Chapter 1: Rescue (Percy)
It was a hot day.
Chiron told us there was an important demigod we needed to rescue , yet he didn't say why he was important. All he gave us an address and a name. His name is Charles Stoker, and he lives in Marlton, New Jersey.
Annabeth and I rode BlackJack over Marlton searching for the address we received. After what seemed like ages, we found a small house with a blonde short-haired boy in the backyard.
As we landed, he started to back away from where he was sitting. Apparently, there was something coming from inside his house. The closer we got to the ground, the shorter I realized he was. He was supposed to be about 12, except he looked and acted extremely childish. For example, he looked about 9 years old and was crying while he stared at whatever was closing in on him.
"We gotta get down there!" Annabeth whimpered.
"Dammit, I know!" I yelled, frantically trying to hurry up BlackJack.
After we finally landed, we discovered a Laistrygonian was closing in on him.
"Annabeth, grab him and get back!" I said, pulling out Riptide.
She grabbed his shoulders and dragged him to the far end of the backyard. He was still crying.
"Percy Jackson!" the giant said in a deep, merciless voice. "I heard you met a few of my brethren a couple years ago!"
He hit my chest with the back of his hand, sending me flying with a feeling of lava in my chest. He then walked over to Annabeth who was guarding Charles. He picked her up and set her aside, knocking her in the gut for good measure.
He picked up Charles with one hand and squeezed him until his eyes closed and his body went limp. After a couple more seconds, I got up, grabbed Riptide and stabbed the giant in the head. It immediately crumbled into dust leaving an unconscious Charles at my feet.
After I helped Annabeth up and we shared some nectar, I asked her to help me get Charles onto BlackJack.
She helped at first, but then I realized how light he was. 80 pounds at most. "Nevermind, I got him" I told her.
"You sure?" she said helpfully.
"Yeah, he's way lighter than I thought"
We rode back to Camp with Annabeth just barely keeping Charles on BlackJack.
"So whose his godly parent?" I asked Chiron.
"We don't know, all we know is that she is a Goddess." he said, frowning.
"So, why wasn't he brought here by a satyr?" I asked curiously.
"He was going to be, when he was older." he explained. "But the satyr got attacked and we found out his father was abusing him, so we sent you to get him here as soon as possible."
On my right, I saw tears silently well up in Annabeth's eyes.
"Where was his father? We didn't see anyone else… just the Laistrygonian and him." I said plainly.
"Unfortunately, his father was killed…" he said in a depressed tone.
"That bastard got what he deserved…" Annabeth said in a very angry, sad tone.
"Annabeth…" I said.
She ignored me and walked upstairs towards the infirmary.
On the third bed was an unconscious Charles. He was lying plainly on the bed with a scrunched up face.
Annabeth grabbed a cup, filled it with Ice and then with nectar, making about as much noise possible in the process.
"Annabeth!" I said, in my best angry but quiet voice. "Let him sleep!"
She simply ignored me and gently sat him up, putting the bendy straw in his mouth.
He stirred, and then started slowly sipping.
"Mmmmm" he said when the glass was empty. He opened his eyes "Hey, you're those kids…" his silver-blue eyes fluttered.
"Shhh" Annabeth said "Relax" she smiled "I'm Annabeth, and this is Percy" she said, pointing at me. I nervously waved and smiled.
"Im Charles" he said, sitting up a bit more.
"Out of curiosity, what did that drink taste like?" Annabeth said with that beautiful voice of hers.
"It was weird." he said "It tasted like Shrimp Cocktail, Apple Juice, and ButterScotch Lollipops.." he displayed a confused look on his face. "Where am I?" he asked.
"Camp Half-Blood" she said "A camp for the demigod children of the Greek gods and goddesses"
"You mean all those myths… are real?" he said curiously.
Annabeth nodded.
"So I'm a… a demigod?" he added.
She nodded again.
"Who's my parent?" he asked excitedly.
"We don't know yet… she hasn't claimed you." she said.
"Um…" he muttered "Is my dad okay?" he asked.
I stepped in "He-…." there was an awkward pause for at least 10 seconds "He's dead…"
That was when the tears fell.
He sobbed, he cried, he yelled, he punched his bed. He did everything you would expect from telling a child their only parent was dead.
When he was too exhausted to break down anymore, Annabeth pulled him into her arms. She held him for what seemed like an hour.
"He beat me…" he said in a pitiful voice.
That was when more tears fell.
Annabeth broke down. She cried, sobbed, and held him even tighter.
He didn't even resist. He accepted it. He smiled. But he still cried like hell.
"He used to lock me in my room, and if I asked for food, he would punch me in the face, kick me, and elbow me." he whimpered, while more tears came out.
Annabeth went insane. She picked up the glass vase of flowers on the table and threw it at the wall. It shattered like my memory of her smile.
"THAT BASTARD!" she yelled, more tears than before. She fell into my arms, drained of all energy.
I started crying, my chest filling up with the large amount of emotion I had. I agreed to pull Charles into a giant hug. We stood there for minutes, tears falling everywhere.