[JASON GRACE]
Thalia wasn't coming home for Thanksgiving. How could she not go back to her family for Thanksgiving?
He did understand why. She didn't want to see her alcoholic mother or fucked up brother. But he needed her more than ever. The fact that she didn't care made Jason much madder.
He had to find out how Annabeth knew her. Maybe Thalia babysat Annabeth when she was younger but that seemed unlikely. Thalia hated raising her own brother, she wouldn't want to babysit.
He picked up his phone, calling Annabeth. He had all of his friends' phone numbers.
It took a moment for her to answer but thankfully she did. "Hey, Jason. Everything okay?"
"Yeah, uhm, I need to ask you something."
"Okay?" Annabeth said, sounding worried.
"How do you know my sister?"
There was another few seconds of silence. Then Annnabeth hung up.
[ANNABETH CHASE]
He found out. How did he find out?!
Annabeth paced back and forth. Her dad, stepmom and brothers weren't home, thankfully.
She'd have to see Jason again- at school, wherever. Now he knew.
Just then, there was pounding on the door. Annabeth wanted to hide, but that never got her anywhere in life.
She took a deep breath and opened the door, Jason was already there though it had only been a few minutes. Annabeth knew he didn't own a car, so he must've ran.
"Jason-"
"You need to tell me everything, Annabeth," the urgency in Jason's eyes made Annabeth realise she had no way to hide the truth.
[JASON GRACE]
Annabeth let him come inside. She seemed to be there alone. She told Jason to sit down on the couch.
"So," she eventually sat down beside him. "What is it you want to ask me?"
"Well- how do you know her?"
Annabeth shook her head. "I really don't want to talk about it."
Jason was about to get furious. "Wh- okay. Okay. I can go."
"You don't have to I just- need a minute."
[ANNABETH CHASE]
She tried to think of the best way to tell the story. The best place to start.
"So, uhm, I haven't talked about this in a long, long time but you deserve to know."
Jason didn't say anything, just watched her, waiting for her to say more.
"When I was in second grade, I ran away. My home life is okay now, honestly. Back then was different."
Jason nodded. "Second grade. You were very young."
"Yeah, I was," Annabeth sighed.
"That also would've been the same year Thalia ran away."
Annabeth took a deep breath.
[JASON GRACE]
She took a deep breath.
"How did you find Thalia?" He asked.
"Well, technically she found me," Annabeth wouldn't look at Jason. "It was in middle of the night, about two days after I ran away. You'd be surprised how far a seven year old can travel in two days. Anyway, I knew police were looking for me, so I was hiding in an alleyway. It was in the middle of winter and it was freezing, all I had was my pyjamas from the night I left."
Jason kept listening- barely even daring to breathe.
"Then I heard these people running down the alleyway. I hid behind a dumpster, terrified. Honestly, I wanted to go home. Nothing could've been worse than sleeping in those dumpsters alone." Annabeth kept pausing, taking shaky breaths. Jason instantly felt terrible, he shouldn't have pressurised Annabeth into any of this.
"They had the same idea as me, hiding behind the dumpster. They were running from cops."
"They? Who's 'they'?" Jason asked.
"Thalia and-" Annabeth's voice broke. "Luke."
"Luke? Who's Luke?"
She shook her head. "Just listen."
[ANNABETH CHASE]
[flashback to seven-year-old Annabeth, hiding behind a dumpster]
She was shaking, her arms wrapped around her, trying to keep the cold out of her ripped pyjamas. People were running down the alleyway- straight towards the dumpster she was hiding behind. Annabeth closed her eyes, gripping onto the hammer she found. She knew there were terrible, terrible people out there.
The people- there was two of them, Annabeth could tell, though she could barely see in the dark alley, jumped behind the dumpster, right beside her. She had to stop herself from screaming. No one would ever help her.
The two people were out of breath, peering around the edge of the dumpster. Annabeth looked around the other side, seeing two cops run straight past. One of the people sighed in relief.
"It's getting worse, Luke," the first one said. She was a girl. The other one, Luke, was obviously a boy. They hadn't noticed Annabeth yet, though, so she gripped onto the hammer, ready to raise it when-
The boy turned. Even in the dark, his eyes seemed to glow. As far as Annabeth could see, they were different colours. One was bright blue, while the other was a hazel colour- almost gold. He pulled out a knife, before the girl grabbed his arm.
