Hey long wait, huh? Well, I have no real good excuse, besides that I just didn't really feel like writing. You know… just a severe writer's block taking all creativeness from my brain. Though, I did come up with some story ideas, and I even made a story for my friend about a hobo. So… yeah.

~GoGreen52

Chapter 18- Bring on the Boom Boom

-Annabeth POV-

The same piercing blue eyes from all those years ago were there. His face was the same, and I wish I could say different about his posture. He was poised to kill. And I was his next target.

I started taking off in the different direction, just now noticing that Percy, Thalia, Juniper, Nico and Grover were here too. Great. More the murderer can torment me with. They were now running with me, and Percy was the closest to me. We were in the front of the group, leaving the others close behind.

We were running through the streets of New York, posters pasted on every building of Percy making out with Rachel. The posters were animated. I had an urge to push Percy away from me, but I didn't want to. He was Percy. Even if he cheated on me, I'd still love him… unconditional love, right?

"AHHHH!"

I took a glance behind me, not thinking clearly. I had no idea what just happened, and I was still processing the shrill cry.

I stopped, and everyone froze in mid-air but me and Percy. That's weird… it took me a millisecond to notice that we were not alone. The murderer had an accomplice with him, her face shadowed so I could not see it. I could tell it was a woman though, desperate by the looks of what she was wearing.

They could move too.

He took his gun, a pistol, and shot Juniper. She crumbled to the ground. "No!" I exclaimed, watching one of my two best friends fall to the ground.

"Shouldn't have gotten away," the murderer told me, seething with anger. He pulled up his gun again, this time pointing it at Grover.

"No! No, please!" I begged, but it was not enough. The murderer pulled the trigger. Grover crumbled to the ground, much like Juniper just had.

"Should've come with your mother," the murderer said, his voice sounding hollow, as if nothing- no soul was there. It was horrible.

He quickly held his gun up, pointing it at Nico. "This is your fault, Annabeth. If only you didn't hide," the murderer chanted, his voice sounding, if possible, even more evil.

"No! You can't do this!" I yelled, trying to run forward and attack him. The only problem with that plan, was that my feet wouldn't move. I could speak, move my arms, but my feet were by the feel of it, glued to the ground.

"Just watch me." He pulled the trigger, and Nico crumbled to the ground, like my friends before him. I closed my eyes, wanting this to be over. A soft whimper slipped out of my lips.

I opened my eyes to see him pointing it at Thalia. Thalia, she was my best friend. I know I play favorites when I say this, but I trust Thals more than I could ever with Juniper. I've known her through thick and thin. Now… he was going to kill her.

"NO! PLEASE!" I screamed, fighting against my invisible restraints.

"Shouldn't have run away, Annie dear. Now your friend has to pay."

He pulled the trigger, and I screamed in anger as she crumbled to the ground. "YOU MONSTER!" I yelled curses at him, fighting harder than ever to attack him. I wanted to kill him. I wanted him dead.

As soon as I calmed down a notch, I remembered something. Percy. Percy was next.

But the murderer didn't cock his gun at anything. He just stood there, smiling psychotically at me. I turned around in confusion, looking at Percy. He smiled at me and said, "Sorry Annabeth. My agent made me do this."

He took out a knife, and in a blink of an eye, thrust it in my abdomen. I looked at him, my eyes begging him to be on my side. To be with me. But knife still in hand, he slid it back out, his eyes not caring.

He watched as I fell down, smiling the whole time. And some sick, bitter sweet side of me still loved him. I was right- I didn't care in the end if he hurt me, or if he cheated on me. I would always still love him. He's my seaweed brain after all.

I watched as he walked up to the accomplice, and took her face in his hands, like he did with me, and started sucking lips with her. She stepped out of the shadows, and I saw the face of someone I was told not to worry about- Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

I cried out, in pain from the wound, my friends being gone, the murderer still lose, and last but the most horrid, Percy and Rachel making out.

When I closed my eyes, it all turned black.

"Annabeth! Wake up!"

My eyes snapped open, now alert, followed by me jerking up into a sitting position. "Wha-What? What's wrong?" I asked, sleepiness dripping from my voice.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm just your wakeup call!" I looked up to see the culprit. Thalia. Of course. This was a total Thalia thing to do.

"Yeah… I don't think being my wakeup call, you had to scare the crap out of me," I said, my eyes widening. "I think you might've ruined any chance of me playing nice on you next time the gang does something like truth or dare."

"You know I had orders from your boyfriend to wake you up?" Thalia asked, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"No excuses. You woke me up screaming, and now I want payback." Thalia huffed, and with all of her dignity she had left, she walked out.

