Annabeth stares at Chiron for a minute, not comprehending what he said. The waves crash against the surf, raging white foam spraying everywhere. Gulls shriek, affronted, in the distance. Ominous dark clouds rumble on the horizon. It's like the sky and sea are on the verge of a breakdown.

"You've given up." She finds her voice, but it's weak and barely audible.

"Annabeth-"

"You gave up on him. On Percy." She tunes out whatever he's saying- more bullshit about adjusting and coping and learning to move on when she's barely able to grieve- and walks into the water. The cold shocks her, but inside she's numb all over. She keeps going.

"Annabeth, what are you doing?" Chiron demands.

She hops in the dinghy, a white aluminum motorboat Leo built from scraps with Pax painted on the side, and untethers it from the Argo II. She tilts the engine down and squeezes the primer bulb until it's firm.

"Get out of there now!" Chiron is wading into the surf, getting his tweed suit wet. He extends his hand. "Come on, Annabeth, you can't keep running."

Oh yes I can. The boat rocks and bounces, unsecured, drifting away from the shore and its mother ship. Chiron shouts and charges after her, but he broke his leg last year. While he no longer wears a cast, he still limps. Annabeth realizes that she's being a bitch- a terrible person- by making her mentor risk his life to save her from herself, but it's too late. Like everything else in her life, it's only a matter of time before she screws up their relationship too. She pushes the throttle from neutral to 2s, inserts the key (which she carries on her camp necklace), and yanks on the choke while cranking desperately. The engine ignites with a roar.

"Annabeth get back here now!" Chiron's bellowing, but his voice drowns out against the roar of the sea. Annabeth gives him one remorseful look before yanking the tiller. Pax violently turns, making her stomach lurch, but she braves on. She has to let Chiron go, let the shore go, let everything go. She ruins everything she loves, and she doesn't want him to get hurt too.

"Annabeth!"

"Go back to shore!" she yells, hoping he can hear her over the howling wind. The waves are getting bigger. Suddenly Annabeth realizes that going out in a tiny dinghy during an impending storm after an argument with your camp director is not her brightest idea. Fresh rain stings her face. The waves burgeon, violently lapping at Pax's sides. Thunder booms.

Stay in sight of land. Percy's voice speaks in her mind. Or she imagines it, anyway. She takes slow, deep breaths as she steers the boat. She's faced storms before. She grips the tiller, hugging the coast. She sails past Chiron, who has stumbled back to shore and is yelling at her. Unfortunately, besides the camp beach and the cove, it's mostly cliffs and jagged rocks. Not a good place to land unless she wants to be smashed against the rocks. Annabeth keeps sailing, struggling with all her might to keep the boat upright and close to land.

She sails past the harbor of Olympus, now empty and quiet. The last few fishing trawlers are docked, their owners hurriedly tying ropes. Not a good sign for a lone dinghy. She looks at her town, which resembles a conglomeration of brightly colored Lego bricks stacked on a small mountain. The Appalachians loom in the background, olive green and shrouded in mist. Olympus looks quaint and charming from a distance, like a little fishing village on a travel brochure. Annabeth knows that if you look closer, you'll see all the imperfections: the old mom-and-pop stores being forced out of business, the inactive fishing boats floating in the harbor, the overcrowded maze of houses and apartment complexes that make up the Labyrinth.

The real monstrosities are the nicest buildings in town, however. The fancy new coffee shop that replaced the McCaffrey diner. C. C.'s Spa and Resort that drove Silena Beauregard's parents out of their family owned hair salon, Crusty's Waterbeds taking out Demeter's Groceries and putting Katie Gardener's family on welfare. The hipster restaurants that tourists love but locals hate because they drive up the rents and mortgages, putting their businesses and homes at risk. Worst of all, at the edge of town, on Annabeth's left, is Camp Jupiter. It looks like a miniature Disney amusement park or resort. Beautiful buildings with Hellenistic facades. Waterslides coiling together like a nest of snakes. It's a beast made of money, plastic, and style.

Annabeth keeps sailing until Olympus and Camp Jupiter disappear behind a giant sea cliff. Rain pours down mercilessly. The ocean roils, threatening to capsize her. Annabeth realizes that she could be killed out here in a dinghy- swept overboard, sunk, struck by lightning. How could she have been so stupid?

"Find somewhere safe to land." Annabeth turns off the motor, not wanting to wear it out by fighting against strong currents, and pulls out the wooden oars. She yanks off her silver owl earrings (not real silver, thank goodness) and deposits them in a small compartment. Leo keeps a life jacket in Pax, which she straps on. Muttering "I can do this," to herself, Annabeth lies as far down in the boat as she can while rowing and prays that she'll get past the giant wall of rock. If I can get past the cliff, I know a place.

The sea is a beast, unrestrained and wailing. The sky is weeping, moaning for something lost. Annabeth is sure she'll be swept into its deadly embrace, that she'll vanish just like Percy. She wonders how her family will feel. Malcolm will be devastated. Athena would probably be upset, but she's too reserved to show much emotion. Helen and Frederick might show up for her funeral, but her absence wouldn't make a dent in their lives. She never really knew her half-brothers.

"Gods, why did I come out here?" she screams, livid with herself. "I swear I have a death wish."

Does she? Is this what she wants? To vanish off the face of the earth like Percy? To avoid the pain of Chiron's words? To be someone other than the smart girl turned crazy when she lost her boyfriend? Would dying change anyone's mind about her?

Lightning flashes in the distance. A chill washes over Annabeth as she realizes how close she came to dying. The bolt could have easily hit her or Pax, seeing as they're the tallest things on the open sea. She wouldn't have gotten last words or a chance to say goodbye. Her last interactions with the people she loved- Chiron, her friends, even her mother- would be angry and hurtful, and they'd have to live with that final memory of her for the rest of their lives. The coast guard or someone would have to dredge the ocean for her body, and she guessed that it wouldn't look pretty. Her legacy would be short and tragic; she'd be poor Annabeth Chase, who lost her life stupidly fooling around on the raging ocean in a dinghy. Or suicidal Annabeth, who was trying to join her boyfriend. A tragic tale of caution about what not to do when your boyfriend goes missing.

Annabeth makes up her mind. As bad as her life is, she wants to live. She doesn't give a damn about her reputation or the odds or even the loss of Percy. She'll live to tell people that she defied an angry ocean and overcame part of her internal struggles so she wouldn't become some sad ghost. Another wasted teen life.

Finally, the cliff ends. Annabeth notices the water beneath her is choppier and turquoise. She's on top of the deep water reef. Relieved, she steers toward the small rocky beach, careful not to hit any coral, although they're usually not close to the surface. She barely makes it to the beach before lightning pierces the sky again.

Annabeth's freezing, drenched, and alone. For the first time, the full despair of her situation hits her. She's violently shivering, can't feel her feet, and struggling to drag the Pax out of the surf and onto the beach. The trees flail helplessly, their branches like whips, beyond the tiny rock beach. Annabeth decides to take shelter in the stone cave that tunnels through the giant cliff once the Pax is secure. There's a survival pack in the boat, with a sleeping bag and food, but she's too tired and scared to waste time digging it out. The cave might be cold, dark, and scary, but she'll take that over freezing to death or getting hit by a falling tree.