Chapter III: Searching in the Dark for Broken Glass
There were about a million things Percy could think of that he'd rather be doing than this.
One: eating tarantulas
Two: wrestling with a slimy giant
Three: listening to Apollo's sonnets on repeat
And, well, the list goes on and on.
But no. Instead here he was, traveling to the attic where there was probably a monster that was going to eat them, with two girls who hate each other and—sometimes it seems—him. (Alas, dear Percy has not figured out why yet, bless his soul). And if you're Percy Jackson, you know you're not one for a conversation starter. But you try anyway.
In the creaking quiet of footsteps on floorboards, Percy glances at Annabeth and Calypso, who are walking at least five feet apart while he lags behind them.
"So …" So? So what? What was Percy supposed to say? 'How 'bout them Yankees?'
Dead. Silence. Calypso and Annabeth stare at him like they're expecting him to grow five noses.
"...Nothing."
Here, kids, is where Percy mentally clubs himself half to death for being so stupid.
Annabeth was always shooting him those looks. Those 'you are so idiotic it makes me want to hit something' kind of expressions that just make him feel even stupider than before. She had a way of doing that. Sweet, sweet Annabeth.
But that was part of her charm, he guesses. If she wasn't so smart, she'd probably have to depend on her looks (which had grown to a lot, by the way, since they were twelve). No longer was she the annoying girl with tangled blond hair and the snarky comebacks (well, the snarky comeback parts were still there) but, now, she had definitely developed into a very beautiful young woman. Tall, blonde, perfectly tan, not to mention incredibly smart. He was so lucky to have called her his girlfriend.
Key-fucking-word. Was.
They had started out brilliantly. In the midst of a war over and a new beginning, their time together for the past couple years had created this bond between them—like having their shoelaces tied together, and when the balance goes off, one of them falls.
For a long time coming, it seemed only expected that they would start dating soon. After years of mindless denial, they were finally a couple. And no one but Athena seemed to mind.
Indeed, even though they were currently broken up (how long that would last, only time would tell), he'd never forget the feeling of wanting her safe, making sure she was alive while, it seemed, everything around him was dying.
Things didn't get very unstable until school started again. They lived on opposite sides of the country and she was always busy rebuilding Olympus. Sure, they'd call each other and visit on break, but Percy realized that keeping in touch with a friend over the year was different than keeping in touch with a girlfriend.
Shit, don't ask him why. It just was.
Months earlier
He had just arrived back from school, only having enough time to throw his backpack by the foyer wall and get a glass of water before the phone rang.
Usually, his mom would answer the phone, but today she was not even in town due to her book tour that had started a week ago. At the moment, Mrs. Blofis (he still wasn't used to the name) was in Philadelphia, doing whatever it is authors do on a book tour—really, she had explained what happens before she left, but Percy's ADHD kicked in whenever people decided to explain things. Hence his school grades.
And Paul was still at school, tutoring some kids, and he had told Percy to go ahead home. Here he was.
He picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Seaweed Brain."
He almost dropped the glass of water in his hands. "Oh—hey—Annabeth. What's," his brain was moving at a thousand miles per hour, "cracking?"
She didn't say anything for a while and Percy could guess she was internally making fun of his stuttering stupidity. "Cracking?" she laughed. "Honestly Percy, three months without me and already your vocabulary skills have worsened."
"Hey! Don't be mean." When in actuality, he'll admit, her teasing was a little intriguing.
"Just kidding Kelp-head. Anyway, how are you?"
"Good. Rachel almost started spewing prophecies in the middle of Physics. Pulled her out of class all of a sudden. People, uh, think we have a thing…"
He was expecting to explode. "Rachel," she said simply. Ever since last year's Titan debacle, and Rachel's transformation into the Oracle, she and Annabeth had been getting along better and no longer held each other in contempt. But he could tell that Annabeth was not all thumbs-up about people thinking he and Rachel had 'a thing.'
Maybe he shouldn't have mentioned the story, but Percy was never known for thinking much before he spoke.
