Dear peoples, GUESS WHAT? I've finally decided to start publishing ON SCHEDULE. To one of the guest reviews, yes I will now have a publishing schedule: Once. A. Month. Specifically on the 18th of each month. Yes I know it's a long time to wait for a story, and I REALLY wish I could publish more often, but I'm in high school now and there is EVEN more homework than before and I can barely even keep up with writing a chapter in a month. So bear with me, and hey! I may even give ya'll a surprise chapter every now and then :)) Enjoy this one, and stay tuned!

Percy

I backed away in horror at the twisted body lying in front of me. I felt as if I couldn't breathe. I pinched myself once just to make sure I was still alive and real. My thoughts swarmed in my head, trying to find any sense of reality I could hold onto. I stopped moving backward, gulped nervously, and glanced once again at the face of the person I had probably just killed.

It was mine.

The person in the black, hooded cloak on the floor who I had just taken out with my sword, was me. Well, at least it looked like me. Like an actual exact clone. I didn't understand any of it. The moment I had looked at its face I had first thought I was dead and I was looking at my body from outside. But I swept the thought out of mind, concluding the idea had probably popped up as a result of watching so many horror movies with Nico. And there was no way I was dead. Right?

If only Annabeth were here. She would've known what was going on. 'Oh Percy,' she would say, 'You were the one who killed him. How would that make you the dead one? And that guy in the hood literally just kidnapped you and dragged you all the way out here. If that person was really you, that would mean you just kidnapped yourself. And as dumb as you can be sometimes, I doubt I would ever date someone as much as an idiot to do kidnap himself. Though I would have to admire their dedication for going through with such a thing.' Then she would roll her eyes at me, grumble something in Greek about what an idiot I still was, then drag me off somewhere.

With a start, I realized I had just explained it to myself. I raised my eyebrows and nodded out towards the darkness, as if saying to the invisible audience, Yes, I did just figure it without anyone's help. And yes, I am extremely hungry.

Annabeth would be proud. She'd probably scold me first for taking so long, but then she'd congratulate me. Maybe. But just thinking about Annabeth jarred me back to the grim reality. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, literally, and all of my friends, including Annabeth, were nowhere in sight. I couldn't see anything, besides the guy on the floor in front of me. But then thinking about him, brought back another unanswered question.

Why did he look exactly like me?

I realized I was still holding my sword, but debated capping it. In a place like this where I felt like I was being watched every second, yet I could see nothing, unnerved me. I decided to keep Riptide out.

I looked around, trying to think of what to do now, but my thoughts only kept returning to Annabeth. Where was she now? Was she okay? Did she know I was gone? I wondered if she and the rest had been captured too. And then I kept thinking of how Annabeth would always be able to get me out of any situation, she was so clever. Since we were twelve she's been saving my life. And if I wasn't going to see her again, her last words to me would have been telling me to go brush my teeth. Is this really how it was going to end?

I tried to wash the surprisingly morbid thoughts from my mind. This depressing place was doing something to me. It's like it was sucking out all of my positive and optimistic feelings and multiplying all the bad ones by ten. Like the non-human version of Nico. No, even Nico was happier than where I was now. But maybe it wasn't just my surroundings. I'd never felt so hopeless before.

The thought came to me suddenly, as if all this time thinking about how to get back to my friends was just an effort wasted because I realized this only now: there was nothing here. Nothing to work with, to help me escape, to get me out of here. I wasn't as smart as Annabeth or as resourceful as Leo, and even if my powers were working, what would I use them on? This place was empty of all things, so I wouldn't be finding the ocean anytime soon. There was actually no way out. Unless whoever brought me here was feeling generous today, which I kind of doubted.

I stood up, contemplating just walking around until either someone found me or I died of starvation. Not having breakfast early this morning has probably been the biggest mistake of my entire life.

I barely took even a few steps before I heard it. A guttural scream, that echoed around me and in my ears. And even worse, I recognized it.

Annabeth

I had resorted to quietly sobbing and sniffling in the arms of the dark figure carrying me. I still didn't know what was going on. Only random automatic thoughts like I'm sad, or, I'm scared, or I need Percy.

I didn't know who or what a Percy was, but my mind seemed to utter only this word over and over in my head until it was the only thing that consumed my thoughts. Well, I didn't have any thoughts, considering my situation at the time, so I was surprised my brain was working enough to even do that much.

