Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟮𝟬. underworld trip

gone girl.
━━━ chapter twenty

❀

Amaryllis emerged in Central Park just north of the Pond. Mrs. O'Leary looked pretty tired as she limped over toa cluster of boulders. A little further away were Percy and Nico, sitting on a big boulder like they were waiting for something.

"What took you so long?" Nico asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

She wished she could telepathically explain everything to him, but instead she just shrugged. "Technical difficulties. Mrs. O'Leary was pretty tired." She looked around, eyes focused at the entrance to the Underworld, the Doors of Orpheus, that were still closed. "What are you guys doing?" 

"Percy's trying to reach Grover, using their empathy link or whatever," the pale boy explained and huffed. "It's no good."

Percy had his eyes closed and looked like he was trying to block out their voices to concentrate. Amaryllis knew the two shared that kind of special connection, but she wasn't sure how exactly it worked. Nevertheless, she stayed quiet, so she didn't distract the son of Poseidon.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open and he almost fell over. "What happened?" Amaryllis rushed to his side. 

"I got through. He's... yeah. He's on his way."

A minute later, the tree next to them shivered. Grover fell out of the branches, right on his head. 

"Grover!" Percy yelled.

"Woof!" Mrs. O'Leary looked up, probably wondering if they were going to play fetch with the satyr.

"Blah-haa-haa!" Grover bleated.

"Are you okay?" she asked the satyr.

"Oh, I'm fine." He rubbed his head. His horns had grown so much they poked an inch above his curly hair. "I was at the other end of the park. The dryads had this great idea of passing me through the trees to get me here. They don't understand height very well." 

He grinned and got to his feet — well, his hooves, actually. Since last summer, Grover had stopped trying to disguise himself as human. He never wore a cap or fake feet anymore. He didn't even wear jeans, since he had furry goat legs from the waist down. His T-shirt had a picture from that book Where the Wild Things Are. It was covered with dirt and tree sap. His goatee looked fuller, almost manly and he was as tall as Percy.

"Good to see you, G-man," Percy said. "You remember Nico."

Grover nodded at Nico, then he gave Percy a big hug, moving to Amaryllis after that to hug her as well. After she pulled away, she smacked him in the head. "Where the hell have you been the last two months, Grover Underwood?"

"The last two—" Grover's smile faded. "The last two months? What are you talking about?"

"We haven't heard from you," Percy added. "Juniper's worried. We sent Iris-messages, but—" 

"Hold on." He looked up at the stars like he was trying to calculate his position. "What month is this?"

"August."

The color drained from his face. "That's impossible. It's June. I just lay down to take a nap and..." He grabbed Percy's arms. "I remember now! He knocked me out. Percy, we have to stop him!"