By Inferno's Light [ Percy Jackson OC ]

THREE | Alex

RAVENS CIRCLED FAR ABOVE, blocking out the sickly sunlight that lay smothered behind grey clouds and mist.

Alex watched them, rooted to the ground. Pine trees stood in silent lines unbroken unto shadow in the distance. The chill of a bleak December reached all the way to his aching bones. Aside from the caws and cackles far above, silence reigned.

He could feel the fiery eyes above him watching every breath and blink. The gaze of a thousand birds dug into his very soul. Alex froze.

A loud croak went up. One bird broke off from the circling masses, landing behind him in a branch. It laughed at him. Alone, standing beneath boughs of uncaring pine trees and devoid of warmth. This thing of evil haunted his steps as he tried to flee.

No more pine trees. Only leafless trunks, deadweight black against the greyed sky. Alex tried to find something, anything. But there was nothing.

His heart raced. With every step, his feet leadened. Water seeped through the soles of his torn shoes, freezing his toes and shocking his system. But still he marched.

The ravens followed him. They hopped along behind, tiny laughs and scattered caws. Others spied him from above. In the mist to either side Alex could feel someone.

"Hello?"

His voice wavered, hollow even to his own ears. It died in the mist. There was darkness, nothing more. No voice, no cry.

Beating wings flew by him. Alex cowered on the floor, crouching from the beast. But when he looked up, it had disappeared.

"You're all alone, child."

The voice, feminine and cold, reverberated around him. Alex grabbed his head. Pain seared through his mind. All around him, everywhere. He heard her. He felt her.

"You ran from the darkness."

Alex screamed. He reached for Vindication, but his wrist lay bare. His weapon, gone. His father, gone.

"You can't save her this time."

"No!"

Alex stood off the hard ground. The ravens screamed with laughter from every side. Where was she? Not here.

"She left, Alexander."

He knew this frigid cold. Shadows of the Underworld filled this forest, sucked the life from tree limb and left death in its place. Tears spilled down his face as he struggled to breathe. His chest tightened. The snaking black necromantic scars burned. Every breath became a gasp, every cry a stifled sob.

"This is what happens when you listen to the voices of the Underworld, child. They have crawled inside your soul, and are rotting you from the inside."

He fled. Feet pounded against leaf rot and broken stones. Tree limbs bit into his face. He tasted blood. But still, Alex ran.