The Unknown (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

31. My Girlfriend Tries to Eat Me

Hello! Sorry it's late! 

I've started school again (ugh) so updates may be slightly slower. Also, I'm working on a few Percy Jackson one-shots which will hopefully be posted in a few weeks. 

Enjoy! 

Percy

The hallway had been dark at first.

Then torches of Greek fire had sputtered to life, green flames flaring up and casting huge, indistinguishable shadows that sprawled across the wooden floorboards. As I watched, they twisted into grotesque shapes with claws and razor-sharp teeth, all reaching towards me.

I remembered stumbling backwards and crying out, my back slamming into the cracked plaster of the wall. Whispers, from friends and foes alike from my past, felt like they were tearing their way into my ears and scratching at my brain. I shuddered and felt the floor move under my feet.

The hallway had then shifted, a stairway appearing where the opposite wall was. I lurched forward, as if in a dream, and made my way down them. Every step had jolts of agony running through my battered form, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

As I had descended, the wooden steps beneath my feet became slick with a dark, oily liquid that seemed to cling to the bottom of my torn-up sneakers and make it difficult for me to continue. My heavy breathing seemed to drown out the voices until they were at the very edge of my conscious, only snatches of whispered words reaching my ears.

Suddenly the steps folded up under my feet and I plummeted. The wind whistled in my ears for a moment before I plunged into the ground and into darkness.

I had clawed at the mud closing in around me as it filled my nose and mouth, terror completely taking over my body as I sank deeper into the earth. I screamed soundlessly, my fingers raking at the soft earth in a desperate attempt to reach the surface again. But instead I kept sinking farther, the mud blocking my airways as it slowly seeped into my lungs.

When I thought I couldn't take anymore-my chest felt like it was about to burst and my brain began to feel like it was slowly being replaced with earth-I slammed into the floor.

Sucking in huge gasps of air, I had felt my face for the mud that had been suffocating in but found nothing, as if it never happened. I closed my eyes briefly and tried to calm my racing heart, but the effort proved futile. My whole body was trembling with terror and adrenaline, and there was a sob lodged in my throat.

Oh gods, I thought despairingly. It had been like falling into the muskeg in Alaska, except Hazel and Frank hadn't been there to pull me out. It was ironic. After the war, I had spent so much time getting over my phobia of drowning only for the fear to be reawakened in a matter of seconds.

Gritting my teeth with the effort, I had then climbed to my feet and realised I was in a chamber as large as Grand Central Terminal. The floor was cracked and crumbling, held together by long silky strings, and some parts broke off completely into an abyss that exhaled cold hair. My throat closed up with panic. This was Arachne's lair and where Annabeth and I had fallen a few months ago.

I blinked and suddenly I was somewhere else. I was inside the Big House, leaning against the doorway of one of the empty guest room, my gaze drawn to the window where I could see the waves of heat rippling of the strawberry plants and the satyrs walking along them, each busy playing on their panpipes. Some campers, Apollo kids by the looks of their blonde hair glinting in the sunlight, played volleyball, their laughter faintly drifting through the open window.

"What are you doing, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth's voice made me whirl around, my heart doing a gymnastic routine in my chest.

She stood there with that knowing smirk of hers, eyes sparkling in a playful light while still maintaining their ferocious stormy gaze. Her hands were placed on her hips. "Well?" She demanded.