Chapter 1: One Step Too Far

I really need to manage my stories better. I've got lots of stories published. One of them is finished and that's because it was a oneshot. I've got about 5 more that I've started but haven't finished writing so I haven't published them. Here's my new one! Pairing is Pertemis (Percy x Artemis)

Chapter 1: One Step Too Far

Percy P.O.V.

I winced as Luke pushed the blade even deeper into my left wrist than before, carving out the same word he recarved every day. As the switchblade pierced even more of the skin, a word could clearly be seen.

Worthless

I couldn't help myself, and I let the tears flow down my face. Luke moved to my heart, where four cuts could be seen next to each other, cut into my skin. Luke grinned at me, and I saw the madness in his eyes. "I think it's time for number five, don't you Jackson?" He laughed before roughly slashing across all four lines, the way you would in a tally.

As the pain shot through me, I felt the urge to get up and punch him. My mind was telling myself to do it, but my body just felt too weak to do anything. Luke just continued cackling like the maniac he is.

"Percy! Perce?" My eyes widened as I heard my sister, Aphrodite, calling for me. I couldn't let her see me like this. I couldn't do anything to stop her though, because just after that, she walked in and gasped.

There was her older twin brother, being held shirtless against the wall by her football player boyfriend who currently held a switchblade up to my skin. She screamed. "LUKE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" And as she said those words, my heart dropped when Luke's gaze snapped to her, and I saw no affection or love in his eyes, just hate.

"You! You bitch! Get over here! I don't know why I ever went out with you, you WHORE!" With that, Luke charged at my sister. Aphrodite screamed for help, but I knew no one would come. School had ended 20 minutes ago, and all the students were gone. The teachers were likely in their classrooms packing up, if they hadn't already left themselves.

I tried my best to get up, but could only watch in fear as Luke charged at Aphrodite. I wanted to scream when he shoved her against the wall and forcefully pressed his lips against hers. She screamed and kneed him in the balls, and Luke grunted. "Ah, YOU BITCH!"

He grabbed her again, and I could only watch as he tried to grab her all over, forcing himself on her.

He lightly ran his blade across her cheek. "Such a pretty face… Too bad I'm gonna have to ruin it." He said before quickly cutting her cheek. My twin sister squealed as a few drops of blood slid down her cheek, mixing with the tears that now flooded from her eyes.

As I heard the screams of my sister, a rush of adrenaline fueled me. It felt as if I'd taken some pretty heavy drugs and pumped them all into my veins. I stood up and right hooked Luke in the jaw. He turned to me and grinned, that evil, maniacal grin. "So, you're finally standing up for yourself, huh Jackson?"

I cringed as he punched me in the mouth, and I felt blood. I spat it out on the ground and got back into a fighting stance. Luke laughed and punched me again, and again, and again. He beat me constantly as I could only try and fight back, all the while Aphrodite was screaming for help. Still, none came.

Luke realised that I was in no more shape to fight, so he tried to move onto Aphrodite. Right before the could even touch her, I lunged at him. Luke was expecting this, however, and he turned around with his switchblade in hand. I screamed in pain as he slashed across my left eye, but thankfully missed the eyeball itself and just cut a straight scar from above my eye to just above the corner of my mouth.

"NO, PERCY!" Aphrodite screamed as Luke laughed again. I looked up at Luke, to see the madman cackling.

THUNK

His grin faded and his eyes glazed over, as the teenager fell forward, knocked unconscious. I looked up to see probably my favourite staff member at the school: The school janitor, Bob. Well, his real name was Iapetus Titanus, and he was part of the powerful Titanus family that pretty much ruled this town, while the Olympia's ruled the next town over, Olympus, named after an ancestor. Technically, Aphrodite and I were Olympia's, since our dad Poseidon was the brother of Zeus, the man running for mayor in Olympus next year and Hades, Olympus' sheriff, but we'd taken our Mom's last name. Because of the difficulty of his name, however, everyone just called him Bob.

Meow. Small Bob meowed at the sight of the unconscious Luke. Small Bob was a stray cat that Bob had adopted after finding it out behind the school. It followed him everywhere, including his job.

"Bob! Thank God!" Aphrodite screamed as she hugged the old janitor. Bob hugged back as he looked us over. He helped me up off the floor. "Are you two alright? Come, we need to call your parents, and the police by the looks of it." I nodded, and grabbed Luke.

We walked to principal Lycaon's office. We walked in to see the wolfish man sneering at us. "What is it Titanus? You two! What have you done? Is that Castellan? Why is he unconscious?" He started to get mad as he pelted us with questions. Bob raised his hands, trying to calm down the principal.

"Mr Lycaon, let me explain. I found these two being bullied by Castellan in a bathroom. It got to the point where Castellan cut Percy here." He said, pointing to the still bleeding cut on my face. Aphrodite and I agreed with him, trying to tell our views on the story.

