Percy Jackson--The Blazing Trident

Chapter 7: Let's Go To a Ghost Town

I stared at the crumpled body on the ground and let it out--all the pain, all the depression. Then I stood calmly and forced myself to think.

"Percy, will you be okay?" Thalia asked, her eyes just as puffy.

"She isn't dead. She is not dead," I muttered. "Never."

Zephr sighed. "I told you. She didn't get through the last stage." I felt tears rising up again, but shook them off. Because Annabeth is not dead. I believe it.

But when I touched her cold hand, the truth struck me too hard. I couldn't bear to try and listen for her heartbeat...what if..if I heard nothing?

"Save her!" I was practically screaming. "Save her!" My mind was spinning with the memories we had together. It couldn't end. It couldn't end now, after everything that's happened.

"Percy, she's....gone."

My eyes widened. Because it wasn't Thalia's voice who said that, and it wasn't Zephr's either. All three of us slowly turned around and a boy a couple years younger than me came into view. He had a calm expression touched with sadness, but determination. His floppy black hair reminded me of a certain Hunter I once knew.

"Nico?"

I could've died of shock. Nico de Angelo was standing right there, in front of me, twisting the same silver skull ring he did when he was nervous years ago. "You--why--?"

He lowered his eyes. "I've been wandering around since then. But how'd you guys get here? This is in Maine." I ran to the outskirts of the forest. Maine? Nico followed.

"How'd we get in--oh, never mind. Like most mazes, this place shifts, right?" I asked rhetorically, as used to I am to evil nightmare labyrinths trying to kill me. Pshh, been there, done that years back.

"Why are you in Maine of all places, Nico?" Thalia asked.

"I go see Bianca whenever I come round Maine," he mumbled.

"Oh, I see. Wait!" I was about to ask if he was going to try reviving her again but he waved a hand at me nonchalantly.

"Don't worry, I'm over that. I just set up a little gravestone here since we won't know where her body was when she died. Cause you know, Maine was generally where we first met you and..uh, Annabeth." Nico said.

I felt my heart thump again. That's right, we rescued the siblings here from that school manticore. "About Annabeth, what do you mean she's gone?" Nico pointed at himself.

"I'm a Hades son, you know? I can sense when people have died. And I can feel her ghost in the Underworld now, having a trial. If you want to save her....well, you gotta hurry," Nico said.

A lump rose in my throat. "Why? No worries, right, she'd definitely get into Elysium. Not like she'd-she'd get put in Punishment before we save her." Nico shook his head.

"Once you get in a category, be it Elysium, Asphodel, or Punishment, she can't go back out, no matter what Hades can do. They are bound there. There's time before she'll be sent, but....as you said, there isn't a conflict in decision and her being sent to Elysium will be pretty quick. So, we need to go now if we can save her before it's too late. They have to look over her entire past and bicker a bit over little details first, of course, but...well, she's a good person." Nico laughed. "Never thought being good would be such a trouble, you know?"

I could see him struggling a light-hearted tone, and while I ached for Annabeth, I knew he was right. "So, what do we do? Go to the Underworld and drag her back?" I asked.

He continued in a grim tone. "Actually, that's not far from the truth."

My head and heart still hurt for Annabeth. After all we'd been through, she couldn't just die like that. She was tough. I believed in her. That didn't stop my worry, though. The image of her pale face kept flashing through my head.