“Percy, great news!” Annabeth ran into the infirmary, grinning brightly. “Sally’s coming to see you!”
Percy didn’t move, but seem to smile lightly at his mother’s arrival.
“Great.” he said in a soft voice. Annabeth looked at him with a worried glance, but left the cabin to bring Sally into the infirmary. At the same time, Frank walked in.
“Hey, Percy.” Percy moved his head slightly. Frank took that as a gesture for himself to continue. “So… how are you feeling?” Frank said, hoping to spark up a conversation. Percy looked up in such a ghostly way that it scared Frank to the bone.
“I don’t know.” Percy drawled. His voice was dead without emotion. Frank shivered but carried on.
“Um… Aren’t you happy that your mom is coming?” Frank didn’t really notice his own voice shaking a bit. Percy lowered his head, trying to find words.
“I am… but… it’s like there’s some sort of barrier shutting me out. And all that is left is fear of that memory.”
Frank was about to ask more but stopped himself, not wanting to stimulate Percy’s emotions again.
“So… um… Sally's coming, now, and… yeah. You should be happy. Just saying.”
Percy looked up into Frank’s eyes, an unfocused green meeting brown.
“Does it even matter anymore now?”
That final sentence shocked Frank to the core, and at the same time, Sally Jackson jolted into the infirmary, staring straight at Percy’s bed.
"Percy? Is that you?"
Percy looked up, staring at his own mother with misty eyes.
"Hi."
Sally frowned at his emotionless voice, looking at him with a confused look.
"Percy, is something wrong?"
Percy shifted uncomfortably under his mother's stare.
“Nothing is wrong.” he replied. His trembling voice betrayed him.
Sally moved closer to her son’s bed, sitting at the end of his bed.
“You sure?”
Percy moved closer to his mother, forging a smile.
“Yeah.”
Sally pulled him over into a warm hug.
“That’s good, Percy.”
Percy buried his face into his mother’s long brown hair and breathed in the familiar smell he has always loved since he was a kid.
“I missed you so much, Percy.”
Percy smiled. The first real smile in days.
“I missed you too, Mom."
“You’re not escaping this time, demigod.”
That voice.
That man.
Percy shivered, as he cringed slightly in his mother's embrace.
"Percy?"
“I guess you didn’t notice that blood really suits that handsome face of yours, would you like me to add some more?”
He felt his limbs grew colder, as the memories flooded his mind, the voice repeating constantly in his head. He was shaking so furiously, as terror overcame his senses, and Percy Jackson passed out.
"PERCY!"
“Let’s play a game, Percy Jackson.”