Percy Jackson:The Mountain Climbers

My Sanity Crumbles: Percy

I don't know how far down I fell.

Everything just blurred out of existence as me and Everest plummeted deeper into the chasm. He had let go of my legs and was screaming as he fell into the void. Ten seconds ago, I was almost on the verge of blacking out from Everest's vice grip on my wounded leg. Now, before I fell any deeper, I crashed onto some sort of platform.

My bag-pack saved me from breaking my entire spine, but then again the landing hurt like a hell. I was thankful that I did have my bag with me, otherwise I would've ended up paralyzed. I just lay there for a moment, thinking how the Fates could be so cruel to do this to me - deciding to put me on this quest in the first place and putting me through all the misery and pain.

I groaned as I rolled over on to my side. I coughed hard and I'll admit it hurt a bit. I looked at my leg, which was bleeding from the gash Everest's dagger left on me. I inspected it and concluded that it had passed the bone but did some damage to the muscle. I quickly opened my bag and brought out medical wrappings and bandages. I wrapped my leg tight with the wrappings, being careful not to damage my leg even further. 

I looked up and I saw the way I came in. It was way high up - at least two hundred and fifty feet up from my position. Knowing the state that I was currently in, I knew straight away that climbing to the top was impossible - I would cause my leg a lot of strain and that wouldn't help it recover.

"Help me!" a voice shouted from below the edge of the platform where I landed. I looked over and I see Everest barely holding on to a small budge in the ice. His feet were dangling over the chasm and he looked frightened and drained from our fight. 

I looked at the chasm...and I felt a familiar pull of the wind as I was almost pulled into the never ending hole leading all the way to Tartarus. I almost backed away from the pulsating aura of pure murder and evil, but I stole my nerves - I had one last thing to do and that involved getting rid of a certain mountain spirit.

I looked down at Everest and grabbed Riptide, which lay at my side where it landed after the fall. I muttered something along the lines of, "For all the people you killed - for Aaron Bailey." I raised my sword, making sure the blade pointed at the ice on which Everest was holding on to.

Everest knew what I was doing. His eyes widened in horror. "No! Don't! Please, I'm beg-!"

I stabbed Riptide into the ground and the platform split in half. As I crawled backwards, I watched as the chunk of ice that Everest was holding on to broke with a defining CRUNCH and fell towards the god forsaken hole to Tartarus. Everest screamed, as he fell backwards, being dragged along with the large serac of ice as it raced towards the never ending bottom. As I watched, his whole face just melted and his whole body evaporated and turned to steam. 

Everest was defeated, and I knew he was gonna end up in Tartarus. It was a harsh fate, but spirits like him deserve to roast and rot in places like Tartarus. My only thought was, "Good riddence."

Then my other thought was, "What do I do now?"

I crawled over to the walls of the chasm and hammered a screw into it, with one end tightly wrapped by the rope I carried with me just in case. I clipped myself in and tested the rope, pulling it. It didn't come out of the ice - I was secured in place.

I gathered the rope into a pile and just sat there on the platform, pressing my back against the wall. I couldn't believe what I had done - I had sacrificed my life to get rid of Everest and it landed me right next to a gapping hole that I knew led to Tartarus. If there was one thing I told myself, it was that I would never go anywhere near that place again. Now look where I am - back again.