Chapter 55: Ghost Night
=======================
It's a short story that takes place between book 4 and book 5. So have fun! It was hard to write but everything for my readers!
========================
Book 4,5: Ghost night
Chapter 55: Ghost Night
' Percy '
...
Nyx knocked on the door, the door was made of wood and had a plastic skeleton taped to it.
The door swung open and an old lady stood in the hall, she had in one of her hands a bucket filled with candy.
The woman was old, she had gray hair and had sunken cheeks. That formed a good combo with her blue eyes which were also sunken in the eye sockets.
Nyx lunged forward, she had summoned her dagger and landed on top of the old lady. The lady fell and candy flew everywhere. Nyx sat on top of her chest, her legs spread on both sides and she held the dagger against the woman's throat.
"Trick or treat!" she yelled happily.
Thalia and I jumped forward and pulled Nyx of the old lady,
Thalia snapped her fingerings, "You've seen nothing weird."
A wind vlague came up from nowhere and razed through the streets for a few seconds before it died down.
The woman, who was perplexed, nodded slowly and she got up, grabbed the bucket, now half empty, and glanced at us with her dazed eyes.
"Trick or treat." Annabeth sighed.
"Candy or your life." I said while glaring at Nyx who was grinning.
The woman's eyes lit up and she gasped, "Oh, you four look so cute."
I did not want to be cute.
Nyx opened my backpack and held it in front of her, "we share." she said.
The woman frowned but threw candy, and a pack oreos inside my backpack.
"Thank you!" Nyx said and we turned around and left the woman's porch.
The garden of the woman was filled with plastic tombstones and pumpkins, we left through the garden fence and we were back on the street at Upper east Manhattan.
And yes.
We were trick and treating.
Nyx had somehow picked up the idea that Halloween was dedicated to her, or better to the night. I tried to explain Halloween is not dedicated to her but she wouldn't budge.
Then I explained Halloween was not even a greek concept but she kept smiling and saying stuff like, "Mortals instinctively know that they should celebrate the night."
And other things like, "these costumes symbolize all the terrors I created."
A six year old girl in a bee costume walked past us.
"Terrors huh?" I said.
Nonetheless, she forced me into this Halloween, she even set up my own mom against me. Sally beamed when Nyx told her about Halloween and how she wanted me to join. I tried to protest, but my mom and Nyx would even scare the shit out of gravity.
So I did the best thing someone could do in my situation.
I tricked Thalia into joining.
Thalia, who was 15, said she didn't want to go but she went anyway. However, Thalia on her turn dragged Annabeth along.
And now we were walking on the street dressed and trick and treating.
The streets were filled with people dressed as vampires, zombie's, ghost or clowns. All the streetlights had plastic skeletons hanging on them and all the houses were decorated with cobwebs and plastic bats.
Around us kids of all sizes ran through the street, screaming and yelling in excitement.
From one house came a spooky ambient sound which would've been illegal any other night but now it was Halloween so people didn't care about it.
It was now around 9am and it was already dark outside, I had summoned a flaming orb of fire that floated in front of me in the air. It was my version of a lampion, a lazy one though.
Mortals seemed to think it was a lampion too so, hurray for the mist.
Nyx hopped in front of us, excited.
"That went great!" she cried out.
Thalia shook her head, "This is the third time you do it wrong."
Thalia was right but Nyx did not understand the fact that trick or treat did not involve actual murder.
Thalia had put the least effort in her costume, she wore her usual punk clothes (although they looked pretty scary) and had her spear out. She had turned her spear into a devil's pitchfork and put on a hairband with horns.
That was all.
Lucky bastard.
Annabeth and I had it worse.
When Annabeth came over to my house my mom had helped her with her costume, though she protested, Sally had painted her face into a tiger mask which looked really awesome and she had cat ears on her head.
Annabeth complained she felt to old for it but the face paint was done really well.
Then it was my turn, my mom had turned me into a zombie. She used ragged clothes and with red paint she added a blood effect. Then she transformed my face into a zombie.
And it looked terrifyingly real, and I've seen dead people before.
Nyx said I looked cute.
I did not want to be cute.
How did Nyx look?
Well, first of, I'm not even sure if she was wearing a costume or it was just another one of her forms. Let me explain.
