Who We Used to Be

Chapter 7

"A-A-Angela's in th-th-the back room", he said, eyes wide and hands up.

Nico cast a look over his shoulder and Thalia and Percy. They seemed to communicate together with just their eyes, because after a few moments, Nico nodded and suddenly reared back, hitting the man in the temple with the butt of his knife hard before dropping his limp body on the ground none-too-gently.

They followed the sounds of laughing voices and music to a room at the back. The door had been left cracked open, and light poured out into the otherwise dark apartment.

"Nico, you want to do a search? She might just be sleeping in her room or something", Thalia asked, sounding painfully hopeful. They all knew that that wasn't true and that whatever was going on behind the door in front of them also somehow involved Angela.

Still, Nico did it anyway. And just as they suspected, the soul of Angela Garfield was located inside this room along with all of the other living souls in the apartment.

He shook his head, and Thalia sighed despite herself.

"Come on, guys. Aphrodite wouldn't have sent us here if it wasn't urgent", Percy said in one of his rare moments of seriousness.

She nodded seriously and a determined expression took over her face. She sheathed her knives on her thighs and unslung her bow from around her back, notching an arrow and pulling it back slightly so she would be prepared.

Percy opened the door and walked inside, and what he saw there immediately made rage bubble up inside of him.

A pole had been installed in the center of the room along with a sort of stage, and four men were standing around it. All had alcohol clutched in their hands and were obviously drunk. They hooted and hollered and occasionally shouted vulgar comments at the poor girl dancing that just made Thalia's blood boil.

But what made her fire the first arrow right through the neck of one of those men, was the young girl curled slightly in on herself wearing clothes far too inappropriate for her age.

This was obviously Angela.

The arrow pierced straight through the neck of one of the men who had been standing above her and trying to grope her while she futilely tried to escape from him.

He reached up to grasp at the arrow and turned around to look at the three of them standing in the doorway in surprise, but he was unable to get out any words or shout any sort of warning before he keeled over, dead, with a pool of blood steadily growing beneath him.

Two throwing knives streaked across the room soon after, each accurate to a point and hitting their targets in the eye and across the throat respectively.

Percy simply walked up to the closest of the men to them, who had at this point realised what was going on, and unsheathed Riptide, simply thrusting it straight into his chest as soon as he turned around. The man's eyes widened, and he immediately went stiff. He clutched at the sword that stuck through the front of his torso and out the other side, only serving to make more cuts on his hands. In just as smooth of a movement, Percy removed Riptide, cleaned it, and sheathed it again at his waist while the now dead body of the man slumped to the ground to join his friends.

The heavy, shaky breathing of the two women left in the room was the only noise as they stared, wide-eyed at the now dead bodies of their tormentors. Tears dripped from Angela's eyes, and sobs raked their way passed her lips as she began to hyperventilate.

Thalia was immediately by her side, comforting her and assuring her that they were there to help her not to hurt her.

Nico rummaged around the room, turning over the now dead bodies of the four men and feeling for any weapons they had on them.