Chapter Fifteen:
Traveling the River Styx Alive.
— We lay here for years or for hours,
thrown here or found, to freeze or to
thaw.      So long,      we'd become the
flowers.              Two corpses we were,
two corpses                                  I saw !

Even the Underworld's Californian entrance seemed entirely unwelcoming.

To go from having their limbs stretched out of their wits, to finding the very entrance of the Underworld, was baffling. Annabeth Chase could say that she had been in a very bad mood since their visit to the Stretcher's Water Bed Palace. Not only had she had her limbs stretched in an inhumane way, but she had to watch her best friend look lovesick over a boy that had nearly killed them! Could you believe it? How could Colette, one of the most beautiful girls to ever exist, look at Percy, a complete idiot who drooled in his sleep, with such adoring eyes? She didn't get it. She tried to find a way to understand it, working her mind so consistently to find a reason as to why such a horrid thing could be happening right before her eyes.

The quartet stood in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at the gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS. Underneath, stenciled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.

               It was almost midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece. Percy turned to them, Annabeth had to fight her instinctive glare when his gaze ended up landing on Colette. "Okay. Y'all remember the plan?"

               "The plan." Grover gulped down his nerves. "Yeah. I love the plan."

               "What happens if the plan doesn't work?" Annabeth's tone was biting, she knew it, and she could tell the others were confused by it. She'd been trying to be nicer to Percy. They had to have been startled by the change.

               "Don't think negative, Annie." Colette frowned softly, and it was like all her anger washed away with the downturn of the blonde's lips. Annabeth's eyes softened and dropped at the sight of her best friend's frown.

               "Right," she feigned, a small and sarcastic smile on her lips, "we're entering the land of the dead, and I shouldn't think negative."

Percy took out the pearls from his pocket, the four milky spheres a Nereid had given him in Santa Monica. They didn't seem like backup at all, but they were the escape route.

               "Don't listen to her, Percy." Colette put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly to soothe his worry, making Annabeth grit her teeth. "You're right, we'll make it. It'll be fine."

               The blonde nudged Grover, widening her eyes at him. "Oh, right!" He chimed in, faking his cheer. "We got this far. We'll find the Master Bolt and save your mom. No problem." His face was still pinched nervously.

Annabeth saw how gratefully Percy looked at Colette, feeling a pang in her chest at the sight of his gaze. She thought she was feeling jealous toward her best friend's sudden closeness with another person. If only she'd know how wrong she was. She wouldn't have been working her mind so hard if she did.

               Percy slipped the pearls back into his pocket. "Let's whup some Underworld ass."

They walked into the DOA lobby. Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out of windows, or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, talked, or did much of anything. Through peripheral vision, you could see them all just fine, but if you focused on any one of them in particular; They started to blur, looking transparent — you could see right through their bodies.

The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so the quartet had to look up at him. He was tall and elegant, with a darkened brown skin and bleached blond hair that was shaved (military style). He wore tortoiseshell glasses and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.

               "Ya' name's Chiron?" Percy looked up at the guard in bewilderment, and Annabeth facepalmed loudly behind him.

               He leaned across the desk. Nothing could be seen in his glasses other than a reflection, but his smile was sweet and cold, like a python's, right before it lunged and ate you. "What a precious young lad." His accent was strange, British mixed with something else, but it was like English was his second language. He'd taken the time to learn it after Ancient Greek. "Tell me, mate, do I look like a Centaur?"

               "No."

               "Sir." He added smoothly.

               "Sir." Percy echoed.

               He pinched the name tag and ran his finger under the letters incredibly patronizingly. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."

               "Charon."

               "Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."

               "Mr. Charon."

               "Well done." He smiled again, even more mocking than he'd been before. "I hate being confused with that old horseman. And now, how may I help you little dead ones?"

                His question seemed to catch Percy off guard, his face slowing losing color in panic. He turned to look at Colette for support. She stepped forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into her body as he flushed brightly in her hold. Annabeth scoffed lowly behind them, earning an overly amused grin and snicker from Grover that faded when the brunette glared at him harshly for it. "We want to go to the Underworld." The Sun's kin replied, voice silky and smooth compared to Percy's consistently rough and confused tone.