Nyx's eyes, which were normally glowing white, were glowing red. Like a vampire but with way more glow which made her visible from across the other end of the street.
She wore a white dress that blood on it and she was not clear about the fact it was real blood or fake.
And to finish it of she had insects crawling through her hair, bugs, millipedes and so now and then a bat suddenly flew out of her hair.
The Scariest thing?
She still looked terrifyingly beautiful.
Mortals could see her true appearance for once and she received a lot of scared screams and looks of admiration.
She convinced Thalia and Annabeth she had manipulated the mist but I was not sure if they believed it.
From time to time I wondered if this was maybe Nyx's real form. It was possible, though Nyx kept teasing me with the fact I would never find out.
"Can we go to the next house?" Thalia asked.
"Yeah!" Nyx nodded, "I want more candy!"
Annabeth raised her hand, "Yes but I will knock this time, seriously how hard is it to remember. No weapons!"
Nyx pouted, "But I gave her the choice, trick or treat."
I rolled my eyes, "It's not meant to be taken literally."
"You already told me that." Nyx said laughing.
"Then why don't you remember it?" Thalia asked and she sounded annoyed.
"It's just the adrenaline rush, once I knock on the door it's not a game anymore." Nyx explained.
I stared blankly at her.
We watched in the distance a 7 year old kids, dressed as an Astronaut, trick or treating.
"See how simple it is?" Annabeth asked.
Nyx shook her head, "That's an mortal. We demigods are different."
Thalia threw her hands up, "It's trick or treating. Not a damn fight!"
Nyx rolled her eyes, "You already said that."
"Watch me." Annabeth quickly said, preventing another long argument.
We made our way over to the next house.
it had a small square garden surrounded by a seven foot tall metal spear fence, in the garden was one tombstone that had blood over it. We got through the fence gate and Annabeth knocked on the wooden door. There was a smiling pumpkin placed in the corner of a doorstep.
"Watch this." Annabeth said while we waited behind her.
The door opened. Instead of being blinded by the headlights like all the other houses this guy's hall was dark, I could not even see a thing inside.
A man stood in the doorstep but it was like he was entirely engulfed in darkness.
"Hi sir." Annabeth said with a scared voice.
I tried to focus on the man but I could see nothing except the outline of the man.
Suddenly the man stepped forward and grabbed Annabeth by the shoulder and dragged her inside.
"Annabeth!" Thalia and I yelled, Nyx yawned.
"So that's how it's supposed to go?" she asked.
Thalia and I dashed forward, through the door straight inside the dark hallway.
My lampion ball of fire disappeared and soon we were standing in total darkness.
The only thing we could see was the door behind our back and Nyx's glowing red eyes.
Until it slammed shut.
"Well this is amazing." Nyx muttered and I realized she had night vision.
Then someone clapped his hands and the lights went on.
I had to blink a few times before I could see anything.
We were standing in a square room, the walls had a flower design that were boring since the eighties.
In the middle of the room stood a brown luxe four person couch that had golden base. The rest of the room had more of the same old-style furniture.
In the corner stood a closet with glass doors that displayed old family photos.
Annabeth sat on the couch and she looked as confused as we were.
"What happened?" Thalia asked as we made our way towards her.
Annabeth blinked, "I have no idea."
"Trick or treat." A male voice said behind us.
We all turned around and in front of the door stood a tall, muscular man.
He was pale like an albino, he had black hair that went till his shoulders and black eyes that had purple fire inside them.
He wore a black flowing robe that strangely had smiling skeletons and ghost flowing through it.
"Hades!" Thalia hissed angrily.
Hades coughed, "hello Thalia."
His voice had a oily tone which made him the perfect person to sell used cars.
Nyx coughed, gaining the attention of Hades.
"Oh, hello Nyx, Annabeth and Percy." he said and he sounded genuinely relieved to see us.
"What do you want?" Thalia asked.
Hades frowned, "Don't you dare…"
"Chillax." Nyx interrupted, "Thalia, just act normal, Hades is a God and Hades, why are you here?"
Thalia glared at Hades and I remembered that Hades had given the order to kill Thalia at Half-blood hill.
Ever been to a friend's house and his parents had a fight and you were forced to sit on the couch with your lemonade and your friend who can't go to his room with you but is forced to wait till his parents are done talking so you both watch your friend's parents fight and pretend you don't mind it.
