Percy Jackson: Night In The Land Beyond The Gods

"Welcome to the land of the living"

Jason's POV

A groggy fog of darkness surrounded me, trapping me in on all sides. It carried no scent, no obvious texture, and made no noise. I hadn't checked to see what it tasted like, and I hadn't wanted to test it at that point, anyway. My mouth already tasted metallic, like I'd recently been in a fight.

From my current predicament, I could guess that I hadn't won.

Somewhere above my head, there was a glowing white light. A little square of blinding light that meant change. If I reached it, something would change... maybe temporarily, maybe permanently. But it would definitely change, something – or maybe someone – would change.

But what would it be? Or who would it be?

But inside of me, I felt a deep tugging sensation. I need that change, I decided eventually, I won't be able to float in nothingness forever.

The darkness surrounding me pinned me down, its smokey ropes squeezing me tightly until I couldn't breath. So maybe I wasn't floating in nothingness, but I was still trapped in it. And demigods don't like being trapped, it has a bad habit of ending in destruction. My fists clenched at the thought, the tugging increasing until it was nearly unbearable.

I felt the tugging sensation increase, and located its source to my stomach. My fingers tingled with electricity, caused by the feeling in my stomach (or so I had guessed).

And then I exploded upwards, flying through the dark nothing until the square of light became the size of a trapdoor, its handle only an inch from my outstretched fingers. I gripped the handle, holding it like a lifeline... because at that point, it truly was the only thing keeping me from falling into the black abyss of dark nothingness.

Beneath me, I heard a deep roaring sound. The sound of a monster, an ancient beast that had woken up upon my escape. I couldn't see it, but it could see me. I could feel it staring at my dangling body.

It roared again, and terror gripped me. A cloud of fire escaped the beast, illuminating its body for the briefest moment. The image had scarred my mind, dancing behind closed eyelids when I blinked.

Its eyes had promised carnage in the darkness. The murder of a thousand people and then more; the razing of cities until they fell to the ground; the death of an age and the fall of justice. The monster promised the end of Olympus, and to bring hell to those who tried to stop it.

The cloud of fire charged towards me and I twisted the trapdoor's brass handle, the fire falling short at my toes as I was sucked into the glowing white light and spat out into reality.

The monster's roar echoed in my head and my eyes snapped open, leaving me shaking in the Argo II's infirmary as the familiar figure of Nico di Angelo looked at me from the farthest corner of the room.

"Welcome to the land of the living," the son of Hades smirked. "You've been out for nearly a week."

My jaw dropped open as he vanished, shadows wrapping around his body and leaving me to digest the news.