~ Hey Angels~

I decided to upload this chapter a little early because it's a tiny one and not much happens but it's kinda sweet.

Thank you all so so much for the positive reviews about the last chapter. I couldn't stop smiling at them. Your support means the world to me and I can't believe we've come so far. I remember when I was posting Chapter 1 of Memories and not knowing if I was ever gonna get to this stage. But we're here now and I'm proud that you're all here too. :))

I love you guys so much!

I know some of you are sad and annoyed about Silena's passing but I promise it was for the benefit of the story. I admit, it was hard to let her go and I half debated about somehow bringing her back but then I realised this isn't a supernatural AU. :(( So I'm sorry, my lovely readers but Silena is with the angels now. Don't worry, there will be a HAPPY ending!

Also QUICK QUESTION! - How did you guys like the spiderman tracks in the last chapter? Is it weird that I included them? I just thought they were such beautiful songs. And Ruelle and Fleurie are two of my absolute favs. There's something just so dramatic and moving about their music. And their voices are so calming :)))

There's another spidey song in this chapter and it's the most BEAUTIFUL one in the whole movie, me thinks ;)

Here's chapter 12 - hope you like it xx

Chapter 12

Screams in the Night

Piper POV

Then she went limp in his arms. The life drained from her like clear water from a sieve. I clasped my hand over my mouth in shock, feeling the tears running down my cheeks.

Never. Never had I imagined that such an innocent, sweet girl would come to an end like this. It just wasn't right.

She lay across the floor, limp as a rag doll. Only a few metres away was Silena, her skin deathly pale like ice. Neither of them moved. Neither of them breathed.

My heart began to collapse on itself, crushing me from the inside-out. And the pain—it was too much for anyone to bear.

I muffled a screaming cry against the duct tape and gripped my stomach as I keeled over, still on my knees. My eyes scrunched shut and I trembled through my sobs. Jason's arms came around me but nothing helped. It wasn't just because there was a gun still pointing at my head but because my two best friends had just been killed right before my eyes.

I would never forget this. It would haunt me for eternity. There last dying breaths would be in the back of my mind every time I went to sleep and every morning when I woke up. This couldn't be undone. The fates had taken their life forces and snipped at the very strings of their hearts.

When the cops came barging in, I didn't feel human enough to pay close attention to what was going on around me. Everything was so loud and yet quiet in my head. I think I saw the guys behind me running away but I didn't look at them, I was too busy looking at Percy.

He'd only looked away for a second. For one second. And then she had gone.

My heart ached as I saw him turning back to her with such hope in his eyes as the paramedics came in. Jason had managed to text Thalia, in secret, and ask her to call 911. Percy had thought that maybe she would make it but his face fell when he saw her—eyes closed—not moving.

She had gone. Gone like the wind.

The look in his eyes was enough to break anyone's heart. I had never seen Percy love someone like he loved Annabeth and the sheer agony and despair on his face was too much for me to bear.

Song Tribute: [The Rest of My Life – Hans Zimmer]

"Annabeth?" He whispered, shaking her gently with a hand on her cheek. "Hey. Hey. Annabeth, the paramedics are here. We're gonna make it... Annabeth?"

With every word he spoke, his voice got quieter and quieter and weaker and weaker. I knew he was slowly realising she was gone but he still held onto her.

"Breathe. Breathe." He said in a soft, pleading voice as though he could lure her back into this world. "Hey." He whispered. "You're okay." He nodded as if trying to reassure himself. "You're okay. Annabeth...please." He whispered through a sob.

"Stay with me." He pleaded over and over again through his tears that stubbornly refused to fall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rafael falling to his knees and burying his face in his hands.

I had never known anger like I had at that moment, staring at the guy who had caused all of this. With a shudder, I turned back to Annabeth to see blood slowly sliding from her nose and gasped in horror.

"Annabeth!" Percy cried, panicked from the sight of the blood. "No, please!" He sobbed. "Ple—ease."

Then he went quiet.

When he lifted her up to press her head deep into his chest, under his chin, his breathing came out as ragged gasps. His shoulders shaking but his hand never left her hair. He held onto her, refusing to let go and finally, a single tear slipped down his cheek.

I could see it on his face—his heart had shattered. He tipped his head back and cried out to Olympus. The sound echoed through the theatre and filled the space between time itself.

I'd never seen him this torn to pieces. I'd never seen him so unbelievably crushed.

I held Jason's arms around me for the support but watching Percy cry over her was tearing me apart. I'd never seen him cry over a girl. Never. Not even Rachel.

It was all rather fuzzy when we were swarmed by the cops and paramedics. I vaguely over-heard Jason and Grover talking to an officer but I was mainly focusing on Percy and Annabeth. Even with the life drained from her, she looked beautiful—like an angel who'd fallen asleep against his shoulder. A sleep from which she'd never wake up from ever again.

And when she was taken from his arms, he just knelt there, seeming almost as lifeless as she did. I slowly crawled over to him, having been freed from my bonds and tape. It all came to me as such a shock, I still didn't believe that Annabeth and Silena were really gone. I wasn't too sure of anything right now except for the fact that I wasn't breathing properly and Percy was hardly breathing at all.

