Kia woke up with an urge to throw up.

Thankfully, however, no one had seen, so she didn't have to come up with a half-assed lie to cover it up. She did remember everything Percy told her earlier, but she couldn't tell them now. She would later, of course, just... not yet.

All of them had gotten at least an hour or two of rest, so they were all energised enough to restart going through the maze. It had only now occurred to Kia to have bought a watch with them or something. Maybe it would have been interesting to see how a pocket watch would be effected by the maze, since time flowed differently down here. Would it speed up or slow down accordingly? Would it move the same? Would it break, crack, maybe?

They all ate some food—granola bars and juice boxes—and shouldered their backpacks and supplies, starting to walk again. As they walked, Kia noticed the corridor's fashion start to change. Soon, the stone walls became cedar beams. Annabeth seemed displeased with this.

"This isn't right," she said, looking around irritably. "It should still be stone."

The group arrived to a cave where stalactites hung low from the ceiling in various shades of grey and white. Right in the centre of the dirt ground was a hollow rectangular pit, deep like a built grave would be.

Grover shivered. He sniffed, and his nose trembled. "It smells like the Underworld in here."

Something caught Percy's eye. He shined his flashlight to the top edge of the pit, finding a foil wrapper. Out of curiosity, Kia shined her flashlight directly into the pit, edging forward slightly so as to be able to see but not fall in. Half of a cheeseburger was floating in what looked like a carbonated beverage gone bad—bubbling and sticking to anything it touched.

"Nico," Percy said grimly. "He was summoning the dead again."

Normally, Kia would have found humour in how Percy mentioned 'again' as if it were something normal for an eleven year old kid to do, but Kia was actually worried about the kid this time around.

Tyson whimpered. "Ghosts were here. I don't like ghosts."

"We've got to find him." Without any warning, Percy started to run.

The rest of them followed hastily, of course, but Kia would have definitely appreciated some kind of foretelling.

"Percy!" Annabeth called.

They all ran after him, but Kia paused, hesitating as she felt a cold drift come from her right. A hallway she hadn't seen at all appeared beside her, and she stopped in front of it. Whispers came from farther along the corridor, unintelligible, but it felt like they were calling Kia to come in. They were like murmurs, floating around her head, coming closer and closer to her ears, but she couldn't make out anything.

She didn't know why, but she felt an unmistakable pull towards the corridor, like a magnetic field inside was drawing her nearer and nearer to it. Kia didn't realise she had been walking it until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

Spinning around, she whipped out her sword, meeting the neck of the person who had touched her with it. Annabeth stood absolutely still, waiting for Kia to put the sword away, breathing out as she did.

"What the hell, Beth! You scared the shit out of me!"

"You were the one walking away without the group like an idiot!" Annabeth scolded. "Where are you going anyway? We found the ranch Hera talked about earlier up ahead."

Kia hesitated. How was she supposed to explain she just had a feeling that she had to go in here. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?" was what Annabeth said, but she, too, looked around as if she could feel something powerful pulling them further down the splitting hallway.

The two of them stayed quiet, trying to make out what the whispers were saying. Annabeth could hear them too, by the looks of it, and that didn't make Kia feel better—she couldn't brush it off as her lack of sleep. They jumped when they heard voices behind them—from the direction of the larger corridor.

It was Grover complaining about cattle guards. Then Percy: "Annabeth? Kia?"

"We're in here!" Annabeth called.

Percy's head peeked our from the right of the opening to the larger corridor. "What are you two doing? The ranch is up ahead."

Kia gestured for him to come into the smaller hallway, and he did so hesitantly. He seemed uncomfortable, as the rest of them, but didn't look like he heard the whispers like Kia and Annabeth. "What?"

"You can't hear anything?"

"I hear your grating voice stopping us from going to the ranch."

Kia rolled her eyes. "Anything else?"

Percy listened closer. "Nope. Nothing. Can you, Annabeth?"

Annabeth nodded. "I can. They sound like... like whispers, but..."

"Made out of smoke," Kia finished.

"How are whispers made out of smoke?"

"They aren't, genius, they just—they just sound like it."

Percy looked at Kia like she was insane—which she definitely felt like at the moment—and then turned to Annabeth, as of asking for confirmation for what Kia was saying. He turned pale when Annabeth inclined her head.

"So?" Percy said with a hard gulp. "Now what to we do? Your thing is this way, and the ranch is the other. If we all go down one then we might lose the other and not find it again."

There was a pause, during which no one talked. Grover was braying softly around the corner. Tyson was quiet. Finally, Kia suggested what they were all thinking, "We could split up."

