Chapter 2

"Hello Percy, my name is Annabeth and this is Piper," I tell him, a small smile on my face. "So you hear voices eh?" I ask as we begin to make our way up the white staircase that is lit by the dim light.

Percy nods slowly. "Everyone just keeps telling me that I'm crazy and sometimes I believe them, but the voices seem so real. Everything they tell me is true, for example, Piper was diagnosed as a kleptomaniac after her parents divorced. And you Annabeth Chase, well you're a mystery just waiting to be solved," he says with a smirk.

A light blush creeps onto my face as the words of his last sentence leaves his lips. Piper however is grinning. "Woah!" she says, the amazement lucid in her voice. "It's like having a superpower!"

Percy laughs and runs his fingers through his dark hair, a shaky breath escaping his lips. Piper opens the door to our room, the hinges making the kind of creaking noise that you usually hear in creepy movies. Sitting down on the tan couch that sits next to the windowsill, I study every detail about Percy. His red lips move as he talks to Piper, his green eyes shine with amusement, and his hair falls a tiny bit below his black eyebrows. He's dressed in all white, just like everyone else considering it is what we're given to wear the moment that we walk into the building. A large bruise covers a section of his left forearm and scars fill his wrists.

Percy turns to face me, noticing me studying him. A smirk covers his face as he speaks. "Like what you see?"

"I'm not checking you out or anything," I tell him, my voice emotionless. "I'm just trying to figure you out."

"What have you got so far?" he asks crossing his arms over his chest.

I knit my eyebrows tightly together as I give myself a couple more seconds to study him. "Well," I finally begin with a sigh. "Considering the slits on your wrists, you tried to commit suicide. My guess is either the voices told you to do so or you're parents thought you were a freak." The look on his face tells me it is both so I continue off of that. "Or maybe it was both. The pain in your eyes shows that you had something bad happen in your childhood. You have that same look hidden just like Piper so I'm guessing that your parents got divorced. Your mother got remarried and that is when the beatings begun. Your step father was convinced you were a freak and begun to beat you. Judging by the protective expression that overcomes your face when I mention your mother, she always tried to protect you but he beat her as well. Then you finally had enough of the beatings and you considered suicide. The voices told you that it was a fantastic idea and they had never told you anything that wasn't true before so you slit your wrists."

Percy bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. "Wow that was impressive Wise Girl. You got it all right. How did you do that? I mean, the voices don't tell me that much…"

"You just have to pay attention to the little things Seaweed Brain," I reply.

An awkward silence fills the air, letting my sentence hang in the air. Finally, there is a knock at the door and Chiron comes in, announcing that someone is here to see Percy. "Annabeth," Chiron says. I look up, letting him know that I am listening. "Can you show Percy down and once he finishes his visit, up to his room? I'm behind on some paper work that I really need to finish."

Percy and I walk down the stairs in silence, both of us not knowing what to say. When we reach the office, a man and a woman awkwardly stand by the counter. The woman has brown hair and blue eyes that looked like they had once been full of happiness, but they had been drained. The same look had been in my father's eyes when he was driving me to the institution. "Is that your mother?" I ask Percy. He nods before rushing up to his mother and embracing her, whispering questions into her ear. As he talks to her, I study the man next to Percy's mother. He glares at Percy and his mother before scratching his bald scalp. He looks like he's a bit overweight, just as I allow my eyes to meet his, a scream escapes my lips. His murky brown eyes are full of hatred and cruelness.

I back away from him, as I continue to scream, tears pouring down my face. A couple nurses crowd around me and try to calm me down but I can't stop screaming. More tears fall down my cheeks as the memories of my mother's death comes flooding back into my brain. Finally the screams stop but I began to breathe heavily and fast, finding it harder and harder to breathe.

Piper's face comes into view and she rests a hand lightly on my shoulder. "What's wrong Annabeth?" she asks, before forcing me to drink some water.

"The… man… he… killed… my… mother…" I whisper to her between breaths.

