Chapter 3

Annabeth's POV

"I already like you better than the others."

When he said that, I'm sure my reaction was priceless.

Blinking a couple times, I said, "Is this… some sort… of joke…?"

"Nope," he replied, popping the p.

I didn't understand. This killer in front of me is not doing the kill part of killer.

I was at a loss of words, to say the least. "Do you know who I am?"

He replies without a beat. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of the Athena, next in line to be queen of Athens."

I was silent for a good dozen seconds. "I think I deserve an explanation."

He merely laughed. "You say you deserve something, yet you're the one with the sharp edge of a sword in front of your pretty face. You don't deserve anything. You just want to know why I'm here, and why I killed those three other girls but I'm not killing you."

Anyone who knew me would laugh. Daughter of Athena, soon to be queen of Athens, has her jaw dropped in front of an assassin. "You…"

"Have succeeded in making the infamous prodigy Annabeth Chase speechless," he finished. "Was that what you were going to say?"

I glared enough to paralyze everyone from a mile's distance, but all I got from him was an aura of silliness and amusement. Gods, he's so different from everyone I know. And not necessarily in a good way.

I already hate him. Gods, I hate him. No one will understand how much I wanted to stab him a million times over in that moment. I was the most vulnerable I've ever been, and this idiot was mocking me. I've never been more defeated in my entire lifetime, though I couldn't really say much, considering where I come from.

"I see that look in your eyes, Chase," he said. "It's determination and hatred, isn't it?"

I hate how well he reads me.

"I wonder how you got to be like this," he muses.

My blood was boiling. "Like what?"

"Angry at everything and everyone that don't know you well."

I blinked again. "Huh?"

"Call me a stalker, because I probably am one. You hardly ever leave the house other than to go to school. Let's not forget that you have no close friends other than your brother, disliking males in particular."

I hate he notices these things when no one else does.

"Tell me, and I'll go," he promises. "And don't lie. I can tell when you do."

I sigh. "You're telling the truth?"

The murderer nods. "Yes, I am." After a pause, he adds, "Well, that and you cannot tell anyone that I was here. Do you understand?"

"I understand, but I want to know why."

"You're not going to get the 'why' now, but if you tell anyone I swear on the River Styx that I will hunt you down and kill you myself."

I swallowed down the lump in my throat.

"Get talking and I'll leave."

I exhaled. "I… I don't remember becoming like this in the first place."

"That is most definitely a lie."

"How in the world can you tell?"

"I have my sources."

I absolutely loathed him. I spoke slowly. "My father. He's the reason why I hate men." I turned to my desk, a small envelope in the corner. "He left a note, saying to my Mother that he met another woman, who he really loved." I breathed deeply. "What makes it worse is that he married and had twins the same year he left, so obviously he'd been cheating for much longer my Mother had anticipated."

He lowered his blade and walked towards the window.

"You're not telling me about everything," he said cooly. "I expect to know everything in the future, but for now, this is enough."

I wanted to kill him.

But if I did, why did I ask: "What's your name?"

He just replied with, "Call me PJ."

Malcolm came back a few minutes later. PJ had taken up a lot of my studying time without me knowing.

"Hey, Annabeth, you doing okay? Did anything come up?"

I looked back at my brother. "Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing happened at all."

Thanks for reading this far!

~KawaiiChick