When I reached him, he slowly looked up at me and behind those strong, intense sea-green eyes, something cracked. He blinked and another tear slipped down his cheek and I just held him. I held him so tightly, wrapping my arms around him as he clutched at my forearm. I felt his desperation—his need for human contact, for comfort. For anyone that was still here with him, to tell him that everything was going to be okay. But I couldn't tell him that. No one could because everything wasn't going to be okay. Nothing was ever going to be okay again.

I was so focused on comforting Percy that I had barely even noticed the paramedics observing Annabeth and suddenly, the miracle of all miracles came to us...

"We've got a pulse!"

~xXx~

Song Tribute: [Heroes – Peter Gabriel]

It was raining heavily when we stepped outside of the theatre, each droplet like a solid stone. The sky was black as pitch. The flashes of red and white lights were everywhere with police cars and parked ambulances. We were guided out of the building, each of us with a wrapped blanket around our shoulders. Percy was in the middle, leading us all out into the night as if he knew the way. He didn't. None of us did.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the cops restraining Rafael and the other guys before pushing them into the back of their police cars.

We stopped as the crowds of people rushed all around us. We just stopped. And as we stood there, drowning in the rain and the hurt, together but not really, I think we were all shrinking into ourselves, trying to come to grips with what had just happened.

None of us spoke. I don't think any of us could.

I wrapped the blanket around me a little tighter, eyes stinging with tears as I watched them carrying Annabeth into the back of the ambulance. An oxygen mask over her face and her body lying still on a stretcher. Then my eyes shifted to where they were carrying Silena out in a body bag. I kept thinking; there aren't even any handles on the bag. How are they even carrying her? And then they put her into the back of a van like she was just another body—another headstone that needed engraving.

Everything happened so quickly and yet so slowly. It felt as though the world was rushing around me and yet the five of us were standing here, so deathly still and broken, in our own little world. Ours was a slow one. Ours was a dead end. Ours was another one of Shakespeare's tragic novels that Miss Dodds always goes on about in English.

I looked up at Percy then. He hadn't moved since we'd stopped. He was standing tall and frozen in place. His eyes fixed on the ambulance. Raindrops were dripping from the tip of his nose to his lips to his chin. His hair was matted to his forehead and he wasn't wearing his blanket. Instead, it was dangling on the floor, in his hand.

I can't really explain what happened next. I can't talk about the pain in a way that will make you understand what it truly felt like. But if you were there. If you were with us. You would have cried like I did.

And as quickly as the first leaf of autumn falls from the trees, Percy fell to his knees. One moment, he'd been standing beside me, the next he was collapsing to the cold, wet ground. And as the rain came crashing down on him, he screamed.

His screams were deafening and soul-crushing. They rung out through the night, piercing through the icy breeze and the heavy pitter-patter of the raindrops. They were angry screams. Furious screams. It was as if the emotion was just bursting out of him and he wanted to rip open the ground so that he could pull Annabeth out from the ashes, burying both Silena's killer and his half-brother in the process.

Dropping to the ground, I wrapped my arms around him tightly as he struggled against me, screaming louder. I began to sob against him, holding him tighter. And after a while, he stopped screaming and we stilled, still holding each other tightly as we shivered in the rain. I could feel his body trembling—could hear his heavy breathing as he tried to get a hold of himself. He buried his face in my shoulder as though he couldn't look up at the world again. As though he thought if he did, there would be nothing left to see—nothing but pain.

When I looked up, my breath caught at my lips. My eyes were blurry with tears, but still, I could see the ambulance driving away in the distance. Still, I could see the flash of red and white light. So bright and blinding in the cold, wet night.

~xXx~

Aaaawww Percy baby! She's gonna be okay, I promise. You'll be together again soon...ish.

Well, that was hella short. I don't think I've ever written a chapter that short before... Sorry chicas!

What did you guys think? I wasn't too sure about the screaming at first because a lot of you don't like it when I show the weak side of Percy but I thought it was kinda perfect for his character. And it's just really sad to see a guy break like that. :'(((

Okay, Ima go cry now.

Oh, and to everyone asking, there's going to be about 21 chapters in Dreams. There will be one more book after this but it's a little shorter. I'll tell you the title at the end of this story ;)

One last thing - it's a question actually. What do you guys think should happen to Luke and Octavia? I already have plans for Rafael but I'm not sure what to do for the other two. I feel like jail time is going a little too easy on them, you know? And knowing Percy, he's gonna want revenge for Silena and Annabeth.

I had a few ideas like maybe he'd call Rafael and tell him that he wanted Octavia dead - like all serious with no emotion. Then he could be killed is some sort of horrific 'jail' accident. I was also thinking about having Percy kill him but I just think that would complicate things with Annabeth.

Idk, throw some ideas at me guys!

Sorry I didn't do any review responses, this time. I'm usually good at those but I've run out of time. :( I just want to say HI to all you new readers who have just popped up. Thank you so much for all your amazing reviews. And to all my other readers who have always been with me, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love all of you - old and new.

P.s. I am taking your song suggestions into account.

P.p.s I plan on uploading a chapter on Sunday but the more I think about it, the more I realise I really should be focusing on other things. Like COURSEWORK and REVISION. But I will try my best!

Lots of love,

AWG xx