Luke (sequel to 'Say You'll Remember Me')

Chapter 7

We ride the subway in a tense silence, with me not wanting to talk and Will not knowing what to say. What do you say to someone when you're on the way to see if their family is getting attacked by insurgents? The train is completely empty except for us, and somehow it makes time go by twice as slow. The connecting train takes 20 minutes to arrive, allowing me to spend even more awkward time with Will, the only addition was an oddly familiar, blind homeless man walking around the station.

Light floods out onto the sidewalk through the open door of the townhouse. It's 3:00 am, Norman would have went to bed four hours ago. We run up the steps and into the house. Everything has been destroyed.

The furniture has been overturned, the pictures torn down, the doors pulled off of the hinges, but it's all a blur on the way up the stairs. Norman is crumpled on the landing; I barely notice him.

Percy's door is pulled shut, and for a brief moment, I allow myself to have some hope that they left him alone. That's not the case here, I know who I'm dealing with, she doesn't care.

I fling the door open, and the room is almost the way that I left it earlier when I tucked Percy into bed. In fact, it might even be cleaner, now the bed is made. The bed is made, but my son isn't in it, there's only a note.

     Dear Luke,

13 years ago, you murdered me. It's not even worth explaining that this is appropriate payback. I have your son, and you are the only thing that can get him out alive. In two weeks, you will meet me at the gate of Olympus. There is no avoiding this, Luke, you will die. Either you show up and we sacrifice you, or my army will hunt you down and you will die cowering in a bunker with the rest of your kind, but only one option will allow your son to be released. Don't try anything, you can't escape your fate, Luke, not twice in in a lifetime.

Annabeth.