The blood ran in thick waves down from the other prisoner's throat. Percy pulled against the shackles that kept him trapped within a cell. He had come awake to the sound of screams coming from the next cell over and opened his eyes to the sight of a man's throat being cut by their jailers.

Percy grimaced as he shook the stiffness from his limbs. He had known instantly where he was by all the screams that echoed in the vast caverns. Tartarus. A literal hell-hole.

His gods had abandoned him in their fear of his ever-growing power. They had sentenced him to never-ending torture within a hellish prison because he had grown more powerful than any other demigod before him.

Even Poseidon, his own father, had banished him here. A few had looked reluctant, but they still chose to go through with their plan to punish him for something he had no control over.

A couple days before he had been dumped into the abyss he had asked his father for help with a power he had been gaining over the course of a few weeks. A dark power he had never even thought that his father might possess.

Percy could control the bodies of others by manipulating their blood. He could stop the hearts of any who acted against him, or make them do anything he wished.

He had first realized he had this power when he was on a quest and trapped in forest without any food. The only things he had on his person had been Riptide and a hunting dagger Thalia had given him. The only problem was that he knew nothing of hunting. Not one damn thing. So even when he came across an animal he could only watch as they ran away.

It had been days since he had last eaten when he felt it. A sharp pull in his gut that he followed to an open field. In the center a deer was sitting down, eating the various grasses and leaves that surrounded her.

Percy stayed quiet as he entered the outer ring of the field, his eyes never leaving the animal. He had followed the pull thinking that it might lead to a body of water, but it had lead him here. He watched the animal for what felt like hours but was most likely only minutes.

A thought occurred to him then and he suddenly heard the rushing of the deer’s blood in it’s veins. Its heartbeat pulsing slightly faster than his. A sudden compulsion caused Percy to slow the rushing down, relaxing the animal even further. The deer fell to it’s side as he slowed it down even further and the heart struggled against the pull but Percy, even in his weakened state, was stronger. The heart gave out and the animal over twenty feet away, died.

Percy had run to the animal and began to prepare it like the hunters did, cooking the meat over a fire he had made shortly after nightfall. He only felt horror at what he had done as he was about to eat. What did I just do? I just killed something without even touching it!

But even horrified at his actions and new power, he had eaten well, leaving the rest for scavengers. It had only been when Percy had made it back to camp successful had he given the power any real thought. There had, after all, been no rumors that a son of Poseidon could control blood. He was supposed to only be able to control water. But clearly he could do more.

For weeks after he struggled with the decision on whether to tell his father and only did so when he made a trip to Atlantis to visit Tyson. He had found his father in his throne room and requested a private talk before he returned to the above world.

“Dad? I need to tell you something. Something’s wrong. Really wrong.”

Poseidon rubbed his chin, “What is it, Percy?”

“A few weeks ago, I felt a pull to what I thought to be water, but it wasn’t. It was a doe, and I could hear and feel her blood rushing, her heart beating as if it were my own. And I-I killed her without even a stray thought. Now whenever I look at another camper I can see and feel the same thing and I do t know what to do. Have you ever heard of this happening before? Surely it has!” Percy shook as he confessed this to his father.

Poseidon shook his head in reply and appeared worried. “No, nothing like that has ever surfaced as far as I know.” He paused, “You say you’ve been feeling like that ever since? Are you sure?”

Percy nodded, “If they have blood, I can feel it.”

“Anything else?”

“I’ve been testing it out, I’m starting to be able to distinguish who is who. But I’ve been worried because I get the desire to just make it all slow or even simply stop, and when I do give in, it makes me stronger. It feels like this dark high that goes on for days and I start to think that I’ll never come out of it.” Percy shook as he recounted his time at camp since his quest.

By the time he was finished his father seemed to have made up his mind. Poseidon squeezed his son’s shoulder and stood. “I half to tell the others about this, I’ll tell you when we reach a decision.”

“A decision? About what?”

Poseidon sighed, “Your new… ability is very new and seems to be very dangerous, not just for you, but the others around you, Percy. So the counsel and I must figure out what to do about this.”

Percy stood up, “Of course.”

That had been a week after his eighteenth birthday. Two years ago, if his sense of time passing was to be trusted. Two years of this endless hell. Two years.

Every day he would be removed by a jailer only to be tortured and dumped back in the cell he had made his home. His cell mates were rotated in and out frequently and almost all had no ability to talk.

The few other prisoners he had spoken to had told him tales of the gods that spoke of unjust sentences similar to Percy’s. Cruel torture that was given out without mercy for small things that Percy’s generation did without thought.

Percy leaned his head against the stone wall he sat up against. He was sick of the pain he felt whenever he thought of the gods or their children and all he wanted was to escape this prison. He craved it, yearned for sunlight and cool water to soak in. And for food, lots of food. They weren’t fed, something else kept them alive here.

A sudden shuffling from the darkness gained Percy’s attention. It was one of their hooved jailors. This one was a centaur known as Cleaver, one of the crueler ones that Percy hated with a passion. Percy waged a war deep within himself. He felt the tell-tale heartbeat and blood rush as the centaur came closer and craved the being’s spilled blood. This was going to be the last chance he received for a while yet, due to the skeleton dead that were his ‘personal’ wardens.
Percy felt a pull in his gut as he crawled toward the cell bars. He grabbed a hold of the centaur’s back leg as he was walking by and unleashed the full force of his power on his unknowing prey.

“Bleed.” Percy spoke with the authority he gained when he led the Demigods against the Titans.

Blood broke through the centaur’s hide and he screamed out in agony. Blood splattered the floor and covered Percy’s hands but he never let go. “Stop screaming, it’s not going to change anything.” Percy shushed the beast.

Percy wrapped both hands around the leg and stood up, causing the centaur to fall onto his side. Percy stole the keys from Cleaver’s belt, looking him dead in the eye. “Die.”

As soon as the word left his mouth, Cleaver’s heart stopped and the body went limp.

Percy sighed and stood up to his full height of 6‘4’ and found himself taller then he thought he was. After all, this was the first time he had stood straight in at least a year, maybe more. He had grown maybe four inches past his former height of six feet when he entered Tartarus.

Percy was opening his cell door and walking out when it happened. His vision went gray and he fell against the wall as the world appeared to shift. It was as if someone overlaid two very different images. One was darker than the other, making everything appear more sinister.

Percy suddenly felt the caverns shake and held onto the cell’s bars for dear life. His stay in Tartarus hadn’t made him immortal, and he fell hard onto the bloody ground.

The brittle bones in his arm popped as he held steadfast to the bars. The centaur corpse faded into the shadows and Percy saw a shade come from the darkness that surrounded him.

The shade had no blood to speak of and Percy fought as it made to grab him. But only when the ground stopped shaking was he able to reach into his pocket and pull out Riptide and stab it through the shadow. The shade dispersed into the air around Percy and he felt it manifest behind him.

Percy spun around with renewed vigor and attacked the shadow yet again. For hours did this go on. But eventually it made its final appearance when it actually managed to touch him.

Percy felt his legs give out and he fell, yet again, to the ground. All his power seemed to flood out of him and he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness.

The shade carried him down long corridors in his barely-awake state. When they came to a stop, the shade handed him over to a brutish beast of some sort. “Put him with the Skotos!” The shade urged, and Percy was thrown into another cell.

Percy didn’t have time to take in his surroundings before he surrendered to unconsciousness.

Notes