Percy whumpage. So, everyone, here's how this works: I love to see my favorite characters suffer. Yeah, it sounds sadistic, but so is everyone who roasts marshmallows (perfect, sugary white fluffiness impaled then burned over an open flame), so don't judge me.

Anyway, When I was reading the Percy Jackson series for the first time, I wrote up additional parts in the book (deleted scenes, one might say) where he was plagued by a mysterious disease that rides somewhere between a panic attack and some severe physical issue. This first chapter explains it somewhat. So, enjoy!

Oh, and this one happens in The Lightening Thief during the Lotus Casino scene.


She watched him enter the room, invisible to his view. She knew what was coming. The goddess of future had divulged it to her…after her scratching a few backs and blackmailing a few others.

Percy, so innocent now, couldn't know of the future to come. He needed to be strong, but one only gets stronger through experience, and he had yet to experience anything of the true pain one can feel. And no one knew pain better than her.

She flexed her fingers before crossing her arms to lean back against the far wall of the Lotus hotel room. Percy looked around. He could feel her power, no doubt.

She would be the one to train the upstart hero. She could inflict pain, teach him how to endure it and show him how to control his fear. She could make him stronger – never mind her personal motives; no, that was for later after the wars were over. All she needed now was a point of entry. Then he would never be able to escape her. Never.

Surveying the room once more, Odyne goddess of pain pushed off the wall, still invisible, and closed the space between herself and Percy. Oh, he looked deliciously anxious. Yes, he could sense her nearing. There was no doubt he was a demi-god. He would be the one. He could be strong enough, and in the end he could save her from her prison of pain. But first to strength, fortify those chances…first: the pain!


How long had we been here? It couldn't have been too long…could it?

I looked around me, noting almost dismally that I had wandered back into our hotel room. I was turning to go back out, but a familial aura had filled the room. Something was not right. There was something - someone - else in the room. One hand reached for the doorknob while the other went for riptide, but I was accosted by a sudden energy pushing me by the shoulders till I lay on my back on the floor.

The pressure on my shoulders left only long enough to knock Riptide from my hand. I threw myself upward to rid myself of the invisible force.

I regretted it.

In the years to come, I would reflect on that moment as I fell asleep each night. The moment things changed for me. I mean, I knew the gods had it out for me, but this?

A knife pierced my upper left arm, slicing thinly into the skin so that I did not feel the pain at first, but it did not last. As I registered a teen-barely-woman, dark hair in a messy bun, and every personification of goth you can think of, a scream burst from my throat. Places I didn't even know could hurt were burning.

The girl pressed down on the knife, but I didn't want that thing getting any further into me. It just hurt. Summoning my courage, I brought my right hand to pull the knife out. It was still invisible, but as soon as I pulled it out, I felt it disintegrated the way monsters do. The girl got up and left me lying on the floor. I got the feeling it was good I had not looked into her eyes. She high-tailed it out of the room, rushing to the window and hopping over the guardrail on the balcony.

I attempted to go after her.

That was stupid.

I only managed to flop over onto my stomach and retch as my stomach contents landed on the floor with a slight splatter. I moved over a moment and lay on my back again, panting.

Who had that been? More importantly, why?

My head flopped over and I gazed through teary eyes at my left arm – at the entry point. Strangely enough, though, there was no blood where it had entered me. Just a thin red scar. The knife must have been tipped with some kind of poison or something, that or I was just really, really tired. But in any case I quickly found it getting more and more difficult to move my left arm. The pain had dulled, but the numb sensation I felt was spreading. I was slowly becoming paralyzed.

I didn't stay long to admire my new disability. I got out of the room and down to the game room to find Annabeth and Grover as fast as I could.

I found Annabeth working on adding a lower town to her city. If I had cared to admire it, I'd say it looked like the ultimate architecture's collection city.

"Come on," I tugged on her arm. "We need to leave." I don't feel well, I thought to add, but I didn't think it would make much a difference. I waited a moment, but she hadn't looked away from the screen, "Annabeth, please. We have to go. NOW." I started to shake her but she pushed me away.

"Leave me alone!"

"Please, Annabeth!" The idea had lingered maliciously in the back of my mind, and I felt bad for doing it, but I had to get my friends out of this place. I could barely remember why we were there, but I just knew I needed help. I pushed my face in front of hers, closed my eyes, and kissed her quick on the lips.

That jarred her; I realized she had slapped me before I felt the sting on my cheek. "Percy!"

Taking in a deep breath, I wiped my lips with my sleeve, noticing her doing the same. "Sorry, but you were in pretty deep."

"And that was the only thing you could think of?!"

