You're Not Getting Away From Me

CHAPTER THREE: The Flashback

Annabeth's POV

The morning after Percy threw us both into the ocean, all of the campers were crowded around Thalia's Pine. Our dragon guardian didn't really understand what was going on, but he sure was picking up on the camp's excitement. He was spewing fire dangerously, nearly torching some angry tree nymphs. Yikes.

I was standing with Grover, waiting on Percy who had overslept (imagine that).

"So was college awesome?" Grover asked me. I really hadn't got to talk to him personally yet.

"Yeah it was! New Rome has beautiful buildings and..." I trailed off so I wouldn't start another architecture rant. Or as Percy calls them, "Annabeth's Annoying Architect Adventures."

"It was really great just to spend time with Percy, too, without having to worry about quests and saving the world and all that demigod stuff."

"Oh I bet. So how have you guys been doing?"

He didn't say it, but you didn't have to be a child of Athena to know what he meant: How are we doing with post-Tartarus life? Nightmares? Flashbacks? Hallucinations? I sighed.

"Fine, I guess. It's been better the past few years than, because we were together all the time." Percy and I shared an apartment in New Rome, right off of campus, and in high school I lived with him and his parents. "Sometimes we'd wake up from a bad dream, or we'd have a relapse, but we always calmed each other down... eventually at least." Grover just nodded, but I barely noticed because I was thinking about the worst time...

I was in Arachne's cavern again. This time she wasn't alone. Thousands of spiders of all sizes scurried around and underneath of her. I was so terrified to the point where my brain felt numb, but unfortunately not my throbbing ankle in it's bubble wrap splint. Arachne was talking but I couldn't make out her words through my fear. I tried to use my wits to get myself out of this one, but I couldn't. I couldn't think, let alone speak or fight. Arachne finally grew irritated with me and sent her minion spiders up to me. I tried screaming, but no sound came out. They crawled across my feet and up my legs, into my cast and shoes. Then Arachne herself started skittering towards me. I was starting to hyperventilate, thick ribbons were tightening around my chest. I started to helplessly thrash...

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed, horribly high pitched. I sat up and flailed around, becoming tangled in the sheets.

"Annabeth! Stop! I'm here, you're-" Percy was saying but I grabbed onto his shirt and hysterically yelled.

"They're probably in the sheets, they're everywhere!" I screamed at Percy, grabbing his hand and pulling us both off of the bed onto the ground. My eyes started to show me what I feared, spiders crawling all over the walls, in the bed, across the floor towards Percy and I. A small part of me knew it wasn't real, but the fear was too strong. I screamed again and jumped into Percy's arms, kicking and telling him to kill them all. He just carried me to the bathroom and turned on the bright light and set me on the counter, still holding me close.

"Shhh, it's okay, it's not real, you're with me, you're safe, calm down..." he whispered in my ear over and over again while I sobbed into his shoulder and held on tight. "Look, there is nothing in here except you and me," he said slowly. I opened my eyes and looked around cautiously, realizing that he was right. My sobbing became whimpers and sniffs and I relaxed my grip on Percy's shoulders slightly. He was still rubbing my back comfortingly while neither of us said anything.

I knew it was irrational but I told Percy anyway, "I don't want to go back out there."

"Then we won't, okay?" I hugged him tighter for saying "we," like he wasn't going to go back to bed and leave me in here alone. "But we do need to sleep." He picked me back up and carried me to the bathtub. He climbed in with me in tow and laid down to go to sleep, one arm behind his head and the other to lay across me protectively while I laid my head down on his chest. Only my Seaweed Brain would sleep in the bathtub. I took a deep breath, telling myself Percy would protect me from anything, and tried to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, Percy still asleep and both of us still in the tub, I realized how stupid I acted. I groaned in embarrassment, waking him up. He quickly started to reassure me again, which only made me feel worse.

"Annabeth, I'm right here, it's okay-"

"Perce, I'm fine now" I said guiltily.

"Oh, good," he replied, relief running across his face. He pulled me closer and started to go back to sleep.

"I'm sorry I acted so dumb, I overreacted and I'm sorry you had to spend the night in the bathroom-"

"Don't be sorry! It's not a big deal and I'm glad you're okay and didn't have anymore nightmares. Anyway, you would do the same for me." And I knew I would.

I was pulled back into reality when none other than the Seaweed Brain himself came running up behind me to give me a hug. I hugged him back, still a little shaken from the memory.

"About time, dude!" Grover said, playfully punching Percy in the arm. "Thought you fell in the Cabin 9 traps again!" The Hephaestus and Hermes cabins had thought it would be a great idea to set up "playful" traps all around camp. It was just wonderful to worry about getting suspended in a net or trapped in a metal cage that dropped from the sky every step. They said it was for the Hunters when they arrived (something about finishing that feud the Stolls and Phoebe had started?) but so far the only person who had been caught was Percy.

Percy opened his mouth to defend himself, but before he could attempt to, a black van came rolling up over Halfblood Hill.

"CAMP JUPITER!" everyone shouted.

Then a dozen silver arrows pierced the trees around us and girls in silver outfits jumped out at us before we could recover. I barely got to yell Thalia's name before a semi-truck with the Amazon logo appeared practically out of nowhere.

"Holy Hephaestus' hand grenades, did they plan their entrance?" Percy demanded.

"Probably," I replied laughing.

Halfblood Hill was a mass of teenagers yelling, hugging, joking, and already teasingly bashing each other. This summer was going to be absolutely fantastic, I thought to myself, but I didn't even imagine the best part that was yet to come.