But I heard her yell, "You still gotta come down stairs!"

I fell back down into the bed, and sighed. Rather dramatically, but it still was a sigh. I don't want to go down stairs. Slowy, I sat up, and got out of bed. I didn't mind taking my time doing this. I wanted to savor every moment.

I winced when my feet hit the floor, feeling some scrapes I got yesterday on the beach, on the carpet. Ignoring the pain, I just kept walking till I got to the door. I decided to stick my head out first, to see if anyone decided to be like me this morning.

I looked around and saw… no one. I guess I'm the only one who decided to sleep in this morning.

Walking out of my room, my senses were going haywire. I could hear the creaking of the supports, I could feel sharps of pain every time I stepped on a foot. I could see every detail, and hear my friends downstairs. They were loud.

I tried my best to ignore them, and shook it off before I saw all of my friends. That would be bad if they noticed that I was way out of it this morning- I think they would be pretty mad at me though, since I decided to not wake up at my usual time. I woke up actually, but I decided to go back to sleep.

I walked down the stairs, and made my way to the living room, where I heard all of the noise coming from. When I walked in, I noticed Thalia and Nico were sitting next to each other, both laughing, Percy was sitting alone, laughing too. While Grover and Juniper were not laughing, though they were as red as a tomato.

"Okay. What happened here?" I asked, sleep still evident in my voice, but not as strong as it was before.

"Well, we decided to point out that Grover and Juniper liked the same things," Percy started, taking me in his arms, "And to get them to really bond, Thalia and Nico decided we would play 7 minutes in heaven. We rigged the bottle so it would point to Juniper, planning Grover to go first in the game.

"They did play it, and let's just say when we walked in, I saw a kissing session going on between these two."

I nodded, starting to crack up myself. "You know, why don't we just watch some TV and relax for awhile," I insisted, grabbing the remote, pushing the button that turned the flat screen TV in the center of the wall that we were facing.

"Good idea," Juniper sighed, leaning back into Grover. Why do I miss the fun stuff? I mean, it was my plan anyways. So not fair.

The screen turned colorful, and I noticed that it was on the Weather Channel. Percy was immediately going to change the channel, seeing what we were watching, when I took the remote from him. "Watch," I told him, pointing to the screen.

It was colorful, with a bunch of names, one of them being Montauk. Great.

"The storm cell is heading Northeast with 70 mile and hour winds. We suggest you stay indoors until the threat is over, seeing this could turn deadly," the weather man said. I had no idea what his name was, or where he was from, but all I knew was we were defiantly going to get hit with a killer storm.

What a way to wake up, huh?

I changed the channel then, not really caring anymore. I looked at everyone's reactions, and saw surprise. When we came here, we checked the weather, and it was suppose to be sunny and hot the whole weekend. But… I guess the weather people can be wrong, huh?

More like on the other side of the planet.

I accidently changed it to the GoSsIp Channel, and laughed when I saw Percy's face on the screen. This time Percy tried taking the remote away from me, and started to wrestle it away from me.

"Stop it!" I laughed, yelling at the same time.

"No chance!" he laughed, in the same tone I had.

I held it up above my head, smirking at him. He just smiled at me, and reached for the phone, me being three inches shorter than him, I guess he found it easy.

But before he could grab the remote, I tossed it to Thalia, who caught it without hesitation. She looked like a pro… ha, with what we've seen, I think she might be…

"Thalia, can I have the remote?" Percy asked, giving her a good pout. He just caused me to laugh even more.

"Oops! Forgot the magic word!" Thalia mocked, tossing the remote up a few inches and catching it over and over again. Percy shook his head in amazement. Stupid seaweed brain, why even try? It's obvious she's on my side.

"Thalia, can I please have the remote?"

"Haha, nope!" Thalia exclaimed, slipping it up her shirt. "No one will be having sooner than later! Now, shut up and watch the program!"

We all, terrified of what Thalia might do, shut up and watched the program. Though, now I was on the floor next to the chair where Percy was sitting. I had a feeling he wouldn't give that seat up for anything. It was really comfortable in itself.

"Percy Jackson, teen dream guy, hasn't been seen for weeks. His agent says that he had to go fix himself up, find himself again, before we'll be seeing any more of him for awhile," the woman said. I really don't want to know her name.

"But recently, we've gotten some photos that may put some questions in the air."

There were some photos of Percy and I, holding hands while walking around. Some other ones on the dates we went on, one of them in the hospital from when I nearly cut my hand off from the knife slipping.

