That evening after the incident I got on my computer and typed in two words: Perseus Jackson. The first was a funeral notice.
Perseus Jackson, 17, left us on December 21st. He was born and raised in Manhattan. He enjoyed sword fighting, swimming and summers at camp. He attended Goode High School in Manhattan. He is survived by mother Sally Jackson, stepfather Paul Blowfis, half-brother Tyson, and cousins Thalia, Jason, Hazel and Nico. He followed in death grandparents Jim and Laura Jackson, and cousin Bianca.
Sword fighting? That is a strange hobby. I thought about the cuts on the girl. I opened the next article about him and his mother going missing after a mysterious car wreck when he was 12, only to have him and his mother show up unharmed 16 days later. Meanwhile he fell out of the St. Louis arch. Later they found out that a stalker who blew up the arch to try to capture him had chased him.
Another was about a year later when there was an explosion at his school and he ran from the scene with fellow student Tyson and a girl described as "13years old with blond hair, well built." The explosion was later proven to be a furnace explosion.
I was stuck. The rest of the search results were useless. I suddenly remembered an old friend. We had gone to middle school together but I went to a private high school and he had gone to Goode. I pulled out my phone and dialed him.
He picked up after 3 rings. "Hello."
"Hello, Jay."
"Hello Ryder, what can I do for you?"
"I was just wondering if you knew a guy by the name of Percy Jackson."
"Yeah, we used to go to school together, but why are you interested? Are you a stalker or something."
I told him about the graveyard and girl and the how I wanted to find out why she was there and who she was.
"Well I can tell you all I know, but it is not a lot. I first met him during freshman orientation. He ran out of the room with frightened looking girl, not the blonde, but a red head by the name of Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I heard that one of the cheerleaders attacked them and Percy pulled out a base ball bat and hit her and she exploded into flames, but those were just rumors."
"Did they ever find out what happened."
"They told us that it was a furnace explosion. Anyway later freshman year right before the holiday break, a poodle burst in on our exams. Everybody was laughing except Percy, he was ghost white. He almost looked worried. he said it was his poodle and left to take his dog home and didn't come back for the rest of the day. I also knew the dog wasn't his because he had told me before that his building didn't allow dogs."
"What did he look like?"
"Well he was tall, and muscled. He had this wild black hair and green eyes. He wasn't the best student, he was dyslexic and his only good subject was History. He knew a lot about ancient Greece and Rome."
"Did you ever see him with the blonde girl?"
"Well I remember one time during sophomore year, someone dared him to ask this girl out. He said he couldn't because he already had a girlfriend named Annabeth who lived in San Francisco, and he was actually going to spend the holidays with her. Nobody believed him but on the last day before the holiday break when the bell range he went out side and there actually was a girl and she was waiting for him and then they kissed and left, and that was the happiest I ever saw him."
"Was it the blonde girl I told you about?"
" Yes, but then after break Percy wasn't at school. I asked his step-dad, Mr. Blowfis, who taught at our school, where Percy had gone and he said he didn't know and he had spent the holidays with his girlfriend at this camp the went to and one night he just kissed her good night went to his cabin and the next morning he was gone. He said that they thought they knew where he was and was sending his brother to go look for him and I said 'I didn't know Percy had a brother' and he said 'well It's his half brother, and I've only met him a few times' and he looked down at his feet and I said 'Does this have anything to do with his father' and he said yes and that he couldn't say anymore because he wanted to respect Percy's privacy."
"Wow, did he ever come back?" I asked, this story was getting interesting.
"Yes he came back at the beginning of this year, our junior year, and he was changed."
"Changed?"
"Yes he came back, and for firsts he had a tattoo. It was on his forearm it was a trident with a single bar under it. I tried to ask about it once and he just tried to pull his jacket over it, and mumbles something about how he didn't want to talk about it. He was also changed mentally. He came back and he just wasn't the same. I mean he was really witty and he was always making jokes, but he just didn't laugh as often. I remember one day in late December he fell asleep in class and he must of had a nightmare of something because he screamed and woke up and was shaking he asked the teacher if he could use the restroom and he left and never came back. Ever. The next day they told us that Percy had died, he was murdered, stabbed to death."
"Wow."
"The worst part was he had been excited because next semester his girlfriend and several other friends would be coming to school here. Nobody really believed him because several times, his friends were going to come to school but got caught up. He didn't have a lot of friends; he had a few kids that he hung out with at school. They told us the memorial would be after the holidays."
"Did you go?"
"Yeah. I didn't think many kids from school would come, and they didn't; only a few teachers and about ten students came, but it didn't matter because it was full. It was held on a hill by a strawberry farm under this huge tree, and there were about 120 people, mostly kids ranging from 9 to about college age. Most were wearing orange or purple t-shirts. Up in the front row was Annabeth, Percy's girl friend sobbing into the arms of Rachel Dare the kids in purple had tattoos similar to Percy's. Percy was wrapped in a blue shroud with a gold trident embroidered on it. Then a man in a wheel chair came up and talked about Percy and how he was fun to be around and his early life and how he was a loyal friend and he would lay down his life to save another. Halfway though a man came up and sat in the front row. I realized he was Percy's father. A lot of people noticed him and were surprised. Any way Annabeth gave a eulogy and cried though the whole thing and she talked about how they had been through so much and he died protecting her. Another boy named Frank came up and told a story about how Annabeth and Percy and him were on a cruise and Annabeth and Percy had gone missing in the middle of the night and how every body was worried and then he found them in a storage room asleep because Percy had had a nightmare and they had gone down there and fell asleep."
"So how many people talked about him."
"Well then a boy dressed in black, Nico, came up and gave a short speech about how he had loved Percy and he never admitted it and he saved him because he was going to commit suicide after his sister's death (A/N I'm guessing that this was going to happen) and Percy saved him and gave him a purpose in this world. About 7 other gave short eulogies and then the set fire to the shroud and then every body left. After that I never heard the name Percy Jackson till today."
"Thank you so much, I'll talk to you later."
"Ok, Bye"
"Bye" I hung up and flopped onto my bed. Percy Jackson was one interesting guy, I thought as I clutched the necklaces in my pocket.