Annabeth PoV
"Hey Annabeth do you want a cookie?"
Cookies. Percy loved cookies, especially his mom's blue ones. Those were definitely the best cookies she'd ever had. Sally is a great cook. Was, Sally was a great cook, she is dead now so is Paul and Percy would probably join them soon if he hadn't already.
Percy, that's all that I had been thinking of-all that I could think of-for the past week. Percy, my Seaweed Brained childhood best friend with his hypnotic Sea-green eyes and his annoying smirk that would make my heart do flips.
"Annabeth!" I was broken out of my stance by my mother shaking me. "Annabeth are you okay?" She asked me worriedly.
"I-I am fine mom I was just thinking..."
"About your friend Percy, I presume, Poseidon's son." She said the last part out with slight bitterness in her voice. It turns out my mom and Percy's dad hated each other.
"Yeah."
"So they haven't found him yet?"
"No, they haven't the wildest clue of his whereabouts." I said sorrowfully. "For all we know he could be dead by now."
"Oh Annabeth I am sure they'll find him alive."
"Yeah well I'm not." I snapped. I picked up my backpack and got up from the dining table to leave, my breakfast lying untouched on my plate, I wasn't really hungry anyway. "I'm late for school."
With that I was out the door.
Under normal circumstances I never would have the guts to snap at my mother and then walk away like that. But I was stressed and scared and worried for Percy. So many different possibilities spinning around in my head, so many questions that were left unanswered.
Where was Percy?
How was he?
Was he even alive?
Would all the searching just lead to nothing?
Will we ever find him?
What if we're too late?
All the questions and possibilities made my head ache.
I didn't get it, why does it always have to happen to Percy? Why are the fates so cruel to him? He's been through so much already, he's seen things no one should ever have to go through let alone someone like him. Yet he just couldn't get a break.
He was such a sweet guy, he'd never hurt anyone, he never did anything wrong to deserve this. He was the nicest guy I had ever met. He'd saved me from the biggest bullies in school and he hadn't even known me. He had befriended me when everyone else had shunned me away. He had helped me and been there when I'd needed him.
I brushed a stray tear from my cheek as I rounded the corner and found myself in front of my school. I looked at the big grey building and felt my head throb harder. There was no way I would be able to get through a whole day of school. Nuh-uh not happening.
"Annabeth!" She turned around to see Thalia standing beside her. Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked like she hadn't had a good night's sleep in months. "You look horrible."
Usually she would have laughed but today all she said was "You're not winning any beauty contests either Thalia."
"Whatever." She said rolling her eyes."I can't take school right now."
"Yeah me either."
"Wanna skip and grab a coffee or something instead?"
"You know, what the hell I'm in."
We decided to go to the Starbucks round the corner. We sat there for the first couple of minutes just sipping our coffees and making small talk. We both knew what we really wanted to talk about but we were also trying to avoid the subject as much as possible. I wanted to pretend for a while that all this drama wasn't going on. That I was just a normal girl with a normal life out with her normal friend for coffee. Did that even make any sense?
"We're going to find him aren't we?" Thalia asked slowly. It was obvious she was starting to lose hope. I wanted to reassure her, to tell her that we would find him and that everything would be alright and that I was sure it was going to be fine. But then I'd be lying, both to her and myself.
"I-I don't know Thals." I said as truthfully as I possibly could without hurting Thalia. We had grown really close over the past few days and I really didn't want her to worry even more than she already was.
"I just can't believe how Luke could have done that. I mean just betraying Percy's and mine and everyone's trust like that and for what? Why would he do that? It's just not like him you know."
"Were you two close?" I asked her.
"Um I guess..." she said blushing furiously. "I-I don't know."
"You liked him didn't you." I said realization dawning on me. "Oh Thalia I am so sorry for you."
"No don't be I'm fine. It's Percy we should be worrying about. I mean who knows what that psychopath is doing to him right now."
I said nothing at that partially because I didn't know what to say, but mostly because my thoughts were back on Percy and the nightmarish things that he could possibly be going through right now. The thousands of possibilities were swimming in my mind making my headache worsen.
Suddenly Thalia's ringtone broke the tense silence that had build up between us. She picked her phone up from the table and frowned looking at the caller I.D.
