Chapter 43

-Radiohead.

The emotional blockage both girls had when first reuniting had died down once they managed to speak about their experiences.

Kayla had told Clarisse everything- from being kidnapped in camp and being set up, to Luke’s mishap in kidnapping her at the wrong time, to her time in his army, the people she met, what happened, how she escaped, where she went, what happened, and the now.

Like, the fact Clarisse had found Kayla just a few hours after she was put back in the Labyrinth, which was sort of shocking.

Clarisse was also fuming with what Kayla had told her had happened when refusing to join Kronos. She had asked Kayla how long it had been for her, and got the answer of “I think a year.” Which didn’t make it any better.

“You went missing on the 31st October. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I remember that. Cause I… I made a joke to myself, about how this must be the secret halloween pary this year, and- nevermind. Doesn’t make sense anymore.”

“Uh, okay. Right. Well, I came to search for you, on the 30th of January. I don’t know how long it’s been at all.”

The conversation of the concept of time was a short one. That was pretty much the entire conversation.

Kayla had pulled out a flower crown out of nowhere on the next conversation. She had been showing Clarisse all the things Calypso had prepared Kayla with for the journey on the raft, pulling things out from the leather bag, when she had slowly pulled out a flower crown, with perfect flowers, no crushed petals, and no damages at all. It brightened up a few topics. Kayla had told her it must be enchanted like the bag of fruit, or she would have lost it in the sea ages ago.

Then, they shifted over to Clarisse, and how she had come to end up searching for kayla.

“I had no doubt something was off. You wouldn’t disappear like that.” Was the first thing Clarisse had said. “Malcolm was skeptical at first, but I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t come to realise something was also off. He stole Annabeth’s work on the Labyrinth and I read it all, so I’m pretty much a tour guide at this point.”

Kayla had chuckled, shoving a mouthful of dried fruit into her mouth. Keeping her distracted from realising where she was was a good way to cheer Kayla up.

She told her how she set off without a goodbye as soon as she saw Kayla’s bag still under the bed. She told her how she probably wouldn’t be cabin counselor when she got back, but she’d make sure to make all her brothers force her back into place.

She told her about meeting Ethan, and how she fell for his story until he betrayed her, and that’s how she got all her hair cut off.

“Because I cut it off myself.” She replied proudly. “Should have seen the look on his face. He never saw it coming, cause my dagger was so close to the back of my head, he looked at me like I was insane. I felt insane, I couldn’t believe I fell for his stupid story. So that’s that.”

“Meanwhile, an Empousa decided your hair had to look amazing even when being forced to have it cut all off. How surreal.”

“Lyssa really liked beauty!” Kayla repeated, looking up at Clarisse from the scrunched up seating position she was still in against her chest. She had an amused, wide eyed expression on her face. “She would have had to cry herself to sleep if she gave me anything less than a proper haircut.”

“Yeah? This is the same Empousa that still made you sit inside a bland room all day every day, huh?”

Kayla’s smile dissapeared. No! No, no, no, not fair. She didn’t mean to-

“Um, well, I forgot to tell you that before I found an entrance, I met a dwarf cyclops! Can you believe it?” Clarisse switched conversations, tapping Kayla’s chin.

“A… dwarf cyclops?”

“Yeah, a cyclops… with a height deficiency! It made it super fast and it had a higher pitched voice. Like a literal gremlin. Just way more ugly and less furry.”

“How tall?”

“Like, two foot tall. I know, can you imagine that? Just this tiny hairless gremlin, emerging out of the dark and running full speed ahead, telling me I smelt amazing. I think my brothers heard my screams all the way back at camp. Plus, I guess it sort of looked like you.”

Thankfully, Kayla let out a long giggle, covering her mouth. “That’s a funny picture. I’m glad you didn’t get eaten by a dwarf cyclops.”

Clarisse nodded, smiling. “Well, me too. But I was half debating just letting it defeat me after how pathetic I screamed. Pretty embarrassing, to be honest. Tiny thing probably told his whole family about it. Oh! Hang on…” Clarisse trailed off, rummaging through Kayla’s bag. “Ambrosia, idiot. Eat up.”

