Willing Hostage: Chapter 11

A Tea Party

Authors Note: After a ridiculously long hiatus this story is back. I felt inspired after 'Mark of Athena' and saw all of your awesome reviews. Thanks so much for all of those, keep em' coming! So here it is, folks!

The next morning Thalia showed up at the crack of dawn, I had woken up long before her arrival. I was wearing down the carpet by walking back and forth. Or maybe the carpet was already like that, it was hard to tell by the state of our room.

Seriously, we couldn't stay in a three-star hotel once?

Thalia woke Grover up abruptly and told us some good news. Possibly the first I have received in the past few days.

"I told Artemis what happened with Annabeth."

"And…" I inquired.

"She can't help." Thalia said blankly.

"Oh. Then why did you bring it up?" Grover asked.

"Oh no, no, no. She can't help, like she's not allowed. But she will." Thalia pulled out a small piece of paper.

"Artemis gave you a napkin?" I asked sceptically, Thalia shot me a terrifying look.

"It's not a napkin, it's a map." She unrolled the napk… I mean map. It looked like a five-year-old had drawn it. There was one red 'X' on the upper right corner with a curvy black line leading to it.

"It looks like you stole this from a kindergarten class, Thalia." I said, another terrifying look was sent my way.

"Sorry, shutting up now." I mumbled.

"How does this work?" Grover asked. Thalia puts out her hand.

"Pass me her hat." And I do, but I can't help but feel tense as I give it to her.

Thalia takes the hat and places it on the bed, still folded, and puts the map on top of it. There's a solid moment of awkward silence as nothing happens. Grover glances over at me and I shrug, I don't know what's supposed to happen. By the looks of it neither does Thalia.

"Oh!" Thalia gasps, "Percy, put your hand on the hat."

So I do, and it starts glowing. The glowing map isn't what alarmed me though; it was the burning sensation on my hand. I tried to pull away but Thalia grabbed my wrist and held it there.

"Don't move your hand, you're going to screw it up!" I flinched at how tight her grip was, feels like she'd been practicing her aim a lot lately. The burning sensation became stronger again and then finally stopped. Thalia let go of my wrist and I pulled back to look at my hand.

It was bright red except for a burn outline of a symbol that my gut told me was Greek. I didn't know what it meant though.

"Gross, it even smells burnt." Grover muttered and he was right too.

"You're marked now." Thalia said, "Whenever you touch that map and focus in on her, her exact location should show. But I have a feeling there's another step" My hand was stinging like crazy but this was the only thing that could lead us to her and any amount of pain would be worth it.

That's when something really weird happened. I don't know how else to explain it but tunnel vision. Everything around shone bright until it was a white blur and it felt as though I had just entered a dream. But I was just awake and just talking to Thalia and Grover.

I blinked and the white light darkened and the room became visible again. But it was a different room. I was back with Annabeth.

She lay in the bed, completely unconscious. For once she was alone, I suppose the idiots figured she was too weak to escape and left her be. She was still in horrible shape, new bruises had appeared since my last dream and her breathing was raspy and strained.

I could practically feel my heart breaking and I wanted to take her away and end this now but I couldn't.

I took a step forward and… Wait, I took a step forward. I could move in this dream. I've never been able to do that before. I took another step, and another, until I was right beside her. I took another risk and tried to touch her hand and she started moving.

The burning in my hand came back and I looked down at hers and the glowing was back. The sensation felt mild to me but Annabeth had started whimpering, and I felt terrible.

"Shhh… It's alright." I had a feeling this was the second step, Annabeth was being marked as well.

The whimpering slowly rose to crying and I kept hushing and apologizing over and over. I wanted to hug her but she looked so delicate I was scared to break her. The glowing stopped and her eyes opened and something amazing happened. She saw me.

"Percy?" She looked so hopeful but sad, "Is that really you?"

I wanted to say so many things but I couldn't decide between begging for forgiveness for what I said to her before she left and telling her about the not-so-official quest. So me being an idiot, settled for nodding.

"I'm so sorry, Annabeth. I am so sorry."

"You're not really here, but I can see you." She was so quiet I moved until I was a couple inches from her face, I fought the urge to kiss her.

"We're going to save you, okay?" I said, "I promise you, I'm going to get you out of here." She smiled weakly and I saw the smile slowly turn towards a frown and she started to cry.

I'm not used to crying Annabeth, my girl usually has her emotions under lock and key. I was going to kill whoever reduced her to this tiny girl in front of me.

That would be the long-lost ass of a brother.

I stroked her hair and kissed her gently on the forehead, I felt myself leaving. But I didn't want to go, I wanted to stay and make sure she know that I didn't mean anything I said and that we were so close.

"You're leaving." Annabeth stated, choking back tears.

"I'll be back soon, but for real. I won't leave you here." I felt the pull bringing me back.

"I love you." And with that I was back in the motel room, still sitting on the bed up right, as if nothing had happened.

"I really wish I knew what we had to do now, but Artemis said it'd happen fairly soon." Thalia was saying, then she must've noticed the look on my face.

"Are you alright, Percy?"

"I think it just happened." Grover and Thalia looked royally confused.

"Step two just happened, I just saw Annabeth." I clarified.

"After all the freaky stuff that has gone down in the past seven years I believe that." Grover muttered.

"What happened?" Thalia asked, I did not want to explain the situation in fear that it would freak Thalia out. She'd be more useful focused. I, on the other hand, was trying very hard to use my anger as motivation and not turn it into a hole in the paper-thin wall of this room.

"I know where she is, we've got to go." Within minutes we were walking out of the crappy room and headed to the bus stop. We were literally an hour away from finally saving Annabeth and ending this war before it starts.

We stood there for a couple minutes before we noticed a vehicle coming towards us. I hoped it was the bus, I was starting to get impatient and Grover was just about to pull his flute out.

I was never a fan of Hilary Duff. Ever.

It wasn't a bus though, it was a limo, and I recognized it within a moment.

"Is that who I think it is?" Thalia asked, I nodded. As the limo pulled up infront of us and stopped I was positive.

It was Aphrodite.