"What do you want Death Breath?" She asked. Her eyes widened as Nico spoke on the other line.
"Okay um we're at the Starbucks around the corner from Goode you can pick me and Annabeth-Yes she's with me-up and we can just meet Uncle P over there. Okay see you in a sec. Bye."
"What happened? Is everything okay?" Thalia's face split into a huge grin.
"Everything's more than okay Annie." She said slowly. "They know where he is. We're getting Kelp Head back."
"Okay, let me get this straight." I said from the back seat of Nico's car. Me and Rachel sat beside the doors with Grover squashed in the middle between us. Nico was driving while Thalia had claimed shotgun. We were on our way to an abandoned old building where Percy was supposed to have been kept. "Luke called Poseidon and told him where Percy is, just like that."
"Yup." Nico said popping the 'p'.
"What's the catch?" I asked.
"That's what I said when he told me but Uncle P said there wasn't any he just hung up right after telling him. Though Uncle P did say that he sounded really scared and kinda guilty. Okay we're here." He said finally stopping in front of an old building with dull grey walls.
Cop cars stood in front of the entrance along with a sleek blue car-Percy's car-and a big black one-his dad's- and cops were running probably getting ready for an ambush. Poseidon saw us and ran over.
Nico opened the door and was about to step out but Poseidon held his hand up, stopping him.
"No you don't." He said sternly. "None of you are getting off this car. Understood."
"But Uncle P-" The cousins protested.
"No!" He said firmly. "I let you come here but that's it. You are going to sit here and wait while the cops and I get him out and arrest the bastard. I can't let any of you get hurt."
"How come you get to go in?" Nico asked.
"Because I'm his dad." He replied. "Now I'm going to go in and you are all staying here. Understood." There was silence as we watched Poseidon turn around and head inside with the cops.
We sat there for a few moments after the cops and Poseidon disappeared inside the grey, abandoned looking building. But it wasn't abandoned. Inside that building, somewhere, was one Percy Jackson, hopefully.
The silence grew heavier by the second as we waited with baited breaths. I could tell none of us really wanted to stay here, we'd all rather be in there looking for Percy. But we couldn't, or could we.
"Okay this is enough!" Thalia said. "I'm going in." she opened the door and stepped out.
"Wait for me!" Nico and I exclaimed getting out too.
"Guys wait!" Grover protested as he and Rachel stepped out behind us. "It's dangerous and we could just create more-" But we never found out what it was that we could create since right at that moment a loud bang echoed from the building. A gunshot I realized.
"Okay I'm going in." Thalia said running inside. There was no protests this time as we were all too busy following her lead. We ran through the empty corridors whipping our heads in all directions trying to determine where the shot had come from.
A minute or so of wandering around, another shot rang through the air. We all stopped short as we realized the sound had come from the door at the end of the hallway that we were currently standing in the middle of.
Eerie silence hung in the air as no one dared so much as blink. A moment passed, then another and nothing happened. I steeled myself and took careful steps forward. My footsteps rang through the hallways as I slowly approached the door.
I was scared of finding out whatever had happened just moments ago in that room but I needed to know. I knew that, but it didn't make it any easier on me.
I stood in the doorway and gasped in shock. I am not sure what I had expected to see when I had stepped into the room but what was in front of me right now was not it.
A few feet in front of me lay the seemingly lifeless body of a tall, burly, brown-haired man-Atlas. Near the end of the room Luke Castellan lay, his eyes wide open staring off into nothingness. And lastly, kneeling beside him ws none other than Percy Jackson.
He stared unblinking at me, his eyes dull and broken, a small handgun clutched in his right hand.
"P-Percy?" I said in a questioning tone, my voice cracking slightly. He didn't reply, just kept staring.
"Percy, are you okay?" I asked but he kept staring. I walked over to him and shook him hard. "Percy!" I said panic starting to creep inside me. But yet again there was no answer as his no longer sparkling-green eyes kept staring over my shoulder.
Is that considered as cliffhanger ending? Oh well whatever.
Good news for all: Expect quicker updates!
You see a summer is almost over I wanna get the story finished soon as I might not have enough time from next week onwards to write. So yeah that's cool. But the story will soon come to an end which saddens me a little. I'm gonna miss this so much.
Well anyway, till next time.
~Scarlet