Chapter 6
"Annabeth!" She heard his voice call her name, but it seemed so distant.
She tried to answer, but smoke filled her chest, and she began violently coughing. Where are you? she begged silently.
Her lungs were screaming for clean air. She felt the smoke fill her, penetrate her, use her. She collapsed onto the floor.
Percy, she thought. Help me! Please...
Her eyes slowly began to close. Just before she was consumed by darkness, she saw a gray shape that was very different from the smoke. It was a little girl. She looked so terribly heartbroken that Annabeth wished she could reach out and hug her.
But the girl stepped forward, seeming to pass right through Annabeth's body. As she did, Annabeth felt a strange sentiment of freedom, almost as if she was floating. Suddenly, she felt Percy right next to her. "Annabeth?" he coughed. "Where did you come from?"
She gasped, realizing that she was no longer inhaling smoke. She opened her eyes to confirm this, but when she did, the smoke was back and stronger than ever. She felt the heat begin to singe the ends of her hair.
"Annabeth," Percy whispered, staring at her. "Your eyes."
"My... My eyes?" she said. She flames were so intense Annabeth broke out in a sweat.
"They're gray," said Percy, horrified.
Annabeth gasped, sitting bolt upright in her bed. Sun was shining through the window. Her battery-powered alarm clock read 3:30 PM.
It had all been a dream. She took a deep breath. Just a dream... With Percy in it? Why had he been there?
Annabeth tried to push it to the back of her mind.
Instead of pondering over it, she got out of her bed and went over to look out the window and watched as Percy and Tyson got off the bus. Tyson ran ahead into the house, but Percy looked towards the mansion.
He saw Annabeth and locked eyes with her. She looked away after a moment, closing the blinds.
As it turned out, Percy had been able to convince Tyson that Annabeth had been a dream when they woke up in the morning. When they had left, Tyson was still half asleep, so maybe he didn't even remember coming to the house.
Getting up this early in the day was strange for Annabeth. Usually she slept during the day and wandered during the night, as had become her custom. Night was the time when it was easiest to get things from the grocery store, or to go for a walk without people spotting her.
Annabeth sighed, sitting down on the bed. "What do you think?" she said to the walls. "Am I going crazy?"
It was a Monday, two days after the boys next door had invaded the mansion. Annabeth found herself talking to the walls more regularly now. She tried to convince herself it was just out of habit, but she truthfully knew better. It was because when Percy and Tyson had come, she had felt a sense of companionship, something she hadn't experienced since she left Luke. The taste of companionship had left her lonelier than ever.
Annabeth stood up and walked over to what she called her "Picture Wall". She grabbed her red marker and marked off another day on her calendar.
She sighed, and looked to left of it. There was a picture of her and her fourth foster family, the Castellans. It was the one family where she had truly felt like she belonged.
She had arrived there when she was seven years old. Her father, Hermes, had taken care of her. Her mother, May, always made sure she had enough to eat. And her brothers, Malcolm and Luke... Well, she missed them the most.
Malcolm was a year younger than her, and Annabeth had loved playing the role of the older sister. The two of them had argued nonstop for two years, and she had loved every second of it.
Luke had been three years older than her, and was possibly the most overprotective human being on the planet. He had been stubborn, conceited, and power-struck, but he had been Annabeth's best friend. They did everything together, until "that day".
For the short two years that Annabeth had lived with the Castellan, she had been, in a word, happy. That was, until the fateful day when her nine-year-old self would walk into the kitchen to see May collapsed onto the floor.
May had suffered from a heart attack. She died shortly after, leaving the entire family stunned from grief. Hermes was home less and less often, and Malcolm became a bully at school. Luke was the one thing that stayed constant for Annabeth during that period of time.
He was the only one who had heard her crying in the middle of the night, and came to hold her and rock her back to sleep. He had been the only one who walked her to school and home from school every day without fail. He had been the only one to notice the fact that she was bullied at school, and he put an end to it.
Two weeks after May had died, social services had stormed the house, declaring that the family was no longer fit for housing a foster child. She still remembered the social worker prying her hand out of Luke's and forcing her to get into the car. She still remembered Luke calling "I'll find you, Annabeth. I'll get you back, I promise!"
Of course, she knew now that what he said had just been empty words, nothing real. I'll never see him again, she reminded herself.
And, God, did Annabeth miss him.
A squirrel hurrying along the rafters of the room next to hers startled Annabeth back into reality. It was starting to get dark out. She checked her clock. 6:47 PM.
Stunned that she had spent so long reminiscing, Annabeth pulled on a pair of whitewashed jeans and an old, faded tee shirt. It was time to get to work.
She picked up her locket up off her chest and gently brushed it against her lips. It had been a tradition ever since she was a baby.
Tap, tap, tap.
Annabeth froze. Noise was not uncommon around the mansion, as many critters had made their home in the abandoned living space, but this noise was different.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Annabeth!" Someone said her name, and it startled her so badly that she jumped.
She looked around wildly for a few seconds until her eyes rested on her window. "Percy?!"
The boy was standing outside her first floor window, trying to pry it open. "Annabeth!" he hissed again through the glass.
Annabeth stomped over and shoved the window open. "What the hell are you doing here?" she demanded furiously. "I told you not to come back!"
"I know, I know!" said Percy, his eyes wild, his voice seeming almost panicked. "But I need your help!"
"What is it?" she said through clenched teeth.
"It's Tyson," Percy said breathlessly. "He's missing."
Duh duh duh! This chapter was really fun to write! My fingers just sort of moved of their own accord, talking about Annabeth...
Today's theme song is:
Raise Your Weapon by Deadmau5 for Thalia and Luke!
[Which, by the way, is my favorite non-cannon:'( ]
Special thanks to Mystica Tempest for the song!
I love your reviews. I really do. The make me smile like the sun. Fall out of bed. Sing like a bird. Dizzy in my head.
(I know that was lame, but that song is stuck in my head!)
-Rebel
