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chapter twenty-one. ( the battle of labyrinth ) ❝ hello darkness, my old friend! ❞
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Idon't know what I was expecting. But, we got lost only just after thirty minutes, so ... I blame Percy?
No, obviously not really, but I need something to lighten up the situation, okay? Just seeing the pout on Percy's face when I told him I—jokingly!—blamed him for us getting lost made me feel better. It made me think I was back up in the light of the world and at Camp, just casually having arguments with Percy that never really meant anything. Now, I was stuck underground, on a quest most likely leading to death.
The tunnel looked completely different to the one Percy and I had fallen into before. Now, it was round like a large, old sewer pipe with red brick walls and iron-bared portholes every three metres. I was actually considering we had accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up in an actual old New York sewer, but no, that was just me hoping for too much. Out of curiosity, I shone my torch inside one of the portholes to see whether they led anywhere, but it only just opened up to infinite darkness (if that is even possible?). Cain told me he thought he heard voices on the other side, but I couldn't. I just frowned at him, and he shrugged.
Annabeth was leading us the best she could. I trust her more than anyone else to lead us, but even she was having trouble. I don't blame her. Annabeth doesn't know everything, despite how she constantly feel pressured like she should. I couldn't expect her to know how to navigate us through the Labyrinth, a constant changing maze of death.
She had been quiet for the whole thirty minutes. I couldn't see much further in front of me, but I knew she was brooding; thinking. I wondered whether it was the prophecy that was on her mind. I know a certain prophecy was on my mind.
"Um, Annabeth?" Cain then asked from where he was walking behind her. He really was not liking this—he acted as if Annabeth was going to bite his head off. I mean, she might, it's Annabeth, but Cain doesn't seem to annoy her like he annoys everyone else. It was like she could deal with him not knowing stuff. I could tell Percy was a bit miffed by that. What was the difference when he didn't know things and got eye rolls and when Cain doesn't know things, she just explains? I wonder that too, honestly. "Why are we keeping our hand on the left wall?"
"If we keep one hand on the left wall and follow it," she said, giving him a grey-gaze glance, "we should be able to find our way out again by reversing course."
