Snow White- Percy Jackson¹

Chapter Fifteen

Meeting Hades and The Dreadful Truth

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The Fields of Asphodel was everything Snow thought of the place, and yet nothing all the same. First off, the place was huge, bigger than anything Snow could think of. The grass was pitch black and imprinted with many footprints. A warm, moist blew and Snow was feeling stuffy because of it, black trees-poplars-grow in clumps here and there. The cavern ceiling was high above them, so much so it looked like a dark, stormy abyss if not for the stalactites which glowed faint grey and grew wickedly pointed. Snow stared nervously at them, the many fallen stalactites standing upright on the black grass made her scared they could fall unexpectedly. 

Snow and her friends tried to blend in the crowd, avoiding the eye of the security ghouls. The dead were unrecognizable, their faces shimmer constantly making it hard to look at them for too long. But what she got out of them was they all looked sad and confused, no one was happy to be here. Which is understandable, no one likes being dead and even so, they weren’t exactly surrounded by paradise. Some tried to speak to the four, but none of them could understand and when they realized this, they frowned and moved on. Snow tried not to feel guilty about it.

This makes her really want to get the mission over with because she feared if she stayed too long, her mood would be affected big time. 

Snow and her friends crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read: 

JUDGEMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION. 

Welcome Newly Deceased!

Out of the back tent came two smaller lines. 

To the left spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punish-ment, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Snow shuddered when she saw the amount of torture people were being put through: chased by Hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches. Though the listening to Opera music was very random…

Nonetheless, Snow knew that she would be getting frequent flashbacks from this, so to calm her nerves she took the hand from the nearest person. When that hand squeezed back, she glanced slightly to see Annabeth who didn’t look at her. That sense of security filled Snow. 

From a faraway hill there was someone trying to move a boulder up. Farther and Snow let out a quiet whimper when seeing torture tactics that were…far too inhumane to describe. At this point she was blocking the blood circulation in Annabeth’s hand with the way she was squeezing it. 

In contrast, the line on the right side of the judgement was moving faster than the scary-looking one. In fact, that one was absolutely beautiful. That line led down a small valley surrounded by walls-a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighbourhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colours. The hearing of laughter and the scent of barbecue cooking elated Snow. 

That was Elysium. 

A glistening blue lake in the middle of the valley, three small islands that look like a vacation resort. The Isles of the Blest, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium. Snow truly hoped she would get to go there when her time comes.