Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.

The thing about death is that it's never easy.

The afterlife was definitely nothing like what I had expected. It was crowded and confusing. And honestly, I was still so disoriented from my death that I was still struggling with the idea that I was in the afterlife.

The afterlife. I was dead.

I'd been alive only minutes ago, and now I was dead.

It was the weirdest feeling in the world; knowing that I was dead but not actually knowing it.

Someone on my left shoved me roughly as he—she? Ghosts didn't really have color to them, and their faces and bodies were so blurry I couldn't really tell their genders—and stood up suddenly.

"Hey! Watch it!" I snapped, finding myself being pushed into the crowd of people on my right. I was completely ignored.

Glaring and swearing vengeance under my breath, I tried not to get swept up by the sudden movement of the people around me, as they all surged to the front.

"What the fuck?" I muttered, both puzzled and annoyed as I kept getting thrown further and further to the back as everyone else herded like a stampede and crowded near the bank of the river. I couldn't see what was going on, and I was too short to see over the heads of the people in front of me.

Voices exploded into a cacophony of sounds as people clamored for someone at the river that I couldn't see. It was so noisy that I couldn't even discern the words they were screaming, and it was just a jumble of shrieks and shouts that fought their way over each other; getting louder and louder as each voice struggled to be louder than the last.

This is so stupid. I thought to myself, irritated that I had no idea what was going on and that I had nearly been trampled on a mere ten seconds ago.

"SHUT UP!" A voice roared over the ruckus, effectively silencing all the shouts. I sighed with relief at the blissful silence.

"Finally." It was a deep, nearly monotone voice. "You mortal ingrates never know how to behave in an orderly fashion. I suppose I'll have to do my job now."

Viciously shoving and elbowing my way to the front, I finally burst out at the front of the crowd, only to see an old guy wearing a really expensive looking suit. There was a rather long, thin boat floating on the river, and the guy held the oar, standing on the edge of the boat and was facing us.

"Now," He was saying in a bland tone, "I want the ones with the most money to come up front."

Um. What. Where the hell was I supposed to get money? And what did he even want money for anyway? Was this some kind of scam? I was still pretty sure I was dead.

"Why?" I asked, raising my voice so the weird guy would hear me.

He gave me a long, mildly annoyed look that showed just how insufferable he thought I was. It was akin to the look people usually gave to flies. "Why what?"

"Why do we have to give you money?"

Rolling his eyes, he looked towards the ceiling—sky—whatever was above us—and sighed heavily. "You do want to find a place for your soul to rest, don't you?" He left out the word "dimwit" but it was implied.

A surge of anger rose in me. "How the hell was I supposed to know that? I just got here."

"Oh, I'm sosorry." The weird guy said sarcastically. "Now if you don't have money, get out of the way. I only give a ride to those who can pay me."

What a money-grubbing fucker. I flipped him off and sulked as a bunch of people rushed to the weird guy and gave him their credit card numbers.

A soft voice sounded at my elbow and I jumped, surprised. "Hey. You're new here, right?" I looked down to see a kid who looked to be about six or seven.

"Uh, yeah." I stuttered, a bit taken aback that there was a child here. "That's right."

The little boy laughed. "It's okay, I had no idea what was going on at first either. But this nice old lady told me about it right before she left."

I frowned. "Left where?"

"The Judgement Pavilion." At my uncomprehending look, the little boy continued. "The guy on the boat is Charon. He takes us over the River Styx so our souls can be judged. We'll either get placed in the Fields of Punishment, the Fields of Asphodel, or Elysium."

I blinked slowly. "Okaaaay. I still have no idea what you're saying, but keep going."

"We're not really in the afterlife yet. This is kind of like a waiting room." The boy's voice dropped and I practically see him wilt. "Some people have been here for centuries."

"Jesus." I said, raising my eyebrows. "That sucks."

The boy nodded in agreement. "That's why everyone's trying to get on the boat."

Yeah, there was no way I was going to get stuck in some kind of waiting room for a few centuries. I would be bored out of my mind, and my personality was too high-strung for a couple hundred years of waiting. This was even worse than airport security and the waiting room at the doctor's office.

"So we just have to give him money?" I asked the boy, my hand automatically going to my pocket, before I could remember that I was dead and probably didn't even have a wallet.

Shockingly, my fingers brushed against the familiar leather of my wallet as the boy nodded. I pulled it out and stared at it, not quite believing and understanding how my wallet had gone with me to the waiting room of the afterlife.

Maybe my phone would still be here too. My hand went for my other pocket and I couldn't help a small exhale as I felt cool metal.

