A Quest of Eight; A Heroes of Olympus Fanfiction

Tunnels

Y/n's POV

The stairs split in three different directions, but Hazel didn't hesitate and chose a path for us. Almost immediately, the stairs split again. And yet again, Hazel led us down one of the stair cases. All of the tunnels looked the same, so if I was down here on my own, I would have gotten lost pretty quickly.

"This way," Hazel directed and pointed to a doorway. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."

"Good choice, then," Leo agreed.

"This is the entrance to the second level. There are no traps on the doorway, but something is strange here. My underground sense is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us. Stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: From this point on, the dead are stronger than the living," Hazel declared.

As we entered the doorway, the voices in the darkness began to whisper louder. I couldn't comprehend what they were saying, but I didn't want to. It also seemed like something was moving amongst the shadows. On instinct, my hand reached up to hold onto my trident necklace.

"Where are the monsters?" Frank wondered. "I thought Gaea had an army guarding the Doors."

" I don't know," Jason replied. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."

"Be careful what you wish for," Leo cautioned and summoned a ball of fire in his hand. "Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home. We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death, and walk out." At that moment, the tunnel shook, and rubble rained down from the ceiling. I covered my head with my arms to avoid getting hit by a large chunk of rock, but for the most part, it was just tiny pebbles.

"The Doors of Death just opened again," Nico announced.

"It's happening about every fifteen minutes," Piper noted.

"Every twelve," I correct. "I've been counting ever since we stepped foot in here. It's the only thing keeping me focused."

"We'd better hurry. Percy and Annabeth are close, and they're in danger. I can sense it," Nico stated. The deeper we traveled, the more the corridors widened and the ceiling got higher. It should have made me feel better that we had more space and didn't have to crowd together anymore, but it also scared me. We could easily be surrounded by monsters now, and that wasn't good. The floor of the tunnel was littered with coins and ceramic shards, which made clinking noises as we stepped on them.

"Offerings?" Piper guessed.

Nico nodded. "Yeah. If you wanted your ancestors to appear, you had to make an offering."

"Let's not make an offering," Jason put forth. Thankfully, nobody argued.

"The tunnel from here is unstable," Hazel warned. "The floor might give way. Just follow me and step exactly where I step."

We all formed a line behind Hazel. Frank was the first person to follow her, then me, Jason, and the rest of the crew. I drew my sword in the hopes that the celestial bronze would provide a bit more light, but all it did was make everything look creepier. I did, however, keep my sword out just in case we were ambushed. As we were walking, Frank suddenly stopped, and I crashed straight into his back. If Jason hadn't caught me, I probably would have caused the whole floor to collapse underneath us.

"Whoa. You okay?" Jason asked and steadied me.

"I'm fine," I assure him. "Thank you. Hazel, hold up a second. Frank, is everything all right?"

"Frank, don't move," Hazel ordered. I looked down at Frank's feet and noticed that he was about to step out of line. Within a second, Frank fixed his walking path and stood up straighter. What just happened?