Percy has disappeared from Camp Half-Blood. Annabeth and the rest of Percy's friends are left behind, missing him, albeit in different ways. Can they recover after losing their friend, or will they still be missing him?
This story is going to take place in multiple Points of Veiews, so you can really get the idea of how Percy's different friends missed him. Most of it is going to take place in Annabeth's POV, however, because I feel like I can really capture the physical aspects of her sorrow better from the perspective of someone else. Hope you enjoy :)
Also, I did the best I could setting up his disappearence, so sorry if that's not really what happened :/
I knew something was wrong moment my eyes fluttered open. Not the, "we're out of bacon for breakfast" type of wrong. Something was dead wrong. My stomach churned, and I glanced around my cabin, which was slightly illuminated by the light of dawn. My siblings were all sleeping still, everything in order still. I reached under my pillow for Daedalus's laptop. I had been sleeping with it under my pillow ever since I got it last summer. Just in case. But the laptop was still there, as it always was.
I attempted to go back to sleep, but I just couldn't shake the terrible feeling that something was dreadfully off.
Finally, I slipped from bed, not bothering to change out of my pajama's, a ragged old camp T-shirt and a beat up pair of old sweat pants. I pulled on my tennis shoes and exited the cabin as fast as I could.
Outside, the ground was lightly dusted with snow. I saw that the rest of the cabins were still dark, save the Aphrodite's. The girls- and guys for that matter- all got up early so they could get the showers they wanted and carefully apply their makeup.
Right now, they were skittering in and out of the bathroom, trying to keep their over-gelled hair-dos from freezing.
Trust me on this, you do not want to get between a child of Aphrodite and their favorite shower stall. I promise you, it won't be pretty. I've has to learn the hard way.
The few of the all year campers sniggered at me, and Drew, their head counselor, heaved a dramatic sigh. I didn't want to think about how I looked right now- I had just rolled out of bed. But I did smooth my hair down, my hand trailing over the tangled waves. What can I say? Drew makes every girl at camp at least a little self-conscious, even me.
I continued up the path, past the strawberry fields. The smell of fresh berries wafted past me, though it was much too cold for any berries to have survived the frost this morning. The frozen bushes ruffled, like something was slithering through them, but I didn't investigate, though. I just kept on walking, determined to get to the Big House and talk to Chiron. Maybe he could get to the bottom of this.
A few seconds later, I heard stealthy footsteps crunching in the snow behind me, and I whirled around. In the dim light, Connor Stohl's dirt-smeared face grinned at me.
"Hey, Annabeth," he greeted me, his face flushes from the cold. "What are you doing up so early?"
Now, if the one of the Stohl brothers is up at five A.M., you can pretty much bet that he is up to no good. Actually, you can pretty much always bet he's up to no good, period.
I gave him a cautious look, glancing down at his hands. Clutched in one was a trowel, which most definitely wasn't his- one of the Demeter kids wasn't going to be happy at breakfast, was my guess. Something gleamed in the other.
"Connor," I said sharply. "Is that Chris Rodriguez's watch?" Chris had lost his watch a couple of weeks ago, an expensive gift from his grandmother, who he had recently reconnected with. I knew perfectly well that it was Chris's watch, and that Connor must have had a fantastic digging it up.
"Now Annabeth," Connor started, but I cut him off by grabbing his wrist and dragging him with me in the direction of the Big House.
"To answer your question," I said, "I'm going to the Big House. You wouldn't mind joining me?" I gave him a try-to-get-away-and-you'll-regret-it look. As expected, he nodded compliantly.
I didn't release my hold on him until the door to the Big House shut behind up. I always seemed to be dragging one Stohl or another up here like this, or else to the owner of the snatched object. Last week it had been Travis to my half-brother Malcolm.
Apparently, he though it would be a riot if he strung up Malcolm's owl-printed boxers on the flag pole. How he had known Malcolm had owl-printed boxers, I didn't want to know, but it was particularly embarrassing for the Athena cabin- not to mention poor Malcolm.
Connor seemed to be reading my mind. "Travis said he was sorry about the underwear. No need to hold a grudge."
I frowned. How would he like it if his parent's godly symbol was displayed on a PAIR of UNDERWEAR for the whole camp to see? I was about to ask him, but I figured he would probably want to commend whoever had had that brilliant idea, just as he had his brother for doing it to Athena.
"Whatever," I dismissed. "I'm not mad... Not really, anyway. Let's just talk to Chiron."
As I had hoped, we caught Chiron just before his morning jog. He was talking to Mr. D in the rec room. I caught the words, PercyJackson, which was no surprise. He was on a quest. In fact, he was supposed to come back early this morning.
I didn't know the exact details, but I think it involved getting a couple of younger demigods out of a sticky situation. I would just have to ask him later. I didn't want to disturb him, since he was probably really tired.
