The Last Arrow - The Great Holiday Mystery

12. Final Choice

~Yet Another Gods Dam Tunnel~

The four boys were suspicious and very cautious about following the mystery figure, but they didn’t really have much of a choice.

Frank was insanely confused. First the figure prevented him from helping the others, then they set an easy trap, and now the girls were missing. What did the figure want? Where they even human?

Grover’s hooves clopped on the stone drain, a sense of familiar comfort accompanying it. They all knew what the sound was, and that was about the only thing they knew in this place.

‘What do you think we’ll find?’ Percy asked, trying to break the silence.

Jason shrugged, ‘The girls, the bow, dunno.’

Quiet settled on them, and Percy figured he totally failed. The tunnel eventually got a lot smaller, and they went from walking two by two to walking single file, something they definitely didn’t want. But they didn’t have much choice.

They began to see a light at the end of the tunnel, literally. A bright spark brightened the darkness ahead, enough for the boys to cover their eyes. All of them began to pick up the pace, desperate for what they hoped was sunlight.

It wasn’t.

Yet another chamber await. The four of them audibly sighed as they emerged into the room, a glass case waiting at the end, the inside of the container fogged up, preventing them from seeing in. The walls were lined with torches that burned with a strange pink fire.

A heap of blankets were spread at the base of the glass case like they were warming whatever was inside. The four boys wondered what was so precious it needed protection down here. Jewels? Magic?

‘Well, come on!’ Jason beckoned, already half way down the hall. Percy, Frank and Grover followed along excitedly, all jogging at a reasonably even pace.

Soon enough, that pace quickened into a panicked sprint. Every one of them had fear and shock engraved deep on their faces, terror zipping through their hearts. Because the blankets spread out on the ground weren’t blankets at all.

They were Annabeth, Piper, Hazel and Juniper. And they weren’t moving an inch.

Percy raced ahead of the rest and skidded to his knees at Annabeth’s side. Her skin was tinged with purple and her lips blue. Despite the warmth of underground, she was freezing. All the girls were in similar conditions.

Percy put his ear to Annabeth’s mouth and felt a tiny puff of air escape onto his cheek. They were breathing, but only just. And for how much longer?

‘What’s happened to them?’ Frank whispered in horror, cradling Hazel.

Jason’s mouth opened and closed with no succession of speaking. Grover shook his head, grasping Juniper to his chest, too emotional to speak at all.

‘I don’t know,’ Percy chocked out eventually.

He pulled Annabeth’s head into his lap and stroked her hair. She didn’t respond in any way.

‘What do you think could’ve done this?’ Grover rasped.

Jason shook his head in despair, ‘Maybe this is why everything was so easy. They wanted us to escape to watch us suffer more.’

‘Is this what you want!?’ Percy screamed at the ceiling. ‘Fight me, you coward! You take our girlfriends and disappear into the shadows? Is that what you want? To tear us apart? Rip out our hearts?’

He collapsed into a fit of raking sobs, the other three watching his shoulders shake in hopelessness. Percy sniffed, looking up through blurred vision.

‘You’ve succeeded,’ he whispered to the cloaked figure, who was no doubt watching with a sadistic smile. ‘Congratulations, you’ve done it; you broke me.’

They all sat there for quite some time, their girlfriends heads in their laps, tears dripping onto their beautiful faces. None of them showed any signs of stirring.

Jason lay Piper gently on the ground and stood up, sniffing. He pointed at the glass case, ‘Look.’

Jutting out from the case was a panel with two items pressed in indentations. One was an old, brass key. The other was a small potion bottle, the contents dancing with red sparks.

Horrible realization dawned on the boys.

‘That must be he cure,’ Frank croaked.

‘And the key?’ Jason asked.

Percy stood next to the glass case, salty droplets dripping down the sides as he examined the box in desolation and grief. What was inside was what they came for, yet no one wanted it now.

‘The key opens the case,’ Percy said emotionlessly, whipping his eyes. ‘We get the key, we get the bow.’

‘What if we can only take one?’ Grover inquired, the one horrible thought on everyone’s mind. ‘What if we have to take the key?’

A single, final tear dropped down Percy’s face as he stared at his reflection in the glass. The all knew the answer, yet he would be the one to speak it, because no one else had the strength.

‘Then the girls die.’