Melpomene (PJO)

9. All aboard the emo express

The ended up making camp in what looked to be the ruins of an Ancient Greek tomb. There were gently glowing braziers all along the walls, which cast a warm glow on the rest of the marble. It was definitely one of the older parts of the labyrinth, which would be good if Annabeth's theory was correct. Mari laid out her sleeping bag and set her backpack on top of it, turning towards the others.

"We must be close to Daedalus's workshop," Annabeth said. "Get some rest, everybody. We'll keep going in the morning."

"How will we know if it's morning?" Grover asked.

"Just go to sleep," Annabeth told him.

"My Dad always wakes me at the break of dawn no matter what. I'll tell you all when it's morning," Mari promised him.

With that reassurance, it didn't take Grover long to fall asleep in a pile of straw he'd pulled from his backpack. Mari thought it made a very... interesting sleeping bag, but she wasn't going to judge. For her, sleep wasn't so easy. She curled and closed her eyes but nothing happened. Mari wondered if she was becoming too afraid of her dreams to sleep. Last time, she'd dreamt of Frankie Ray's final moments, and what horrible final moments they'd been...

"You alright?" Annabeth asked. "You're shaking."

Mari opened her eyes. Annabeth and Percy had agreed to take first watch, but the two weren't sitting together. Annabeth was slumped against the wall next to Mari, while Percy, further away, was talking quietly with Tyson.

"Yeah, fine..." Mari gulped. "It's just a lot. I never wanted to come back here. But if I have to, I'm glad you're the one leading this quest. If anybody can find a way around this place, it's you."

"That's technically your job, Mari," Annabeth told her.

"Oh, you know what I mean." Mari poked Annabeth's knee.

"You should get some sleep," Annabeth said. "Or at least try. You're not on watch so you can tell us when your father's chariot wakes you. If you're not asleep in the first place, it kind of defeats the point."

"Aren't you worried about the drawing?" Mari asked. "I know I am."

"That's why we got away from the Pit as quickly as we could. I don't want any of us falling down there. But worry isn't useful if all it's going to do is keep you up at night. You need to rest."

Annabeth had a point. Mari nodded and curled up again, rolling over so she was facing the wall. The torch above her provided warm light, which was good. The ground was hard, but she'd slept on worse before. When she'd still lived with Jean, Mari had spent nights on park benches all the time so she didn't have to answer questions about the snakes. She was good at falling asleep in uncomfortable places. Tyson's light snoring filled the passage. After a while, Annabeth and Percy started talking about something, their voices low. Mari sighed and closed her eyes. Even so, it was too hard for her to sleep immediately. It took an hour, but eventually the voices lulled her into an anxious sleep.

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Frankie blinked into existence.

Blinked was accurate, because it didn't feel like waking up. She wasn't sleepy or delirious, and her memory of what happened was crystal clear, sharp as a hellhound's tooth. Frankie whimpered and wrapped a hand around her arm. It shouldn't be there - it had been torn off. Frankie knew it had been torn off. She'd felt the pain and that much pain couldn't have all been for nothing.

Was Masey okay? Was Mommy okay?

She couldn't ask because neither of them was there. Wherever 'there' was. Frankie looked around. She appeared to be sitting at the edge of a riverbank. She was wearing some kind of long white dress with pretty red-metal pins in the shoulders of the soft fabric. She was barefoot, the grass poking at her toes. But why was she here? The last thing she remembered was the monster, Masey had called it a hellhound, opening its wide, smelly jaws to bite her head off...