This felt exactly like that.
"Percy, he killed me!" Thalia yelled, hoping I would argue with Nyx.
However, we could argue about who killed who later, now I wanted to know why in Hades name Hades was in my house.
'Ask him for candy.' Chaos suggested.
"Let's move on." I said, "Hades killed you, I'm sure he's sorry about that."
Hades did not look sorrowful.
Hades decided to ignore Thalia and turned to Nyx, "A new face, you are Nyx, the daughter of Thanatos right?"
Nyx nodded happily, though I knew she did not like being called daughter of Thanatos because she was so much cooler than that death breath.
Or at least she claimed to be.
Hades frowned, "Weren't you the one who got rid of Tantalus?"
Nyx nodded, "Yeah. Got any problems with that?"
Hades laughed, "Of course not! That brat of Zeus always annoyed me. Glad you got rid of him."
Nyx beamed.
"So was it painful?" Hades asked, "Zeus never allowed me to choose his punishment."
"Really painful." Nyx confirmed.
"Lord Hades, why are you here?" Annabeth said as she got up from the couch and studied the God with her storm gray eyes.
Hades sighed, "I'm afraid I need the help of Demigods. You four were the most capable demigods in the area."
Annabeth frowned, "Why would you need our help?"
"And why would we help you?" Thalia added.
Hades walked past us and sat down on the couch and looked at the ground, "Okay, this is painful but my Helmet of Darkness has been stolen."
"Again?" I asked.
Hades nodded, "Yes...again."
Annabeth frowned, "But how?"
Hades threw up his hand, "I honestly don't know, one moment I put it on the counter of Starbucks so I can get some cash, next moment it's gone."
I blinked, "Starbucks?"
Hades nodded, "Persephone and I were trick and treating when Persephone wanted some coffee. So we stopped there, bought a muffin and I needed to have some cash. I held the Helmet of Darkness in my hands so it would not scare mortals who did not owe me candy. But I could not reach into my pockets so I put it on the counter."
'So much is wrong with that sentence.' Chaos said.
'I know.' I replied, Hades entering Starbucks, Persephone and Hades trick and treating, Hades having cash, Hades putting the Helmet of Darkness on the counter?
"You are trick or treating too?" Nyx asked.
Hades nodded, "Of course, Persephone and I always look forward to Halloween, we always go around scaring mortals for one night. It is one of the few nights Persephone is actually not complaining about me."
I stared blankly at him while my ADHD was asking what kind of the costumes Hades and Persephone would wear.
Scary flowers? Piranha plant?
"But I thought Halloween is a Celtic tradition." Annabeth said.
Hades nodded, "Yes it is, but it's also the night of the dead. Greek or Celtic, this night the night of the dead, all the dead." he said.
"I told you!" Nyx exclaimed, "It is dedicated to the night!"
"Helmet of Darkness remember?" Thalia said.
"Yes," Annabeth said, "You say it's lost, why don't you retrieve it yourself? Or send one of your servants."
Hades frowned, "First of, once my brothers find out my symbol of power has been stolen they would make me the laughingstock of Olympus, second if the word gets out Tartarus might break loose."
"What?" I asked, "Tartarus as in the primordial or as in the place?"
I've met and seen both.
"The place, my Helmet scares the monsters and trapped titan's so much they would not dare to break out of Tartarus but if they find out it's gone."
Hades shivered, "Well let's say we got enemies who would take the opportunity to escape."
"And if you go looking for it yourself it would be suspicious." Annabeth concluded, "But why not sending your servants?"
"Vacation." Hades simply said.
"What?" Thalia asked.
"Most of my servants have a day of today. Because it's Halloween I let them go to the surface world and do what they want. As long as they don't kill mortals or get captured."
I imagined Alecto trick or treating, well this was getting weird.
But it did explain many the haunting and ghost stories.
"So you need us to retrieve it." Thalia said, "what's in it for us?"
Hades glared at Thalia, "Well imagine what would happen if Kronos gets his hands on my Helmet?"
This made me think for a second, I knew that Kronos had not stolen the symbol of power, Luke would have informed me.
So who stole it?
"Fine." I said, "We'll find him."
"How can we find it?" Annabeth asked.
