PERCY

In our world, there are many theories on the topic of what happens after you die. Religiously speaking,
there are more than a thousand stories of afterlife that you could have chosen from. Aaaaand if you are
not really that religious and have an atheistic point of view, what will be in front of you is

well

Its darkness.

Utter darkness.

Poof.

Nada.

Zilt.

Not racist, but its black.

Well ya know Youre just gone.

Like what I see in front of me right now. Or perhaps, what I shouldnt see right now hmmm huh.

Erm. The point is, its dark though, and as you can probably guess, Im not that smart so pardon me oh
ye gloriously divine know-it-all-thingamajig observers.

Well lets get back into business. So yeah, lets see this is weird. You know why?

Im pretty sure that I should have been in front of the pearly gates by now, or what you call that large
gate thingy that is covered with smoke. Or at least a building reception with an elevator? With a nasty
dead looking dude asking for payment since his boss is denying him a raise since eons ago? No? Oh well.

As you can see I am not an atheist. I believe in gods. No matter how ass they are to you, blaming you for
every reason they could think of. Threatening you with sharp pointy lightning, swords, arrows, spears, or
worse, perfume You know, I really think that my kind is their just their personal stress ball of some
sort

Yep, as you can probably guess my dear observer Im dead. Drop dead gorgeous thank you very much.

But dead.

You may wonder why I seem to not panic at all and very relaxed even though here I am saying to you
that I am dead which means that I know I am dead. But really though, if you had just experienced a
teensy-bit of my life, you too wouldnt be surprised with death (a pretty nice overworked handsome
guy btw) at all, what would surprise you is how the hades did you survive. Seriously. How?

But yeah I lived a good long life, well at least for my kind that is.
Let me see I think I am in my late forties? Married with a feisty judo flipping blond gray eyed demonic
(on her period) cutie-patootie. Two awesome but pain in the ass kids. A professor of marine biology in a
university in New York. Bazillion times savior of the universe. Hmm what else. Oohh! Oooh! A hotdog
eating contest champion!(amateur division)

See? I lived a good life, so death means nothing. No drama at all. My motto in life is just go with the
flow. Let the waves bring you to shore. I am simple man you know. See? Like floating in a sea. (Rhymes
hehe.)

Whats that? Youre asking something? What? How did I die?

Hmm well its certainly not as glorious as death by hotdog. A truck hit us.

I know right? It sucks. I can dodge swords, spears, bullets, cannons, curses, even freaking lightning!
(sponsored by my semi-immortal cousin and her bow-before-me-Im-the-king-of-the-gods dad.) but a
freaking truck pulled the plug.

Seriously. It sucks. I prefer death by hotdog any day!

But I cannot deny it, a truck killed us that day. Yes, I said us.

I am having quite a nice day actually on the day of my death. I am having a date with my beautiful and
smart, and sexy, and not-on-period wife (wink, wink). Were out to celebrate our anniversary. A good
year with no monsters wanting to eat ya, no gods to smite ya, no friends to throw you in a garbage truck
to prank ya. Truly a good year. So a celebration fitting for the gods had been planned and shall
commence! Which means having dinner at a nice not-so-cheap not-so-pricey resto, then a night of
passion with the wifey with a bed covered in roses. (With thorns removed. Seriously, for the love of gods
remove them. Else the wifey will throw daggers, swords, and the bane of my existence, books and
complicated words at you for throwing her in a bed full of roses with thorns. I admit it, my fault
entirely.)

That is the plan. A good plan I say. And I would have gotten away with it too if it werent for that
meddling pesky murderous vengeful Titan that is. Which Titan? Dunno. Too many Titans with
complicated name that hates me. I just know that its a Titan because his face is a bit familiar.

And we died. Saw blood and all. Limbs crushed, shish kebobed by dozens of metals, etc. ded. Probably a
new prophecy, who cares, not us.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, yes, in front of me is an unforgiving abyss of utter darkness, but in my back
is my trustee sidekick(do not tell her I said that), my one and only wifey, the grey eyed know-it-all
beauty, my beloved, and is glowing for some reason just like me, Annabeth C. Jackson! Another reason
why Im so calm in my death by the way, right now shes literally my light in the darkness.
And I mean come on, I got the brawns she got the brains, no matter how weird the current situation is
she can get us outa here. I mean, she got us out of Tartarus so many times. Shes better than Houdini!
Which means I dont need to think at all! My specialty!

