I do not own Disney or PJO/HoO
Anyone's thoughts=italics
(Swearing involved in this chapter)
Clarisse's PoV
We fell. For a long time. Percy wasn't kidding when he said it would take forever.
"Clarisse?" I hear Grover ask, "Are you awake?"
"Yep," I reply, "It's kinda boring just being in pitch black, falling to the most deadly place in the Greek world."
"You should get some sleep. We're gonna be in this position for a while," He tells me.
"I'll keep watch!" I argue, "If anything comes close, I'll punch it."
"Fine...just don't punch Percy or me..."
"Oh yeah...I nearly forgot about Prissy. Is he asleep?" I question.
"I don't know, you're the one who's holding hands with him, not me."
I lean over to where I think that Percy is, and I hear his soft snores.
"Is he asleep?" Grover asks.
"Yeah, the punk probably worried himself to sleep, thinking about Harry and all."
"Do you think that we're gonna make it out alive with Harry? Grover's question catches me off guard.
"Well...I don't know," I answered truthfully. "But we have to stay strong. Harry needs us."
Grover yawns, "Well, I'm going to sleep. Make sure you get some as well, it'll probably be the last good one you'll get for a long while."
"Don't worry, I will," I assure him, "Now you, sleep."
As Grover sleeps, I try to keep my eyes from drooping. 'Just...stay...awake...'
Before I know it, I'm put into a slumber.
Percy's PoV
I woke up with a start, someone was roughly shaking me awake.
"Hey, Prissy!" Clarisse says in my face, "We're here."
A dark red light emits from below, it seems almost blinding, as we've been falling in pitch black for Hades knows how long.
"Brace yourselves!" I shout, as the tunnel ends and a flowing dark blue river comes into sight. "It's the River Cocytus, so it will try and make you miserable! Don't listen to it!"
I shut my eyes, concentrating on the river. 'You WILL cushion our fall, you WILL listen to me.'
The river attempts to fight back, but I don't let it. I can control it.
The river finally obliges, breaking its own surface apart so that we fall straight in. As we plunge straight into the icy cold waters.
Images flash in my mind, shouting at me to give up. 'Don't listen...' I tell myself, 'Don't think that way.'
It was hopeless. Memories came crashing down on me. People seem to appear in front of me in the water.
Silena...Beckendorf...Zoë...Bianca...Castor...Lee...Michael...Ethan...Luke.
All of them. Reminding me of what I did. If I wasn't alive, they would be alive. I caused their deaths...it's all my fault. I could've saved Bianca if I had gone into the automation. I could've saved Zoë if I distracted Ladon. I could've saved Silena if I had been more observant and saw her bracelet. I could've saved Beckendorf if I had stayed with him and helped him defend himself. I could've saved Lee and Castor if I had gone straight into battle. I could've saved Michael if I had been more careful blowing up the bridge. I could've saved Ethan if I had been more convincing and told him to come back to Camp.
And Luke...
If I had only been more attentive, I could have seen that he had gone to Kronos's side and convinced him to come back...
I try my best to ignore the thoughts, I try to kick to the surface, but the weight of grief weighs me down.
'I'm sorry Harry.' I think, as I sink to the river's floor.
Grover's PoV
I break the surface of the cold, dark river. The water glitters, even in the dark red hue that surrounds me. Next to me, Clarisse emerges from the waters with a splash, sputtering and gasping for air.
"I HATE this river..." She growls, I can feel that the feeling of grief is weighing us both down.
Pictures of Leneus flashes in my mind, that lucky old satyr. I push my grief down, we all needed to get out of the river first.
"Where's Prissy?" Clarisse asks, looking around.
I quickly glance at my surroundings. Percy is nowhere to be seen. We were both panicking now.
"I'm going under," Clarisse declared, and she dived back under the dark, glittering waters.
As I float, waiting for them, every second that goes by seems like eternity.
What if they're both gone?
What if Clarisse is too late?
I try to go under, but my body is already exhausted from trading water for ages.
All I can do is wait.
Suddenly, there's a splash behind me, I whip my head around so fast that it's a miracle that I didn't get whiplash.
Clarisse is holding Percy's limp body, and she swims to shore. I follow her, and we both drag ourselves and Percy out of the water, gasping for breath. As I step onto the ground, I immediately recoil. My hand is filled with small cuts, blood runs down my arm. So the water wants to drown you, the ground will cut you, and as I take heavy breath, instead of fresh air, sulphuric acid fills my lungs.
Clarisse lays me on the ground, and starts performing CPR. On the third round, he spits out the water, choking and starts to breathe normally again.
I breathe a sigh of relief that I hadn't realized that I had been holding.
"Thanks..." Percy wheezes, then starts coughing.
"Woah, take is easy Prissy," Clarisse tells him, "You nearly died, so we're taking a rest, and you're eating ambrosia." She reaches into her bag, taking out a waterproof, airtight bag full of ambrosia squares. Percy tries to protest, saying that she needed to save it for a real emergency.
"You weren't breathing for a few seconds Prissy," She looks at him with a 'You-listen-here' expression on her face. "I think we can spare a few bites of ambrosia for that."
Reluctantly, Percy takes the godly food and eats it. His cuts start to close up, and his breathing becomes more regular.
I help him up, and we take a good look at our surroundings. The ground was something that wasn't quite dirt, Percy nudged me.
"It's his skin," He told me.
I feel the need to vomit, and I can tell that Clarisse feels the same. "His skin?!" She exclaims, turning pale. "That's disgusting!"
Percy just shrugs, "Nah, it's kinda cool for me. I wonder..." He stabs the ground, and a dark red liquid spills out. He grins, the look of a lunatic on his face. "Well that was fun. Now I can injure him whenever I want. Maybe I should carve stuff into his skin..."
"Percy. Focus." I say, "First, figure out where Harry is, then torture a primordial."
"Fine...can I torture him with harry?"
"Just focus!" Clarisse says."Right, where should we go first Percy?"
"Well, we're gonna want to save up our ambrosia, we should start heading to the Phlegethon." Percy told us.
"Excuse a what now?" Clarisse asks.
"The Phlegethon, the river of fire. It has healing properties." He explains.
"I'm not going to drink fire!" I argue, "It's fire!"
"It's spicy!" He exclaims, an excited look on his face.
"Fine..." I give in. "Where is the fire river?"
"It should be down that cliff." He points to where the floor seems to drop off into the abyss.
I gulp, turning pale. "How big, um, is that cliff?"
"Just about a hundred meters, c'mon!" He starts walking towards the cliff.
Clarisse and I follow him, and Clarisse mutters to me, "It's like he didn't just die...I shouldn't have given him that ambrosia. It's like he's hyped up on coffee and sugar..."
"I know." I say in surprise. "I think...I think that he might be acting this way to try and keep the thought of Harry dying off of his mind."
"When I thought that Chris was going to die, I closed myself off...you could be right, maybe this is his coping mechanism." Clarisse shared.
"Let's just hope we find Harry soon," I say, "I don't know how much longer Percy can keep up this mask."
Hope you guys liked it!
Guess what? I found out that on google docs, this whole book is 59 pages! FIFTY-NINE!!!
I'm so happy 😁
-Laurel