He seemed to realize Annabeth was just a kid. The girl pulled out a phone, turning on the flashlight. Annabeth was about to hit one of them with the hammer when the knife boy grabbed it.
"Hey," the girl said. "It's okay, we're not going to hurt you. Are you lost? I'm Thalia. This is Luke."
[END OF FLASHBACK]
[JASON GRACE]
He kept listening to her tell the story. Meeting Thalia and the other guy- Luke.
Annabeth had tears in her eyes. "I found out Thalia was from around here, too. Luke was from Connecticut. He was two years older than her, being fourteen at the time."
Annabeth wiped away the tears. "Anyway, Thalia decided they should look after me. I looked and smelt horrible. Luke said I'd slow them down, but he gave in."
"So you stuck with my sister and that guy?"
Annabeth nodded. "We became like a family-" She looked at the expression on Jason's face. "Sorry."
"It's okay."
"Uhm, so, we stuck together. Everyone was searching for me and Thalia by now, a lot of people were searching for Luke, too. I saw interviews of my dad and stepmom when hiding outside an appliance store-" Jason sensed Annabeth was ready to sob. "It made me realize how much they cared about me. I was seven, feeling neglected. But I had an even better family now, with Thalia and Luke. Since Luke had more freedom, he'd go to stores. Sometimes people would recognize him, but he always got away."
"How long did this go on for?" Jason asked.
Annabeth shrugged. "We usually stayed in the woods. We'd build a small campfire. Thalia had this phone. We'd charge it as much as possible. Sometimes, if there was enough battery, she'd play music. Luke hated the phone, thinking it could be used to track us. I guess he was right."
[ANNABETH CHASE]
[flashback to seven-year-old Annabeth in the woods, around a campfire with Luke and Thalia]
It was around February. Annabeth had plenty of new clothes that Luke had bought or stolen. Thalia wrapped Luke's leather jacket around Annabeth for even more warmth.
There was music playing quietly. They were very deep into the woods, no one would see the campfire. Or so they thought.
Thalia was resting her head against Luke's shoulder, laughing for the first time in a while. Then they heard footsteps.
"Turn off the music," Luke whispered urgently. "I'll go see what's up."
"You aren't going there alone," Thalia said. "That could be a murderer, for all you know."
Annabeth watched them argue back and forth quietly.
"Whoever it is will see our fire," Annabeth said.
Luke looked over to her. "Right. Thalia, you come with me. Annabeth, stay close but stay hidden. And take this."
Luke handed Annabeth the knife. She got rid of the hammer long ago, but Luke kept the knife. 'Just in case'
"You can't just give her that-" Thalia said.
"We need to appear weaponless," Luke whispered back. "She'll be fine. She's smart for her age."
The footsteps got louder, so Luke and Thalia started walking towards them. Annabeth followed, hiding behind trees, gripping onto the knife.
When Annabeth saw the person, she knew they were done for. A cop. He was going to recognise them instantly.
"Thalia Grace and Luke Castellan?" the cop asked. At this stage, everyone knew they were travelling with Annabeth. "Put your hands up. I'm taking you back to the car. Don't run. It's going to be okay. Where's the other one?"
Luke and Thalia put their hands up reluctantly, but didn't answer the policeman.
"Where is Annabeth Chase?"
"Gone," Luke said. "She's not with us."
"Alright, alright. I'm calling backup to search these woods for her."
Annabeth knew she'd have to act fast to save her family. She gripped onto the knife and sneaked out of her hiding space, being so quiet she was practically invisible. Once she was close enough, she ran and stabbed the cop in the foot. She was strong enough to get through his shoe. Luke grabbed her and started running with Thalia. Far, far away from the woods.
[END OF FLASHBACK]
[JASON GRACE]
He could barely believe it.
"You stabbed a cop in the foot and escaped?"
Annabeth nodded. "I wasn't proud of it. It was actually pretty traumatising. But yeah. We escaped for another while."
"You said everyone knew you were travelling together. I never knew. I didn't know anything about Thalia's whereabouts."
