Back To Black | Luke Castellan

15

After a while Percy came back from water and told them everything he had heard. He told them about the solstice passing, the preparations for war, and the pearls to get out of the underworld.

The four of them took a a two hour rest to sleep, or to just sit and think of a plan. Nadia told the kids that they should rest and that she'd wake them when the sun would rise.

So Nadia sat on the hood of the car, looking out to the ocean, thinking while the kids were in the car resting.

After an hour and a half she heard one of them get out of the car and walked over to her and sit next to her on the hood. She looked over and Percy and smiled. "Thought I told you to rest." She said.

"I rested enough." He said to her and she nodded. "What about you, don't you need rest?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"I don't sleep much but I'll be fine." Nadia said.

They looked out to the ocean. "Can I ask you something?" Percy asked her and she nodded. "What did Hermes show you?" He asked, looking back at her and he noticed her tense up.

"Oh, you don't have too."

"No, it's alright. I might as well talk about it." She said taking a deep breath in. "When I was around your age, I lived with my mom and sister. I loved them so much but one day I was fighting with my mom." She said and stopped for a moment.

"It was really bad, we'd been fighting for months but this day was worse. We were in a car, going back and forth at each other and she wasn't watching the road." Nadia said, wiping the tears from her face.

"Another car hit ours at fast speeds and her side of the car hit a building. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. They didn't know how I was alive. I should've been dead. I was responsible for my mother's death."

"I killed my mother." Nadia said.

Percy looked at her and shook her his. "You didn't." He said and Nadia shook her head. "No, it was my fault." He grabbed her hand. "It wasn't, Nadia. The other driver was driving above the speed limit. That was his fault."

"I should've died. I still wished I died."

"But then I never would have met you. Nadia, you are one of the strongest people I know and I'm glad you here with us on this quest." Percy said and she looked at him and she smiled.

"I'm glad I met you too." She said. He put his arm around her and put his head on her shoulder and they held onto each other as they looked out at the run rise.

Nadia woke up Annabeth and Grover and they set off to the city to find the shop where the hidden passage way to the underworld was.

They made a plan for Percy and Annabeth to go in while Nadia and Grover waited outside. After a few minutes Grover opened the door and popped his head inside. "Is it over?"

Nadia and Grover went inside and they walked past the man trapped in the bed and they went to the office where the door was and they stood in front of it.

"Are we sure this is the right way?" Percy asked, looking at the three of them. Grover stepped forward and opened the door and stepped back coughing and started playing with his horns.

"It's either the realm of the dead or someone left a carton of milk in there in the 1990s." He said.

Annabeth grabbed a squeaky ball and handed it to him and he took it, playing with it. "Better?" She asked him and he looked at it. "Much."

"If we get into trouble... these are our tickets out." Percy said, holding out the pearls. "No one's turning back till we all come back." Annabeth said.