              Charon's mouth twitched upward at the answer. "Well, that's refreshing."

              "Is it?" Colette raised an eyebrow.

              "Straightforward and honest." Charon listed. "No screaming, no 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon!'" He looked the four over. "How did you die, then?"

              Annabeth forcefully nudged Grover, knowing that her best friend kept her mouth shut for a reason. "Oh," he said the word slowly, "we ... drowned. In the bathtub."

              "All four of you?" They nodded. "Big bathtub," Charon looked mildly impressed for a moment, "I don't suppose you have coins for passage. Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children ... alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries."

              "Oh, but we got coins." Percy didn't step out of Colette's arms, annoying Annabeth entirely. He still found a way to put three golden drachmas on the counter.

              "Well, now," Charon moistened his lips, "real drachmas. Real golden drachmas. I haven't seen these in ..." his fingers hovered greedily over the coins. The quartet was so close. Then Charon looked at Percy. The cold stare seemed to freeze over enough to bore a hole through the boy. "Here now," he said, "you couldn't read my name correctly. Are you dyslexic, lad?"

              "Nah," Percy denied, "m'dead."

              Charon leaned forward and took a sniff, sneering to himself. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."

              "We gotta get to the Underworld."

              Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat. Immediately, all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes, running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches. "Leave while you can," the Ferryman told them quite sternly, "I'll just take these and forget I saw you." He started to reach for the coins, but Colette snatched them back. There was no chance in Tartarus that he was getting drachmas without helping them with what they needed.

               "No service, no tip." The blonde smiled sweetly, baring her teeth. Charon growled again — a deep, blood-chilling sound, but Colette was unfazed. The spirits of the dead started pounding on the elevator doors. "Such a shame, too." She sighed, hiding her smirk. "We had more to offer." She let Percy hold up the entire bag from Crusty's stash. He took out a fistful of drachmas and let them spill through his fingers.

              Charon's growl changed into something akin a lion's purr. "Do you think I can be bought, godlings? Eh ... just out of curiosity, how much have you got there, hm?"

              "A lot," Annabeth finally piped up, not liking the moment her best friend and the son of Poseidon were sharing, "I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."

              "Oh, you don't know the half of it. How would you like to babysit these spirits all day? It's always 'Please don't let me be dead!' or 'Please let me cross for free.' I haven't had a pay raise in three thousand years. Do you imagine suits like this come cheap?"

"You deserve better." Percy was quick to tack onto Annabeth's words. "A lil' appreciation. Respect. Good pay." With each word, he stacked another gold coin on the counter before him, stepping slightly out of Colette's hold, and relieving Annabeth's irritation.

Charon glanced down at his silk, Italian jacket, as if imagining something even better adorning his skin. "I must say, kids, you're making some sense now. Just a little."

Annabeth sent a kick to Percy's ankle then, nudging him forward and completely out of her best friend's arms. Percy stacked another few coins on the counter. "I could mention a pay raise while I'm talkin' to Hades."

He let out a long and dramatic sigh, as if it truly pained him to speak his agreement. "The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you four and be off." He stood and scooped the money up. "Come along."

The quartet pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits, making sure to hold onto each other for comfort and support. That was when the spirits started grabbing at the quartet's clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things Annabeth couldn't quite make out. Charon, though, was quick to shove them out of the way. "Freeloaders." He grumbled.

He escorted them into the elevator that was already crowded with dead souls, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on and pushed them back into the lobby. "Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone." He announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial of my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?" Then he shut the doors. He put a key card into the slot in the elevator panel and the lift began its descent.

"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Annabeth inquired, her own curiosity of the situation eating at her in a way that she refused to explain. She needed to be in control of the situation; It was her chess board and she needed to be the one moving the pieces. It was a shame she'd yet to realize she was a pawn in a trusted man's game.

"Nothing."

"For how long?"

"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."

"Oh," she swallowed, "that's ... fair."

