Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)

CHAPTER 30

(Ella's POV)

We followed the spirits up a well-worn path. The entrance to the Underworld looked like a cross between airport security & the Jersey Turnpike. There were three 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.

The howling of the animal was really loud, but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guards Hades’s door, was nowhere to be seen. The dead queued up in three lines, two marked 'Attendant On Duty', & one marked 'Ez Death'. The Ez Death line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.

"What do you figure?" Percy asked me.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," I 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. Three judges. They switch who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare-people like that. Sometimes they decide that person needs a special reward-the Fields of Elysium. Or they decide on punishment. But most, just live. No good or bad. They go to the Asphodel Fields."

"And do what?"

Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."

"Harsh," Percy said.

"Not that harsh," Grover muttered. "Look."

A few black-robbed ghouls pulled one spirit aside & frisked him at the security desk.

I said, "What’re they doing to him?"

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur-the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now it shook the ground, but I still couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous monster. I hadn’t seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Only its eyes & teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at us. My jaw hung open. Percy said, "He's a Rottweiler."

The dead walked right up to him. The "Attendent On Duty' lines parted on both sides of him. The Ez Death spirits walked right between his front paws & under his belly, which they did without even crouching.

"I can see him better," Percy muttered. "Why is that?"

"I think..." Annie moistened her lips. "It’s because we’re getting closer to being dead."

The dog’s middle head craned toward us. It sniffed the air & growled.

"It can smell the living," I said.

"But that’s okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."

"Right," Annie said. I’d never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan."

We moved toward the monster. The middle head barked so loud my eyeballs rattled.

"Can you understand it?" Percy asks Grover.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."

"What’s it saying?" I asked.

"I don’t think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."