violent delights, percy jackson

chapter eleven

VIOLENT DELIGHTS
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( chapter eleven! )

IT WAS DARK. Dark as the middle of the night as the pale blue sky and trees above disappeared entirely, like the opening had been cut off and closed by foggy camera lenses. Azalea landed on a cold, hard ground. Grainy like hard packed earth and with concrete walls around. At least she assumed that's what they were made of as she could not see a thing. She had incidentally pulled Percy down with her, in her panic of falling. He laid next to her on the hard ground from the fall, panting from sheer adrenaline.

"Where are we?" Azalea asked, which echoed around them as they both stood. Her voice reverberating off the walls and traveling far down to a place she had no intentions of travelling. Instantly, she began to feel goosebumps rake across her spine and forearms. This was no place for a daughter of the sun.

"Safe, I think." Percy's voice stated inches from her, as he held out riptide for a semblance of light so they could see each other's faces. Their noses were nearly touching as their breaths hit against the stone cold walls. Normally, Azalea would have copied his actions, but the cold and dark clouded her thoughts and his vision. She hated the darkness more than anything.

Azalea will be the first one to admit of here fear of it. It was stupid and completely idiotic but still very much a fear. Ever since she was a kid back in Michigan she had to sleep with a nightlight or a lamp on, and in the Apollo cabin the windows were always open wide enough for the moon to shine brightly in. Perhaps, it was the trauma of being alone so much as a kid, or being stuffed in a closet and locked there by her older brother when she was four; but nonetheless she had always avoided dark and cramped places. There was no avoiding this place however.

Her pulse quickened in anxiety with her fear, as her thoughts rambled and her hands shook. Even if she wanted to raise her sword, named for being a light, she couldn't. Not in this state, when she was on the brink of loosing all evidence of control. She needed to calm down, she needed to think logically. There had to be a way out.

Percy's face was illuminated by his celestial bronze sword as he shifted it to get a more clear view at the walls. Concrete, like Azalea had predicted, but covered in a thin layer of dust grime and long wilted vine plants. He shifted it too far, and suddenly Azalea couldn't see his face anymore. Only the very tips of his knuckles clutching the hilt.

"Percy—," Azalea started to panic with her eyes wide and her heart on its way to pumping right of her chest.

"I'm right here." He said calmly, placing a hand on her forearm to which she quickly clasped his hand. Not about too loose him in the darkness. She knew under normal circumstances, Hades, even five minutes before they fell down this godforsaken black pit she would have never even tried such a thing. He gently squeezed her clammy and sweaty hand in reassurance.

She needed him. She needed him to ground her to reality in this instant so badly so she could think. So she could process where they were and get them the hell out of there. Azalea didn't know how he could be so calm right now, not at all worried in the darkness that felt as if it was suffocating her slowly with every inhale and every exhale she took.

His sword shimmered in the light as it moved in the space far in-front of them. No wall was there blocking the way. An empty corridor, like a subway tunnel slid out before them, tempting them to take another step. It was then Azalea's s panic sky rocketed and she realized exactly where they had fallen. The labyrinth. Luke was not going to like this.