Growing Up In Tartarus: One Wrong Move

Chapter 3: What Do I Do?

WARNING. This part may be a bit much for people with weaker stomachs, for it includes detailed description of Percy's 'sessions' (sorry, I just couldn't think of anything else to call them) with Luke and Kronos. Read at your own discretion, and with caution. This may blow up right in your face at one point, so yeah... On with the book!

Percy POV

For the next few days, my life went on in relatively the same way. I call my routine the '9 Steps to Cloud -9':

Step 1: Wake up by a slap or by falling onto the floor.

Step 2: First torture session (Luke forcing food down my throat)

Step 3: Hanging on my wall for about an hour, waiting for the food to digest. They don't want me throwing up on anyone, I guess.

Step 4: A full morning filled with pain.

Step 5: Lunch... yay.

Step 6: Repeat steps 2-4, replacing morning with afternoon.

Step 7: Dinner, if you could call how I eat as having a meal at this point.

Step 8: I am shackled in the most uncomfortable position on the wall as I try to sleep, getting any of it only from passing out from pain/exhaustion/lack of sleep.

Step 9: Repeat steps 1-8.

Lovely, isn't it? Well, by now, I was at step four. Just putting this out there, my life totally sucked.

"So, Percy. Are you even thinking about accepting Lord Kronos' offer yet?" Luke asks calmly, as if I'm not in complete pain.

Yes, I have. Please let me join you.

"No! An-and I n-never will! Just let me go, because there's no way I'm j-joining y-you!" I yelled, lying through my slightly yellow teeth. Not my fault if they don't let me be hygienic. He laughs at my plea.

"Oh, Perseus, when will you learn?" Luke made a tutting noise, coming closer to me. I was now chained with my hands to the ceiling, feet to the floor, my torso bare. Luke dragged the whip slowly behind him, letting it slide over my toes as he circled me, making me shudder. He chuckled, shaking his head. He raised the whip above his head, ready to strike my back, hard. I tensed.

"Are you sure?" He asked one last time. I nodded my head before I could change my mind, closing my eyes as tight ah they would go.

I heard the whip crack through the air, making me flinch. But it didn't hit me, it hit a piece of raw meat that had been brought into the room. The whip left a clean, sharp cut, straight into the meat. The sight made me whimper; he was going to do that to me, he was going slice me open with that thing! I started to sob slightly and whimper more in fear. Luke pretended not to notice. He raised the whip once more.

"P-p-please, L-L-Luke, I'm b-b-begging you right n-now! Please don't do that to me. P-please!" I begged, sobbing and shaking.

Luke brought down the whip, extremely hard, on my already throbbing back. I screamed as loud as possible, violently thrashing after only one lash. It felt like my back was on fire as someone slowly peeled off all the skin, dragging a knife down the length of my already there-are-no-words-to-describe-the-pain back. And he said something like fifty of those. I sobbed even louder as I realized what this day was going to be like if I didn't give in. What do I do?!

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At about ten lashes, I'm pretty sure I passed out. The pain was just too much. Luke had barely given me any time to recover from one lash before giving me another, so it all built up pretty quick.

As an hour passed, I was in the same position as before. I came to, and Luke was already waiting for me. Just seeing him made me shake and whimper in fear. He gave me a cruel, sadistic grin, then stood up, dragging the whip around again. I had to stop this before that happened again, but I couldn't think of more than one option after the torture I had just endured.

"W-wait." I whispered so softly that not even I could hear it. "W-w-wait." I said louder. Luke raised an eyebrow at me, smirking slightly. "Please, please don't d-do that a-aga-again. I'll do anything. I- I'll e-even j-j-join you and y-your... Lord..." I said quietly, ashamed. Tears fell from my eyes as I begged Luke to stop, to let me join Kronos. With a nod, he disappeared from the room, and was off to tell his master.

By now, I was just sobbing, trying to get a hold of myself.

Why couldn't I just be strong?! For their sakes!

I didn't even heard or see the door slowly open, so when I felt the warmth of a hand on my shoulder, I flinched away so hard, it hurt not only me, but possibly the person touching me as well. I had somehow managed to kick them with them restraints I had on.

"Stop thrashing! I'm not going to hurt you, at least not now..." Luke waited for me to calm down, me only doing so once he threatened me with a flogging of twenty-five lashes, plus one for every sound I made. "Now, Perseus, Lord Kronos will speak with you. Do not waste his or my time, got it? Good."

"I see that you have really forced Luke's hand down here, huh Percy. Why didn't you save yourself all this pain from the start? Was this your way of escaping the pain, joining me?" Kronos chuckled. "Or did you just realize that to join my side would be a much wiser choice?" I didn't answer him. He nodded to Luke, who rolled his eyes as he lifted the whip again, and despite my protests, brought it down extremely hard onto my back, causing me to once more scream my voice raw. This time, I somehow stayed awake until he stopped, at twenty lashes. Kronos had just stood there, watching.

Blood ran down my back, tears down my face. I was full-on sobbing, whimpers falling from my lips faster than Grover chews through a tin can. I had given up begging at around three to four lashes, knowing that they weren't going to stop. All I could do was scream, that was when my voice gave out, done from all the times I have abused my vocal chords.

"Now, Perseus, I told you not to waste our time." Luke said threateningly. I nodded my head, a shudder of fear rolling through me.

"Now. I was brought by Luke under the impression that you want to join me and my cause."