―✧―

𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐖𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒.

the three of us were dragging ourselves along the banks of the river. i was still hungry, and thirsty, but of course the river did nothing for that. i suppose it's the sort of thing that just keeps you alive so you can face the next punishment this place has to offer.

my head rested on percy's arm as i tried to keep myself from collapsing.

"get down!" annabeth whisper-yelled.

she pulled us behind the nearest boulder. i had to wedge myself so close against the riverbank that my shoes almost touched the river's fire. i was already in hell, but if i had to walk through it barefoot, i might actually die.

on the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

i tried to steady my breathing, hoping i didn't sound like an asthmatic who just went up seven flights of stairs. 

the voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. pretty much everything in tartarus was the enemy. honestly, i didn't even know how the monsters could have failed to spot us already. monsters could smell demigods — especially powerful ones like percy, the son of poseidon. i doubted that hiding behind a boulder would do any good when the monsters caught our scent. 

still, as the monsters got nearer, their voices didn't change in tone. their uneven footsteps — scrap, clump, scrap, clump — didn't get any faster.

"soon?" one of them asked in a raspy voice, as if she'd been gargling in the phlegethon.

"oh my gods!" said another voice. this one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl getting exasperated with her friends at the mall. for some reason, she sounded way too familiar for comfort. "you guys are totally annoying! i told you, it's like three days from here."

percy gripped my wrist. he looked at me with alarm, as if he recognized the mall girl's voice too. annabeth's face went pale, indicating she also knew the voice. my brain began going through all the monsters we faced together. unfortunately, there were a lot.

there was a chorus of growling and grumbling. the creatures — maybe half a dozen — had paused just on the other side of the boulder, but still they gave no indication that they'd caught our scent.

i wondered if demigods didn't smell the same in tartarus, or if the other scents here were so powerful, they masked a demigod's aura.

"i wonder," said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first, "if perhaps you do not know the way, young one."

"oh, shut your fang hole, serephone," said the mall girl. "when's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? i was there a couple of years ago. i know the way! besides, i understand what we're facing up there. you don't have a clue!"

"the earth mother did not make you boss!" shrieked a fourth voice.

more hissing, scuffling, and feral moans — like giant alley cats fighting.

at last the one called serephone yelled, "enough!"

the scuffling died down.

"we will follow for now," serephone said. "but if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of gaea—"

"i don't lie!" snapped the mall girl. "believe me, i've got good reason to get into this battle. i have some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. just leave one special morsel for me — the one named percy jackson."

i gripped percy's arm so hard, i wondered if i had broken skin. a part of me wanted to jump over the boulder and kill all of them for even thinking about hurting percy. the rational side of my brain told me to shut the fuck up and sit down.

i closed my eyes for a three count, the monster's voice so familiar. my eyes snapped open as i placed it.

"believe me," she continued. "gaea has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name — kelli!"

vampires, i mouthed while she spoke. empousai.

percy and annabeth nodded grimly.

two years ago, at percy's freshman orientation, kelli and her friends had disguised themselves as cheerleaders and attacked percy and rachel. later, she kidnapped (and bit) me and threatened my friends in daedalus' workshop. she almost killed percy, but i killed her, sending her to tartarus... to here.

the creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter. i crept to the edge of the boulder and risked a glimpse. sure enough, five women staggered along on mismatched legs — mechanical bronze on the left, shaggy and cloven-hooved on the right. their hair was made of fire, their skin as white as bone. most of them wore tattered ancient greek dresses, except for the one in the lead, kelli, who wore a burned and torn blouse with a short pleated skirt... her cheerleader's outfit.

i hated most monsters, but empousai really got on my nerves. especially kelli. not only was she a total brat, she fucking bit me! she basically blackmailed ethan to come back to the titans so she would save my life.

percy rose. "they're heading for the doors of death," he murmured. "you know what that means?"

i didn't want to think about it, but sadly, this squad of flesh-eating horror-show women might be the closest thing to good luck we were going to get in tartarus. i exchanged looks with annabeth.

