Young Writers Society

Hades shot Maggie a look. For good measure, he moved closer to Elias as well—not because he thought that Maggie would physically hurt him, but because he wanted to be there for Elias if they took their frustration out on him again. Elias came from a time that Hades could barely wrap his head around. If he hadn't already heard of Medusa and had strong ties to death, he might not have understood it as quickly.

Hades crossed his arms and rested his hand underneath his chin, face deep in thought.

"We have to be missing something," he said. He felt like they were going in circles right now. "The goal of this probably isn't to make you feel guilty about your job or chose different methods of doing it, but the statues must have something to do with what you're supposed to learn here."

This was pointless. It wasn't like they'd done anything wrong-

Shit.

"I'm a bad person, aren't I," they muttered.

And, just like that, the fog came for them all again.

That was easier than expected.

The fog had returned. Hades expected to brought back to his home or another challenge created specifically for him, but neither of the two happened. They were suddenly back in the cave that had fallen apart earlier. It was more stable now, with pieces of the fallen cavern ceiling littering the floor.

There was a low growl.

A figure emerged—a rock person easily taller than any of them, made of the same rocks that the cavern was made out of it. Lifeless gray eyes turned to look at the group of them. This was the creature that Maggie had described. But when its eyes scanned the group, they weren't magically dropped back into a vision like Maggie said they would be. Hades couldn't help but wonder if the golem was all that sentient.

As soon as Maggie spoke, the mist swallowed everyone up again. The room disappeared, and Annabeth found themselves back in the cave from the beginning.

"Is it over?" she whispered. If anyone was going to answer, they were interrupted by a growl.

A giant -the golem Maggie had told them about- emerged from the back of the cave. Annabeth squeaked in fear, but the golem made no move to attack them or even go towards them. Its lifeless eyes just stared at them. A shiver ran up her spine.

"Please don't tell me we have to fight this thing now?" she said.

When the mist dissapated, Kazimir felt the pain in his wounded leg return at full force, and he growled lowly, leaning heavily on his good leg as he turned to see a huge human-like thing made out of rocks.

Damnit, they’d just finished smashing a bunch of rock people. He didn’t want to smash another one, but he would if necessary. But god he just wanted to go home already. He missed his son.

“Listen here, you f***in’ rock. I’m done with your stupid-a** mind games and your misty whatever. Send us home or I’m going to make you,” Kazimir threatened.

"I don't know if it can understand you," Hades said, keeping his eyes on the golem. It turned when it heard his voice. It still had the same lifeless glint to its eyes as before. But when its eyes landed on Hades, the air grew warm and tense.

It reached a hand out without moving its feet.

The ground shook. The ceiling, thankfully, stayed steady, but the ground cracked and something started forming from within the crack. A few moments later, a perfect rock copy of his illusion self appeared above the crack.

It lumbered over to him, its movements slow and steady.

He waited until it was right before him to move. It swung a fist at him with a surprising amount of speed. He easily caught it. It hurt, getting hit so fast by something made of rock, but it wasn't the worst pain he had faced before.

It swung its other fist. He caught that, too.

"I'm not scared of you," he said, looking the rock creation in the eyes. The rocks cracked as he spoke. The rock golem kept watching, eyes still lifeless.

"I might have been scared of you before," he admitted, lowering his distorted copy's hands down to its sides. "You're the person I thought everyone expected me to be. I know those expectations still remain, but I'm nowhere near as fazed by them as I was before."

The rock copy cracked even more.

He let go of the copy's hands. Before it could raise its fists for another strike, he raised his—this time coated in a heavy glove made of darkness.

He swung it.

The rock copy shattered, and the rock golem started to have miniature, barely noticeable cracks of its own. It raised its hand once more, this time pointing at Elias. The rocks started to form into a new shape.

Just like the rest of this trip, Elias didn't really understand what was happening. They were fighting rocks one second, and after Maggie muttered something about being a bad person, the mist came and brought them back to... the first rocky scene? Hm.

Then another rock man appeared, and then another one, this time appearing as Hades and actually hitting him. A panic came out of the back of Elias's throat, but at the same time, so did a groan, because... why'd they have to fight a bunch of stuff? Couldn't they just chill out and take a break for one second?

Hades seemed to get a grip on his creepy rocky self, defending himself and not backing down. Then, all at once, Elias seemed to finally sense the pattern going on here. The others mentioned something about going over their fears triggering the mist... and they seemed to be coming back in rock edition.

Before Elias could dwell on that thought too long, Hades smashed the rocky version of himself, and the standing rock man pointed as Elias as new rocks started to shake and magnetize towards each other into a new shape.

Panic rippled out of him as he took a few hasty steps back when he saw the rocks forming near. Elias could sense others wanting to protect him -- not that he really needed or wanted protection, but at the same time, he'd really prefer not to be clobbered to death. But as soon as he saw that the rocks formed an image of himself, he held up his hand to signal that he was okay, because...

He also feared himself, didn't he? Or the person he will be? The person he doesn't want to be? Trying not to be?

"Wait," he said to the others, staring at how still his perceived adult self was standing in front of him, peering down at him without a face.

Maybe it wasn't him. Just an outline of him. Or maybe that was what this magic misty stuff wanted him to think, because that was how he always saw his future.

