Golden Green

Ch. 15

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested, "To bribe or threaten him for you mom back." Percy whistled in surprise.

"You have evil thoughts for a goat," I said.

"Why thank you."

"But the thing in the pit said it was waiting for two items," Percy said. "If the master bolt is

one, what's the other?" Grover was shaking his head lost in thought about what it could have

been. Annabeth looked like she knew something but didn't want to say it out loud.

"You have an idea of what's in the pit too, don't you?" I asked Annabeth.

"If it isn't Hades," Percy added.

"Let's not talk about it. If it's not Hades then..." She trailed off. "No. It has to be Hades."

"If you'd tell us what you think it might be then I'm sure I could help put it together.

Somethings been dancing on the tip of my brain and I can't quite put it to thought," I told

Annabeth.

"No," Annabeth shivered while putting her foot down. We kept silent while passing

through wasteland and by a sign that said 'California state line 12 miles'. Hades couldn't have

been the voice speaking to me and Percy. I had no connection to him. I didn't know the voice

personally like I might have know Demeter's or Ares' if they were invisible like Percy said the

the second voice was. The voice had a power to make you feel trapped in time while it bore into

your soul, and sure Ares's aura was scary in the dinner but that voice was more powerful than

his. While we barreled to the underworld in a yellow and black car at ninety-five miles per hour and we were wrong about Hades having the bolt then there would be no time for correction.

"The answer is in the Underworld," Annabeth said, leaning to Percy who was looking troubled. "You saw spirits of the dead, Percy. There's only one place that could be. We're doing the right thing." She then tried boosting morale by suggesting plans to get into the land of the dead, but there were to many unknown factors. I was sure Annabeth didn't want to be wrong now rather than being afraid of the truth. Every sudden rip of wind against the westward speeding car sounded like a spirit of the dead.

Near sunset the cab driver dropped us off at the beach in Santa Monica. The sight of the sun low, near the new ocean I'd never seen before was beautiful, but the smell was putrid. There was a carnival and attractions lining the pier, ruining the sight. Palm trees sprouted from middles of streets and sidewalks that had never seen soil untouched and unchanged by people like so many trees now. Dirty homeless men slept in littered sand dunes. Orange tanned surfer men sat on their plastic and plaster boards in the brown blue sea, waiting for a good wave. I did not like LA. We stepped onto the beach shoeless and into the surf.

"What now?" Annabeth asked. If it were not the final day of our quest I would have liked

to stay longer and clean the beach as best as possible, but the quest was a bigger priority than litter. If the gods began a war then the beach would be under the sea and not be able to be cleaned by anything but bottom feeding fish. Percy stepped deeper into the water.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. He didn't say anything back and kept going. To his

knees, waist, chest.