A pool of lukewarm water broke Hailey's fall with a splash. She lurched up, the water coming to her waist, as the hatch slammed shut above her, casting her and her friends in a blanket of darkness.
They were trapped-again. Can this nightmare get any worse? Hailey wondered, biting down the urge to cry at how completely and utterly messed up things were.
'Is everyone all right?' Aaron's voice cut through the darkness.
'No,' Demi replied, sounding on the verge of tears. 'We should have stayed in the Elysian Fields. We'll never get out of this. And it smells like a sewer.'
'You're wrong.' Hailey heard a smile in Jayden's voice. 'We're in water, which means I can use my powers to get us out of here-all I need to do is give Alec a boost with a wave, and then he can pass through the hatch and open it from the outside.'
'Uh, did you not hear the part where Hades said he'd kill us if we tried to escape again?' Alec squeaked.
'We won't get caught,' Aaron reassured him.
'We can't stay here, Alec,' Hailey agreed, sweat trickling down her brow and neck. 'We need to warn the world about what's happening before it's too late. I don't want to be responsible for bringing the gods back from the dead.' Especially when there's a prophecy that will have everyone looking to me to save the world, she added to herself.
'So, what are we waiting for?' Demi asked. 'Let's go.'
'We can't go yet,' Alec protested.
'Alec, you heard Hailey-we can't stay here,' Demi told him. 'And I don't think he was really being serious about killing us-it was just a bluff-but we're not going to get caught again anyway, so it really doesn't matter.'
'Well, we will get caught if we leave right now,' Alec argued. 'Hades was waiting for us to escape from the Elysian Fields. So I'd bet my powers he's waiting again.'
'I agree,' Aaron cut in. 'We need to stay put for now. Hades said it'll be a little while before he wakes up the other gods, so I think we can at least wait a day.'
'What?!' Demi exclaimed, kicking the water. 'I can't live down here for a day.'
Hailey wasn't happy about waiting that long to escape again, but it was the smart thing to do. If they got caught making a run for it a second time, Hailey didn't think they'd get a third chance. She wasn't sure if Hades would really kill them, but she didn't think he'd have a problem locking them away somewhere even worse than this and throwing away the key.
'There's one thing I don't understand,' Jayden said. 'Why aren't the other gods awake too? Why do they need Hades to wake them up?'
Hailey had been wondering the same thing. 'Maybe Hecate put them to sleep using something other than her wand, and made it so that Hades could enjoy some freedom before waking them up. It doesn't explain the powers though. How can we have the Olympians' powers if they're alive?'
'Maybe they did die,' Alec mused. 'And maybe Hecate gave Hades a spell to revive them.'
Was Hecate that powerful? Probably, Hailey thought, considering what her wand could do. She wished they'd never found the stupid thing. It was the reason she was trapped in Tartarus facing the possibility of never getting out. Of never seeing her mum again. Of dying down here in this horrible place.
'Do you think they've found us missing yet?' Aaron asked, pulling Hailey from her thoughts.
Hailey wiped at the sweat on her face, wishing she was a Chione so she could use her ice powers to cool this furnace down. 'If they haven't, they will soon.'
'They'll never know where to find us though,' Demi sighed. 'I'm sure the nereids will be happy they've got five less students to worry about.'
Something clicked in Hailey's head-the final piece of a puzzle, she hadn't even realised she'd been working on, sliding into place-and she gasped. It's so obvious; how did I miss it?
'What's wrong?' Alec's voice was tinged with panic. 'Is there something in the water? Is it a snake?'
'I understand it. I understand everything.'
'Understand what?' Demi asked.
'The nereids' plan. It all makes sense now. What they meant about the plan not taking long and about Poseidon coming back-everything makes perfect sense.'
'What do you mean it makes sense?' Jayden prompted.
Where to begin... 'I don't know how, but I think t he nereids worked out we found a wand, and that it was Hecate's-they probably knew her entire plan,' Hailey explained. 'They must have known we'd read the spell to wake up Hades and Persephone, which is why Nemertes told the other nereids to be patient because the plan was working. They just needed to wait for Hades to wake up the Olympians. And remember what they said about someone learning its purpose? They were talking about us learning what the spell had done. They were expecting us to come to the Underworld and practically hand the wand back to Hades so he couldn't be stopped. And they probably knew we'd been using the wand to eavesdrop on them, which is why they spent most of their time in the sea-this is all part of their plan.'
'I hate those stupid nereids,' Aaron growled, kicking around in the water.
'It's so obvious,' Alec said. 'We should have seen the connections sooner.'
'I know,' Hailey agreed. 'We can't let them get away with this. We have to get back to the Academy and tell Amathia what her sisters have been up to.'
'I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you said they were psycho, Hails,' Jayden said. 'They're clearly diabolical.'
'I-' Hailey began, but fell quiet, hearing footsteps approaching from above.
