Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter: PrincessAllison, Coqui's Song, bubbly chick, iBoss, HiThereSmiley, Firehawk97, COOKI MUNSTA, Damon-salvatore-lover15, OMG it's Rice, AnythingInterestingIWillRead, SeaweedBrain113097, storyteller1425, larkgrace, kldsn123, The Mysterious Dreamer, mavk4444, The Daughter of the Greek Gods, lilslybud, the unnecessary, DobbyWeasley, candy0304, Ereader64, JasmineofAgrabah, JayJay-Lynn, blue1031, C-Nuggets N.L, annabethchase999, BensonNYPD, R h i a n d u r, cstar12, biancadiangelo0703, blackbutterfly21, Bookninja15, filmyfurry, ApollosFavoriteDaughter3927, catroyal210, Alexandra Nightshade, ScarletGrcae45, BabyYou'reAllThatIWant, erebus of darkness

I don't own PJO (or PJatO, whatever floats your boat).

Okay, so the first part of this chapter might rub some of you the wrong way, but I ask that please at least read the full chapter and my quick author's note at the so I can explain if it does bother you.

Annabeth POV

It was a dark night out and the howling winds tore against my skin, chilling me to the bone. The temperature was cold enough, but the wind chill was enough to freeze me over. I wouldn't be able to easily escape the cold, yet getting out of the wind would help tremendously. My seven year-old legs picked up the pace a bit as I ran through the maze of various alleyways. As I made another turn I finally found what I was looking for. There was an old abandoned house that if I were to enter I would be out of the frigid wind.

Bounding up the steps, I yanked open the door. Even though the place seemed empty, I didn't dare step far into the house. I just stayed in the doorway where the freezing winds couldn't touch me. Plopping down on the floor, I tore through my raggedy backpack in search for a water bottle I had packed before I ran away from my home. Once I found it, I unscrewed the cap a drizzled a little into my mouth. At that young of an age I still knew I had to preserve my water so I only allowed myself a few drops.

There was a faint creaking behind me, but I just assumed it was the wind against the house. Then I heard something even more unsettling.

"Now, Annabeth, don't you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever." It was undoubtedly my dad's voice. The voice I had just run away from weeks ago was now welcoming me in the dilapidated old house.

When I turned around though, I most certainly didn't find my dad. It was dark, so I only saw the man's silhouette. He was unbelievably tall and wide. The figure seemed strong, like he could crush me in an instant if he wanted to. My hand grabbed at my arm, ready to unsheathe my knife any second. My dad had been a bit of a history dork so he had the knife lying around in his study as an artifact. I made sure to grab it before I left for self-defense purposes. I wished I didn't need to use it so soon.

"Who are you?" my young voice growled. I had to hand it to myself, I was pretty menacing as a kid. "How do you know my dad?"

The man didn't answer; instead he just took more steps closer to me.

"Stay away from me," I warned in a shaky voice, drawing my knife.

He didn't listen. He stepped closer and I panicked. Without even thinking, I lunged with my knife and sank it into the big toe of his rather large feet. The man howled in pain, but he quickly recovered. His arm swung at me like a club and I got knocked back out the doorway, and I slammed down the steps. I thought that maybe since I was out of his house he would leave me alone, yet he simply continued his pursuit. In no time he was towering over me, close enough that I felt like I was suffocating.

My heart was hammering against my ribs. I was having issues getting up because my back ached from my tumble down the steps. His hand rose to hit me, and I didn't doubt that with one good hit to my head he would be able to kill me. My brain was screaming DANGER! As he brought his arm toward my head, my instincts took over. I drove my knife up; aiming for his shoulder in hopes it would stop his arm from reaching me. He shifted though and so my knife drove right up into his chest, causing me to claim my first life at only seven years old.

I woke with a start, feeling a hand shaking my shoulder. At the touch, I immediately launched a punch forward in defense, feeling my fist make contact with skin.

"Ow! What the hell?" Thalia growled as she lifted her hand from my shoulder to gently touch the cheek I just punched on accident.

I wasn't in that house, it was just a nightmare. I was at that stupid STRUCK program and I just punched one of my friends out of paranoia. I really am messed up.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," I apologized, sitting up.

"Damn," she said quietly. "You punch almost as hard as I do. You seemed like you were having a nightmare so I tried to wake you. I'm never doing that again."

"Sorry," I repeated.