I smiled when I thought of him, all cute in his battle armor, his head sticking out the front window of one of the camp vans, right before he left. He had kissed me right on the lips, in front of everyone, then quickly pulled his head back in the window and stepped on the gas. I knew my cheeks were red as one of Apollo's sacred cattle, but I was too giddy to notice. It still felt unreal to have Percy, no strings attached. No monsters THIS close to killing him, no prophecies threatening to tear him away from me when he turned sixteen. Just us.
"Annabeth? Connor?" Chiron turned toward us, and Mr. D scowled.
"Good morning, Chiron, Mr. D," I greeted politely.
"Good moring, Mr. D. Good morning Chiron," Connor recited, putting on his best face of innocence.
"Mr. D huffed. "Good morning, indeed," he complained. "Not any morning I'm here." He said here like he'd rather be in the pits of Hades than Camp Half-Blood. He crossed his arms, and we heard the door to the front porch slam.
"Is something wrong?" I asked Chiron. His face was rather downcast, drawn and unhappy. It took him a minute to answer.
"All in good time, Annabeth," he replied. "Now, to business… You wanted ask me something?"
"Well, I already did," I said sheepishly. Chiron scowled. "Something doesn't feel right. I couldn't sleep."
"Now, young child of Athena," Connor said. Lecture time. "You can't come crying to Chiron every time you have a nightmare. If you'll go to the Hypnos cabin, like me, they'll surely have something to knock you out." I knew he was just kidding around whenever he said stupid stuff like this, but it still annoyed me. I already had two, no three parents pretty much.
I just rolled my eyes. Chiron ignored me altogether, which wasn't like him at all.
"What brings you here, Connor?" He inquired, cocking his head. He knew there were only two reasons Connor Stohl ever came to him, reason one being to steal something from the Big House, and reason two being to confess the act of stealing from one person or another.
I cut across them both. "We'll get to that," I promised. "What's up, Chiron?"
"We will also get to that," he said, a little impatiently, which also wasn't like him. "Connor?"
Connor held out the watch and the trowel, the look on his face anything but remorseful. "I kind of took these…"
"This is Christopher Rodriguez's watch?" Chiron guessed, and I nodded. "And the trowel?"
"Katie Gardener's," Connor told him, "but please don't tell her I took it. She'll wrap me up in vines!" Katie was notorious for her ill-tolerance of the Stohls. She didn't like them anywhere near the strawberry fields.
"You will take both of these items back to their owners at breakfast," Chiron ordered. "Now, back to bed, both of you."
"Chiron," I insisted. "What is-?"
"Bed, Annabeth," he snapped, his tone shocking me. He never acted his way towards anyone, let alone me. I nodded quickly, the back of my eyes stinging with tears, and I ran from the room.
"Goodbye, Annie Belle," Mr. D called after me around his can of Diet Coke.
My feet pounded down on the ground as I ran to the empty dining pavilion. I wound around the tables until I reached the one designated to my cabin. I laid my head down on the table and closed my eyes.
In my dream, Percy was asleep, too. And he was just lying there, snoring like an ape with a cold. He was even drooling a little.
I know that girlfriends and boyfriends dream about each other, no matter how cliché that sounds, and I'm no exception. I am, however, a demigod, and demigod dreams are rarely normal, Iwasjustthinkingofyou dreams. So naturally, any dreams I'd ever had about Percy were the, Ithinkyou'regoingtodie, type of dreams. I hadn't had any of the dreams since the Great Prophecy came true, and I already knew he was in danger at that point, so I didn't really feel like I had to say anything, but this was strange.
Nothing was really happening, besides Percy dozing away in a dark space. He was all I could see, like a halo of light was surrounding him. It was actually kind of cute, minus the drool and the snoring, so I just watched until I heard murmuring around me.
I thought I recognized Clarisse's voice, sounding sympathetic, something I hadn't heard in a while.
"She must know already," she said, like I wasn't sitting right there.
"That must be why she wasn't at the counselor's meeting," said another voice that I didn't as readily recognize, a guy.
I lifted my head. Clarisse was leaning on the Hermes' table, talking to Will Solace from the Apollo cabin. When they saw me looking at them, Clarisse turned away quickly, and Will gave me a compassionate look, like he totally felt for me.
WhatinHadesisgoingon? Maybe Percy would know. But then, he was probably sleeping in his cabin like I had just dreamed.
Daphne, one of my younger siblings rushed up to the table, ahead of the slew of campers that were all making there way up to the dining pavilion. She was about nine-years-old, skinny, and had wavy, honey-blonde hair like all the rest of my siblings and me.
She plopped down right next to me and gave me a big hug. "I'm so sorry!" she blurted.
I frowned. "Sorry for what?" I asked, alarmed. Had she broken something of mine? Daedalus's laptop? I wasn't sure I could deal with that. But I would have traded fifty of Daedalus's stupid computers for what she was about to tell me not to be true.
"About Percy," she said.
"What about him?" I asked, and that bad feeling stirred in the pit of my stomach.
She bowed her head. "He's gone."
New chapter tommorrow! Hope you enjoy and please, please, pretty please REVIEW! :) Love ya! 3