Annabeth shrugged. "I guess you were kept away from any source of news. Not many people in our school know either, though, so I guess it was the police who knew the most."
"Oh," Jason said. "So, what happened then."
Annabeth looked even more sickly now. "Luke started changing."
"What?"
"He wouldn't stay in one place for more than a day. I was exhausted. I was hungry. Everything smelt. Thalia got her first period. Even though it was around April, it was still freezing at night. Luke just wouldn't let us stop. One night I was really moody. I was being a brat. I started kicking him and shouting at him. He told me to be quiet, that we'd get caught. I didn't listen. Then he hit me."
Jason opened and closed his mouth, not knowing what to say to that. "I'm- so sorry."
"Thalia screamed at him. She hit him, too. After that he was more distant, though he apologized. He started threatening people for food or money. He'd use the knife more often every day. It was starting to get scary. By May, he was threatening me and Thalia with the knife."
[ANNABETH CHASE]
This was the hardest part of the story. She couldn't even tell any therapists she'd had about the whole thing. Their little family fell apart completely.
"Thalia wanted to go home. Go back to New York. I don't even know where we were at the time. Georgia, maybe? We'd been to a lot of places. Thalia wanted to see you, though."
Jason seemed to straighten. "She did?"
"She talked about you a lot, she really did. Luke thought the idea was too risky. Thalia insisted. We'd be able to get supplies. Part of me wanted to visit my own family, too. I missed my dad. I hadn't seen him in over six months. Thalia told Luke she was going home whether he liked it or not. He pulled out the knife, which I was getting used to at this stage."
Jason shook his head. "No."
"Thalia said he wouldn't do anything, he was just pretending. He cut her. It wasn't really deep, but it still happened. That night, the second Luke was asleep, Thalia and I ran. Straight to the police. We
didn't care anymore, we wanted to go home."
"So, you gave yourself in? After almost seven months?"
"Yeah, I guess. We were both sent to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. Thalia went to stay at your dad's place for a while. I went home, though I was getting questioned by social workers a lot. My dad and stepmom thankfully kept custody of me. I had to repeat second grade, though I didn't care about school. I was traumatised. I wasn't allowed to see Thalia."
"I remember Thalia coming home in August," Jason said. "I didn't know she'd stayed at Dad's. I was just happy she was alive, though she was different. She went to high school and stopped coming home as often when she was in college. Now she's graduated and I haven't seen her for almost a year."
[JASON GRACE]
Out of nowhere, Annabeth hugged him. Jason thought his brain was going to explode. He came for answers but was still confused. He hugged Annabeth back, though.
"I hope she's doing well. It's been ten years," she said.
"I hope she's doing well, too." Jason closed his eyes.
"She cared about you a lot," Annabeth whispered. Jason opened his eyes again. "What happened to Luke?"
He regretted asking. Annabeth had been crying a bit, but she looked on the edge of a mental breakdown now.
"I don't really know. He's in prison for theft and probably other things. I don't know when he'll get out."
"Oh," Jason said. "And that phone Thalia had? Did she throw it away after the cops tracked her?"
"No, she kept it. I have no clue where it is now, though. Maybe she has it at her house."
"Maybe," Jason said. "Thank you, Annabeth."
"I'm glad you know. Please just keep it quiet."
"Yeah, of course."
Annabeth hugged him again.
"I better get going. Thank you again. And I'm sorry for everything."
"You don't have anything to be sorry for. Bye, Jason."
"Thanks. See you at school."
• • •
Jason walked towards the exit of the apartment complex, past apartment three which he knew was Percy's. Unfortunately, Percy was walking into the complex, probably just finished work.
Jason nodded, hoping Percy wouldn't ask questions.
"Woah- Grace. What are you doing here?" Percy asked.
"I was just talking to Annabeth about uhm, physics."
"Physics?"
Jason nodded. "Physics."
Percy didn't seem to believe him. "Okay, I actually have to go home now-" he pointed to apartment three. "Bye."
"Bye,"
Percy walked into his apartment and closed the door with a little too much force.
———
Word Count: 2382
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A/N: wooooooahh Rachael updates this is a shock
Sorry for the amount of Jason and Leo and 0% of everyone else 😔