Percy POV
I woke up to a fuzzy mind.
I groaned as my head fell to the side. I felt drunk, but I knew that I wasn't because I generally didn't drink. They injected something into me.
My eyes widened suddenly as memories flooded back.
I was walking back to my apartment after visiting the hospital. It was a sad trip, and I just wanted to go home and sleep after a long day. It was late at night too. Suddenly, a black van stopped next to me on the road. These guys jumped out. I tried to fight back, but there were too many of them. They were also prepared with a syringe filled with green fluid.
I looked around frantically, but darkness surrounded me. I couldn't see anything, but I knew that I was in a sitting position. My arms were stuck behind me because they were tied together. I was leaning back against something semi-solid.
My muscles ached as I tried to break free. My fingers felt something warm pulsing near my fingers. What the hell?
"Good, you're finally awake. It's about time," a voice stated.
I froze. Female, my mind thought.
But, I couldn't see her. Then, I realized that I was feeling her pulse. Her hands were intertwined with mine because our wrists were tied to each other.
"Where are we?" I asked.
My voice was raspy, and my words were slurred. Whatever they injected me with had a strong effect. One second, I was walking home, and the next, I woke up in a dark room. I didn't understand it one bit.
"I don't know where we are," she stated. However, tension laced her voice, probably because she was also dazed. "We have to get out."
"They, they kidnapped us," I affirmed.
My hands fought against the rope tying us together. My hands shuffled against her hands and her back. Or, what I thought was her back.
"Hey, watch it," she shouted.
The back of her head collided with mine. I groaned as a sharp pain shot into my head. That certainly didn't help my headache.
"Ugh, what the hell?" I snapped. "Why would you do that?"
"You were touching my butt."
"Excuse me? I didn't know. It's not like I was doing it on purpose," I expressed. "Not like I am now." Then, I shifted my hands to purposefully touch her. I could be petty sometimes.
She smashed my head once again, causing me to shout out in annoyance.
"Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it," I stated.
"We have to get out of here," she said again. "Look around the room. My eyes adjusted to the poor lighting."
She was correct. My eyes had also adjusted to the poor lighting. It was a very small room, but there was a door a few feet away. Random numbers were on the walls on all four sides. Something dead was laying in the far corner.
"Do you smell that?" I asked. My throat was suddenly dry as I stared at the carcass. It was a pile of flesh, bone, and blood on the ground. I wanted to throw up.
"It's the dead animal. Anyway, um, look at the box," she said.
"There are two boxes," I said.
One box was directly in front of me, so it made sense that she couldn't see it. Another box was in the middle of the room. Both of them contained shiny locks.
"I don't understand what's going on," I said quickly. My mind was racing with all of the different possibilities. Why would our kidnappers put us in a room with a dead animal? Why would they leave boxes and clues on the walls?
"Look, the way I see it, we have two options," the woman started. "One, we just sit here and do nothing. Or, two, we try to get out using whatever these clues are."
"I can probably reach the box on my side," I said quickly. "Just brace yourself because I'll probably push against you."
"Okay, I'm ready," she said.
Her arms tensed against my hands. I could feel her pulse stopping temporarily because she was controlling her breath. I gently leaned back against her.
She groaned as I stretched my right leg out. My arms burned, and my hands were getting crushed under her weight. She wasn't that heavy, but it was enough. I was also ignoring the fact that my hands were against her butt.
"Did you get it?" she strained.
"Almost," I squeaked. My right foot hit the box initially before I aligned my foot against the side of the box. I huffed before pulling it close to me. I was sitting in criss-cross applesauce as I stared at the box.
"There's a lock on it, and it needs a key," I stated.
"Okay, a key. I don't see any key," she said. Her back straightened again and relieved some of the pressure against my arms. "Gods, these bondages are tight."
"I don't see any key either. Not yet, at least," I said in a frustrated tone.
"Relax. Maybe the other box has the key inside of it," she suggested. "We have to try and move towards the other box."
I used my legs to twirl us. She yelped in surprise. I suppose I should have warned her. I was now facing the side wall directly, and she was facing the rest of the room. The second box should be in front of her.
"I'm going to push off the wall," I said.
"Okay, wait, I need to angle my feet so that I don't accidentally push the box. Don't push us that hard because the box is only a few feet away. Also, we need to raise our hands so that it doesn't provide fiction on the ground," she explained.
I immediately realized that she was very intelligent. She was a fast thinker.
"My name's Percy," I blurted out.
The silence that followed was deafening. I don't know why I told her my name; I didn't know her. I didn't know how she even looked. At most, I knew that she was smart, had soft hands, and a strong pulse (and a nice butt, screw me for noticing).
"My name is Annabeth. I'm sorry that we're meeting under these conditions," she said softly. We sat for a few moments before continuing our escape.
I pushed against the wall, and we slid a few feet.
My muscles were aching. Having your arms tied behind your back uncomfortably was painful, let me tell you.
"Um, the box has a lock with four numbers. I'm assuming that they correspond with the numbers on the wall," Annabeth informed.
My neck arched to see the walls. I could only see three of them because I couldn't see the wall directly behind me. Each wall had two single-digit numbers. One number was in the top-right corner of each wall. The other number was randomly placed.