Of course, after making that deal last summer, Rachel's father had been adamant of her to attend that Clarion joint for the remainder of high school. Except that was before she became the Oracle. In her new situation, she had realized that it was probably best to stay close to camp and even though New Hampshire was not so far away, staying at Goode seemed the right thing to do. Percy didn't disagree. He just didn't know how she managed to pull that over with her crazy, socially elite family. He'd yet to ask her about that.
"Kids at school don't believe I have a girlfriend," he suddenly blurted as if this fact would make her any happier. To his surprise, it did.
"Ha, what?"
"Yeah. I showed them a picture of you. They said no way. I'm one of those losers, you know? The one that always goes 'I have a girlfriend' and when people ask who she is, I say that you go to another school—but in this case you don't even live on the same side of the country, which makes me even more of a loser…"
Her laughter filled the telephone call and he found that he was smiling despite himself.
"That brings me to what I was going to ask you about," she said. "What do you think of me coming down there at Thanksgiving break?"
"To—to see me?"
"No. To see the Macy's Parade. Yes to see you."
"I think that's awesome." He really did. He thought they were having problems before school commenced again, but her visiting here next week could definitely fix that.
"Ask your mom before you agree."
"You sound like a teacher. My mom isn't here. She won't care though. She likes you." He knew that would have made Annabeth smile. It was true enough. His mom adored Annabeth, and if he didn't know any better, she was already planning their wedding and naming his kids.
Thanks Mom.
"Alright then, Seaweed Brain. If you say so. Thanksgiving. It's a date."
They were going to have a date with a roasted turkey, his parents, and possibly his Uncle Gideon. Ideal. So ideal.
"Sure is," he said.
"Here we are," Calypso said, almost to herself. And, as a minor surprise to Percy, she pulled on the chain to the door of the attic. A surprise, because, well, height-wise, compared to him, Calypso had to tip toe to even reach his forehead (where, he blushes, she had kissed him once almost two years ago). She must have used some godly (goddessly?) power or something to reach it.
The stairs came unraveling down, revealing the dank, dark attic.
Without another word, the girls walked up before he could even get on the first step.
"Ladies first," Percy muttered to himself.
When he got to the top, he saw Calypso and Annabeth just standing there. Of course, it was a dark room and they were up here in the middle of the night, but he could have never thought of these two as the scared-of-the-dark types. It wasn't until he had fully walked into the attic beside them did he realize why.
He stepped into the attic and he felt…cold.
Not just that, but something in the back of his mind was panicking—like fear was knocking at his skull. He hadn't felt like that since he'd encountered Phobos not too long ago.
Judging from Annabeth's and Calypso's expressions, they were feeling the same thing.
"I don't remember this place giving me this much of the creeps," Annabeth said. "Dammit. I wish I had something with me—"
"It wouldn't matter," Calypso surveyed the attic, as if something was whispering to her what was inside. "Whatever's up here can't be pierced with a blade—"
"I know that," Annabeth grumbled. "I was just saying—"
"Alright!" Percy exclaimed—which was probably dangerous, but... "Okay. We're here for some stupid label remember?"
They were probably glaring at each other again, but Percy didn't want to get into that now. He just wanted to get out.
For a while, the anxiety that reached all three corners of the living in this room seemed to set aside to the backburner—at least for the moment. It didn't help that the attic was as expansive as the house it was set on top of and that the shelves were never-ending.
He didn't remember feeling so lost in the attic before, mainly because whatever he needed up here was always near the entrance and never hard to find (decayed, cursed mummies are usually very noticeable). But now that they were searching for broken glass on the floor, with the only lighting coming from the single dim bulb at the center of the attic and the leaking of moonbeams through the window, everything was just a little more difficult.
At one point, he must've gone in circles or something because he ended up bumping into Calypso somewhere along the way.
"Um—I—uh, sorry about that."
"It's alright," she said. "Oh, I—well I didn't get to…I just wanted to say, happy late birthday."
He gulped. It had been yesterday. "Thanks." There had been endless amounts of chocolate cake. A few presents. A phonecall from his mom. Grover took time off his busy "important satyr" schedule just to join in the celebration. Even Annabeth had decided that his birthday was to be a neutral day. Then here she was today like yesterday wasn't fun. Girls were strange.