Hades shrugged, "If I knew that I would've retrieved it myself."
"But..." Annabeth began.
Hades took out a coin from his pocket and handed it to Annabeth, it was about the size of a Drachme but only black instead of gold.
"Once you found it, flip the coin and I'll come immediately." Hades said and he got up from the couch.
"Well, I need to get back to my wife, I hope she is done counting the candy." Hades said and he waved his hand. SHadows engulfed all our bodies and a second later we were back outside.
"What was that?" Thalia asked.
"We have a quest!" Nyx exclaimed happily.
Annabeth studied the coin in her hand.
"Annabeth?" I asked but she did not respond. She was lost in thought.
"So how do we find it?" Thalia asked annoyed.
"I don't know? Google?" Nyx suggested.
"I know a way." Annabeth suddenly said and she showed us the coin.
"What's the plan?" I asked.
"Percy can you call Cerebus?" Annabeth asked.
"Sure but…" I began but Nyx already whistled a tune.
I wanted to say we should look for a place where we had a bit more privacy but Nyx did not like waiting.
In front of us all the shadows were drawn to the middle of the street and solidified into a huge hellhound.
Cerberus three heads all barked at me at the same time.
I noticed that he was smaller than last time and fitted into the street.
The surrounding mortals totally ignored the hellhound.
"Hi!" I said and petted the middle head, Annabeth followed while Thalia eyed the Hellhound suspiciously.
"You can summon Cerberus?" Thalia asked with awe.
Annabeth nodded, "Percy befriended it on our first quest."
"And I kind of adopted it." I added.
"He says he adopted you!" Nyx yelled from above.
She was sitting on Cerberus middle head and stroking it.
"You speak Hellhounds?" I asked.
She nodded, "Creature of darkness remember!" and smiled. "Get it Darkness?"
"Shut up."
"Why do you want him here?" I asked Annabeth.
Annabeth took out the coin, "Smell, dogs have an excellent smell."
Thalia's eyes lit up, "No way, that's a Hollywood thing right?"
Annabeth shook her head, "No it's not. They are actually good at finding lost objects, and I think the same counts for magical dogs." she seemed to think about it for a second before shea added, "Besides, Cerberus is also a creature of darkness. The helmet should feel natural to him and easier to track than for a regular dog."
She held up the coin and let Cerberus sniff its smell.
All the three heads howled at the moon together and barked, the head on the left had his tongue out and looked at the distance.
"He caught the smell!" Nyx exclaimed, "Get on him!"
Thalia paled but nonetheless she climbed on Cerberus's back and sat down.
"GO!" Nyx yelled and Cerberus ran away.
I was worried for a second we might hit mortals with our dog but Cerberus dodged all the pedestrians like they were lava and managed to run through the streets without any victims.
After a few time yelling things like, "Watch out!", "Don't pee on that!" and "You know we are supposed to clean up his poop here." we finally arrived at an church.
Our trip has been a blur and confused me a lot, when I looked around I had no idea where we were.
Only after a few minutes it dawned on me, We are in Brooklyn.
With a shock I also recognized the church, "This is the Most Holy Trinity church." I said.
In front of stood a massive church that almost covered an entire city block. The front existed out of two impressive bell towers, one for the left side and one for the right side. Glass windows decorated the brick walls.
The church was squeezed between two regular buildings which made me wonder who the hell wanted to live next to a haunted church.
Around us the streets were abandoned, which was weird since this was one of the famous New York tourist attractions.
The doors of the church were wide open, revealing nothing except darkness.
"What is this?" Thalia asked.
"The most Holy Trinity Church," Annabeth mumbled with awe, "According to the stories there are a lot of ghosts inside this building."
"You say what?" Thalia asked.
To my surprise Nyx said, "Yeah, in 1895 a pastor died while praying and you can still hear him walk."
"You're kidding right?" Thalia asked a bit pale.
Nyx shook her head, "A lot of negative energy is coming from that place," she smirked, "George Stelz, the church's former sexton. He was murdered in August of 1897 and, while the police had a suspect, no one was ever convicted."
Thalia began to gag in disgust.
"The bloody handprints of both Stelz and his murderer were allegedly seen on the wall of a stairway leading to the bell tower. The church bells often ring inexplicably."
We all stared at the bell towers.
