Anyone know any really good Fanfictions? Finding fabulous pieces nowadays is really hard. The only one I really follow is TheWritingManiacs 'The Price of Freedom'. Speaking of which; TheWritingManiac I KNOW you follow this story. Pllleeeaaasseeee update. I know I don't review as often as I should buuut plleassse. Pretty please? (big fan btw)


Chapter 12


Annabeth had avoided returning to the treehouse in the green. She avoided going home in case her mother suddenly declared that they were going to the Aresto's. She avoided going to Pipers because Piper was still probably suspicious of her behaviour.

She didn't know where to go. Her mind was burdened with what had happened the night before. Thoughts after thoughts on the matter flowed through her mind like a rapid punctured river. She couldn't decide whether she liked Percy for who he was or liked the way she felt loved when he held her that close. After all, she felt so unloved at home. Malcolm offered her pockets of protection and appreciation but that was about it. Piper loved her, but was not the touchy type for the hugs she so craved.

It was confusing and frustrating and made her want to just disappear. She didn't want to have to face Percy again. She didn't want the unavoidable awkwardness that they would conjure between themselves.

So she avoided it. She made a decision that afternoon as she was meandering in the center of the small downtown. Deciding on the spot exactly what she needed to do.

With nimble fingers she looked up the location that was eating away at the back of her memory. Then a hop skip and a jump later she was on the monorail, seated neatly on one of the hard metal and plastic seats as it smoothly moved along.

Watching as the stations slowly became smaller and smaller. Mere structures of metal and glass that only protected a small patch of concrete from rain.

With fidgety eyes, Annabeth watched the rows of roofs with neat stone brick chimneys drift into random houses on plots of land far apart, to checkerboards of fields hemmed with fir trees. Clear drops of water leaking down the window as the train bumped around on its track. Drizzles of rain thinly splicing from the dull grey sky like simple needles skydiving straight and true to the ground.

Finally, Annabeth stepped off the monorail at a rusty old stop when the flat tone rung over the speakers. The last passenger aboard now gone.

Patiently, she watched the dark iron wheels jolt back to life and crank the old tin of a machine down the tracks with a symphony of clanks and clacks. Watching the last car fade away into the layers of rain. Holding the strap of her shoulder bag tightly as she stood under the only ledge offering her safety from the wetness.

'Welcome to Livol County' was carved into a very weathered cracked wooden sign hanging just across the tracks. Looking dismal and darkened in the persistent droplets fleeing the clouds. A hunk gnawed off the corner as if an army of mice had nibbled on it for a day. Long spindly grass dipped rythmetically from the drops of water below like undying fans of the sign.

Well, no going back now. Annabeth thought flippity as she looked at her phone once more. Memorizing her path to a certain street. No particular address in mind.

Slipping her phone back into her bag, Annabeth ventured out into the rain. Internally sighing at the cold sheen that seemed to immediately cling to her body.

The walk to the street was long and tiring making Annabeth question why she was there in the first place but she persevered nonetheless. Weaving around potholes filled with muddy water on the packed earth and gravel road.

Finally she found a crippled street sign puckered with dent marks. Tellest Rd. printed neatly on the old scrap of metal. White scraped paint on faded blue tin.

Holding her breath she counted the sometimes crooked mailboxes as far as she could see down the street being taken over by overgrowth. Noting how far apart each one was, and the varying degree of decomposure they seemed to be going through.

Five. She settled on the number. More pleased than anything at how her search became impeccably easy. Although keeping in mind that the drizzle could be hiding a few more addresses farther up the street around a small bend.

The first house she tried had a long gravel walkway and a lawn full of twisted pear trees in full bloom. Handfuls of petals were plastered to the ground, and some stuck to her shoes distastefully.

Bravely she opened up the screen door and used the worn brass knocker three times.

Unsurprisingly she was met with a weathered old lady who looked like she could bake a mean apple pie while trying to set you up with her grandson.