"No way," Percy immediately shot it down.

"It's the only way," Kia insisted. "We need to split up. You can't hear the whispers anyway, it'd be a waste—and not to mention, super dangerous."

"Nope, not a chance." Percy paced around the opening of the corridor, as if, if he moved away, the opening would disappear—which, it probably would. "We are not splitting up, Kia. That's insane. We might get lost to gods know where and never find each other again."

Kia rolled her eyes again, shifting her weight to her other foot as she crossed her arms. "Cell-phones exist, Percy. It'll be fine."

Percy shook his head, opening his mouth to speak, but Annabeth, who had been quiet the entire time spoke up. "The whispers suggest that small numbers would be better for this. Kia and I should go ahead here, and you three—you, Tyson and Grover—should go to the ranch. Figure out whatever's going on and if Nico is there."

Percy shook his head stubbornly. He looked at Kia. "What if Ethan's there? Don't you wanna check?"

"I don't think he's gonna be there, Perce," Kia said, biting her lip. "I just have a feeling."

"Are you gonna rely on your feeling to get you through down here?" Percy jabbed, losing his cool.

"More than what I can rely on you for, Percy!"

"Can't you see? I'm just trying to keep us all safe down here!"

"We weren't safe from the moment we stepped down here!"

"All the more reason to take every other safety measure!"

"God, you're insufferable, Percy. We are going down this way, one way or another. You three can go the other way. Annabeth said it herself, and if I remember correctly, it's her quest, which means what she says goes."

"Not if it means getting yourselves killed!"

"Do you just not believe in us?" Annabeth said quietly. The two immediately shut up and turned to look at her. Percy opened his mouth to protest, but Annabeth continued, "Is that it? Do you just think we can't handle ourselves?"

"I never—"

"But you meant it," Annabeth cut him off. "Listen, Percy, just trust that we absolutely can handle everything ourselves."

Percy looked unsure still, but hesitantly, ever-so-slightly, he nodded his head. "...Fine. Just... be safe, okay? Please."

Kia gave him a wicked grin. "We'll beat some monster ass for you, Perce. Our adventure will probably be cooler than yours, though."

It was as if they had never argued at all. It was kind of frightening. He scoffed. "Nuh-uh. Yours is gonna be later than Clarisse's spear. I am going to beat some monster ass. Try not to get yourselves killed."

"You try."

All the same, Annabeth and Kia hugged the other three one more time before shouldering their backpacks. Kia pretended to not notice how Annabeth and Percy's huh lasted longer than all the others combined.

Percy clapped Kia on the shoulder after he hugged her. "Don't die. Your funeral would be shit."

"Gee," Kia said with a scornful smile, "what a nice thing to say goodbye on."

He gripped her shoulder, looking at her with a hard expression. "No—wait, listen—this is not a goodbye, you got it? Just a 'see you later', okay? Not a goddamn goodbye."

"I'd say that you're scared of me dying, Perce."

"Nope. Like I said: your funeral would be shit."

"Sure. Whatever."

With that, they went off with waves into the direction of the larger corridor. Annabeth and Kia turned around, somehow knowing there wasn't an opening anymore into the larger corridor as the whispers resumed. They took a step forward, and the whispers multiplied.

"Let's do this."

They walked for what felt like twenty minutes, until they reached a dead end. The whispers were louder than ever, and Annabeth and Kia has to practically clutch their hands over their heads to stop the mind-splitting headache they were getting from it.

"Great, now what?" Kia said, kicking at the wall, which only hurt her own foot.

"We turn around?" Annabeth said unsurely, but the dread creeping on her shoulders told her otherwise.

Slowly, they both turned to find what they already expected: no way back. Now, there was a path to their left and to their right. Leaning towards the path to the right, there whispers were less, almost even like a repulsion of a magnetic field, pushing them away from going right. To the left, it was the exact opposite.

"Left," Annabeth and Kia said in unison. Smiling at each other, they turned left and started walking again.

The tug was still there, but the whispers seemed to now grow quieter, almost like they were scared. Annabeth looked upset and confused. "Why are they stopping? We're going the right way, aren't we?"

"Well, we're going the left way, technically." Kia coughed and continued after the flat look she got for her bad joke. "Right, anyway—yeah, I'm pretty sure we are. I guess... I guess we're coming closer."

Annabeth nodded, but didn't say anything. Kia could tell she had something on her mind—specifically, about Percy.

"Hey, I'm sure he doesn't think you're weak. I know it. He was just worried about us."

Annabeth sighed, running a hand down her face. "Doesn't change the fact that it means, maybe, deep down, he doesn't think we're—I'm strong enough."