"Also his name might sometimes appear on the stained glass written in blood." Nyx casually said.
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
She shrugged, "Darkness."
That explained everything.
Cerberus barked a few times at the entrance.
"It's inside." Nyx translated.
Cerberus disappeared and we headed towards the entrance.
The inside of the church existed out of many rows of wooden seats that al faced an altar placed at the end of the church where I guess the pastor would speak.
On the corners of the Church were stairs that led up the bell towers and I remembered that George Stelz was murdered on one of these stairwells. According to the stories his bloody handprints were still visible on the wall.
Graceful pillars supported the roof on both sides of the church.
There were multiple doors that led to other places but we ignored all of them and made our way towards the altar.
On the altar stood the Helmet Of Darkness.
The helmet looked like a regular Greek helmet but it was made of obsidian and had golden outlines on it and radiated power.
"The helmet of Darkness!" Thalia called out.
"This must be a trap." Annabeth muttered.
"Don't say that, that's like demigod rule number one!" I hissed.
The Fates agreed.
The moment we were half way across we heard a female laughter fill the air.
We all stopped and took our weapons out, "Who's there?" Annabeth called out.
"Reveal yourself!" I called out.
In front of us, only a few feet away, someone solidified.
I groaned, I recognized her.
Her left side was black and hardened like a mummy and her right side was pale and chalky as if she were drained of all her blood. She wore a golden dress and a golden shawl, and her eyes seemed to be empty black voids.
She reminded me of Hel, though she had a beautiful side.
Melinoe only got two bad sides.
"Melinoe." I growled.
Melinoe was the Goddess of Ghost, I had met her my past life in the underworld when Ethan tried to steal the sword of Hades, mmm... This feels similar.
She laughed.
I raised Riptide and Frostsilver, "Give me the Helmet of Darkness and no one gets hurt."
Melinoe stared at me, her blank expression was a little bit weird.
"Now?" I asked, then I noticed I was the only one who seemed to be moving or talking.
I turned to the side and noticed my friends were staring at Melinoe, no that was wrong. They were not staring at her but in her direction, and they looked horrified.
"Annabeth?" I asked but she didn't respond.
The same for Thalia and Nyx they seemed to be frozen in place.
"What is this?" I asked angrily, as I faced Melinoe again.
"They are currently experiencing their own fears." Melinoe spoke with a sad tone, like it was the last thing she would ever say.
"Let them go." I demanded, "And give me the Helmet of Darkness."
Melinoe smirked, "Sure, you can take the helmet but your friend are mine."
Then she seemed to frown, "But why are you not frozen in fear?"
I shrugged, "I don't know. A good diet and healthy living?"
I raised both my swords and stepped forward and almost touched her throat with my swords.
Melinoe didn't seem to worry about my swords, she just stared at me.
"You can take the Helmet, I don't need it. But your friends are mine." she said.
...
The moment Annabeth entered the church she heard the sound of thousand legs moving simultaneously. The doors behind her slammed shut and she turned around, then she noticed her friends were gone.
"Percy? Thalia? Nyx?" Annabeth called out but no one replied.
On any other day she would've admired the architecture but not today, and especially now.
"A daughter of Athena?" A dry voice said from above.
Annabeth froze, she closed her eyes and she heard something, something heavy, move above her head.
'I am a demigod, daughter of Athena. I am not afraid.' She thought by herself and she opened her eyes.
The church had changed.
The stone walls were no longer made of stone but rather something organic.
Long gray strings and hair covered all the walls.
A network of gray strings covered every single piece of the walls.
Annabeth gasped and tried to step back but she couldn't. The floor underneath her had turned into this grayish stuff as well.
Cobweb.
White and gray spider silk covered everything she could see.
She was surrounded.
She was trapped.
"Look up my child." The same voice above her said, Annabeth sobbed.
She slowly looked up, the roofs of the church were also made of webs, it hung everywhere human bones and limbs stuck out of them. Some were torn apart while other limbs still looked fresh.
And in the middle of this demonic piece of art, right above her head.
A large black spider hung above her head, from the bottom it was a spider, from the top of it was it had the body of a woman.
Large black eyes looked at her with a combination of pity and hatred. Black ragged hair draped along her face and she opened her mouth.
"Finally you are here."