"Sally Jackson?" The woman repeated when Annabeth asked. "She lives three houses down pumpkin. The little grey cottage with the large garden. Ye can't miss it."

Thanking the lady Annabeth scurried back up the pebbled drive and walked as briskly as possible to her destination. Ignoring how her knee high socks squished with water in her shoes, and how her blouse and kilt were just soaking in more water with every passing second. The rain felt absolutely lovely as it trickled down her neck and soaked through her feathers. In fact, she couldn't wait for it to rain again… Not.

As she started jogging down the street a car caught her attention. Normally she wouldn't pay cars two cents of her attention while it was raining but this one seemed jus weird. The car itself persay wasn't weird. It was just a simple grey ford with dark windows and tidy straight hubcaps. What was off about it was that it wasn't neatly tucked onto a driveway. It was instead sitting peculiarly on the farthest side of the road it could reach where the patches of crabgrass was fighting its way through the gravel. The engine was silent, so the car wasn't idling. It was just parked on the side of the road stubbornly.

Everyone in this area had long driveways and plenty of land, no visitor or even delivery person would park their car on the side of such a road with so much space closer to the houses. Walking up the drive to the door would take more time, and through this rain it would be highly disliked.

Odd. She decided quickly. Not really too eager to dwell on the matter while she felt as if she could slip right out of her shoes.

As it turns out, Sally Jackson's home was right across from the parked car and if there was one thing the old lady got right, was that Annabeth couldn't miss it.

What hit her first was the outstanding smell of wildflowers and wet earth. Then came the actual bed of waterlogged wildflowers at the edge of their lawn. Roses, lilacs, tulips, daffodils, muscari, and daisy's followed in patches of colour and bowing from droplets of rainwater. In its own rusty wire fenced off area grew herbs of basil and parsley and a few others Annabeth just couldn't recognize. To the right of her looked like something that used to be a very fruitful vegetable garden but was plagued and knotted with dandelions and weeds.

In fact the whole garden lost most of its brilliancy thanks to thorns and thistles of unplanned plants leeching off the earth. A few flowers were even ragged and hole filled by aphids and beetles and other insects.

Maybe the garden was once more brilliant, but now it seemed neglected, and unloved.

Looking around her dubiously Annabeth stepped up onto the moaning grey porch and stared at the fraying screen door doubtfully. Every moment she tried picturing Percy here but couldn't.

With his big wings, he'd probably stick out anywhere like a sore thumb besides the forest.

On the other hand this place didn't seem like the nurturing home a boy grew up in. It was in disrepair and unkept. Annabeth could only imagine a frail widower living behind the walls.

All the windows were drawn and dark. Cobwebs and moth cocoons were nestled into the cranny of the wooden panels and snuggled into the edges of the eaves. A eerie brown oak porch swing hung motionlessly like that of a lynched soul who had stopped struggling.

The doorbell was broken. The button cracked in half as if someone had taken a chisel to it, so instead Annabeth pulled the screen door back with a drawn out creak and knocked firmly.

What if this is the wrong address? What if she's not home?

From inside something tumbled to the ground hollowly. Footsteps padded around in quick panicked motions for a moment before coming to the door in a rush.

Wait… why do I tell her I'm here?! Annabeth freaked out momentarily as she realized she didn't have an excuse. Her wings shuddering in nerves as she dug for an excuse in her mind.

With a sharp clunk the locks bolt was flicked back and the door swung backward with a fearful yank. Annabeth ended up staring dumbfounded at a woman with thick dark brown hair and wide bright eyes. Cloaked in a bathrobe and looking a little worse for wear with deep bags and pale skin. The woman on the other hand seemed very disappointed momentarily to see Annabeth. The searching look in her brown eyes falling.

"Yes?" she mumbled tiredly. A strained sound in her voice.

"Beg your pardon." Annabeth asked softly. Realizing only then that she must've looked ridiculous with her wet flattened curls and crumpled soggy clothes. "But I'm inquiring after a Miss Sally Jackson?"