Charon raised a haughty eyebrow, almost smiling at her naïvety. "Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough where you're going."

"We'll get out alive." Percy cut in. He'd been the one to notice Annabeth's eyes glazing over with fear, the way she was slowly paling with each word that left the Ferryman.

"Ha." Charon smiled dryly.

Annabeth suddenly felt dizzy and she knew the feeling was shared by the way Colette glanced at her nervously. "It's okay." The blonde whispered to her, lips moving slowly.

If that wasn't enough to get her heart racing, the elevator wasn't going down anymore — instead, it was going forward.

The air turned misty and the spirits around them started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray, hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began to sway, too. Annabeth had to blink hard. When she opened her eyes again, Charon's creamy, Italian suit had been replaced by a long, black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses were gone. Where his eyes should've been, were empty sockets — much like Ares' eyes — except, Charon's were completely dark, full of night and death and despair.

               She realized that she wasn't the only one studying his transformation, judging by the way he looked at the four of them. "Well?"

               "Nothin'." Percy managed to choke out, just as startled as the others.

Annabeth could've sworn he was grinning, but that wasn't it. The flesh of his face was becoming transparent, letting her — all of them — see straight through his skull.

The floor kept swaying.

               "I think I'm getting sea sick." Grover groaned, face paling as it continued.

               When Annabeth blinked again, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. They were all standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling them across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, stranger things — plastic dolls, crushed carnations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges. "The River Styx," she found it in herself to murmur, "it's so ..."

               "Polluted?" Charon finished the sentence for her, overly knowing. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across — hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."

Mist curled off the filthy water. Above them, almost lost in the gloom, was a ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.

At that exact moment, Annabeth could see panic hitting Percy and her heart clenched. She didn't notice it then, but she and Colette had taken hold of each of his hands for comfort. Under any other circumstance, she would've rather jumped into the water than hold his hand, but she knew he was feeling the same anxiety she was; It wasn't all for him, she wanted comfort, too, and Colette just happened to be on the other side of him — too far for her to reach anyway.

She watched his lips move, realizing it was a prayer he was muttering under his breath. She didn't know why he was wasting it, where they were headed, only one god mattered.

Finally, the shoreline of the Underworld came into the quartet's view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of the high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as they could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones — the howl of a large animal.

               "Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon drawled. His smile turned skeletal in the greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings." The bottom of the boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark: A woman holding a little girl's hand, an old man and an old woman hobbling arm in arm, and a boy no older than Percy was shuffling silently along in his gray robe. "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here." The Ferryman told Percy. "Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise." He counted their gold coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled something that sounded similar to a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty barge back across the river.

The quartet followed the spirits up the well-worn path, any possible direction lost on them.

There were three separate entrances under one huge, black archway that said: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond that there were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls, much like Charon. The howling of a hungry animal was really loud then, but they couldn't see where it was coming from.

The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to be guarding Hades' door, was nowhere to be seen.

The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH.

The EZ DEATH line was moving right along, the other two were crawling.

               "Whatchu' think?" Percy asked the girls.

               The blonde and brunette duo shared a look. "The fast line must be going straight to the Fields." Colette remained vague, still being the only one to follow the rules regarding the power being names and words. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from The Court because it might go against them."

               "There's a court fa' dead people?"

               "Yeah." Annabeth decided to answer that question. "Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, William Shakespeare—" she had to smother her smile when she saw the way her best friend wrinkled her nose at the last name she'd listed. "—people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward: The Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good, or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

               "And do what?"

               "Imagine standing in a wheat field in Kansas. Forever." Grover answered that time.

               "Harsh." Percy winced.

               "Not as harsh as that," the Satyr mumbled, "look." He jutted his chin in the general direction. A couple of black-robed ghouls had pulled aside one spirit and were frisking him at the security desk. "He's the preacher who made the news, remember?"

               "Oh, yeah." Realization flashed across Percy's tanned features before they scrunched up. "What're they doin' to 'im?"

