Title: Say 'Cheese'

Fandom: PJO/HoO

Warnings: murder, rare updates, evil author, major character death, yandere, OOC characters

Summary: A camera. It's hard to believe all these troubles started with a camera. A cursed camera, a lovesick fool, and a poor boy who only wanted to live his life. "A camera, you say?" "Yes, officer." The officer chuckled. "Give me proof that a camera of all things killed all these people." "Officer?" "Yes?" "Say cheese."

Characters: Percy Jackson, Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez, Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano, Hazel Levesque, Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase, Octavian Simmons, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Thaila Grace, Luke Castellan, Bianca Di Angelo, Ethan Nakamura, Nico Di Angelo, Chiron, Selena Beauregard, Clarisse La Rue, Will Solace, Piper McLean, Calypso Nightshade, Zoe Nightshade, Triton

Parings: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Triton

The Beginning of the End, Part Two

Say Cheese

Chapter Two

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was a natural red-head. It was ridiculous how many people had asked her if she had dyed her hair-and there were some who didn't believe her when she told them. What was there to gain from lying about her hair color? Was it because her hair was a bright shade a red? Or because her parents didn't have red hair? Her grandmother did, but her father never talked about her, and the press want too concerned with her, so for the first few years of her life, Rachel dealt with rumors about her heritage. The insults and accusations that had been hurled at her mother still stung her when they were brought up. Her parents did all they could to squash the rumors. Most of them had been put down, but one occasionally popped up.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was the daughter of a very rich man. Her father ran a company that took unused land and made a mall or a plaza. Rachel, however, despised her father and his job. She was an activist, and hated seeing trees knocked down. Her father was always trying to convince her to see it from his side of the deal, but Rachel never could. She was planning to disband the company when it was passed down to her. If he passed to her. Rachel was pretty sure one of her cousins would inherit the company to prevent Rachel's plans for plant life. It wasn't as if the company would go away. She'd just turn it into something new. Something better for the environment.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare was a trusting person. She usually believed what was told her, which was funny because she was an excellent liar. She had to be. For press, for family, for friends, and for was stopped by on the street. And when she set her eyes on Annabeth Chase the following Monday after her date with Percy, she was immediately suspicious. Which was strange because she was never wary of anyone. Rachel was tempted to ignore the telling in the back of her head that said something was wrong, but she couldn't.

Three things made Annabeth Chase seem strange that day.

Any time she was called on, her name said, or even a yell or shout of surprise, she would jump, startled, eyes darting around nervously.

She avoided questions, stares, and even Percy. Rachel saw the both of them moping around the entire day, and she wanted to pull her hair out in frustration. All that work an effort to get them together, for what?

And the way she positioned herself by the door, ready to run at a moments notice. The way she kept her backpack close beside her, clutching it tightly when ever someone walked past.

In the three months Rachel Elizabeth Dare had known Annabeth Chase, she had never acted like this. Mean, funny, hating-the-world-because-who-the-fuck-needs-eight-homework-assingments-in-a-single-fucking-day? and sarcastic, but never wary of the world as if someone was coming to get her.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare later felt bad about her earlier assumptions. Apparently, Annabeth had come home from her date with Percy only to see her entire family murdered in front of her. Her parents, handwriting shaky, had written her a note saying that the person she thought was her mom had not truly been her mother. Annabeth, after reading the contents of the letter, rushed upstairs to check on her brothers only to see them lying, dead on their beds. Their twin faces of horror were forever etched onto their faces. Annabeth, after calming down as much as one could in this situation, called the police. They had no leads, no DNA fingerprints, nothing. The Chases had not had any sort of security system, and the computer cameras (which Rachel had just found out could be hacked) hadn't captured anything since every device and somehow been closed. Annabeth had just had her family murdered, no one was going to be brought to justice, and she had found out that the family she had thought she had had been fake.

Damn. How's that for a morning wake up?