She didn't even notice that she'd put her formal masquerade on until the woman smile lightly and shook her head.

"City girl huh? You're a very well spoken young woman." She paused only to moisten her lips. "I'm Sally Jackson. Can I help you with anything?"

Annabeth stalled. Trying to conjure words that would form some half decent excuse on why she was there.

"Your son went missing last year. Right?" she ended up blurting out instead. Crossing her fingers that she didn't come off as brash or too blunt while simultaneously cursing herself for not thinking this through beforehand.

"Yes… he did…" Sally answered vacantly. A weary look drawn into her face. "Please, come inside by all means. You're soaked and I can bet it doesn't feel that great." Sally held the door open a bit wider for Annabeth to step inside, which she did more than gladly. Shivering in relief at the burst of heat she was met with and the bizarrely comforting smell of old tea and dusty paper.

Just like the library. She connected in her mind with a warm fuzzy feeling in her heart.

Following Sally through the bungalow quietly, she tried to spy Percy in one of the picture frames set on the dark green walls of the hallway. Disappointingly she didn't get a well enough look, although she did see a few mops of black hair.

"Here." Sally gestured to a deep set brown reading chair. "I'll get you a towel to dry yourself a bit with and turn on the kettle for some tea. Then you can tell me why you've come."

With a slight hobble in her gait, Sally disappeared around the corner fast enough that Annabeth could only just realize how thin she was and how her plain brown sparrow like wings were unpreened and messy.

This is Percy's house. The thought ambushed her. I'm sitting where Percy might've sat just last year. How bizarre.

Oddly enough she could imagine Percy in here in fact although it did seem somewhat surreal. The way she was picturing him, it would be quite cramped with his large trailing wings, but she could imagine it nonetheless. There were traces of him everywhere if Annabeth just looked.

Like the Wii under the dust coated TV, or the boys high school swimming trophies lining the white painted wood mantel over the simple brick fireplace. The soda stain on the cream rug was probably him too. Knowing Percy he'd probably tried to hide it when it happened. Perhaps he even caused the scar like scratch on the coffee table or made a dent in one of the forest green walls. And lord knows what he could've done to the light grey draperies over the large age speckled windows.

Sally returned suddenly and passed her a fluffy light blue towel which Annabeth took gratefully. Wrapping herself in it tightly as the woman sunk into the sofa next to her while simultaneously flicking the small antique table lamp on next to her. The room illuminated gave Annabeth an even better look at her surroundings.

The paintings framed in gold on the walls, the peculiar wooden carved lanky cat sculpture beside the TV. What she thought was bundle of clothes or perhaps a bag of something was really a bean bag chair thrust into the corner and collecting dust.

"Tell me again dear, why you've come all the way out to see me? I don't really know." Sally's eyes were bold yet warm. They were questioning but in the softest manner possible. Annabeth could see why she would make the greatest mother in the world without even talking to her for five minutes straight.

"I'm doing a school assignment." Annabeth decided on saying. "It's the end of term project for my class writers craft. I wished to write about something realistic. My teacher suggested that I interview people in such situation to add reality to my writing. I hope you I'm not overstepping if I could perhaps ask a few questions about your son's disappearance?"

She wasn't lying. Well, at least not completely lying. The end of term project was writing a story, and Chiron did suggest that if you were to write about a real world case scenario to find someone who had experienced it and to learn their story.

She just hadn't done her story on any real case scenario. She wrote her end story weeks ago about a girl who didn't fear death, and died to save her sister. A rather light story considering the ending.

"It's not going to hurt me any so I guess it's alright." Sally shot her a half hearted smile. The weight of the world still in her eyes as her son had been brought up.

Annabeth smiled to herself.

Sally talked just like Percy. Or Percy talked just like Sally in this case. That relaxed casual voice and free worded sentence. She never felt the pressure to sound like a well bred lady. She lived a free life in that sense.

