CHAPTER TWO: TREK OF DEATH

( house of hades )

✲*'。

THEY'D ONLY TRAVELED a few hundred yards when Ezra Min began to hear voices. With Percy leading the group, Ezra in the middle clutching Annabeth's wrist to hers she kept her mind blank. It was easy to ignore the scratchiness of her throat, her growling stomach. The fiery water of the Phlegethon had temporarily healed the daughter of Hera, restored her strength. It did nothing for her hunger or thirst but it wasn't the first time she had ignored the nutritional need to feed her body, drink liquids to rehydrate her body. The river had done its job. It kept Ezra going so she could experience more excruciating pain down the line.

From behind her, Annabeth weakly dropped her head onto Ezra's shoulder in exhaustion. Tartarus was slowly killing her from the inside out; purity and goodness could not survive long in the rot of hell, a place that Ezra Min should have journeyed to long ago. Then she heard them—female voices having some sort of argument—and she was instantly alert.

Hissing under breath Ezra quietly hissed, "Percy, down!"

She harshly nudged Annabeth back to the current moment, allowing her to pull them behind the closest, tallest item that would hide them that felt similar to a boulder. Ezra wedged herself so close against the rock that she was grateful that her ribs were somewhat healed because of her parters clinging to her back. In this place of eternal misery and gloom, Ezra was the perfect heir to the carnage.  

On the other side of the boulder formation, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream.

Ezra forced herself to steady her breathing. The voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. She assumed anything in Tartarus was their enemy. 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 gargling in the Phlegethon.

"Oh my gods!" said another voice. This one sounded much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl getting exasperated with her friends at the mall. For some reason, she sounded familiar to Ezra, a foggy distant voice she couldn't place.

"You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here."

Ezra bit her lip harshly as she felt Percy gripping her waist tightly as Annabeth grabbed her wrist, squeezing gently. She was not the only who was thought the monsters sounded familiar based on the way her boyfriend and girlfriend tightly clutched her body.

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures—maybe half a dozen, Ezra guessed from the snarling sounds —— had paused just on the other side of the boulder formation. They still gave no indication that they'd caught the demigods' scent thank the deities. Ezra had to wonder if demigods didn't smell the same in Tartarus, or if the other scents here were so powerful, they masked a demigod's aura.

A terrifying thought.

"I wonder," said a third voice, gravelly 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."

Ezra harshly squeezed her girlfriends wrist when thoughts of hot burning anger replaced fear in her subconscious. The levelheaded daughter of Athena was angry, projecting her thoughts erratically, liquid hot fury bleeding into the daughter of Hera's conscious mind. The madness was creeping forward, allowing the demons to take over, possess her body. In the end, before Annabeth could react, Ezra was able to calm down her girlfriend by pressing her body closer to hers. Anger slowly fading into quiet reluctance.

"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!"

The name of the monster was enough to break Ezra's carefully constructed concentration. Blaring alarms went off in Annabeth's mind; metaphorical dots connecting into Braille, the language Ezra Min was intimately familiar with to read. Chaos had bled away for madness to take root, rot had become the daughter of Hera's closest friend. Her rot was spreading, crushing the subconscious of Annabeth into Ezra, thoughts her girlfriend was thinking in her mind seeping into the daughter of Hera's subconscious. Ezra could already metaphorically feel the ridged words forming Annabeths mind.

As Annabeth slowly, but steadily traced two diagonal dots into her skin, three dots in a t shaped line with a space, all the way down the final letter of another two diagonal dots in the opposite way Ezra had been able to make out the monsters hunting them.

Empousai.

Ezra remembered Kelli. Two years ago, at Percy's freshman orientation, he and their friend Rachel Dare 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. Ezra had stood back in absolute awe as Percy had described how Annabeth had stabbed her in the back and sent her...here. To Tartarus.

What a day for Ezra's unrequited crush!

The creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter. Ezra felt Annabeth gently creeping past her to the edge of the stone formation as Percy pulled her securely into his arms, mouth hovering her ear as he began to narrate the monsters before them.

Ezra had been near correct in her half a dozen assumption based on their footsteps —— 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.

Under her breath as Percy spoke in the softest, quietest voice he could manage Ezra gritted her teeth in frustration.

The worst monster Ezra Min had ever faced had been Kronos by far but she had to admit the empousai were high up on that list.