She turns her head to look at Percy's stepfather who looks at me with a worried glance but his eyes show amusement. I cower closer to the wall, remembering the threat of coming back to get me.

"Annabeth, you need to calm down or else their going to sedate you and take you to the hospital. Breathe in…" Piper begins to say. I nod and breathe, ignoring the aching headache that begins to grow inside of my head. "… And out… in… out…" We continue to do this until I am able to breathe steadily again. When I try to stand up, my legs feel like Jell-O and I collapse onto the floor, hitting my head against the hard wall. The aching inside of my head grows as well as dizziness. Spots fill my vision, and I shake my head, wanting the spots to leave.

Ignoring the spots and the looks I'm getting, I stand up, leaning against Piper. "Percy, do you remember the way up to our room?" I ask. He nods, giving me a confused look. "Meet me up there once you're done here and I'll take you to your room."

By the time he nods again, Piper and I are already making our way up to our room.

"I told you to watch your back…" Percy's step-father hisses into my ear, sending chills down my spine with each word that leaves his lips. "Because now I'm back and the fun's just getting started. You made yourself a little too comfortable here, becoming friends with my son. Well you brought this upon yourself Anna. And you're hell just became your reality."

A laugh that you would only hear from the villains in Disney movies erupts from the bald man as he cuts off my hand. I bite down harder on my lip, suppressing the urge to scream out and cry. Blood trickles down from my wrist and onto my jeans. "How fun would it be, if your best friend killed you!?" He asks, pulling Piper out from behind the wall. Tears trickle down her cheeks as she holds the gun out in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she whispers, as she squeezes the trigger.

I sit up quickly, my heart beating fast against my chest. I take quick choppy breaths, trying not to make much noise so that I don't wake Piper. But when I check in her bed, there's a note left on her pillow. I quickly read her neat handwriting,

Calypso wanted me to spend the night with her and Hazel. Their having a sleepover "party" and got permission from Chiron for us to be allowed to stay up as long as we want. You're welcome to join us; we didn't want to wake you. It looked like you were sleeping peacefully.

See you in the morning,

Love, Piper

I take a deep breath and run a hand through my blonde curls as an idea forms inside my head. I quietly walk through the halls, avoiding all of the staff. When I reach the elevator, the floor seems colder, making my body shiver.

The elevator dings as I reach the roof. I sit at the edge of it, letting my feet swing over the edge. The wind blows through my curls, sending them flying all around my face. The elevator dings again, causing me to turn around. Percy emerges from the elevator, sending a small smile my way.

"Um, my step father Gabe told me to give you a message," Percy awkwardly says, sitting down next to me. When I don't respond, Percy decides to continue. "Uh, he said 'You better not tell anyone our little secret or you know what's coming.' Why did you freak out when you saw him? What did he mean?"

I press my lips tightly together, trying to figure out whether I should trust Percy Jackson or not. He did have to live with Gabe's abuse for a huge part of his life so he probably hates him as much as I do. But what if he's so terrified of Gabe that he tells him and Gabe ends up hurting Malcom or my father?

"Gabe gave me a book awhile back. He told me not to tell anyone because he didn't want his family knowing that he had extra money to give out. And I really love my books so when I saw him, I was scared that he was coming to take it away from me," I lie through gritted teeth. Percy scowls at me and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Come on Annabeth, I'm not going to tell Gabe because I know that's why you're lying to me. I swear on the River Styx that I won't tell anyone. You can trust me. If it makes you feel better, I'll tell you something in return," he says.

"I know what you're trying to do. You said so yourself that you think I'm a mystery just waiting to be solved. No one had ever solved me before and you want to be the one to do it. So you're trying to solve me. You are trying to pick up the broken pieces of me and put them back together. But I found out a long time ago that the broken pieces just don't want to be a part of me anymore. When my mother died, I felt so empty and broken, as if I had just shattered into a million pieces and what you see now, are just the fragments of what's left. All the other pieces are long gone because they just didn't want to be a part of me anymore. And Percy, if I let you in, let you be a part of me; trust me, you won't want to be a part of me anymore. You'll leave me just like my father did, just like all my old friends. There's only two people that remain in my fragments, my brother Malcom, and Piper. Trust me; you don't want to be involved in my life."