Annabeth screamed, she tried to run but her feet were stuck to the web underneath her feet. She could only watch as Arachne came closer.
...
Thalia entered the church, glad they finally found the helmet. She hoped she could go back to Percy's home after this stupid quest. Sally had the best treats someone could wish for.
When the door shut behind her she turned around.
"Okay that's weird." She mumbled and turned back only to find out she was alone.
Than the ground started to shake, Thalia almost fell but managed to grab one of the wooden benches. She held it tight as the church began to shake more and more. Parts of the roof broke of and fell down.
Then the floor underneath her began to crumble, she yelped and jumped onto the bench and just in time, the floor underneath her began to fall apart. Underneath it were clouds and a city, she recognized a city that must have been Mount Olympus but she was at least 400 feet hovering above it,
More pieces of the floor began to break apart and Thalia screamed.
The world around her slowly began to crumble, benches fell down to earth, the bench she was standing on began to tilt to the side and Thalia fell.
...
"Percy?" Nyx called out, "Percy?"
She turned around but saw nothing, nothing except a wall of massive darkness.
"Percy? Where the fuck are you?" she asked again but she sounded unsure.
"Come on." She muttered as she made a step forward.
Nothing changed.
She did another step into the darkness, she closed her eyes.
"Percy?" she asked again but no one responded.
She did another step forward into the darkness and she felt the darkness around her stiffen, it was cold and soft.
Yet she hated it.
"Percy?" She sobbed. "Anyone?"
But nobody answered.
...
' Percy '
...
"Stop, whatever you are doing to my friends, just let them go." I said but I felt fear crept into my heart, sure I could try to threaten Melinoe but she had hostages.
She stared at me, "Why are you not paralyzed by fear?" she softly asked.
I turned towards my friends who seemed to frozen around them as they all stared into nothingness. Why was I not paralyzed like them?
It wasn't that I had no fears, I had them. I had nightmares about my friends dying because I could not save them, so why did I not have them now?
Then the realization dawned on me and I almost laughed out.
I was the champion of hope, Hestia had blessed me.
You now got power over fire, can summon home cooked food and give people the warmth of the hearth Hestia had told me.
I can give people the warmth of the hearth.
I remembered how Prometheus gave me the pithos of Pandora, how I almost gave up hope. Until I gave it to Hestia and she filled me with new hope.
I had Hestia's power too.
I lifted my hands and smirked, "I am the Champion of Hestia."
Melinoe stepped back, "you-"
"I bring hope." I interrupted her, "I represent and fight for the hearth."
"Fear will fill all our hearts." Melinoe protested but she sounded unsure.
"It might but there's always hope."
And my body began to glow in a soft golden light.
The entire church lit up and soon I was glowing as bright as a mini sun.
Melinoe lifted her hands to protected her eyes, "Stop it." she demanded.
I focused on the powers Hestia gave me, hope and warmth especially, and made it flow outwards and fill the church.
Next to me my friends gasped and my light immediately dimmed.
I caught Thalia who almost fell to the ground, she looked up at me with big eyes and my guess she was she had experienced something high above the ground.
Annabeth stared at Melinoe with anger, "you tricked me!" she yelled.
Spiders, she must have seen spiders.
Then Nyx leaped forward and gave me a hug, "Percy!" she yelled.
I stumbled backwards and hugged her back.
"Nyx easy!" I protested.
She released me from the bear hug and glared at Melinoe.
"What did you see?" I asked.
'Nothing.' Nyx mentally told me though the look on her face told me something different.
Melinoe stared at us, "Give us the Helmet of Darkness." Thalia said.
Melinoe snapped her fingers.
I hate it when Gods snap their fingers.
Ghost began to appear out of nowhere, some raised from the ground while others came down the towers. Others stepped out of the corridors and through doors.
They were holographic and it almost looked like they were nothing more than faded blurs on a photo, but they looked angrily at us.
Ghost, all sizes and ages, glared at us.
We were heavily outnumbered.
"This is impossible." Annabeth said, "There's no way so many people died here."
Melinoe laughed. "In dead all is possible."
"Nyx shadow travel to the Altar and take us out of here." I said but Annabeth confidentially stepped forward.
"You are Melinoe right?"
The Goddess scowled, "Yes I am."
"You're the Goddess of the Ghost." Annabeth continued.
