The Gods 3: The Underworld

8

"This is it, I guess. No turning back once we get in." Jake said, staring into the hole, red light flickering in his glasses.

"Do we just jump in?" I asked.

"I think so." Jake said looking back up at me. Percy stared into the pit. His face dark and bitter.

"So... Who wants to jump in first?" Jake asked, looking back and forth between me and Percy.

"You." Said Percy looking up at Jake, like he was about to push him in.

"I'll go first, then Jake, then you can go." I said. Jake looked terrified but he agreed, Percy nodded as well. "Okay." I said taking a step towards the hole. I looked down in it, but all I could see was a red glow. "Just going to jump in." I mumbled quietly to myself. I took a deep breath and threw myself into the hole.

I fell down the fiery hole, and I may or may not have screamed. I heard Jacob screaming above me and I had a feeling that Percy probably pushed him in. Within a few seconds I hit the ground with a large thunk. I was one my stomach with a face full of dirt. I slowly peeled myself off of the ground, groaning in pain. Jacob was on his back a couple feet away from me gasping for breath. Suddenly Percy landed on top of Jacob. He quickly rolled off of him.

"Sorry." Percy said, patting Jake's chest. Jacob responded with a groan. I crawled over to Jacob slowly and helped him sit up. He rested his head on my shoulder, and I was suddenly very aware of his hand resting on my leg. He took a few deep breathes.

"Okay, I think I'm good." He mumbled into my shirt. He looked up at me over his glasses with his brown eyes. "You good?" He asked looking concerned.

"Yeah?" I said looking into his eyes. He moved his hand up to the small of my back and I winced. He pulled his hand away and it was covered in blood. He groaned putting his head on my shoulder for a couple of seconds.

"Turn around." He ordered. I hesitated for a moment then I did what he asked. He pulled up my shirt a bit and placed his hand on my wound. His hand suddenly felt warm, and my back stopped hurting. He took his hand away. My back ached and felt cold. Jacob mumbled something to himself.

"This is all I can do for now." He said regretfully. I looked back at him, he looked exhausted.

"Are you sure you're good?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'll be fine." Jake said. Percy walked over to us, and helped us up.

"We should get going." Percy said, looking at the both of us. He pulled out his sword, adjusted his bag, and started walking towards the right.

"How do you know that thats the right way?" Jakob asked, Percy looked back at us.

"Can't you feel it? The pull?" He said. Now that I thought about it, it did feel like we were being pulled in that direction. Jacob nodded, and we followed Percy. Jake and I walked close enough together that our arms brushed up against each other once in awhile. I thought about Mattie, we just broke up. But for some reason I liked Jacob. Maybe it had something to do with all of the healing, some sort of residual effect or something, but one way or another I have a bit of a crush on him. I watched Percy's footsteps for awhile, and looked around at the bare, dark landscape, but my thoughts always came back to Jacob, with his head on my shoulder and his hand on my leg.

After we had walked for what felt like a couple hours, we decided to take a break a rest our aching legs.

"I'm going to get some sleep." Percy said, taking his pack of and curling up on his side, He fell asleep almost instantly.

"How can he do that?" Jacob asked.

"Do what?"

"Fall asleep so easily. It takes me forever, unless i pass out." He said, looking at me. We sat on the ground a couple of feet away from Percy."

"I have no idea." I said. We sat quietly for a few minutes, looking around.

"So, how's your back feeling?" Jacob asked, breaking the silence.

"Okay." I said lying. It hurt from walking, but I didn't want him to heal me again. He looked exhausted.

"That's good, so.. um... random thought... If we make it out of here... do you think that we could get ice-cream or something?" Jake asked. My mind took a minute to form an actual response cause all it kept doing was screaming.

"Ice-cream? Damn i haven't had ice-cream in a while. Sure sounds fun. As long as we make it out of here, that could be awhile." I responded as calmly and coolly as I could. Jake smiled with a goofy grin.

"Cool." He said. I looked down at my hands, and started playing with my fingers to hide my smile. Percy quietly mumbled stuff in his sleep, as he rolled over. Behind him in the distance I noticed a shape growing closer very quickly.

"Jake?" I said, not taking my eyes off of the shape.

"Yeah?" He asked looking at me.

"What do you suppose that is?" I asked pointing towards it.

"Percy!" Jacob said jumping towards Percy startling him awake.

"What?" He said jumping up. Jacob motioned his head towards the monster. Percy looked at it squinting his eyes. He rolled his eyes when he realized what it was. "Oh." He said.

"What is it?"Jacob asked squinting through his glasses.

"It's the minotaur." Percy said getting up and swinging his pack up onto his shoulders, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his sword, swinging it around as he waited for the minotaur to get closer. 

"You seem very calm about this." Jacob said.

"Just spread out a bit." Percy responded waving his non-sword hand. Jacob took a few steps to the left, and pulled out his dagger. I once again stood weaponless behind the guys, which was very annoying because I'm great with a sword and I don't like feeling completely useless.

The minotaur roared when it recognized Percy and immediately charged straight for him.Percy stepped to the side at the last minute stabbed the minotaur in the side. The monster roared in pain, and a lot faster than Percy had anticipated the monster swung his arm smashing it into the side of Percy's head knocking him to the ground. Percy's sword was stuck in the side of the monster and Percy had to roll out of the way to avoid being stepped on. I ran towards the monster and pulled the sword out of the its side. The minotaur growled and swung at me, I quickly ducked and sliced at its legs. The monster picked me up, and Jacob quickly ran behind the monster and stabbed it in the back with his dagger the monster roared once more, dropping me, Then I quickly took the sword and stabbed it in the chest. It went poof in a cloud of monster dust, covering Jacob and me.