[1] 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 ― p.jackson ✓

010.

"is that a bad thing?... the rambling?"

"talking about something your passionate about is never a bad thing."

and somehow- the made the funny feeling return stronger.

sometime after midnight, annabeth came up on deck. she seemed a bit more rested and a lot less seasick. she greeted cadie with a smile (which cadie found herself smiling back to). they'd just passed a smoking volcano island, and the sea bubb;ed and steamed around the shore.

"one of the forges of hephaestus," annabeth explained, "where he makes his metal monsters."

"like the bronze bulls?"

annabeth nodded, "so let's just go around....far around."

they steered clear of the island without a second thought, and soon it was just a red patch of haze behind them. percy frowned, as if he was realising something. he looked to annabeth, a curious look on his face, "the reason you hate cyclopses so much... the story about how thalia really died.... what happened?"

it was still dark, so it was hard to see her face, but cadie sensed she had a confused look-like she wasn't so sure of what to think anymore which probably was a concerning thing for an athena kid. they were always so sure, they were always confident in their thoughts, but the look of pure confusion really showed something to cadie. or at least that's what she took from it- that perhaps annabeth chase was finally disagreeing with herself. that perhaps she'd had a change of heart when it came to cyclopses... or at least to tyson, anyway.

"the night of grover escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns," she said finally, "the worst wrong turn was into a cyclops's lair in brooklyn."

"they've got cyclopses in brooklyn?"

"cyclopses probably are specified to one place, percy," whispered cadie.

"uh... anyways," annabeth said, "this cyclops- he tricked us. he managed to split us up inside this maze of corridors in an old house in flatbush. and he could sound like anyone. just the way tyson did aboard the princess andromeda. he lured us, one at time. thalia thought she was running to save luke. luke thought he heard me scream for help. and me ... i was alone in the dark. i was seven years old. i couldn't even find the exit."

she brushed the hair out of her face. "i remember finding the main room. there were bones all over the floor. and there were thalia and luke and grover, tied up and gagged, hanging from the ceiling like smoked hams. the cyclops was starting a fire in the middle of the floor. i drew my knife, but he heard me. he turned and smiled. he spoke, and somehow he knew my dad's voice. i guess he just plucked it out of my mind. he said, now, annabeth, don't you worry. i love you. you can stay here with me. you can stay forever."

"that's some horror movie shit," shivered percy, with cadie nodding along.

"what did you do?" asked cadie.

"i stabbed him in the foot," she simply replied.

cadie and percy's jaws dropped.

"you?!"

"seven? you were seven?"

"gods, annabeth, that's badass," gasped cadie. "i mean.. stabbing a cyclops... an adult cyclops in the foot?"

"oh, he would've killed me," annabeth explained, "but i surprised him. it gave me just enough time to run to thalia and cut the ropes on her hands. she took it from there."

"yeah, but still," percy said, "that's brave annabeth. really brave."

she shook her head. "we barely got out alive. i still have nightmares, percy. the way that cyclops talked in my father's voice. it was his fault we took so long getting to camp. all the monsters who'd been chasing us had time to catch up. that's really why thalia died. if it hadn't been for that cyclops, she'd still be alive today."