DISCLAIMER: Everything belongs to Rick Riordan and Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing.
.x.X.x.
THE BELL RANG just in time—Percy had been on the verge of just muttering "screw it" and jumping out the second-story window of his World Geography classroom. Letting out a sigh of relief and contentment, Percy stuffed his binder and textbook into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. The boy next to him laughed.
"Workload too much for you already?" he asked. Percy turned towards him with a grin.
"Nah, man. Well, maybe, but I'm really just excited about this weekend," Percy answered as they made their way to the door.
"Big plans?"
"You know it, Peter. I'm going to Washington, meeting Annabeth.
"Cool," Peter said. "How long are you staying?"
"Not sure," said Percy. "What are you doing this weekend?"
Peter cleared his throat, breaking his and Percy's eye contact. "Oh, you know, the usual. Hanging around. Stuff." He cleared his throat again. "My aunt is having guests over tonight, for dinner."
"Mr. Parker!" Percy and Peter turned to look behind them, where their English teacher was waving them down. "Do you have a second? It's about your last essay."
"Uh, yeah," Peter said. "Yeah, sure. See you around, Perce." Percy watched as his friend—only friend at this school, now that Annabeth had transferred—went to go speak with their teacher. Percy had always had a knack for making friends with the socially awkward.
He quickly made his way out of the school and to his house. He spent the next thirty minutes grabbing his stuff and heading off to where he was supposed to meet Nico, who was taking him to Forks by shadow-travel. It was a detail that Percy had been a bit worried about, as Nico's powers had been weakened dramatically after being kidnapped by giants, but he insisted—"What Will doesn't know won't kill him!"—and he did kind of owe Percy for sorting out the whole problem at camp and petitioning to have his cabin restored, so he had reluctantly agreed.
Percy met Nico in a deserted alley behind his apartment complex. "Hey," he greeted the younger boy, who nodded. Nico was wearing all black, as always, with a new aviator jacket.
"Ready?" he asked.
Percy grinned. "Definitely."
Nico rolled his eyes at Percy's eagerness. As he shuffled over to where Percy stood, a small piece of paper fell out of one of his pockets. Percy snatched it up; it seemed to be a sort of business card:
______________________
THANATOS
Underworld Traveling Agencies
Putting the fun in funeral since 900 b.c.!
Call 397-D3ATH to set up your trip to the Fields of Asphodel today.
Or contact via UTA.com
_____________________
Percy raised an eyebrow. "What is this?" Nico sighed.
"Thanatos asked me to carry around his card, just in case, give his business more publicity. For some reason, all of the other UTA workers seem to get more clients," he said, sounding bored.
"Okay, then," said Percy, absentmindedly stuffing the card into his jacket pocket. "We going or not?"
"After you," said Nico, holding out his arm with a grin—one that, despite him not meaning for it to be creepy, gave Percy the chills. After taking his cousin's arm in an old-fashioned manner, Percy nodded at Nico, and in the next moment the two of them were incased in darkness. The atmosphere became chilly, and there was a sudden swooping feeling in Percy's stomach, like when you're in an elevator and it begins to ascend quickly.
Suddenly, his vision was filled with light. Initially, after being in the pitch blackness for a minute, it was blinding. Blinking a few times, Percy's eyes adjusted, and he saw that he was on standing at the edge of a wood, right behind a small two-story (well, as small as two-story can get) with a mildewed, peeling paint job and dusty windows.
"This is where Annabeth's is staying with her uncle and cousin," said Nico. Percy nodded. After an awkward moment, Nico muttered, "Yeah, so, see you around, I guess."
"Yeah," said Percy. As Nico began to meld back into the shadows cast by the trees, he quickly added, "And thanks!" He wasn't sure if Nico had heard him or not.
Hefting his bag over his shoulder, Percy began walking towards the house. As he stepped out of the shelter of the trees, he realized that it was raining lightly—not that it would really bother him. He decided to walk around the front of the house, in case someone was home. It would probably still be considered rude if the house was empty, anyways. As Percy made his way around the house, he took notice of a police cruiser parked in the driveway. For a moment, he was confused, until he remembered that Annabeth had mentioned that her step-uncle was a policeman.
Once he made it up there porch steps, Percy knocked on the door. After a couple of seconds, it was opened by a man who looked to be in his late forties. He had curly dark hair and a matching mustache, both streaked with gray. His eyes were chocolate brown and narrowed at the sight of Percy standing in his doorway, and then flickered down to the bag in his hand. Percy cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Hi, um, does Annabeth Chase live here?" He cringed at his own choice of words. The man leaned back on his feet again, having to look up at Percy a bit since the teenager was a couple of inches taller than him.
"Who's asking?" he inquired gruffly.
