Annabeth proved to be very cooperative. She went back to Thalia and mine's shelter, where we treated Thalia's wound. Thalia would groan and cough but she did not scream, as we did not want to draw attention to ourselves.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Annabeth asked, fear in her voice.

I gave her a smile. "She'll be fine."

"Those stupid monsters got her, didn't they?"

I hesitated. The way Annabeth hated monsters; I was sure she would go out and avenge Thalia if she found out that a monster hurt her. But I couldn't lie to her.

"Yes, a monster hurt her."

Annabeth lowered her eyes. "I thought so."

I positioned myself so I was facing Annabeth while putting a poultice on Thalia's wounds.

"So what was your past like, Annabeth?" I asked, trying to take her mind off of monsters.

Annabeth gave a mean look. Fir a second I felt scared. Annabeth could be very scary if she tried to be. "My past is my own business," she snapped, turning away from me.

"Awe, but my past wasn't so pretty either," I said softly, putting fresh poultice on Thalia's wound.

Annabeth, still not looking at me, asked, "What was your past like?"

And so it began. I explained to her my past, leaving out some parts that may freak her out, or anger her.

Annabeth was close to tears by the time I had finished. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, Luke. You have had a rough past, and I should not have snapped at you. I'm just happy I can finally relate to someone, and that someone can relate to me. You are free to snap at me anytime. "

I laughed, and Annabeth looked surprised. "Why would I snap at you? You must have had a rough past too, if you don't want to tell me about it."

Annabeth sighed. "Yeah...I did."

I glanced at Thalia, who had fallen asleep. "Do you want to tell me about it?" I asked.

Annabeth took a deep shaky breath.

"My mother abandoned me at birth, so my dad said. He told me my mother had delivered me in a golden basket to my father's porch one night. As most would consider this a miracle, or something amazing, something you would want to take a picture of to always remember or cherish...my dad thought it was horrible. He considered it the most inconvenient thing that happened to him."

I started to say something, but she held up her small, chubby hand. She wanted to go on. "Yeah...he didn't love me. He didn't even try to find my mother and try to get back together with her. It was like he didn't care about what she might have wanted, or what I wanted. He only cared about himself. He got married again to some creepy lady."

She took a deep breath, as if she did not want to remember this person. "They announced that they were going to have twins a couple years after they were married. That pushed me off the edge. I had always hoped that my father would see common sense and go find my real mother, but if he and that...freak of a stepmother had kids...there was no hope for him finding my true mother. And so my dad and I began fighting. It got so bad that a day never passed without a huge argument."

I just stared at Annabeth while she talked. Her poor little face looked like it was ready to go out and lynch somebody.

"Annabeth, it's okay. You didn't do anything."

"But you're wrong..." Annabeth looked away from me again. But I was able to catch the tears that started to form in her gray eyes.

"You didn't do anything...did you?"

"Luke...I'm a freak. For some reason, I attract monsters. They are always trying to attack me. That made my stepmother angry. She yelled at me every time a monster would attack me or my family. Whether we were at our house when they attacked or at a restaurant, she would scream and scream at me."

"Annabeth, I'm so sorry."

Annabeth shrugged. "They didn't care, and they probably didn't even care when I ran away."

I looked at her. "You're not the only one who feels this way. Thalia and I have been down the same road you have. That's why you belong with us."

"...I do?'

"Yes, you do."

Annabeth's eyes suddenly glowed with a huge ray of hope. "Thank you Luke."

I smiled. "No problem, Annabeth."

Thalia woke up a couple hours later and I told her the story of Annabeth while Annabeth slept soundly.

"Seven years old and she has already been through so much," Thalia sighed.

I nodded. "Those gods hurt every single one of us kids. It's a big-"

-"pain in the rear," Thalia finished with a painful groan.

"Is your arm okay?" I asked.

Thalia nodded. "My arm is just a bit sore."

I glanced over at Annabeth. "She is going to use my knife. I'll be needing a new weapon. Any ideas?"

Thalia glanced around our shelter. "I'm not sure, Luke. I guess we could raid a weapon shop."

I laughed. "We raid everything else. Why not a store?"

Thalia picked at her scab on her arm as she said, "Yeah, but we don't want to be in too much trouble with the law, you know?"

I hesitated, and then nodded. "I know."

Thalia encouraged me to go to sleep and try not to worry about much. Feeding three won't be super hard, you'll see, she had told me.

So I listened to her and curled up and went to sleep.