She shrugged. "It's alright. I'll get back at you eventually. For now though, get ready. We need to be on the bus in ten minutes so we can get going to breakfast."

Well there was one skill I learned from Thalia while we were in a hurry that morning: how to fully collapse and put away a tent in under a minute. We were the last ones on the bus since we were running late, so we were forced to sit up front, away from most of the other kids. That made the ride pretty calm for us until we finally reached the food court we were going to eat at. All of us kids in the program connected a bunch of tables, so we had one big one we could all sit at. Our chaperones had their own table, watching intently from a distance.

"What happened to you?" Luke asked Thalia, looking at the red mark on her cheek that my fist left.

Thalia let her spoon for her cereal fall back into her bowl so she could point at me. "Never try waking this one up."

I felt bad again, but it was hard to when everyone started hysterically laughing. Apparently it wasn't common with this group for someone to punch Thalia and get away with it. Everyone settled down after a minute or so except for the Stolls; they found this to be the funniest thing ever.

"High five!" Connor shouted, holding his hand up for me to slap. I hesitated and in my split second of indecision, Thalia grabbed his hand and bent it back. "Ow! Please, let me go! Mercy!"

She grinned and dropped his hand which he was now cradling carefully. I felt my knee get bumped from under the table. Looking up, I saw Percy staring at me. When he caught my attention, he mouthed 'good job' to me. I smiled in return.

"Listen up hooligans!" Mrs. Dodds snapped abruptly from right behind us. I hadn't realized she was there earlier and I nearly drew my knife. "We have forms for you to fill out! Return them to me when you are done!"

With that, she threw down a stack of papers and a bunch of pens. We passed them all around the table and started filling them out. It seemed more like a questionnaire than some sort of paperwork.

"Yes!" Percy cheered when he got his. "This is one of the few reasons I'm happy this is my third year."

"Why?" I asked. It was just a stupid survey, how exciting could it be?

He laughed. "The first year you go on this trip, you answer the questions honestly and actually fill out the sheet. Your second year, most kids still answer the questions but some of their answers are more sarcastic and they just leave a lot blank. People who come for their third year treat this like a total joke. We make up names and write the stupidest things we can think of."

"So," Luke said. "For my name I'm debating between putting Billy Mays or Michael Jackson. What do you guys think?"

"Billy Mays," Nico told him. "Write everything in capital letters so you'll be yelling just like him."

"Britney Spears or Lindsey Lohan?" Thalia polled. "Or maybe Sarah Palin?"

"Do Britney Spears," I suggested. "You can make some of your answers her song lyrics. I would love to see their reactions to her songs being on there."

"Darth Vader or Chuck Norris?" Percy asked.

"Chuck Norris," the rest of us agreed in unison.

I had spent so much time listening to them come up with stupid answers that I hadn't even looked at my paper. I began scribbling down my own answers on my sheet.

Name: Annabeth Chase

Crime(s) committed:

It took me a few seconds, but I gathered up the guts to fill in the word murder.

Do you regret what you did? Mostly

It was hard putting more than one word for a lot of these questions. I didn't want to elaborate on what happened.

Do you think your home/school life contributed to you committing a crime? Completely

Once out of this program, do you wish to leave behind your life of crime?

My life of crime? As true as that may be, I found that question a little harsh. I almost didn't answer it out of annoyance.

Do I want to leave it behind? Yes. Do I think that will happen? Probably not.

Do you often fear your crimes will affect those around you? Absolutely

The next question on this survey was the last, but I just stared at it for a good five minutes. I was trying to figure out something to put without writing a ten page story I would need to explain everything.

Is there anyone you care enough about that they could keep you from committing another crime?

Not anymore, I scribbled, that's half of the reason why I'm here.

So like I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the fact that Annabeth killed someone at seven years old seems a little odd. But think about it. Kids don't really comprehend the idea behind taking a life. So if a kid is put in danger like that natural instinct is probably the only thing that takes over. And I don't find it not normal for someone's instinct to lead them to killing someone if it's what saves their life. Not to mention she was originally aiming for his shoulder. Besides, like I said, since she was seven she probably wasn't fully understanding what was going on anyway. And freak stories not too different from this have popped up on the news before.

There is still two other murders to be figured out so I hope this didn't drive any of you away. I took a risk with it and I hope it wasn't for the worst. I seriously debated whether or not to actually post this chapter for a good twenty minutes.