The Mark of Janus (Book 2)

Chapter 17

It's not hard to forget how to feel once you die. In just the few hours that I had been down here, all sense of humanity had left me. It started with temperature. When I first died, a cold feeling had overwhelmed my body. Now the cold feeling had completely disappeared. The next feeling that left me was happiness. It was hard to feel happy when I had left all of my friends alone without me. It was even harder to cope when I felt so alone down here. Slowly, as one day-- that seemed like an eternity-- passed, all of the feelings that had come from my life disappeared. Sadness, anger, passion, love. I had nothing left, and when I looked at myself in the mirror in my room, I liked not having the baggage. I liked not having to be tied down by human emotions. I liked finally being as low as the monsters I had fought. And deep, deep down a part of me liked being dead. It was easy. I didn't want to be a half-blood, and when I was dead, I didn't have to be. I could finally relax.

"You have another visitor." Persephone peeked her head in the door. I nodded, staring at my reflection in the mirror, playing with the collar of my dress. I had gotten accustomed to the dresses that Aphrodite and Persephone had dressed me in. I was almost like a doll, I would put on anything they told me to. They changed my outfits several times a day in order to keep the time passing, both for me and themselves.

"Primrose." I heard a grisly voice by the door.

I stood and bowed low to the ground. "Hades."

"Come join me in my morning rounds." He nodded, motioning me to follow him.

I stood, the hallway eerily silent as we walked down it. "In a couple of hours, you will be leaving my palace."

I frowned. "It's time?"

"Indeed. You will lead one of your friends to the doors."

"I'll get ready right away." I started to turn. Hades gently grabbed my wrist.

"I'm going to give you a chance. You will understand when the time comes." He gently grabbed my face and placed a fatherly kiss to my forehead. "Once you are ready, I will send you to your destination. The mark will start to lead you. Follow it. Do not stray."

I nodded. "I'll make the Olympians proud." I started to head back to my room.

I was certain that if I still had a sense of humanity, I would be scared out of my mind. But my fear had left me a long time ago, so I stood in front of the mirror in my room, slowly unbuttoning my shirt, flinching at the wound on my neck. I stared at it for a couple of seconds, before slowly becoming indifferent to it. I was dead, and it was going to stay that way. After I lead them to the doors, I would be judged like everyone else, and probably be stuck in the fields for eternity. I turned away and got dressed in the clothes that Persephone had laid out for me. It was a simple pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt, something that I had worn every day while I was alive, but now they seemed foreign and irregular. I felt oddly exposed without the layers of skirts that I was forced to wear. I picked up Seism from the table next to my bed and shoved it in my pocket, slipping on a pair of boots. When I looked in the mirror again I didn't recognize myself. I looked a little scary. I had a prominent frown on my face and combined with the cut trailing down my cheek, and the open hole exposing my trachea, I looked like I was going to fuck shit up.

When I opened the palace door, I was immediately transported into the middle of a chasm. The ground was a pulsating red, and all I could see around me was black. I pulled out my sword, hoping it would glow in the dark--similarly to celestial bronze swords-- but the dark iron seemed to draw in the shadows. I was about to put my sword away, but from a distance I heard a thud followed by a grunt. I took a couple steps forward and I saw a person lying on the ground. They opened their eyes and I was surprised to see sea green orbs looking into mine.

"Rosie?" Percy gasped, resting for a second before standing and rushing to give me a hug. I got an uncomfortable feeling as he passed through me, looking slightly confused.

I stated bluntly, "I'm dead, remember."

~fin~