Annabeth sat against the wall of Percy's cabin, her knees up to her chin, her forehead resting on her knees. "Where are you Percy?"

She remembered the last spider they'd faced together, and how he set the little one free. Even though she had arachnophobia, she wanted to find that little spider and keep it until she found Percy. Little did she know, that spider was in his cabin.

Annabeth looked up and stared at his bed. It had been two days, and no sign of Percy. At all. No damage or destruction (which always signalled a lot), not at home, not out in the woods, not playing hide-and-seek (a well-played game of hide-and-seek at Camp could stretch for days), not here at all. Everybody else reported, except for Percy. He was never one for missing a meal.

Annabeth leaned her head back to rest against the wall, and she spotted a web. A spider was in it.

Is there such a thing to be too heartbroken to be afraid? There was now.

"Hello," she said softly. Her voice sounded horrible, even to her. It sounded like rocks being ground together and then lit on fire.

The spider cocked his head a stopped weaving his web. He seemed to be like, what's the matter with you? or maybe, last time I saw you, you were screaming in terror of me. Either way, it seemed to be theraputic.

"He's gone," she whispered. She was certain that this was the spider that Percy rescued. Did spiders live longer than a month? "The boy who rescued you, he disappeared two days ago. And I can't find him. Not a trace. And-" she started to cry. "And I loved him. The one person who I let in, gone. He could be anywhere, doing anything, without me at his side." She gave the spider a watery smile. "He was always so lost without me. Half the things I told him he couldn't pronounce. He still can't pronounce Lastrygonian."

The spider made a face like, I can't blame him. He scuttled down the wall, closer. Annabeth thought she must be insane to think that spiders were so perceptive. Spiders of all living things.

"He's gone. It's been two days, and I'm already forgetting exactly how his hair fell over his eyes. But I have to keep it together. Now that Percy's gone, the unofficial leadership of camp falls to me. If I disappear too, the leadership will fall to Clarisse." She had to smile. "Clarisse tried to pulverise Percy so many times it became a habit for them to get into full-blown arguments. The toilet water thing was the best one, though."

The spider cocked his head in the other direction: what happened?

Annabeth found herself telling the spider all of her and Percy's adventures, both inside camp and outside. The spider had crept so close she could touch him without moving an inch. She felt significantly better afterwards.

"Now that I've told you all that, I've got to name you." She thought for a moment. "Harry, after a character, dubbed 'the boy who lived', but instead you're a spider, so I name you Harry, the spider who lived through one of my arachnophobia episodes."

Annabeth could've sworn that the spider gave her a salute. Harry climbed back up the wall and kept weaving his home.