After entering the storm front, we plodded relying on the light of Percy's and my  swords and Bob, who glowed faintly. I could barely see five feet ahead of myself, even with the little light we had. Rocks loomed out of nowhere. Pits appeared at our feet and I barely avoided falling in. Monstrous roars echoed in the gloom and I couldn't tell which direction they were coming from, putting me more on edge.

The more we traveled, the more I realized the only main direction Tartarus had was down. The deeper we went, the more tired and heavy I felt. It was like the gravity was increasing. There were certain times where I would stumble over the uneven ground. I almost fell into a shallow depression if it weren't for Percy.

"Whoa!" Percy grabbed my arm and pulled me back into his chest.

I stumbled. Placing my hand on Percy's chest, I glanced at the shallow depression. Inside was blister holding something-someone way too familiar. My eyes widened when I realized who it was. Curled inside the membrane in front of us was a fully Titan dressed in golden armor. His skin was like polished pennies. He had a deep scowl on his face with his eyes closed. The heat was felt even through the blister.

"Hyperion." Percy said, shading an uneasy look with me. "I hate that guy."

"Hoped he liked the tree." I muttered, flexing my shoulder that had been injured from the Battle of Manhattan. It suddenly ached at the remembrance of the Battle. "Wonder why he's down here?"

"Maybe the tree died and he wound back here?" Percy asssumed.

I glanced at Bob who was quiet. He was studying Hyperion with a frown of concentration. I looked in between and noticed the similarities. Curses got stuck in the back of my throat. Of course they looked similar, they were both Titans. They were brothers.

"Bob, let's continue going, yeah?" I gently asked, sharing a nervous look with Percy.

"Gold, not silver." Bob muttered. "But he looks like me."

"Bob. Hey, buddy, over here." Percy said. Bob reluctantly turned to face him. "Am I your friend?"

"Yes." Bob sounded uncertain, making worry gnaw at my stomach. "We are friends."

"You know that some monsters are good." Percy told him. "And some are bad."

"Hmm." Bob said. "Like...the pretty ghost ladies who serve Persephone are good. Exploding zombies are bad."

"Right." Percy nodded. "And some mortals are good, and some are bad. Well, same thing is true for Titans."

"Titans..." Bob loomed over us, glowering.

"That's what you are." Percy calmly said as my heart beat rapidly in my chest.  "Bob the Titan. You're good. You're awesome, in fact. But some Titans are not. This guy here, Hyperion, is full-on bad. He tried to kill me...tried to kill a lot of people."

"But he looks..." Bob blinked his silver eyes. "His face is so-"

"He looks like you." Percy agreed. "He's a Titan, like you. But he's not good like you are."

"Bob is good." His fingers tightened on his broom handle. "Yes. There is always at least one good one-monsters, Titans, giants."

"Uh..." Percy grimaced. "Well, I'm not sure about the giants."

"Oh, yes." Bob nodded earnestly.

"We should probably start going." I brought up, eyeing the Titan. Percy seemed to have calmed him down and won him over. We've probably stayed here longer than we should've. "What do we do about..."

"Bob, it's your call." Percy told him. "Hyperion is your kind. We could leave him alone, but if he wakes up-"

Bob's broom-spear swept into motion. My breath got caught in my throat, scared he was going to aim it at us. He slashed through the monstrous blister that burst into a geyser of hot golden mud. I cringed when it landed on us. With a grimace, I wiped the Titan sludge from my face. The area Hyperion had been was now a smoldering crater.

"Hyperion is a bad Titan." Bob announced, his expression grim. His eyes brightened more than usual, as if he were about to cry quicksilver. "Now he can't hurt my friends. He will have to reform somewhere else in Tartarus. Hopefully it will take a long time."

"Thank you, Bob." Percy said coolly. The way he had handled the situation struck me in awe. Whether he was being serious in leaving the choice to Bob or if he somehow manipulated the Titan to making that choice made me realize how calculated Percy was. He turned to face me. "We'd better get going."

I nodded in agreement. Percy and I followed after Bob, the golden mud flecks glowing on his uniform. My hand slipped into Percy's and he gave my hand a squeeze.

