The Bread Thief | Percabeth | Victorian Era AU

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕹𝖎𝖓𝖊: 𝓐𝖘𝖘𝖆𝖘𝖘𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘

Annabeth paces in her room. Anne is downstairs cleaning the kitchen...ish. She says she is not a housegirl so she will only clean as much as it takes for the house to not look like a pig-sty and not a speck more.

Luke is supposed to be in the room any minute. She practices keeping her breathing steady so Luke will not sense her lies. He has to know that Annabeth was the one to steal the bread and not Percy. Because no one would have seen Percy swipe bread. Annabeth told him that she would bring him food and he could not steal anymore.

She hears her window open and spins around. Her friend is standing on the bedroom floor. "Luke," she greets.

"Annabeth." He walks towards her. "Let's continue our conversation." His lips flick up into a smile. "How would you know Percy didn't steal the bread?"

"Why would you lie to my father? That's punishable by death," Annabeth tests. "Trying to get out of our marriage?"

Luke's smile wavers. "Of course not," he says quietly, scoffing. "Stealing is also punishable by death."

"Only if you get caught."

Luke's brows raise. "You're saying you stole the food Percy got blamed for?"

Annabeth laughs. "No, I admit nothing. I did not do anything I deserve to be killed for."

"Maybe not something you deserve to be killed for, but something that you would be killed for." Luke crosses his arms. "If you did something, you can tell me. I will help you get out of this."

As Luke walks towards Annabeth, she steps back towards her pillows, forcing herself to keep a straight face. "There's nothing to get out of."

"Why are you backing away from me?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Are you scared?"

Annabeth scoffs. "I don't get scared," she says. "I have a very important question for you, it will determine something very important."

Luke laughs. "Why do you sound so . . . cynical? What are you going to do, kill me?"

She slips her hand under her pillow and pulls out her dagger. She shoves it into Luke's throat before he can say anything else. She lets out her suspiration and cringes at the blood on her shirt.

"Boys are always so messy," she mutters. She hears a scream from downstairs and dashes to the door before looking back at Luke's body. "Uh . . ." she wonders out loud. "Eh, fuck it," she sighs as she moves down the stairs.

She walks into the kitchen and Anne looks at her with blood across her cheeks. "Oh, hello," she says.

Annabeth's gaze moves to the body spilling blood on the ground and she stares at it for a minute before laughing.

Anne cocks her head. "I don't really know how funny it is," she says. "Wait, why are you covered in blood?"

"I killed Luke," she says simply.

"What?" Anne asks, laughing. "Why?"

Annabeth shrugs one of her shoulders. "Two reasons. I wasn't originally going to kill him, I was going to turn him in for lying about Percy, then the Magistrates would have him killed, but then he looked at me and said, 'What are you going to do? Kill me?' so I killed him."

Anne sighs. "What's your plan?"

"First, I am going to go upstairs and change into pants because now the two main men in my life who told me what to wear are dead," Annabeth says. "Then, I'm going to impersonate a man and demand to see Percy, knock out the guard, and free Percy."

"You really think that is going to work?" Anne asks, almost mockingly.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "I know that place like the back of my hand. The back door only has one guard and the two guards that are supposed to be guarding the cells are always either asleep or smoking the lungs out behind the prison. Percy is in cell three, according to my dad's logs, which is the first cell inside the second corridor. I practically grew up in there."

Anne's eyebrows raise. "Why were you in there as a kid?"

"Nobody kept eyes on me. Most of the gangs know me by the first name because when they would get caught I would bring them cheese and water because prison food sucks."

Anne laughs. "You brought gang members water?"

"I am a smart person because today, they are helping me break Percy out and as I'm standing here blabbering to you, they are disarming the guards with the knife I left outside their cells and the key I put under their pillow weeks ago."

"Oh my God," Anne says. "You've been planning this for weeks, haven't you?"

Annabeth sighs. "Just a little bit. I was waiting for the right time." Then she walks up the stairs and pulls on a pair of work pants and a baggy shirt, and leaves her house behind while she walks to the town jail with Anne.