The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell

We walked out of a tree in the middle of a forest outside of New York. When I looked over to Annabeth, her tan skin was suddenly very pale, maybe even a little green.

“You doing alright over there?” I tried to hide my amusement.

“I’m fine. It’s just that… angels and dark places… never a good mixture.”

“You look like you are going to be sick,” I said, taking a step away to avoid any puke that might’ve be coming.

“I’m fine,” she said sharply. “I just need a minute.” She started looking around, “Where did you take us? We aren’t even near New York.”

“No, we are outside of the city a little bit. I was sensing a strong, evil presence coming from this area. I figured this would be the best place to start.”

Looking around, I could feel this huge power over me, making me want to run home with my tail between my legs. But Annabeth started walking further into the forest. I couldn’t just let her go off and face this huge force alone. Not even my worst enemy deserved that kind of punishment.

Reluctantly, I walked to join her. I kept looking around, knowing that something bad was going to happen soon. I couldn’t help but thinking that something bad was going to happen soon. It just felt like someone was watching us the whole time.

“So why is this Kronos guy so bad?” I asked, “Most devils just carve out a little area to control and live comfortably, how is he any worse?”

“He is one of the strongest devils in history. He ruled Hell before Lucifer overthrew him. He has sworn his vengeance ever since.”

“But Lucifer was the first. He was cast from heaven, wasn’t he?”

“True, but before Lucifer, God had to have a place for those needing punishment. It was the Primordial Hell, so-to-speak.”

“I’ve never heard of that.”

“It’s a very little known story. Only angels and God Himself know about. If people started thinking that there was another devil, they might start to question-”

All of a sudden, a group of people appeared from nowhere and surrounded us. Each of them had some wicked looking blades in their hands. A guy with an eye patch walked toward us sporting a grin, “Looks like we got a couple of intruders. Lord Kronos doesn’t take kindly to uninvited guests.”

I tensed my body, getting ready to fight, Annabeth still looked pretty relaxed, like she wasn’t even wanting to fight. I leaned closer to her, “What are you doing?” I whispered, “We can take these jokers!”

“No,” she whispered back, then walked toward the other devils. “Apologies, we simply want to talk to your master, please, take us to him.”

What was she thinking? She must not know devils, there was no way these jokers were going to let us get to their master alive.

The devil eye patch gave a wicked smile, “Sure, we’ll take you to him sweet heart.” He motions to the group of devils to circle the two of us, but made sure that he was right behind us. He poked me with his knife, “Move you two.”

We walked with our armed guard for maybe a mile. Annabeth stayed calm the whole time. While I was as tense as a bowstring. I couldn’t believe we had been captured so easily! Normally my senses are extremely sharp, but something about Annabeth dulled my senses. It must’ve be her angel magic.

All of a sudden we stopped walking and I noticed Annabeth tense. I thought she was finally ready to fight, but then I looked ahead of us.

A large mansion loomed overhead. One that was old and run down, and looked like it had been uninhabited for the last hundred years. The place overflowed with evil power. When I looked at Annabeth, she looked to be shaking as if she was buried in snow.

“Are you okay? You look like you are about to pass out from fear,” I asked her.

She nodded slightly. “I’m fine, but the evil that is in this place, its sapping my strength.”

Another prod in the back from the blade came. “No breaks! Move it or lose it! The master is waiting.”

We started waking again, I wanted to take that knife from eye patch and shove it where the sun don’t shine. Then he touched Annabeth’s arm, and I heard her skin sizzle and I smelled the burning flesh. I could see the tears forming in her eyes, but she was fighting to keep her scream in. I could tell she wouldn’t give this creep the pleasure of knowing that he hurt her.

When he held the knife to the side of her neck to burn her again, I grabbed his wrist before he made contact and twisted it hard, forcing him to drop the knife. “I wouldn’t do that again if I were you. I may not like angels, especially this one. But I have a score to settle with her, so no one touches her except for me. If you try it again, that blade will never see the light of day again. Got me?”

His face was painted with rage. I could tell he wanted to try and take me on right here and now, but he jerked his hand free and bent over to pick up the knife. “You are lucky, little pawn, that the master has given us orders not to harm you. So I will let that one transgression slide, but make no mistake. If you touch me again, I will remove your hand.”

“I’d like to see you try you miserable piss-ant.” I could feel the anger building up inside of me. When I was about to swing and take his head off, I felt a warm grip on my forearm. I turned, expecting one of eye-patch’s goons trying to restrain me, but I saw Annabeth. Her grip was firm, but not demanding. “Leave it be, I expected to be harassed in such a manner. We need to see the master. We should keep moving.”

The urgency in her eyes told me that there was more to this visit than she told me. So reluctantly, I backed away from eye-patch.

“That’s right, good little pet. Listen to your girlfriend before you hurt yourself,” eye-patch said with a sneer. “Now like I said earlier, move it, or lose it.”

After we walked another fifteen minutes, enduring insults from the whole armed guard, we arrived at the front door of the mansion. There was a large golden “K” on the front of the door. Eye-patch walked forward and opened the door, and motioned for us to enter. Inside was a long throne room with huge pillars, lining the walk. At the end of the hall was a person sitting on a very large, ornate throne.

