Callie Jackson, The Redemption

Chapter XVI

Callie's POV

  "Any ideas to save them?" Noah asked.
"Not a one." Nevaeh said.
"Mine would never work." Malcolm answered quietly. Of course Malcolm thought his wouldn't work; he never did.
"Tell us." Noah said quickly. "Your ideas always seem to work." And we put our heads together, whispering.

"It's going to be me." I said firmly.
  "No." Noah said harshly. "You're the one they want. I'm going. I'm useless anyway."
  "Say that again and I'll knock you off this mountain." I snarled. "Don't you see? I'm the one they want. They'll take me, and give you Kat and Hestia. Problem solved."
"You don't know how to solve problems, do you?" Malcolm asked.
"I'm going now." I said, and stood up.
"I'll go with you." Noah stated, and got up to stand beside me.
  "No."
  "I'm going." Noah said, crossing his arms.
  "I said no." I mimicked him and crossed my arms.
  "Why don't you two love birds-" Nevaeh started.
  "Stop that sentence or you're the first to fall off this mountain." I said pointedly.
  "You two go, and Callie be the bait. We'll meet you, Noah. And here." She handed him a small back pack. "Stay at the top." Nevaeh snapped, annoyed at my comment.
"Fine." Noah said flatly. We started walking towards the cavern, and I started to think. Nevaeh had told us the set up of this place. They had built a balcony looking down onto the ground, where they held Kat and Hestia captive. Yet this balcony was very complex, and filled with monsters. I'd fall over. (you're probably thinking: "how are you predicting the future? Why would Malcolm want you to fall over a balcony edge?" You'll see) but to get to the top was even harder. More monsters swarmed the entrance path. It was rocky and steep, nothing we couldn't handle, but the one thing that made me nervous was the trickery to it. The mist was thin, but that didn't mean that it stopped working. Steep trails could easily turn to cliffs under your feet, or the rocks could turn back into Ourea. I didn't want to deal with them again. But this wasn't my worst fear. Kat. She was my worst fear. No one knew if she was alive or not. What if she didn't survive every thing they've done?
  "Hey." Noah said, stopping to look at me. I snapped back to reality. "You okay?"
  "Yeah. Why'd you ask?" I tried to sound like I was actually fine.
  "You zoned out."
  "I do that all the time." I said calmly.
  "I'm thinking of them too. Don't think I'm not." He said seriously.
  "I'm scared Noah." I whispered. I bit my lip, trying not to let the tears rim against my eyes.
  "She's alive. I'm sure of it. Even if she's not, she wouldn't want us to mourn. She'd want us to rip the thing that killed her to shreds." Somehow, that comforted me. Kat was strong, she knew what has to be done, even if it called for a little sacrifice. But it wasn't going be her. I was going to make sure of that. The underworld was no place for her.
"Ok." Noah interrupted my thinking again. "We need to go up this path to get to the top. It's not far."
"Noah... why's it so quiet? This place should be crawling with Demigods and monsters."
  "They're waiting for us. For our entrance." He said.
  "What a warm welcome." I snorted. "Being torn apart by monsters. Lovely."
"This path is the shortest." Noah stated, pointing at a steep, thin, rather twisty dirt trail.
"It's kinda close to the edge, don't you think?" I asked.
  "It's the only way to get there by sundown." He turned away to look over at the sun.
  "Fine." I stepped him front of him, but that was a mistake. The ground crumbled, leaving a cliff, where I hung over the edge.
  "Noah!" I panicked. The only thing I could think about while hanging over this cliff was Percy and Annabeth. I wouldn't fall into Tartarus if I let go. I'd fall down a mountain. It crossed my mind in those few seconds that I hung there to let go, to stop this war. But it wouldn't stop. It would rage on, with no one to fight it. Percy could, but it wouldn't work. I knew that I was chosen, that I had to stop it, so I hung on.
  "Callie!" Noah scrambled to the edge to look down on me. He reached down, but it was too far of a gap.
  "Hold on." He said, trying to be calm, but I could tell he was nervous. "I'll get you down." I could hear him quickly digging through the pack. "Got it." He said quietly, then looked back down at me. He threw down one end of a rope. "Tie it around your waist. I'll pull you up."
  "Um, Noah? I'm hanging from an edge. I can't tie anything around my waist." I stated.
  "All right. Hold on tight." He said nervously. I wrapped the rope around my hand several times, and tugged on it.
  "Seems stable enough." I mumbled.
  "Ready?" He asked.
  "As I'll ever be." And he started to pull me up.
Have you ever been on a roller coaster, right before it starts, and you know you're about to puke on anything and everything? Because that's what I felt like at the moment. Except I was dangling over the side of a mountain, so if was about 10,000 times worse. It felt surprisingly short, being lifted by Noah, and when I got to to the top, I wrapped him in a hug, forgetting about the barfing I was probably about to do.
"Thanks." I said, still having him wrapped in my arms. He hugged me back awkwardly, probably wanting to puke more than I did.
"You're welcome." He replied. We stood in silence for a while, then broke apart.
"We need to get going." I told him, and started to walk again, making sure I stepped on no cliff starters.
  "Are we there yet?" I asked after a while.
  "What are you, five? But no. Almost." Noah replied.
  "Yes. I am a five year old who is using herself for bait, has died, and is swinging a dagger around. Yippee." I said with the straightest face I could. I was ready to get there. To save my friend. To throw myself at the monsters, and let them know they couldn't get me. I started to pay attention to the surrounding areas. They were becoming more barren. Tall grass turned into rocky cliffs, and growls and chirping went silent.
  "We're close." I whispered. I didn't want to talk loud. It took too much of an effort, and I was kinda scared that someone would hear us.
"Callie, if we don't make it out-"
"We'll make it out." I said quickly. I breathed deeply as I looked in front of me, at the black hole of a cave that held everything I could think of that wanted to rip me to shreds and hang the pieces like flags. "Ready?"
"No." Noah replied.
"Me neither. Come on."

