I'm so sorry you guys. I guess I got too used to writing without posting. It's like I've completely lost interest in . I'll try to keep up this weekly scheduled post thing cuz I already have 33 chapters of this story finished. But it's like if it's not in front of my face, I just don't remember it exists.

Chapter 5

He dreamt of his mom. Her open smile, the precious one. How she danced around their tiny New York apartment kitchen while making cookies. The full glee in her eyes when Percy reached up to her. A silent request for a hug. When he was nestled in her arms he always felt so peaceful, so secure. Then like an ominous cloud his dream shifted.

A dark figure stood over him. Brooding, angry, murderous.

No, it was more than a figure, it was a presence.

He lay frozen. Half of him ready to succumb to whatever fate this entity had planned for him, and the other half screaming in denial.

Suddenly it all popped with a sharp click.

Tsk tsk tsk.

He was awake. Coated in a thin stench of stale sweat and knotted in his own sheets. For a few pounding heart beats he stared at his ceiling, taking deep breaths. Swallowing back his own heartbeat as it fluttered in his throat, Percy closed his eyes again.

Just a dream. He told himself. Just a dream.

Tsk tsk tsk.

Swinging. The clothing hanger he'd hung on the door handle to his room was swinging back and forth. Grazing the wood of the door ever so slightly.

Tsk tsk tsk

Someone had been in his room. Someone had been right over him.

Percy swallowed. His fingers closed around his gun underneath his pillow. He couldn't let them escape. Not if he wanted to live. His feet touched the floor when a violent ringing exploded through his room. From his night table in the false drawer, his little flip phone was shaking and singing and doing everything in its power to garner attention.

Percy released a tense breath.

Water. Cool, cold like water.

Clients came first.

Percy picked up the phone, still half-focused on scanning his room over and over.

"It's been two weeks," Mr. BigMoney said. A bitter tone was in his voice layered thick with a heavy simmering rage. It was too early for this. "Why aren't you done yet?"

Done.

Percy didn't know why that word irked him. Done. Sure, he understood the urgency of the situation. He understood how Annabeth might've been another check mark on his busy schedule. But why did he have to demote her to that? A task. A chore. Something he wanted to be over. Not caring how it was completed. Not caring about the delicacy of it all, the personalization of it.

Although, Percy reasoned, if he viewed Annabeth the way Mr. BigMoney saw her then he might not have ever had any qualms about killing her. She might've been dead the first moment he ever saw her.

Which may be an option.

Percy regripped the phone. "Can you tell me why this is so time sensitive?"

"I just want her gone."

"Because?"

"I'm not paying you to ask questions."

"Of course not," Percy said automatically. "But the more I learn about the victim the easier my job is."

"All you need to know is that you're doing the world a favour." Mr. BigMoney snapped back. "Now are you going to get on it or what?"

"Without much knowledge it could take a little while longer to-"

"No. NO." Mr. BigMoney's voice went shrill. "Tonight. By tonight or I'm hiring someone else."

"Tonight's impossible." Percy scoffed back.

He was supposed to spend the day with Annabeth. How could he possibly find the time to plan her murder that night when she was right next to him?

"I'm not going to negotiate on this-"

"Then I'm done." Percy said.

He could hear himself saying it. He could understand that he was formulating the words. But then why did they sound so alien on his own tongue? He'd never backed out of a deal before. Especially not after he went through all the trouble of getting himself familiar with the victim. Blinking at his own words, Percy stared around his room again.

Maybe having someone on my tail has rattled me more than I thought.

For a breathless moment, Mr. BigMoney went silent.

"But-"

"It's too risky. I don't put my neck out for anyone. Clients included." Percy said before he could decide against it. Still not really believing that it was him making this move.

He ended the call before another rage induced word could cross the line. Tensely, he glowered at the ceiling and dreaded about his complex situation. Feeling hollow and confused at this pointless life he seemed to continue on in.

No, he couldn't focus on this right now. Someone had been in his house, in his room. Percy threw on a pair of jeans and marched into the hallway. Gun in his pocket and focused on anything that so much as shifted.

"Going out?" Nico asked in his normally mundane way from the sofa.

Percy shook his head. "Did you see anything… weird?"

"Weird?"

"Or hear anything?"

A yowl came from the screen and a few echoing machine gun noises followed. Nico was immersed.

"Weird how?"
"Nevermind." He wouldn't have noticed a whole brigade breaking into this house. "Why are you up so early?"

Does he even have a job?

