Annabeth screamed.
Not because of the various cuts on her body, dripping crimson red, from the bloody war between camps. Nor was it because of the obnoxious rock that she had tripped on earlier (Annabeth was 87% sure she had broken a toe.) It was not even because of the devastating effect that the Romans had done to Camp Half-Blood, her only home.
Annabeth screamed because of the approaching enemy behind Percy.
"Percy!" She shouted tensely, "Percy, watch out!" His attacker glared at Annabeth menacingly and threw one of his daggers at her. She ducked, but the tip grazed her shoulder, making a thin slit in the orange fabric of her t-shirt. Wincing, she bolted toward Percy, dodging other fighters. Her sword was drawn, ready to attack.
Attacking didn't work out to well for Annabeth.
The blond-haired murderer turned around and smiled like a deranged Cheshire cat, except this was no "Alice in Wonderland." This was real life, with real death.
He wiped his hands on his jeans.
"Too bad you couldn't save your beloved boyfriend, Annabeth. He would've been a, ah, lovely Praetor."
"Go throw yourself into Tartarus, Octavian." Annabeth snarled. She wanted to torture that boy until he begged for mercy.
"No thanks. I saw how that went for you two, and I'd rather not."
"Where's Percy?"
Octavian stepped aside and Annabeth gasped.
"What did you do to him?"
"Uh, are you blind? Look at him yourself!" Annabeth held the tip of her celestial bronze sword to Octavian's throat. She pointed stiffly at the location where Percy had been.
Percy was gone. Disappeared. Completely and utterly non-existent. Octavian gulped. Where was Percy? He couldn't have crawled away; not after he himself had stabbed the son of Neptune several times! Eyes widened from astonishment, he bolted for his troops.
Coward, Annabeth thought, he's a stupid, foolish coward. Blinking back tears, she pushed through the battle scene and ran to find Frank, Hazel, Piper, and the others. She needed to have an emergency meeting. Leo caught up with her as she sprinted past the Pegasus stables. His face was darkened with oil grease, probably from Festus, Annabeth guessed. He grinned half-heartedly at her. That was bad. If Leo of all people wasn't smiling, than something was horribly wrong. Leo was always happy, it seemed.
"Where's Percy?" He asked. Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, but everything came out in choked sobs. Even the words were painful.
"I-I'm so…" Leo was speechless. He knew what it was like to lose someone he loved, so why was it so very hard to give another comforting words? Because they're just words, his conscious whispered, They are only meaningless words. You can't put comfort and suffering in the same sentence. Annabeth kept on running, but Leo could see that tears were threatening to spill from her grey eyes.
"Annabeth, stop." He reached for her shoulder to stop her, but Annabeth was faster than he was.
"We have to find the others!"
"Annabeth, please stop!" He shouted. Skidding to a stop, she glared at him.
"What do you want?" She snapped. Annabeth hadn't meant to snap at him. He hadn't really done anything wrong, but all her emotions had busted out, shooting at him. "I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean to yell at you-"
Leo pulled her closer to hug her. Yeah, she was taller, and it was a tad bit embarrassing. And if Percy had been alive, he would've been pounded within three seconds. But Annabeth was his friend too, and if she was in pain, darn right he was gonna hug her. Salty tears fell freely down Annabeth's cheek, making Leo's shirt wet on the shoulder.
Once she pulled away, they chased down their friends, praying that they were still alive.