Not him. Just a shell of him.

Elias slowly took a step forward, then another, then another, until he was in front of his rocky adult self. While he did this, the rocky version of him crouched down so they could be at eye-level. Slowly, the rock copy lifted a hand with his palm facing out.

Elias knew what to do. It was almost instinct. He, too, lifted a hand and hesitantly placed it along the rock palm. It was cool and soft to the touch for being made out of rock, like it was real skin.

It was strange. A weird warm feeling took over, and a realization swept over him. Maybe it was telepathy. That was an existing power, right? Or maybe this was inner peace. Maybe that was what it was. Only one thought rang in his mind --

I can't change the course of my future, but I can be the best version of myself now. And maybe that's all that matters.

Suddenly the rock Elias crumbled into coarse dust, with the hand being the last to go. Elias stared at the empty space in front of him, trying to grasp what just happened and the heavy weight of realization sitting in his stomach, but like usual, this place didn't give him much time to digest what happened.

The golem, now with visible cracks, pointed at Kaz as the ground shook so more rocks could form.

Kazimir was ready to get this over with.

As the rock creature started reforming, Kazimir stepped forward, marching right up to it as he squared his shoulders and prepared his fists. He was fully prepared to punch himself in the face - hell, it would be even better if it took the shape of his dad. He'd really enjoy that. But just as he reared his fist to throw the punch, the face that formed in front of him wasn't his own, or even his father's.

It was his son. Bo.

His fist stopped inches from Bo's face, and he faltered, pulling his punch and missing, letting his fist loosely fly past the rock-Bo's head as he felt the floor fall out from under him and confusion flooded his stupidly thick head.

Hades got to slice himself, right? And Elias did some kind of mind-melding his duplicate into pieces. What was Kazimir supposed to do with his son?

But as he stared at the rocky Bo duplicate, the rock shifted, and Bo grew up right before his eyes, changing from a tall teenage boy to a huge, full-grown man that, though not a duplicate of Kazimir, really did scarily bear his resemblance. So much so that Bo was even dressed like Kazimir, and holding himself like him in his posture and expression.

And it was then that it hit him.

He wasn't as scared of losing custody of Bo as he was of Bo following in his footsteps... because of the example, he himself was setting for his son.

Well. That was a little heavier than he was expecting to accept in one day.

With a heavy swallow, Kazimir loosed his fists and looked up at Bo, who now stood a good five inches taller than him. The thought ran through his head wondering if the rock creature's predictions of Bo's to-be height were accurate, but he dismissed them for the sake of the heartfelt moment he was having with the rock creature instead.

He hummed lowly in the back of his throat, and though the big Bo stared down at him with a sense of judgment, Kazimir looked back up with sobriety.

"I understand," was all he said.

And then the rock Bo shattered, sending little rocks flying onto Kazimir before they traveled back to the ground and started moving again, pointing a reforming finger to Annabeth.

Annabeth gulped, taking a step back.

The rock finger crumbled, but as soon as it was a pile on the ground, it started reforming again into the Fouke Monster. The animated rock took a booming step toward her. Panic rose in her throat again, just like before, but she swallowed it. She stood her ground, even though its footfalls felt like thunder.

"I'm not a killer," she said. She could barely hear herself. "I will never be a killer. And I'm not a coward for it!" she shouted. The Fouke Monster stopped an arm's length away. It lowered its face. Lifeless red eyes met violet.

It's the Monster Hunter's job to protect the people in their country. Kill the monster, save the village. Annabeth was expected to continue her predecessors' jobs. She had to hold a weapon in her hand and orchestrate deaths.

She shook her head. "No. I could never do that. I would never do that." This will never happen again.

"I know who I am," said Annabeth quietly. "I'm the Monster Whisperer."

The rock Fouke Monster shattered. It reformed into a finger just as quickly and pointed at Maggie.

Out of all of the golem's creations, the one that it made for Maggie looked the most realistic. Maggie's challenge had been so heavily tied to rocks; it was almost fitting that they would hopefully be the last one now.

The golem created a cracked, almost broken statue like the ones that the group had fought earlier. It moved towards Maggie with slow, lumbering movements, nothing like the ones that had actually attacked them. It seemed like the golem was running out of strength.

Maggie stood there for a moment, almost as if they were thinking of attacking it. They moved as if they were ready to fight. Then their hands returned to their side, and in a tone of defeat that didn't make Hades feel all that good hearing, said, "I know I'm a bad person."

The rock monster crumbled.

And, with it, the rest cave—and the golem that had brought them there—started to, too. Hades felt a warm rush of magic and knew this was it.

This was the end.

"Good-" he started to say, but he never finished the word. Before he knew it, he was standing back in his palace in the Underworld, wearing clothes that were far more fitting for his world and time.

"You're finally back," Ares said, casually leaning up against a wall as he snacked on a pomegranate. "Everyone was worried sick. Hecate almost spelled herself to where you were to check on you."

"I'm alright," Hades said, with a small smile at the thought of his friends worrying so much about him. He hadn't wanted to worry them, but he had missed them in the time he was gone. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "It looks like I have some explaining to do."

The others, though Hades had no way to check, had all be returned to the places they were supposed to be.

And elsewhere, far, far away, a figure pushed itself free from the rubble of the cave and stood tall in the mist.