Nico grabbed Will's and Rachel's arms and dragged them to a corner.
"Explain, Rachel," the son of Hades glared at the oracle. Rachel sighed and started to explain from the very beginning from the registrar's office to the hallway.
"So, what Will told me was true." Nico thought out loud.
"I was so confused. Like, if Percy was alive all along, why didn't he contact us first?" Rachel questioned.
"Rachel, the word about Annabeth's death must have impacted on him. Of course he would cut off ties for a moment," said Will. "But we didn't think he would actually do it forever. We've asked nature spirits everywhere with Grover's help. And even with Grover having an empathy link with Percy, he said it felt like it was -- shutdown."
After hearing Will's explanation, he knew he couldn't risk of just letting the son of Poseidon leave. He needed a plan.
"Let's follow him." Nico blurted out suddenly.
The two demigods gave him a stare and confused looks.
The son of Hades looked at the two and raised an eyebrow. "What's with the face?"
"Nico, what do you mean we should 'follow him'." demanded Will.
"Look, ever since we've been finding Percy, we didn't even get a single trace except this. This is our only chance to get some answers to why Percy hasn't contacted us for like, a long time, and we need to know where he is residing right now," said Nico. "Last time we tried to find Percy, we went to Sally's place and surprise. When the door opened, it wasn't Sally nor Paul."
Will sighed and Rachel grunted in agreement.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's follow our demigod."
From afar, thunder rumbled and now started a downpour. The citizens of New York ran for shelter while others took out there umbrella. The lights of vehicles shines through the droplets and the pavements started to reflect.
The young man Perseus walks through the path, the water didn't seem to brother him. Around him most people seemed to glue their eyes at him, perhaps wondering how he is dry.
Perseus continued to walk. He didn't dare to look back. He knew he was being followed by those two curious demigods and oracle. He had to keep moving and at least try to loose their tracks. He needs to plan.
Perseus took a few rights and a left. He stopped by as he saw McDonald's. He entered their premises and went in line. Outside still continued to pour. This was because of his emotions. After the fall, his powers gave themselves a boost up to their prime. Sometimes, Perseus himself gets confused with this phenomenon. It's as if his powers has a mind of its own, it was impossible controlling them. Or possibly it was because of coping mechanism? Self mechanism?
He was taken out of his thoughts once he felt the presence of the three beings that were following him. 'Dam. I wanted to buy a Mac,' he thought.
Perseus left the line, and instead, he goes to the back and went inside the male restroom. The door behind him was closed, but he knew in any moment, the people following him were going to gang up on him. So, with no other choice, he let his powers out a bit to chill and relax.
Under his command, bit by bit, the molecules around Perseus changed. Within the blink of an eye, he was suddenly outside his apartment.
A sigh left through Perseus. He knocked on the door three times like before. The door opens and a suddenly impact hits Perseus.
"Percy! You're home!" A voice of a little girl called him.
"Estelle! What a surprise! Where's mom?" Perseus drops down to his knees and ruffles the little girl's head.
Estelle smiles at him leads him inside. "Mom's at the kitchen. Dad's home by the way and mom's baking the third batch of cookies!" At the sudden mention of said cookies, the aroma of freshly baked cookies conquers the room.
"Last one to the kitchen is a rotten egg!" Exclaimed Perseus as he dashed to the next room.
"Hey!" Follows the little girl.
"Percy, you're home! Here, take some cookies," said Sally.
"Thanks mom." Said Percy. Percy grabbed one of the freshly baked cookies and took a bite. He was followed then by his sister as she took two, munched on one, and left for the living room.
"So how was school?" Asked his mother.
"Well, same as usual. Nothing new."
Sally shakes her head, "you say that every time."
Percy grins and took one last bite.
As he swallows his last cookie, the door bell rang.
'Huh... Thought I lost them..' He thought. "I'll go get it!" He says.
Perseus left the kitchen and heads for the front door. Instincts were kicking as he neared the door. His brain was screaming that something was wrong, but he didn't mind. He pushes away the thought and turned the door knob. Once the door opened, he was greeted with pain scattering across his left part of the face.
"Maledizione! (1) We lost him!" Angrily screamed Nico.
"Calm down Neeks. We will be able to find him again." Reassured Will.
"We can't be so sure, Will! He might not even come back to Rachel's new school!" Nico dropped himself onto the infirmary bed, grabbed a pillow and screamed on his. His screams being muffled.
Moments before, the trio were on the lead in following Perseus, but once the rain started to pour, he was gone from there sight. Rachel bid farewell to the two as it rained and Nico and Will went to a near alley to travel back to Camp.
"Don't worry Nico. Pretty sure he'll come back. Rachel will call us by then if he does so continue," says the son of Apollo. "Now come on, let's change. You're sogging the bed."
