The Prince of the Dead

Chapter 1: I Go Into a Labyrinth

My life sucked. And when I say it sucked, I don’t mean that I

got a few C’s on my report card and that my friends all hated me,
and that my parents wouldn’t get me anything I wanted. That
was what sucked meant for a normal kid. Unfortunately, I don’t
qualify as “normal”. It’s quite the contrary.
Take my kindergarten class, for instance. We used to a have
a goldfish, that was bright yellow, and I quite demised it, and
everyone knew that. Everyone took turns caring for it. When my
turn came, I took it home and set it on my table. I started talking
to it, and I might have stated how much I hated it for being such
a color of yellow. Instantly, it turned black and died. Everyone
blamed me, but it wasn’t my fault.
And then, in third grade, I had no friends and everyone
would pick on me. There was this one bully named Tom. He
always wore small clothes, which was basically all the clothes in
the world, because, this guy was huge. He was in the third grade
and he was the size of a car. One day he was bullying me, and I
got mad and prayed that he would go away. Just when he was
about to make me give him my lunch money, a circle of darkness
formed around him and he was gone. Just like that. I got expelled
from that school.
Then, last year, I could have sworn our science teacher had
horns and goat legs, but no one believed me. Everyone thought I
was a dork. I had secretly taken an oath to never go to school
again, but here I was, on the first day of sixth grade, At Sir
Richard Lion Heart Private Academy, and I knew my year would
be miserable.
I was sitting in the corner, away from everyone else. I hated
people. People hated me. That’s why my best choice was the
corner. Beside me, was an average height guy, with long, black
hair which curved near the end. He had dark, tanned skin and sea
green eyes.
“Hi, my name is Oceanus”, he said in a crispy, yet smooth
voice, as if the sea itself were talking “You are…?”
“My name is Aeson, Aeson Leander”, I replied.
“I like your eyes. Are they really red?” he asked fascinated.
“Thank You. And yes they are really red”, I replied
Now, I am also very strange in appearance. I have red eyes,
Brown hair and pale skin. My favorite color is black, which is what
I always wear.
“What’s your last name?” I asked.
“It’s Apollon. Oceanus Apollon”, he replied.
 Then, our teacher walked in. He was six feet tall, his teeth
were kind of crooked and I could have sworn he had only one eye.
He wore a long sleeved red shirt with one big, black eye on it.
“Do you see his one eye?” I asked
“He has two eyes”, Oceanus replied in a shaky tone.
I scowled. I was mad at Oceanus, because I could tell he was
lying, but I let it go.
A few periods later, I was in social class, when my
“Cyclopes” teacher announced that we would be studying
Ancient Greece. Everyone groaned. We all knew that it was the
hardest subject, because all the names were alike, and they were
hard to remember. That day we learned the basics, like the Greek
gods of Mount Olympus, some basic monsters and the Titan Wars.
Oceanus seemed to know all of this, like he had studied it before.

