way, I was going to pay.

Zeus's eyes flickered to me again, and an evil glint crossed his gaze.

"This ends now," he said, lifting his master bolt. The power radiating from it was enough to crack the marble around us. Without another word, he unleashed a bolt of pure lightning straight at me.

I braced myself, but the strike hit me with the force of a thousand storms. It felt like my body was being torn apart from the inside out. My vision blurred, and my ears filled with a high-pitched ringing. I couldn't move, couldn't think, as the darkness swallowed me whole.

And then, suddenly, I was falling.

My heart raced, and I felt the chill of the air, the sharp sting of it biting my skin. It was so cold that it burned. I couldn't tell which way was up, which way was down. The world around me was a swirling vortex of shadow, and everything inside me screamed for it to stop.

The fall seemed endless, but when the ground began to rush up at me, I couldn't suppress my terror. I knew what awaited below, and it was worse than anything I could imagine.

Tartarus. The very name sent shivers through my spine.

I could smell it before I even saw it—the suffocating scent of sulfur and decay. It hit me like a slap to the face, and I gagged, struggling to breathe as the stench twisted into my lungs. The sounds of endless screams of torment echoed in the distance, an overwhelming cacophony of pain and suffering.

It wasn't just the noise. It was the feeling. The air itself seemed to suck the life out of me, a choking, oppressive weight on my chest. The walls of this cavernous abyss seemed to close in, and I knew they weren't moving up. It was me—my fall was the only thing that was accelerating. But I'd been here before, in nightmares that plagued my sleep, and the terror of it all crushed me once more.