𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀 ✷ percy jackson

lviii. percy gets into another fight, what's new

—— chapter fifty-eight.
( percy gets into another fight, what's new )
❝ Everything I needed, you already
gave me. You let me stay. ❞

The door was hidden behind a bin full of dirty hotel towers. Nasty, if you ask Aether. Rachel showed them where to look. A faint blue symbol etched in the metal.

“It hasn't been used in a long time,” Annabeth confirmed, hand on her chin as she inspected.

“I tried to open it once,” Rachel admitted, “just out of curiosity. It's rusted shut.”

“No.” Annabeth stepped forward. “It just needs the touch of a Half-Blood.”

When Annabeth laid her hand on the symbol, it glowed blue and the door unsealed and cracked open, making an unsatisfying creaking sound. It revealed a dark staircase leading down and Aether's stomach was dropping the second he looked at it. Not a good idea, thought Aether, I hate this.

“Wow.” Rachel looked calm; Aether didn't know if she was pretending or not but he didn't care. “So… after you?”

“Aren't you the guide?” Aether perked with an acerbic and coolly tone, arms crossed as he looked at her. “Lead us on, then.”

The stairs leading them down was to a large brick tunnel. It was dark, Aether could barely see anything in front of him. When sudden flashlights turned on, Aether flinched from the brightness and groaned mentally. He did hear Rachel yelping and realized what caused it. A creepy ass skeleton was grinning at them. It obviously wasn't human. Huge, maybe ten feet; strung up, made an X symbol; a single black hole in its eye socket.

“Holy shit, a Cyclops,” Regulus said with a couple of blinks, trying to process what he was seeing. “It looks old. Not anyone we know… thankfully.”

It wasn't Tyson, he meant. But surely it was a warning. Whoever could kill a grown cyclops was something Aether did not wish to meet. “That's creepy as shit,” he whispered. He managed to hide the disquiet in his voice. He looked queasily at the skeleton of the Cyclops.

Rachel swallowed a lump in her throat. Her eyes, wayfaring, around the Cyclops dead boy. Her fists were narrowly constricted hard as she exhaled slowly. “You have a friend who's a Cyclops?”

“Tyson,” stated Percy. “My half brother.”

“Your half brother.”

“Yeah, he didn't just say that,” murmured Aether. His face a snug fit, arms crossed as he deflected rolling his eyes. He glared at Percy when he felt himself get nudged. “That was justifiable to say.”

Percy smiled when looking back at Rachel. Aether didn't like it one bit but he contained himself from saying anything else. He looked the other way, in hopes to not hurt himself more. “Hopefully we’ll find him down here,” Percy said hopefully, his eyes radiating a bullish glint. “And Grover. He’s a Satyr.”

“Oh.” Her voice was small and tranquil. Barely making a sound through the quietness of the Labyrinth. A simple smoothness that followed with her voice. “Well then, we’d better keep moving.”

She stepped under the skeleton’s left arm, continuing to walk. The four exchanged looks before Annabeth shrugged. They followed Rachel deeper into the Labyrinth.