GOLDEN¹ | annabeth chase

xiii

WHISPERING MASSES OF PEOPLE IN THE SHADOWS, AS IF WAITING FOR A CONCERT THAT WILL NEVER START, EVE DID NOT WANT TO END UP IN THE FIELDS OF ASPHODEL.

the black grass had been trampled by aeons of dead feet. a warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. 

black trees – grover told them they were poplars – grew in clumps here and there.

the cavern ceiling was so high above them it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint grey and looked wickedly pointed. 

eve, annabeth, grover and percy tried to blend into the crowd, keeping an eye out for security ghouls. 

she couldn't help looking for familiar faces among the spirits of asphodel, but the dead are hard to look at. 

their faces shimmer. 

they all look slightly angry or confused. 

they'll come up to you and speak, but their voices sound like chatter, like bats twittering. 

once they realise you can't understand them, they frown and move away.

but the dead aren't scary. 

they're just sad.

they crept along, following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates towards a black-tented pavilion with a banner that read:

JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION 

WELCOME, NEWLY DECEASED!

out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines.

to the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path towards the fields of punishment, 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. 

even from far away, eve could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music. 

she could just make out a tiny hill, with the ant-size figure of sisyphus struggling to move his boulder to the top. 

and she saw worse tortures, too – 

things she wouldn't ever want to describe.

annabeth must've noticed her uncomfortable expression, as she turned her away from the fields of punishment.

"look at me okay?" annabeth whispered.

eve nodded.

"we're not dead, keep you eyes on me, these people deserve it. and you don't deserve to see this." she reaffirmed.

eve kept her eyes on annabeth the whole walk past the fields.

the line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. 

this one led down towards a small valley surrounded by walls – a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the underworld.