Kia stopped walking altogether, pulling Annabeth as well. "Annie, he does think you're strong enough. God, he thinks you're the strongest person in every goddamn room—because you are. You should see how he looks at you—like you're a goddess, and of war, at that."

"I don't know..."

Kia forced Annabeth to meet her eyes. "Annabeth, you've been leading your cabin—and this camp—since you were, like, what, seven? You're wicked with that dagger and you're smart and you're just amazing, okay? He'd be an idiot not to see that—which he is, but even he sees that, which says something. Percy does not think you're weak or unable to handle yourself. He just cares way too much to see you get hurt."

Annabeth still looked unconvinced, but they were interrupted by a large crash in front of them. They both looked at each other, and then slid up on one side of the wall next to each other, creeping closer to the end of the corridor.

The darkness bled into dim light. There was a doorway, and cackles came from beyond it—just unhinged, maniacal cackles. They sounded purely chaotic, like the discordant squawks of crows. Annabeth and Kia peeked slightly around the edge of the doorway to to see a figure, covered in robes with shifting objects, like they were dancing in the material of the cloak.

The doorway lead out into the open, a purple-ish, dimly smoky sky, with patches of torn fabric fraying around a pitch black surface, as if the sky was a worn purple fabric cloth placed over a black background. The clouds were black, curved into weird shapes that shouldn't have been possible—like scythes, and spheres, and perfect rectangles. Random things floated around the place—debris from nowhere, pianos that played horrible keys, grandfather clocks that chimes in uneven intervals, doggy chew toys—you name it.

The air smelled like hydrochloric acid. It pained Kia's nose every time she inhaled. The floor... wasn't exactly a floor; it was a rock, hovering uncertainly, hiccuping every so often, and the figure on it didn't even flinch any time it did. Instead, the figure whooped and bellowed in joy every time, like it was a fun roller coaster ride.

"What the hell..." Kia murmured. Annabeth put a hand over her mouth, silently telling her to stay quiet.

The scene was the most disorderly, strife-filled thing Kia had ever seen, which was saying a lot, considering she had seen the way Percy left his cabin.

The girls fell over to the side when the doorway disappeared, as well as the hallway. They were falling through the air, down to somewhere they couldn't even see. It didn't seem to stop, so Kia held onto Annabeth as they fell, grabbing at whatever they could find.

With a hard grunt, they fell atop something—a rock, floating in the air. Kia groaned, pushing Annabeth off her as she got up on her elbows. "You alright?"

"What the hell was—"

Annabeth was cut off by the rock shooting upwards, and they both had to hold on tight to not get thrown off. It didn't help that random objects were floating by as they did. Kia decided that she did not like the taste of curtain rods that day.

The rock holding them suddenly stopped, and just when they thought it was over, it moved in a zig-zag line to the rock they had seen earlier. Kia was definitely going to throw up.

The rock finally stopped right in front of the cloaked figure. Kia squinted as best as she could while panting, her heart having gone triple the normal rhythm. Blindly, she reached for Annabeth's hand, who squeezed back.

The cloaked figure cackled again, for whatever reason, and Kia could hear it better now: several voices, both masculine and feminine, high and low, deep and pitched, all moulded and forced into one voice, speaking in several layers. It was distorted and kind of terrifying.

"Little heroes! My favourite!"

The cloaked figure took off the cloak, revealing an ebony-haired woman with mustard-coloured skin and shiny, misshapen, uneven bat wings on their back. Instead of feet, she had an eagle's talons, and her eyes were disproportionate to the other, one blue and the other green. Her teeth were odd as she gave them something of a grin, one was perfect, the one next to it was rotten, and then another was a dog's canine—all as if she were a mismatched nightmare. She wore a violet dress, and she looked like Kia's scariest dream personified.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked in a controlled, polite voice. It just came out shaky and a bit defensive.

The woman spread her one hand, and Kia realised she was stroking a misshapen baby in the other. The baby made Kia screw her eyes shut, though she was sure she'd never get the image out of her head again; it had only one eye, with the other crosses out by a scar in the shape of an 'x' and the baby had lumps of bright red all over it's skull. Lines etched by what looked like a razor ran up from each corner of the baby's lips up to the ears, not bloody but just gummy and horrendous. The baby was asleep.

Kia's attention was snapped back to the woman herself. "Dear Annabeth, you should know who I am, do you not? We are old friends, you see, Kia."

Annabeth swallowed hard, trying not to look at the baby as well. "Eris. Goddess of Strife and Discord."

not proofread lmao. sup guys.