(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."
Percy took a big stick out of his backpack-a bedpost he'd broken off Crusty's Safari Deluxe floor model & held it up.
"Hey, Big Fella," he called up. "I bet they don't play with you much."
"GROWWWLLLL!"
"Good boy,"
"Fetch!" he threw the stick, a good solid throw. I heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx. Cerberus was unimpressed. His eyes were baleful & cold. So much for the plan.
Cerberus was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats.
"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"
"Yeah?"
"I just thought you’d want to know."
"Yeah?"
"Cerberus? He’s saying we’ve got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that...well...he’s hungry."
"Wait!" Annabeth said. She started rifling through her pack. Uh-oh, I thought.
"Five seconds," Grover said. "Do we run now?"
Annabeth pulled a red grapefruit size rubber ball. It was labeled Waterland, Denver, Co. Before I could stop her, she raised the ball & marched straight up to Cerberus.
She shouted, "See the ball? You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!"
Cerberus looked as stunned as we were.
All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.
"Sit!" Annabeth called again.
I was sure that she'd become the world’s largest Milkbone dog biscuit. But instead, Cerberus licked his three lips, shifted & sat, crushing a dozen spirits who’d been passing underneath him. The spirits made hisses as they dissipated, like air let out of tires.
Annabeth said, "Good boy!"
She threw Cerberus the ball. He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, & the other heads started snapping, trying to get the new toy.
"Drop it." Annabeth ordered.
Cerberus’s heads stopped fighting & looked at her. The ball was wedged between two of his teeth like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud, scary whimper, then dropped the ball, now slimy & bitten in half, at Annie’s feet.
"Good boy." She picked up the ball, ignoring the monster spit all over it. She turned toward us. "Go. Ez Death line-it’s faster."
I said, "But-"
"Now." She ordered, in the same tone she was using on the dog.
We inched forward warily. Cerberus growled.
"Stay!" Annabeth ordered the monster. "If you want the ball, stay!"
"What about you?" I asked Annie as we passed her.
"I know what I'm doing, Nora," she muttered. "At least, I’m pretty sure… ."
We walked between the monster’s legs & made it through.
Annie said, "Good dog!"
She held up the tattered red ball, & came to the conclusion-if she rewarded Cerberus, there’d be nothing left for another trick.
She threw the ball anyway. The monster’s left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head moaned in protest. While the monster was distracted, Annabeth walked briskly under its belly & joined us at the
metal detector.
"How'd you do that?" Percy asked, amazed.
"Obedience school," she said breathlessly, there were tears in her eyes. "When I was little, at my dad’s, we had a Doberman..."
"Never mind that," Grover said, "Come on!"
We were about to bolt through the 'Ez Death' line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annie stopped. She turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at us. Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.
"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded melancholy & uncertain. I placed a hand over her shoulder.
"I’ll bring you a ball soon," Annie promised faintly. "Would you like that?" He whimpered.
"Good dog. I’ll come visit soon. I-I promise." Annie turned to us. "Let’s go."
We pushed through the metal detector, which immediately set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"
We burst through the 'Ez Death' gate, which started even more alarms blaring, & raced into the Underworld. A few minutes later, we hid, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of a black tree as security ghouls ran past, yelling.
Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned now?"
"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"
"No," Grover said. "We’ve learned that your plans really, really bite!" I giggled.
I saw Annie wipe a tear from her cheek & pulled her into a hug as she listened to the sad sound of Cerberus in the distance.
We tried to blend in the crowd, keeping an eye out for security. I couldn’t help looking for a familiar face among the spirits of Asphodel. We crept along, following the line of new arrivals, from the main gates toward a black-tent pavilion with a banner: Judgements For Elysium And Eternal Damnation. Welcome, Newly Deceased!
Out the back came two smaller lines. To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path toward the Fields of Punishment, which glowed & smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava & minefields. Even from far away, I saw people chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music & things I couldn't describe.
The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls-a gated community. Beyond the gate were beautiful houses from history, Roman villas, castles & Victorian mansions. Silver-gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass was in rainbow colors. I could hear laughter & smell barbecue cooking. Elysium.
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Take care my lovely readers.❤
Alice signing off.
XOXO.