Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 51

(A/N: First chapter of the House of Hades. Hope you enjoy. XxD)

******************************************************************

Cressida was just falling, her back to whatever ground - if there was any - as her eyes closed and her tears dried on her face no matter how much she cried.

Her promise to close the doors was a lie. The first lie she ever told her boyfriend asides from the whole 'she was fine' thing she always said so he didn't worry about her.

She didn't have Jason's ability to fly nor Frank's to shapeshift and there was no way that she could survive a fall from such a height, if the fall ever ended.

The wind whistled in her ears and blew her hair upwards past her face as her arms hung above her. The air grew hotter and damper.

She'd all but accepted her fate when something crashed into her, and her indigo eyes opened wide as she realised it was a person. At least she hoped it was a person. She was so tired right now that she thought she was dreaming when she smelled Percy's sea salt scent and just held onto the imaginary boy tighter.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I love you," she muttered into his neck.

"It's ok. It's ok. We're together now. I'm never letting you go again," the fake Percy said, and she started crying into his shoulder again, out of disbelief at this whole situation or relief that she'd heard those words again, even if it was just from her imagination.

"I love you," she said as pressed her lips to his ear and thanked her vivid imagination for at least this grace before she died. They weren't the worst last words. Actually, they were the best last words. They were the last words she and Pollux said to Castor last summer in the Underworld. And even if she was speaking to a figment of her imagination, she never thought she'd get to say those words to someone in a romantic sense.

They were the best last words.

She was no daughter of Athena. There was no plan she could devise to save herself.

The chute she'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. The entire island of Manhattan could have fit inside this cavern—and she couldn't even see its full extent. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. She had no idea what the landscape was like since she wasn't facing the ground as she fell, but she had a feeling that it was about to include a flattened daughter of Dionysus pancake.

She clutched her imaginary Percy tighter, exhaling the panic from her system as she thought about the fact that he was ok and above ground and that he was with Annabeth who was also safe.

"Water!" fake Percy shouted his head pulling away from her slightly but she simply pulled him back.

There would be no water down here. Why would there be something down here that a mortal needed to survive? And even if there was, the only rivers down here were horrid places. They could cause your misery, burn your soul to ashes, or wipe every memory you ever had, just to name a few.

The river hurtled toward them. At the last second, Percy yelled defiantly. The water erupted in a massive geyser and swallowed them whole.

Freezing water shocked the air right out of her lungs. Her limbs turned rigid, and she lost her grip on fake Percy as she began to sink.

Strange wailing sounds filled her ears—millions of heartbroken voices, as if the river were made of distilled sadness. The voices were worse than the cold. They weighed her down and made her numb. What's the point of struggling? they told her. You're dead anyway. You'll never leave this place.