Now reassured by the fact that I'd apparently carried my stuff over with me to the afterlife, I opened the wallet, and sagged with relief when I saw that all my money was still there.

"Hey, kid." I gestured at him with my wallet. "Thanks for the info. I'll see if I can get us both on the boat."

"Really?" The kid lit up like a latern, and I couldn't help but smile at his excitement. I briefly wondered how long he'd been waiting here and strode up to the weird guy, Charon.

The boat was nearly filled, and there was a big mass of people on the side that had been rejected because of their lack of payment.

I tried not to wince at all the people who were being left behind because—believe me, when I say there was a lot of people, I mean there was a lot.

"Got room for two more?" I waved my wallet at Charon and he squinted at me. "How old are you, kid?" I scowled and answered. "Seventeen." He nodded. "Got a credit card?" Wordlessly, I pulled it out and handed it to him.

The card kind of just…dissolved in his hands, and he stepped aside to let me and the little boy on the boat.

We took up the last two seats.

(I tried not to look back at the people left on the shore as the boat drifted away. One woman was screaming and crying.)

The boat was heavy with silence, and the echoes of the people's cries still haunted the air. "That's pretty unfair, don't you think?" I addressed Charon with my question.

He spared me a brief glance and went back to his rowing.

The lack of a response didn't discourage me in the slightest, and I kept talking. "I mean, look at all those people that you left behind. How long have some of them been waiting? The whole system's pretty messed up. What if someone didn't have their wallet with them when they died? Why do you want all this money anyway?"

There was a pause as I stopped to take a breath. No one was paying attention except for the little boy, and he gripped my hand tightly.

"Why are you still talking to me." Charon said dully, not really caring about anything I'd just said.

I could feel my temper rising again at his dismissive attitude. "Oi, you asshole! This whole thing is messed up and I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to drown you in the river someday!"

Charon turned and raised an eyebrow. "Are you really complaining when you got on the boat without having to wait at all? I only take passengers every few years, you know. So I wouldn't be saying anything if I were you."

The little boy's grip on my hand tightened and it was the only thing that stopped me from standing up and socking the jerkwad in the face.

I huffed furiously, biting my tongue to hold back all the swear words that were just begging to be spoken.

"What's an asshole?" The little boy asked me quietly. The question was so naïve, so innocent, that I burst out into laughter, all the anger and tension melting away from my body. We were all dead, for fuck's sake, and that was seriously one of the last things I'd expected to hear as a dead person.

Laughter poured out of me, and I laughed and laughed until my sides hurt. Everyone was giving me strange looks, but I didn't care.

I was dead. I was only seventeen and I was dead.

I didn't want to be dead. But I was dead, and I was dead.

My laughter subsided into half broken dry sobs, and I had no tears to cry. I was—I didn't know.

I was never going to feel the sun against my face again, never smell the mouthwatering scent of fresh baked bread, never play League of Legends, never talk with my friends—the list was endless, and I was stuck in the afterlife for the rest of my soul's existence.

I turned to the little boy. "It's nothing, kid, it doesn't mean anything."

He cocked his head and stared at me, looking somehow too old and too solemn for a child. "Okay." It was a look that spoke a story, telling me of the long, lonely years he'd spent waiting for the boat to come.

The rest of the ride was silent, and I stared over the edge of the boat at the depthless, pitch black waters of the river.

I'd never seen a river with black water before, but apparently it existed. (In the afterlife, of course.)

Everything was still and achingly empty, as if we were leaving everything that made life life behind as we crossed the river. There was nothing but the feeling of the little boy's hand wrapped around mine, small and fragile, but strong.

I gripped his hand as tightly as he gripped mine, and we stared out into the Unknown.

A/N: I was looking through viria's pjo tags on tumblr, and I saw an alive!Bianca drawing, and the feels hit me like a train. And then I decided I wanted to write about the di Angelo siblings, so this fic was born.

(Kudos to anyone who can guess the reference I put in the last line!)

Anyway, yes, this is another SI/OC fic that I'm shamelessly writing. I am by no means a great writer, but I just like writing these, so I'm writing them. (I'm not that well-acquainted with PJO, since it's been a while since I've read the series, and I usually stick to the HP fandom, so please let me know if there are any inaccuracies. I also apologize for any inaccuracies in advance. Honestly, everything I'm using is from the PJO wiki.)

And sorry if I've offended anyone with my kind of frequent usage of "God" and "Jesus". Those are expressions I hear a lot in my daily life, so it just got incorporated into my writing. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything.

Anyway, thank you for reading and please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions!