Percy Jackson's body had contorted into outlandish shapes as he struggled to get up.

His eyes were forced firmly shut to try and withstand the pain.

The ground beneath his fingers was cool and hard, stopping him from digging into the floor and gripping tight.

His face, pale, pressed against the cold surface, as he lay prone and in agony.

A guttural scream escaped his body as he moved his arm inward. Dislocated. Had to be.

Grunts and breathes of air bounced around the room, echoing for miles. A cold air fluttered through the room, pinning the back of his hair to his neck.

He tried opening his eyes, but black and yellow spots danced across his vision.

He took a deep breath, and then another, and then a last, before placing two hands infront of him, forcing him to blink back the pain, before he pushed upwards.

His arms shook as they held his weight, so he quickly brought his knees forward, putting them underneath him so he could sit up on them.

His breathing quickened, and his head felt light. His whole upper body felt so unassured, as it softly swayed from side to side.

A feeling in the pit of his stomach grew, churning along as it went. He could feel it rising, forcing him to crease.

He took a fee more deep breaths, trying to hold the sick at bay, before gagging and flinging his hands to his mouth, trying to stop the vomit that forced it's way past his fingers.

His head lolled forwards, sick pooling at the corner of his mouth, slowly dripping towards the floor.

*Drip* went the first droplet of sick, bouncing onto the ground loudly, in the silence of the room. Percy was only just coming together properly. He didn't notice the sick still falling from his mouth.

The second *drip* was just as loud. Percy let out another groan, before opening his eyes slightly, and bringing his arm up to his mouth.

*Drip* went the third droplet. Falling just before Percy could wipe it away.

Eyes fully open now, he took in the room. Well, tried to. The room was so bright, that it nearly blinded him and he was forced to blink away even more spots from his eyes.

As his eyes finally adjusted, he looked around the room, before his eyes settled on a chair in front of him.

Well not quite in front of him, rather about 200 metres away, but so huge it looked like it was practically in front of him.

And his eyes had not quite settled, but as close to that as possible.

In the chair, sat the most imposing figure he'd seen, ever. The glare from this figure was so tremendous, he wasn't able to look anywhere near close to him for fear of going blind.

Looking around the room again, he noticed that the room itself wasn't bright, in fact, it was dark. Very dark.

The entire room was made of glossy black bricks, each of which were being bathed in light from the seated figure.

Squinting back up, he could make out a shadowy beard, like a lions mane, through the glowing backdrop.

His eyes, like glowing suns, was where the glare came from. Streaks of light battered the air around, stabbing every bit of untouched darkness it could.

Golden suns slowly travelled to Percy's body, as this man (if you could call him that), took note of the little boy in front of him. 

Percy was hunched over, hands desperately open in front of his eyes, trying to shield himself from the light.

If the man saw this, he chose not to take pity.

His head was cocked in Percy's direction. Curiosity would be the only thing you would see across his features, if one could see them at all.

The man evidently had enough of Percy, and simply waved his hand.

The next time Percy could feel anything, was the next time his eyes focused in on reality.

This time, wherever he was, his feet were planted on the ground already, so he didn't have to fight through pain to survery his surroundings. Nor was he hunched over with sick dripping off his fingers, trying to hide away from the eyes of a giant.

Speaking of where he was, he didn't have a clue. He could see mountains and hills sprawling out for days in front of him.

But everything was off. The grass on the hills in front, as well as the grass beneath his feet, it was all dead. Blackened and patchy, and worn, it could have looked nice, if it was lush with greenery.

A well worn path was carved on the hill beneath, which Percy started following. He tried fighting it, but his feet just followed along the path.

Which shouldn't have been possible.

His right ankle was at least sprained, and when he checked it, it had ballooned to the size of his knee. Which wasn't fairing well either, as that was bent at an awkward angle, causing the entire bottom of his right leg to be pointing outwards, instead of straight.

The left side of his leg was no better, his entire thigh blackened with a nasty bruise. His knee was the size of a bowling ball, much like his other one, and his ankle was causing his left foot to face inwards.

He shouldn't have been able to walk, let alone walk straight, but he was.

The pain wasn't anywhere near as bad as it should have been, in fact, he'd argue that it was non existent. He couldn't feel anything.

His shoulder no longer had the pain of dislocation running through it, and his breathing was back to normal, as was the light headedness. It was just gone.

He wasn't fixed, as anyone could clearly see by looking at him, but he sure was on some hell of a pain killer.

Shaking off the shock at not being in tremendous discomfort, he followed along the path. Feet trudging after the other.

He didn't have to follow for too far, before he got over the top of the hill, and could look down to where the path was going.

If he could physically feel sick anymore, he would do.

Beneath him was what appeared to be a cross between an airport, and the Jersey Turnpike. There were three separate entrances, with three accompanying lanes.

Each lane was backed up for miles, with the shades of dead people queuing along.

One line appeared to be moving much quicker than the other two.

Was he dead?

Surely not.

He looked down at himself, and saw nothing but the dark, ripped robes of the dead, much like those below him.

But what about his clothes? He clearly saw them before when checking his injuries. Where had they gone?

He can't be dead. He just can't.

Yes he fell quite far, but surely wizards could heal him.

Right?

His feet were moving again.

He carried on trudging downwards, feet not leaving the floor, heading towards the back of the queue.

It didn't take too long for him to reach the back, well it did, but not as long as he thought.

Now he had two options, the EZ DEATH line, or the ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines.

He didn't have a clue what either of those meant, but thankfully, the afterlife was prepared for the dead not being prepared.

There was quite a sad looking sign just ahead of him, with rotten wood foundations holding aloft a peeling sign.

Moving towards it, he saw that the EZ DEATH, which he only just realised meant "Easy" death, was the route you follow if you wish to skip judgement.