"Hey, Anna," Rachel said, approaching the girl. She sat down gently, as to not frighten the timid deer beside her. Annabeth had probably gotten used to people walking eggshells around her, but Rachel honestly couldn't help it. She had just been through a traumatic experience, and Rachel didn't want the cause of any PTSD attacks. "You doing okay?" Annabeth snorted, and Rachel regretted the question as soon as she asked it. How could she be okay?

"No," she said. "I am not okay. I don't think I'll ever be okay. My family is dead, apparently not my family, and I'm about to go into foster care and therapy," she said the word mockingly. "because of the trauma I went through," Rachel frowned

"Uh, that sounds like trauma to me," she told Annabeth. Annabeth scoffed. Then sighed.

"Sorry, I'm still reeling from...you know," Rachel nodded in understanding.

"The whole parent thing?" she asked gently, and Annabeth groaned.

"I bet the whole school knows about it by now," Rachel frowned, as a thought occurred to her.

"The whole school doesn't know," she said. "Which is...strange," How is it that a murder of this scale had happened in their small, safe neighborhood, and no one was freaking out about it?

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Annabeth asked and Rachel nodded.

"The murderer is still at large. And they're in the school,"

Rachel suspected that whoever had made off with Annabeth's family was coming back for her, but as it turned out, Rachel should have been more occupied with herself.

...

"What's that?" Rachel asked, sliding next to Annabeth at lunch. It had been a few weeks since...the incident, and by now, most, if not the whole school knew what had happened to Annabeth. Percy was the first one to buy her a feel better gift, which Annabeth accepted without hesitation (he was her boyfriend, after all) but that gave the rest of the school the go ahead to stuff her locker, desk, and mail with gifts. Annabeth was rather hesitant to accept all these gifts, but the camera she had hanging on her neck told otherwise.

"My foster father gave it to me," Annabeth had been put into foster care almost immediately after the death of they family. It seemed that either her family had cut ties with her or didn't want to take her in. Luckily, Chiron had offered to take her in, and Annabeth had readily accepted, although it wasn't as if she'd had much say in the whole process at all. "He noticed my attention to detail and bought me a camera from the thrift shop." Rachel chucked. Leave it to Chiron to suck up to his foster daughter in the first week.

"Have you taken anything with it?" at this, Annabeth frowned.

"I saw a frog on the sidewalk, so I snapped a picture." Rachel continued to push.

"And?..."

"It died a few seconds later," Rachel reared back, eyes wind with shock.

"That's...not what I was expecting, for sure." Rachel looked at the camera, inspecting it. It was a Zoom Compact camera, and didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary. It wad in pretty good condition considering where it was bought from.

"Maybe the frog was just old. Or maybe...no, no." Rachel shook her head. The thought was just too crazy.

"What?" demanded Annabeth. "What is it?" Rachel bit her lip.

"What if the camera killed the frog?" Annabeth scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous. How could that happen? It's a camera," she emphasized the last part. Rachel shrugged.

"I dunno. But frogs shouldn't drop dead either," Annabeth considered this.

"And if it was the camera?" She asked her.

"Then don't take my picture," Rachel chucked. Annabeth laughed too, a more hesitant one. It's too bad Rachel didn't notice until it was too late. Very bad indeed.

It's too bad really. Rachel was an innocent, a victim of love.

And the most dangerous person in any tale is the one willing to do anything for love. [1]

Before, Rachel would have thought it might be Percy, with his undying loyalty, his willingness to do anything for his friends. The guy could honestly be scary towards people who wished his friends harm when he wanted to.

Rachel would discover this reasoning untrue because of a half heard conversation, and a goddamn hug.

(4 and a half hours before Rachel's death)

"Rachel," Percy shifted from foot to foot in front of her. Rachel crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Have you seen Annabeth?"

Rachel scoffed. "You lost your girlfriend?" She asked incredulously.