Lycaon got mad real quick, and slammed a fist on the table. "ENOUGH! YOU TWO." He said pointing at Aphrodite and I. "MR JACKSON, YOU'VE CAUSED ENOUGH TROUBLE FOR THIS SCHOOL. AND YOU, MISS JACKSON, I EXPECTED BETTER OF YOU. YOU'RE BOTH EXPELLED. AND YOU, TITANUS. I'LL BE SURE TO TELL YOUR BROTHERS WHAT A FAILURE YOU'VE BEEN. YOU'RE FIRED. GET OUT OF MY SIGHT, ALL OF YOU!" He shouted at us and we left.

We exited the building and Aphrodite and I turned to Bob. "Bob, we're so sorry! We shouldn't have gotten you fired. We-" Bob raised a hand, cutting us off. "No, I'm glad that I showed up to help. I fear what might've happened if I had been even a minute late."

I grew a sad expression on my face. "Still, we're sorry Bob. We got you fired and us expelled. Now we've all got nowhere to go." Bob shook his head. "We'll figure that out later. For now, we have to call your parents, and forget the police plan. As much as I hate to admit it, the police either won't believe us or just won't do anything. My brother Atlas is chief of police, and he won't help his estranged brother over a powerful ally like Castellan's father. Now, what're your parents' numbers."

We gave him our parents numbers and he called them. Bob explained what happened and that we were okay, just a bit shaken up. He did mention our new scars thought. Within five minutes, my parents' cars pulled up and they both rushed out and ran to us. My mom was crying as she engulfed us both in a hug. "Oh, my babies!"

My mother was by no means a fragile woman. She was Sally Jackson, she had been through enough pain. After her and dad 'hooked up', she never told him about Aphrodite and I until we were five. For the four years before that, she had lived with an abusive husband that Aphrodite and I had nicknamed 'Smelly Gabe', due to his pungent odour. When we turned five, mom sent dad a picture of us and told him that we were his. We can't remember much, but from what mom told us, it seems dad came to see his kids, found out about the abuse, and almost killed Gabe. After the divorce, Mom and Dad started dating again and now they're happily married with two kids.

My mom let go and my dad embraced us. "Are you two alright?" He asked in that kind fatherly voice he always used when things got serious. I nodded and he gently rubbed the scars on our faces, assessing the wounds. Mine was long and jagged while Aphrodite's was short and clean.

"We are leaving. We are leaving here, all of us. I can get Zeus to help find us a place to live, and as soon as we do, we're gone. I should've known it was a bad idea to keep two Olympia's on the Titanus' territory." He told us after a brief period of thinking. Both of us just nodded and turned back to Bob.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye children. I'll miss you two." Bob said, and Small Bob meowed in what I hoped was agreement. I saw tears come to Aphrodite's eyes as she hugged Bob again, whispering "Thank you, for everything." Bob just smiled, and looked at me expectantly. I grinned, and pulled him in for a hug. "See ya Bob, you too Small Bob." Small Bob meowed.

As we separated, mom and dad thanked Bob profusely for helping them. Bob just put a hand up, gesturing that it was no big deal. He turned to head towards the car, but just before getting in, he turned back to us.

"May we meet again someday, children. Until then, tell the sun and stars I said hello." That was the last thing he said before the old janitor hopped in his car and drove off.

We waved goodbye to him before Aphrodite hopped in Mom's car and I got in dad's. It was a flash car. Dad, being an Olympia, and one of the 'Big three' (the brothers of the family), was rich. I wouldn't be surprised if this 'place' that Uncle Zeus was gonna help us find would be a mansion.

Uncle Zeus and his wife Aunt Hera were all about the finer things in life. They had a huge mansion, about six cars, servants, and a lot of kids, plus two godchildren around my age that I'd never met.

Uncle Hades, as I said before, was the sheriff on Olympus. He had three kids that I'd met a few times before named Bianca, Nico and Hazel. Hazel was the result of an affair while Nico and Bianca were both children of his wife, Aunt Maria. Still, Aunt Maria had realised that the was just drunk and unsupervised and still loved her, so she forgave him. Now, she treats Hazel as if she were her own daughter.

Aunt Demeter was… strange. Aphrodite and I had stayed at her house once while our parents were on vacation. The only thing she would feed us were cereals. She definitely got a bad review on Yelp.

My favourite Aunt was Hestia. She was so caring. Whenever we stayed with her, she would let us do whatever we wanted as long as it wouldn't hurt us. At night, she would tell us stories, usually Greek myths, to try and help us sleep. I always liked these myths, especially when Aunt Hestia told them. They would take me to a better world. One where I was a demigod, fighting monsters, going on quests, saving the world, that type of thing.

As we drove, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen now. We were obviously moving to Olympus, to be safe from the Titanus', but what then. Would Aphrodite and I just go to school as if nothing had happened, as if I wasn't almost just murdered and Aphrodite almost raped? Well, yeah. I guess.