Kelli had almost killed Percy. Ezra didn't even want to think about the atrocities she had made Luke commit. Like Hea, her elder brother figure was dead to her before he ever took his final breath.

Gently Percy helped Ezra to stand, hands tightly clinging to her waist. "They're heading for the Doors of Death," he murmured. "You know what that means?"

Ezra grimaced at his words, a quiet groan of disgust escaped her lips. The flesh-eating horror-show women might be the closest thing to good luck they were going to get in Tartarus.

How lucky for them! Free directions!

"Yeah," Annabeth hummed, voicing Ezra's displeasure. "We need to follow them."

✲*'。

PERCY HAD TAKEN HIS GIRLFRIENDS on some romantic walks before. This wasn't one of them. They followed the River Phlegethon, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices, and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of them.

With a hastily made tether made from the hoodie Ezra had fallen into Tartarus with, with one sleeve tied to his arm and the other hers, they powered on. It was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep Kelli and her comrades in view through the dark hazy air. The heat from the river baked Percy's skin. Every breath was like inhaling sulfur-scented fiberglass. When they needed a drink, the best they could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire.

Yep. Percy definitely knew how to show his girls a good time.

At least Annabeth's ankle seemed to have healed. She was hardly limping at all. Her various cuts and scrapes had faded. She'd tied her blonde hair back with a strip of denim torn from her pants leg, and in the fiery light of the river, her gray eyes flickered, her attention divided between guiding their girlfriend and the monsters ahead. Despite being beat-up, sooty, and dressed like a homeless person, she looked great to Percy.

Ezra had finally stopped hunching her shoulders awkwardly. It seemed her ribs finally seeming to stop giving her so much trouble. Her hair had been tied back into a messy braid by Annabeth from a second strip of denim from their girlfriends pants. The scrapes on her legs from their fall had finally healed up. Every so often she would brush out her longer bangs in frustration, white hues narrowing in determination as she kept her gaze cast ahead in the general direction of the vampire chicks. Ever their protector, his spitfires flame had yet to be quenched by the hellhole they wandered through.

So what if they were in Tartarus? So what if they stood a slim chance of surviving? He was so glad that they were together, finally together as a unit, he had the ridiculous urge to smile.

Physically, Percy felt better too, though his clothes looked like he'd been through a hurricane of broken glass. He was thirsty, hungry, and scared out of his mind (though he wasn't going to tell his girlfriends that), but he'd shaken off the hopeless cold of the River Cocytus. And as nasty as the firewater tasted, it seemed to keep him going, able to power through for the unknown of what was to come.

Time was impossible to judge. They trudged along, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately the empousai weren't exactly speed walkers. They shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the Doors of Death.

Once, the demons sped up in excitement and swarmed something that looked like a beached carcass on the riverbank. Percy couldn't tell what it was—a fallen monster? An animal of some kind? The empousai attacked it with relish.

When the demons moved on, Percy, Ezra and Annabeth reached the spot and found nothing left except a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river. Percy had no doubt the empousai would devour demigods with the same gusto.

"Come on." He hummed, pulling Annabeth and a disgusted Ezra after his narration gently away from the scene. "We don't want to lose them."

After a few more miles, the empousai disappeared over a ridge. When they caught up, the trio found themselves at the edge of another massive cliff. The River Phlegethon spilled over the side in jagged tiers of fiery waterfalls. The demon ladies were picking their way down the cliff, jumping from ledge to ledge like mountain goats.

Percy's heart crept into his throat. Even if he, Ezra and Annabeth reached the bottom of the cliff alive, they didn't have much to look forward to. Beside him, he quietly heard Annabeth begin to describe the landscape to Ezra. The landscape below them was a bleak, ash-gray plain bristling with black trees, like insect hair. The ground was pocked with blisters. Every once in a while, a bubble would swell and burst, disgorging a monster like a larva from an egg.

Suddenly Percy wasn't hungry anymore.
All the newly formed monsters were crawling and hobbling in the same direction—toward a bank of black fog that swallowed the horizon like a storm front. The Phlegethon flowed in the same direction until about halfway across the plain, where it met another river of black water—maybe the Cocytus? The two floods combined in a steaming, boiling cataract and flowed on as one toward the black fog.

The longer Percy looked into that storm of darkness, the less he wanted to go there. It could be hiding anything—an ocean, a bottomless pit, an army of monsters. But if the Doors of Death were in that direction, it was their only chance to get home.