The next few weeks passed painfully. We learned the names

of many confusing monsters and heroes. We learned about the
titan lord Kronos, and how Zeus killed him. We learned
everything. Then, we had our first test. I did my best, but I
couldn’t tell the difference between Hercules and the Hesperides.
I knew I would fail big time.
I didn’t make many friends either. There was Oceanus, but
the rest of the school seemed to enjoy bullying me. Especially
Amy Daniels, The biggest bully in our school. Most boys in my
class thought she was pretty, except for me and Oceanus. We
hated her. She was the most brattiest, repulsively ugly and stupid
girl in the world. She had a special liking in bullying me and
Oceanus.
Surprisingly, I hadn’t failed big time. I had actually gotten
96%. Oceanus had gotten 110%, because he had done so well.
A few weeks later, we had our first athletic day. It was
Greek style, so our teachers had given us actual Greek armor and
actual bronze, pointed swords. Oceanus had brought his own set
of armor and a transparent blue sword. The blade looked like it
was made of sapphires. The hilt had a small trident. It almost
seemed as if the sword glowed. Oceanus had said that it had
been a present from his father, which was weird because he only
lived with his mom.
We were expected to have sword fights and there was a
chariot race, in which Oceanus and I teamed up. He was good
with horses. I had to be the fighter. He had let me borrow his blue
sword, which felt heavy in my arm. While we were racing, the
horses had gone so fast, that I almost fell out.
At lunch we had a fake prayer to the gods and ate bread and
wine, which was actually fruit juice.
After lunch, we had an archery contest. Oceanus seemed
amazing with a bow. He said that he had some practice. It was
then that I realized that Oceanus might be as rich as the rest of
my school. My family wasn’t that rich. My dad was almost never
home and my mother hated me. I knew that I was adopted, and
that my mother’s actual son had died. My mother blamed me.
Sometimes I just wanted to run away.
After archery, one of our teachers dressed up as a sphinx
and asked us questions. If we got them all right, we were allowed
to have some time to rest, and practice for the labyrinth which
had been prepared for us. If we didn’t answer correctly, we were
put in a fake jail cell.
“You have been put into partners”, our principle announced.
“Whichever pair finds the Minotaur and brings it back, wins.”
She started announcing names, till she got to Oceanus
“Oceanus Apollon with Aeson Leander”, she said. She
finished the list and said “You have five minutes to prepare. If
you encounter another team, you are permitted to attack them. If
there are any injuries, the punishments will be severe”
Oceanus and I decided to use a string, like Theseus did back
in the labyrinth under the palace in Crete.
We saw Amy. She had been partnered up with Christopher
Lagona. He was another one of the stupids in our class. He kind
of seemed happy to have been partnered up with Amy. She
didn’t.
“Ready to get your butt whooped, loser”, she said in her
irritatingly high voice. Chris snickered. “Oh, I forgot, you have
your little pet Oceanus to protect you.”
“We’ll see who gets their butts whooped”, Oceanus replied
in a calm tone. I was about ready to pulverize her. Oceanus had
to hold me back
“Not now Aeson, you’ll get in trouble”, he told me. Amy
smiled maliciously then walked away.
After a few minutes, our teacher announced that we were
about to start. Each team had a different route in which they
would go. Sooner or later, all the routes crossed, so everyone had
a chance of encountering. We had tied the string to Oceanus,
because he was skinnier, and would use less string.
We walked in until we reached an open room with fourteen
exits, each with a symbol above it. How were we supposed to
choose between fourteen? But Oceanus seemed to know where to
go. He chose the third entrance from the left, which had a bolt of
lightning on top of it.
“Why are you choosing that one?” I asked him unknowingly.
“Because each one of the doors has the symbol of one of
the Olympian gods”, he replied. “The lightning bolt is the symbol
of Zeus. He’s the king of the gods. This is the way we go”
I didn’t argue. Oceanus was one of the most intelligent
people I knew. No, He was the most intelligent person I knew. The
door led to a long corridor. But at the end of the corridor, what I
saw made me angry. It was Amy Daniels, looking confused. Chris
wasn’t helping much. When Amy saw us she snickered.
“Well, well”, she said. “Look who we have here. Aeson and
his pet Oceanus”
That’s when I blew. I unsheathed Oceanus’ blue sword from
his belt, but he didn’t stop me. Then I charged at Amy. She was
so surprised by my sudden action that she just stood there. I
swung the blue sword at her. She ducked and took out her own
sword. I realized that Amy was a good sword fighter too. Chris
suddenly realized what was happening and he unsheathed his
own sword and swung at me clumsily. I had just parried a blow
from Amy, when Oceanus appeared out of no where. He blocked
Chris’ blow with his blue sword, which I could have sworn I had
taken. When I looked back at my hand, I was confused. In my
hand wasn’t Oceanus’ blue sword, but a black sword with a skull
on the hilt.
Amy kept attacking. I side-stepped a stab from Amy and she
swung at my head as I ducked. Then, she swung her sword so
hard that I was sure she had won. I swung too. I was about to let
go of my sword cause I knew it was going to fly out of my hand,
when my blade cut Amy sword.
I looked up. Amy was more shocked than I was. She backed
away and ran. Chris followed her. Oceanus stood beside me,
swordless. When I looked at my sword, I was just carrying
Oceanus’ blue sword. I was so confused that I decided not to say
anything. We walked past where Amy had been standing. We
came into a dark tunnel. There were two doors. One had a skull
on top and the other had a bloody sword.
“Those are the signs of Hades, the God of the Underworld,
and Ares, The god of War”, I said. “Which one do we go to?”
“The War god” Oceanus replied.
We walked into the door with the sword. It led to a corridor.
We walked in until we reached a door. It had a big, fancy, golden
“D” on it.
“This is it”, Oceanus said. “The minotaur is inside.”
“You say it like it’s the actual Minotaur”
He opened the door. Inside was a podium with fourteen
ledges. Each had a miniature statue of the gods’ symbols of
power.
“We have to put them all in order”, Oceanus said, a bit
unknowingly. “But twelve must always be on a ledge, and the last
one cannot move”
“How do you know that?” I asked
“I actually read the inscription.” He replied.
“Well, the last one must be Queen Persephone” I said.
 “Well, we need to put Demeter before her.” Oceanus said.
He picked up one of the symbols, the wheat and then he picked
up the trident beside Persephone and placed the wheat.
“Then come the grapes, for Dionysus.” He said. He picked
up the grapes and replaced them with the skull beside the wheat.
“After Dionysus comes the hammer, for Lord Hephaestus.” I
said, and Oceanus placed the symbol down on the ledge. Doing
this we reached Poseidon, then Zeus. As Oceanus placed the final
symbol, the ground shuddered. A new ledge emerged and there
was a coin on it. It had the face of the Minotaur on one side, and
a maze on the other. This was one of the coins from Crete, except
it was made of pure gold.
Just then the door behind us opened. It was Amy and her
stupid friend Chris. I followed my instinct and ran past her.
Oceanus and I just followed our string back to the beginning. Amy
had already made it back and her face was bloody. She was
crying. No one congratulated us. Everyone was focused on Amy.