"Up?" Nico finally paused the game. "It's dawn?!"

"Nevermind." Percy said again. He grabbed his coat off the rack.

"So you are going out?" Nico reiterated. This dude needed some sleep.

"Yeah," Percy replied hoarsely.

"Another date again?" Nico raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not dating anyone," he groaned for the millionth time. "Besides, Annabeth's at work. I'm just going for a walk."

"Ew, fresh air and exercise." Nico scowled, his eyes fell to the ground. Running a hand over his bicep as if in a sheepish fashion. "Well have fun, if any fun could be had."

"Will do." Percy sighed. Still glancing around the room cautiously. Styx, he needed to clear his head. This was going to eat him alive all day. Because what if it was nothing? What if he was just getting paranoid again? He couldn't go back to being chased across the country by his own mind. He couldn't revert to a place where every door creak, every cold draft, every soft wind was a threat sent by above to end his miserable existence.

Percy shook his head again and double checked his pocket for his gun. Then the other for the silencer.

"Hey Jack!" Nico called it just before the door was yanked shut.

"Yeah?"

"Bring me back some pizza?"

"...maybe."

No sign of forced entry at the front door. All the windows weren't able to be opened. Maybe a minor earthquake had shifted the hanger? Percy shook his head. At least the sharp cold was making it hard for his mind to go foggy.

On the corner of his block stood a slightly decrepit electronics store festering with cracks and chipped paint. A wall of TV's were pressed behind the window and mirrored the same day-old news story. Footage of a large construction zone filled with the skeletons of houses. The base read 'Local millionaire donates thousands to the rebuilding of Shellbrooke neighbourhood.' Percy wasn't really looking at the news story. Up in the corner of the window perched a little security camera. Its wide lens had the appearance of an every curious eye. Open and friendly and desperate for info.

Should I get one?

He couldn't go house hunting. Not yet. Not until he knew that the presence over his bed hadn't been in his own head. That there truly was a person in his room as opposed to a mouse hitting the clothing hanger or a really heavy moth. Besides, he couldn't go. Not while Annabeth lived every day in active defiance of her own conflicting ways and ill fate.

Is that all she is to me? A pot of answers?

He caught himself before he looked up. Before the sky pierced him with questions he never wanted to properly answer.

And yet I want to answer all of hers…

Speaking of the devil, his phone rang just then. Flashing her name over and over.

"Hello?"

"Wow, you're actually awake?"

"I can do mornings."

"Still unbelievable Seaweed Brain."

"So the name is sticking."

"Yes. The name is sticking. Now are you available the day after tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Pretty much. Why?" Percy asked. He suspected she wouldn't be alive by then, but apparently that wasn't his business anymore.

"There's someone I want you to meet."

.:oOo:.

"What are you wearing?" Annabeth had all the skepticism locked in the way she looked at him. Their 'friendship' had seemingly solidified when she made comments on his attire. Yes. Okay, he was going to cut ties with her. A new assassin would show up any minute. He just had to clear away a few more questions that were plaguing his mind. Plus she wanted him to meet her best friend. What harm could that do?

"You like it?" Percy grinned at her while re-adjusting the coat. 'SECURITY' was written in bold white letters across his back. "When we go pick up Piper, I can pretend to arrest her for drug smuggling!"

Annabeth did not look amused.

"Change, now." She uttered darkly. And yet Percy caught the twinkle in her eyes and the light endearment written in the way her lips had to be battled into a frown. She thought it was funny, regardless of what she just said.

Always contradicting herself.

Percy managed to change quickly. He ended up going with his normal jeans, sweater, jacket, scarf, glove combo and had time to annoy Nico for his addiction to video games before he left.

Annabeth was exactly where she was before, and was pleasantly surprised to see him back so soon.

In no time they were off. Comfortably settled in the leather seats of Annabeth's small car as she maneuvered them through the shopping rush traffic. Listening to a mix of Queen songs and Alexander Hamilton in silence with each minute dragging by unnoticed. Percy wasn't complaining, although he knew nothing about music, Annabeth's taste seemed at least enjoyable. He spent a majority of the time watching as the town traffic started shifting around them, occasionally humming along to well known songs and munching on a bag of pretzels he had smuggled into the car.

"Get any crumbs in here and you're a dead man," Annabeth said lowly. Taking the time to shoot him a very intense look meant to be threatening.

"Me? Why, I'm the cleanest man around." Percy grinned at her cheekily.

