Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus - the House of Hades

Annabeth IIII

As soon as Annabeth had found Percy, she calmed down right away.

I mean, I swear I had just left him right there, she had thought. Gods, Percy's these days. He had managed to roll quite a distance, face-first, into a rock. How typically sea-weedy.

But then he had made up for it, by coming up with a half decent solution as to getting out of there. Only problem was, Annabeth didn't see how they were going to get Imperial Gold anytime soon. They had Celestial Bronze from Annabeth's dagger. She didn't want to part with it, but she knew the blade was built on lies and had destroyed more lives than it had saved. However, if there was any way of sparing her weapon, she'd vouch for that.

And that was only half of their problems.

Annabeth had fallen asleep, resting on Percy's chest. She woke up groggily and rubbed her eyes. Gods, she thought, what I would do for a coffee right now. She lay there for a moment, just listening to Percy's heart and feeling his rugged breathing on her head. She wanted to be closer to him physically. She wanted them to verbally sit down together and talk about love, and for him to cuddle her from behind and spontaneously give her gifts-

Shut up, Annabeth, she thought. This is no time for being childish.

She got up and stretched, looking around. It was weird. There didn't seem to be any monsters around, in fact, Annabeth realised she had seen no other form of life in her time here. She shrugged off her feeling of unease, and bent down to wake Percy. She shook him gently.

"Mom? Blue cookies?" Percy grumbled before his eyes opened.

"Oh Gods, did I just say that out loud?" He cringed.

"Yup." Annabeth replied, sniggering. Percy smiled at her, and was about to say something, when his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. He was staring at a spot on Annabeth's arm.

"What?" Annabeth asked, but Percy didn't respond, "What is it?!" She said with more vigour, trying to spot the patch he was staring at, with no success.

Percy stood up slowly and lifted Annabeth's arm, revealing two, perfectly circular bite marks. They were two inches wide and bright red. Annabeth's vision tumbled and she began to fall to the ground. Percy caught her and lowered her onto the ground.

Percy softly left Annabeth resting on the rocks, and began delving into her rucksack. After a few moments of pain so intense Annabeth could see spots, he retrieved a small first-aid pack.

"Annabeth, shh," Percy's comment made her realise that she was making quiet whimpering sounds, like an injured animal, "Just don't focus on the bites. Think about anything else."

He sanatised the wound and began wrapping and dressing it, but Annabeth's mind was somewhere else. Her body contorted in pain and her mind was a buzz of voices and throbbing. It sounded like a screamo concert inside her head, as if her ears would start to bleed. But the more she focused on it, the more unbearable it became. So Annabeth thought about camp half-blood. She thought about all the summers she'd had there and all the training, which had made her the demigod she was today. She thought about her future as an rchitect. Beautifully crafted buildings with unbelievabley complex dimensions and creamy ivory complexions, basking in the shimmers of light radiated by a honey sunset, the golden colours dripping from a molten core. Holidays. She sighed with longing to see a crystal blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

And then she was bought back to the present by the feeling of hands pressing her temples.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked. He smiled with relief when she opened her eyes,

"Well, i've dressed and cleaned the wound, but that's not going to provide any pain relief-"

"It's fine, Percy. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Annabeth assured him.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Annabeth, the bite looked pretty bad. When you closed your eyes, there was this grim white grossness coming out of it. I had to re-cleanse it. I think we need to go and...like, find something."

Annabeth's mind was suddenly a whir. She realised something. She quickly prayed to the Gods that she was wrong.

"The white fluid. Percy, this is important. Was it dense? Or milky?"

Percy thought for a second. "It was really, really liquidey. Like milk, yeah."

Percy saw the look on her face, and was instantly worried. He grabbed her shoulders.

"What? What is it?"

"I think...when I stopped thinking about it, the pain went away. Because...there's something inside my head, something that I can hear when I listen closely. The white stuff was release fluid." Annabeth said all this with a straight face, but after she'd said it realised the extremity of the situation.

"Holy crap." Percy gulped, his mouth ajar. "You mean...there's a creature...inside your head?"

Annabeth nodded. His worst fears had been confirmed.

"We need to start moving. Now. If there's some brain domination creature roaming around here, we've gotta dash." Percy said. Annabeth nodded. She wasn't going to complain.

Percy grabbed her rucksack and slung it over his shoulder, before taking her hand and sprinting away, with her in pursuit.

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