🍇

Being in Tartarus was getting to me both physically and mentally. My feet felt like mush and my legs felt numb. Dark thoughts swirled in my mind. They would go away whenever Percy rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand with our fingers intertwined and when he would whisper encouraging words. Every now and then I would glance at him, making sure he was okay. Worry would pinch at my heart whenever I saw a sullen expression take over or when I saw that his sea green eyes were getting duller.

He fell into Tartarus to be with you. A voice in my head stated. If he dies, it's your fault.

I winced, making myself smaller. Guilt hit me like an arrow being shot into my heart. He only fell into Tartarus because of me. Percy could have been with the others on the Argo II flying to the other side of the Doors of Death. He would have been safe...well safer.

"You okay?" Percy looked at me with concern.

"Yeah." I tried to put on a fake smile. Percy raised a brow, seeing right through me. I sighed, my shoulders slumping. "This place...it's messing with my mind. Giving me dark thoughts."

The worry lines deepened around Percy's eyes. His hold on my hand tightened slightly.

"Hey, Bob," Percy called out, "where exactly are we heading?"

"The lady. Death Mist." Bob answered.

"What does that mean?" I questioned. "Who is this lady?"

"Naming her?" Bob glanced back at us. "Not a good idea."

Bob was right. Names had power, and speaking them here in Tartarus was probably very dangerous.

"Do you know how far we are?" I asked.

"I do not know." Bob admitted. "I can only feel it. We wait for the darkness to get darker. Then we go sideways."

I gave a small nod. We continued our trek, my mind drifting to the note I wrote. Hopefully Conner got it and gave it to Rachel or Seth. I still didn't understand why Athena wanted me to do it if Annabeth was already told to do the same. Either way, I hope the proposal for Reyna to help us out goes through.

A ridiculous hope. The voice in my head said. You have only-

Shut up! I mentally screamed at it. 

I felt like I was going crazy. First, voices are starting to talk to me in my head. Now, I'm telling those voices off. Now I understand what Nico meant about almost losing his mind and to think he did this all by himself.

Suddenly, Bob stopped. He raised his hand to wait. I glanced around, looking for anything out for any monsters.

"What?" Percy whispered.

"Shh." Bob warned. "Ahead. Something moves."

I strained my ears and squinted my eyes. There was a deep drumming noise, like an idling engine of a large construction vehicle. I could feel the vibrations through my shoes.

"We will surround it." Bob whispered. "Each of you, take a flank."

I plucked a grape from my necklace. A spear grew in my hand as I crept to Bob's right. Percy drew his sword on the left. The humming noise grew louder, shaking the gravel. It was coming from directly in front of us.

"Ready?" Bob murmured.

"On three?" I raised my spear.

"One." Percy whispered. "Two-"

A figure appeared in the fog. It was something small. I lowered my spear slightly as Bob raised his spear.

"Wait!" I shrieked.

Bob froze just in time. His spear was hovering an inch above the head of a tiny calico kitten.

"Rrow?" The calico kitten didn't look impressed by our plan.

It walked over to Bob and butted its head against his foot. The kitten purred loudly. The deep rumbling we've been hearing was coming from this little cat. As it purred, the ground shook around it. The kitten fixated its gaze on a rock between my feet. Its eyes dilated and it pounced at the rock.

"Aw, you're so cute!" I cooed, picking the kitten up. It purred as I scratched its ear, leaning into my touch. I grinned at Percy who was staring at the cat with wide eyes. My attention went back to the kitten. "How did you get down here?"

The kitten apparently got bored with my question and squirmed away. I set it down on the ground. The kitten passed over to Bob, purring once again and rubbing against his boot.

"Somebody likes you, Bob." Percy laughed.

"It must be a good monster." Bob looked up nervously. "Isn't it?"

Bob knelt down and schooled up the kitten. It fit perfectly in his palm. My heart pinched seeing Bob be so gentle with the kitten and how the kitten had fell in love with Bob. Tartarus didn't have respect towards anything-good or bad, small or large. Tartarus swallowed Titans and demigods and kittens.

The kitten climbed Bob's arm and made itself comfortable on his shoulder. It closed its eyes, still purring. Suddenly its fur shimmered. In a flash, the kitten became a ghostly skeleton. Then it was a regular kitten again.

