Annabeth's POV:

"Darling come on! There's one more box!" my mother yelled from the U-Haul outside my new apartment.

Yes- I Annabeth Chase am going to be living on my own for the first time.

While I'm in college I'm going to be living in the apartment closest to my school, I didn't want to live in a dorm with someone I didn't know, but after that I plan to move out of New York, which is where my college is located, to somewhere closer to home. My family lives in San Francisco but they insisted on coming with me to help me settle in, and to assist me with any first home difficulties.

But I think after all the looking we did for a suitable apartment, that I'll be just fine. My parents have spent a month making sure that I'm in a safe neighborhood, and that the building doesn't have rats or bugs infesting the walls. They made sure that the building was structurally safe, and when we finally chose the house the only thing that they weren't too happy about was the history.

Apparently a serial killer from the 1980's used to live there, well according to legends. As the story goes, he used to torment his victims by frightening them and making them feel on edge after he'd kidnapped them and forced them to stay in the apartment. He'd spend months of tormenting them, raping them, and making them feel as if they could be killed any second. According to the story the landlady told us, his ghost and the ghost of his victims still haunt the residence.

If I'm being honest, I believe that a murder used to live there, but I am not a big believer on the whole ghost phenomenon. There aren't any scientific facts behind the whole idea to support it, and it's plain silly to think that lost souls just linger on earth. It's ridiculous to even think there's a soul in a human to linger anywhere. There's consciousness, but no soul. Our body operates off of a brain and internal organs, not a soul.

I tried using this reasoning with my parents, but they insisted to get the place checked out by some local ghost hunters or whatever. They're also planning to get the whole place exorcised after that.

They do fuss too much, but I love them.

"Yes mom, I'm coming!" I shouted back and jogged out to meet her in the hallway. I'd be living on the third floor in apartment 31.

"Isn't this exciting!" she jeered for the millionth time since we've arrived in New York. I chuckled and nodded in response.

Soon after that, all of the boxes were in my new home ready to be unpacked. I sighed in happiness after the work was done, and bid my parents goodbye. They're staying in a hotel for the next few days to make sure that everything went smoothly, but had to leave soon because we'd left my brothers with a babysitter in California.

After they'd gone I started unpacking a few boxes that had necessities such as sheets, and my stereo before going to look in all the rooms of the small complex for the billionth time.

The place was almost too good to be true it was almost surreal. It was spacious, but not too spacious, and cozy at the same time. The kitchen had appliances that were easy to use and had accessible cabinets. It didn't feel like home yet, but I the place was growing on me fast.

After I'd plugged in my stereo I plugged my phone into the jack and shuffled my music while I made a nutritious dinner of ramen, singing along to different songs as they came and went they're melodious tunes satisfying my nimble ears. After I'd finished my dinner, I began to unpack box after box, slowly the stack of cardboard in the corner grew and I only had five boxes left.

I decided to leave those boxes for tomorrow and go to bed, until I realized that I'd have to face a challenge harder than the rest- making the bed. Back home, mom would always put sheets on my bed and I never had to do the tedious task. Well almost never, I've had to do it once or twice but it was honestly the hardest thing I've ever done. Sheets constantly remaining unmoving under my weight and my knees slipping out from under me. By the time I'd finished, I had loose untidy sheets, a sweaty body, and I was out of breath. I groaned at my task and attempted to tackle the chore. By the time I was done, the results were the same as the last time.

After throwing the comforter onto the bed and doing the same with the two pillows before going to the suitcase that was sitting untouched by my door and getting an oversized shirt and my shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush/paste, and underwear before retreating to the blue tiled bathroom to shower and get ready for bed.

I blasted the hot water before stripping out of my now sweaty t-shirt and black short shorts and undergarments before throwing in the corner.

"Hold on!" I said to myself. I don't have to worry about leaving the bathroom naked to my younger brothers anymore. I smiled to myself at this realization, before taking the bundle of clothes and walking them to the bedroom down the hall and throwing them into the unpacked clothes hamper, and strolling back, my bare feet pressing into the soft carpet as I walked back.