All way to personal to keep me comforted.

"From our reporters, we've gotten some news saying this woman's name is Annabeth Chase. She owns a local book store in New York. Classic love story or not, what are they doing together? Dating, Friends, or maybe even Foes?"

They went droning on about how Percy supposedly wanted someone in his life that wasn't on the move to, and was using me as a pawn to get what he wanted. It sounded too much like that nightmare I had last night…

Creepy.

Thalia took the remote from her shirt and looked at me apologetically. She shut the TV off.

"Annabeth, you know they only put lies on there-" Percy said, shaking his head in anger.

I cut him off, "I know. No need to explain. This is what comes with loving you, and if I have to go through it to be with you… I guess I will."

Percy smiled at me, and pulled me up to where he was for a hug. "I'm glad I don't have to give you the speech."

"Yeah, save your voice for the singing, Jackson," I told him, kissing his cheek. I felt stares on the back of my head, and remembered we weren't alone. Yeah- no supreme make out sessions like Grover and Juniper. That would not sit well with our friends.

We all sat in silence for a few seconds when I heard a large crack of thunder. I stiffened, witnessing as the house shook, and the lights flickered off. I looked at all of my friends, their faces now darkened. I could tell it wasn't only from the darkness in the room itself, but from the crummy feeling in the room.

"Oh no," I mumbled, standing up. Everyone did the same, and came in together.

"What do we do?" Juniper's soft voice asked. I cringed at how scared she sounded. This could end real badly.

"Split up, and fix the house," Percy said from behind me, taking control. "Thalia and Nico, get all the candles you can find and bring them to the basement. Grover and Juniper, get all of the food and drinks you can find, and bring them to the basement. Annabeth and I can go try to get the power back on with the old back-up generator that my father made years ago… it might not work, but it's worth a shot."

Everyone nodded, and took action. Percy and I ran to the kitchen, and grabbed two storm flash lights in the cabinet. One of the greatest inventions, I will say.

"The back-up generator is in the basement. One of the oldest parts of it, anyways," Percy explained. I nodded, giving him something to know I understood.

"Great. Dark places. Spiders. Unknown things. Sounds wonderful," I said sarcastically.

"I know, right?"

We moved into the dark unknowns or, what we call the basement.

"Percy- you go first and protect me," I said, pushing him down in front of me.

"Hey! No pushing people on the stairs," he scolded, glaring at me.

"Get over it. You're not my mother," I said, and immediately stopped at the words.

"If I'm not, then who is?" Percy asked, not knowing what he really just said.

"She's dead," I told him, my voice already sounding weaker. This was not how I wanted to tell him how my mother died. It was already creepy down here as it is. Finding out your girlfriend's mom was murdered and they didn't find the murderer just adds to the fact.

"Wait-" he stopped going down the stairs, and turned to look at me, "What?"

"Well, she didn't exactly die normally, she was murdered." I mentally cursed at myself, annoyed at how prissy my voice sounded. I should be stronger than this. I already talked it over with Thalia.

"M-Murdered?" Percy asked, eyes wide.

"Y-Yeah," I started, crying now. Curse my girl instincts. "I-I saw th-the whole th-thing."

Percy didn't say anything, he just pulled me in for a hug, letting me sob into his shirt. "Did they at least find the murderer?" Percy asked, his voice hopeful.

"N-No."

I heard him curse to himself, but at least he kept it at a whisper. Our friends don't need to hear Percy going off on a cursing rampage.

A few minutes passed, I settled, down, and we decided to head to the generator. He lead the way, blocking me from all of the spiders, and shining the light in the darkness. He really was my knight in shining armor.

We finally got the generator, and I saw how old it looked. It really wasn't that old, but at the same time, I could see how there would be some problems in order to make it work. I bet it had gone through a few of storms, seeing how worn it looked.

"Well, better get started," I said, handing Percy my flashlight.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm the one here who should do this, not you."

"Why exactly?"

"Well, I'm the man, you're the girl. You should hold the flashlights for me," Percy said, and I could see it all made sense to him, but to no one else. Seaweed brain.

"Sexist much?" I asked, shaking my head in amazement.

Well, I didn't care. He had to deal with the flashlights, now that I had already handed it to him. He took his flashlight, and stuck it in his mouth, and turned mine off. He only shined in his area. Not nice.

I took mine and did the same thing, sticking it between my teeth, and working on the generator.

All of the sudden, I saw a flash of light, and felt extremely hot that it burned. Then, I blacked out.

Huh. Weird. What happened to Annabeth?

~GoGreen52

'