"How about you just tell me about your son and we'll go from there?" Annabeth felt a surge of giddyness as she tried to adopt the carefree talk. Dropping her usual 'perhaps' and 'progress' and any dignified sounding word that she might say to please her mother.

"Where do I start?" Sally choked out a sad chuckle while her eyes crinkled. "Percy was… Percy was my everything. He was like the sun. He was always joking, always laughing, always smiling. Always finding a way to make me laugh. Even when he was a baby he was always giggling."

A small pit formed in Annabeth's chest as her words came through.

For a start, Sally seemed to be describing a stranger. The Percy she knew rarely smiled or laughed. He had only just barely begun to do those things around her, and when he did they were short lived. Losing his best friend in such a traumatic way must've dried him up of all his sunshine.

And I tried to pressure him into talking about it… stupid ass.

"And my goodness was Percy a strong swimmer. He'd scare me to death by going under water and staying there for minutes at a time only to pop up at the opposite end of the pool." Sally's voice started growing distant. "Brought him to the ocean once. Took me almost two hours to convince him to get out of the water to go home. He was such a little…"

"Fish?" Annabeth supplied gently. A warm glow in her heart at how fondly Sally talked of Percy. Maybe a little jealous at the knowledge that if she ever went missing, her mother would never betray any emotion to people outside of Malcolm.

"Yes." Sally beamed nostalgically. "He was a fish."

And now he's a bird. The oddest butterfly transformation known to man.

"How did he disappear?" Annabeth mustered up the courage to ask in a soft apologetic manner. She'd already heard Percy's side of the story, but Sally's would be a whole other cup of tea.

"Like cotton candy in water." Sally murmured above a breath. Tears glassing over her eyes as she tightened her grip on the arm of her chair. "He just got home from school. He was happy as always but he seemed unusually so… He… he wanted to go out with his friend to the river… Of course I told him he could. He always went, he loved swimming. I… I didn't realize that… that he… " Sally's tears leaked down her face and found the hollows of her cheeks. She fought off the hiccups and sobs waving up to her throat to continue talking but her voice grew coarse with emotion and her eyes overwhelmed with tears. Annabeth sat there awkwardly as she tried to convince herself to comfort the woman in someway.

But how? How do you assure a mother that lost her son that everything was going to be okay? Her world has fallen apart and that was not okay. She couldn't tell her that things would be okay.

She wasn't that kind of liar.

Luckily a piercing whistle of a tea kettle cried from the other room, giving Sally a reason to leave and Annabeth a reason to just sit pretty. Annabeth sent her a pursed smile as Sally excused herself politely while wiping the tears away hurriedly. As soon as she left Annabeth deflated a little on the inside. Hoping that she wasn't harming Sally in any way with her questionings.

"I hope you like herbal tea." Sally came back in slowly as she cautiously held a dark oak tray burdened with cups and a steaming tin teapot. A plate was on the corner of it piled high with peculiar blue cookies.

Percy's Favorite.

Setting it lovingly on the coffee table, Sally opened a package containing the tea bag and releasing the smell of dried herbs and potent leaves.

A part of her recoiled in disgust. Her hatred of tea blooming to the surface all over again. Although she could practically hear her mother's disappointment if she refused.

"Thank you." she said softly as Sally started to pour the tinted liquid puffing out wisps of steam into a very plain white porcelain teacup.

Suddenly she stopped. A quizzical look coming over her face as she looked up to Annabeth with a sort of glint sparkling in her eyes.

Annabeth tried not to betray her confusion when Sally set down the tea pot and chuckled softly to herself while shaking her head at Annabeth.

"Dear, if you don't want tea then just say so." Sally smiled at her despite Annabeth's shock.

A piece inside Annabeth just seemed to quiver. Her mask, her ability to hide how she felt about things seemed to be useless around this woman.

"Would you like some hot chocolate instead?" Sally offered generously. That warm smile still on her face in a motherly way. "Something hot in your system will do you a world of good."

Annabeth felt her stomach flip and a slight relief that she didn't need to drink tea. A broad smile spread like a disease on her face.

"Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you." Annabeth beamed.

"Than I'll be right back." Sally left for the door one more time with a cup in hand. Returning in what felt like a few seconds later, and picking up the kettle before pouring hot water over the powder in the bottom of the cup.

Annabeth had hot chocolate instead of tea. Sally had seen right through her politeness, and mask. Percy and her seemed to have a knack for it.

"Thank you." Annabeth accepted again, but with this time a bit more genuine delight in her voice.

Sally sunk back into the sofa next to her. Her wings shivering as she tested her tea with a delicate sip.

"Ick, too hot." she muttered while setting the cup down. Taking a few precious moments to select a cookie and break a piece off with her thumb and forefinger.

"Now, where were we?" she asked with a somber sound in her voice. Popping a piece of cookie into her mouth and chewing it slowly.

"Percy went to the river." Annabeth supplied quietly. "He never came back after that."

"Yes." Sally remembered sadly. "No warnings. Just poof, gone."

"When did you think to call the police?" Annabeth asked.

"It was well after nine at night. It was dark. Percy always got home before dark, always. He knew I'd be worried if he didn't." Sally stared dismally into her cup. Her shoulders drooping as bad memories seemed to flood her.

Annabeth wondered when was the exact moment she realized she wasn't getting her son back.

"What did the police say?"

Sally took a deep breath as her eyes started glassing over again. Her lip disappeared under her teeth as she chewed on it for a second.

"They said that… that Percy and his friend… had… had probably drowned. They said people drowned in that river all the time" A tear, clear and round, dropped from Sallys cheek. Dispersing into a dark mark on the collar of her bathrobe.

"Did they ever find his body?" Annabeth asked the question she knew the answer to.

"No." Sally sniffed. "I know that there is no way in hell that Percy drowned. He was swimmer. A good strong swimmer."

Annabeth glanced at the gleaming trophies. Realizing just how flawed the police statement to Sally was. How they overlooked Percy's talents and strengths as they dug for a reasonable excuse on to why her son disappeared.

Definitely the government who are trying to kill Percy then. Annabeth figured quietly.

"They also said he could have run away. Boys his age 'usually do' they said."

"Would he have?" Annabeth asked quietly.

"He had no reason to." Sally shook her head. "He was happy. He had a future ahead of him, he was about to graduate highschool and go to college. He had a scholarship from swimming he-" Annabeth nodded along as Sally continued to tell her that no one had ever drowned in that river before, how the police hadn't seemed too interested to keep searching through the case even though no evidence of the main theory had been given, and how every time she went the police station people would just ignore her.

Annabeth drank this all in while sipping her hot chocolate slowly.

When it was time to go Annabeth gave a comforting hug to Sally which she took gratefully and in return Sally passed her a clear tubberware of blue chocolate chip cookies.

"Please take them. I make too many. Sometimes, all I do all day is make these." She insisted.

Annabeth thanked her for those too.

And just about when she was going to walk up the drive and probably never see Sally after this, she noticed that car all over again.

How peculiar it was to just sit there all day.

The rain had let up so she could see it a tad more clearly. With the little patches of sunshine starting to poke through she could finally see an outline of a person huddled inside the car.

Pointing it out to Sally she watched as the kind woman withered a tad.

"It's been sitting there for almost a full year. Sometimes it's there, sometimes its not. A lot of the neighbors have complained but nobody's done anything."

"Did it show up before or after Percy disappeared." Annabeth stated suspiciously.

Sally seemed to get her wind. "It… it showed up… after."

"Mrs. Jackson-"

"Call me Sally dear."

"Sally." Annabeth corrected. "This might be hard to believe but I think that there is something fishy behind Percy's disappearance."

"Fishy?" Sally asked fearfully.

"The authorities not doing their job right. A car sitting in front of your house. Being ignored in a police station for crying out loud."

"You… you mean-"

"I mean somebody is trying to cover up Percy's disappearance. Somebody powerful." Annabeth dead panned. "I don't know what's going on but I'm determined to figure it out. I promise that I'm going to help you find out what happened to your son."