We pulled up to our small house to find Mom and Aphrodite had just pulled in. We all entered the house and just sat down in the living room. We sat there for a while, thinking. We were thinking mainly about what came next. By the time 11:00 rolled around, we were all tired and wanted to go to bed, so we all did. I didn't get a single moment of sleep that night, and from the lack of snores in the house, I guess no one else did either.

~~~~ Time Skip ~~~~

Finally, it was time to leave this shithole of a home. Nothing had gone good here since that day at the High School.

Due to most of the people in Othrys (This shitty town) being loyal or friends with the Titanus family, and the fact that Kronos was trying to get us kicked out of Othrys, people didn't really like us.

You couldn't walk down the street without being hissed or jeered at. Luke had woken up a few hours after we left the school at the hospital. He told everyone a fake story about how he was ambushed by me in the school bathroom and knocked unconscious.

We've been in contact with dad's family. Uncle Zeus has just found us a house not far from his and the local high school for us to live in. Dad purchased it and here we are getting ready to move out. Guess what, it's a mansion.

There wasn't a lot of stuff that we were taking with us, just stuff like clothes, possessions and some food to last us until we do the groceries. The mansion already had furniture and stuff so we didn't bother with the hassle of taking our couches and lamps, we just left them for the new owner.

After finally hauling in the box of my clothes, we were done. We thanked the movers and got in our car. Mom sold her car a few weeks ago since she was going to become a stay at home mom and Uncle Zeus had given us another one of his cars anyway.

Driving down the street, we realised that we were finally ready to put all this behind us. Ignoring the people jeering at us and the KRONOS FOR MAYOR signs everywhere, we made our way to Olympus.

We crossed what everyone called the 'border' of the the two towns, and you could instantaneously notice the change. People were a lot more cheerful and nice to us in this place, there weren't as many run down buildings and smashed windows, and overall it had a very pleasant feel.

We drove further through Olympus admiring the small shops and parks we passed. Along the way, I noticed signs that said ZEUS FOR MAYOR, although in these signs, the person didn't look like he was scheming to take over the world, unlike Kronos'.

About 15 minutes later, we pulled up to the gates of a large regal looking manor. "Dad, what are we doing at Uncle Zeus'?" Aphrodite asked as she looked at the large garden that Zeus and Hera had out front. Dad looked at her in the rearview mirror and answered. "Getting the key to our new place." Dad reached out the window and paged Uncle Zeus through the buzzer.

The gate automatically opened but instead of us driving through, a frail old man walked up to the car. "I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid Master Olympia is out at the moment. He told me that if you showed up, to give this to you." He handed Dad a keychain with four keys on it. "There's one for each of you. Master Olympia has one here in case he needs it or one of you loses yours." Dad took it. "Thank you Alpheus." The old man nodded and we pulled out.

I expected us to drive for a while longer but it was only 10 seconds away. We were literally neighbours with our uncle. We pulled up to the gates and Dad typed in the password. The gates opened and we drove up the long concrete path and parked in front of the garage.

We got out and looked at the manor. It was massive! Around the same size as Uncle Zeus'. I looked around and saw no servants, a difference from Uncle Zeus and Aunt Hera's place. Either Dad doesn't want servants or we just haven't hired them yet. Dad started talking.

"First floor has got all the things like the living room, kitchen, a bunch of bathrooms and the dining room. Basement has a few rooms, it's got the laundry room, a home theater, a workout room and an indoor pool. Second floor has more bathrooms, some guest rooms and a game room for you kids. Third floor has our rooms, more guest rooms and more bathrooms." He finished.

Dad grinned at the look on our faces. Aphrodite and I both had our jaws to the floor as we took in what he said. This place was packed to the brim with so much stuff. He didn't even mention the backyard, which I can only guess was the size of a football field judging by the house itself.

Dad walked up and unlocked the door, and the movers pulled up into the driveway. We unloaded the boxes from the truck and put them in the living room, which was about the size of a normal house. As expected, there were already some flash furniture unpacked in the house. Comfortable sofas, beautiful paintings and a huge flat screen TV were just some of the things in the room that we saw as we looked through the large boxes.

We finished unpacking the little amount of furniture we brought and went up to our rooms. Mine and Aphrodite's were right next to each other's while our parents' was down the hall. The rooms were both blank as we had yet to paint or decorate them. The only things in the rooms were beds, drawers and desks.

Aphrodite was in her room doing something while I sat in mine playing on my phone, messing around on social media and such. My Dad walked in and smiled at me. "Hey Dad, what's up?" I asked him.

"Son, I've been thinking a lot about what happened at school, and I realised that if you ever needed to, you wouldn't be able to defend yourself. So, I figured that if we put the workout room to good use, we could be able to get you into shape. That way, if you ever need to, you'll be able to defend yourself and your sister."

I thought about it for a moment. Sure, it would be pure torture. Waking up early, exercising, I'd probably have to go on a diet at some point, but if it meant I could protect my sister… "I'll do it."

Chapter 1 is done. I'll post this and see how it does. Review if you like this story so far. Also, Luke will be coming back at some point in the story, since he never got charged for anything, as the Titanus' aside from Bob all sided with him. Again, this is gonna be Pertemis, and yes, Zeus' god children are Apollo and Artemis. That way, it won't be weird for Percy and Artemis to be together since they aren't cousins in this fanfic. Remember, review so I know how you guys feel about this story. Thanks!

Word count: 3284