It's apology time.

This fic has been abandoned for far too long. But with encouragement from An Angel's Broken Wings, I'm finally coming back to it. Here's to the future and more updates!

Apologies for the debatable quality of this chapter. I would work harder on it, but I've already lost the original AT LEAST 3 times, and I'm just going to pound it out ASAP. So if it doesn't sound as much like Percy as the others, well... phooey.

Chapter title is v. idiotic reference to musical group Head Like A Kite. I've never actually heard them, I'm just appropriating their name.


Ch. 9: Head Like A Drum; or, I Don't Wake Up Alone


Pain.

Not white-hot pain, more dull pain, the kind that feels like a rubber hammer pounding a square peg into a triangle hole.

My head felt like a bass drum, my throat like a sandpaper tube, as I dragged myself to my elbows. I was lying on my back in a dark room. Only a faint golden line to my right indicated the presence of a door.

A noise in the dark, somewhere far left. Someone-- or something-- was in here with me.

I tensed, reaching for Riptide and wincing.

Another noise. It sounded like an animal snuffling. Then a hiccup.

Crying.

I held my breath. The sound was heartbreaking to listen to, and I really wanted to comfort the crier (partly because it was making my headache worse) , but experience held me back. I could hear Annabeth's voice in the back of my mind: Haven't you learned anything from our training, Percy? It could be a trick.

I held my breath, because a voice broke into the crying. A harsh, growly voice, kind of familiar-sounding.

"Shut your face, you puling infant!"

"I-- I'm sorry--" sobbed yet another voice. I froze: It sounded like Alexis. "I can't--- I didn't want to--"

"No sacrifice is too great for the Great Old Ones!" bellowed the rough voice. "Do you want the Master to throw you to the beasts?"

"No--"

"Then for God's sake, clean yourself up. I'm going."

No sound of footsteps, only deep breaths as Alexis composed himself.

I couldn't take it any more. I reached into my pocket and pulled out Riptide. Then a stick of gum. Then a rubber band and a bus token. Mentally cursing, I kept scrambling until I found what I wanted; my LED keychain that Tyson had given me. He'd painted it in the design of a little Cyclops eye. Pressing the pupil, I shined the light up and down across the walls until the bluish beam passed over a blotch of white in the stifling black.

Alexis.

"Uh... Alexis? Are you okay?" My voice was raspy from disuse and trauma; I shuddered, because I sounded a little like the sinister voice I'd heard earlier.

He cringed back from the light and me. Hurriedly I clicked the light off so it wasn't blinding him and scuffled over on my hands and knees. Just that little movement made my brain twirl. He swung out, clipping my shoulder.

"Ow! Alexis, it's okay! It's me. Percy." I coughed, feeling my throat burn. If only I had my canteen.

"Get away! Don't touch me! It's not safe!"

O-kay. I was tempted to agree there, considering fully half the time anyone got anywhere near Alexis he tended to pounce on them and gnaw their shinbones while flailing at their eye sockets, if he could reach them. But this didn't seem like the time to point something like that out.

"Percy, we have to get you out of here." He was sobbing again. "I didn't want to bring you here, they made me do it, him and Luke--"

Luke. I knew it. "Where are we?"

Alexis was hysterical. "Luke's ship, the Princess Andromeda, but oh Percy, I have to explain--"

The Princess Andromeda! That explained the creepy sensation in the air, that oppressive heaviness like someone was watching you. I opened my mouth to ask more, but just then the door opened and golden light flooded in, blinding us both.

"Get up, half-bloods!" bellowed a horribly familiar, bearlike voice. "Luke wants to see you. Now."

"Hehe, hehe." A foul-smelling snicker in my ear, and suddenly I was being carried over a furry shoulder, Alexis was shrieking and clawing at his own captor, and all I could think about was that my headache was probably about to get a whole lot worse.

Glasses of water probably weren't in the near future, either.


a/n

Another short chapter because I'm pressed for time, but I promise the next one will be longer.

Are you still with me? Hold on tight, because it's gonna pick up very next time....