Percy sighs, running a hand through his hair before talking. "Annabeth, you've been obviously hurt by many people in your life. So many that now you aren't very trustworthy towards others. The voices agree with you, they keep chanting 'It's a bad idea Percy!' But for once in my life, I don't believe them. I think getting to know you and helping you get away from Gabe would be one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I promise I won't leave you and I'll stick by your side no matter what, just let me help."

I take a deep breath, thinking over whether I should trust this boy who sits next to me. I mean, I know nothing about him and he knows nothing about me so why would he want to help me? Why would anyone? Finally I begin to speak. "Gabe killed my mother when I was ten years old. My father was at work and Malcom was at school. I was sick that day so I stayed home. My mother had stayed home with me and we planned on spending the entire day reading in the living room. It sounded like a perfect plan so I ran off to my room, going to get the blankets and when I returned, my mother was on the floor, clinging to her life. A man with murky brown eyes stood over her, a bloody knife in his gloved hands. He was wearing a ski mask but I could never ever forget his eyes." By this point tears are falling down my face and the cold air makes me shiver. Percy notices this and wraps his jacket around my body. I hug it close to me and he puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. "I was frozen in place, unable to move or speak or listen to anything. He put the knife in my hands and set it up to make it look like I had done it. Then he whispered in my ear something that I can never forget. He said 'You better watch your back kid because I'll be back and I'll do a lot worse than killing your mother.' My father came home from work and sobbed over my mother's body. He screamed at me, telling me how much he hated me. I don't remember Malcom coming home but the next thing I remember is myself in the car and I was coming here. My father still hasn't spoken to me, but I know he's remarried and has twins."

I raise my head up so that I am looking at Percy. Something flashes in his green eyes, something that isn't in many people's eyes; hatred. Pure hatred flows in Percy's eyes telling me that he absolutely hates his step father.

"Annabeth, I promise I won't let him touch you," Percy says, pulling me closer to him.

I wipe the tears from my face and wait for him to share one of his memories. I pull my feet up from the ledge as he begins to speak. "The voices first came to me one of the nights that my parents were fighting. I was seven and my father had just gotten back from one of his work trips and I ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug. My mother however was glaring at him from the corner of the room. 'Did you think I wouldn't notice that you went to California? You told me you were going to Maine for a business trip. I of course thought that you just got the places mixed up but then I go to pay the phone bill and they give me a phone number, asking if I knew who it is because you've been texting it a lot. So I read through the messages and learned all about your affair with Amphitrite!' I had never seen my mother so angry. My father told me to go to my room so I sat on my bed and tried to shut out their screams. Then I heard a voice who told me everything in a way that I would understand. It told me that my father was going to leave in the morning and not come back. And that's exactly what happened. The voices soon became my guide in life even though sometimes they lead me to harm."

Percy and I stayed out there until about three in the morning, just sharing memories and thoughts with each other. When I went back to my room to sleep, I didn't have any nightmares although I was woken up at about two in the morning. Something grabbed me by the hair and yanked me from my bed, throwing me onto the floor. "I told you not to tell you little bitch, now you're going to pay," a familiar voice hisses into my ear.

(A/N: Okay so I like really enjoy writing this story so I decided to post the new chapter early! A huge thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm so glad you guys like it! I felt like this chapter wasn't as good as the first but I had some trouble writing it and had to start over like three times. I have a question for you guys though! Do you guys want me to put like a flashback of like each of their pasts at the beginning so you can understand a bit more about their pasts in this AU? For example, have a flashback for when Piper was smaller and like when they were sent to the institution. So let me know in a review if you think I should do that or not. See you guy's next chapter!)