Despite how gracious the afterlife had been to provide him with the necessary information, he didn't want to stick around.

He was no longer travelling on autopilot here, and was free to make his decision.

What's to stop him making a run for it?

Although, where would he go?

He looked around for any place he could use.

In the far off distance towards the left, he could see smoke curling upwards, with a faint hue of red flickering behind barbed fencing. The sound of screams wafted towards him from this direction.

Maybe not that way, he thought to himself.

Glancing in the opposite direction, he saw an island, barren of everything but a gigantic, gorgeous palace sitting in the middle. The island itself was surrounded by a moat of fire, or magma, or something that was orange and glowing and would most definitely kill him.

There were gigantic black towers, with white thin bones looped around the base. Bat like women flew around the open tops of the towers, moving in and out, before sometimes perching at the top. Their eyes looking out across the land, surveying the dangers that were posed to the palace, if any dangers were present.

In the areas between the magnificent palace with the golden furnishings, and the clearly not so nice most likely torture area, there was nothing.

Just nothing but hills, going on forever.

Percy sighed, before looking downwards, he could feel his own spirit breaking. There was no escape. He was actually dead. This was it.

He took the furthest left lane, the EZ DEATH lane, and moved with the line.

He thought about getting judgement, but he hadn't done anything particularly remarkable (good or bad), so he figured he'd save himself a good few hours, most likely days, which were probably actually months if not years, and go straight past judgement and end up where he'd have ended up anyway.

The line he chose moved very quickly. But not rapidly.

It still took him hours following along.

If he  could feel anything, he was sure his legs would be aching something terrible right about now.

He guessed it took him hours, mainly because he didn't want to believe he'd been walking for days, do nothing but think about nothing and just walking.

It was pitiful, and he refused to accept that he'd taken part in it, when he had already done so.

It took a long time, but he was finally getting somewhere.

Only a couple miles away now. He could see the building on the horizon.

At this point, things started getting quicker. Far quicker.

In no time at all, he moved until he was about 100 metres away. It was like time was being played in slow motion for the first hundred miles, but the next couple it was being played on fast forward.

He was only a 100 metres away.

100 metres away from being legitimately dead.

The line shuffled forward again.

75 metres.

Moved forward again. 40 metres.

That's when he noticed it. If he had skin any longer, it would be sheer white.

Towering above, was a gruesome and grotesque beast. Three heads, each as terrifying as the last.

With darkened eyes, and sunken cheeks. If not for the translucent skin already showing you its bones, you'd have been able to see them anyway.

Every time it stilled, it became translucent, blending with the background, leaving only a skeletal outline of where it is.

If it just so happened to move, its skin would ripple, becoming thicker and more visible. Mangy fur, mottled and unwashed, laying over thick muscular legs.

White slobber dripped between yellow fangs as long as Percy's arm. Black gums surrounding its teeth.

There was a pool at its feet, clearly acidic from the fumes fluttering upwards, where the slobber would land.

One of the monsters massive feet was stood in the middle of this acid pool. Dark claws protruding from its fur, slowly scraping at the ground.

It was antsy.

And Percy's nerves were tested.

His line passed right underneath this monsters stomach. The tallest of shades being able to pass underneath with no problem.

He gulped.

He shivered.

He closed his eyes.

Focus Percy, he told himself, you're dead. What does it matter if this clearly dangerous monster is here? It can no longer harm you. Nor does it want to.

He didn't know how much he believed that last part, because this thing was looking mighty hungry, and had been eyeing up everything that moved around it.

But he didn't dwell. What use was that anymore?

20 metres away.

He was close now.

The sound it was making was unlike anything he'd heard before. It was a deep, primal growl, that shook the ground where Percy was.

10 metres.

10 metres from its feet. From its claws.

5 metres.

1 metre.

He closed his eyes, wincing in anticipation of a mauling.

Nothing.

He kept walking.

0 metres.

5 metres.

10 metres.

He was safe through the other side.

If you could call being officially dead, safe.

He was just about to leave the airport/death queue whatever, when he heard a fearsome roar.

His hair shot up on his skin, and he whipped around.

Three nasty heads were looking at him.

They were glaring.

They were eyeing him up, and they were going to eat him.

He just knew it.

He smiled at them, very nervously, in the hope of appeasing them.

It didn't work.

They pounced, and they were on him.

One of its paws flattened him to the ground, it was so huge that it covered his entire body.

He coughed as the monster crushed his lungs under its weight.

His eyesight slowly faded, but not before he saw its other fore paw rear backwards.

His eyes widened, and things moved in slow motion.

He could see the paw, claws extended, arcing through the air towards him.

His face slowing turned away from it, eyes closing.

The paw connected with his face, and that was the last thing he felt, before he shot upwards, eyes opening up into the scene of something he couldn't comprehend.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr Jackson. You had quite a lot of people worried about you."

A/n - before we get to certain usual trademarks of one of my updates, how is everyone doing currently? I hope you're all doing well, and I hope all your families are doing well.

A bit of a shorter update, but I feel like I got everything needed in this chapter for it to be where I want it to be at, so I didn't add unnecessary filler to pad it out. Sorry if you don't like that, but it is what it is. Future updates will be longer, but some may also be shorter, it's just however the mood takes me.

I now it's been quite some time, once again.

Are apologies beyond use now? If my apologies still mean something, I am really sorry. I keep telling myself, and you lot, that I'll update sooner, but I always fail. Granted this time there is a global pandemic going on currently, but still, I hadn't uploaded before then, so I don't have too many excuses.

The themes in this chapter are all pertinent in setting up future plot points, so while they may not seem necessary atm, and just delaying his return to the wizarding school of Hogwarts, they are important and will be needed for future plot.