A/N: I've been on vacation so I'm a little behind in posting but here's the next chapter!
"Well my friends! I hope you got to know your new roommate a little. But now it's time for the grand tour. If you return to the room where we all first met you'll find another open door. More room for our little game!"
Percy didn't like the cheerfulness this guy always had when he talked. It reminded him too much of his step father when he was in one of his moods. Annabeth hadn't left the bathroom since their fight and now he wondered if he should leave without her. But he knew he wouldn't. He was too polite. Something his step father always said was his major weakness.
"People are going to step all over you boy. Just like I do."
The bathroom door opened then, jarring Percy out of his memories. Annabeth stood there awkwardly not knowing where to look. She didn't trust the guy in front of her. He seemed genuinely nice, genuinely a good person. But so had Luke. And Luke hadn't been suspect in a murder either.
"I thought I'd wait for you before going to check out this other door. You know, safety in numbers I guess. And I wanted to apologize for earlier." Percy said. He kept his distance though as he walked to their door and held it open. "I tend to do stupid things sometimes. Or all the time according to Rachel."
"Rachel. The red head that came in earlier?"
"Yeah." Percy was starting to feel stupid standing there at the door. "Are you coming with or…"
"No. I think I'll just stay here." Annabeth answered.
Percy sighed as he left the room. There was definitely no way he was going to be on that girl's good side any time soon. The sign on their door swung in front of him as he contemplated leaving her there alone. Annabeth. Right. He should probably remember that.
"Percy?" Rachel's voice came from down the hall. "You coming?"
"Yeah."
"Now as you can see I've given you all a very spacious and deluxe living area. All for you to get to know each other! Eat. Talk. There's even some games. But remember, there's only one real game and only one real rule. And that's to figure out who murdered your dear friend."
The psycho was definitely right. The place was like a penthouse. The nine people surveying the area couldn't complain. The kitchen was decked out with the best appliances and the fridge was full. The living room was like a mini movie theater.
"Dude! That's totally the new Dead Island." Leo said jumping over the couch to get to the stack of video games.
"This is a fucking stupid pointless game. So what, we're just supposed to get to know each other. Live here like we aren't being held captive. How's he even going to make us do that?" Thalia said as she looked through the fridge.
"Thals, you saw what happened to Reyna. Do you really think that this crazy guy isn't going to hurt us if we don't do what he says?" Jason's sister was a real handful sometimes. But that didn't mean he wanted her to get herself killed.
"No one tells me what to do little brother. Not you and not some voice through a speaker. He can go fuck himself."
"Now, now Thalia Grace. That is no way to talk about your host. I know that daddy didn't give you much attention when you were a kid but that doesn't mean you have to be hostile to everyone."
"Shut the fuck up! You don't know anything." Thalia yelled as she slammed the fridge door shut. Her face was bright red from rage.
"Oh, I don't know about that. I think I know quite a bit about you. About all of you in fact. And you shall soon see what I do to people who don't play my game."
A terrible sounding scream came from back towards the bedrooms. Those who were sitting jumped to their feet but only one person ran from the room.
"Annabeth!" Percy yelled as he rushed back to their room. She had been the only one who stayed behind and Percy cursed himself for leaving her there. He threw open their door as the screams continued coming from the bathroom. "Annabeth!"
Percy wrenched open the door, glad that it hadn't been locked, and cursed as he saw Annabeth curled up on the floor covered in tarantulas. The whole bathroom was covered in them.
"Oh my god." Percy swung around to see Rachel looking on in horror.
"Help me get her out!" Percy yelled as he charged right into the bathroom stomping on as many tarantulas as he could. He swiped them off Annabeth's body as best he could and tried to lift her off the ground. "Rachel! Help me!"
Rachel hesitated at the door but then rushed in to grab Annabeth's legs. They quickly got her out and got rid of the rest of the spiders crawling all over her. Percy threw them back into the bathroom slammed the door and stuffed a blanket in the crack at the floor. He turned back to find Rachel checking Annabeth's pulse.
"I think she just passed out. They didn't bite her or anything. Plus bites just hurt and wouldn't actually kill her." Rachel said looking up at Percy. "She must have really bad arachnophobia."
"Help me get her onto the bed will you?" Percy said. After getting her up Percy pulled the covers over her. "You should get back to the other room. That crazy bastard might send something else at her."
"I can stay here too you know." Rachel said. She hated when Percy was so noble. He had been the only one to come running for a girl he didn't even know. It was a quality she knew got him into as much trouble as good.
"No that's okay. Someone should tell the others what happened too. Since no one else came to help." Percy added somewhat bitterly. Rachel leaned into him then giving him a hug.
"Not everyone is as selfless as you are Percy."