Huffing, he peered over the edge of the cliff before speaking. "Wish we could fly," he muttered.

Annabeth rubbed her arms. "Remember Luke's winged shoes? I wonder if they're still down here somewhere."

From beside him, Ezra half sniggered under her breath. "At least this time we're already stuck down here and wouldn't be dragged down."

"I'd settle for a hang glider."

"Maybe not a good idea." Annabeth pointed. Above them, dark winged shapes spiraled in and out of the bloodred clouds.

"Furies?" Percy wondered.

"Or some other kind of demon," Annabeth said. "Tartarus has thousands."

"Thank you, truly for that reminder owl brain," Ezra grumbled idly scratching her shoulder.

"Including the kind that eats hang gliders," Percy guessed. "Okay, so we climb."

He couldn't see the empousai below them anymore. They'd disappeared behind one of the ridges, but that didn't matter. It was clear where they needed to go. Like all the maggot monsters crawling over the plains of Tartarus, they should head toward the dark horizon. Percy was just brimming with enthusiasm for that.

Just like before, before Annabeth could offer, Percy tugged on the sweater tether connecting him to Ezra. Quickly and confidently he bent down and guided her into position, helping her to climb onto his back. Once his spitfire had settled, burying her head into neck, Percy inhaled sharply and began to climb down the cliff.

As they began their descent, Percy concentrated on the challenges at hand: keeping his footing, avoiding rockslides that would alert the empousai to their presence, keeping a tight grip on Ezra and of course making sure he, Annabeth and Ezra didn't plummet to their deaths.

About halfway down the precipice,
Annabeth said, "Stop, okay? Just a quick break."

Her legs wobbled so badly, Percy cursed himself for not calling a rest earlier. As they sat down, tightly holding onto their bodies, Ezra settled in-between them, rubbing circles into Annabeth's spasming muscles.

They sat together on a ledge next to a roaring fiery waterfall. Percy put his arm around Annabeth, pulling Ezra closer to his chest as the daughter of Athena leaned against both him and Ezra shaking from exhaustion.

The daughter of Hera remained still, her attention focused on skimming the parts of her partners bodies, massaging the limbs she could reach without accidentally leaning too forward. Just like Annabeth, Ezra looked exhausted but she kept her muscles rigid and tense. She was their bodyguard, ready for whatever monster dared to come at them next.

Percy could safely say he wasn't feeling much better. His stomach felt like it had shrunk to the size of a gumdrop. If they came across any more monster carcasses, he was afraid he might pull an empousa and try to devour it.

At least he had his girlfriends. They would find a way out of Tartarus. They had to. He didn't think much of fates and prophecies, but he did believe in one thing: Annabeth, Ezra and he were supposed to be together. They hadn't survived, fought so hard just to get killed now.

"Things could be worse," Annabeth ventured.

"Yeah?" Percy didn't see how, but he tried to sound upbeat.

She snuggled against them, hands reaching forward to pull Ezra back into her grip. "We could've fallen into the River Lethe," she said. "Lost all our memories."

"Thank fucking Zeus, Jason's temporary Amnesia was bad enough," Ezra grumbled, fingers interlacing with Annabeth's as she leaned her head against Percy's chest. 

Percy's skin crawled just thinking about it. He'd had enough trouble with amnesia for one lifetime. "Yeah, the Lethe," he muttered. "Not my favorite."

"What was the Titan's name?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh...Iapetus. He said it meant the Impaler or something."

"No, the name you gave him after he lost his memory. Steve?"

"Bob," Percy said.

Annabeth managed a weak laugh. "Bob the Titan."

A scoff escaped Ezra's lips as she shook her head in amusement. "Certainly a statement name compared to Iapetus."

Percy's lips were so parched, it hurt to smile. He wondered what had happened to Iapetus after they'd left him in Hades's palace...if he was still content being Bob, friendly, happy, and clueless. Percy hoped so, but the Underworld seemed to bring out the worst in everyone—monsters, heroes, and gods.

Percy decided not to think about that. He leaned forward to kiss Annabeth's forehead and Ezra's cheek. "We should keep moving. You want some more fire to drink?"

"Ugh. I'll pass."

"Honestly your missing a delicacy. That stuff is starting to grow on me. Hades knows it's better than any food Hea ever cooked."

