Chapter 36

-Madonna.

Unlike previously running from unreal voices the Labyrinth made up to scare her, Clarisse did not have the real voiced that she knew belonged to people concern her. Hell, if she said it excited her. She was confident they were real, she knew they didn’t know she was here, and that was enough.

Clarisse made sure her footsteps were non existent, like a mouse. Shocking, that Clarisse was capeable of being so quiet.

The voiced echoed through the halls. A group?

“Lost his way, not on his route,”

Clarisse paused her walking to listen, the butt of her spear meeting the ground gently.

“Wall closed, cut off.”

The words drifted in and out of her hearing like the echo was too powerful down here. The quietness of it didn’t help, either.

Stepping into this part of the labyrinth felt like stepping into yet another reality. She checked the time on her watch; now stating that eleven hours had passed.

“That’s not… it’s been three minutes.” She whispered, lowering her arm.

Eleven hours… or was it a few days, or had her watch gone back in time completely? Wait, was she hallucinating? Hang on, how did her watch know how to change times?

“What did I just step into?” Clarisse grumbled under her breath, refocusing on her steady walk.

The routine of searching settled in somewhat easier than imagined for Clarisse: rest when tired, not based on time. Eat when hungry, but don’t eat too much. In the meantime, keep her guard up, her sanity intact, and search.

Always ignore the Labyrinth’s attempt to scare her.

It had tried to kill her a few times since being within the sandstone walls. Some corridors still tried to crush her, resulting in sprinting sessions like she belonged in Maze Runner.

Voices of memories echoed around her at times. Clarisse forced herself to ignore them. She couldn’t let the Labyrinth steal her sanity, or put her into some weird state of psychosis. She couldn’t afford it.

Safe rooms seemed less common in the sandstone area. Clarisse had ended up drifting away on the corridors more that once, after however long of searching when she couldn’t give herself the mental strength to keep on walking anymore.

Hunger worked odd, too. She ate once (which Clarisse assumed) every twelve hours, sometimes going even more. She didn’t starve. She felt perfectly fine.

This place was some nightmarish, deranged Wonderland.

Clarisse kept moving. Not fast, never fast unless she had to, but steady, with her spear balanced easily in her grip, boots disturbing the thin layer of dust that coated the floor. This stretch of the Labyrinth felt older than the sandstone corridors she’d been trudging through earlier. The walls were darker here, almost bruised in colour, veins of something metallic glinting faintly when her torchlight caught them at the wrong angle.

The air felt thicker. Not heavier, exactly. More like it didn’t want to be breathed out of stubbornness.

She counted her steps for a while. It helped anchor her and gave her something solid to hold onto when the corridors began to curve in ways that didn’t make sense. One hundred steps. Two hundred. She stopped when she realised the sound of her boots was disrupted by a louder sound- like the clanking of metal.

Clarisse paused, pressing a hand briefly to the wall. It was warm.

She jerked her hand back with a scowl. “Yeah, no,” she muttered. “Not today.”

The Labyrinth had moods. Annabeth’s notes had mentioned that much. Some sections tried to kill you outright. Others toyed with you first. This one felt like it was waiting.

She moved on quickly, reminding herself to be more alert. The corridor opened into a wider chamber littered with debris: broken stone slabs, rusted chains half-buried in dust, a cracked column that looked like it had collapsed centuries ago and simply never finished falling. Clarisse circled the room once, spear tip nudging aside fragments while her eyes scanned for movement.

Nothing.

Still, she didn’t relax.

There, near the far wall. Something small and dark against the pale stone. Clarisse crouched, lifting it carefully with two fingers.

Leather. Old, but not ancient. A brown strap- like a part broken off from a bit of armour, torn clean through, edges rough like it had been ripped rather than cut.

Well, the fact it had no dust on it really had Clarisse on edge.

Her jaw tightened. Monsters didn’t usually bother with things like this. And the Labyrinth’s illusions, as convincing as they were, tended to disappear when you touched them.

This didn’t.

Clarisse straightened slowly, gaze flicking back to the corridor she’d come from, then to the one sloping downwards on the opposite side of the chamber. The silence pressed in again, thick and expectant.

“So,” she said quietly, voice echoing just enough to remind her how alone she still was. “Either you’re real, or the maze is getting smarter.”

She pocketed the armour strap. Evidence mattered. Annabeth would’ve approved.

As the leather armour strap was pocketed, her questioning thoughts were cut off by a scurry of sorts behind her. She snapped her neck towards the entrance of the chamber.

Why had dust been kicked up?

Clarisse’s hands readied her spear immediately. “You’re real,”Clarisse announced confidently. “Show yourself, or die without a word to explain.”

Clarisse made her way wearily over to the entrance.

“Now!”

Silence. Until-

“Don’t kill!”

Clarisse paused, backing up. Ew, it wasn’t even a monster. That sounded human!

A small figure announced itself in a submissive way, hands raised, head dipped. A shaggy hair of black hair and baggy black cargos was all Clarisse could see. “I’m friendly, my weapons aren’t on me.”

Clarisse discarded his commemt- she was at his throat in an instant, her small dagger to his neck as she stood behind him. “Who are you? You’re no monster, what are you doing down here.”

The boy in question let out a grunt, pushing his head as far away as he could from the dagger. That wasn’t very far. “My name is Ethan! Luke Castellan kidnapped me from camp! I escaped!”

Clarisse’s arms shook. She knew Ethan. Quiet boy gone bad- apparently. Always the quiet kids, huh? “Nakamura? You’ve been gone months. Drop the bullshit. Everyone knew your opinions.” Clarisse threatened him by pulling the dagger closer to his neck, her big huff of annoyance making his hair blow about on his head. He was ever so shorter.