"yeah," i said. "we need to follow them."

we followed the river phlegethon, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices, and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of us.

it was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep kelli and her comrades in view through the dark hazy air. the heat from the river baked my skin. every breath was like inhaling sulfur-scented fiberglass. when we needed a drink, the best we could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire.

annabeth was no longer limping, her leg having healed. she tied her hair back into a ponytail with a ripped piece of her shirt (following my lead, of course).

percy's skin was still a little red, but it was better than before. the rash had left, and the firewater seemed to keep us going.

time was impossible to judge. we trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. fortunately the empousai weren't exactly speed walkers. they shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the doors of death.

once, the demons sped up in excitement and swarmed something that looked like a beached carcass on the riverbank. i couldn't tell what it was — a fallen monster? an animal of some kind? the empousai attacked it with relish. when the demons moved on, the three of us reached the spot and found nothing left except a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river.

i had no doubt the empousai would devour demigods with the same gusto.

"come on." percy led me and annabeth gently away from the scene. "we don't want to lose them."

after a few more miles, the empousai disappeared over a ridge. when we caught up, we found ourselves at the edge of another massive cliff. the river phlegethon spilled over the side in jagged tiers of fiery waterfalls. the demon ladies were picking their way down the cliff, jumping from ledge to ledge like mountain goats.

my heart began to race. i'd barely made it down that first ledge without my fear of falling kicking in. i had no idea how i was supposed to go down another.

even if the three of us reached the bottom of the cliff alive, we didn't have much to look forward to. the landscape below us was a bleak, ash-gray plain bristling with black trees, like insect hair. the ground was pocked with blisters. every once in a while, a bubble would swell and burst, disgorging a monster like a larva from an egg.

suddenly i didn't want that chocolate chip muffin.

all the newly formed monsters were crawling and hobbling in the same direction — toward a bank of black fog that swallowed the horizon like a stormfront. the phlegethon flowed in the same direction until about halfway across the plain, where it met another river of black water — maybe the cocytus? the two floods combined in a steaming, boiling cataract and flowed on as one toward the black fog.

the longer i looked into that storm of darkness, the less i wanted to go there. it could be hiding anything — an ocean, a bottomless pit, an army of monsters. but if the doors of death were in that direction, it was our only chance to get home.

percy peered over the edge of the cliff.

"wish we could fly," he muttered.

i rubbed my arms. "remember luke's winged shoes? i wonder if they're still down here somewhere."

"i'd settle for a hang glider."

"maybe not a good idea," annabeth pointed.

above us, dark winged shapes spiraled in and out of the blood red clouds.

"furies?" percy wondered.

"or some other kind of demon," i said. "tartarus has thousands."

"including the kind that eats hang gliders," percy guessed. "okay, so we climb."

percy went down first, trying his best not to alert the empousai of our presence above them. i took a deep breath, forcing myself to go down the ledge. i couldn't risk using up my powers in case we needed to fight.

i made slow progress, doing my best to not look over the edge of the tiny... tiny... ledge we were making our way down. at around halfway down, my legs were trembling so badly, annabeth forced us to take a break.

"even for five minutes," she said.

"i'm fine," i told her. "let's just go down."

"tink, no offense," percy started, "but you look like you're about to fall and go straight down the hard way. we're taking a break."

i glared at the two of them, "i hate you guys."

"what a lie," annabeth scoffed, pulling me down to sit on a wider part of the ledge.

percy put his arm around me, and i leaned into him, unable to stop myself from shaking. i was terrified, and exhausted, and hungry, and trying so hard to keep the small flicker of hope in me alive.

"things could be worse," i muttered.

"yeah?" percy tried to sound upbeat.

i shrugged, "we could've fallen into the river lethe. lost all our memories."

i thought of the titan percy had fought on the banks of that river. he'd sprayed him with the river water, making him forget his memory.

"yeah, the lethe," he muttered. "not my favorite."

"what was the titan's name?" i asked.

