If Looks Could Kill *Percy Jackson and the Olympians*

Chapter Thirty

Dedicated to @xBeautifulSunset 

 CHAPTER THIRTY

*Re-Cap*

“Oh, my gods!” Devin suddenly exclaimed, as we walked down an abandoned alley, “Look!”

 He was pointing up at an abandoned looking building. It was old and decaying, as the brick walls crumbled, but the sign at the top read, “DOA Recording Studio” in golden letters.

We found it. We found the Underworld.

*****

(A/N IMPORTANT: Some of the following was taken directly from the book simply because I don’t want to get any information wrong, therefore, messing up the rest of the story. So, please, keep that in mind. The following belongs to RICK RIORDAN, not me!)

 We stood there staring at the glass doors open mouthed for what felt like a century. We had found the Underworld. We were nearly done with our quest!

 How did we know it was the Underworld?

 I don’t know, maybe it was the sign on the door that said ‘NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.’

 It was a dead giveaway. Pun intended.

 It had to be close to one in the morning here in Vegas, but, as we walked into the building, we saw that the lobby was still full of people. A security guard sat behind a desk.

 Percy stopped Devin and I before we could go any farther.

“Devin, do you have a plan?” he asked. Devin gave him a look.

“Percy, Athena always has a plan,” Devin scoffed. Percy held up his hands in surrender, and then dug through his pockets, until he brought out the three pearls he’d gotten from the Nereid. He held them up and eye level before giving one to Devin and one to me, keeping one for himself.

“Alright, Devin, you have a plan, and I have a back-up plan,” said Percy with a smirk.

  Devin gave him a grudging nod of approval, and with that, we walked past the people in the filled lobby- who, strangely, didn’t talk or move or anything. Elevator music played overhead- which made me want to scream and tear my ears off, it was so terrible. It sounded like the screams of the tortured ones in Punishment. I tried my best to block it out as we walked up to the guard at the desk.

 He was raised on a podium so we had to look up to talk to him. He wore an elegant and very expensive suit that looked Aphrodite-approved. He had caramel skin and bleached blond hair that was cut military style. He wore sunglasses so dark that I couldn’t see his eyes at all- not a shadow, a vague outline, nothing. There was a black rose stuck in his suit’s lapel under a nametag, which I didn’t need to read. I already knew his name from ancient mythology I’d read in school.

“Your name is Chiron?” Percy asked incredulously. I performed a mental facepalm while Devin whimpered. Hopefully the guard wouldn’t make the connection of Percy’s inability to read his nametag to him being a demigod- meaning, alive and trying to get into the Underworld without being dead.

 Charon looked down at Percy with a cold smile. “How precious….Tell me, lad, do I look like a centaur to you?” he asked in a British accent, (much to my surprise, as I had no idea he’d be British…)

 “No…” Percy said, obviously noticing his mistake.

“My name is Charon. C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me now,” Charon said, bringing the nametag close to Percy’s face.

“Charon,” said Percy slowly.

“Wonderful. Now try Mr. Charon.”

“Mr. Charon.”