artemis ; pjo

Below

The sky was a dark shade of blue by the time James and I had gotten out of the water and changed. It felt weird being in dry clothes.

The 6 of us were walking along the sidewalk searching for the Underworld entrance building thingy or whatever. All the store from my were lit up in colorful lights.

And it was blinding me.

James laced his hand on mine. I looked at him and smiled.

James leaned over to me.
"We'll find it"

"I hope"

Eric quickened his pace forcing the rest of us to keep up. We turned sharply around the corners and bumped into a bunch of people. At least we were making progress.

We kept this up for about 10 minutes until something, that I couldn't put my finger on, sent a chill down my spine. The hairs on my neck stood up. I gently broke James's grasp on my hand and walked towards Gabby. She was in a deep conversation with Dan.

I reached out for her shoulder.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure" Gabby said, breaking away from Dan.

We dropped to the back of the group.

"Um, Gabby, I feel like we're being watched"

"Really, I thought it was just me! Have you felt anything since the wedding?"

"Y-yeah. In the café" I stuttered.

"I didn't"

"What should we do?" I asked.

"Keep going, I guess. Should we tell the others?"

"No, definitely not. I don't wanna freak the-"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"W-what is it?" MK asked.

I felt eyes burning into my back. A tingle went up my spine. People swerved around the 6 of us, who were now stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. My adrenaline rushed through my veins and gave me a sense of thought, finally snapping me out of my trance. But, the feeling of being watched never left me.

"Go!" I finally whisper-shouted. I broke out into a run.

I heard the group talking in confusion before following me. My feet just speed up faster and faster. I swerved around everything in my way. Finally I found a building take wasn't crowded and I jerked inside. The others came in right after me.

But it wasn't empty.

   There were a lot of half transparent people sitting in chairs. Like, a lot.

"H-how'd you know?" Eric said in astonishment.

"Lucky guess?" I suggested.

"Woah, Amanda what was that about?" Dan asked.

   I glanced over at Gabby. I didn't want to tell them, but I had to. For our safety.

   As my heavy breathing slowed, I explained the feeling and I told them about every time I had felt watched. In the café, wedding, and when we were walking around in Michigan and Indiana. Gabby joined in every once in awhile, adding I'm details that I may have forgotten. When I finished, everyone looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Thanks. My feeling of safety have been completely diminished" Dan threw his arms up in exasperation, but none of the ghost people looked up at us. They all looked so, lost.

"Well, when we get to the Underworld, no one can follow us down. We may be able to lose them" Eric said.

"Speaking of which, how are we gonna get there?" Gabby asked.

"I'm a child of Hades. Just follow my lead"

"Nothing good ever comes outta that" Gabby said under her breath.

   We shuffled through the crowd of ghosts. I passed many people who looked depressed, lonely, and hurt. I saw a woman who was non-stop sobbing in her arms. My eyes flickered across two men who were holding each other, and there were bullet holes in their necks. But what made me break down was a little girl who had a look of despair in her eyes. Her body was covered in black burn marks and she was covered in soot. My eyes grew hot and I stopped walking. Tears swelled in my eyes and I broke down crying. But no ghosts looked up at me.

   James rested his hand on my shoulder and kissed my head.

"We have to keep going"

I nodded and wiped my tears.
"Yeah, you're right" 
At the front desk was a buff man with a name tag that said: CHARON

"Act confused" Eric whispered.

We followed orders. Charon was focus on a mountain of paperwork, which seemed to grow by the minute.

"Wait for your turn please! How hard is that?!" He almost yelled, never taking his eyes off the paperwork.

Eric cleared his throat.
"Special request"

Charon looked up.
"Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

"I want to go to see my father, and I have five dead to bring with me" Eric said, gesturing to us.

"How'd they die?" Charon asked, grabbing a piece of paper. He clicked a pen and looked back up at Eric.

"Oh, uh, they, uh, they fell"

"Off?" Charon asked, raising an eye brow.

"A-a plane! Yes, they fell off a plane. The door flew open and these guys got sucked out"

Charon didn't look like he bought it, but wrote down a few things.
"Okay, let's go. But only this once. You're no special snowflake"

Charon ushered us to an escalator.

"Isn't it a boat?" I asked Eric.

"New location, new transportation"

And all 6 of us went down.