Annabeth

Options. Different people seem to have different options. I don't seem to have many. Either I could embrace the fact that I fell in love with an angel who used to be a demon or I could turn away, turn away at this very instant and keep the normality that he had sparked in my life. There was no point in feeling normal while being around someone far from normal right?

Then why does my heart threaten to stop its involuntary action when I think of leaving him behind in his dark world to survive?

I took one uncertain step back. I could have sworn on anything and everything I had that Luke hadn't been standing there a moment ago. But that meant he had appeared out of thin air which was next to impossible unless...

I got that gut wrenching feeling that I get whenever I am near Percy or Jason who are both angels. But the individual vibes they give off is vary different... it's like they have a signature while have other mutual things. So that particular cold and chilling vibe was there in Luke too along with his signature... that is brightness? I don't know why but I felt awfully near to something very bright. I couldn't see it for sure but I could feel it's energy and heat and picture it before me the moment I closed my eyes. It was like brilliant sun, burning with beauty and malice.

It was strange and even if added to his charms... it made me want to punch his jaw hard and make a run for it while he was busy nursing his face. Something told me that my fist wouldn't be quick enough to hit him so I stayed. He most probably was an angel and I certainly had an alarm system for detecting them. I wondered if every human had it. Maybe some realized they had it and some didn't. That must be it because as far as I know I am nothing more than an average human. Unless my ash-hole father turns out to be some sadistic ghoul.

"You want to talk to me?" I asked.

Luke made a 'duh' expression at that. Obviously there wasn't anyone else in the elevator except us but I didn't know weather it was a good thing or a bad thing. I had just noticed that the elevator had stopped. I punched the 'open door' button again and again but the door wouldn't budge. The screen showing the current floor had gone blank and no buttons were glowing on the button pad. I gulped and took a step back. The walls of the elevator were adorned with mirrors which strangely didn't reflect me but just reflected Luke. It was as if I was too dull for the mirrors to see past Luke. Which was absurd.

"Hey there Annabeth! I'll be straight. I really really like you a lot." He said in a happy-go-lucky voice.

What? I didn't even know what to say to that. My mouth was open for sure and my eyes were busy being wide and staring at him in utter horror. Surely he was joking. Surely he was here to tell me that Rachel was angry at me for not getting thrown away by Percy... that's right! What about Rachel? They were totally eating each other's face out that day in her summer house.

"Oh if you were thinking that Rachel was my love of life or something like that then I would be more than happy to inform you that she isn't." He grinned at me after he said that. The glint in his eyes were expectant, it was as if he were waiting for me to run to him and fling my arms around him and tell him how much happy I was to hear him say that. I didn't even budge which gained me an annoyed look from him.

"C'mon Annabeth! What dose a guy need to do? Isn't telling you that I love you enough for you to get in the same bed as me?"

"What the hell are you saying? I barely know you!" I exclaimed in my defence. I could tell that his promises of love for me were empty and hollow from just the way he threw them around so easily.

He yawned and stretched before answering, "How long did you know Jackson when you went down the road with him?"

My eyes widened further, even if that were possible. How did he know all of that? That's before he had even known that I had existed. No. We have been going to the same school for months. Could he have been stalking me? But how? How could he have...

"Stalking you? You could say that. I have been watching you since the day you stepped foot in that trashed school anyway." He took a big step towards me which made me move and bump my back against the mirror. I looked around for a sharp object... anything would have helped... a loose screw or a needle or even a shard of glass... I didn't even have my purse on me... My coat buttons! They were of huge flower shape with sharp, pointy petals.

My hands moved to the lowest button on my coat and started fiddling with its stitches. It was sewn tight all right.

"That's different." I have to keep his attention away from my hands, preferably to my face. For some reason I knew that I could only shake him off if I were able to draw blood from him. Just hitting him with my fist won't be enough.

