We Both Walk Among the Dead: A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Ch. 12 :D

Ok here\'s the next part, it\\\'s just gonna keep coming faster and faster now that I have the whole story figured out :) I still need someone to help with a cover though! Please comment, and enjoy ;)

            The moon was nothing but a tiny sliver of white in the sky, giving us no light and no help. I personally thought that it might have been because Artemis was disgusted with Candice’s relationship with Carson, but the Gods always had double reasons for everything.

            We had Ree and her brother hold on to scraps of metal, the blue energy they could call up like their famous father flickering around the metal and lighting up the area just enough for us to see. The chain link fence high above us reminded me uncomfortably of the electrified fence we’d had to cross to get Kira’s key, and that had been the Nemean Lion’s doom. Before us was a dark hole in the ground, earth still lining the bottom even though the surface of the ground had been cemented cleanly. The luminous peeling yellow paint of the backo in the corner almost glowed from the light of our make-shift torches, and the metal jaws looked eerily like some monster’s about to rip us apart. I shivered, and turned my back on the machine. The fence was lined with the bright orange and white cones that marked the edge of the construction site, and some had fallen down the earth hill to the cement bottom we were currently standing on. I mentally reminded myself to pick up the cones before we left, hiding the evidence of us being here.

            I took a step forward, the hard cement grinding against the sole of my sneaker, and peered down into the earthen hole. In the deepest part were the still forms of cheeseburgers and fries from the nearest McDonalds, all soaking together in three dumped bottles of rootbeer. The liquid reflected the faint moonlight and sky above us, but it started to stir slightly when the wind blew right through me. I shivered, the coldness of winter approaching making me wish I’d brought a better coat, and I peered down into the hole again.

            A flicker of movement appeared again, rippling the rootbeer, and I hurried back. Glancing around the deserted and dark construction site, I spotted Kira in a corner, her head fully back and frowning while she stared up at the stars. I remembered something about her mom and star-reading, but I walked over to her anyways, disrupting her when she heard my footsteps.

            She brought her head down, and glanced at me quickly. I nodded at her, still a little apprehensive of her. I could almost feel the tentativeness of our new friendship, and I was trying my hardest not to break it.

            She followed me back to the hole, while the wind froze me again and my still-damp clothes fluttered around me. I rubbed at the goosebumps on my arms, smelling the fresh scent of rain, and stepped to the very edge of the soggy hole. I felt Kira join me, close enough for her body heat to lower my goosebumps. I waited impatiently, breath steaming in the night air, hoping that the stupid ceremony would finally work. We’d been waiting here for twenty minutes, and though she never said anything, I knew Kira was starting to doubt my abilities.

            I grinded my teeth together while the first couple of bubbles broke the surface, the popping sound echoing in the quiet area. I glanced up quickly at the others, who scurried over to the hole, the twins silently joking and pushing each other almost into it. I glared at them fiercely, telling them to knock it off before some spirit took offence and left, dragging the others with them. Someone brought the torch closer to the hole, illuminating the first flickering forms. More bubbles erupted as the dead tried to grasp at the offering of food, and I activated my pendant silently. When the strongest of them, a burly bald man, tried to and successfully grabbed a cheeseburger, I slashed at him with my sword, making him disintegrate and the cheeseburger plop back into the rootbeer. The earth tumbled more into the puddle from my sliding down the slop to get at the spirit, and I whirled and slashed the rest in an unending battle while I waited for Bianca to appear.