It was a wooden frame with large black cushions that looked very soft and cushiony. Where a person would rest their hands, the wood was carved to look like a human head was stuck on the edge. It was creepy how real they looked.

The person sitting on the throne, however, looked like a regular guy in his early twenties. He was tall and lean with muscle. He had blonde hair that was cut short and neat. But the most prominent feature on him was a scar on the side of his face. He had a smile on his face, which only made him look creepier, and he was looking straight at me.

“Welcome! Percy Jackson, I have heard wonderful things about you. Under the service of Victoria, I can see she has trained and molded you into quite the powerful devil. I look forward to seeing how much more you develop over the years. I expect great things from you.” He gave me a look like he knew my future, which sent a chill down my spine, a sensation I hadn’t experienced since I became a devil.

“Pardon my associate, Ethan Nakamura. He is as loyal as he is stupid, but he does help me a lot.” He waves his hand, “Nakamura, you and your men are dismissed. Leave us be.”

Ethan and his men bowed and they walked out of the room, leaving us all alone.

He then turned his attention to Annabeth. “And you, Annabeth Chase, I have long awaited being reunited with you again.”

I turned to look at Annabeth, confused from what Kronos had said. Her face was white as chalk. It looked like someone had just pulled her world out from under her. “How- how did you get Luke? He was dead, I saw him die! You can’t possess the body of someone who is dead!”

I was confused, who was Luke? And what was his connection to these two?

Kronos gave a soft chuckle. “No my dear, Luke wasn’t dead. Brain dead, yes, but his body was still alive, that’s all I needed. He was so angry with you, with God. I came to him in a dream, shortly before that insufferable God caused that car wreck, I told him that I could help him take down God, the angels and the Devil. The world would be his to rule, make everyone equal and fair. He loved the idea, he was going to try and get you to join, but you couldn’t renounce your faith, you wouldn’t join him. One of his last thoughts was how much he hated you.”

“Enough!” I shouted. I could see that Annabeth was on the verge of losing her mind and I had to keep control of the situation. “I get why you would want to get rid of God, but why Lucifer? What will happen to all the rest of the devils?”

“Oh Percy, if you pledge your loyalty me, you will be saved. I have already spoken to your master, she plans on joining me soon anyway. So you can just save your time and do it now. Show your loyalty to me by killing this angel that you have brought to my home. I might even convince Victoria to show you who your mother is early.”

My head started to spin, my mother? “What do you mean? Victoria said my whole family was dead.”

“Well she had to tell you that, she couldn’t have you running all around town, asking people if they recognized you and if they knew your family. Your mother is the only one left in your family, and she is alive and well.”

He held his hand out and in it was a black blade. Just like the one I saw Ethan using earlier. “Take this and run this angel through with it, and I will take you to your mother tonight. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

I reached out and took the blade. I am trying to weight the options, it would be super easy to do. Annabeth still looked like she lost her mind, and I wanted to see my mom more than anything. But this wasn’t right, what Kronos wants to do, it just doesn’t seem right. I look back to Kronos, he had a wide smile on his face. I knew what I had to do.

I flipped the knife so I was holding it by the tip and I pulled my arm back, preparing to throw, I set my target in my sights. I aimed for right between the eyes… of Kronos.

Right as my arm starts going forward, my whole body freezes. “How dare you! I give you the chance of a lifetime! Stand at my side as I bring this world into a new order and you try to kill me?!” All of a sudden a force threw me into one of the stone columns and I flew clear through it. My body then soared across the room into another column. I could feel my ribs breaking one at a time, then an arm, and I was pretty sure my spine had a lot of damage as well.

Finally Kronos threw me to the floor so hard I cracked the marble. I coughed up blood and I thought my insides had been turned to mashed potatoes. “You are going to regret the day you turned into a devil, boy.” He lifted his foot to smash my head like a grape, but all of a sudden a great white light erupted next to us.

The light was so strong that Kronos staggered backwards, trying to shield his eyes from the supernova that was occurring next to us. When it finally died down, I looked at Annabeth. The once empty eyes of shock were replaced with a fiery hatred. “Not only did you steal the body of my oldest friend, you try and kill the only other person to show me an act of kindness. I’m sorry Kronos, but that is one slight that I cannot have.”

“You think you have a choice?” Kronos said with a chuckle. “Once I kill him, I will tear you to pieces with my bare hands.”

I took the momentary distraction to crawl a little closer to Annabeth, knowing that she was trying to stall for some time. She had to have an escape plan, she as pretty smart so I was counting on her.

Right as I reached Annabeth’s feet, Kronos saw me. He realized his mistake just as I grabbed her ankle and she shot him a grin that said sucker and she started to glow. Teleporting us out of the mansion, and to safety.

We could feel the anger, rage and the pure evil energy even during the travel. When we stopped, we were in an unfamiliar building. I heard people running around shouting. Some of the voices sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place where I heard them before. I was just hoping that wherever we were, Victoria wouldn’t be able to find me. She was going to be so pissed at me, and in the state I was in, I wouldn’t last a minute before she destroyed me.

My vision was starting to narrow and get darker. The last thing that I remember was Annabeth calling for someone. “Hazel! Come quick, we need your help!” and then I saw Jason’s face close to mine, telling me to hang on, but it was muffled like he was under water. Then all that surrounded me was black.

Notes