𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟗: 𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐋𝐄𝐖𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐑𝐎𝐘𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐘

"Mistress..."

THEY STOOD IN FRONT OF VALENCIA BOULEVARD LOOKING UP AT GOLD LETTERS ETCHED IN BLACK MARBLE: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.

Underneath the sign read: NO SOLICITORS, NO LOITERING, NO LIVNG.

The lobby was lively and full of people. Behind the security desk was a buff looking guard with sunglasses and an ear piece.

Eris gulped as Percy turned to them, "Okay. You remember the plan?"

"Yep," Eris squeaked out.

The more time that passed the more Eris was regretting coming on this quest. Their quest for the lightning bolt was almost over and she had yet to met her father. She thought she would have met him by now. Turns out she had just been wasting her time.

But still...the sick feeling of disappointment bubbled in her stomach. She'd just end up being an orphan forever.

"The plan," Grover gulped, "Yeah. I love the plan."

Annabeth said, "What happens if the plan doesn't work?"

"Don't think negative."

All Eris was thinking was negative. What was she thinking? This was a terrible idea.

"Right," Annabeth said, "We're entering the land of dead, and I shouldn't think negative."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Eris said weakly, nudging Annabeth.

I'm gonna die.

Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder, "Eris is right. I'm sorry, Percy. We'll make it. It'll be fine." She nudged Grover harshly.

"Oh, right!" Grover chimed in, "We got this far. We'll find the Master bolt and save your mom. No problem."

Percy smiled at bit, "Let's whup some Underworld ass."

They walked inside the DOA lobby with Annabeth purposely walking in front of Eris.

Jazz music played from the speakers and the Capet and walls were the same shade of grey. The couches were all gray and completely filled with people who that if you looked hard enough we're actually transparent. No one talked, no one moved, no one really did anything.

The security guard's desk was so tall they had to strain their necks to look at them.

He was tall with skin a couple shades darker than Eris' with bleached white hair and black shades. He wore an expensive looking suit with a name tag that read: CHARON.

   Percy read the name tag, then stared at him with wide eyes. "Your name is Chiron?"

    He leaned across the desk, his smile was sweet and cold it made Eris shiver.

   "What a precious young lad." He had a odd accent, "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?"

   "N-no."

    "Sir," he added smoothly.

   "Sir," Percy said.

    He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."

    "Charon."

   "Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."

   "Mr. Charon," Percy said.

    "Well done." He sat back. "I hate being confused with that old horse- man. And now, how may I help you little dead ones?" His eyes briefly traveled to Eris' face before he frowned, like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

    "We want to got to the Underworld," Annabeth said.

    Charon's lip twitched, "Well, that's refreshing."

    "It is?" Annabeth asked.

    "Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'there must be a mistake Mr.Charon!'" He eyed them, "How did you die?"

    Eris glanced at her friends uneasy faces, "Uh...circus accident!" She blurted out.

   Charon raised a brow, "A circus accident? All three off you?"

   Eris nodded, "We're, uh, trapeze artist. We fell to our deaths, it was tragic," she said and cringed when her tone was a bit overdramatic.

   Charon looked a bit impressed, "I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see,  I could charge your American Express or add ferry price to your latest cable bill. But with children...alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."

    "Oh but we have coins," Percy placed three gold drachmas on his desk.

   "Well now," Charon licked his lips, "Real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in.."

   His fingers hovered over the coins greedily before he stopped and narrowed his eyes, "Here now," he said, "You couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"

   "No," Percy said, "I'm dead."

   Charon sniffed the air, "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."

    "We have to get to the Underworld," Percy insisted.

   Charon growled so deeply it made Eris flinch, "Leave while you still can.  I'll just take these and forget I saw you." He reached for the coins but Percy quickly snatched them away.

  "No service no tip."

    Charon growled again and the spirits of the dead started to pound on the elevator.

   Eris stepped forward, "P-Please sir," she pleaded.

   Charon's sharp gaze turned to her, "What's your name, godling? You look familiar."

   Eris exchanged a glance with Percy, "Uh, Eris," she said, "E-Eris, sir."

    "No," Charon snarled, "You're full name."

     "Essence," Eris choked out immediately, "My name is Essence Lewis."

   Charon's back straightened and the cold look in his eyes was replaced with fear, "O-Oh my," he sputtered, raising his hands in surrender, "My deepest apologies, Mistress," he said quickly and lightly bowed.

   Eris frowned. Mistress? What was he talking about? She wasn't of any higher status or royalty.

    "M-Mistress? Wha—"

   Annabeth quickly covered Eris' mouth with a sharp look that made Eris shut up.

   "I-I'll take you all to the Underworld immediately, we've been waiting for you, Mistress " Charon fumbled to walk to the elevator, "Come along."

They pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits. Charon shoved them away as he grunted, "Freeloaders."

He took them to the elevator that was already crowded with dead sprite. He grabbed two sprits who tried to push their way through and shoved them away, "Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he told everyone in the waiting room, "And if anyone dials off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"

He shut the door. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and they started to descend.

"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth asked.

"Nothing," Charon said, he kept sparing small glances in Eris' direction, studying her face.

"For how long?"

"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."

    Eris frowned. Would that happen to her when she died? Would she be kept in that lobby for the rest of eternity? It sounded miserable. Did Willow have to go through that lobby when she died?

    "That...t-that sounds terrible," Eris muttered, wrapping her arms around herself.

    Charon's eyes widened, "I suppose I should allow them to travel to the Underworld to find rest, Mistress," he said quickly, "as long as you don't mention to Lord Hades I almost didn't allow you in the Underworld."

   Eris tilted her head, "Why would I—uh, okay. I won't tell him."

   She wasn't planning on talking to Hades anyway. She was going to stand there and be a silent as a mouse. Percy was going to do all the talking.

  Just the thought of even having to mutter a word to Hades made Eris squirm.

   She didn't understand why Charon seemed so uneasy around her. She wasn't intimidating she couldn't even hurt him if she tried. She was sure he could kill her with the tip of his finger.

   Eris was nothing to be scared off if anything she was someone who was always scared.

   She just wished he stopped calling her Mistress. It made her feel weird, it made her feel like she was entitled to something when she wasn't.

    Relief shined in Charon's eyes, "Then I will make sure to get all those spirits to the Underworld as soon as possible, Mistress."

    Eris looked down, "Th-Thank you."

   She rubbed her arm feeling a bit queasy as Annabeth narrowed her eyes at her and Percy and Grover exchanged small whispers. She hated when people stared at her.

    Suddenly the elevator stopped moving downward and instead started to move forward. The air began to turn into mist and  the spirits floating in the air started to change shape, their modern clothes faded into black robes. The elevator floor started swaying so much Eris became dizzy. When she looked up instead of his sleek looking suit Charon was dressed robes and his sun glasses were gone instead of having normal eyeballs his eye sockets were full of darkness.

"Well?" Charon asked Percy when he caught him staring.

"Nothing," Percy choked out.

The floor wouldn't stop swaying and Eris started to feel sick.

"I think I'm gonna be seasick," Grover said.

Suddenly they were no longer in the elevator. They were standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling them across a dark, oily river that was filled with bones, dead fish, and random things.

"The River Styx," Annabeth muttered, "It's so..."

"Polluted," Charon said, "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything you came across—hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."

Every where around them were dead spirits who groaned in agony.

   But Eris...she wasn't scared. She had only been around one ghost before but even when Willow first appeared in front of her as a ghost...Eris wasn't scared. It was weird to be without fear for the first time in her life.

   She spared a glance Percy's way, taking in his wide anxious eyes and the way his hands twitched as he looked at all the dead spirits. Unlike Eris he hadn't been around a ghost for a majority of his life, she couldn't imagine what he felt.

   Hesitantly she nudged his shoulder with his, just to let him know they both were very much alive. Percy stared at her for a while before looking away.

   The shoreline of the Underworld arrived in their view.  It was filled with sharp rocks and black sand stretched throughout the island. Eris surprisingly didn't flinch when she suddenly heard the loud growl of what sounded like a hungry viscous animal.

   "Old-Three-Face is hungry," Charon said, "You're all lucky Mistress is with you or you'd all be his dinner."

   "M-me?" Eris squeaked, "Wha-What am I supposed to do about that?"

    "You keep calling her 'Mistress'," Annabeth started to ask hesitantly, "Why?"

   Charon didn't answer.

    The bottom of their boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm and arm. A boy about the same age as Eris was shuffling along silently in his gray robe.

   "I'd wish you luck mate," Charon said, "but there isn't any down here," he told Percy before turning to Eris and lightly bowing, "Mistess, I wish you a safe journey."

   Eris blushed, "O-Oh, uh, thank you," she murmured, crossing her arms.

    Charon ferried the boat back across the river, leaving them all alone.

   They followed the spirits up a well-worn path.

    THE ENTRANCE TO THE UNDERWORLD REMINDED ERIS OF AIRPORT SECURITY.

   There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that read: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras on the top. Beyond that we're tollbooths manned by black-robbed ghouls.

   The growling of the hungry animal only became louder as they continued to walk. The guard dog of the Underworld, Cerberus, was no where to be seen.

  Strangely enough Eris felt a bit disappointed she couldn't see him. Which was weird because she hated animals.

The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling.