               "Special punishment from Hades?" Grover guessed, looking at the girls who'd pursed their lips in agreement with him. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur—" he grunted in pain when Colette slapped his rib cage with the back of her ringed hand. "—the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

               Percy seemed to shudder at that, but growing curious. "But, if he a preacher, and he believes in a different Hell ... ?"

               Grover shrugged at that, it wasn't like he had all the answers to religion. "Who says he's seeing this place the way we're seeing it? Humans see what they want to see. You're very stubborn — uh, persistent — that way."

The quartet got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud then that it shook the ground at their feet, but it was still hard to determine which direction the sound was coming from. Then, about fifty feet ahead of them, the green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous, shadowy monster. They hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it looked like it was staring staring at them.

              Percy's jaw hung open in shock at the sight of the beast. "He a Rottweiler."

Most would probably imagine Cerberus as a big, black mastiff. But he was a purebred Rottweiler, except that he was the size of a woolly mammoth, mostly invisible, and had three heads.

The dead walked up to him — no fear at all. The ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without crouching.

               "I'm startin' to see 'im better." Percy swallowed thickly. "Why's that?"

               "I think ..." Annabeth licked her lips, not having it in her to finish her sentence. She shared a look with the other two then.

               Colette inhaled slowly. "... it's because we're getting closer to being dead."

The dog's middle head craned toward the quartet. It sniffed the air and growled.

               "It can sense the livin'." The Sea's kin assumed, nodding sarcastically with his words.

               "But that's okay," Grover's words were choppy, his body was trembling so violently, "because we have a plan."

               "Right." Annabeth agreed, but her voice was small — the smallest it'd ever sounded since she'd arrived at camp. "A plan."

They moved toward the monster, Annabeth subconsciously reached for Colette's hand, earning a reassuring squeeze back. The middle head snarled at them, then barked so loud that Annabeth could've sworn she'd seen Percy's eyes rattle from their place in his head.

               "Can you understand it?" Percy asked his best friend, voice quivering.

               "Oh, yeah," he nodded slowly with wide eyes, "I can understand it."

               "What's it sayin'?"

               "I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly."

Where he'd gotten the gall, Annabeth didn't know, but she watched Percy take a big stick out of his backpack — a bedpost he'd have had to break off at the Water Bed Palace. He held it up and gave an extremely strained smile.

               "Hey, big fella," he called up to it, "I bet they don't play witcha' much." A growl that shook the entire ground sounded. "Good boy?" He croaked out weakly then. He waved the stick. The dog's middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on him, completely ignoring the spirits. He had Cerberus' undivided attention. "Fetch!" He threw the stick into the gloom. Despite it being a good throw, he earned a completely unimpressed look from the beast, one that Annabeth matched. Cerberus glared down at Percy, his eyes baleful and cold the longer he stared.

The girls shared a look: That was a really shitty plan, they seemed to tell each other. Annabeth was the one to make it obvious.

Cerberus made a new kind of growl, stemming from deeper within his three throats(?).

               "Um, Percy?" Grover called.

               "Yeah?"

               "I just thought you'd want to know."

               "Yeah?"

               "Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that ... well, he's hungry."

               Annabeth's breathing picked up. "Wait!" She called, letting go of Colette's hand in haste as she rifled through her pack.

               "Five seconds ... do we run now?"

               Annabeth produced a red rubber ball the size of a grapefruit. It was labeled WATERLAND, DENVER, CO. Before Colette could open her mouth to stop her, she raised the ball and marched straight up to Cerberus. "See the ball?" She shouted. "You want the ball, Cerberus? Sit!" The damned dog looked as stunned as her companions did in that moment. All three of its heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated. "Sit!" She called again. For the split second in time, she thought she was going to die. Fear had finally registered and she'd nearly frozen in place. Then, Cerberus licked his three sets of lips, shifted on his haunches, and sat — immediately crushing a dozen spirits who'd been passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line. The spirits made muffled hisses as they dissipated, like air let out of tires. "Good boy!" She crooned loudly.

