JADE’S POV
My heart was still beating fast from the walk on the beach. The adrenaline from being near to the ocean, along with the fear that built in my stomach from telling the story that I don’t ever utter, and walking next to the prince of the dead during which most would call a very romantic date added up to making it seem as if I were about to have a heart attack. Although, of course it wasn’t a date, because after a romantic walk on the beach spent talking about death and fighting, we were going straight into literal hell instead of a rom-com movie.
The entrance to Hell was nothing like a movie either. I would have imagined a cave, with blood dripping of the walls, and zombies crawling everywhere. Instead, it was the lobby of a building. A shiny, window, 200 floor, executive building. “Just stay behind me, don’t talk, and look pretty” he says winking, and I can’t help but snort. Somehow, being here so close to Hades, is making him act more of himself then he has been. And I’ve sort of missed his assholey attitude, his caring one was getting on my nerves.
But I listen to him since he probably knew what he was doing here, and follow closely behind his steps as he walks up to the concierge. “Hey clark” he says, tapping on the desk in front of the man named Clark. If you could call him a man, he was a building. Pure muscle, and if I squinted through the mist hard enough, I could see the slight bluish twinge of his real skin color. He was a monster, who was working to keep other monsters in.
“How can I help you?” he says, barely looking up to acknowledge Nico. He clears his throat.
“Excuse me, but that is no way to talk to the son of the god in charge of keeping you out of Hades, how about you treat your prince with a little respect” he says, his voice taking on a note that I had never heard before. He wasn’t bluffing, he wasn’t joking. He was dead serious, he was being authoritative, and demanding respect, an aura of power surrounded him. It was so strong that it almost knocked me over, and was threatening to suck me in at the same time. I had been around plenty of powerful demigods, but looking at Nico right now, in his full power, I had never seen something so substantial. In front of his enemies, he must have been the face of death itself.
“Of course sir” Clark says, standing up and bowing to him. “Princess of the sea” he says turning to me and bowing as well. I was sort of upset that my trying to be invisible trick didn’t work.
I don’t know whether to bow back, so I do what Nico did and stare at him with a regal air. I can her nico snickering next to me and I hit him non-conspicuously. “How may I help you?” He says turning back to nico.
“Nothing serious, just turn your head while Jade and I casually, you know, enter my fathers domain and try not to die” he says.
“You know I can’t do that my prince” he says bowing his head slightly.
“I’m not asking you to do anything, that’s the genius! You can’t get in trouble” Nico says, sliding his hand into his pocket and grabbing a handful of shiny gold drachmas, and laying them on the desk in front of Clark. Clark looks around before grabbing them and pocketing them, grabs the newspaper he was reading and totally ignores us. I feel Nico puff up beside me, “first part, done” he whispers in my ear before grabbing my hand, entwining our fingers, and pulling me towards the silver grand doors.
They were huge, floor to ceiling, engraved with morbid death scenes, and decorated with smiling skulls. “Remember what I said, stay queit, stay behind me, don’t make eye contact, and don’t eat anything” he whispers in my ear again before pushing open the door with his free hand.
I instantly felt a pang of cold and decay as we walked in. It blew over us, and sent shivers down my spine, chilling me to the bone. We were on a river bed, the air musty with stale wine and the sharp ping of metal.
The river bed was illuminted by a silver almost moon like light. But it wasn’t the moon, we were under the earth. It was something darker, something evil. The sand bank shined under our feet, tiny particles of silver and gold shining in the light. “Don’t touch it” he says, squeezing my hand, noting my interest.
I tear my eyes from the rich entangling sand and see people. No, not people, ghouls. “What are those” I ask, motioning my chin towards the otherside of the river. They were morbid. They shimmered under the light, disappearing if you peered directly at them. They carry different clothes from different eras, the ghosts were of every size, shape, age, gender, and ethnicity. Their eyes were lifeless, emotionless, besides pain and desperation. They were holding their hands out, begging, theyre mouth wide open, making ungodly moans. The sight of them made me feel miserable, and hopeless.
“lost souls, buried without honors, Charon doesn’t ferry them across because they can’t pay” he says, his voice empathetic.
“Can we pay?” I ask, and he jingles some money in his pockets as a reply. “I mean, can we pay for them?” I ask. He squeezes my hand and looks at me sadly.
“They are lost because they are in denial. They don’t want to believe they are dead. You pay him with physical money sure, but you also have to be sure you want to go to Hades, they are not. Even if they have no money, there are still ways to get in. They, they would rather stand on the bank of the river styx then be under my father’s rule” he says, looking at them again.
Before I could answer, a canoe rowed up to the river bank, worked by a cloaked man with a frame so bony he looked like a skeleton. His eyes were pitch black, and his lips were as white as his skin. “Charon, the ferry man” Nico says, bowing his head.
“Son of hades, I cannot say I’m surprised you're back, but I can say I am surprised to see you are asking my services to carry you into your father’s domain.” He says, starig at me. His eyes were so black they terrified me, I felt claustrophobic looking at them, and I couldnt help but wonder if this is what other people felt looking at my eyes.
“As you can see, I have company, and I can not bring her through my usual ways. If you will do us the favor” he asks.
“Of course” he bows his head, but holds out his hand. Nico hands the man some money, and then helps me on the rickety canoe. The moans of the ghouls became louder, more desperate, more miserable, and I have to bite my lip to keep from turning to reach out for them.