“Oh, yeah. Forgot.” She took it gently, chewing.

Forgetting about ambrosia spoke volumes about the pain Kayla must have been in at times. How much pain did you have to be in with no medical supplies to forget about ambrosia? “Yeah… well, eat up. I winded you pretty bad earlier.”

“I feel okay now, I mean, I only feel bad cause of the fact I’m back… back here. Calypso healed me up well back at her island really. But I feel a bit better too cause I found you here, somehow.”

Clarisse gave a thin lipped smile. One of her hands lay comfortably around Kayla, meeting her other hand as it toyed with a broken pencil infront of her while they spoke. She hadn’t even questioned the room being full of broken pencils. It was better not to pay notice to the weirdness at this point. And she hadn’t questioned her comfort like this, either. “Yeah, so, about that.. sort of. What did you mean, Aphrodite said I was looking for you? I’m guessing that happened on the island.”

“Yeah,” Kayla hummed. “She was visiting Claypso. I’m- I’m actually not sure why, because I got told Aphrodite isn’t really a fan of her at the moment. Well- I do know why, but it was odd. She just said she was checking up on me. But she told me that camp is alright, and you were out searching for me. She didn’t say where.”

“Right,” Clarisse cleared her throat. Eugh, her dad’s girlfriend, keeping an eye on both of their whereabouts? Creepy and not consented to. “Why… why is Calypso on her bad side?”

She watched as Kayla grew a smile, peeking her eyes upwards. “Aphrodite is jealous of her beauty.”

That was funnier than expected. “Pfft- I- what? Seriously? But I thought Aphrodite loved everyone’s beauty?”

“Not Calypso’s, hers was too powerful.”

“Yeah, you know that?”

‘”Yeah,” She turned up to Clarisse, gazing through her lashes. “You’d get it if you saw her.”

“Sure I would,” She hummed, leaning her head back against the wall. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. “How are we getting out of here, Kayla?”

“Mh, I had… these ftiends. But I don’t know how to get to them now.  They could have helped. Or I could find more.”

Okay, maybe Clarisse’s lingering curiosity in the back of her head about about Kayla’s sanity was more valid than she thought.

“Um- are- are you okay? What do you see?”

“I’m not going crazy, I don’t see anything, quit it.”

“I- I think my reaction was reasonable. You sound a little bit-“

“No, no, remember the voices in my cabin, that I could always hear so I took your Walkman?”

Mh, okay. That was because Kayla’s cabin had some sort of link to the dead. “Cause it has a link to dead people. Alright.”

Kayla stared at her with a little nod of the head to prompt her thoughts.

It did not help to rid if Clarisse’s blank stare.

“This place has a link, too. I can see them, and hear them. Some of them, atleast. Most people who die down here get lost, and end up forgetting things. Sort of like Asphodel. Just… alot more cruel. And some notice me and ask if I can help.” She explained quietly.
“But there was this spirit, Iris, and two others who didn’t speak much, but I got out of the Labyrinth because of them.”

A small, hopefully smile appeared on Clarisse’s face. “So? Where are they now? That’s perfect.”

“In my scythe,” She sighed. “And I promised I would escape with them to take them out, and let them roam free. But I haven’t been able to yet.”

“What? Well, you’re able to now. We’re safe in here, you can do it now.”

“No, no, I mean I don’t know how. Not that I haven’t had time.” She frowned, shaking her head.

Oh.

“Can- can you find more? What do you have to do, just walk around and they’ll find you? Well, we can do that while finding Chris.”

“So we’re finding Chris?”

“Well, if we can. He’s lost his mind. I just- if we’re going to be finding an exit, we may aswell look for him too, right? And while doing that, we find an easier way with these creeps you’re on about.”

Okay, sure. There wasn’t really any other way to go around it. But moving around down here scared her. “Let’s just uh, go slow. But I should find one quick.”

