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we followed the spirits up a path.
i was definitely not expecting what i saw. it looked like a cross between airport security and the jersey turnpike.
there were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said 'you are now entering erebus'. each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like charon.
the howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but i couldn't see where it was coming from. the three-headed dog, cerberus, who was supposed to guard hades's door, was nowhere to be seen. although, i was okay with that. i preferred not to run into three-headed dogs in the underworld.
the dead queued up in the three lines, two marked 'attendant on duty', and one marked 'ez death'. the 'ez death' line was moving right along. the other two were crawling.
"what do you figure?" percy asked us.
"the fast line must go straight to the asphodel fields," annabeth said. "no contest. they don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."
"there's a court for dead people?"
"yeah." i said, "three judges. they switch around who sits on the bench. king minos, thomas jefferson, shakespeare — people like that. sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward — the fields of elysium. sometimes they decide on punishment. but most people, well, they just lived. nothing special, good or bad. so they go to the asphodel fields."
"and do what?"
grover said, "imagine standing in a wheat field in kansas. forever."
"harsh," percy said.
"not as harsh as that," grover muttered. "look."
a couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. the face of the dead man looked familiar.
that's when i remembered who he was.
"he's that preacher who made the news, right?" percy asked.