They struggled to their feet. The rest of the cliff looked impossible to descend—nothing more than a crosshatching of tiny ledges—but once Ezra was settled back on his back they kept climbing down again once more.

Percy's body went on autopilot. His fingers cramped. He felt blisters popping up on his ankles. He got shaky from hunger. Anytime he could feel his body quivering from weakness from hunger pangs, could feel his body trying to give up, a deep burrowed determination that wasn't his own settled in his consciousness, forcing him to go on. Nearly there, nearly there, the voice would murmur and so tightening his grip on Ezra who had tightly clenched her thighs around his back, her hands gently cradling his head in comparison.

A billion years later, with a dozen new blisters on his feet, Percy reached the bottom. Gently placing Ezra onto the ground, he quickly turned to help Annabeth down, and they quickly followed the daughter of Hera by collapsing on the ground.

Ahead of them stretched miles of wasteland, bubbling with monstrous larvae and big insect-hair trees. To their right, the Phlegethon split into branches that etched the plain, widening into a delta of smoke and fire. To the north, along the main route of the river, the ground was riddled with cave entrances. Here and there, spires of rock jutted up like exclamation points.

From the corner of his eye, Percy could see the singular emotion of disgust on Ezra's as she buried her hands into the soil before abruptly ripping them close to her abdomen. As Annabeth began to describe the landscape to Ezra, Percy copied the daughter of Hera's movement. Under his hand, the soil felt alarmingly warm and smooth. He tried to grab a handful, then realized that under a thin layer of dirt and debris, the ground was a single vast membrane...like skin.

He almost threw up, but forced himself not to. There was nothing in his stomach but fire.

He didn't mention it to Annabeth or Ezra but he started to feel like something was watching them—something vast and malevolent. He couldn't zero in on it, because the presence was all around them. Watching was the wrong word, too. That implied eyes, and this thing was simply aware of them. The ridges above them now looked less like steps and more like rows of massive teeth. The spires of rock looked like broken ribs. And if the ground was skin...

Percy forced those thoughts aside. This place was just freaking him out. That was all.

Annabeth stood, helping Ezra to feet before wiping soot from her face. She gazed toward the darkness on the horizon. "We're going to be completely exposed, crossing this plain."

Percy was quick to take over the narration for Ezra just as about a hundred yards ahead of them, a blister burst on the ground. A monster clawed its way out...a glistening telkhine with slick fur, a seal-like body, and stunted human limbs. It managed to crawl a few yards before something shot out of the nearest cave, so fast that Percy could only register a dark green reptilian head. The monster snatched the squealing telkhine in its jaws and dragged it into the darkness.

Reborn in Tartarus for two seconds, only to be eaten. Percy wondered if that telkhine would pop up some other place in Tartarus, and how long it would take to re-form.

He swallowed down the sour taste of firewater.

"Oh, yeah. This'll be fun." Percy grumbled, pulling himself from the ground with the hand Ezra offered to him with a slight bit of discreet repositioning from Annabeth.

He took one last look at the cliffs, but there was no going back. He would've given a thousand golden drachmas to have Frank Zhang with them right now—good old Frank, who always seemed to show up when needed and could turn into an eagle or a dragon to fly them across this stupid wasteland.

They started walking, trying to avoid the cave entrances, sticking close to the bank of the river. They were just skirting one of the spires when a glint of movement caught Percy's eye—something darting between the rocks to their right.

A monster following them? Or maybe it was just some random baddie, heading for the Doors of Death.

Percy abruptly stopped when the sweater tether connecting him to Ezra began to loosen. Turning his head backwards, he startled slightly to see Ezra crouched in a defensive position, her hand hovering over her bracelet. Suddenly he remembered why they'd started following this route, and he froze in his tracks.

"The empousai." He grabbed Annabeth's arm pulling her back towards Ezra. "Where are they?"

Annabeth scanned a three-sixty, her gray eyes bright with alarm.

Maybe the demon ladies had been snapped up by that reptile in the cave. If the empousai were still ahead of them, they should've been visible somewhere on the plains.

Unless they were hiding...

Too late, Percy drew his sword.

The empousai emerged from the rocks all around them—five of them forming a ring. A perfect trap.

Kelli limped forward on her mismatched legs. Her fiery hair burned across her shoulders like a miniature Phlegethon waterfall. Her tattered cheerleader outfit was splattered with rusty-brown stains, and Percy was pretty sure they weren't ketchup. She fixed him with her glowing red eyes and bared her fangs.