"What do you figure?" Percy asked Annabeth.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"There's a court for dead people?"

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare—people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward—the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

"And do what?"

Grover said, "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever."

       "Harsh," Percy said.

"That sounds awful," Eris said quietly.

Living out the rest of eternity in wheat fields sounded terrible. Who would want to live like that? If she was the ruler of the Underworld she'd at least put them somewhere they would be happy at especially if they weren't bad people.

   She wondered if Willow was in the Fields of Elysium. Willow did die a hero, that was probably where she stayed when she wasn't with Eris. Willow did mention having some friends once.

"Not as harsh as that," Grover muttered. "Look."

A couple of black-robbed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk.

"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" Grover asked.

"Oh, yeah." Percy said, "What're they doing to him?"

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover guessed. "The really bad people get his attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur—the Kindley Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

Surprisingly though Eris hated to see people hurt she wasn't opposed to the preacher being punished by Hades. Bad people deserved consequences and if Hades deemed him worthy enough of eternal torture then he must have done something terrible.

"But if he's a preacher," Percy started to say, "and he believes in a different hell..."

Grover shrugged, "Who says he's seeing the place the same way we are. Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn—er, persistent, that way."

The more they slowly edged closer to the gates the more Eris' fear lessened. Oddly enough Eris wasn't scared like usual which was odd considering her original fear of the Underworld but she wasn't scared. For the first time on the entire quest she wasn't scared for her life.

She felt oddly at peace.

The howling of the vicious animal only increased as they got closer. Then, about fifty feet ahead of them green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split between the three lanes was a vicious monster.

Cerberu was a huge dog with three heads: one in the center and two on the side. He wore a spiked chain around his neck.

Percy jaw dropped, "He's a Rottweiler."

The dead spirits didn't even look to fear Cerberus, they walked straight through his body.

"I'm starting to see him better," Percy muttered, "Why is that?"

"What are you talking about?" Eris asked, frowning, "I see him just fine."

"Eris," Grover said slowly, "he's transparent."

"What?" She squinted but Cerberus still looked solid, he didn't look transparent at all to her.

Cerberus' middle head turned their way and sniffed the air and growled.

"It can smell the living," Percy said.

   "But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to Percy. "Because we have a plan."

    "Right," Annabeth said but she didn't sound confident at all. "A plan."

   "We'll be fine," Eris muttered.

    They moved toward the monster.

     When they moved in front of the monster Eris first thought was that Cerberus would attack them. Or worst try to kill them.

   But neither happened.

   Cerberus ran until he was right in front of Eris and she tripped trying to runway from him as Annabeth and Percy pulled out their weapons.

    Then...as Eris closed her eyes preparing to die...Cerberus didn't try to kill her. He actually ended up licking her arm like a puppy would to it's owner.

   Eris stared at him with wide eyes, "Wha—"

    His middle head nuzzled into her shoulder while the other two faces panted happily.

    "H-He likes you," Percy stuttered, lowering his sword.

     "Dogs do seem to like you," Annabeth said after a couple moments of shock, "Like that pink poodle from last week."

   Eris blinked a few times before hesitantly petting Cerberus' head making him nuzzle into her hand, "G-Good boy," she stuttered. "You'll let us pass won't you?"

Dogs for some reason liked Eris though she wasn't the biggest fan of dogs. Actually like almost everything else she was afraid of them but for some reason Cerberus didn't make her feel the same anxiety other animals did.

She felt comfortable around him.

Cerberus whimpered.

"P-Please?" Eris asked hesitantly , "For me?"

Cerberus looked down before moving away from the entrance.

"Thank you," Eris told him, patting his nose, "Thank you so much, I...I really appreciate you. I...I'll visit you soon."

She didn't know how but she'd find some way to visit Cerberus after the quest if she didn't die before getting back to Camp Half-Blood. Maybe she'd try to Iris-Message him.

"Let's go," Annabeth said quickly, "Before he changes his mind."

Cerberus barked and they scrambled to burst through the EZ DEATH gate and ran into the Underworld. Loud warning began to go off and warning sirens started to ring.

Minutes later they found themselves out of breath and hiding in a rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls ran past, yelling for backup from Furies.

"Well, Eris," Grover panted, "thanks for saving our asses."

Percy nodded, "Yeah, you're a life saver."

Eris scratched the back of her head, "Uh...I didn't really do anything," she told them, "I...I just got lucky."

"No, their right," Annabeth's eyes narrowed like she had almost finished solving a hard math problem, "You really are...something."

Thank you for reading. Please comment it helps me update more often.

There is only 1 more chapter to this part of the story before I move on to Part 2/ the sea of monsters.

Any questions?

Coming up: Chapter 10: Father meets Daughter