After Rachel left Percy checked the blanket was keeping the spiders contained. He figured he ought to try to kill and get rid of the spiders now since Annabeth was unconscious but when he opened the door it was like the whole event had never happened. Every spider, dead or alive, was gone.
"Well I think that's enough for today. Now I hope you all have fun playing my game."
Calypso had always been the care taker in her family. Her mother was never really around and her father was just useless when it came to cooking and cleaning. He mostly enjoyed a cold beer and leftover pizza. She always tried to at least have something healthy available even though she was really the only one who ate it. And so that is how she found herself in the kitchen making a vegetable stir fry.
"Dude! That smells so good! I'm starving." Leo came up behind the pretty girl at the stove and picked a vegetable right out of the pan. "Ow! Hot, it's hot!"
Calypso couldn't help but laugh. "That's what happens, you know, when you heat things up."
Leo momentarily forgot about the steaming carrot that was burning his hand. She had totally just laughed at him. And not in a 'gods you're stupid' sort of way. Time to put on the Leo charm.
"Well hello beautiful. I'm Leo. Leo Valdez." He put on his most seductive smile and leaned against the counter. "Where have you been all my life?"
Calypso laughed again as she took the vegetables off the heat. "I'm curious, do you actually pick up many girls using that line?"
"Well no but you could always be the first." This time he waggled his eyebrows at her but he couldn't hold a straight face because he remembered the burning carrot in his hand. "Ah, hot!"
"Here," Calypso gave him a plate. "And help yourself to more if you want."
As Leo dug into the food and Calypso searched the cabinets for leftover containers, everyone else was sitting around in the living area. After Rachel had come back and told them what had happened, it was rather silent. There had been a few attempts at coming up with a plan to escape but considering their captor could over hear them there wasn't really a point.
"Don't you kind of think it's odd that those two aren't freaking out? I mean who gets kidnapped and threatened and decides to go cook something?" Piper finally broke the silence. That Leo kid had tried to flirt with her earlier and she totally just shut him down. She had plenty of experience with those sorts of guys.
"Maybe she cooks when she's stressed. I mean we aren't really freaking out either. We're just sitting here." Rachel said. "I have to say, that does smell good."
"Yeah until we eat it and we all die of poison. Maybe we should wait to see if he dies before we eat anything." Everyone looked over to Leo who was stuffing his face. There was a murmur of general agreement before it became silent again.
"So maybe we should all start out by saying how we know Reyna since that's kind of why we are here."
"Who made you boss, Prissy Pants?" Thalia stated. She had been relatively quiet since Rachel had returned.
"Well it makes sense if we have to get to know each other to start there. You may have a death wish but I'm not going to get myself killed by not listening to this psycho." Piper huffed glaring at her annoying roommate.
"She's right Thals. Unless you want to get trapped in your bathroom with who knows what." Piper brightened as Jason agreed with her and Thalia muttered 'slut' under her breath.
"Fine. I'll go first. Reyna and I were teammates on the lacrosse team. And my loser of a little brother here dated her at one point. Happy?" Thalia said. Jason's face went rather pink but his shoulders slumped slightly with relief. They may not have been the closest of siblings but she wasn't stupid. Jason had still been in love with Reyna but at least he didn't have to talk about it in front of everybody now.
"Whoa dude, you dated Reyna? Rock on." Leo had rejoined the circle and everybody glared at him. "Did I miss something?"
Calypso muttered something to him and his expression sobered. "Oh, sorry."
"Why don't you tell us how you know Reyna considering no one can seem to figure out how you fit in to all of this." Thalia asked trying to move the subject along.
"What? We were the best of friends! Couldn't have been closer."
"That's funny since I'm her roommate and I never heard her mention a Leo before." Hazel piped in.
"Alright so maybe not that close. I mean I asked her out once or twice."
"Oh, you're that guy. She did mention someone who continually asked her out every time they saw each other. Someone who didn't seem to understand the word 'no'." Hazel glared at him definitely not liking this kid now. Frank seemed to sit up straighter at this also glaring at him.
"Alright, alright. So I may have been a little persistent." Leo was starting to feel like the guilty party. Especially with the big bulky guy glaring at him. "But I didn't kill her. I would never have hurt a hair on her head, I swear!"
"Let's just move on." Rachel interjected. This was definitely going to be a show for this psycho. She could see them tearing each other apart the longer they were stuck together. It now made sense to her why he pushed them all into talking to each other. "I met Reyna in an art class at university but we were only in the one class together."
The rest of them gave their stories which only left Percy and Annabeth. No one knew anything about Annabeth and Rachel mentioned that she was friends with Percy but she had no clue how he knew Reyna. The conversation soon died out again.
"Well Leo's still alive unfortunately. I guess that means it's safe to eat the food, thank god, because I'm starving." Thalia jumped up and headed towards the kitchen.