Sally welled up again. She covered her mouth with a frail hand as thank-you's burst forth.

But Annabeth was on a roll now.

Seeing that car, she was angry. She knew that inside that little vehicle there was a person monitoring Sally's every move. Making sure she knew nothing about where, or what happened to Percy while making sure that Percy didn't go home.

How dare someone tear a family apart like that. How dare they keep a woman in the dark about what happened to her own son.

Just how dare they!

Furious Annabeth stormed up to the car and wrapped her knuckles harshly against the window.

No answer.

She tried once more.

No Answer.

This time she pounded on the silly darkened pane of glass while demanding they open the window. A fire in her heart as words ruptured to the surface of her tongue in loose curses.

A few seconds later the window descended slowly and Annabeth was left looking in shock at the hawk nosed buzz hairstyle from the woods. His scowl melting into shock as he recognized her.

"You!"

"You!"

"What the bloody hell of a halfwit are you doing here?!" He growled. Gripping the steering wheel harder as he glared up at her.

"Funny I was about to ask you the same thing." Annabeth spat. "Should've known a lowlife like you would stalk me!"

"I'm not stalking you!"

"Oh, sure that makes sense. Well you're stalking SOMEBODY aren't cha mister bignose." Annabeth's wings shook with infuriated energy.

"I am not!"

"Then pray tell why do you sit in this outdated car in front of this poor woman's house all the bloody time huh? You're a predator and you know it chum. They didn't lock ya away the first time I called them bloody cops on you, then they'll do it now."

"You know nothing girlie."

"I know you ain't worth shit. First hunting in a populated place at the wrong time and now stalking ladies? If scum could make up a person, it'd be you."

"Buzz off. It's none of your business." he gritted out.

"You're messing with the wrong teen flab face. I hear you still sit on this street by tomorrow and we're at war. Understood? You'll be behind bars before July hits."

The man paused. His ugly hawknose wrinkling for a second before he let loose a long rumbling laughter. Annabeth took the chance to peek into the car. Gaping at all the tech set up around it.
"Nobody can lock me away tuts. That's not how things work round my life." Ugly finally said. A smug leer on his face.

"So you're in the government business huh?" Annabeth milked him for answers. "You're spying out here for something aren't you."

The humor vanished from his face. His beady deep set eyes glinted as he cocked his head at her. "What gave you an idea like that." he asked vaguely.

"Well I hear that a boy disappeared around these parts. I also heard that the police did practically nothing to help find the boy that disappeared. Perhaps because they were the ones responsible for his mysterious vanishing act."

The man remained silent. His eyes cold and hard.

Maybe he was thinking about arresting her, or perhaps making her vanish too. Whatever it was, Annabeth knew she was in hot water so decided to play her cards right.

"It's a very intriguing case of police neglectance don't you think? I'm quite determined to get to the bottom of it so; Don't. Get. In. My. Way."

He was really thinking about cuffing her now. She could see it, she could sense it.

But she loved it. Loved the thrill of playing with fire, and the danger she was evading by a strand. She knew that he couldn't arrest her on a suspicion or without a warrant. He'd have to go back to whatever level of government agency he was in and file a report before she could be arrested for knowing too much.

"Well, tootaloo flab face." She couldn't help but taunt. "I must get home. But please, by all means let's bump into each other again and you can tell me why you really sit in front of Sally Jackson's house."

With that, Annabeth left. A smile on her face and a skip in her step. The sinking sun casting long shadows and creating a pink sky with purple clouds.

If she didn't react well tonight, she could be arrested in the morning. But that was okay. She was a smart girl.

-{:oOo:}-

"You did what?!" Piper gaped at her as Annabeth flopped on her gorgeous fluffy bed.

"I uncovered a government conspiracy about a teens disappearance and I may or may not be arrested in the morning so don't freak out if I do." Annabeth explained. "I mean, I've done what I can to avoid it. It all lies in the traction of tomorrow morning's news."