"You'll be the deadest man around if you grin like that again." There was a deeper element of stress in her voice. Something that went beyond her normal murderous threats. Not by much, but enough to hook Percy's interest. Being aware of subtle changes in people was what had kept him alive this far.

She looked okay, so very composed, and yet very regal in her Annabeth-esque way. Bundled up tightly to keep out the cold with her usual mid length grey coat and stiff posture. Because of her thick mittens he couldn't tell if she was holding the steering wheel or gripping it.

No. It was something else other than looks, something Percy couldn't quite put his finger on that made him look at her twice.

She was a bit… off.

"Are you okay?" He knew it was always a prickly question for her. It was asking her to open up, to reveal what was going on inside of that complex and impossible brain of hers and she would be damned before she did so.

"Why are you asking?" he didn't expect this tart response. It wasn't a shut down, but it wasn't an allowance for an answer either. It was as if she were toying with the idea of taking his concern seriously.

The Ocean is wild

"You just seem a little… meh." Percy shrugged while fiddling with the heat controls. His eyes avoided her burning grey ones as she shot him another look, this time in confusion.

"Meh?" She repeated.

"Meh." Percy confirmed. "We're going to pick up your best friend from the airport. I don't know, I guess I just thought you'd be a bit more excited than you are."

"I am excited." Annabeth sniffed indignantly. Reaching her eyes back up to the car stopped in front of them as if she needed a distraction. It was a good distraction, the bumper ahead of them was freckled with stickers.

"But…" Percy trailed.

She had that hesitance in her voice. The kind that invited more questioning. The permission for deeper understanding if prompted. Percy tilted his head at her. Watching the way her gaze flickered between the road and her hands. How she nibbled on the corner of her lips still debating with herself if she should trust him despite the fact that she'd invited him in the first place.

"But…" she continued to Percy's great surprise. "I'm not too keen to see Jason."

"Jason." Percy repeated the unknown person's name. He was never aware of a Jason.

"Yeah," she sighed. "Jason."

"Who the heck is Jason?"

"Jason's… this blonde handsome, kick in the shins good guy who's been dating Piper for… a pretty long time." She sounded as if the words were being forced from her lips and she looked all the more saltier for it. "He went on the trip with Piper."

"And why don't you want to see this 'Jason'?" Percy craned an eyebrow at her while shoving his bag of pretzels into his pocket with a considerable amount of noise. Now was too interesting of a time for snacks.

"He's just so… happy, and nice and always always tries to be friends with me. He tries way too hard. Honestly, I can't wait until they break up."

Percy pulled at the seatbelt loosely. His eyes landed on the people milling in the street on work breaks. Sitting for chats on benches and leaning against door frames with puffs of smoke teetering from their lips in thick exhaust like puffs. He watched them so he wouldn't stare at Annabeth.

Looking at her intensely as she opened up made her uncomfortable. She was more at ease when he pretended like he was only half interested. He wanted to respect that.

"So in other words, he's like a golden retriever and you prefer cats." Percy summed up as his thoughts started to wander again.

"Yup."

No. She said that too lightly. He didn't have it all. Her words were breezy yet her eyes were troubled. Again, she held that relaxed stance while looking more internally knotted than a scrambled fishing line.

Percy decided to keep quiet. Maybe once Jason was before him, the pieces would start coming together to form the final image.

Finally, they broke free of the traffic and Annabeth aggressively pulled the car into the fast lane. The bar like buildings looming about them started to shrink as they reached the outer rim of the city. Wide expanses of rolling fields filled their windows smudging the landscape in dull brown. Dry hay bales and slanted fences filled their surroundings in a canvas of gloom but with a story of hearty living.

"Why didn't you tell me we were going to pick up two people? I could've totally dressed as a prison transfer guard and pretended they were two criminals!"

"Dork," Annabeth scoffed, but she was smiling again. "Why are you insane?"

"It's genetic. My biological father thought he could control water and threw himself into the ocean."

"Oh my god, really?!"

"No. He was just an asshole who didn't know how to keep it in his pants." Percy smirked while shooting her a smug glance. "Gotcha."

"Ugh, you idiot!" She took a hand off the wheel to slap him playfully.

"Hey! No distracted driving!" Percy laughed as he attempted to duck her flailing hand.

"I'm trying to get rid of the distraction!" she snorted with a smile. "Keep still you Seaweed Brain!"

"I'm not a bug!" He laughed as he dodged another swing.

"Cut it out or else I'll- FUCK!"