By the time I'd gotten back the water was perfectly warm, and I walked into the shower letting the hot water soak my blonde curls and pound my back. I sopped my hair with the lilac scented shampoo, scraping my fingernails into my scalp and I felt the bubbled drip down from my hair and onto my butt, slowly running down my thighs and down my calves until the were rinsed away by the current of the water running down the drain at my heel.

As soon as I'd rinsed the shampoo out of my hair, I took my lilac scented conditioner and ran that through my hair, feeling its silky creaminess take action on my hair. I combed my finger through it to de-tangle the blonde curls before rinsing out the purple tinted conditioner. After making sure my armpits and legs didn't need shaving, they didn't, I cleansed my body with Dove soap, running my soapy fingers down my arms and my legs and other parts of my body. After rinsing that off, I stepped out of the shower and into the now steamy bathroom. I opened the door to let the steam out, before taking a towel from the stack that I'd unpacked in the hall, and wrapping my hair up and drying off my soft body.

Soon after I was curled up in bed with my hair blown dry, legs bear, and eyes heavy. I don't remember when I fell asleep.

Percy's POV:

"Percy baby wake up." Mother said softly, shaking me as she did. I groaned slightly but opened my eyes squinting slightly at the light. After adjusting I looked at my mom and smiled at her.

"Come on, there's another job me and your dad need help on." She said.

"The mansion or the apartment?" I asked.

"Mansion."

"Okay I'll be down in a moment." I sighed pushing my hair back. She nodded and retreated downstairs.

I groaned slightly as I sat up. My back was killing me from lugging around all their equipment.

My family runs a ghost hunting business. My mom and my dad stay overnight most of the time, and I carry and set up all the equipment because I'm the only one who knows how to do. They won't allow me to join them on any hunts because "they don't want me to get hurt." I've been begging for a job since I was 5 and they keep saying "next year," but that hasn't happened yet. I keep hoping since I'm finally 21 that they'll trust me enough to let me take at least one job. I know, I'm 21 and I'm still living with my parents. I sound like a total drunk, loser. But the only reason that I'm still living with them is because they need help around the house. After years of being abused by the supernatural, and lifting heavy boxes every time they get a job, their bodies aren't in the best shape. They're fit and they eat right, they've just been through so much wear and tear. They've talked about hiring a nurse so that I can move out and do something with my life, but the only thing I really want to do is what they do but they refuse to let me go down that path.

"It messes with your mental stability and with your physical abilities." My dad always says.

"It's a miracle that we're still sane sweetie, really you don't want to do what we do." My mom reassures.

I jogged downstairs and immediately picked up a box that was filled with equipment and jog that out into the van that they've been using since before I was born. After a few more trips it's all packed up and ready to go.

"Alright guys, it's all ready to go!" I shout as I re-enter the home. As I walk into the kitchen I see my parents discussing something intently, before their eyes land on me and they smile slyly.

"Percy," my mom says.

"We have a job for you." My father finishes.

"What else is there to do?" I asked frowning.

"Not that kind of job, a job." He says. And I stare at the dumbfounded.

"W-what happened to all the mental and physical rants you guys always bring up whenever I ask?"

"We've decided that this job won't be as bad as most, and it overlaps with the job we're leaving for so we need you. We've got you a box full of the necessary equipment you'll need and we know you've been saving up money so buying food won't be a problem." My mother explained.

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much." I said and crushed them into a group hug. I felt them both laugh into my shoulders, and when they separated they began to tell me the details of the job.

"So, it's the apartment that's close to that college. You've heard the legend right?" my mom said.

"Uh, the rapist right?"

"Yeah, well this girl has just moved there and her parents seem pretty paranoid about it. So they want you to monitor the place for a few days, make sure that nothing remotely paranormal happens. It's a pretty basic job, and I doubt that you'll have anything to worry about. The legend and stories we've heard about the place is pretty unbelievably." They explained. I felt rather deflated, I mean they're sending me on a case but not on one that they think are real. It's as if they trust me with the equipment but not with actual spirits and such. But still it is pretty exciting to be sent out to do something.