But right then at that moment, I knew that as soon as I had a Percy everything would be alright. I felt it. Because that's all I could do, just feel.

And it was also in that moment when the thing carrying me dropped me on the floor and instantly ran away, leaving no trace he had ever been here at all. He didn't even set me down gently, which now that I think about it would have been only expected after taking so much care to carry me all the way out here, but it seemed like he was in a hurry.

Being in my current mental state, unsure of everything that had just happened in the spur of the moment and now being left alone, I started to panic. And within seconds I let out an ear-shattering scream that in the real world would've alerted every monster for miles to my presence, but over here all I could hope for was that someone had heard it even faintly at all.

The intentions behind the scream were originally out of pure fear, just screaming because I didn't want to be alone and I was sad and I had no other way to express it. And little did I know, that scream unintentionally saved my life.

"Annabeth!" I heard a voice in the distance as a response to my screaming. I stopped at once and froze, my eyes widening and facing in the direction of the voice. I didn't know what to make of it. Who was Annabeth, I wondered? And the voice...it sounded distinctly familiar, but my brain couldn't exactly process how.

"Annabeth! Where are you?" The voice yelled in desperation once again.

I couldn't think of what else to do other than curl up in a ball and die, so I resumed the incessant screaming. Again, another unintentional life-saver. I heard a series of grunts and thuds in the distance, which Percy had later told me was him bumping into many invisible walls. I stopped for a while, just listening to the rhythm of loud sounds before it began to bore me and I started screaming again. It was a never-ending cycle.

After about a minute I stopped again, but this time only because my throat was dry and my voice was dying, and I didn't think I could possibly say or do anything else without vomiting. At least my brain could recognize nauseousness.

I tucked my head between my knees in an attempt to stop the pounding in my brain and stayed curled up in a little ball for at least another five more minutes, before I heard the voice again.

"Annabeth!" It yelled, but this time it sounded different, not panicked or urgent anymore. It sounded kind of distorted and full of pain. The voice called over and over again, sounding so sad and desperate that it brought me to tears, but I didn't know why. The tears just fell, rolling down my cheeks and dripping onto the floor. I didn't respond to the strange tickling sensation the left on my cheeks, but instead just stared straight ahead and listened to the voice keep calling for his Annabeth.

At one point I had to cover my ears because the sound of the strange person's voice had begun to make my heart ache. 'It's me, Percy!", it would yell, but other than the memory of that name in my head, it held no meaning for me.

I kept my head down and my arms curled around my knees, and soon the voice gave up. I felt a wave of relief rush through me, as the horrible gutting feeling I felt when the voice spoke faded away, but at the same time, a sense of disappointment. I didn't know why, and I couldn't exactly figure it out as my brain wasn't cooperating at the moment, but I could feel I needed to hear the voice again. I felt it so strongly in my heart that for a minute all I was aching for was to hear the sound of the voice again, even though I had no idea what it was saying and even if the sadness in it brought me pain, I felt like I needed it to survive.

I continued to wait in my small curled up the position on the floor, not moving a single inch, and it wasn't until I heard the voice once again that I lifted my head. And this time, the person who the voice belonged to was right in front of me.

Percy

"Annabeth?" I said. My voice came out like a hoarse whisper, and my throat felt excruciatingly dry after all the time I was calling out for her.

When I heard the screams, it only took one moment of hesitation and then I bolted.

"Annabeth!" I yelled. I was sure. I was sure those were her screams. And even if it wasn't, I wasn't going to waste one moment trying to figure out the scream when I could be saving Annabeth.

The fear of her screams replayed in my mind, and I followed its sound. I called for her multiple times, but she never answered back. Her screaming stopped a few times too, and although it was brief it was enough to know she had heard me. I didn't know what was going on with her or why she wasn't responding, but I was going to find her.

Thud.

I stumbled back and fell on my butt. Rubbing my aching nose, I got up, taking a few moments to register what had just happened. I reached out my hand and felt around. A wall.

I squinted. I couldn't see it, but it was there. I mean, it explained why my kidnapper earlier had been taking all sorts of turns, but how did he see them?

I sighed and dragged my hand along the wall until it stopped, and walked through that opening. I felt a moment of accomplishment from getting past the wall, but it was immediately extinguished as the memory of Annabeth's screams came back to me. But with a start, I realized they had stopped.