When back on their journey, they travelled one infront of the other as quiet as mice. Kayla didn’t think she had ever heard Clarisse so quiet in her life. She had made a joke about Clarisse’s survival tactic classes from back at camp coming in clutch, lightening up the mood. But on that note, Kayla figured she was probably the quietest she had ever been, too.

Clarisse.

Clarisse travelled with a long femur bone from an unidentifiable source that had been carved to be needle sharp at the end. She had pulled it from the side of her backpack casually just before the two of them switched bags. She was glad to have her bag down here. Having something that belonged to you after all this time, it was nice.

As of late, the only spirits she saw were ones that moved right past her. That, and the ones that followed for a few minutes before disappearing. Clarisse could see some of them, Kayla had realised that. Others were only visible to Kayla’s eyes. Like usual, most followed for a few seconds at most before continuing their mindless wonders of the Labyrinth. How long had they all been down here? Why so many?

It was a sight that would make anyone realise that not many ever left the Labyrinth alive or dead. A dampen on hope.

Kayla padded closer to Clarisse, letting out a nervous breath that mixed with the cool air instantly. “Stop going so fast.” She whispered, readjusting her backpack. “It’s no use focusing on speed, Kayla. We either hear something or we don’t.”

“Or we see something too late. Slow down!”

“If I see anything, I promise you my reaction time will be much faster. Tch, like I’m dying in this place to rot for eternity.”

“Do you see me?”

“What?” Kayla asked, giving her a weary glance.

“I said, my reaction time is gonna be way faster than anything we see, I promise.”

“No, you asked if I see you.” She frowned. Her words caused Clarisse to pause, swallowing. Kayla seemed to have already gotten used to that questionable look Clarisse would give her. The “is this girl loosing her sanity on me or not?” Look.

“No, I didn’t. Do you need a drink?”

“You hear me.”

Oh.

“Oh, I found one.”

A disgruntled expression crossed Clarisse’s face as she witnessed Kayla spin in a few circles. Like a dog trying to chase it’s own tail, except she was staring at all the walls.

“So, a warning, I’m about to knock you out just to see if it gets rid of your uh, loopy-ness.”

“A spirit, you idiot, don’t you dare knock me out!”

She grinned. The first bit of feisty Kayla she had seen in a while. It made her take in a fresh breath of air.

Yeah right, fresh. It somewhat felt like it. Just for that one breath. “Well, you see it?” She lowered her femur-sword to rest at her hip.

“Can hear it. Where are you hiding? I hear you, come out.”

“Oh, wow, you look insane from someone else’s point of view.”

Her words were further confirmed by a gasp of shock from Kayla, so something must have caught her off guard. “I see you! Yes, you- No, but that’s what we need help for, I- no, no, yes, that. I know. Up there? Well, we don’t need him, we just need-“

“Kayla.”

A warning. Clarisse stood there with crossed arms and a powerful stance.

“We might need him,” She turned back to… the wall, and told the air.

“If it knows where he is, then take us, and take us to an exit meanwhile.”

Kayla turned to Clarisse slwoly, pointing to the ghostly air infront of her. “It’s right there, y’know, it can hear you, if you wanna-“

“I’m not talking to wall. Is it taking us or not?”

Kayla turned back to her newfound friend, nodding. “Yeah. Ofcourse we’ll save you too. You can come with us.” She turned back to Clarisse. “Yeah, c’mon. This way.”

Please vote!!

Writing the other chapter rn as ive had insane writers block, dates on publishing may vary but im not going anywhere do not fret. Also lowkenuinely might start using song names for each chapter and fitting the name or the lyrics of that song to the chapter. Sort of like this one. My heart hurts. Thats all ok bye🫡

Have you ever thought about how Clarisse would have actually managed to get Chris out of the Labyrinth? Like, he was clearly very shout-y and loud when in camp and still insane, so imagine Clarisse, in the Labyrinth, where you have to try and be as quiet as possible, with this guy. I personally imagine she would have had to knock him out a few times, to keep him from running off or fighting back in confusion.