"Annabeth?" Thalia asked.
The ghost were staring at us, like they wanted to rip us apart and even though they were ghost I had the feeling Melinoe wouldn't have summoned them if they could not tear us apart.
Annabeth opened the palm of her hand and revealed she was holding black coin.
The coin of Hades.
"Oh." I said, catching up with her plan.
"You are the Goddess of the ghost but Hades, your father, is the God of the death." and as she said she threw up the coin and it flipped in the air.
In front of Annabeth Hades appeared.
Hades must have been doing something weird because he had a blue eye, A plastic bat and flower stuck on his back (was that duct tape?) and a pumpkin in his hand and he looked as confused as I felt.
Then he gazed at Melinoe and the surrounding ghost, then he saw the helmet of Darkness.
"YOU!" He screamed and Melinoe flinched and stepped back, all the surrounding ghost shimmered.
Hades glared at the Ghost and they all disappeared, some vaporized others went back to their closets and hallways.
He waved his hands and the helmet of Darkness appeared in his hand.
He turned around and glared at Melinoe.
"You stole the helmet! Why?" He bouldered and the church began to darken.
Melinoe opened her mouth to protest, "You deserved it."
I frowned, "what?"
"You never let me scare mortals anymore!" she shouted.
Hades stepped closer to his daughter, "You shouldn't have done that!"
Melinoe crossed her arms, "Why not? Why are you the only one who is allowed to scare mortals?"
Hades sighed and turned around and gave me the daughter-always-such-a-pain-in-the-ass look.
"You know Zeus has restricted rules about we can't break, you can't scare mortals. You have your own duties."
Melinoe glared us and her father, "You're too late father, fear shall raze through the streets and then you won't be there to stop it." and she pointed at me.
"What?" Thalia said.
Hades stepped closer to his daughter and now towered above her, "You are grounded."
I thought he was joking but then the earth underneath Melinoe cracked open, fire and flames filled the room for a second before the gap closed itself.
Melinoe was gone.
"Is she now in Tartarus?" Annabeth asked pale.
Hades shook his head, "No I send her to her room."
He looked at us like he expected us to shudder.
"Her room?" Nyx asked.
"Trust me, once Persephone gets back it will be worse than Tartarus." Hades said.
Then he looked around and quickly added, "For her."
Then his expression turned to happiness, "Well demigods, you did a great job."
"What was Melinoe talking about when she said fear will raze through the streets?" Annabeth asked.
Hades shrugged, "I think it was a loose threat. Don't worry."
"So the quest is over? Can we go home now?" Thalia asked.
"Yes, you can return to whatever you were doing." he said and he waved his hand, shadows engulfed our bodies but before my vision darkened Hades said one thing, "And Percy, the answer you're looking for lies not in Olympus."
Then we reappeared on the streets of Upper East Side again, like nothing happened.
"Well, Halloween is fun." Nyx said.
"This is not normal for Halloween." Annabeth told Nyx.
"It isn't?" She asked.
"Nope, things like that never happen." Thalia said, then her expression darkened.
"There's just one question I have." she said.
"Same for me." I said.
"Why did Melinoe steal the Helmet of Darkness?" Annabeth wondered.
"She said she was mad at her father." Nyx said like it was an officious fact.
"Let's just hope that's all." I said though I had the feeling this was not over.
"Who cares," Nyx said, "We need more candy."
....
(Epilogue)
...
Melinoe waited in front of the church.
A man walked out of the gates, he wore a black shirt, ratty jeans and a black leather jacket. On his belt hung a knife and a revolver. Over his head he wore a white bag that had two holes in them surrounded with black inkt which made them look deeper. He had a hole for the mouth and a red stripe painted across it, like a twisted smile.
"Is it done?" Melinoe asked.
The man nodded, "I successfully extracted the fear formula, however I can't reproduce it."
Melinoe nodded, "Only one mortal can reproduce the fear toxin."
The man tilted his head, "He's lost and probably dead."
Melinoe shook her head, "if he was dead Minos would be bragging about it."
"Do you have an idea where he is?" the man asked.
Melinoe pointed downwards, "Where all the lost go. Inside the maze."
...
==================================
This is the longest chapter I ever wrote its about 6,000 words.
Took me so much time to write .