I started sprinting again. I bumped into wall after wall, tripping over my own feet and going headfirst into invisible dead ends. But that didn't stop me. All I could hope for was that I wasn't too late. Why had she been screaming like that? What could have possibly happened to her?

And I know I was worried about the cause of it and what was making her act like that, but what really worried me was, why did she stop?

Could whatever that was threatening her have…..? No. NO. I refused to believe it. All that my mind wondered when her screaming ceased, was had she been killed? But she couldn't have! She's too smart for that. She couldn't have died this easily, this fast! Everything that had happened right now had been so quick I hadn't even got a chance to think about the fact that one of us might die here, wherever we were. But Annabeth couldn't die. She wouldn't leave me, she wouldn't! Not just like that. No….

I felt my knees grow weak as my eyes stung and tears fell down my cheeks. I forced myself to stay upright. Stop jumping to conclusions, I told myself. She just stopped screaming. That's all that happened. For all I knew she could've just killed some monster and the threat was gone or something like that. It's just this place….this miserable place that was affecting all my thoughts.

And then the adrenaline began to surge through my veins, and my mind let go of everything without a second thought. The screaming had resumed again. I ran.

As horrible as it sounded, the resumed screaming was a relief to me. It was my only sign that Annabeth was still alive.

And then I froze. My pulse began to race and my heart began to pound. I held onto the edge of the wall next to me for support.

And that was when I said her name. I winced at the sound of my voice, but immediately forgot all that when I saw the way she looked at me.

It was with fear in her eyes.

She was curled up in a small ball on the floor, nothing like I had expected. She looked fine, besides for the fact that she was shaking and scared out of her wits, but no damage. She was alone, no one threatening her life and swordpoint or anything like that.

So why was she so distressed?

She opened her mouth once, but then closed it again. Her eyebrows were squished together and she was squinting at me as if her she had forgotten how to speak.

"Annabeth?" I repeated, reaching out my hand to her. She recoiled at the gesture and a pang of hurt surged through me. I didn't understand. What happened to her? I'd never seen her like this before.

My eyes burned and I realized with a start that I was crying again, which seemed to scare Annabeth. Her lip quivered and she shrunk away from me, and I vigorously wiped my face of all the tears.

I looked at her state on the floor, chattering nonsensical words every now and then, tears streaming down her face. I just stood and stared at her like that for about a minute, before I couldn't take it anymore.

I fell to my knees and took her face in my hands. Annabeth didn't shy away but she was shaking, looking at me with fear.

"What did they do to you?" I whispered, barely getting the words out. She kept opening her mouth like she was trying to say something back, but she always closed it again. And the way she regarded me…. as if I was a stranger to her.

"Do you...do you know who I am?" I choked the words out, afraid of the answer. She stared straight at me with the same expression as before, not reacting to my words one bit.

Anger surged through me, and for a second all my mind could think about was the bloody outcome after I found out whoever made did this to Annabeth, whatever it was they had done. We'd already gone through something like this before. I'd lost all my memories of everything we'd had, and now it was Annabeth? What kind of cruel plot twist did the fates have in mind this time? Why was it always-

"Per-Per...cy?"

It took a few moments. And then I registered it.

"Annabeth?" Annabeth!" I shook her excitedly. I didn't know what was going on exactly but maybe whatever was wrong with her had worn off!

My happiness was short-lived.

After a minute or so I realized that Annabeth wasn't back to her smart, witty old self. She was still hopeless. But why had she said my name?

"I don't know what to do, Wise Girl," I told her, even though I knew by now that she probably couldn't understand me. "You're always the one with the plan. You're always the one who saves us all….so why did they have to take you away from me?"

I knew she was here and right in front of me, but I also knew she wasn't. This wasn't Annabeth. Whoever came after her, took what made her Annabeth and left behind a lifeless shell of a girl. And I didn't have a clue how to get her back.

I wrapped the defenseless girl in front of me in my arms, and just stayed there. She didn't hug back, but she didn't resist me either. So we just sat like that, frozen in time, hopeless, useless and completely stranded. But as long as I was with her, I would've stayed like that forever.

New posting schedule: On the 18th of every month :)) Comment, follow and favorite! Peace out readers :P