Oh I love how cute and beautiful she is when her eyebrows crumple when shes thinking really hard.

Sooo have you thought of an idea why were not in Hades yet? I said to her. I know I shouldnt
disturb her when shes thinking hard but really, its been ages. And I am pretty bored. I do not know why
but even in death I seem to still have ADHD that have its merit but seriously though, in our situation, it
isnt helping at all.

She looked up and glared at me. A glare that I can only counter with my signature sheepish smile. Works
every time.

You just asked me that a minute ago. said she, rolling her beautiful smile. As I just said, I have no
idea what is happening. It just isnt logical! We should have been in Hades right now! In Elysium in fact!
she stomped her feet in frustration. That is weird too since were obviously floating but she can stomp
her feet huh.

She sighed. All we can do now is to wait for the gods to take action.

So were stuck here forever?? I exclaimed. Come on, its the gods were talking about. They are lazy as
cows under the glaring sun. Our parents will probably act but seriously, I still doubt that. Zeus will
definitely butt in to be pain in the ass again. Besides, were two dead useless demigods now for them.

What can we do besides that? We are powerless here. She replied, a bit apathetic now.

I too sighed. I just hugged her. Come on, dont be like that. I patted her back. I then held her cheeks
and stuck my forehead to hers and looked straight in her eyes. At the very least, we still have each
other. That is the most important for me right now. You are my heaven.

You know what? Yes. Who needs Elysium, even if Im stuck here for eternity, as long as Im with
Annabeth, Ill take that even over the island of the blessed.

She smiled, and obviously cheered up by my words. You are still so cheesy even when youre this old.
She joked. Laughing a bit.

I gasped playfully to humor her. Did you just called me old?? then tickled her. Hard.

Its a wonderful thing to know that you can tickle even the dead.

After a few minutes I stopped voluntary to let her breathe, not that she needs to breath, and also not
because she punched me. Surprisingly, dead people feels pain too hmm how about pleasure? I
wonder, if ya know what I mean. (wink, wink)

In any case, being stuck here in the darkness is quite ok with me now. Not that I worried about it in the
first place.
So, I said. Darkness again, huh. Hugging her tightly. She smell nice, even when dead. I learned so
much today.

Yes, darkness. And this isnt even Tartarus. We should know, weve been there so many times. She
snuggled deeper on me.

Yep, been to Tartarus too much we had a pending residence I think. Courtesy of Kronos, not that well
accept that of course.

Wouldnt it be funny if there is a clichd blinding light next? I joked. I love lightening her mood even
before entering here in the darkness.

I thin- and before she finished her words, as clichd as ever, a blinding light..uh blinded us I guess?

We opened our eyes and we are shocked. We are in space.

Perhaps I had seen too much national geographic channel about space, but seriously, we are in space.
Floating in space, surrounded by dazzling lights and celestial bodies.

Um, Percy? Are you seeing what I am seeing too?

I looked at Annabeth as she asked that. She looked stunned too as much as I am.

Another thing I noticed is that were both naked now.

Great, naked and floating in space, cant this be anymore clichd?

Welcome to my realm.

A voice so loud that it made the space shook appeared suddenly.

Now, there are many loud beings in this universe, especially Zeus, but this is much, much different. The
voice seemed to have this power, as if it can destroy everything and anything. With a tone as uncaring as
the voice of a Walmart greeter, it made it extra menacing.

I felt danger.

As you know, Annabeth and I are pretty old, and old age brought many changes to us. Perhaps I am just
lucky, but the changes that occurred to me are especially prominent. Countless quests and errands from
the gods made me powerful. I had even battled my dad and won. There were only few things that made
me feel as if I am in grave danger. Not even Zeus could.

I narrowed my eyes as I held Annabeth tightly, wanting to protect her.

I have no weapons, and do not have any power in space but to shield her, I will stake my soul.
And with all this, there is a strange form of excitement dwelled in me, a habit that I gained whenever I
encounter danger and challenge. I wanted to blurt out taunts, but I kept my mouth shut. I will not
endanger Annabeth again.

Who are you! I shouted back, resolute. Even Annabeth too have an expression of seriousness and
resolution. I know her and had been with her for a long time and that is the expression she gets when
shes in the battlefield, supporting or leading me. We nodded to each other. We will protect each other.