I'm back! This book is officially back on track!
HE'D ONLY TRAVELED a few hundred yards when Percy heard voices.
He plodded along, still half asleep, trying to form a plan. However, it wasn't working. Annabeth had always been better at plans, and it was hard to strategize with his stomach growling and his throat baking.
The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed him and given him strength, but it didn't do anything for his hunger or thirst, and it tasted horrible.
The river wasn't about making you feel good, Percy guessed. It just kept you going so you could experience more horrible pain. Wonderful. Just great.
His head started to droop with sleepiness, and he fought to keep his eyes open.
Then he heard them—female voices having some kind of argument—and he was instantly alert. He ducked behind the nearest boulder, pushing himself so close against the riverbank that the tips of his shoes were seared off by the flames of the river.
On the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they came from upstream. Percy tried to quiet his breathing.
The voices sounded kinda human, but that meant nothing. He assumed anything in Tartarus was his enemy. He didn't know how the monsters could have not seen them already. Besides, monsters could smell demigods—especially powerful ones like him, a son of Poseidon.
Percy doubted that hiding behind a boulder would do any good when the monsters caught his scent, which Grover said smelt like buttered toast to monsters. Mmm... buttered toast. He would do anything for some decent food.
Still, as the monsters got nearer, their voices didn't change in tone. Their uneven footsteps—scrap, clump, scrap, clump—didn't get any faster.
"Soon?" one of them asked in a raspy voice, as if she'd been drinking from the phlegmmrathon river.
"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenage mortal girl getting annoyed with her friends at the mall. For some reason, she sounded familiar to Percy.
"You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here." Percy clenched his fist.
There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures—maybe six or so, Percy guessed—had paused just on the other side of the boulder, but still they gave no indication that they'd caught the demigods' scent.
Percy wondered if demigods didn't smell the same in Tartarus, or if the other scents here were so powerful, they covered a demigod's smell." I wonder," said a third voice, deep and ancient like the first, "if perhaps you do not know the way, young one."
"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," said the mall girl. "When's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? I was there a couple of years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're facing up there. You don't have a clue!" "The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" shrieked a fourth voice.
More hissing, scuffling, and feral moans—like giant alley cats fighting. At last the one called Serephone yelled, "Enough!" The scuffling died down. "We will follow for now," Serephone said. "But if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of Gaea—"
"I don't lie!" snapped the mall girl. "Believe me, I've got good reason to get into this battle. I have some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. Just leave one special morsel for me—the one named Percy Jackson. Oh, and his friend, the girl, Annabeth Chase."
Percy fought down a snarl of his own. He forgot about his fear. He wanted to jump over the boulder and slash the monsters to dust with Riptide... except he didn't have it anymore, and getting into a fight with a sharp stone would be stupid.
"Believe me," said the mall girl. "Gaea has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. Before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name—Kelli!"
Percy had to stop himself from giggling. Kelli really was a dumb name for a monster. Then, his brain remembered the important part. Empousai. Vampires.
He remembered Kelli. Two years ago, at Percy's freshman orientation, he and his friend Rachel had been attacked by empousai disguised as cheerleaders. One of them had been Kelli.
Later, the same empousa had attacked them in Daedalus's workshop. Annabeth had stabbed her in the back and sent her...here. To Tartarus. Every monster that he'd ever killed, they would be here now. Eventually, all of them would come back, and someone else would have to fight them... they never truly died.
The creatures shuffle-walked off, their voices getting quieter. Percy crept to the edge of the boulder and risked a look.
Sure enough, five women staggered along on mismatched legs—mechanical bronze on the left, shaggy and cloven-hooved on the right. Their hair was made of fire, their skin as white as bone. Most of them wore tattered Ancient Greek dresses, except for the one in the lead, Kelli, who wore a burned and torn blouse with a short pleated skirt...her cheerleader's outfit.
Percy gritted his teeth. He had faced a lot of bad monsters over the years, but he hated empousai more than most.
In addition to their nasty claws and fangs, they could manipulate the Mist. They could change shape and charmspeak, making people trust them and take down their guard.
Men were even more likely to fall to their charm. Annabeth had said something about how the empousa's favorite tactic was to make a guy fall in love with her, then drink his blood and eat his flesh. Not a great first date.
Kelli had almost killed him. She had manipulated Luke, making him do darker and darker thing in the name of Kronos. Percy really wished he had Riptide.
"They're heading for the Doors of Death," he murmured to himself.
Percy didn't want to think about it, but sadly, this squad of flesh-eating horror-show women might be the closest thing to good luck he was going to get in Tartarus. He needed to follow them.
994 words
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