"Different?" He frowned as he took yet another impossible step towards me, "how?" He was standing too close to me, to close for my liking. His breath was mixing with mine which made me turn my face to my side slightly. This seemed to amuse him. A sharp but hot sensation invaded me as I felt his slick finger running the length on my neck to my collar-bone and then back again, repeating the cycle slowly. I felt like I was being touched by a bulb with was ready to malfunction and electrocute me to death. But his touch reeked of evil somehow. It made him somehow dark and deceptive and... unworthy. I felt like he was detached from that brilliant light, that it was not his but of his invisible companion which was insane. I was sure that I was going insane.

"Such beautiful skin you have... Annabeth. I want to see it all. No... I will see it all!"

With that he leaned closer. My breath quickened. I started fidgeting with the ties of the button more rashly. My breathing was becoming shallow and my palm was becoming sweaty to top it all. Only a few words played in my mind like a broken tape recorder.

come off! come off! come OFF!

And finally as his lips just barely nicked the skin on my stretched neck the stitches came undone. I gave out a sharp cry and jabbed the sharp petals of the button in his neck. Blood gushed out on impact. Luke flung back from me clutched his neck and screamed in agony. This seemed to break his influence on the elevator as the display blinked to life again, showing that the elevator had reached the tenth floor. So it was moving all along huh? Luke had just created an illusion.

I punched the open button and ran out of the elevator before it's door had barely got the chance to open up completely. I ran up the stairs. Percy was just two floors away. I could run up to there. I ran for my life with every ounce of strength I had left. For some reason the stairs seemed endless, they just seemed to stretch on and on for ever.

"ANNABETH!" An angry growl bellowed up after me. I didn't turn back. I just kept running forward.

"YOU BITCH! COME BACK!" Came another was of angry shout, nearer than the first one, he was following me and he was catching up.

I skipped the last two steps and stumbled over the landing of the thirteenth floor. I looked around frantically. Where was apartment no. 13? There! Just around the corner behind the potted bushes of water-lily stood, there was a door with the number '13' plated bold in golden on top.

I took a deep breath and ran towards it.

SNAP!

Luke caught hold oh my wrist, or he rather broke it. Pain surged through my left arm and I bit my lips to keep myself from screaming. I herd him laugh from behind me which made me sick to my roots. He must be the true devil. He had to be! He twisted my wrist sharply making me give out a strangled cry. Beads of tears were clouding my eyes and I hated myself for being caught like that. I hated myself for not having a brilliant plan. Now he was going to kill me. Or worse... he would actually force himself on me.

A single stray tear fell from my eyes. I would rather die than submit to him. I brought my good wrist to my mouth. I hoped my canines were sharp enough to tear my veins or at least cause huge blood loss.

"What the hell are you-?"

Just as my teeth sank in my skin... the lobby became blue. Or it glowed blue like the inside of an ocean. The color soothed me down somehow as I felt strong arms circling my waist and pulling me towards them. My face got buried in something strong and familiar. It was Percy. I could tell by just the uncertain feeling that had developed in my stomach from the moment the corridor had started glowing with an ethereal blue light. I felt my self relax in him. He was wearing an overly big white full T-shirt which was flapping about him due the up thrust of all the energy he was emitting. I tilted my head slightly to look at him.

His blue-green eyes were murderous. It scared me to hell because at that moment he was not my love my angel but an angry prince of hell, who was hugely focused on destroying his opponent.

"Leviathan." Luke said with a smirk but I could see that he had moved back. Everything about him felt rotten and evil and dark about him now. That brilliant light had deserted him. He was not so sure of himself now.

"Beelzebub." Percy muttered through his teeth.

"Buddy! Do you remember how we were the first one to fall from heaven along with Lucifer? We want you back Lev. Luce has already gather the six. If only you were to come-"

"Go back to hell!" Percy said icily. A blue sea-serpent coiled at Luke who yelped before jumping back.

"That human you have there... Luce wants her, she is really fertile, you must know that... one seed of Luce inside her and the most powerful weapon to overthrow god would be formed. Don't you desire that?"

I looked back at Percy. He looked passive. What was Luke saying? What was all that about?

A blinding bolt of lighting fell on Luke. Even though he dodged in just in time, a part of his clothes were incinerated. There was a huge misshapen hole in the floor to deep inside the earth were he has stood before. The hole building shook as another bolt followed.

