Chapter 1:
"Hey Annie," a raven haired boy muttered as he stood in a dark room, the screen of the phone illuminating the side of his face, making his sea green eyes seemingly glowing as he stared at the ground, "Its been a while since we last talked. I am sure you must be getting tired of my voice but speaking to you brings me happiness. I hope you haven't moved on without me and are waiting patiently for me."
There was a response, making Percy close his eyes as he cancelled the call and turned the phone off, returning the room back to darkness. He walked to the door and knocked lightly till the door opened and he came face to face with two men. Taller than him by several inches, Percy could not help the intimidation he felt from the two men, sunglasses covering their eyes while an earpiece covered their left ear.
"You still have another 36 mins for your FFC if you wish," one of them stated as he stared at Percy. His ebony skin contrasted the white walls that built the facility whereas the intensity of his deep voice seemed to resound within Percy's body, making him inwardly shiver.
"I am all done for now. I'd like to go back."
"Your wish man. You really should reconsider. You can only have FFC every once a week and you are one of the only ones allowed to, considering the amount of drugs you allow them to pump inside your body for research," the second man replied, leading Percy through the facility.
FFC that was an acronym for Free Friday Call was the leniency that Percy got for allowing himself to become a science guinea pig for the Dolos Facility. He was allowed a single call every Friday and given 60 minutes in solitary, however, the calls were recorded for security reasons.
He only ever called one person, her voice being the only reason he volunteered in the first place: Annabeth."
"Here we go," the first guard stated as Percy looked at the gap inside the completely white walls and a hint of velvet-coloured walls made its appearance known.
Percy smiled sadly as he replied, "It was fancy meeting you fellas again. See you next week?"
"You know it," the second guard responded, a tad bit enthusiastic before he went emotionless from the first guard's stern look.
The sea green eyed teenager turned towards the gap and entered to the corridor that led him towards the common dormitory. The steps echoed despite the floor being carpeted and Percy could faintly hear chattering grow louder as he got closer towards the end of the corridor and the lone door that stood there.
"Hey Perce!" a voice called out as he opened the door and silence ensued as the occupants of the room stared at him, each wearing the same collar, the base protruding from the back of the throat, 4 lights blinking repeatedly: Yellow, Red, Blue and Green.
Percy turned towards the owner of the voice as a woman walked towards him, her auburn hair that, even though was tied in a ponytail, reached her shoulder. A stoic expression greeted him as she stopped a few feet away from him and nodded.
"You done so soon?" she whispered, staring dead at his eyes.
Percy rubbed the back of his head, touching the collar slightly and feeling its cold touch, as he answered, "Yeah, didn't have much to say."
She gave a wry smile in response and grabbed his hand from his side and pulled him towards the kitchen. With a shocked look, Percy obediently followed till he entered the kitchen. It was dimly lit, a single candle lit in the middle of the room on a table with two plates of what seemed to be fries.
"I tried something new," Artemis mumbled in a voice that Percy could barely hear. This was the first time he was seeing such a side of Artemis considering having spent a decent amount of time with her in the Dolos Facility.
Percy smiled lightly as he walked to the table, grabbing a seat and pointing at it as he spoke, "Come on. Lets finish this and go to sleep. We have to wake up early tomorrow."
"Yeah, you are still on lunch duty, right?"
"Yep, with you."
There was silence after that as Percy began to wolf down the food, much to Artemis' amusement. Within a few minutes, the food on their plates were cleared up. Gathering their plates, Percy began scrubbing them as Artemis stood next to him, wiping them with a cloth.
"Are you going to be going in the T-Room again tomorrow?" she finally asked as he handed her the last spoon.
He contemplated for a few seconds before he nodded, "I am. Apparently, it's a new drug called T-7."
Artemis's face was unreadable, and he had to wonder what crime she must have committed. He had thought about it countless times. Maybe she had murdered someone? Stolen something important? Been involved in a gang or something.
And yet, no matter what he thought, he could never placate her in any of the scenes.
"It is now time to sleep, residents of Dolos Facility. Kindly return to your rooms to commence your sleep. As per procedure, volunteers return to your rooms and the staff will enter your room shortly to replenish your Codex."
The announcement repeated again and the lights all over the building began to darken. Percy sighed as he looked at Artemis and bid farewell, "Good night Artemis. See you tomorrow."
He wasn't able to see her reaction, but he assumed she had nodded and made his way towards his room. The room, unlike the walls of the building, was coated in different colours: red, blue, yellow and green mixing together to form artistic walls around him. The floor was littered with clothes and other stuff as Percy carefully stepped on the vacant spots on the floor as he made his way towards the bed. Not spared from the clothes or books, the bed looked a mess and yet, it gave him more of a homely vibe than anything else.
He picked up a book, titled 'The Island of Doctor Moreau', and flipped the pages till he reached the page he had slightly folded and continued reading. The doors finally opened as he finished reading the second page and a redhead young man walked in. Brown eyes and freckled skin contrasted the man's appearance and his age seemed to be similar to Percy's, the latter turned around on his bed, allowing access to the collar on the back of his throat.
"Perce," the man greeted cheerfully as he entered with a briefcase, maroon in colour and metallic in appearance, "You had the FFC today, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"How was it?"
Percy didn't reply. They had this conversation each week and Percy could always hear the hint of wistfulness in the man's voice.
"Perce-"
"It was alright. The usual, sir."
The man set the briefcase next to him as he crouched till Percy's level and began opening the machine at the back of his throat as he spoke, "I told you to call me Ethan."
No reply. Ethan sighed lightly as he began fiddling with the machine, taking out the empty test tubes and inserting tubes filled with various colours of liquid. Each tube had a label on it: H-1, T-7, L-4, C-9. Closing the briefcase and locking the codex, Ethan got up.
"Ok, you are all set up for tomorrow. Good luck with the testing for T-7," he wished as he exited the room, closing the door behind him. Percy silently touched the back of his neck and felt the cold sensation of the codex as the lights blinked.
Folding the corner of the page that he was reading, Percy closed the book and put it aside before plopping down on the unoccupied space on bed and dozed off.
A/N: Chapter 1 might be a bit dodgy at spots. I have written with the original premise in my mind but it can be rewritten in the future if I feel like there is some information or some edit to make. If I do change anything, I will make an announcement chapter about it so don't worry. Drop follows, favorites and reviews please. Keep me motivated.
Cant wait for y'all to flame how OOC Artemis is in the fic.
If you want to talk with me though, you can PM me (my response might take days or weeks) or you can join the Emerald Library discord server (where you will find me online almost all the time) at discord elibrary
