violent delights, percy jackson

chapter eleven

"It's a long room," He muttered, his voice just loud enough she could hear him. Azalea gripped his hand tighter, her finger nails, though clipped, just long enough to dig into the back of his hand.

"It's not a room," She replied with her voice barely above a whisper, "It's a corridor."

As soon as she said the word, she felt the air churn around them. A cold breeze blowing slightly, just enough to ruffle his messy haired pony tail tied tightly at the back of her head. She moved a little closer to him, his body heat radiating off him like a small space heater, taking away her forearm and right side's goosebumps. They needed to get out of here.

Percy went to take a step forward, but Azalea tried to pull him back. The last thing she wanted was for him to get trapped in the dark in an endless maze unknowingly. It was dangerous down here and even more dangerous alone. He would go insane and become like Chris Rodrigues. A mumbling maniac with no idea who or where he was.

"Don't take another step," Azalea warned her hand still tightly holding his, trying to pull him back though he stayed in place, thankfully. Listening to her words.

"We need to find the exit," She urged with her eyes whipping from side to side. 

"It's okay," He promised, likely sensing her obvious panic by the bucket loads. She was trying very hard not o freak out right now, and it was not working.

"It's right over—," he cut himself off as he looked up at the ceiling only to find blackness and stone form where he thought they'd fallen. He couldn't see the opening, in fact there was no opening at all. It was then Percy realized just how scary the dark and an unknown tunnel could be.

The corridor seemed to stretch endless in both directions, Azalea tugged at his hand again, as she could see from the barely visual light from his weapon that he too was beginning to freak out. Nothing was making sense to the dark haired boy, though he seemed glad that she was still clutching his hand like a life line. As if he too felt that they were the only things they could be certain of in here.

"Two steps back," Azalea managed to speak logically. They had fallen down, and when the two got up they had likely moved foreword unknowingly.  So in subtraction roughly two paces back should bring them to where they started. The exit.

Though Azalea couldn't see his face, she assumed Percy had nodded in agreement. Together, hands still entwined, they took two well measured steps back. As if they were in a minefield of activated pods, one wrong move and they'd be blown sky high or worse. Azalea really wasn't liking this place. 

"Okay, okay," She slowly exhaled as her heart rate slowly climbed down, though her fear stayed the same. What did Luke say about the Labyrinth? She tried to think back to what felt like a year ago's conversation. Her thoughts were muddled. He had said they were always marked. Marked with what, she didn't know but something of significance that no mortal ever seemed to catch onto or notice. A rune maybe?

"We need to examine the walls," She began, slowly thinking that to be as good of a place to start as any, to put a mark. Percy didn't seem to follow her reasoning, as he looked at her. Azalea's face barely visible in the lowlight, and barely able to see beyond the outline of her side profile and she tried to feel around on the left side.

"What for?"

"A mark of Daedalus," Azalea said meekly, as if she wasn't entirely sure herself. Percy didn't question it and started to glance around helplessly. Wondering if the wall would move if he went to touch it. This place was really starting to creep him out.