The hatch banged open, quadrupling Hailey's heartrate. Please, Tyches, don't let it be Hades coming back to kill us.
Someone dropped into the water with a splash, sending a wave spraying over Hailey, who stifled a scream. An Erinys loomed before her, gripping a flaming torch that exaggerated her sickly skin and made her red eyes burn.
Without warning, the Erinys grabbed Jayden by the neck and threw him up through the hatch, where Hailey heard him land with a horrible thud.
Before Hailey could react, the Erinys snaked a hand around her neck, her pointed nails stinging like acid as they bit into her skin, and hurled Hailey into the air as if she weighed nothing. She let out one petrified scream before she slammed onto the ground, her shoulder exploding in pain.
'You okay, Hailey?' Jayden asked, helping her sit up.
Hailey rubbed her aching arm. 'Yeah.'
Aaron was next to fly out of the hatch, followed by a screaming Demi, and then the Erinys sprang out next, holding a blanched Alec by the throat. She released him and stared at Hailey and her friends, as if waiting for them to make a move. 'Come,' she snarled after a few tense seconds.
Hailey, Demi, Jayden, and Aaron hesitated, exchanging unsure looks, but Alec nudged his head towards the Erinys as she slithered away, indicating they should follow. 'We can't ruin our escape plan by doing something stupid now,' he whispered in a barely audible voice.
Reluctantly, Hailey trailed behind the foul creature, assuming she was taking them to work in the mine. She guessed most people would prefer working in a mine to being stuck down a dark hatch in warm water. But she was afraid if she didn't work hard enough, or did something wrong, she'd have to endure the Erinyes' torturous gaze. She'd do almost anything to avoid reliving the memory of her dad dying.
Heigh ho, heigh ho, Hailey thought when they marched into the pit, where the prisoners were busy working, not daring to even glance at Hailey and her friends. She waited to see which task the Erinys would lead her towards- polishing, hopefully-but she strode towards another tunnel.
The one good thing about the tunnel was that it wasn't the one that led to Hades's palace, so Hailey wouldn't have to walk across the tiny bridge through the abyss again. But the bad thing was she had no idea where it went.
She clutched her necklace and followed. She didn't like not knowing where the Erinys was taking them. What if she was leading them to a torture chamber? The story of Tantalus popped into her head, and she shuddered at the thought of enduring a punishment like his. How horrible it would be to stand thirsty and starving in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree that both receded every time she tried to take a drink of water or pick an apple.
They filed out of the tunnel, and Hailey almost sighed in relief when she wasn't confronted with a hideous torture.
Another cavern lit by flaming torches greeted them. Thick iron doors were carved into the rock walls. Five of them were open, revealing the darkness that lay within.
'Inside,' the Erinys hissed.
Hailey didn't move. She had a feeling this place wasn't just another prison, and that something waited for each of them in the gloom-like a hungry monster.
The Erinys seized Hailey and shoved her into the nearest room, Hailey's knees and elbows stinging as they hit the hard dirt ground.
'Hailey!' Demi cried.
Hailey shot to her feet and spun around in time to have the door slammed in her face, casting her into complete darkness. 'NO!' Hailey dragged her hands down the door, trying to find a handle, but there was nothing but smooth iron. 'Let me out!' she screamed, banging on the door.
A shiver stroked Hailey's spine, and she got the distinct feeling something was watching her. She whipped around, keeping her back firmly planted against the door. 'Hello,' she called into the darkness, her voice trembling. 'Is anyone in here?'
Silence greeted her. Hailey listened intently to it for a minute, trying to discern any sounds that meant she wasn't alone. But the room was deafeningly quiet. It didn't ease her nerves though. No distinct sounds of breathing, or growling, meant there probably wasn't a monster in there with her, but that didn't mean there wasn't something else-like spiders.
The very thought of spiders made Hailey tremble. She hated them, especially the big hairy ones with those extra-long legs.
Hailey stiffened. Something was crawling on her leg... no, she felt many things crawling on her leg-legs. She fought the urge to scream and run around wildly, afraid if she did she would make the things crawling on her angry, and they would bite her.
Stay calm. Slowly, Hailey looked down to see what was on her.
TARANTULAS!
Something plunked on Hailey's head. She screamed, and her resolve not to run around wildly broke as she hurtled from the door, kicking her legs and swiping at her hair in an attempt to get the spiders off her.
She suddenly froze when she noticed the room had become lighter, as though someone had lit torches. She would have preferred the darkness, because it would've hidden the hundreds of plate-sized tarantulas coating the floor and walls.
One crawled onto her shoe. Hailey screamed and kicked it off, stomping on the spider. It vanished. What the...
Another spider launched at her from the wall, clinging to her shoulder. She smacked it and watched it vanish too. It suddenly occurred to her that the spiders might not be real. They had appeared the second she'd started thinking about them.
