Percy woke up the next morning. Everything came rushing back to him in a hurry. She was dead. She was dead. She was DEAD. It was all he could think about. It made him angry. He didn't know where the sudden rage was coming from. He wasn't even sure what he was angry towards. The world, for playing its cruel tricks on him, or Annabeth for doing the deed. All he knew, is that he was pissed. Extremely pissed. He forcefully got out of his bed, stalked over to his dresser, and found his black workout clothes. He slammed the door to his bedroom and walked out of his house, not bothering to make breakfast. He needed alone time, but not in his house. There were too many memories of Annabeth there.

He drove to the gym, a place he sometimes went when he had nothing better to do. The gym was empty, just Percy. Good… He thought. Nobody's here to see me vent… He walked up to one of the large 90 pound punching bags, and put his gloves on. He took a deep breath, let it out, and then began to whale on the bag like it would make Annabeth come back. A steady 'umph' sound came from the bag each time he beat it. He was hitting it so hard, that his hands were hurting even through his gloves. Right. Left. Middle. Side. The bag took punishment. He threw in a kick and the bag shuddered on its chain. Percy stopped for a brief moment, tore off his gloves, and resumed beating the hell out of the bag. He imagined Death, off laughing somewhere at his fury. That just made Percy even angrier. He slammed into the bag with his fists so hard, they began to bleed.

"AAAAH!" He yelled. Percy pivoted on his left heel, and slammed his right into the bad. There was an almighty cracking sound, and then the chain that was anchored into the wall gave, falling onto the gym's floor, taking the bad with it. Percy stood there, huffing and looking at the fallen punching bag.

"Well, it's a good thing you're not the Hulk." He heard a voice say from behind him. He spun around and saw Reyna standing there. He wasn't surprised. She came to the gym every now and then, and she was friends with the owner, Beckendorf.

"Reyna." He said. She looked at him with sad eyes.

"Come here Percy… let's get those knuckles bandaged." She said. He nodded mutely, and followed her to her gym bag. She always kept bandages and medical stuff, in case she hurt herself training too hard.

"Sit down." She said. Percy plopped down next to her, cross legged. She took out some gauze, took his left hand, and began wrapping it. "I'd ask how you're holding up, but… that question was answered for me." She said.

"Why did this happen?! She was so happy… I thought I made her happy… but she's dead…" He said. Reyna wrapped his other hand.

"We may never know Perce. And we'll have to live with that." She said wisely. "But do you think Annabeth would want you like this? I know that sounds cliché, but it's true."

"I dunno what the hell Annabeth wanted…" He muttered. Reyna lightly slapped him.

"Perseus Jackson. You know that she loved you. She would never want you to be sad." Reyna said to him.

"Yeah… I'm sure…" He said. "Thanks for the patch up Rey. Tell the owner I'll pay for the bag…" Reyna looked troubled.

"Okay. I will." She said. Percy got up to leave. "And Percy?" He turned. "Don't do anything stupid." She said. He nodded and left


Percy got home and changed into some normal clothes. He felt like destroying stuff. He had an axe in his garage. He grabbed that, and dashed into the woods behind his house. He went deep into them before he hefted the axe, and began slamming it into a tree, grunting each time the axe hit. The impact jarred his bones, but he didn't care. He kept whacking it until he had made some deep cuts in it. He gave a yell, and slammed the blade into the tree one last time, before the tree fell with a loud crash. Percy stood back and admired his handiwork. As he did so, Reyna's words came back to him. He shook it off and walked back inside. It had gotten late, it was around 4:00pm. His stomach rumbled, and he remembered that he skipped breakfast. He made a sandwich, and leaned on his counter, chewing. He couldn't stop thinking about his dead lover. He missed her more than anything in the world. Percy didn't even think that a single person could possibly contain this much hurt. He knew that his friends were there, and that they felt his pain too. But they didn't feel the pain as strongly as he did, Percy, the one closest to Annabeth. He would do anything to get Annabeth back.

Anything. Even making some kind of deal, or Bargain.


So Percy is through with anger, and is on to the next stage, which is bargaining. I'm going to try and write a chapter a day, but don't hold me to that. Also, if you didn't see the message in Denial, Revenge is now the official prequel to Stages. So here's the link to that:

s/9214271/1/Revenge

Till next time my friends.