"I'm Percy Jackson, Annabeth's boyfriend." He noticed a flash of recognition in the man's eyes, before he sighed.
"I'm Charlie Swan, Annabeth's uncle," said the man, stepping back and motioning for Percy to follow through the door. He did so quickly, glancing around the hallway. To his right was the door into a kitchen—painted yellow, of all colors—and to his left was an opening into a living room. "Annabeth isn't here right now, she's out with Bella—my daughter—and some of her friends. I forgot that you were coming today." Percy wasn't sure what to make of the way us enunciated the word friends. As Charlie closed the door, he glanced outside, and then grunted.
"No car?" he asked. "How'd you get here from the airport?" Percy froze, inwardly cursing himself for forgetting such a small yet invaluable detail.
"I, uh... taxi?" he said, though it came out as more of a question. "Yeah, rode a taxi," he decided.
Charlie blinked. "There aren't any of those around here." Percy inwardly swore at himself again.
"Weird," he said, before abruptly trying to change the subject with, "Lousy weather, huh?"
.x.X.x.
WHEN THEY GOT to the Cullens', Percy wasted no time in slamming Bella's truck door and storming up tot the front door, refusing to let his awe at seeing the huge house distract him. "Percy, wait!" called Bella, getting out of the truck. He ignored her and reached his hand up, about to pound in the door until someone let him in, but before he could, it was opened by a man who couldn't be out of his twenties, with blonde hair and odd onyx eyes. The man gave Percy a solemn look.
Bella joined the two at the front door. After glancing between them, she introduced, "Carlisle, this is Annabeth's boyfriend, Percy Jackson. Percy, this is my boyfriend Edward's father, Dr. Carlisle Cullen."
"It's nice to meet you, Percy," said Carlisle.
"You too," Percy said back shortly. "Where's Annabeth?" Carlisle motioned for them to follow him. As they moved down the hallway, Percy thought back to the reason he was here and so anxious in the first place.
Percy sat on the couch next to Charlie, having already put his bag in the spare room. He wasn't really paying attention the T.V. Not too long after he came downstairs, Percy heard the front door open, and then a girl came through the doorway to the living room. She had brown hair and eyes, similar to Charlie's, and looked about Percy's age. Her eyes landed immediately on him.
"Are you Percy?" she asked. He nodded. "I'm Bella, Annabeth's step-cousin. She asked for me to come and get you." Bella turned to Charlie. "Dad, we're having dinner at the Cullen's tonight, okay?"
Charlie grumbled something under his breath, before turning to his daughter and saying, "Alright. Be back by curfew." Bella nodded, telling Percy to come on. He obliged, grabbing his rain jacket from where he had decided to put it by the front door, since he would probably need it a lot.
They walked outside, where a vehicle Percy hadn't seen before was parked by the curb. It was a dusty red pickup truck. The thing seemed ancient, and when Bella cranked the ignition, it coughed a couple of times before roaring to life. She pulled out of the drive, and began to make her way down the road at a slow pace.
"Hey, Percy," said Bella.
"Yeah?"
"Um," she looked nervous. "Look there's something you need to know before we get there. I couldn't tell you at the house, Charlie was there. I really shouldn't even tell you. Heck, I shouldn't even know about this." She cleared her throat. Percy wondered where she was going with this. "Look, Annabeth was attacked."
Percy felt like his heart had stopped beating. He almost put his hand up to his chest, just to make sure. "What?"
"And what got her—it wasn't anything normal, like an animal or... or person." Monster, thought Percy. How could Annabeth, of all people—he didn't finish the thought.
"And now," Bella continued, staring intently ahead at the road, "well, now, she's not exactly normal, either." Percy almost snorted at that. When had Annabeth, or any other Demigod, ever been classified as normal? Then he let what she had said sink in.
"What do you mean?"
"You—you'll just have to see when we get there. They spent the rest of the ride in silence, which gave Percy's mind way too much time to think and—hopefully—overthink things. He got more and more anxious, and by the time they got to the Cullens, he thought that he might be sick if he didn't see Annabeth soon, learn what had happened to her, make sure that, at least to some, extent, she was okay.
Percy followed after Carlisle, going up the stairs as quickly as he could. They turned when they got to the top, went down a hallway, and into a room. There was already a large group of people in there, all looking expectantly towards the door. Percy didn't care about these people. His eyes roved around until they landed on a figure—he recognized those blonde curls. Annabeth stood at the far wall, perfectly still, with her head hanging down and arms crossed.
"Annabeth," he breathed.
"Hey, Percy," she said softly. Her voice sounded different than usual. Looking more closely at her, Percy realized that her skin had lost its deep tan, and was now pearly white. Then she looked up, and Percy gasped.
Her eyes were red.