"The numbers on the corners of the walls, I think, are the sequence (1, 2, 3, 4). And, the random numbers are the combination," she said quickly.
"I can see three walls. Wall #1: 7, Wall #3: 5, and Wall #4: 2," I said, trying to help.
"Okay, Wall #2 is 8," she said.
"How are you going to incorporate the combination?" I asked.
"You need to turn us again. Turn us so that the box into the side of us. We can strain and stretch our arms/hands to hopefully fix the combination," Annabeth said.
"Have you always been this smart?" I asked.
"Percy, focus and turn us. Also, thank you," she commented. I did as I was told so that we could get out of here.
I still didn't understand why this room had puzzles in it. It made no sense that our kidnappers would lay out a way for us to escape. Absolutely no sense.
We were both facing the box now. My neck was aching from the strain. I noticed that Annabeth had wavy blonde hair. I was panting as we moved our hands towards the box together.
"Okay, my hands are on the lock," I said. "Gods, this hurts."
The kidnappers tied us so that my hands were on the outside of the bondage. Her hands were within mine. I could still feel her quickening pulse.
My fingers worked against the number lock to make sure that I could insert the number. Fortunately, I could.
"Percy, scroll in 7-8-5-2," she said firmly.
I achingly inserted the numbers, and the box clicked. I heard Annabeth huff in satisfaction as I opened the box. The silver inside was shining.
"It's a knife," I stated. "That's good."
I used the knife to carefully cut us out of these ropes. I didn't want to hurt Annabeth in any way. I ended up slicing myself a few times though.
"I'm free," she stated quickly. "We have to hurry. I don't know how long it has been."
I felt Annabeth's hands leave mine before she pulled the ropes away from me. I quickly rubbed my wrists. I could feel some blood on my hands and arms due to my cuts.
Then, I turned around, and my breath caught in my lungs.
Annabeth was very pretty. She was also around my age. Her gray eyes sparkled in the dim light, and her blonde hair was flowing down elegantly.
Her eyes scanned me as we studied each other.
Then, she quickly rushed towards the other box. This box needed a key. I rushed towards the door, which was locked as expected. We immediately got to work looking around the room for any keys. However, we didn't find anything.
"There's only one place we haven't looked," I said abruptly.
We both paused in the middle of the room and turned towards the dead animal. The carcass was bloody and smelling. Annabeth looked at me, nervousness in her beautiful, fierce eyes.
"I got it," I offered.
My mother raised me as a gentleman. As much as I didn't want to dig through fresh and meat, I wasn't going to let a lady do it.
I knelt next to the carcass. Gods, this was gross. I quickly took off my flannel shirt and placed it next to me. I was still wearing a black undershirt, so it was okay. Then, my hands dove into the pile of death.
"Did you find anything?" Annabeth asked after a few minutes.
"No, not yet," I said.
Then, my eyes caught on something shiny. My right hand dove into the dead dog's thigh muscles, and I dislodged the key. "I got it," I said ecstatically.
I quickly cleaned the silver key using my flannel shirt. Then, I handed it to her. She quickly took it and unlocked the brown box.
"There's another key in here," she exclaimed in excitement.
I used my shirt to clean my hands before my eyes landed on something in the dead animal pile. A piece of golden paper had a few words inscribed on it.
Beware of the arrows, it read.
My eyes widened as I looked up at Annabeth. She had already inserted the new key into the door handle. No, it was a trap.
"Annabeth," I shouted. I ran towards her and tackled her to the ground. The door swung open and arrows shot into the room. Annabeth yelled as I covered her head. If I was a second late, her face would have an arrow in it. Oh, gods.
I gazed at Annabeth who was under me. My body was covering hers as she stared into my eyes. My right arm was wrapped around her waist and firmly holding it. Surprisingly, the position wasn't uncomfortable.
"Thank you," Annabeth whispered. Our breaths were mixing in the close distance between us. It was nice and warm.
The arrows stopped after a few seconds. I hesitantly got up and pulled her up too. The door was open, and it was our uncertain but only way out.
"Are we sure about this?" I asked.
Nerves were tearing my stomach apart, and I really wanted my mom right now. My mother was the most important person in my life, and I was losing her.
"It's our only option," Annabeth said firmly. Once again, her voice was shaky, and there was a certain emotion that I couldn't quite decipher. She must've been scared too.
We stepped out of the puzzle room together.
It was a long, narrow hallway with no doors and no windows. It was a single, white-lighted hall that led to another door at the very end.
Annabeth and I looked at each other before turning back. We walked to the steel door at the end of the hallway before pausing.
"Are you ready, Percy?" she asked tensely.
"Not in the least," I stated.
I took a deep breath before my left hand wrapped around the bronze doorknob. My right hand was tightly clutching the knife that we found in the room.
Whoever kidnapped us was clearly playing a game. They didn't care for our survival. The shooting arrows proved that. I had to be prepared to survive.
I looked towards Annabeth, who gently nodded.
I had no clue what was waiting for us on the other side of this door. Regardless, I twisted the handle and swung the door open.
...