               She threw Cerberus the ball. He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy. "Drop it!" She ordered sternly. Cerberus' heads stopped fighting and looked at her. The ball was wedged between his top and bottom canine like a tiny piece of gum. He made a loud sound, a scary sort of whimper, then dropped the ball — slimy and nearly bitten in half — at her feet. "Good boy." She praised him. She picked up the ball, ignoring the dog saliva all over it.

               Annabeth turned to her quest mates, eyes lingering on the blonde, who looked at her with stars in those midnight blue-colored eyes. "Go now. EZ DEATH line — it's faster."

               "Annie—"

               She cut her best friend off. "Now." She ordered in the same tone she'd been commanding the enormous beast with. Both the boys and Colette inched forward warily. Cerberus growled. "Stay!" Annabeth demanded. "If you want the ball, stay!" Cerberus whimpered, but stayed right where he was commanded to be.

               "What about you?" Colette murmured as she passed the brunette, Annabeth noticing how panicked she and Percy looked at the idea of leaving her behind anywhere.

               "I know what I'm doing." She assured them both. "At least, I'm pretty sure ..." she mumbled the last bit to herself, watching as the three walked between the dog's legs. By the gods, they'd made it through.

               "Good dog!" She praised him again. She held up the tattered red ball, coming to a conclusion; If she rewarded Cerberus, there'd be nothing left for another trick. She threw the ball anyway, praying to Tyche for all the luck in the universe. The dog's left mouth immediately snatched it up, only to be attacked by the middle head, while the right head whined in protest. With the dog distracted, Annabeth timed it right and walked briskly under his belly to join the other three at the metal detector.

               "How'd you do that?" Percy asked, very obviously amazed by her. She didn't know why he was in awe when she felt miserable.

"Obedience school." She answered, tone breathless. She didn't even realize there were tears in her eyes until Colette cupped her face gently, wiping the falling tears gingerly, and tilting her head down to kiss her forehead. When the blonde pulled away, she felt like she could breathe again. "When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman ..."

"Never mind that." Grover tugged at Percy's shirt. "Come on!"

They were just about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus whined pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth couldn't help it when her feet stopped, lips quivering.

She turned to face the dog, who'd done a one-eighty to look at the four of them. Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at his feet. "Good boy." She cooed, but her voice had gone melancholy and uncertain. The dog's heads tilted sideways, as if worried about her. "I'll bring you another ball soon," she promised faintly, "would you like that?" Cerberus whimpered. "Good dog." She swallowed the lump in her throat audibly. "I'll come and visit you soon. I—I promise." She turned to her friends, eyes glossy and red. "Let's go."

Grover and Percy pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed out and set off flashing lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!" Cerberus started to bark along with the alarm system.

They bursted through the EZ DEATH gate, which started even more blaring alarms, and raced into the Underworld. A few minutes later, they were hiding, Colette being the only one that wasn't out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.

               "Well, Percy," Grover murmured, "what have we learned today?"

               "That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"

               "No?" The Satyr looked at the boy incredulously. "That your plans really bite!"

Despite it all, Annabeth's focused reigned in on her best friend biting her plump bottom lip to smother her smile. Wisdom's Daughter knew Percy's idea wasn't horrible, she'd just been the one to execute it better. Even down in the Underworld, even monsters needed attention every once in a while. She flicked the oncoming tear that wanted to leak from the corner of her eye at the thought of him, still being able to hear his mournful keening.

She supposed it was what happened after traveling the River Styx.

ICARUS INQUIRES:

^^^^^^^^^ y'all to me when I take ages to finally fuckin update.

HEYYY, Y'ALL, I'M BACKKK. It's been a brick since I've last updated, that's my bad!

Senior year has been kicking my ass. From applying to colleges and scholarships, to actually getting good grades (because colleges still care about the first semester of senior year, wtf???). So, safe to say, my life's been so fuckin hectic. Not only that, but I'm also battling seasonal depression. Despite it being the merriest time of the year, I actually can't stand it because of how shitty my mental health gets.

Enough complaining from my end, how are all of y'all? Hope you're all doing incredibly well and are enjoying your lives.

