Melanie didn't know what to think. Of course, they were in the Underworld, the realm of Hades, the Sea of the Dead. But this familiarity that seemed so familiar to her was something completely different. It was a tingling, a familiar pulling in her stomach, like a wish for home, which she had had for Camp Half Blood. For the first time, Melanie thought that the shadows were perhaps not so cruel after all, they even gave off a little warmth, as if they were opening her eyes to the truth. For the first time, the daughter of Dionysus did not tremble, but let the shadows dance around her feet like a hug from a family member. Warm and welcoming. As if the dark was made of light and the light was made of shadow, as if yin and yang had been swapped and reality distorted. Like a broken mirror, in whose cracks you saw yourself several times, but never knew what the original really was.
The girl was not sure what she was expecting—Pearly Gates, or a big black portcullis, or something. But the entrance to the Underworld looked like a cross between airport security and the Jersey Turnpike.
There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top.
Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.
The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but Melanie couldn't see where it was coming from. But a small shiver ran down her spine when she thought of the dog. Melanie didn't get along well with dogs; she had the feeling they were always trying to get her by the collar. But luckily for her, the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hades's door, was nowhere to be seen. Percy looked around beside her, sea-green eyes nervously taking in the area around him.
The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along. The other two were crawling."What do you figure?" Percy asked Annabeth.
"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."
"There's a court for dead people?"
"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare—people like that. Sometimes the look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward—the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."