"What...?" I blinked in shock. "Did you see-"

"Yeah." Percy knit his eyebrows. "Oh man...I know that kitten. It's one of the ones from the Smithsonian."

I racked my brain for the story Percy had mentioned a while back about the Smithsonian. It was a few years ago, when he and Thalia led a quest to save Artemis and Annabeth from Atlas. Along the way, they had stopped at the Smithsonian. Percy had seen Atlas raise some skeleton warriors from dragon teeth. He had mentioned that the first attempt had went wrong when they used saber-toothed tiger teeth instead and the kittens had came into existence.

"Wait, this little cute thing is one of them?" I pointed to the kitten. "How did it get down here?"

"Atlas told his servants to take the kittens away." Percy spread his arms helplessly. "Maybe they destroyed the cats and they were reborn in Tartarus? I don't know."

"It's cute." Bob said, as the kitten sniffed his ear.

"It is cute and all..." I stared at the kitten with unease. "But...is it safe?"

Bob scratched the kitten's chin. The idea of a Titan and a cat grown from a prehistoric saber-toothed tiger being so gentle with each other blew my mind. It was obvious the two bonded.

"I will call him Small Bob." The Titan said. "He is a good monster."

A faint smile grew on my lips. I exchanged a look with Percy. His eyes gleamed slightly. Percy wrapped an arm around my shoulder and tugged me close to him. Bob hefted his spear and we continued marching into the gloom.

🍇

I had to keep myself occupied. If I wasn't distracting myself with something, my mind would wander into the dark thoughts again or food. I fiddled with Percy's fingers as we walked. He didn't seem to mind unless he's moving me away from rocks and craters.

"Here." Bob announced as he stopped suddenly. He stared to his left, as if he was deep in thought.

"Is this where we start to go sideways?" I asked Bob.

"Yes." Bob agreed. "Darker, then sideways."

I couldn't tell if it was actually darker or not. But the darkness was definitely colder and thicker. Bob stuck to the left and we followed after him. The air grew colder. Percy and I drew closer to each other to keep each other warm.

We entered a sort of forest. Towering black trees soared into the gloom, perfectly round and bare, like monstrous hair follicles. The ground was pale and smooth. Gods, I really hope we weren't walking through Tartarus's armpit.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and goosebumps arose on my arms. I stopped in my tracks, my senses feeling on edge. Alarms were blaring in my head. Something wasn't right.

"What is it?" Percy let go of my hand and raised his sword.

"We are stopping?" Bob turned to look at us with confusion.

I stealthy drew my weapon. A sword grew in my hand as I surveyed our surroundings. I felt like something was watching us. Nothing stood out or appeared different. That was until I saw one of the tree trunks quivering. My brows pinched together. Was it trembling because of Small Bob?

A few yards away, another tree shuddered. That was definitely not Small Bob. My hand gripped my sword tighter. I didn't see anything behind those trees. Cautiously, I glanced up. I couldn't see anything through the thick darkness. I caught a small quick glimpse of movement.

"Something's moving above us." I warned lowly.

Bob and Percy closed ranks with me, standing back to back. I strained my eyes, trying to see above us in the dark. Nothing moved. Maybe I imagined it and I'm being paranoid. Then something dropped to the ground five feet away from us.

The creature was a wrinkled hag with bat like wings, brass talons, and glowing red eyes. She had a tattered black silk dress. Her face was ravenous and twisted.

Bob grunted as another dropped in front of him, and then another in front of Percy. Soon there was half a dozen surrounding us. More hissed from the trees.

"What are you?" I demanded, curious to know who we were about to fight.

The arai, a voice hissed. The curses!

It was hard to locate who spoke. All the demons had moved their mouths. Their eyes looked dead; their expressions were frozen. The voice simply floated overhead like a movie narrator's, as if a single mind controlled all the creatures.

"What do you want?" I tried to keep the shakiness out of my voice and maintain confidence.

The voice cackled maliciously. To curse you, of course! To destroy you a thousand times in the name of Mother Night!

"Only a thousand times?" Percy murmured. "Oh good...I thought we were in trouble."

Then the circle of demon ladies closed in on us.

Things are going to start picking up for sure next chapter with the arai 😬✌️