Piper stared at her wide eyed. "ENGLISH WOMEN! What does that even mean? You may or may not be arrested based on the popularity of the newspaper tomorrow?"

"Precisely." Annabeth heaved herself up. Taking a well earned moment to just sit and look around Pipers pleasingly purple room.

"Okay… so why?" Piper asked. "Is this what's caught your attention for the last week?"

Annabeth nodded. "Look, long story short I visited a woman called Sally Jackson today. Her son disappeared around this time last year. The police have not tried at all to find this boy and Sally is in pieces about it."

"Okay? And?"

"What happened was that this boy said he was going to the river to swim and just never came home. The police said that he probably drowned, they also said that people drown in that river all the time."

"Annnd?" Piper asked impatiently.

"I took it upon myself and I visited the water rescue services and the county's library. Both had the same results. No one had drowned in the river since 1986 when a drunk hippie had the tragedy of driving his car into it. Plus the pushing fact that the water rescue service said the river was slow moving and rather shallow. If someone had drowned in there it would be easy peasy to find their body." Annabeth pointed out excitedly.

"Okay so the boy didn't drown. He could've easily been kidnapped or murdered or got lost and died." Piper shrugged. "This doesn't prove it to be a government conspiracy. It sounds like a guy went missing."

"And the police did diddly-squat about it." Annabeth said matter of factly. "In fact, they supplied a crummy explanation and called it a day. That's the conspiracy, don't you see? They're trying to cover up the fact that a boy went missing because they know what happened and they don't want anyone else to know. Not to mention a weird man has been watching Sally all year."

Piper became quiet. Shuffling her feet off the side of the bed before she flopped backward dramatically.

"I guess you're right. Just a little bit."

Annabeth laughed and poked her. "Either I'm right or I'm not ya twerp."

"Stooop." Piper whined when Annabeth continued to poke her. "Beth, you- you know I'm ticklish!"

"If you weren't then it'd be half as fun."

"Okay okay, but in all seriousness what does this have to do with the paper?" Piper asked.

Annabeth grinned devilishly. "I just happened to of told the newspaper my story. My suspicions and how this bizarre man just sits and sits and sits in front of Sally Jackson's house. I also told them that if I were arrested the next day or in the future that my suspicions would be true and that the government did have some major role in Percy Jackson's disappearance. They can't arrest me if I'm in the spotlight like this now can they. It would cause some major speculation on the seated senate."

Piper nibbled on her lip. "And what if you're wrong? What if this boy disappeared for another reason and the police were just lazy about it?"

"Then the case will be re-evaluated and Sally Jackson will be two steps closer to closure on what happened to her boy." Annabeth answered. "This is a win win situation, you must admit."

"Except for one downfall." Piper sighed. "Your mother will go absolutely psycho on you for this."

Annabeth's stomach twisted.

She'd already thought of that. She knew putting her own name in the paper on a suspicion so daring and bold would make heads turn at her. Her mother would be ashamed and infuriated and so disappointed. It made her mellow just thinking about it.

"I know." Annabeth muttered. "But a Mother is missing her son out there Pipes and nobody' done anything about it. I'm not just going to sit here and look the other way like everyone else. I want to help."

Piper shot her a pursed smile before slinging an arm around her and drawing her close into a hug.

"Oh Beth. You're so good sometimes it's bad."


Okay, so I have a bone to pick with you guys.

Some of you guys write really really really long reviews and then have the audacity of apologizing for it. Like what? Why are you apologizing? I freaking LOVE long reviews. Why are you saying sorry?

Trust me, I'm Canadian. I get the whole 'Apologizing when its not needed' thing (because yes, I am a Average Canadian). But guys, seriously. If you are writing a long review, then trust me NO APOLOGIES NEEDED!

(Not to say that I don't like shorter reviews either. Like for example I really don't wrote a short punchy review that legit almost made me cry because it just hit me in the right place. Bruh your review was gold to me.)