"uh... iapetus. he said it meant the impaler or something."

"no, the name you gave him after he lost his memory. i know it was after one of the minions. kevin?"

"isn't it steve?" annabeth asked.

"bob," percy corrected.

even in hell, percy managed to make me laugh. "bob the titan."

my thoughts drifted to kronos, the titan we'd killed last year. i couldn't help but wonder if small pieces of his essence were floating around down here. the thought made my stomach flip.

percy kissed my forehead. "we should keep moving. you want some more fire to drink?"

"ugh. i'll pass. annie?"

"no thank you," she made a face.

we struggled to our feet. the rest of the cliff looked impossible to descend — nothing more than a crosshatching of tiny ledges — but we kept climbing down.

my body took over, not allowing my senses to feel anything. blisters formed and popped on my fingers. my legs trembled from exhaustion. my stomach knotted in hunger. i didn't let it affect me as i made my way down.

an eternity later, we reached the bottom. percy helped me and annabeth down, and the three of us collapsed on the ground. ahead of us stretched miles of wasteland, bubbling with monstrous larvae and big insect-hair trees. to our right, the phlegethon split into branches that etched the plain, widening into a delta of smoke and fire. to the north, along the main route of the river, the ground was riddled with cave entrances. here and there, spires of rock jutted up like exclamation points.

under my hand, the soil felt alarmingly warm and smooth. i tried to grab a handful, then realized that under a thin layer of dirt and debris, the ground was a single vast membrane... like skin.

i almost threw up, but forced myself not to. there was nothing in my stomach but fire.

i didn't mention it to anyone else, but i started to feel like something was watching us — something vast and malevolent. i couldn't even zero in on it, because the presence was all around us.

watching was the wrong word, too. that implied eyes, and this thing was simply aware of us. the ridges above us now looked less like steps and more like rows of massive teeth. the spires of rock looked like broken ribs. and if the ground was skin... i forced those thoughts aside.

this place was just freaking me out. that was all.

annabeth stood, wiping soot from her face. she gazed toward the darkness on the horizon. "we're going to be completely exposed, crossing this plain."

about a hundred yards ahead of us, a blister burst on the ground. a monster clawed its way out... a glistening telkhine with slick fur, a seal-like body, and stunted human limbs. it managed to crawl a few yards before something shot out of the nearest cave, so fast that i could only register a dark green reptilian head. the monster snatched the squealing telkhine in its mouth and dragged it into the darkness.

reborn in tartarus for two seconds, only to be eaten.

"oh, yeah. this'll be fun," percy muttered.

i helped him to his feet.

we started walking, trying to avoid the cave entrances, sticking close to the bank of the river. we were just skirting one of the spires when a glint of movement caught my eye — something darting between the rocks to their right. i kept my eyes peeled, but it didn't return.

"the empousai," percy suddenly grabbed my arm. "where are they?"

annabeth scanned a three-sixty, her gray eyes bright with alarm.

maybe the demon ladies had been snapped up by that reptile in the cave. if the empousai were still ahead of us, they should've been visible somewhere on the plains. unless they were hiding...

i drew my dagger the same second percy drew his sword.

the empousai emerged from the rocks all around us — five of them forming a ring. a perfect trap.

kelli limped forward on her mismatched legs. her fiery hair burned across her shoulders like a miniature phlegethon waterfall. her tattered cheerleader outfit was splattered with rusty-brown stains, and i was pretty sure they weren't ketchup. she fixed a look on percy with her glowing red eyes and bared her fangs.

"percy jackson," she cooed. "how awesome! i don't even have to return to the mortal world to destroy you!"

REY WRITES!

sorry, not sorry for the cliffhanger!

thanks for reading!!

who wants dedications on an aurora spinoff
coming out soon?? (aurora (my oc from resistance) has
a backstory, and it'll be the beg of her relationship with
ethan. it's gonna be short, but lmk if y'all are interested!)

thoughts?

comments?

headcanons?

theories?

questions?

bonus chapter ideas??