Someone must've designed this room to read peoples' fears and make them come to life as an illusion-a very real illusion.
Hailey gripped her necklace and closed her eyes so she couldn't see the spiders. 'They're not real,' she told herself, trying to ignore the scratching and tugging as they crawled their way up her legs. 'They're not real. They're in my imagination. They're no-' her voice faltered as she felt spiders fall onto her from the ceiling and leap at her from the walls. A scream rose in her throat. She clutched her necklace tighter and shouted, 'THEY'RE NOT REAL!'
It stopped. The itching of their legs against her skin, and the heavy weight of their bodies as they tangled in her hair.
Hailey peeked her eyes open, her body sagging. Darkness blanketed the room again. She assumed this was how the room looked when whoever was inside wasn't thinking about anything scary.
She felt pretty smug about having defeated the psychological torture chamber. But she quickly remembered her friends were in rooms exactly like this one. Have they figured out nothing they're seeing is real? Or are they screaming their heads off?
She had to find a way to tell them whatever they were seeing was an illusion, especially Demi, whose biggest fear was being alone. She probably wouldn't even need the room to conjure any fears to be freaking out right now. Being trapped in a dark room by herself would likely be enough to break her.
Hailey was groping her way through the dark when she heard a scream.
'Demi!' She found the door and banged against it. 'It's not real, Demi. It's not real,' she yelled. Demi kept screaming. Hailey banged more ferociously, the skin over her knuckles splitting. 'DEMI! PLEASE! IT'S NOT REAL!' Blood oozed from her fists, and she suddenly realised that Demi's screaming was coming from inside the room. It was playing on another one of her fears.
Another scream ripped through the air. Hailey pressed her aching hands to her ears and hummed loudly. She did this for a minute, praying she was right about the room fabricating Demi's screams and that she hadn't just ignored her friend's pleas for help.
Hailey dropped her hands, breathing a sigh of relief when silence greeted her. She tried not to think of any new fears. She didn't know how much more she could take of them coming to life.
She reassured herself with the thought that Alec had probably used his powers to get out of his room and was likely standing right outside trying to work out how to get the doors open.
Hailey faced her back to the door and sank to the ground. She hated herself for making yet another colossal mistake. She was such an idiot to have thought she could come to the Underworld and put the Erinyes to sleep without any drama. Why didn't she give the wand to Amathia? Why?
The teachers had probably found them missing by now. Hailey didn't know what they'd be thinking had happened to them-maybe that they'd drowned- but definitely not that they were in the Underworld. And even if they did somehow work out where Hailey and her friends had gone, it wasn't like they'd be able to find them. No one knew where the Underworld was.
They were trapped here. No one was coming to save them. Escaping was up to Hailey and her friends, and they needed to do it soon. Not just because they had to warn the world about what was happening, but because she needed her mum to know she was okay. She didn't even want to think about how much she was freaking out-assuming the Academy had been brave enough to tell her they'd lost her daughter again.
Sobbing broke the silence.
A woman was crouching in the corner, crying. 'Mum?!' Hailey jerked to her feet and then hesitated. The room was creating another one of her fears. But fake or not, she didn't care. Having her mum with her brought her a sense of comfort, making her feel as though everything was going to be okay. She sat next to her. 'Mum, it's okay. I'm all right.' She wrapped an arm around her mum's shoulders. 'I'll be home soon.'
Evonee shook her head and sniffed. 'No. You're dead. You died because you broke your promise to me.'
'I'm sorry, Mum. I was trying to fix a mistake I made. But I made things worse.'
Evonee lunged to her feet and glowered down at Hailey with hate-filled eyes. 'I will never forgive you. Your weakness killed Owen.'
Tears burned Hailey's throat, and her heart squeezed. 'I tried to stop it,' she said desperately.
'You killed me, Hailey.'
Hailey stifled a scream. Her dad stood in front of her, his blackened flesh smoking. 'Daddy, I'm sorry. I tried. I really tried.'
'You should never have been born a Zeus. You are a disgrace to the power. You're weak, Hailey. And that's what killed me. I'm dead because of you. IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!'
'NO!' Hailey shouted as the feelings she kept locked in the back of her mind broke free and swarmed her.
Guilt pushed against her chest like a knoxen trying to crush the life out of her. She tried to breathe against it, but it was too heavy. She drooped back on the ground, gasping for air.
Evonee and Owen loomed above her, shouting over and over again how she'd killed her dad and wasn't worthy to be a Zeus.
It's not real, Hailey told herself, but she wouldn't believe it. Her parents might not be standing in the room with her right now, but what they were saying was true: her dad was dead because she was a weak Zeus.
Hailey stopped trying to breathe.
She let the heart-crushing pain and lung-squeezing guilt of her dad's death consume her until her parents' angry voices faded into the background.
She felt herself falling down a dark tunnel that seemed it would never end.