However, he did notice that he hadn't seen Calypso that day. Not that he was expecting her to. Okay, maybe he was. And maybe he was just a little disappointed. What was keeping her anyway? Percy knew it was slightly petty to even think such things. Yet he realized just how much he wanted to know the answer.
She looked down. "And…Perseus?"
He felt frozen in place. Hardly anyone called him that. "Y-yeah?" Smooth, sailor. Smooth. Unintentionally, he had started looking at her face, enough to realize he hadn't really looked at her in a very long time. Even in the darkness, she was as stunning as he remembered.
If not a little more sad.
"That's a mighty beautiful girl you have there, Percy, m'boy." Uncle Gideon was a burly man and so when he slapped Percy on the back as a sign of congratulations, Percy almost choked up the pounds of turkey, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes he had devoured twenty minutes ago.
Across the room were Annabeth and his mom talking. They were laughing at some girl joke, probably, and Paul was busy trying to get the cable to work.
When she had brought up the idea of coming over for Thanksgiving, he had asked if her family was okay with that. She had gotten quiet, and even over the phone, he could tell she was frowning.
"They're going to my stepmom's relatives place in LA. I—well, I didn't think I'd fit in there and being so close to Hades, I'm pretty sure having monsters attack during Thanksgiving won't exactly be one for the scrapbooks," she had told him.
Although he felt sorry for her, he couldn't help but feel glad that she was here now. His mom desperately needed some female company while having to put up with two silly males everyday. Plus, he hadn't seen Annabeth since camp was over, and even then, she was always busy with Olympus blueprints that he didn't see her as much as he wanted.
"Yeah," he told Uncle Gideon, staring at Annabeth's lean, tall figure, her blonde locks that was in a ponytail today, and her silver owl earrings. "I know." He saw the emptiness in his glass and decided he wanted more soda. "Excuse me," he said before retreating into the kitchen.
There, he had come across the desired liter of Coke on the counter and started filling his cup. He was about to leave, when he passed by the window.
The one with the moonlace in the garden box.
He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to be near it. He opened the window, letting into the cold New York autumn air and the fragrance of the mystical flower.
It calmed him down every single time. Even when he thought he couldn't be more relaxed, the moonlace had done something to him that felt like all his muscles turned to cool water and untied the knots in his mind.
But then it would turn around and make him feel hopelessly sad. Because, well, in truth, the memory of leaving a kind, beautiful girl on the shores of a phantom island wasn't the most cheery thing to look back on.
Many nights after that fateful event almost two years ago, he let thoughts of Calypso slip back into his mind—telling himself that if things were different…Well, like what? Like if the weight of the world didn't dance on his shoulders? No kidding.
But it wasn't different. And this is how things came to end. All he could hope for her was that the gods listened to him and set her free.
Just as he caught himself staring absentmindedly at the plant, a human form that looked much like a supermodel materialized outside the window. What the—
"Why hello Percy."
He gritted his teeth and tried to hide his displeasure. "Aphrodite."
Perfect timing. Just so. Damn. Perfect.
When he looked at her, he realized she was staring at the floor and decided to look down himself—only now noticing that he had stepped on a pile a small piece of glass and that between him and Calypso were bigger broken shards.
"Oh…" he blurted lamely.
Annabeth came from around the corner. "Percy, I don't know if I found the—" she paused at the sight of them then crossed her arms. Calypso looked at him pointedly.
Percy felt sharp, hot needles poking his neck. He bent down to the shards of glass and picked up a golden plaque label. "I think we found it."
"Let me see it," said Annabeth.
He was about to hand it to her when they felt a jagged coldness pass through the room. Percy felt himself starting to get sleepy which was odd, since even though it was getting close to a late night, he had been wide awake just moments before.
"On second thought," Annabeth regressed cautiously. "Let's read it once we get back downstairs."
He looked at Calypso, who, for once, seemed to agree with something Annabeth was saying. A rarity, and probably the last time. "We must get out of here quickly," she said, scanning the attic once again with a quick glance before heading hurriedly back to the stairs.