"Barachiel!" Luke sneered as he jumped off the lobby in one clean swoop.

He was soon followed by a thundering Thalia, who glared at me as she passed, saying, "Percy you fool! Get inside your house!"

And then she was gone, chasing Luke around the place while trying to strike him with her lightning bolts.

The blue light went out like a candle flame as Percy collapsed to the floor. His face was sweaty so was his shirt. His back was bleeding again. I clutched his arms tightly, ignoring the burning pain in my right wrist. Percy's breathing was high and irate. That blue thing had surely taken it's toll on him. He was hurting... again.

I knelt in front of him while still clutching his arms.

"Hey? Percy, is your door open?" I asked softly while brushing his thick black bangs from his eyes. They were sticking to his sweaty forehead.

My finger tips brushed against his glistening pale skin. He was burning up with fever again. This must be bad. His temperature was surely soaring above average healthy angel body temperature, about which I had no idea about.

He just nodded to my question. Then he took my right wrist with shaking hands and brought it up to his lips. I didn't realized what he was doing. He was handling my wrist so carefully that it barely hurt. And then as soon as his soft but hot lips touched my wrist, the pain was totally gone. It had gain a swollen reddish structure before due to it's fracture, but now... it was back to normal. I remembered how all my cuts had disappeared after our first night together. It must have been him back then.

The grey tiles of the corridor felt cold beneath me as Percy slumped into me like a rag doll. My arms instinctively went around his back to steady him. His looked so week and frail that it hurt. My newly mended hand went up to stroke his hair. He was doing anything he possibly could for me while I could do nothing for him. I felt so pathetic and helpless at that moment.

"Why? Why did you fix my wrist when you knew that it was going to affect you?" My voice was muffled by my choked sobs. I put my chin lightly on his head and it bent down a bit to move into my chest. My cheeks brightened up a bit at that but I let it pass.

"I- I couldn- couldn't let them kno- know wher- where to hi- hit me s- so that it would real- really hurt." He managed with great difficulty.

I was taken aback. Percy had never said anything like that to me before. Even if he had just indicated it... his words reached my heart and warmed it to its core. My heart felt like molten chocolate... dripping with caramel. I had always know that I meant something to him but to hear him say it is another thing. It makes me feel... like a bubble filled with hydrogen gas... ready to erupt. I could feel that my cheeks had heated up. Maybe be Percy wouldn't be able to say those three words back to me ever, but this was his way of saying that he at least cared for me.

"You mean-"

"I cannot say it, you don't say it too. It's a sin for me to feel that way." His voice was too low to be even classified as a soft whisper.

The way he said that what ever he felt for me was sin burned something inside me. I was angry at my frail first love. Of all the things that were sin on this planet... I was sure his feelings of likeness were not one of them.

"Percy-" my argument was cut down with a whimper.

"I lecture you later about this. For now lets get inside your apartment."

Percy nodded weekly as I flung one of his arms around my shoulder and circled one of mine around his waist tightly. Percy leaned on me completely as we stumbled for balance. Once we were almost stable I took another one of those deep breaths and took a tentative step forward.

'thwak'

Something dropped to the floor. I really didn't care about whatever it was because it I stopped to pick it up the next thing to fall would most probably be Percy. But by the time I had decided to take another step, Percy had picked it up already. When did he...

His eyes were scrunched together as he looked at something on the display.

"Who is she?" He murmured.

I shuffled a bit closer to him and looked into it. It was lock screen, It was a picture of a toddler I with my mom. She was smiling brightly for the camera. Her curls were long and beautiful, her grey eyes sparkling.

"She is my mom." I said simply. Now a days looking at her pictures didn't drive me crazy anymore. So I had decided to man up and set this picture as my lock screen.

Percy looked at me and winced before saying, his beautiful aqua eyes almost closed with pain, "That is Lady Uriel Annabeth, l-light of god."

My laughter filled the empty dark corridor.

I know this chapter wasn't much but I really want to wrap up this story soon. Tell me how you guys felt about this chapter?