Missing

Iris Messaging

“Hi Sally.” I smiled as she looked up. Sally always seemed to cheer me up. She was just so nice.

“Hello Annabeth, dear. Who are your friends?” She asked, gesturing to the people behind me.

“Oh! This is Jake, Will, Clarisse – who I think you’ve met before – Chris and Travis and Connor Stoll.” I said while pointing to the respective campers.

“Hello Ms Jackson.” They chorused.

“Hello dears. Please, call me Sally. ‘Ms Jackson’ makes me feel old.” I smiled at this. “So how can I help you Annabeth?”

“Um, I was just wondering…” I then realised that I hadn’t thought this plan out very well. What was I going to say? Oh, Percy went missing a couple days ago and we were just wondering if he was with you. That might scare her to death. Then again, what else was I going to say?

“…if Percy was with you. Like if he had happened to just pop over and stay with you recently.”

Sally’s smile faded and her happy expression was covered with one of worry, “No. Percy isn’t here. Annabeth, what’s happened?” Her face was now a mixture of deadly seriousness, and heart-breaking worry.

I couldn’t hold it in. How could I keep this from Sally, probably the one person in the world that cares for Percy more than me?

Wow. I sound like a lovesick daughter-of-Aphrodite. As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I knew it was true. I cared about Percy, a lot. And I knew he cared about me too.

So I emptied it all out. I explained everything that had happened in the past few days. The other campers filled in the little details that they knew but it was mainly me talking.

I tried my best to not get emotional but by the end of my little recount, my stomach was churning from all of the emotions stirring up inside me. I could feel myself slightly shaking.

Hold it together.  I told myself. For Sally’s sake.

I focused back of the image of the woman in front of me. Sally’s face had paled and she was shaking violently. Next thing I knew she dropped her pen and burst out crying.

We all just looked at the Iris-Message in front of us. We waited patiently for Percy’s mother to calm down.

She eventually regained control of her senses, “I’m…I’m sorry.” She said in between sniffles, “It’s just…is he really gone?”

I nodded my head sadly, “Yes.”

“But don’t worry Ms – I mean Sally! We’ll find him!” Travis exclaimed with such enthusiasm that I laughed.

Even Sally cracked a smile, a sad, half-hearted smile, but still a smile, “I’m sure you will. I believe in you kids. You saved Manhattan for crying out loud. I know you’re capable of this.”

“Thank you.” Will replied.

Sally took a deep breath and almost seemed back to her old self. “No, thank you. Now I should let you go. Find my son.”

And with that, she waved her hand through the mist and her image disappeared.

I stood up a little straighter, with new found incentive.

I was going to find Percy, not just for me, but for Sally too.

“Well that didn’t really get us anywhere…” Conner noted.

“Anybody have a next move?” Chris asked

“What about Percy’s dad? I know he’s a god and stuff…but you’d think he might know about one of his only sons…” Will answered.