𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐄! percy jackson¹

xv. The Truth

      In the middle was a lake with three separate islands. They looked like a vacation resort – the one that everyone wanted to go to but never could. The Isles of the Blessed, where only heroes who chose to be reborn three times and achieved Elysium three times could live their afterlives. Percy looked on with a face of longing, I gave a little smirk, "That's what it's all about, Percy." I said. "That's the place for heroes."

      We left the judgement pavilion and moved deeper into Asphodel. It got darker, and the colours faded from our clothes. The crowds of chattering spirits began to thin. After a few miles of walking, we began to hear a familiar screech in the distance. Looming above us on the horizon was a palace of glittering black obsidian. Above the parapets swirled three dark catlike creatures: the Furies. I had a sick feeling that they were waiting for us.

      "I suppose it's too late to turn back?" Grover said wistfully.

      "We'll be okay," Percy tried to sound confident.

      "Maybe we should search some of the other places first," Grover suggested. "Like, Elysium, for instance ..."

      "Come on, goat boy," Annabeth grabbed his arm.

      Grover yelped. His magical trainers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth. He landed flat on his back on the grass. I frowned.

      "Grover," Annabeth chided him. "Stop messing around."

      "But I didn't—"

     He yelped again. His shoes were flapping like crazy now. They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.

      "Maia!" He yelled, but the magic word wasn't working. "Maia, already! 911! Help!"

      Percy stopped being stunned and made a grab for Grover's hand, but too late. He was picking up speed, skidding downhill like a bobsled.

      "Untie the shoes!" I shouted as we ran after him. "Try and kick them off!"

      While it seemed like a smart idea, it wasn't so easy when Grover was being pulled along feet first at full speed. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't get close to the laces. He tried kicking his feet, to fling the shoes off, but they were too tightly laced up.

      We continued running after him, trying to keep him in sight as zipped between the legs of spirits who chattered at him in annoyance. I was sure Grover was going to barrel straight into Hades's palace, but he took a sharp right and dragged him in the opposite direction.

      The slope got steeper, Grover picked up more speed. Percy, Annabeth and I had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side, and I realised we'd entered some kind of side tunnel with no black grass or poplar trees, just rock underfoot and the dim light of the stalactites above.

       "Grover!" Percy yelled, his voice echoing. "Hold onto something!"

      "What?!" He yelled back.

      He was grabbing at gravel, but there was nothing big enough to slow him down.

      The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on my arms and neck up spiked up, and a shiver flew down my spine. It smelled dark and evil down here. It made me feel uncomfortable, like I was somewhere I shouldn't be. Like I shouldn't know this place ‒ as if something horrible happened down here.

      And then I saw what was ahead of us, and I stopped in my tracks,

      The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and in the middle was a chasm the size of a city block. Grover was sliding straight towards the edge of Tartarus, the never ending pit.