"Percy Jackson," she cooed. "How awesome! I don't even have to return to the mortal world to destroy you!"

Percy could exactly remember Kelli; how fast she was, he remembered how she had him corned until Annabeth had stabbed her in the back ... literally.

Now she had four friends with her.

"And your friend Annabeth is with you!" Kelli hissed with laughter. "Oh, yeah, I totally remember her."

Kelli touched her own sternum, where the tip of the knife had exited when Annabeth stabbed her in the back. "What's the matter, daughter of Athena? Don't have your weapon? Bummer. I'd use it to kill you."

Percy tried to think. He, Ezra and Annabeth stood shoulder to shoulder as they had many times before, ready to fight. But neither of them was in good shape for battle. Annabeth was empty-handed. Ezra despite not admitting was at a loss, her chaos powers gone ... and Percy didn't want to know exactly what brewing in the meantime.

They were hopelessly outnumbered. There was nowhere to run. No help coming.

Briefly Percy considered calling for Mrs. O'Leary, his hellhound friend who could shadow-travel. Even if she heard him, could she make it into Tartarus? This was where monsters went when they died. Calling her here might kill her, or turn her back to her natural state as a fierce monster. No...he couldn't do that to his dog.

So, no help. Fighting was a long shot. That left Annabeth's favorite tactics: trickery, talk, delay ... so definitely not letting Ezra talk for long.

"So..." he started, "I guess you're wondering what we're doing in Tartarus."

Kelli snickered. "Not really. I just want to kill you."

That would've been it, but Annabeth chimed in. "Too bad," she said. "Because you have no idea what's going on in the mortal world."

The other empousai circled, watching Kelli for a cue to attack; but the ex-cheerleader only snarled, crouching out of reach of Percy's sword.

"We know enough," Kelli said. "Gaea has spoken."

"You're heading toward a major defeat." Annabeth sounded so confident, even Percy was impressed. She glanced at the other empousai, one by one, then pointed accusingly at Kelli.

"This one claims she's leading you to a victory. She's lying. The last time she was in the mortal world, Kelli was in charge of keeping my friend Luke Castellan faithful to Kronos. In the end, Luke rejected him. My lovely girlfriend stabbed Kronos, allowing Luke the chance to expel him. He gave his life to get rid of Kronos. The Titans lost because Kelli failed. Now Kelli wants to lead you to another disaster."

The other empousai muttered and shifted uneasily. Ezra bared her teeth in delight, drawing out Kronos' scythe.

Ah their spitfire is was always one for the dramatics.

"I do wonder how this beauty will do killing empousai ... I've never tried. Anyone care to volunteer?"

"Enough!" Kelli's fingernails grew into long black talons. She glared at Annabeth as if imagining her sliced into small pieces. Hissing angrily at Ezra, she eyed the scythe critically.

"The girl lies," Kelli said. "So the Titans lost. Fine! That was part of the plan to wake Gaea! Now the Earth Mother and her giants will destroy the mortal world, and we will totally feast on demigods!"

The other vampires gnashed their teeth in a frenzy of excitement. Percy had been in the middle of a school of sharks when the water was full of blood. That wasn't nearly as scary as empousai ready to feed.

He prepared to attack, but how many could he dispatch before they overwhelmed him? It wouldn't be enough.

"The demigods have united!" Annabeth yelled. "You'd better think twice before you attack us. Romans and Greeks will fight you together. You don't stand a chance!"

The empousai backed up nervously, hissing, "Romani."

Percy guessed they'd had experience with the Twelfth Legion before, and it hadn't worked out well for them.

"Yeah, you bet Romani." Percy bared his forearm and showed them the brand he'd gotten at Camp Jupiter—the SPQR mark, with the trident of Neptune. "You mix Greek and Roman, and you know what you get? You get BAM!"

He stomped his foot, and the empousai scrambled back. One fell off the boulder where she'd been perched.

That made Percy feel good, but they recovered quickly and closed in again.

"Bold talk," Kelli said, "for three demigods lost in Tartarus. Lower your sword, Percy Jackson, and I'll kill you quickly. Believe me, there are worse ways to die down here."

"Wait!" Annabeth tried again. "Aren't empousai the servants of Hecate?"

Kelli curled her lip. "So?"

