Young Writers Society

The statues flooded into the room. They lunged and clawed at Hades, but they didn't have the same kind of thought the other gods had when they were sparring. Hades was able to summon a wall of darkness to block off a few, and use a burst of superhuman strength to push through the others that were near him. Four of them crumbled into dust.

Hades's hand, which hadn't entirely realized it was being used as a battering ram, stung. It took him a moment to realize that he had scrapped some of the skin around his knuckle. Giving it a little shake to get feeling back into it, he willed the skin to regrow itself.

Then it was back to destroying the statues.

So after what seemed like an eternity between the previous thought and now, Maggie had opened the doors and they were suddenly being swarmed by rock people. Elias wasn't scared, per se... They just startled him. Jolted him, and freaked him out. Just a little. Yeah. That was why he hid behind Hades first, then Kaz after Hades was being too agile for him.

"Are you going to smash all of them?!" Elias yelped in the midst of all the chaos.

Kazimir thwacked another stone person to pieces. Then another, and another. Taking no paused, he simply swung the ax around like a madman, smashing stone heads.

"That's the plan!" Kazimir shouted to Elias.

Maggie was working quickly, pulverizing whatever statues came near.

The end was in sight as the number of remaining statues dwindled down further and further.

Hades could see the end of the battle quickly approaching. He swung his fist at one approaching statue and kicked at another. There was a small, sudden spike of pain in both his hand and his foot, but he ignored it. It was nothing like the time Artemis had sent him falling (hard) off of a pillar of darkness he had created during one of their sparring matches.

That had hurt.

They went at it for some time, and Elias was staring to get used to the dodging of the stone people. One did manage to filter through the others, and that was when Elias remembered that he was holding a sledgehammer too. Still, it made him uneasy. Plus the sledgehammer was really freaking heavy.

So he avoided them behind the others, waiting until the numbers finally dwindled down.

Kazimir was determined to be a wall, wildly trying to keep the stone people from reaching Elias, and from overtaking them. But he was starting to feel it. His leg was still hurting, and all the exertion from spinning around and smashing stone heads at full power was starting to wear on him.

Still, he powered through. They were going to get through his nightmare, just like the others.

Maggie crushed another, and another. More and more they looked less like statues to them and more like the people they had been - they maybe still were. Maggie was murdering them. Finishing the job they'd been hired for.

Her arms were getting tired, but Annabeth kept smashing the statues until they were crumbling on the floor.

The battle was almost over; she could see the dwindling number, but the broken pieces made it hard to maneuver around the stuffed room. Twice, Annabeth had to duck under Kaz's heavy swings and shield herself from Hades's walls of darkness. It didn't help that the dust kept clogging her throat and getting into her eyes.

Suddenly, Annabeth's vision was filled with the ugly faces of the statues. The closest took a clawed swipe at her. Ducking quickly, she tripped over a broken leg and crawled backward quickly. Her back hit the wall, and she scrambled up.

Panic bubbled up in her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut and started swinging the sledgehammer wildly. She heard crunching sounds, and then silence.

Annabeth peeked one eye open. The statues were gone. Instead, they were all lying on the floor in various stages of ruin.

Maggie panted, eyes scanning the ruin.

Calmly and wordlessly they went to each person in turn and took their weapons from them. "We should clean up," they said once they'd been put away. "Any large pieces get piled over there," they pointed to a corner, "everything else gets piled in the opposite corner."

They finished their instructions as they picked up their wig, the snakes weaving together on their head to lay flat before they slipped the wig on.

The final living statues were beaten.

Hades surveyed the fallen statues—and the others—as Maggie put their wig back on. Annabeth had fallen at some point. Kaz seemed to be getting tired, and Elias had mostly stayed out of the fight. Maggie seemed out of breath, too, but didn't seem too overwhelmed right now.

He moved for a large chunk of statue nearby. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was too easy. Was defeating the statues really all they needed to do now? They were still here, but maybe they just needed to clean up like Maggie said.

He grabbed a few large pieces of stone and carried them all to the corner.

“Okay, so,” Kazimir huffed, turning towards Maggie but making no moves to start cleaning up. “We kill all these stone people. We finished the job. The fight is over. Why isn’t the dream over? Does it have something to do with your…”

He getured to Maggie’s head, where the wig had gone back on to cover the snakes.

“I don’t know what you call it. Condition?”

Maggie glared at Kaz. "There's nothing wrong with me," they bit out. "I'm not 'afflicted' with anything. I'm not sick. I'm exactly like you. Just a killer for hire with particular skills. The snakes are genetic and part of me." They grit their teeth, shaking their head. "I don't know why we're still here. I finished my jobs."

Annabeth wiped a bead of sweat off her forehead and picked up the head of one of the statues and moved it to the corner, barely paying attention to Kaz's and Maggie's "conversation."

"I'll sweep up the tiny pieces," she said and walked out of the room, grabbing a broom she saw in the workshop.

Hopefully, Kaz and Maggie wouldn't be screaming at each other by the time she got back.