Magic Upon Magic: Welcome to the Underworld

No no no no no no no no no no no no no NO! NOT TARTARUS NEVER TARTARUS! I am utterly
afraid of Tartarus. Seeming to read my mind, Allison Amberleigh says, "All heros are afraid of Tartarus. That's what is supposed to make the quest hard." I just sigh as we continue. I start kicking the ground. "So, uh, how's life?" I ask her uncertainly. She raises her eyebrows alarmingly. "Uh, the usual for Camp Jupiter." I nod, even though I don't know what they do at Camp Jupiter. Allison starts whistiling again. This time 'Imagine.' (Author's note: I did this for my er, partner, Sara.) She stops and starts singing it instead. "Imagine all the people! Imagine…" I just think of Elaina and touch my hairstyle. Tears well up in my eyes. Elaina was a good friend. I force my tears to stop, but a couple of drops manage to escape. I quickly wipe them away. I don't want Allison Amberleigh to see me crying. The sun starts off the late afternoon, according to Allison Amberleigh's (Wow, that's hard to say. Allison Amberleigh. Allison Amberleigh. Allison Amber-ah! Such a major tongue twister!) portable sundial. "Guess you still use that." She nods, continuing singing 'Imagine.' I share a small amount of food to her. I nearly choke on the food. Allison Amberleigh does the same. Ugh, I should have never have given that. Now we have ambrosia squares and homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream tasting nectar. For me, that is. I offer a literal couple of squares to Allison Amberleigh, and she nibbles them up. I eat mine one bit at a time. A small doze of nectar for both of us. "What does it taste like?" I ask her when she slurps her portion up. I suddenly feel stronger. She shrugs. "My step-mother's homemade two-layer chocolate cake inside, super moist and light, with light whipped vanilla frosting, and a raspberry and mint leaf top off." I gaze at her. "Wow. That sounds delicious." Allison Amberleigh's curls shake as she nods. "My step-mother's really nice to me. I get a huge slice of it twice a month if I keep up with school and babysit my little sister. She' say bit of a pest though, my sister Amber. My step-mother's a baker. She works at bakery, and she makes recipes at home. Plus, she's one of those people who can see through the Mist, and she knows what I feel like. She acts as if I'm her one and only child, favors me the most, cares for me the most, you name it. But it wasn't like that for my father. He worked all day, everyday, non-stop. Barely had time for me. So, when he got the time, he got married again. When my step-mother wasn't there, I would stay home alone and live off of leftovers, or, if I'm lucky, spend the weekend with my friend, Christina. There, we would play late into the night, party and all that. It's really fun, but what bothers me most is that I haven't told her I'm a demigod." I nod. "Wow. You're lucky. Me? Dad's a researcher. He comes home really late, and I have to stay home alone. Dessert? Pff! Only in the summer my dad would make that ice cream. I just ate whatever was left and all that. I felt like a poor person, even though we're almost at the margin of "rich." Allison Amberleigh nods and smiles. "Wait a minute. Where exactly are we going?" Allison Amberleigh rolls her eyes and looks at me as if it were obvious. "What do you think we're doing? Knitting Grandma a sweater? We're going to Tartarus, dur!" I offer myself a face palm and accept. (Author's note: Are you happy Sara?) Allison Amberleigh stares at me and waves me off. "We're nearly at Los Angeles." She says as the sun starts to set down low. My legs feel tired. My stomach aches from my hunger. I was getting weaker from all the magic I had used. I wanted to restore it, so I'm not using it, period. It's kind of hard. Magic flows through me. I live through magic.  I take a small doze of nectar to strengthen me up. I hand Allison Amberleigh some ambrosia squares. "Recording studios. Recording studios." Allison Amberleigh mutters to herself. We're walking around a beach. A few people are still lingering around, packing up to go home. The water is calm, the waves lapping the shore calmly. The moon is reflected across the calm, midnight blue waters. The last dolphin jumps over the water and gracefully dives back in again. I sigh in content. "We're here!" Allison Amberleigh says, interrupting my calm image. The image breaks like glass shattering. "Yes?" Allison Amberleigh points to the building, which read, "DOA Recording Studios." I shrug. "Also," she added in as we were walking in, "Just call me Allison."

I shrug and give her a shaka sign. She returns it in favor as we walk into the lobby of the Underworld. "Everything's cool." I remind myself through the shaka sign. "Welcome to the lobby of the Underworld. I'm Charon. Take a seat over there as we announce the next batch of passengers." Charon says, bored. As we walk to take a seat, Charon stops us. "Wait a minute. You don't look dead. If you died, how did you?" I look at Allison. She shrugs. Think of something, think of something! Uh, we died in a car crash! Both of us! My aunt had died in a car crash. "Uh, we died in a car crash." Charon stares at us. "Both of you?" I nod. "Well, okay." Charon announces the next group of souls, along with us. As we board an elevator, I look around. I try not to think that dead people are surrounding me. Allison looks like she could go sick for a whole solid month. Charon grunts as we ride through the River Styx. "This load is heavy." He murmurs to himself. I hope he doesn't find out that we're not actually dead people. I look around as we drift along: Black, black, more black. Trash littered in rivers, dead souls, eh, blech. Disgusting stuff. Suddenly, we're jerked forward. "Welcome to the Underworld." Charon says in a bored and tired tone. I get off, landing on the black hard ground. Allison follows, stopping to consume the scene and surroundings around her. So this was the Underworld.