Chapter 2

Amy was hurt pretty bad. Even though I hated her, I walked
up to where she was lying down to see how she was. As soon as I
got near her, she screamed.
“He did this to me”, Amy cried desperately. She pointed her
finger towards me. Instantly, I could feel everyone looking at me.
“He attacked me just when I was about to get the coin”
“No I didn’t”, I cried in protest, but no one seemed
interested. Then, our “Cyclopes” teacher walked up to me and
said, “Aeson Leander, come with me right now.”
He walked me into our classroom. Then, all of a sudden, he
began transforming. He grew fourteen feet tall. His clothes all
ripped, and I could see that he was strong. He wore no shirt or
pants, except for a loincloth. In his hand was a five foot club
made of pure metal.
“Die, Godling!” He said in a new, much creepier voice. He
swung his club at me. I ducked instinctively and ran for the exit.
The Cyclopes just smiled and snapped his fingers. The door
slammed close. That didn’t stop me from trying to open it. But it
was sealed firmly. My only chance was to destroy this monster. I
unsheathed my Greek sword, but it wasn’t the sword the
teachers had given us, it was the sword that I had used against
Amy. It was a four foot, solid black sword with a skull on the hilt.
The Cyclopes flinched when he saw my sword.
 “You”, he cried. “You are not any ordinary godling. I can
sense the death around you. Just another reason for Polyphemus
to destroy you boy!”. He swung his metal club, and I parried the
blow. Our weapons met with such force that it would have
destroyed any other sword, but this one was different. But
instead, it put a cut in the Cyclopes’ club. Just then the door
bolted open. There stood my friend Oceanus, in full Greek battle
armor, holding his blue sword.
“Aeson, watch out!” he screamed. I ducked. Oceanus
charged the monster, but just then, something happened. My
sword glowed black. The glow kept going, until it touched
Polyphemus. He screamed in terror. Before I knew it, the monster
was sucked into the darkness and the room was quite. I looked at
my sword, but it was just the Greek sword. I looked at Oceanus.
“We need to leave”, he said. “Now Aeson”
“Why. What was that! Why was there a CYCLOPES attacking
me. You knew about this didn’t you? What is going ON?” I
screamed. Oceanus looked me in the eyes. They were sea green,
and as calming as the sea itself. I instantly felt calmer.
“Aeson, there’s no time to explain right now. We have to
go”, He said. Oceanus walked over to the window and kicked it
open.
“Come on. There’s no time. I have to get you to safety.” He
said. He climbed out the window and I followed. He led me a way
through the city I had never seen before. Before long, we were at
my house.