"You'll just head over there tomorrow morning. The box we're leaving you is in the front closet, I'll make you a list of other necessities but other than that you sir are all set. The apartment building is only a few blocks away so you can probably just walk down there, the box isn't as heavy as the other ones don't worry, and we'll see you in a few days. Love you." My mom rambled as she started walking to the door to take off, kissing my forehead she ran out the door. My father gave me a quick hug, and a "I love you" before following suit.

Annabeth's POV:

The next day was spent unpacking. There were big stacks of books covering one room, which I had decided would be designated as my study area. In my old house I had a desk, a bookshelf, a bed, and a stereo system all crammed into one bedroom. It was nice to be able to space everything out, and to have separate rooms for this stuff.

I had already decided where everything would go, and which room would be which. I even made little lists, on Post-It notes that had what would be in which room and what each room would be. It was my first time having a place all to myself and I wanted to get it right. Not to mention my parents thought that I wouldn't be able to take care of myself, and a home, without their guidance, and I wanted to prove them wrong and put their minds at ease.

My parents and I had already bought some furniture that I'd need to make it look complete. I now had a black leather couch and a turquoise colored carpet. Actually I had several turquoise carpets, in all different sizes and shapes for different rooms of the house. I had white curtains for all the windows, I still needed to put them up, and all of my furniture was black or dark wood. The floors were dark wood, and it looked really nice. The walls were kept white, except in my room. I planned to paint my room to have a sort of graffiti design, and a black bed spread and turquoise comforter. I just needed to go out to Home Depot to buy spray paint, and regular paint as well. When I unpacked my old bookshelf I decided to also buy some wood finishing, to make it look a little fresher, new. Make it look less worn out.

As for the books, there was nothing I could do to make them look less worn except buy all new copies and I had too little money and too many books to do that.

After unpacking all of the boxes, I organized all of the things I had into rooms. I went by my sticky notes, and soon the job was finished. I couldn't build my bookshelf up just yet because I still needed to coat it with the wood finish that I hadn't bought yet, so I just out all of my books into neat stacks beside the long planks of wood that were shelves, that would soon be turned into it's true form. I decided afterwards to build my desk, which didn't take long, and put all of my pens, pencils, and other office supplies into it's drawers. After that I put up all the curtains in each room, and when that was done I would put every little knick-knack into it's home. I worked and worked until the sun went down, and by then I had gotten everything generally cleaned up.

I decided that tomorrow I would go to Home Depot, and that I would also look for a job. I couldn't live off the money that my parents had lent me forever, and if I wanted to take care of basic financial stuff, and feed myself and all, I would need a job.

Just as I had put a pot of water onto the stove to make ramen again, the doorbell rang. After making sure that the water wouldn't even be close to boiling, I ran to the door and threw it open.

There stood a tall boy that looked to be a few years older than me, with jet black hair that was made messy and tousled by the wind that had been blowing all day. His green eyes stood out against his tan skin, and shone in the light that had been coming out of my apartment. He carried a heavy looking cardboard box.

"Um, is this the apartment that needs to be checked for supernatural activity?" he asked, his voice was low and husky, sending shivers up my spine.

"Um yes, please come in."

If only I had known that this is where my crazy adventure would begin, I would've never said that.


Hello, this is my new story idea. I ended 'Take Me Away', and I know that some of you are upset because of that but I've already explained to multiple people that 1) the story was going nowhere, 2) I based it off of events that had been happening with me and my best friend, and some bad things had happened that caused us to fall apart and I did not want to relive that, 3) That I would probably add onto it in the event that something brilliant pops into my head.

As for this story, I know where it' going and I know that I'll finish this. I'm sorry the first chapter is so short but later chapters will be much much longer. I hope you enjoy this, and that I get good feedback.