This story takes place after Annabeth finds Athena's statue and before her and Percy fall into Tartarus. An AU where they do not fall in, but return to Camp Half Blood.

Disclaimer: I'm not a middle aged white man from Texas, USA. Unfortunately, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series does not belong to me.


Annabeth twisted and turned under her sheets. Sweat was trickling down her brows and on occasion, she flinched and whimpered. She couldn't shake herself awake unlike other times when she was petrified with nightmares, which was beginning to happen a lot lately. Instead, she was forced to spend an entire night in fear thanks to reoccurring dreams.


She sat on her knees in Arachne's 'layer'. Daedalus's laptop was in front of her, her fingers nervously trembling over the keyboard. Instantly, she recalled the memory. A design was pulled up on her 3-D imaging program. Arachne was slowly lowering herself over Annabeth. Peering over her should to look at the design.

Chills ran up her spine when warm breath flowed over her skin. Annabeth shuddered, wanting to sink into the floor and shake away the bad feeling, but she couldn't. The daughter of Athena couldn't control her movements. Forced to sit and watch the sight fold out in front of her, while she couldn't move a muscle. She knew she had been the one making the movements at some point, like she'd possessed her own body but couldn't control it.

She wanted to dash across the room, not caring for the cracks in the floor. She wanted to call for help. Annabeth shook internally, watching the scene play out. Yet, it was like somebody had pushed the slow – motion button. Neither Annabeth nor Arachne moved. Breath continued to trickle over her shoulder, down the spine, raising the hairs on her arms.

At any moment, she'd make the wrong movement; Arachne could sink those large teeth into her neck. And there she sat, defenseless. It would have been so easy to kill her on the spot, and that only made her fear the giant spider more.

But it wasn't just Arachne. Countless spiders hid in darkened corners, crawled across the floors and walls. One even dared to move close to her, and for a second, she thought it would pounce and attack. But it didn't. Only because it awaited orders from its queen, Annabeth was sure.

She started to get so paranoid; she swore she could hear hundreds of little feet shuffle across the surface. Shallow breaths escaped her, but it sounded only like gasps. Of course it wasn't the uncontrolled self that made them, but Annabeth that hid inside herself, like a shell.


And just like that, the dream faded before her. And for a minute, her unconscious self seemed to relax. She couldn't shake herself awake. Not yet, at least. Annabeth thought the worst had happened, nothing else could go wrong. Soon enough she would wake up, right?

She started twitching in her bed, momentarily forgetting the more than frightening nightmare, to turn in her bed. At this point, realization dawned upon the blonde, her eyes fluttered open once then twice, blinded by the light that streamed into the Athena cabin. Annabeth tossed and turned, looking from bed to bed, but the campers weren't in sight. After rubbing sleep from her eyes, she'd come to the conclusion that they'd already left for breakfast.

Slowly, she sat up, rubbing sweat from her forehead onto the back of her palm. Annabeth, still being shook up, took slow and deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Her skin felt like it was crawling, her breath hitched occasionally, and she wanted to collapse back into her bed.

Her skin felt like it was crawling – no, that wasn't it. Her skin couldn't possibly be moving let alone crawling. Her hands clasped the edge of her covers and removed them. A blood curdling scream filled the air. It wasn't her skin that was crawling, but spiders. They laced up her legs, moving to her stomach, and finally her arms. She tried to swat them away, but the more she did, they more crawled over her.

"Sp-Spiders!" She yelled, thrashing back in the bed. "They're... They're!" Annabeth couldn't bring herself to finish, she squirmed off the edge of the bed, hoping some would be killed with the fall. But they kept multiplying. Hundreds raced up her skin, and though they didn't bite, Annabeth feared them just the same.

She writhed and flailed, slapping her own skin like they'd all fall dead. But they didn't. The daughter of Athena yelled as if it was a battle cry, and soon enough campers piled in. She couldn't bring herself to look up as they did, her eyes trained on the avalanche of insects. "Get them – Get them off!" She sobbed.

It only earned her bizarre looks from the campers. Apparently, they didn't see the threat. They stood, huddled around Annabeth with their eyes wide and their jaws hanging open. Some murmurs spread around the room, kids saying things like, "What's wrong with her?", "What happened?", and some cruel comments Annabeth would have been glad she didn't hear.

She could feel her stomach churning, awaiting the moment they all decided to attack with sharp teeth. But they didn't. They scrabbled across her skin like it was an everyday thing. The blonde could only scream in horror, scoot herself away from the crowd until her back met with a wall, and swat at her body.

"You- You're all just standing," She began to sob. It was horrible. Partially screaming in fear and crying out to the campers who stood around doing nothing. "Standing there. Do, do something!" Her voice rattled and broke, but it didn't help move those who stood and watched the girl thrash about.

A few campers pushed to the front of the crowd, including Clarisse, Chiron, Malcolm, and Percy; though it hardly made Annabeth move. Her eyes would glance up, obvious tears streaming from her eyes. They stared at her like she was, well, crazy. Their mouths hung open but no one dared to say anything for the first few moments.

Finally, Malcolm stepped forward, Percy following in pursuit. They knelt before her with their hands splayed in front of them like they meant to do something but didn't know what to do.

With caution, Percy leaned forward, pulling Annabeth into his warm embrace. "Ann – Annabeth…" His voice was just as his movements, filled with hesitation and wariness. And only then did she stop her actions, staring at him like she expected him to be attacked by the same threat that littered her body. Her chin dropped, her brows furrowing, and a lump in her throat.

He was an idiot. But that wasn't anything knew. In Annabeth's view, he risked getting close to her for what? To try to talk to her? She shuddered, her shoulders raised and tensed. Her arms moved on their own, throwing themselves around his shoulders and grasping onto bits of his shirt.

"The spiders just – they just. Out of nowhere!" She sobbed, burying her head in the cloth of fabric on his shoulder. "I was sl-sleeping and out of nowhere. They just…" She'd gotten so bad, hiccups broke through the sobs.

Percy fought to gain her face between his hands, caressing it and whispering, "Hey – hey, it's okay. There's no spiders, trust me." He'd assure her again and again, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it.

"No, no. Perce." Her voice broke and she struggled to fill her lungs with air between broken and strained sobs. "You don't understand. They were everywhere. Everywhere, Percy.."

In time, and with lots of sweet little reassurances made by multiple campers, Annabeth came to the realization. There were no spiders, only red hand prints scattered across her body. They entire cabin had been filled with campers, who unfortunately had witnessed the scene. But instead of turning and facing the embarrassment and apologize to those who had been just afraid as she, she kept her head down or tucked on Percy's shoulder muttering something along the lines of "They were here, I know it.", in a small voice.