The set up of the inside was pretty incredible, being it was taken over by monsters. The inside was still rocky, maybe even more than before, with spikes coming out of the ground like a killer maze. But that's what got us to where we could go out with the plan. Noah and I moved silently, watching as the monsters moved around us. We knew we needed to be where they were going, so we went around.
  "Follow him." Noah breathed, pointing at a demigod's bobbing brown head. I crept around the rock, and went closer to the dude. There was no doubt that he was heading where I wanted to go.
"Stay." I hissed at Noah. "I'll go down from here. Stick to the plan."
"Alright." He whispered uneasily. I could tell he didn't want me to go alone, and I didn't want to leave him. But I had to. "Be careful. Just– just follow him. Don't get taken. Until, you know, you're supposed to."
"Ok." I breathed. I didn't think it'd be this hard to leave, to go on my own. "I better go before I loose him." Noah nodded slowly, and crept around the rock as I went forward. I went silently, barely hearing the dirt crackle under my feet. I followed the boy from afar, noticing as two more people came to his side. He moved quickly, which meant I had to. But then, he was gone. I didn't see him anywhere, or his friends. 'Crap.' I thought, but I needed to keep moving. I crept around the big spike I was hiding behind, but someone gripped my arm tightly.
  "Where you going, Alexander?" Someone snarled. I ducked, hiding behind my hair, and spoke deeper than normal.
  "The, the bottom floor." I said.
  "Really?" They snarled. Someone grabbed my other arm, and spun me to face the other way. A rough hand moved the hair out of my face, to where they could tell it was me.
  "You're not Alexander." The owner of the hand whispered. I mustered up enough courage to put on a snarky smile.
  "Good observation." I said confidently. "Took you damn well long enough to find me." The person standing in front of me swung, and his fist connected with my face.
  "Thanks." I said through my teeth.
  "You just don't know how to keep quiet, do you?" One of the boys holding my arm said. They were almost lifting me off of my feet as their finger nails dug into my skin.
  "I like to think it's because of my beautiful voice." I smiled.
  "I swear to the gods when we're done–"
  "We aren't doing anything." The one in front of me said seriously. He rubbed his eyes, making the bags even more visible. "Bring her to the pit."
"What, are we in hell now? Am I going to meet Satan himself? Cause you three are nothing." The one on my right backhanded me before I knew what happened. But I didn't act shocked. I just spit.
"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine." I smirked.
"Boy at I gonna have fun torturing you." He gripped my arm tighter.
"Have at it princess." I snarled.
"Aaron, can I just do one thing now? Please? It'll be quick."
"No. Bring her to the pit. I'm not telling you again." He spat. They started to walk, with me in the middle. They clutched my arms, and almost lifted me off of my feet.
"Are you the giants they talk about?" I asked kindly.
"I heard it was a giant that killed you, smart ass." The one on the left smirked.
"I heard that was your mother." I smirked back. "I could go all day with this." He twisted my arm, and I grit my teeth in pain.
  "Well are you ready to meet the boss? Cause he's not as nice."
  "Probably prettier." I pointed out.
  "Go down you little bitch." He pushed me down a steep hill.
  "Is that what you said to your sister too?" I asked. But I stopped paying attention and never heard his response, when I was grabbed from the back and thrown to the ground. I hit my head, but still looked up at the two different demigods standing over me.
  "Tie her up." Someone from the side said. "She'll be fun."
One of the demigods looked down at me.
  "Hear that, Jackson? Even the boss knows you. You're in for a treat."
  "And so are you." I said back.

A/N
So hey guys! I actually liked this chapter. Hopefully you do too. I was writing it during school and exams, so it might make sense. Now you're getting to the good part of this story, and I hope you enjoy the next few chapters. Later🤙🏻💞
^^that marked 2000 words for this chapter.