Chapter Twenty-Four

“So?” Moon asks.

“Nothing good ever happens to a demigod. I thought you would’ve figured that out by now,” I say.

“Well, to be honest I haven’t been a demigod for long,” Moon says.

I roll my eyes at her, before turning around and walking towards the building. “You’ve been a demigod your whole life Moon. You just never realized it.”

“Shouldn’t that count as the same thing?”

“Nope. It couldn’t. And it won’t. Because you could never control lightning before now could you?” I ask.

“Are you saying that I can control it now?” Moon asks, her face scrunching up.

“Well, yeah,” I say. “I’m the son of Poseidon, so I can control water.”

As if to prove my point I reach out my hand and twirl my fingers, making the water molecules from the air solidify and group together, forming a bubble. “You can control lightning since you’re the daughter of Zeus.”

“Oh, cool,” Moon says.

“Try it,” I say.

“Umm,” Moon says. “I don’t know how.”

“It’s like breathing. It’s something that you can just do. Relax. Don’t think about it. Just let it happen.” I say. “You shouldn’t have to think about it. You should just be able to do it.”

“Umm,” Moon repeats.

“At least try,” I say.

“I have been,” Moon snaps.

“Well then stop trying and just do it!” I say.

“How!” Moon says, throwing her hands into the air.

“I don’t know! I control water not lightning!” I shout. “Are you sure you’re even the daughter of Zeus? You sure don’t seem to be!”

The air around us drops about ten degrees, thunder rumbles in the distance, flashes of purple and yellow emit off the sky. I glance up smiling.

“See, I told you that you could do it,” I say.

Moon blinks and the lightning is gone.

“Don’t worry, you should figure out how to control it better later on. Right now it doesn’t really matter,” I say. “Don’t worry though. Keep practicing. You should do better in no time.”

“Um,” Moon says. “So basically I have to get mad to connect with my powers?”

“Not really,” I say. “It could be any type of emotion. But anger is usually the easiest for beginners.”

“Why?” Moon asks, turning around and walking towards the door.

I shrug, “Because everyone can be angry. It’s the other emotions. The ones that make you feel something other than hate. Those are the emotions that are hard to find.”

“So like, love?” Moon calls over her shoulder, grasping the door handle.

“I guess so,” I say with a shrug.

“You’re not really good at this are you?” Moon says, turning the door handle.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” I say grinning.

Moon rolls her eyes at me and walks through the door.

“Moon! Wait!” I shout when I see the flickering darkness on the other side. But it was too late, she was gone. She had walked straight into Tartarus and she didn’t even realize it yet.
A dark, evil cackle starts up from somewhere, echoing off of the tall building. Bouncing around, haunting my mind. The door starts closing, tauntingly. I close my eyes, hoping that when I open them I wake up in my bed. Hoping that it was all a dream. But, even before I did open my eyes I knew that it wasn’t.

“Baloney,” I mutter, running forward and slipping through the door at the last minute.

It slams closed behind me. Resulting in a sickening thud. I swallow and look around. Trying to find Moon, I didn’t need to know the scenery. I have had this dream enough to know every inch. Giving up seeing through the thick heavy black fog that settled around the revolted air I take four steps to where I knew she was standing.

“Moon,” I mutter, reaching out and touching her arm.

“Mutt!” She cries, throwing her arms around me. I take a small step back. This is not what she had did in my dream. “Oh my gods. Where are we? This is the worst mental institution I’ve ever seen. Not that I’ve seen any. This is the first. But oh my gods, you would think that they would get shut down. What do you think the rat infection is in this place?” Moon rambles on.

“Moon! Moon! Hey! We’re not in a mental institution. That door led us to Tartarus,” I say. Reaching up and grabbing her shoulders.

“What?” She says, her voice shaking.

“Hey no, none of that. It’s going to be okay. I promise,” I say.

“How can you promise something like that?” Moon asks.

“Umm, maybe because I’ve dreamed of this moment for a few years,” I point out.

“Great,” Moon says. “We’re relying on dreams now.”

I shrug, “And is that so bad? I’ve been relying on dreams my whole life. Nothing is going to make me stop now.”

“Yeah,” Moon says. “But dreams aren’t reliable!”

“And why not?” I ask, turning to face her. “Dreams are nothing at all without hope. Sometimes a dream is nothing but a memory. And a memory is nothing but a dream.”

“That doesn’t help,” Moon says. “None of that means a dream can be reliable.”

“And why can’t it?” I ask. “A dream brought me you.”

Moon stops for a second, not saying anything before she nods. “Okay then. I’d have to say that’s good enough for me. Where does your dream tell us to go?”

“Well my dream tells me to lead us both to our death so maybe we shouldn’t go that way,” I say.

“Um. Okay. Then which way does your dream tell us not to go?” Moon asks.

I shrug, “Well, that’s the thing. It might not matter.”

“What do you mean?” Moon asks, tilting her head to the side.

“I’ve heard that Tartarus is just one big circle. You can walk any way and you’ll end up in the same spot.”

Moon frowns, “Where did you hear that?”

“Alex,” I say, skipping forward.

“How would Alex know?” Moon asks, trying to catch up to me.

“Zeus banished her down here when she was 8. Took her 5 years to escape. But time is different down here. We could be here for ten years and it’d be an hour out there in the real world.” I say with a shrug, continuing to walk.

“Are you sure it’s smart to be skipping?” Moon says. “We should conserve energy. We don’t have the time to be funny.”

“Did you not just hear what I said?” I ask, turning around to face her. Resulting in me walking backwards. “We have all the time in the world. And what better way to spend it other than together?”

“Maybe we can use it trying to figure out a good way to live?” Moon offers.

I wave my hand at her, brushing off her comment, “We already wasted time doing that.”

“You think it was a waste of time?” Moon snaps. She glares at me, and I know that she was getting mad enough to walk off. “Yep,” I say, turning back around. “Because instead of planning on not dying I could’ve been spending whatever time I have left with you.”

It took me about four steps forward to realize that she wasn’t following me.

“Are you coming? Or did you find something more interesting than me?” I ask.

“Nope. I’m coming. And you’re not that interesting by the way. I just figured you should hear that from me and not someone else,” Moon says, running slightly to catch up to me.

“Uh huh,” I say. “Admit it. I’m interesting. Don’t lie, princess.”

Moon doesn’t answer, instead she rolls her eyes and keeps walking. Right towards the door that lead to her death.

“MOON STOP!” I shout, running forward.

Moon turns to look at me, the beginning of a frown on her face. She looks like she was about to say something. But before she could say anything at all the door swings open. I close my eyes, thinking of the water particles in the air, the last time I had Vapor Traveled had been about two years ago. But when I opened my eyes I was standing in front of Moon. Blocking the way to the door. I push Moon out of the way, just as the darkness behind me forms into two hands that reach out and yank me backwards.

“MUTT!” Moon shouts, standing up and running forward, just as the door slams shut.