That didn't deserve an answer. Whatever arguments I made, Annabeth was sure to win them. Instead I said, "We have to get out of here. We need…" I stopped, my vision blurring for a moment when my stomach decided it needed to finish emptying itself.

"Percy?" She touched my shoulder lightly. I could barely feel her touch.

With my mind reeling in disgust, I swallowed hard and pushed it back down my throat. "I'm okay." I coughed with distaste. "Let's just find Grover."

We began searching, but before we had gotten far I let out a gasp of pain. I had brushed my left arm against a game machine. Now the place where the knife had stuck me was stinging viciously. The numb sensation had spread to my side, making it difficult to move. Oddly enough, my arm had gone stiffly limp at my side. I couldn't control it anymore, which meant if the numbing agent reached my legs… I wouldn't be able to walk.

Annabeth had noticed that I stopped and came over. "Percy, what's wrong?" she demanded.

I shook my head. "We have to find Grover and get out of here first."

She stared me down for a moment before giving in. She knew I was right this time. Yeah, this time.

Eventually we found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter. Let's just say it took a lot of wrestling against Grover and his flying shoes to get him away. His struggling was making it almost so difficult to walk that I nearly collapsed. The numbing feeling was gnawing at my legs with a faint tingling sensation.

"Percy, you really don't look good." Annabeth said.

"I'll be fine," I grunted, though I didn't know if I'd be fine or not. It was even hard to talk. And the air I sucked in was as thick as molasses.

We got out of the building, and suddenly the three of us face the world with a sharp breath of reality. Grover was out of it almost instantly, and Annabeth was already fine, but me…

I barely registered the changed between the inside of the building and the outside. I staggered behind them clutching my stomach. I almost couldn't move my right arm and it was the most painful feeling to just try to walk. It was a miracle I could think.

The paralyzing poison had spread everywhere in me but my chest, head, and below my knees. It must have been mixed with some sort of sedative because black spots were dancing in my vision. I felt feverish and my whole body ached with the strain of holding myself up. My throat closed up till I was breathing through a straw, and I panicked.

"Guys…" I couldn't stand any longer. Crumpling to the ground, I blacked out.


"Percy! Percy! Oh please wake up!" Annabeth's voice flooded my ears as I came to.

I tried to move, but my body wasn't responding. My heart beat echoed in my head as though in slow motion. Annabeth was shaking my shoulder, but I could barely feel her touch. Her pleas came through as though over a bad cell phone connection, and the words were slow like my heart beat.

However, as I became self aware and dragged my mind out of my groggy state, I felt my heart beating faster and faster, as if it were racing to get a lifetime of beats in that minute. Each time it pounded felt like it was trying to jump out of me. My breath was short and violent; it was getting harder and harder to keep breathing.

I will be honest with you. I was scared.

I didn't know what to do. Actually I couldn't do anything. The anxiety built in my chest and only caused to make things worse on all levels. But there was this clear voice in the back of my head that kept saying you have to fight it.

So I followed the voice and tried to fight it. Over and over again I tried to move something… anything! I kept trying even though I felt like the silent struggle would tear me in half.

For one dreadful moment I felt my whole body screaming with the most terrible, indescribable pain I ever felt and ever would feel through the rest of my life. I wished I would never feel anything as painful as that again, and I never did. If I could have screamed, the campers on Long Island would have heard me.

Then, as sudden as it started, it was gone. I gasped and began to intake long, shaky breaths. My eyes fluttered open. Hovering above me, I saw the anxious faces of Annabeth and Grover. I closed my weary eyes again.

"Percy?" Grover asked.

Slowly I began to breathe normally. I was exhausted and sweaty. I wanted to just lie there and sleep for weeks on end.

"Percy?" it was Annabeth's voice again.

I experimented. I made my fingers move and I could make a fist, but it took a lot of effort because I was so worn out.

"Percy?" Annabeth said again, her voice was full of worry. I guess I had scared them pretty badly.

I opened my eyes and saw Annabeth and Grover still looking at me. I made a strenuous attempt to sit up. Grover helped me, but touched me as if I was a glass knife. Annabeth just stared at me.

Once I was propped against the dumpster they had dragged me to, I searched for the scar the knife had given me. I found it right below my left shoulder. I ran my fingers over it and winced. The faint touch shocked pain through my body.

Though I didn't know it then, that scar would stay with me for the rest of my life, and every time I would touch it I would always feel that coursing pain. The lingering questions bounced in my mind…Who was that girl? And what did she want with me?


So, do you want more? I have more. I suppose I'll post them as separate chapters if this is liked enough. I can label the chapters according to which book they are in. That should be helpful, right? Comment lots!

-Dante