Wow, the first FF I ever wrote, over. I'm crying right now. I've grown so much, and the support I've gotten from my fans. This is magnificent, man. There won't be a sequel, there's just no way. I don't mean to be harsh but, there's no way I can do this again :) It's special.
Enjoy, darlings.
The Last Chapter: Fredric
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Fredric Chase sits on the worn green denim couch, alone in a huge house meant for children.
Hopefully Annabeth will visit. But as much as he likes to pretend, Annabeth is not a typical teen who can go home for the holidays. She's demigod, and Fredric hates thinking this way, but she might be dead.
Dead. Nope, Annabeth Chase, his daughter, will not die. Nope.
After getting home from Uni today, he found a clump for packages clustered among his porch, and immediately smiles. Videos.
So Fredric settles into his couch, switches on Nirvana, and starts his laptop, slowly unwrapping the brown package paper.
He was nervous, as a few weeks before he'd gotten two weird videos from both Piper and Annabeth spilling precisely how stressed out Annabeth was.
Fredric was supposed to… What was he supposed to do?
It took him a few seconds to actually figure out what he was forgetting.
He was supposed to call Annabeth. Why didn't he call Annabeth? He was an awful man.
And one screwball of a father.
Fredric snatches the wireless phone off the coffee table and immediately dials his daughter's number.
After a single, short ring, an electronically derived voice comes on. "I'm sorry. Annabeth Chase's number does not work anymore. Try again later!"
Oh, Athena. Fredric begins to panic. Annabeth's in trouble, Annabeth's hurt, Annabeth's… dying.
He drags himself to the couch again and forces himself to watch the videos. They might have an answer, after all she could have lost it on one of her quests.
The first video was basically an introduction, with that familiar grey sparkle back in Annabeth's eye, as she was under Percy Jackson arm.
He remembered her.
Fredric Chase officially approves of the Jackson kid, no matter how much his past lover hates him.
There were seven kids, Jason, Piper, Leo, Annabeth, and Percy, and then two new kids. Hazel and Frank.
They seemed nice enough, but he assumes that Leo was already working his annoying powers on them.
Poor kids.
The next video was… Nothing he really wanted to see.
Annabeth and Percy fell asleep in the stables, and the guys of the Argo pranked them.
Is that what friends in this century do? Fredric wonders. But they have to be friendly with each other, as they would be stuck in one ship for probably months on end.
Fredric sighs. He never had friends like that in high school.
The last video was the most disturbing.
Piper and Hazel show up on film, both obviously troubled.
Cry stains were everywhere, and Fredric couldn't really process what was going on. His mind flitted to the worst-case-scenario, but he wouldn't let himself think that way. He would kill himself.
The girls murmured the story, softly, sensitively, as if they were too harsh with the story they would break to pieces like fine China.
Hazel had to leave the room in the middle.
Annabeth and Percy were in Tartarus.
His daughter was in Tartarus.
His daughter was in hell.
Hell.
Where all the bad, sick people of the world went when they died.
Annabeth Chase.
Gone like that.
The rest of the seven had faith that she would get out.
Fredric had faith that she would get out too, but he was stupid enough to believe that she would come out unscathed.
This was his daughter, here.
He would take her place in hell if he could.
But life doesn't work like that.
Fredric prays to all the gods out there, every single one of them. Any religion, any culture, anyone that could help. Zeus, Jupiter, Jesus, Allah, Osiris, every single person waiting in their respective godly territories.
Because he felt so connected to Annabeth, watching all those videos. So close to her.
They are at the closest point they have ever been at.
He can't lose her now.
This is his baby girl.
So he replays every single videos, absorbing every tone of her voice, the tints of her eyes, and the curve of her face.
He had faith once again.
She would get out, if that Annabeth Chase was the same girl in every single 'Hey, Dad' there was.
How'd you like?