Nico keeps me distracted, pointing out the various destinatins. The river styx was toxic, and it wasn’t a river. River gave life, rivers gave inspiration. All of civilization and human life was built around rivers. I was the daughter of Poseiden, there was more water in my veins than blood. I was made of clear blue water. Not black poison.
It moved slowly, and it was thick. If I unfocused my eyes a little I could almost pass by imagining it as oil. But it wasn’t. It seemed like the toxins came up and whispered in your ear to simoultaneously jump and run away. The river had a similar attraction as Nico. So deadly you couldn’t help but want to be closer.
The ferryman had to push very hard to make the gondola move. I peered over the edge, and a face appeared in the water. I look closer, trying to make out the details of its face, when two big clear blue eyes pop out at me. “Help me Jade” Kelly asks, before I jump back, making the gondola rock wickedy.
It takes a minute for him to stabilize it again. I was terrified that the boat would tip over nd we would fall into the river where I would have to face Kelly and confess to her that I took no time moving on to Nico after she died. I would have to apologize to her, she was the reason I died. There were hundreds of souls that perished because of me, all of them were swimming in the river, waiting for me to jump in to get their revenge.
I jump directly into Nico, he grunts for a second at the impact but then wraps his arms desperately around me, twisting me in his arms so he could look at my face, trying to decipher my fear. He pleaded at me, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying, I could only hear the ghouls calling my name, demanding a rematch.
He shakes me brutally and I snap out of it, looking directly into his eyes. They were not black. They were blue. Dark, dark blue. Indigo in some light. Like a beautiful night, with thousands of stars. They held on to me like a string and pulled me back from the brink, refusing to let me go until the fear had passed.
I muttered a simple nothing and tuck my hair behind my ear.
He looked like he was about to say something when we turned a corner on the river. Immeadetly to our right was a hill. More like mountain, made of steep shiny black rock that sparkled with jewels and gems all over, like a terrifying sky with fatal stars.
There was a steep wicked small hiking trail leading up the mountain, absolutely full of ghouls. All moaning and groaning, stumbling forward as the line slowly shuffled forward. I could just make out a black figure at the top of the mountain, Cerberus, the dog with three heads that guarded the entrance to the underworld, and then a shimmering castle-like construction on the very top.
“Is that Hades’ temple?” I ask pointing to the top. Nico shakes his head.
“That’s just the entrance, his castle lays right in the heart of Hades, next to Elysium. We have to go through the forecourt of my dad where the judges are. Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus, you know them right?” he asks, and I nod, vaguely remembering their stories. Aeacus and Rhadamnthus were just normal guys, sons of Zeus, kings, peaceful, just, a few things went along with their story but nothing major. Minos was the one who sent kids to the labyrinth to be killed by the Minotaur to avenge his sons death. But if you ask me he wasn’t trying to avenge anything, he just wanted revenge.
“Well, they want to talk to us” he says, and as soon as he did, there was huge booming that shook the boat so hard that Charon almost fell in. Nico hurriedly got out of the boat and waited for me to follow, the both of us walked toward the base of the mountain.
“This is going to take a while isn’t it” I say staring up at the top, craning my head all the way back. The ceiling of Hades was just earth, we were in a cave, and there was no escape. I began to feel even more claustrophobic. I imagine a child of Zeus would be even worse of, but I couldn’t handle this. I was made for miles and miles of nothing but freedom, not a cave.
“Yea, and the longer we take, the madder they’ll get. They’ve been doing this for a long time, doing the same job for millennia gets tiresome, they’re grumpy, don’t talk and-“
“Stay behind you I know, I know.” I say looking at him sideways. He nods his head, contempt, and walks toward the end of the line. The line started at the very edge and twisted so it kept going for a couple of miles along the riverside. The very end of the line had ghouls with modern clothing, men with board shorts and half a head, and women in jeans with a huge hole in their chest. When I looked through I could see the other side, slick black ooze dripped from the top of her hole, and I could only imagine that something like a cannon could create such macabre.
“This is gruesome” I whisper to him as he guides me forward, pushing his way through the line. The ghouls seemed a little agitated, but let him pass, they could sense his overwhelming power.
“This is ridiculous, why is it moving so slowly” he says, growing angry as we make our way up. The people seem just as dead, just as hopeless, just as depressed, but they look like they’re from another century. A quarter of the way up and I can already see people in WWII uniforms, holding their heads up, and their posture impeccable, but a lifeless look in their milky white eyes.
“These people died more than 60 years ago and they’ve barely veen moved” I whisper, my heart tightening. The claustrophobic feeling grabbed me tight, along with absolute hopelessness and despair, I realize this trip down here was not the best iea, and that maybe I wasn’t ready for this. “Nico” I begin, panic biting into my word. He stiffens up at the sound of my pain and turns around quickly, bending his neck in order look me straight in the eye. He shoves his face in mine so our forehads are touching, and searches my eyes for something, some sign that I broke. That the fragile string that was holding me together broke.

Notes

Hey guys! I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm leaving pretty soon on vacation and I don't know how much internet access I'll have so I'll try to post as much as possible before I leave. Who knows I might even finish this story! I'm really bad at finishing stories. Please leave comments, vote, subscribe and all that good stuff.