Hope you guys have missed these little shits as much as I have! This is my late thanksgiving gift to you all for being so supportive of me and my writing and never complaining whenever I disappear off the face of the earth <3

Idk if y'all have been keeping up with the PJO show news, but have y'all seen how Walker's height has fucking skyrocketed??? Bro is taller than Aryan and currently 14??? Aryan is 17??? I was beyond baffled tbh.

ON A SERIOUS NOTE:
I'm also ending my silence here! If you follow me on my irl socials, you'll know that I haven't been silent at all. I post and repost about it all the time and felt as though Wattpad wasn't an adequate enough platform for me to do it here, too. This is a writing app and I didn't want to use it for advocacy, but I will because it's been two months since the active genocide started and the alleged "cease fire" lasted four days. I'm not using an announcement because those are always ignored. By doing it in a chapter of MY BOOK, you all have the ability to help, and if you don't, shame on you. A quick google search takes seconds, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that some people are clueless to what's happening right now.

As a preface, however, if you are a Zionist or aware of what's happening and choosing to remain "neutral," unfollow me and stop reading my work; You are not welcome here. Palestine + the Gaza Strip, Congo, Sudan, and many other places are being bombed, ethnically cleansed, and going through so many other heinous war crimes as I type this. There is no "neutral" standpoint, it's a very black and white situation of good and bad; You are either for children, women, and elderly being murdered or against it — don't be stupid. For fucks sake, a Palestinian baker was forced to put HIS SON in an OVEN by the Israeli authorities before being ordered to do the same to himself a few days ago. It's disgusting and horrific that the American government and most of the European government stands with such cruelty. At the end of the day, though, colonizers will always back other colonizers which is why the alliance isn't all that surprising.

Therefore, here are a few links to websites where you can get educated, how to help, places to donate, and petitions to sign:

FREE PALESTINE, CONGO, SUDAN, AND EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY THAT'S BEING OPPRESSED, COLONIZED, AND BEING PUT THROUGH GENOCIDES‼️

GET EDUCATED:
— https://oc-palestine.carrd.co/
— https://www.wattpad.com/story/338827477?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details&wp_uname=silkendeath&wp_originator=oHT%2FT1NbrJN2ORgP4gvCXloobYZ%2BVVvMAmKmgFa9P10Kd0hOs%2FkbMzAqHsHgLsHATtoCd9xLulhjMNJuw3M5knT8fcSILBS46quofSj2OfzfOotdTrd34V4DXYkzMzeB
— https://www.wattpad.com/story/355924293?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=link&utm_content=story_info&wp_page=story_details&wp_uname=silkendeath&wp_originator=fbDn4wj%2Br8AJMVYjvl4n4fGh%2FG6kATtPNKyygkKcmgD%2FWUDfytPNA1SOwXAvNlnnrWmkixg5e7W1kYcsk6oDT%2FNrKouLtn7t63xFzIGojdbMMWLK6ShR5YtIdMtymvIw

DONATE:
— https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/
— https://donate.unrwa.org/

PETITIONS:
— https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwix9MzA9oeDAxUaW0cBHYneAbEYABAAGgJxdQ&ae=2&gclid=CjwKCAiAg9urBhB_EiwAgw88mbkll9Q5wioboZni8Yw-WYqd84aywl1ofM9oVn7AoZckCQgf1wgwRxoCdd4QAvD_BwE&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESVeD2J0t6vjtJRlzSBJv6u2P1TqbW1ekQ89oY8rLDn7YqMwbB2OjKB2PI05pWa-MaxKGiCgK_J_S8z5BNzpTMBPh0BzZKimFnxF82-RpS7lSTNy8i7Ac&sig=AOD64_3SrmPhxLrwZC6Df00vHrf6MiVJHA&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwiN1sXA9oeDAxWCLFkFHUMRB6MQ0Qx6BAgGEAE
— https://www.change.org/p/sign-and-share-this-urgent-petition-calling-for-a-ceasefirenow-in-gaza-and-israel
— https://www.change.org/p/demand-a-ceasefire-now-by-all-parties-in-the-palestine-israel-conflict