And true to Nico's words. After that day, Rachel came back to school confused as Perseus didn't enter and the students questioning whether she was mad or not. Somehow, Perseus J. Blofis disappeared from the face of the earth, once more.
Perseus fell to his back as he was thrown to the floor. His left face was burning and blood oozed out. The door slowly creaked open and what greeted him was the Chimera.
Perseus gritted his teeth and pushed himself up. He struggled but kept his balance. The Chimera pounced and Perseus dodges the attack.
His left hand was still on his left face, he no longer felt burning, but there was still minces of the pain left. Looks like his powers were recycling his blood and was healing his face slowly.
He gritted his teeth. Perseus dashes to the next room, he runs for the nearest drawer and opened it. Inside laid a golden dagger. After the giant war, he told his mom to keep at least one of the weapons he took from Camp Jupiter, the camp for the Roman demigods. He was once placed there for a prophecy, his early memories before he came across the camp weren't so pleasant.
A growl detaches him from his mind, and from the other side of the room, the Chimera crept slowly toward him. He grabs the dagger with his right hand. He faces the Chimera.
A clap suddenly catches his attention. The Chimera wasn't alone. In fact, it brought a foe.
"Perseus Jackson. A pleasure to meet you again." A sweet voice laced with malice said. Echidna walks inside the room.
"Echidna. How did you find me?" He demanded.
"Oh, what a such ferocious young answer, boy. I hate it." She hissed.
"Well, it happens when the King of the Gods suddenly throws you off like trash for believing a rumor. Now what do you want?"
"You don't know boy?" Echidna laughs mirthlessly. "And here I thought you'd knew. We have been searching, your kind and mine. Zeus," Echidna paused, "has decreed for you head!"
Perseus face hardens. 'As expected. Took that asshole too long to interfere.'
"I'm not surprised. He is still as paranoid as ever."
Echidna laughs, "haha! A thing we could agree on,"she smiles. Her smile darkened, her eyes glued to Perseus'. "Now, Perseus. Come to me. Be a good boy now and come so I could have that head of yours."
He scowls at her, he grips his dagger and his knuckles turned white.
"And if not," Echidna grins darkly. He moves to the side, and behind her, Dr. Thorn, or also known as the manticore had his shard tail on his sister's neck. He held her high, a hand behind her neck.
"Don't touch her. Leave her alone." Perseus growls.
"P-Percy..?" The sad whimper of Estelle catches him. His eyes lands on her. She had blood stains on her clothing, her hair was messy and it had a bit of blood in it. Her face was too, covered in blood.
"Estelle..." He whispers.
Tears formed in Estelle's eyes and ran down her cheeck.
"Percy. Mama and Dad...they..." Estelle let out a sob. Dr. Thorn's hands gripped her neck tighter which resulted her to choke while sobbing.
"No! Leave her!" He screamed. He gripped his dagger harder now, he felt sweaty gripping it. In fact, his body was heating up, he feels it.
"Ah, ah, ah. We won't unless you come to us willingly." Echidna said sweetly.
Perseus looked between Echidna, the Chimera, and the manticore, and to his sister.
Without a thought. He grits his teeth, he threw his dagger fast and dashed. But he wasn't lucky. The Chimera pounced on Percy before he could even get to Estelle. A satisfying crack filled the air and a loud thump made his mind stop. Everything stopped.
His world was crumbling a part. First his girlfriend. His first love and only love. The love of his life. Next were his parents, being killed in front of his young sister and his sister following them to Hades as her body slumped on the ground, her neck bent in a perpendicular angle. And finally, his life. His life was taken away from him. And the root of all this was Zeus. That name was like a plague in his mind. Whispers and voices slowly erupted themselves inside his mind, telling him to kill Zeus, to end Zeus, to end the gods, to end Olympus. He wanted to laugh. He was going insane. This wasn't meant to happen, right? Right?
Perseus snorted. Echidna's eyebrow raised. Dr. Thorn frowned.
"The boy has gone mad." He grumbled.
"And you're right. I just did." A chilling raspy voice said.
As Thorn made eye contact with the pounced demigod, his body began to heat up. He felt his blood boiling. Echidna looked at him in horror. Her eyes widened as Dr. Thorn's face began to bubble and steam and suddenly, Dr. Thorn's head was no longer a part of his body. The remaining body thumped onto the ground and it began to disperse into ashes.
Echidna began to shake in terror as she watched the headless body of the manticore began to turn into ashes. She held back a screech.
Suddenly a loud roar aroused. Echidna quickly turned her head toward her son who was pounced on top of the demigod, to be found that his body was sent on to the side, his eyes was gouged out and he was turning to dust as well.
