anti hero - percy jackson ²

x. heart

Dear Reader,
There's nothing to fear,
except for fear itself?
Bull-fucking-shit
—

Cassandra was, thankfully, not dead yet, but she was really sick of the whole Death Mist thing.

As she trudged toward the heart of Tartarus, she kept glancing down at her body, wondering how the hell it could actually belong to her. Her arms looked like bleached leather pulled over sticks. Her skeletal legs seemed to dissolve into smoke with each step. She'd learned to move normally within the Death Mist—more or less—but the magical shroud still made her feel like she was wearing s coat of helium.

She worried that even if she managed to survive Tartarus, she'd spend the rest of her (very short) life looking like an extra from The Walking Dead.

Cassandra tried to focus on something else, but there wasn't a safe direction to look.

Under her feet, the ground glistened a nauseating purple, pulsing with webs of veins, and ahead of her was the most depressing view of all.

Spread to the horizon was an army of monsters—flocks of winged arai, tribes of lumbering Cyclopes, clusters of floating evil spirits. Thousands of baddies, maybe tens of thousands, all milling restlessly, pressing against one another, growling and fighting for space—like the locker area of an overcrowded school between classes, if all students were 'roid-raging mutants who smelled absolutely disgusting.

Bob led her toward the edge of the army. He didn't make any effort to hide, but it wouldn't have done much good anyways. Being ten feet tall and glowing silver, Bob wasn't exactly very stealthy.

About thirty yards from the nearest monsters, Bob turned to face her.

"Stay quiet and stay behind me" He advised. "They will not notice you."

We hope, she added silently.

On the Titan's shoulder, Small Bob woke from a nap. He purred seismically and arched his back, turning skeletal and then back to a calico. He didn't seem nervous at all.

Cassandra examined her hands. "Bob, if I'm invisible, then how can you see me? Since technically you're a, you know..."

"Yes" Bob said. "But we are friends."

"Nyx and her children could see me too."

Bob shrugged. "That was in Nyx's realm. That is different."

"Right" Cassandra muttered, still not reassured. But she was here now, and she had no other choice but to try. "At least I won't need to worry about bumping into any friends in this crowd."

Bob grinned. "Yes, that is good news! Now, let's go. Death is close."

"The Doors of Death are close" She corrected. "Let's be cautious on the phrasing."

They plunged into the crowd. Cassandra was trembling so badly she kept looking down to make sure the Death Mist hadn't shaken off of her. She'd seen large groups of monsters before, but this was different.

Whenever she fought monsters in the mortal world, she at least knew that she was defending her friends. Her home. That gave her a sense of courage, no matter how badly the odds were stacked against her. But here, she was the invader. She didn't belong here any more than the Minotaur belonged in Penn Station at rush hour.