Percy's head snapped forward to where she was gaping. Two headlights beamed back at him. His brain registered the grill of a truck speeding towards them. A sharp stab of a breath breached his lungs when he realized the collision course they were one. Their death course.

"SHIT!"

A squeal of tires and rapid fire string of curses followed. A screeching cry of metal on metal ripped through their minds in a gut wrenching lurch as they clipped the smooth surface of the other vehicle. Barely missing the grill staring down on them as Annabeth whipped the wheel with tense precise actions. For a second time they lurched, and hot bursts of adrenaline struck through his core. Their potential death passed them by in a whoosh of noise, tension, and air. For a breathless, thought empty second, Percy's eyes caught on the opposite driver's face, his fear-filled expression echoed their own. Annabeth's shrieks pocketed by bad words added to the mayhem before the car finally straightened out. Their speed dramatically decreased as they started drifting towards the shoulder of the road. The sudden lack of overwhelming noise left tinny pits in the center of Percy's ears.

He realized he was clutching the corners of his seat so hard that his fingers burned.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Annabeth raged with a passionate slam of her hands against the steering wheel. In alarm, Percy's head snapped in her direction. Fire was playing with his nerves. Everything felt clear and sharp and empty and cold. It took him two additional seconds to realize that he had pulled himself into his headspace in preparation for his own death.

He shivered.

Annabeth wasn't anywhere close to being calm. Ripping off her black gloves, she whipped them against the dashboard. Anger sent trembles into her fisted white hands, and clenched her quivering jaw. Flames danced and rolled in her pupils as she hit the steering wheel one last time for good measure.

Again, she had hidden her fear behind her wrath. Percy could see it. A reaction to it hadn't surfaced yet.

"THE SECOND TIME IN A MONTH?" she screeched. "THE SECOND?"

"Annabeth-" Percy breathed, reaching out to grab her arm soothingly but she shook him away.

"Second time," she hissed as her eyes filled with tears, glassing over her burning look.

The car jerked when she fought her seat belt off. Throwing open the door, she tumbled out. "Second time."

Percy watched her storm around the front of the car in bewilderment before he fumbled with his own seatbelt. A ball of worry in his gut erupted as she threw herself through the tangle of brush and up to the wire fence. Towards a deserted field.

"Annabeth!" he called as he fell out of the car, the cold air smacking him in the face. Finding her form again just in time to see her hoist herself over the rickety fence with a whine from the wire and to stomp off into the field. Her boots crunched against the fallen dead stalks of cut corn with her golden hair whipping in the wind. The open blue sky above her held its clouds close and her silhouette pressed against its unreachable backdrop. The pit in his stomach deepened.

Are you sad?

"Annabeth!" Percy tried again as he raced after her. Springing himself over the edge of the fence and jogging after her fleeing form. His ankles knocked against each yellowed stem of dead ragged stocks still reaching towards the air like hollow zombies.

She kept her back to him. She was doing it on purpose.

"Go away Percy." She spat. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine," he pointed out.

"Leave me alone."

"No."

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"I said no." Percy stood his ground. Not a ripple in his emotions as he absorbed his surroundings with ease and tranquility. His headspace wrapped around his mind like a protective blanket. He could handle her.

A sailor must have sea legs to outlive the storm.

"Why?" She simmered lowly, yet with a broken tone. "Are you just a fucking sicko? You get off on seeing people upset?"

"Of course not."

"Then go away!"

"No."

"...why not?"

It was spoken in such a shattered way, Percy felt his heart lurch. He could see her shoulders start to tremble and her hands curl into fists as she attempted to fight off those thick billowing emotions that were threatening to spill.

Firmly, he grabbed her shoulder and swung her around. His eyes scoped out her face as his brows met in a silent kind of sympathy. Streaks of tears were already glistening in unreadable lines against the skin of her cheeks. Her lips were pursed together fiercely as if it would stop the flow, and her gaze was filled with a hopeless loss.

"I want to make sure you're okay," Percy finally answered with an earnest look. Holding her in place with his hands on either one of her quivering shoulders. "Death… scares you. Doesn't it."

It wasn't a question.

"It shouldn't," she scoffed at herself. Glaring off into the distance with a decided hatred, she wiped her eyes with a swift jerky motion. "Everybody dies."

"Doesn't mean everybody isn't afraid of dying," Percy pointed out flatly.

