Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I also do not own Slow Dancing In A Burning Room by John Mayer.
"I hate you," I state, ice in my voice. "Why haven't you just dropped dead? You should grovel at my feet. You are below me. Beg for my forgiveness."
He is angrier than I have ever seen him. "Me? Below you? You are incredibly stupid for a daughter of Athena. We are equals. I am below no one." His face is red and spittle flies as he talks through his teeth.
"Go hurl yourself off a cliff." I try to push him out of the open door of the Athena cabin, but my hands painfully hit against his iron skin. His green eyes do not blink. I push harder. He doesn't move.
"You will regret that. I swear." He stalks out of the cabin. I spit on the ground that he had stood on.
The rest of the Athena cabin come out from under the beds and in the closets. They do not look at me, but silently get into their beds. I walk to the light switch and turn it off. I hurl myself into my bed and instantly fall asleep.
I was walking towards a mansion. An obviously drunk man was smoking a cigarette right in front of the door. I push past him and walk in.
I am immediately in a ball room. Slow, jazz-like music starts playing. I am whisked into a dance with…
…With Percy. He looks me directly in the eyes. There is definite steel there. He scowls as he slowly spins me, our feet moving in sync to the music.
This is not the Percy I know. His hands seem to softly hold me, but his face is harder than stone.
"You want to know what this is." It is not a question. He knows my thoughts. He knows how I will react. My confused face reflects in his green eyes.
"This," He gestures with his chin. "Is the deep and dire breath of this 'love' that we've been working on."
I scrunch my eyebrows together. He spins me. "We do love each other. You just screw it up." I say, trying to keep the false hope out of my voice.
"You know that I am not the problem." He pauses to twirl me. "I can't seem to hold you like I want to; so I can feel you in my arms."
I sneer. "Well maybe I don't want to be held that way— "
"But you do," He interrupts. I glare.
Think, Annabeth. I tell myself. I know I need to escape. This person before me could very well kill me. I wasn't moving on my own, so I knew that I could not break free. At least, not without help… If I screamed, would I do it in real life? Or would it only fall on the ears of the drunk and the heartless?
He chuckles. "Nobody's going to come and save you. You've broke too many false alarms."
My eyes widen in horror. Not that I had thought that this would be a happy dream, but this… This was turning into my worst nightmare.
Some of you wonder why slow dancing with your kinda-boyfriend is so frightening to me. The problem is, with each sentence he says, I realize how right he is. How wrong I am.
How dead I am.
He—this evil man who has jumped into my boyfriend's body—this man chuckles as he dips me.
"We're going down… You can see it too. We're going down, and you know we're doomed!" He sings quietly. We are still in the 'dip' position, his face inches from my neck. I feel his cold breath.
The drunken man walks into the ballroom, cigarette lit in his mouth. He pulls the cigarette out of his mouth and puts the butt in a fake fern that randomly appeared in the room.
Percy still holds me in a dip.
And suddenly the fern is ablaze. The fire runs up the walls, across the door. This happens in what seems to be five seconds.
We are still in a dip.
He slowly pulls me back up, and we resume our slow dance.
He turns my head towards his, away from the fire. The grim smile is on his face.
"My dear," He says his voice a whisper. I can hardly hear him over the flame. "We're slow dancing in a burning room."
I watch in horror as the drunken man is consumed by flame. I watch in horror as Percy grins at me.
Percy talks again, a scowl back on his face. I wonder if this Percy is bipolar…
"I was the one you always dreamed of." He says matter-of-factly.
"It's not like you actually care!"
He is taken aback that I had the nerve to speak back. "How dare you say it's nothing to me? Annabeth… you're the only light I ever saw."
Tears well in my eyes. I don't know what to think anymore. I can't tell if I'm angry at him or at myself.
We spin again.
He sighs as the fire burns towards us. I am beyond afraid. But the problem is, I can't seem to run. I am stuck dancing with a scary version of my boyfriend. "I make the most of all the sadness; you be a bitch because you can. You try to hit me just to hurt me so you leave me feeling dirty… And you keep doing that because you think that I'll always forgive you. But I can't. Won't. And you… can't understand! Won't understand. Ever." He sounds frustrated cheeks flaring with pink. "You won't have to understand, because I never hurt you. Not in any way. Others hurt you and you take it out on me."
I try to ignore the 'bitch' comment. Yes, that's how serious this was. The fire is in a perfect circle, exactly ten feet away from us as we slowly spin in circles.
He pulls me close. "We're slow dancing in a burning room…" The fire continues to inch towards us. The real meaning of his words crash upon me. He was saying… that we wouldn't work out. Our relationship- our 'us'—was doomed.
"We can still try-!" I know there is no chance to fix this.
"Oh, Lord! Go cry about it, why don't you?" It is incredibly hard to keep up with his emotions.
The fire is three feet away.
"Don't you think we oughtta know by now? Don't you think we should've learned somehow?"
He dips me as the flame engulfs us.
"Annabeth! Annabeth! Wake up!" I slowly open my eyes to see a whole bunch of commotion outside.
"What is it?" I ask blearily to Malcolm.
"It's Percy! He's missing!" H throws his hands in the air, despair clear in his voice.
"Mm." Is my response as I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
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