The demigod who was used to be on the ground now stood tall in front of her. His right eye glowed green behind his bangs, his left was nothing but the sclera of his eye was red of blood and his pupil as well. The cut her son made was healed but it left a scar that started from his left eye down to his jaw.
"You..." She gasped. "What did you do?"
Perseus face crept up a smug-dark grin.
"You took what is left of me," he said darkly. "And now I take what's yours in turn. Let it be known that even if Zeus had asks for my head, I fear nothing he brings forth into my path."
Suddenly, everything inside Echidna started to boil. Her blood was boiling, rapidly. She felt her face bubble, her skin, her head. Her eye sockets began to swell her eyeballs slowly gouging themselves out as if it was being pushed out from the inside. Which it was really is. The bubbles in her body began to pop. Each bubble popped and popped, golden ichor spilled, and it evaporated as if it was like everything was hot. Everything started to go downhill.
In front of her, Perseus glued his eyes on hers and did not leave his. Everything around Echidna started to turn and turn. Her world was spinning, dimming. Her ears began to ring and unknowingly to herself, she started to scream.
Moments after moments with the slow, painful torture, Perseus had enough and finally decided to pop of her head. She was getting annoying.
Perseus looked around his surroundings. It was a mess. Blood was almost everywhere. Eventually, foot prints of Dr. Thorn with the blood of his parents were on the floor.
Perseus sighed. He lost his faith anymore and his sense of mercy. His eyes lingered onto Estelle's body. His sister didn't deserved this. So did his mom and Paul. So did Annabeth.
His anger started to wave over him. Everything started to shake. He knows that this was his powers doing. But he didn't mind it. He had no time to bury his family.
Perseus walked close to Estelle's body. He kneels and kisses her deceased body. He took out three drachmas from his pocket and place it in her stomach.
"Give this to Charon, will you? This is enough for you, mom's, and Paul's ride to Elysium," he pauses. "Have a safe trip. Tell Wise Girl I give her my regards. Tell them all, I promise you vengeance."
He stood up and one last time, as everything started to shake rapidly and more furiously, he looks at his baby sister's corpse. He says one las time before he left, "may the odds give me strength."
News reporter: Are we live?
Camera man: Yes.
News Reporter: Great. Good evening folks! Live right now here in New York City, this is Lordis Perez your local news reporter reporting for News America! Now as we all know earlier from now, NYC has just experienced it's one of the worst magnitude earthquakes in history! Surprisingly, not a single building was collapsed except for this one behind me. Locals said that this building was used to be an apartment complex before it was destroyed. The fire department just now had just announced the list of casualties that was resulted from this peculiar occurrence. A number of five deceased, three out of two were one family while the other two are currently labeled as unknown. Fifteen injured and one missing.
Perseus J. Blofis, a teenager turning eighteen next month had disappeared during the earthquake. The police department has identified him as a family member of the three deceased. His whereabouts are still unknown 'til now, and authorities believe that his body is somewhere buried among the rubbles of the collapsed building. But most locals believe that he is alive, stating that before the earthquake had occurred, a strange things happened inside his family home. Rumors among them that it was him who killed his family for murder, in anger for his mom marrying a guy, who are both identified as Sally J. Blofis the author of The Divine Thief and Paul Blofis an English teacher of Goode Highshcool. Mr. Blofis was his step-father after the last one disappeared which also most of the neighbors of the old apartment complex, where the mom and son used to live, believed that the boy Perseus has got to do something with his first step-father's disappearance as well. At the same time, the locals here thinks that this son of Ms. Blofis also killed the youngest in act of anger and jealousy.
Well, this is all for now folks! Stay tune for more updates of the current events happening right now. Once again this is Lordiz Perez, your reporter for tonight, here, in News America!
Sounds of ambulances and fire trucks rang through the labyrinth called New York City. Moments has passed after the earthquake. Before the building could even collapsed, Perseus willed the molecules around him and took him back to the restroom of the McDonald's he left earlier.
He left the room and head back to the front and stopped in front of the counter.
"What can I get for you?" The person behind asks.
"One Big Mac please. Add one coke large and a McFlurry too."
The person behind the counter nods and types in Perseus' orders.
Perseus grabbed his tray and went to his seat. He sat down and opened his Big Mac. He took one big bite and savored the taste. He took a sip of his coke and continued for another bite later.
As he finished his meal, Perseus got up and walks toward the glass doors of the fast food restaurant. Before he leaves, he looked back and eyed the CCTV camera that was looking at him.
He glared at it before he opened the glass doors. The last of Perseus Jackson or Perseus J. Blofis has gone.
For now.
A/N
So, what do you think? It's late and my head was blank writing the news part. Anyways, until next chapter! Byye.
(1) Damn it