Annabeth was silent for a moment. Her eyes locked with Percy's as she gazed at him emptily. The fear and grief were in the back of her tear filled pupils, he could see it. How she was trying to hide it, he could also see. Even after her confession.

Contradictory girl.

But no. There was so much more to it all. Her looks, her quiet sadness, her empty state. What else made her this way? He doubted she was the kind of girl to run off crying in a field if the only thing that ruffled her feathers was a near car accident. An almost death.

What other stressors were in her life? Her ex? She had admitted to his threats. What about this 'Jason' person? Was he someone else to her? Maybe she disliked him out of misplaced love…

No. Not her style.

Percy tightened his lips as the questions kept piling. But all he could do was stare. Stare and stare and hope that she would donate the answers unconsciously to save him from his irritable curiosity.

Annabeth might've been thinking the same things about him because she shook her head solemnly.

"Nobody would miss me if I died," she whispered hollowly. "It's so dumb but... I… when…." Raggedly, her voice broke and she looked to the sky again as if to hide her expression. Her lips were quivering from the remnants of adrenaline and her hands knotted and unknotted themselves anxiously. "Someone would replace me at work, I'm not one of a kind to them, and Piper would get over it eventually. She's a very popular girl. I'm sure she'd be able to find a new best friend. In fact, she could get a hundred new best friends without me holding her back. "

"Not true." Percy deadpanned. Because if she were so easily replaceable that meant that all his curiosity was simply stupid questions he'd never thought to think about before.

No one could replace you. Idiot prickly impossible Ocean girl.

"Very true." Annabeth counteracted with a dismal shake of her head. Not fighting him in her normally explosive way. She was too shaken. "I… I've made no mark on this world." There was desperation creeping through her tone. "You were right. I've barely tried anything."

"There's still time. You're not dead yet."

"But I don't know when I'll die," Annabeth said. Her tears were still silently watering the dead earth. "I could've died twice this month."

"But you didn't," Percy squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. Capturing his eyes with hers, in a determined way. "And even if you died, you can't say nobody would miss you. I would miss you. Okay?"

Miss getting the answers I want.

"You'd get over it." She wrote off.

"No I wouldn't." Percy interjected firmly. His gaze was bold and hard. "You're…. You're…"

I'm the oil to the ocean. I'm the killer of the sea.

"I'm what?" Annabeth's interest was already piqued. Her big watery eyes searched him in a way that made his heart shudder. She expected an answer. She expected that he would answer her. Because he'd never denied her before, he realized. Even his own name had been forced from his lips the second she asked for it.

Percy took his hands off her delicate shoulders and turned away. Feeling the cold sink into his cheeks and nip at his ears as he sighed mellowly. The field of empty husks seemed to frame the sky nicely. It didn't help the twisting sensation coiling in his gut but he couldn't help his eyes from wandering up as he pursed his lips in preparation. Turning over his next words cautiously, slowly, thoughtfully. What stopped him from saying the words was that his confusion lay in him. Was what he was about to say a lie?

"I'm what?" Annabeth persisted.

One thing for sure was that he liked the clouds today, they were very expressive.

Are you sad my boy?

"You're special to me."

Was he just saying that to soothe her? Was it true? He guessed it was in a sick twisted sort of way.

He'd never had someone like her before. Someone he wanted to know more of. Someone that kept themselves safe from his blood-soaked hands simply by being too mystical to grasp.

Despite that, a helpless flutter tangled itself in his heartstrings. Giving him the aftertaste of doom.

This feeling scared him. Why did he feel like running away after he said it?

"Why?" Annabeth asked.

"Because I'm like you," he answered simply. Trying for a smile to cover his next lie. "You're the only friend I have. If you died I'd have no friends."

"How am I your only friend? You're so friendly" she spoke the last word as if it were a disease.

"I don't know," he sighed. "But I do know that if you died today, I'd miss you Wise Girl."

Is it true? Are you sad?

Annabeth scoffed at him. "That's pathetic."

But that shine was in her eyes. Gratefulness, or something closely related to it. He wondered why some things were so easy for her to admit and others weren't.

"Pathetics flock together." he bumped her shoulder.

She didn't deny it. Instead mumbled about how now they were going to be tragically late in picking up her best friend. Together, they headed off through the broken stems clawing at their ankles and took turns climbing over the fence.

Percy offered to drive this time, and Annabeth gave him a you wish look before clambering back into the front seat.

Again. I'm so embarrassed it took someone reviewing to remind me that this exists.

Maybe I should just post it all at once lol.