Percy shifted again. "Not...lost, I would say." Rachel scoffed. Here was the great Percy Jackson, boyfriend extraordinaire. Couldn't even find the damn girl. Where was he when Annabeth was crying in the janitor's closet, or confiding in Rachel how much she missed him? Where was he when the rumor's about her parents death began to circulate? Where was he when Annabeth being bullied and mocked and tortured for something she had no control over? Rachel could admit that some of her anger was irrational, but not all of it. Percy should have been the one talking to Annabeth. Not Rachel. Rachel couldn't help but fault Percy for that one.

"Misplaced?" Rachel offered. Percy glared hatefully at her.

"Help me out here, Dare. She just went through something traumatic, and I'm trying to help her through it, but I can't if I don't find her," Rachel sighed.

"She...seems to be doing okay, but I would chalk it up to shock. But, Percy?" Percy looked to her, baby-seal eyes in full effect. "Don't...ask if she's okay. Ask how she's doing at that moment, maybe hug her, tell her you love her, anything to make things as normal as possible."

Percy nodded jerkily. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Thanks Rach,"

"No prob, Bob."

Percy enveloped her in a hug.

Annabeth rounded the corner. She had been looking for Percy, to apologize for ghosting him.

She stopped dead in the hallway as she saw Rachel hugging her Percy. How dare she? After acting like her friend? After giving her advice? Here she was, showing her true colors.

Black like the night, full of malice and hate.

Annabeth would show her hate. She would show her pain.

"Percy!" Annabeth began walking towards the two as if she had just now come across them. They ended their hug, but Annabeth saw Rachel look at Percy with longing.

(a look of worry, you stupid girl)

"I wanted to apologize," Rachel started slinking away, but Annabeth quickly put an arm around her. Try to escape now.

"Rachel told me how I was treating you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I was just-" Percy wrapped his arms around her. Like he had done with Rachel, some bitter part of her thought.

"It's okay Annabeth. I should've been there for you, I should've known what you were going through, how you would feel. I'm sorry," He forehead rested on hers, and Annabeth put her arms around his neck, savoring the warmth.

"I would love to spend time with you, to catch up," Percy pushed back from her and frowned, "But I've already promised Rachel some girl time."

"Another day then,"

"Of course. I love you."

"Love you."

Four and a half hours later, Annabeth walked away from the movie theater alone, despite having walked in with another girl. The camera's were off, and even so, there was no blood at the crime scene.

Annabeth packed the camera Chiron had given her back in her purse.

She now understood why she had this camera. She had to protect Percy from anyone who might want to take him away from her.

She had to.

She had to kill them all.

[1] The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After

And Rachel's dead. I'm picking them off, one by one. Mwahahahaha

Addressing some thing from the previous chapter. No, I will not change the rating to 'M'. Most works on this cite with that rating deal with smut, and I don't want my work falling into that category. I know it seems violent, but as long as I don't go into too much detail, the cite will allow me to keep it at 'T'. If more complaints arise (from different people), then I will take your suggestions into account.

Another thing was that most of you thought Percy and Annabeth jumped into a relationship. Except that both of them had been watching the other with crushes, and they had classes together, and as pointed out in my story the bonded over 'multiple different lunch occasions'. So no, they didn't jump right into.

Yes, maybe Annabeth murdering her brothers at night with their blood splattering on the wall behind them was dark, but this is a dark story. If you don't like that, I recommend that you stop reading so this doesn't keep you up at night or whatever.

So, the camera is in the story now, (which someone was asking about), so there. Rachel, as I said before, is dead now, and next, it's Nico's turn. To die or not to die, that is indeed the question.

And to the guest who left a review on one of my Writer's Month prompts telling me they have no hope for my stories: dUdE wRiTinG iS hArD lEt me TaKe mY tImE

Sorry for kind of falling off this story, but I did mentioned rare updates...

edit: GUYS I'M STILL ALIVE

-ThatOneBrokenDeskYouHadToSitOn