524I hope this holiday season has been a good one to all of you and your family. Mine was definitely awesome! Hopefully this chapter makes up for not updating in two weeks, though it's pretty short.
Now, on with the story!
Percy's POV
I held my breath, fearing I would make a mistake and would be trapped forever. It felt stupid to be afraid of cutting a slice of cheese, but this cheese was the great and mighty cheese of hope or something stupid like that. It was my only hope of finding Annabeth.
Cautiously, I sliced the cheese in half. Then with one slice, I cut both halves in half, making them four equal slices of cheese. Finally, I stacked the quarters on top of each other. I lined up Riptide so that it would be as perfect as I could possibly make it, in case Tartarus was picky about how exact I was with my cutting. I cut the stack of cheese in half.
I held my breath. Slowly, the door began to creak open. "Yeah!" I screamed. "I did it! Eight equal slices. Percy Jackson, you are becoming a genius." Yes, the riddle probably wasn't all that hard. Annabeth could have solved it in a split second, but it was the first riddle I solved without any help. I think I deserved to be at least a bit proud.
I dropped the cheese and raced out while shouting, "Annabeth! Are you here? Can you hear me?" I tried to look for her, but I couldn't. Wherever I was, it was pitch black. My hands groped around blindly, until I grabbed a cold hand.
I screamed and dropped the hand. I heard a snap and the room lit up with an eerie green light. Torches burning with Greek fire were scattered around. I was in a long hall. In front of me stood Tartarus.
"Do you really despise me that much?" he snapped. "Stop glaring, it's rude!"
"Where's Annabeth?" I realized it wasn't a very good idea to scream at a god, but I didn't care at the moment. "What have you done?"
"Calm down. No need to overreact. That girl's doing fine, she's a smart one. Though she's having a hard time finding water. Aren't I so nice, giving you so much information. Good job with the cheese riddle by the way. It was quite amusing watching you trying to solve it." Tartarus was talking so quickly I was having trouble understanding.
"You are in my own little maze. Isn't it wonderful? In here, you'll find food, water, and anything else you could need to survive. Maybe even your girlfriend. Any questions? No? Good." And with that, he snapped his fingers and vanished.
For too long, I stood there gaping at the spot where Tartarus had been standing. It was only when a giant hellhound leaped on me that I snapped out of it.
This isn't Mrs. O'Leary, I told myself as I stabbed the hellhound. It disintegrated into a big pile of dust and I ran away before it could reform.
For the next few hours, I stabbed and ran, dodged and ran, sliced through legions of dracaena and ran. I didn't see any food, water, or anything else I could ever need to survive like Tartarus said I would.
Out of breath, I leaned against the wall. More monsters than there was at the Second Olympian War were after me, but even with the ADHD and the threat of the monsters, I needed rest.
For a second, I thought about climbing over the wall. I had always done well on the camp's climbing wall. I ruled out the idea though. I could see the top of the wall and it was only slightly taller than the camp's climbing wall, but this was a slick bronze wall that was impossible to climb.
A large crash behind me made me stand up and keep running. Eventually, I ended up at a dead end. I groaned and turned around. Right where I had been just a few seconds ago was the Minotaur. It sat down, blocking my way out. It didn't seem to notice me yet. It was too preoccupied.
The Minotaur was yanking on a sign around its neck, trying to pull it off. On the sign was a messy and blood-red scribble that read Defeat me and you will receive water. Love, Tartarus. Tartarus didn't seem like the type of god that would write Love, but I didn't question it. At least the sign went straight to the point.
My plan was to sneak up on the Minotaur and stab it before it even noticed me. Like most of my plans, it didn't work out so well.
No, the Minotaur didn't turn and see me. It was worse than that. The Minotaur stood up and scratched his head, still pondering on how he was supposed to get the sign off. Then, it sat down again, right on top of me.
I bit down hard on my lip, so hard I could taste blood, to keep from screaming. The Minotaur didn't even seem to realize what had happened. I felt my bones getting crushed under its weight.
Riptide, thankfully, was still in my hands. I flicked Riptide upwards, stabbing the Minotaur. It shot up in the air screaming, with Riptide stuck in its furry butt. I kicked Riptide in further. Soon, all that was left of the monster that had been crushing me was dust.
Out of fear the Minotaur would reform and sit on me again, I stomped around in the dust. "Can I have my water now?" I shouted to Tartarus. There was a snap-Tartarus seemed to like snapping his fingers a lot-and a glass of water appeared in my hand.
I gulped down the water. It was lukewarm, but it was the first glass of water I had in days. I was about to throw away the glass after I drank the very last drop of water, but I decided to hold on to it. Who knew, maybe it might turn out to be useful. Quickly, I ran before the Minotaur could reform.
The torches glowing with Greek fire grew scarcer as I kept running. Whenever I had multiple paths to choose from, I always went right. Right had to be the right choice, right? I had gotten trapped at a couple dead ends. None were as bad as getting sat on by the Minotaur though.
Soon, I was in nearly complete darkness. I passed by a torch and looked forward. I squinted, trying to see as far as I could, but I couldn't even see a faint green glow.
I groaned. My throat burned from running around with only the one glass of water I got for defeating the Minotaur. I hadn't eaten anything since before falling into Tartarus. I even saw blue cookies dancing around me. I chased one around for hours before realizing I was probably hallucinating.
"Annabeth?" I risked yelling one more time. Every time I yelled, monsters tended to swarm towards me. I was exhausted and probably couldn't fight a fly, but I desperately wanted to see Annabeth again. "Can you hear me?"
I waited for a reply, though I knew I was unlikely to get one. I sighed when I was met with silence. I turned around and trudged back to where I had just run from. At least back there, Greek torches lit up my path. I'd rather not blindly run through darkness.
"Percy?" a voice shouted. Annabeth. "Percy?"
I spun around. The voice echoed through the darkness. She sounded far away, but she was definitely there. "Annabeth!" I raced down the dark passage with a newfound burst of energy, abandoning the lit up passage I was about to take. "I'm coming Wise Girl! I'm coming!"
The next chapter of the House of Hades and my other story, the Silver Owl, will be posted on January 3rd. MY 14TH BIRTHDAY :) The chapters can be my own gift to all of you.
What did you guys get this holiday season? I got a bunch of books and I went to see Les Miserables with my friends :) So yeah, pretty good Christmas.
Don't forget to leave a review!