"So Hecate is on our side now," Annabeth said. "She has a cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Some of her demigod children are my friends. If you fight us, she'll be angry."

Percy wanted to hug Annabeth, she was so brilliant.

One of the other empousai growled. "Is this true, Kelli? Has our mistress made peace with Olympus?"

"Shut up, Serephone!" Kelli screeched.

"Gods, you're annoying!"

"I will not cross the Dark Lady."

Annabeth took the opening. "You'd all be better following Serephone. She's older and wiser."

"Yes!" Serephone shrieked. "Follow me!"

Kelli struck so fast, he blinked in surprise as Ezra shoved herself forward, scythe drawn protectively directly over him and Annabeth. Percy didn't even have the chance to raise his sword. Fortunately, she didn't attack him.

Kelli lashed out at Serephone. For half a second, the two demons were a blur of slashing claws and fangs.

Then it was over. Kelli stood triumphant over a pile of dust. From her claws hung the tattered remains of Serephone's dress.

"Any more issues?" Kelli snapped at her sisters. "Hecate is the goddess of the Mist! Her ways are mysterious. Who knows which side she truly favors? She is also the goddess of the crossroads, and she expects us to make our own choices. I choose the path that will bring us the most demigod blood! I choose Gaea!"

Her friends hissed in approval.

Annabeth glanced at Percy, and he saw that she was out of ideas. She'd done what she could. She'd gotten Kelli to eliminate one of her own. Now there was nothing left but to fight.

Ezra would love this of course. Judging by the way her body got more rigid and tense she was just itching to cleave the scythe through some empousai.

"For two years I churned in the void," Kelli said. "Do you know how completely annoying it is to be vaporized, Annabeth Chase? Slowly re-forming, fully conscious, in searing pain for months and years as your body regrows, then finally breaking the crust of this hellish place and clawing your way back to daylight? All because some little girl stabbed you in the ——"

A scoff broke Kelli from her rant. Ezra kept her gaze in the general direction of Kelli, a viscous smirk coating her lips as she never let up from her protective stance in front of her boyfriend and girlfriend.

"We got it!" Ezra hissed in annoyance. "You're pissed off that my girlfriend stabbed you. Move on!"

How eloquently put! Percy always knew Ezra was the more reactive of the two of them, not that Annabeth agreed.

Growling in frustration, Kelli eyed Ezra and the scythe, not rising to the threat Ezra posed. Her baleful eyes held Annabeth's instead of meeting Ezra's. She wasn't going to go toe to with the scythe just yet.

"I wonder what happens if a demigod is killed in Tartarus. I doubt it's ever happened before. Let's find out."

Percy sprang ahead of Ezra, slashing Riptide in a huge arc. He cut one of the demons in half, but Kelli dodged and charged Annabeth.

The other two empousai launched themselves at Percy. One grabbed his sword arm. Her friend jumped on his back. With a quiet grunt, Ezra swung the scythe, slashing the empousa that landed on his back.

Percy tried to ignore them, Ezra had him covered, attacking the friend who had clambered on his back. He staggered toward Annabeth, determined to go down defending her if he had to; but Annabeth was doing pretty well. She tumbled to one side, evading Kelli's claws, and came up with a rock in her hand, which she smacked into Kelli's nose.

Kelli wailed. Annabeth scooped up gravel and flung it in the empousa's eyes.

Meanwhile, from the corner of his eye Percy spotted Ezra being thrown to the ground, harshly kicked by the empousa who clambered back to him. He thrashed from side to side, trying to throw off his empousa hitchhiker, but her claws sank deeper into his shoulders. The second empousa held his arm, preventing him from using Riptide.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kelli lunge, raking her talons across Annabeth's arm. Annabeth screamed and fell.

It wasn't over just yet, from where she had landed on the ground Ezra landed directly behind Kelli who now loomed over a downed Annabeth. Ezra would not let that deter, with
a carefully planned strike, she listened closely, listened to Kelli's erratic snarls as she prepared her final attack.

Before Percy could make his way to Annabeth, Ezra struck, the scythe sweeping across Kelli's shoulder blades, the weapon scattering to the ground as Ezra shakily made her way to her feet to distract the empousa away from their girlfriend.

Percy stumbled in her direction. The vampire on his back sank her teeth into his neck. Searing pain coursed through his body. His knees buckled.

Stay on your feet, he told himself. You have to beat them. You have to get to the girls.