Downstairs, they found Chiron was staring into the faces of the cabin leaders, who were talking amongst themselves. Some had gone to bed already, complaining that they felt the fatigue at night take a hold on them, so now there were only a few kids in the Big House. All that was left were Clarisse, Jake, a few counselors from the minor gods' cabins, Pollux (whom Percy was surprised to see since the kid was in love with sleep as much as he was in love with food), Travis and Connor, and Will Solace, who, Percy noticed, hadn't spoken all night.
Which was probably Will's nature. He was a very reserved kid, compared to the adrenaline-packed campers who were always loud and hooting and ready for action. If anything, Will was the best healer at camp, behind Calypso (did it count that she had been healing for eons?) and had always kept himself at ease behind a book.
He's one of those guys that don't have girlfriends because he was too smart for it. Percy would have thought that he'd be Athena's kid rather than Apollo's. It was strange to think that this proper, intellectual kid was the son of such a—well, Percy didn't want to say hip to describe Apollo, but something along those lines.
"What does it say?" asked Jane Slater, a counselor from the Nemesis cabin.
What did it say? Bashfully, Percy realized he hadn't even looked at the thing. He was too busy being scared out of his mind from the attic and too busy with the thought of Calypso and Annabeth as they hurried in front of him.
He noticed that all the campers were looking at him expectantly as he reluctantly read the label. Being dyslexic, it was rather a hard task since there seemed to be so many words.
"Ah, let smarty read it, you dweeb," said Clarisse. He would've yelled at her, or at least glared, but she was right. Annabeth had better control of her dyslexia than he did. He handed it to her. She looked over it slowly and then began to read:
"Here in this o—orb is the captured spear—spirit of Epiales," she paused, and looked up at Chiron, a question on her face. "Samuel Shailey…Larry Strait, Polly Goldstein…John Lisbon August 19…1979."
Percy felt a strange turning in his gut. Today's date. Only thirty years ago.
A shadow passed over Chiron's face. "Just as I thought."
He looked to Annabeth whose eyebrows were furrowed, like she was trying to remember something. Calypso was still next to him and had proceeded to bring her fingers to her lips, a contemplative look on her face as well. Faintly, he heard her say, in a soft voice, as she glanced down at the stories below and turned back to Chiron. "But, then—it explains everything."
Chiron nodded. "Indeed, it does."
"What explains everything?" Percy found himself asking. Calypso looked at him and then back at the plaque in Annabeth's hands.
"Captured spirit of Epiales—" Annabeth began, rereading it as though she couldn't believe it the first time.
"Epiales?" Jake Mason muttered. "Who's that?"
Meanwhile, beside Jake, Pollux's faced turned frigid. "My—my father told me about him," he said shakily. "He's…he's…"
"He's what?" Clarisse asked, who, despite her tough façade, seemed even a bit shakenjust by looking at Pollux's expression. Whatever it was, it must be notably scary considering the kid's dad was Dionysus—who, in Percy's mind, could make the Boogie Man cry with his dry, cynical humor.
Chiron closed his eyes for a brief moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. Percy almost didn't want to know. He looked at Annabeth who probably knew what was going on now that she'd heard the name. She was like a Greek Myth encyclopedia. But later would find that Calypso would be the one to answer everybody's question.
He turned his gaze to said girl, who was by the railing, watching Danielle sit on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, unable to sleep.
"Epiales," Calypso began, as if to say of course. "I should have known. The God of Nightmares."
(A/N): Third chapter. I know I created many openings of confusion. It's intentional. It's very percabeth centric for now. but no fear. perlypso fans, how ever few, will get your desserts.
sorry to spring these random flashbacks on you. but they're necessary and if you don't agree, well, we'lll just have to see about that, won't we? :)
Questions feel free to ask away...or point out any mistakes or annoying turns in the plot. i hope i've kept everything in character. i'm trying to stick with canon as much as my memory allows. believe me, squeezing in all the new people is my weakness.
And thank you reviewers. you guys rock! and do not fret. Grover will make an appearance sooner or later. what kind of Percy Jackson story would this be if he didn't?
