A One Way Trip (A Percy Jackson FanFiction) *SLOW UPDATES*

Chapter 2

 The air was hot and clammy, and I opened my eyes to a mass of stinging red mist. I sprung to my feet, instinctively uncapping Riptide, which, of course, had been waiting in my pocket, and brandished the celestial bronze in an arc to ward off any attackers.

 But there were none.

 Frowning, I tried to peer through the red dust, making out faint shapes in the darkness. I flinched several times when a rock had an uncanny resemblance to a empousa, or a stalagmite looked a little too much like a scythian dracanae. The whole thing was just plain creepy.

 I tried to remember where I was, and a swarm of memories came flooding back. But none of them were clear enough to have the faintest clue of where I was. 

 My eyes flickered, watching for sudden movements while I knelt, my fingers closing around a small stone lying next to my foot. I threw it as hard as I could, which was, surprisingly, pretty damn hard, and the loud echo resounded ominously in the gloom. The sound was deep and unnatural, and, all of a sudden, I felt another presence in the mist. It was weird, really. Like a sort of tingling feeling. And the déjà vu was kicking in.

 I guess it looked like I'd attracted some unwanted attention.

 I bounced, agitated, on the balls of my feet, and the ground, a wet, marshy type, shifted slightly. Oh gods. I took a slight intake of breath as I looked down. The floor was moving. Throbbing. Like a heart. A heart...

 Everything came back in a split second. The fall. The journey. The fire river. The peanut M&Ms. Bob. The Doors. Annabeth. The sword.

 Oh gods.

 Annabeth.

 Where was she?

 I gingerly touched my back. A massive sword was sticking out of it, glinting evilly in the little light there was down in hell.

 I wonder how that happened. Geez, maybe a monster just waltzed up and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Jackson, would you mind awfully if I just stabbed you with my big sword?". Maybe I just said, "Sure, knock yourself out.".

 That was sarcasm, by the way. 

 I grabbed the gilded handle, and wrenched it out. It hurt like Hades. Which, by the way, looked a whole lot better due to the fact that maybe I was in TARTARUS.

 What in Hades was wrong with me? Aw, stuff it. Who cares, anyway.

 There was more pressing things to worry about.

 Like, how in Hades was I going to get out of this creep's living heart?

 A monstrous roar thundered from not so far away.

 Yeah, now would've be a great time to have Annabeth conjure up a magical escape route.

 I backed up slightly as the ground began to ripple and vibrate with footsteps.

 Any time soon, oh mystic god of close escapes.

 Oh gods. 

 I reverse backwards a bit more, and my hands found cool metal.

 I practically leap around, facing exactly what I'd hoped.

 The Doors of Death had never looked so beautiful in my entire life. 

 Not that I'd known them for that long. But still.

 ***

 Fresh air came as blissful relief when the elevator doors dinged exactly twelve minutes later. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure that the doors worked so easily. I mean, sure, I'm not complaining, but I swear Annabeth told me something about how someone had to hold the button for exactly twelve minutes whilst the doors went back up to the surface, and if they let go the person was lost forever in eternal torment.