Annabeth PoV
"Hey Wise Girl." Percy croaked out and a smile spread across my face but it disappeared as soon as it had come as the next second Percy started coughing hard. I panicked for a second looking around I saw a plastic cup and a jug sitting on the bedside table. I quickly grabbed the cup and poured water into it before handing it to Percy, who held it with a shaky hand and took a long drink.
Once the coughing had subsided Percy gave me a sad smile and then looked away. He didn't say anything and I couldn't make myself either. There was an awkward silence and I got up to inform Percy's dad and probably get a doctor.
"Annabeth." He said still looking away. "Um How long have I been out?"
"Tenth today." I answered shortly and then I left. As soon as I was out the door I sighed deeply and held back a sob. Before he'd looked away I had managed a good enough look at his eyes and the sight was not good. They were hollow and dull lacking the childishness and mirth had vanished and left nothing but pain and misery and guilt behind.
He had looked so broken with grief that he seemed almost...un-fixable. But that wasn't true, he would make it through this and soon he would be back to normal it might take a lot of effort and time but it will happen we will get Percy back, I hope.
"-and you're absolutely sure about it?" I heard one of the detectives ask Percy from behind the door. It was open just a crack but it was enough for me to be able to hear the whole conversation going on in Percy's hospital room. Now once upon a time I had frowned upon eavesdropping myself but after spending six long years with Percy I had gotten used to it. Right now I didn't really care anyway.
"Yes I am." Percy replied.
"Okay well that's all that we need. You can rest now." There was a scraping noise probably from chairs moving and footsteps came toward the door. I was about to move away so as not to get caught when Percy spoke up.
"Am I going to prison." He said in a hollow emotionless voice.
"Percy why on earth would you even think of that?" Poseidon asked taken aback.
"Because I killed them." Percy answered in that same emotionless voice that was so un-Percy like.
"Them?" Questioned the detective. "You said there was only one kidnapper."
"I did and I'm glad I killed him but I meant everyone else-my mom and Paul and Bianca and Luke and his mom. They're all dead because of me." I was shell shocked by what I had just heard. I knew Percy had blamed himself for the deaths Atlas had caused to get to him but I never knew it was to such extent.
"No!" Poseidon exclaimed worriedly. "No, Percy you didn't kill them. No one blames you for the lives Atlas took. It was his fault, all of it not yours. Do you understand me?" There was no reply. I backed away from the door as tears streamed down my face. I couldn't do this, see Percy so defeated and know that I couldn't help him enough. I didn't know what to do so I simply stepped away from the door. Poseidon could handle it, he was his dad after all. I tried to reassure myself but to no avail.
I took another step away from the room and bumped into someone.
"I'm so sorry-" I said as I turned around to find myself face to face with Rachel Elizabeth Dare.
"Percy?" She said questioningly. I simply nodded my head, not really sure of what to say.
"Come on-" She said taking my hand and leading me away. "What you need right now, is someone to talk to and a tub of ice cream."
"-and then he was ranting about how it was all his fault that his parents and Bianca and Luke were all dead, that he was a murderer and I just couldn't take it anymore so I stepped back and bumped into you." I took a deep breath as I finished explaining to Rachel what I had heard at the hospital and why I had been so freaked out.
I don't really know why but I hadn't really liked Rachel until now-okay I might have been a tiny bit jealous-but now that I was getting to know her I couldn't help but like her. She was a good friend and even though she was filthy rich she wasn't snobby and didn't show off at all. She acted like any other sixteen year old.
"This is even worse than last time." She said looking more worried than ever.
"What was it like then?" I asked curiously.
"Well, it was bad, at first he didn't want it all to be true so he kept denying that anything had happened. He would call us liars when we tried to break him out of it and he kept asking for Sally and Paul. We'd thought it couldn't get worse but then he broke out of the denial and it did." She took a deep breath and then continued.
"He'd have nightmares and flashbacks and he wouldn't talk to anyone. All he would say was that Atlas was going to kill him just like he did his parents. He was going insane. Poseidon brought him back to New York and he started seeing a shrink for weeks though no one could get him to even so much as step out of the house. A few months and loads of sessions later he started smiling again and he started getting were playing in the park near his place one day when I saw Atlas staring at us from far away. I was scared and didn't know what to do but Percy hadn't seen him yet so I couldn't panic. I called his driver around and got him in the car and back home. That was when Poseidon decided to get him a bodyguard."
"The original choice had been a guy named Chiron Brunner and Luke had been a trainee under him. When it was the summer before I started high school was when Poseidon decided Percy should start going to school again-he'd been home schooling before that-Chiron said it was time for Luke to take over and for him to get another trainee and so he left and we had a few normal years after that before Bianca..." She trailed off and I gave her a nod indicating I understood what she meant.
"But anyway, this is much worse then last time. At least then he didn't blame everything completely on himself and also last time he hadn't taken a life himself. I don't know what we're gonna do now."
I was worried about that too. From what Rachel had just told me things had been pretty bad last time but she was right when she said this was worse much much worse and just like her I didn't have the slightest idea as to what we were going to do.
The next two weeks flew by real quick. Ever since that day I hadn't talked to Percy, no one had except for his dad. He wouldn't let anyone talk to him or even see him. He'd stopped coming to school too. It was like he'd gone into isolation or something. No one saw him, no one talked to him, no one knew what to do about it either.
That was why when I spotted him walking towards the beach I followed him.
I followed him to a secluded spot on the beach, hidden away behind a thick cluster of trees. He sat down propped against a rock, a little way from the water.
As I hid behind a tree, he took out his cell phone and stared at it for a long time, contemplating something. In the end he shook his head and let the cell phone slip from his fingers and fall onto the sand.
He sighed picking up his backpack that he'd set down on the sand beside him and dug something out. At first I couldn't tell what it was until he brought it up close to his face and my heart almost stopped as I realized what it was- a gun.
He brought the gun up to his forehead and I gasped and blinked away the onset of tears that were blurring my vision as I realizewhat Percy was going to do. He clicked off the safety and closed his eyes. His finger hovered over the trigger.
I knew he was about to press it, end his life then and there. That finally snapped out of my grief-stricken trance. I stepped forward just as his finger touched the trigger. There was so much I wanted to say but there was only one word my mind could form right only one word that escaped my lips as I held back the sobs.
"Percy!"
*Ducks the knives and whatnot thrown at her.
I know you guys really hate me right now but don't kill me 'cause if you do, you won't find out what happened.
So the last chapter would be up in about twenty-four hours or so and then this will be over. For good. No I am not crying right now. Okay maybe a little. Fine a lot.
But cheer up you guys cause I have a second PJO story up here and I would love it if you check it out. It's called 'A Change of Fate' and you can find it on my profile. Also I will be writing a different story as well that I mentioned in the last chapter.
Till next time you guys!
~Scarlet