~The Tunnel~

The tunnel didn’t seem to have an end, or any side tunnels, or any anything.

The now six just kept walking, not quite standing up, as the passage got thinner and thinner. Frank had to just about hold his breath.

Each and every one of them had just about decided that there was no end and they were going to die down there when the tunnel suddenly opened up to a room with two equally huge doorways made of darker stone then the walls with engravings of leaves around the sides.

Annabeth buried her face in her palms, ‘Please don’t make me choose.’

‘No one’s going to,’ Percy put his arm around her comfortingly, the other holding Riptide extended, their only source of light.

‘So which way?’ Grover asked nervously, tugging on the edge of his shirt.

The poor satyr was terrible underground, and this place reminded him of the Labyrinth. Though that was impossible; the Labyrinth had been destroyed years ago.

‘Dunno,’ Percy admitted. ‘What does you’re sniffer say?’

Grover turned a bit pink, but he took a long sniff at the air and pointed down the left tunnel, ‘That way.’

‘No way,’ Hazel shook her head. ‘I can’t sense anything down that way. Right is free of traps.’

‘Traps maybe,’ Grover agreed. ‘But there’s a monster waiting at the end of the tunnel. We’ll never make it out of there.’

Hazel stubbornly stayed put, ‘I trust my senses, and my senses say right.’

‘I think I’ll take unknown over monster,’ Piper said quietly.

Hazel glared at the daughter of Aphrodite, then at the rest of them. ‘Are none of you on my side>’

No one answer her.

‘Frank?’

The son of Mars suddenly became very interested in the carvings on the doorways, his dirty sneakers, the walls; anything but his girlfriend.

Hazel’s look became every bit as stony as the cave walls.

‘Fine,’ she scoffed. ‘Have fun in the unknown.’

She took off down the right passage. Frank finally glanced up and strode a few steps to the entrance, calling her name.

He looked down, ‘If she dies, it’s my fault.’

‘She made her decision, Frank,’ Piper said. ‘We know that, you know that, and she knew that.’

Piper followed Grover and Annabeth down the left passage as the six became five, and Percy and Frank were the last left in the room with the two corridors. The son of Poseidon placed his hand gently on the big guys shoulder in a gesture of reassurance.

‘Hazel’s fully capable of taking down a few monsters,’ he reminded the son of Mars.

Frank sighed, ‘I know. But if anything happens, I won’t be able to shake the guilt.’

Percy shook his head, ‘How are you not as affected by the missing love magic?’

Frank frowned, ‘I think it has to do with my dad. Mars, not Ares. While Ares is more about war, Mars is more about duty. No offence.’

‘None taken,’ Percy spread his hands honestly. ‘Please insult Ares to your heart’s content.’

Frank held back a laugh, ‘Well, I can hear Mars in my head, telling me what do to.’

‘And he told you to stick with us, rather than your girlfriend,’ Percy asked in disbelief.

Frank hung his head, ‘I’m not proud of it. But Mars is usually right.’

Percy clapped Frank on the shoulder and steered him down the left passage which was, thankfully, much larger than the first.

‘Ares sure is different,’ he said.

~Down the Passage~

The tunnel continued for some time. Grover led the way, sniffing the air but declaring the path ahead was clear of monsters. Piper followed with Katoptris out.

Annabeth was a little further behind, her dragon bone sword still in its handmade sheath, its length useless in such close quarters. She held Percy’s hand behind her who had his hand out in front and his other grasping Riptide.

Frank trailed behind, still laden down with guilt and regret at whatever Hazel was condemned to.

‘Wait,’ Grover stopped them. He took a long sniff at the air and turned pale. ‘There’s a monster down there. Not sure if it’ll hurt us though.’

‘Not sure if it’ll hurt us?’ Piper repeated. ‘It’s a monster, how could it not?’

‘There are good monsters,’ Percy reminded her. ‘Tyson, Ella, Mrs. O’Leary; they’re technically monsters.’

Piper shrugged, ‘True.’

Grover sniffed again, ‘More than one.’

Percy fingered Riptide’s hilt nervously, ‘Okay, less good.’

The continued more cautiously. The corridor eventually opened up into yet another spacious room, this one with five passages. One was surrounded by dry mud, the second by ornate stone, the third by concrete, the fourth by bricks and the fifth by dark wood.

The five stared at the passages in disbelief.

Percy blinked, ‘Well this is stupid.’

‘How do we choose which passage?’ Piper asked.

Grover sniffed, ‘Can’t smell anything.’

‘What?’ Annabeth yelled. ‘But you could smell monsters just a minute ago.’

‘Well I obviously can’t anymore,’ Grover snapped.

‘No fighting, guys,’ Frank commanded. ‘We have to take this seriously.’

Percy nodded, ‘Lucky pick?’

He moved slowly towards the fourth passage surrounded by bricks. He stretched his hand out and met an invisible barrier. Using both hands, the son of Poseidon pushed against the unseen force to no avail.

‘I can’t get through,’ Percy admitted.

‘Let us try,’ Annabeth said.

She and Frank stepped forward with Percy while Grover and Piper hung back, looking curious. Annabeth reached out but her hand met the same fate. Frank tried as well, and his hand went straight through.

‘What?’ Frank drew his hand back like it had been burnt and looked it over. ‘How-’

‘Only you can go down this passage,’ Annabeth explained. ‘We can’t.’

‘Which means,’ Percy glanced back at the other two, ‘that we get a tunnel each. Five tunnels, five of us.’

‘Split up?’ Piper repeated. ‘Bad idea.’

‘Super bad,’ Grover agreed. ‘Like, one of your worst.’

Percy didn’t take offence. He knew it wasn’t his friends fault they were being unkind. He just pinched the bridge of his nose to prevent the oncoming headache.

‘This is going to be hard, guys,’ he started. ‘But I have confidence we’ll meet up at the end of the tunnels. It’s a trust test.’

‘But we trust each other,’ Grover was suddenly unsure. ‘Right?’

‘Under normal circumstances,’ Frank said, ‘yes. But this is hardly normal.’

‘Nothing we ever do is normal,’ Piper grumbled under her breath.’

‘Our trust is deteriorating with the loss of Cupid’s bow,’ Percy said. ‘This is a test to see if we can withstand that.’

‘A test of true friendship,’ Annabeth echoed.

‘Right,’ Percy breathed deeply. ‘Everyone pick a tunnel and find yours.’

Piper went straight to the dark wood passage and held out her hand, exhaling slowly when it went straight through. After a few tries, Annabeth found her passage to be the one surrounded by the ornately carved stone. Percy found the concrete tunnel his, leaving Grover with the dry mud.

‘Okay,’ Percy said. ‘We don’t know what we’ll face, but I know we’ll make it through.’

They all stepped into their tunnels, delving deeper into the unknown.

Percy called out to them one last time, ‘See you on the other side.’