With a loud cry, Ezra had fallen, her abdomen viciously scratched by Kelli.

Percy was ripped back into the moment as the other vampire bit his sword arm, and Riptide clattered to the ground.

That was it. His luck had finally run out. Kelli loomed over Annabeth once again, leaving the unconscious Ezra behind from where she had harshly hit her head from the fall trying to protect herself from a further attack.

The other two empousai circled Percy, their mouths slavering, ready for another taste.

Then a shadow fell across Percy. A deep war cry bellowed from somewhere above, echoing across the plains of Tartarus, and a Titan dropped onto the battlefield.

Honestly Percy thought he was hallucinating. It just wasn't possible that a huge, silvery figure could drop out of the sky and stomp Kelli flat, trampling her into a mound of monster dust.

But that's exactly what happened. The Titan was ten feet tall, with wild silver Einstein hair, pure silver eyes, and muscular arms protruding from a ripped-up blue janitor's uniform. In his hand was a massive push broom. His name tag, incredibly, read BOB.

Annabeth yelped and tried to crawl away, to Ezra to protect her vulnerable body but the giant janitor wasn't interested in her. He turned to the two remaining empousai, who stood over Percy.

One was foolish enough to attack. She lunged with the speed of a tiger, but she never stood a chance. A spearhead jutted from the end of Bob's broom. With a single deadly swipe, he cut her to dust. The last vampire tried to run. Bob threw his broom like a massive boomerang (was there such a thing as a broomerang?). It sliced through the vampire and returned to Bob's hand.

"SWEEP!" The Titan grinned with delight and did a victory dance. "Sweep, sweep, sweep!"

Percy couldn't speak. He couldn't bring himself to believe that something good had actually happened. Annabeth looked just as shocked.

"H-how...?" she stammered.

"Percy called me!" the janitor said happily.

"Yes, he did."

Annabeth crawled a little farther away, fully placing her body over Ezra's. Like their girlfriends steadily bleeding abdomen, her arm was also bleeding badly. "Called you? He—wait. You're Bob? The Bob?"

The janitor frowned, for her had he noticed
Annabeth's wounds. "Owie."

Annabeth flinched as he knelt next to her.

"It's okay," Percy said, still woozy with pain. "He's friendly."

He remembered when he'd first met Bob. The Titan had healed a bad wound on Percy's shoulder just by touching it. Sure enough, the janitor tapped Annabeth's forearm and it mended instantly. Bob chuckled, pleased with himself, then rolled Ezra around so her head rested in Annabeth's lap as he laid his finger on her stomach for a longer moment before bounding over to Percy and healed his bleeding neck and arm. The Titan's hands were surprisingly warm and gentle.

"All better!" Bob declared, his eerie silver eyes crinkling with pleasure. "I am Bob, Percy's friend!"

"Uh...yeah," Percy managed. "Thanks for the help, Bob. It's really good to see you again."
"Yes!" the janitor agreed. "Bob. That's me. Bob, Bob, Bob." He shuffled around, obviously pleased with his name. "I am helping. I heard my name. Upstairs in Hades's palace, nobody calls for Bob unless there is a mess. Bob, sweep up these bones. Bob, mop up these tortured souls. Bob, a zombie exploded in the dining room."

Annabeth gave Percy a puzzled look, but he had no explanation.

"Then I heard my friend call!" The Titan beamed. "Percy said, Bob!"

He grabbed Percy's arm and hoisted him to his feet.

"That's awesome," Percy said. "Seriously. But how did you—"

"Oh, time to talk later." Bob's expression turned serious. "We must go before they find you. They are coming. Yes, indeed."

"They?" Annabeth asked.

"Just great," Ezra groaned, signalling she had gained consciousness once more. Hastily helping her to her feet, Percy wrapped a protective arm over her waist. With Bobs attention focused on the horizon, Annabeth quickly darted down, grabbing the scythe. Spinning it an anti-clock wise circle she watched as it settled back into it's disguised blood red charm.

Once the charm was settled back onto Ezra's bracelet their girlfriend relaxed, falling into Annabeth's arms.

Percy scanned the horizon. He saw no approaching monsters—nothing but the stark gray wasteland.

"Yes," Bob agreed. "But Bob knows a way. Come on, friends! We will have fun!"

"Before we go I have one question," Ezra spoke up, casting her gaze in the general direction of Bob. "How the fuck did you get down here?"

✲*'。