“I- I promise! He kidnapped me, to start off his recruiting progress! It was either I complied, or died. I escaped, please-“

Clarisse took a minute of processing her thoughts, a stubborn, thin lipped look on her face.

Too caught up in decision making, Ethan slipped from her grip and twisted her arm, quickly scurrying away with Clarisse’s knife to the other side of the room. Clarisse grunted at her arm twist, making a grab for him yet missing.

“Hey! Give me my dagger back, let’s work this out.” Clarisse took a step forward, but Ethan raised the dagger up in defense, his movements oddly skittish.

“Hey, wait, wait, wait, wait! Yeah, talk it through, you put your fists down, and I’ll throw the dagger, deal?”

Clarisse glanced down to her fists. She had raised them ready to fight without realising. She inhaled sharply, dropping them in an instant. “Okay. Dagger. Come on.”

The dagger was thrown to the ground, clattering to the floor infront of her. Clarisse picked it up in one swift movement, not taking her eyes off Ethan.

“What are you doing down here? If you’re not with Luke, then-“

“Yeah, not with Luke. You’d know. And it’s none of your business. I’m down here, and so are you. So what we doing? Fighting to death or talking this out?”

Ethan hesitated. “How do I know you’re not-not with Luke if you’re down here?”

“How do I know that you’re not?”

“Cause I just told you I finally escaped,” He answered quickly. “Look- just- just tell me why you’re down here, or we are fighting to death-“

“Oh, for Hades sakes, I’m looking for someone! And not Luke, or his army,” She stated, sheathing her dagger. “Try killing me, I dare you.”

Ethan ever so slightly relaxed, glancing to the wooden table. “That leather strap, you have it? It broke. I’m trying to fix it.”

Clarisse threw it back onto the table, her other hand resting on her dagger sheath. “There,” She mumbled sceptically. “Are those men looking for you? There were voices a bit ago.”

‘Uh, yeah. Yeah. Not too far behind. Need to keep moving.”

“Not too far? How far? Is Luke’s army that way, all of it?”

Ethan glanced to Clarisse, pocketing his armour strap. “I thought you said you weren’t looking for Luke’s army.”

“I’m not.” She hummed. “Someone else.”

Ethan swallowed, sighing and shaking his head. “No, it’s far away. Luke’s men are everywhere. There’s multiple bases.” He scratched his nose.

“Right, we’ll… we’re parting ways. You want out, I want further in.”

“No- no, we’re screwed if we split up!” He argued. “I- I’ll help you. Maybe I can find an exit on the way. Probably, cause trying to find a base down here is like finding a needle in a hay stack anyway.”

Clarisse scoffed. Great, just the confidence she needed. She didn’t have any other argument to tell them to part ways now. Clarisse hadn’t seen a person down here in… how long had it been again? Ever since she stumbled into this sandstone part of the Labyrinth, it felt like atleast a month or so had gone by. That was scary. Why had she only just noticed that? “Alright. So… when escaping, did you not decide to stack up of survival things? Or are you truly idiotic?”

“Got trapped in a closing corridor. I- lost everything.”

“Okay,” She analysed. “So what happened to your eye? Don’t remember you taking on the look of a cyclops back at camp the other year.”

“None of your business.” He spat. “Can we move? I’d like to try and find more rooms to actually search for gear.”

Clarisse sighed. Here we go, she thought. Keep your eyes on him.

Ethan led the way through the corridors like he had all the knowledge in the world yet none at all at the same time. ‘Down here,’ he would start. ‘Looks good.’ He’d add on. “You’re awfully confident, Nakamura.”

“Nah, just no point in thinking about it too much. That’s like torturing yourself.”

True, Clarisse shrugged.

“You are real, right? Not a shape-shifter maybe? Try to kill me, you’ll get the worst death imaginable, I-“

“You once put Troy Black from Hephaestus cabin in the infirmary for a broken collar bone cause you miscalculated your own strength. He almost died from lack of blood supply to his upper body.” Ethan cut her off. “Would a shape-shifter know that?”

Clarisse stuttered. Okay, true. She didn’t need the reminder she almost killed that guy, though. He was nice. “I- I didn’t know you were at camp back then.”

“Yeah, I was.”

Clarisse shook her head. Ethan had always been quiet. She hadn’t taken the time to consider how long he had actually been at camp. The only reason she knew his name might have been because her brothers used to pick on him.

Clarisse hadn’t- she never had a reason to. He kept to his business, didn’t talk to say anything wrong. But she never stopped her brothers, either.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Clarisse asked.

“I was, it’s gone. Probably for the best not being hungry in a place like this.”

Clarisse agreed. It was scary being hungry in the Labyrinth, knowing you’re eventually going to run out of food. “I have some jerky left. You can- have a few pieces.” Clarisse pulled out a half open pack from the side of Kayla’s rucksack. Ethan turned and studied it, before walking back over to her to take it.

“…Thanks,” He raised an eyebrow, looking over Clarisse’s shoulder. “Nice pins.” He replied- more of a statement that he noticed something he disliked rather than actually complimenting something.

Clarisse glanced to the rucksack as much as she could; Kayla’s stupid obnoxious pins. One was a small circle pin of a rainbow. Another was one of a middle finger. Some were soda can tops made into pins. Like the Cola one, and the Seven Up one. And the… wasn’t that a beer top? Clarisse cleared her throat and kept walking. “Thanks.”

Please vote!!

Publishing x2 as i feel like being generous and hopefully it will do no harm.

The song Deeper and Deeper by Madonna is interpreted as queer to some and makes this chapter name so funny and ironic. Like, who’s Clarisse going deeper into the Labyrinth for again?! Hehehe

Also guys do not fret I am not dragging this book 3 on with Clarisse and Kayla being separated I am however trying to make a good plot and story line so let me cook because it WILL be worth it. Thankyou.