I don't want to waste everyone's time with a long explanation of where the hell I was for the past few months, but if you actually want to know, or chew me out, feel free too on the PMing device that fanfiction has graciously let us have.

If any of you are wondering, Noah is doing better, and his future is looking bright.

~GoGreen43

Taken

Chapter 9 – Flashbacks and Foreshadowing

Annabeth POV

Waking up to a massive head ache was starting to become normal to me. No matter what happens to me, somehow I always end up with a massive head ache.

I really don't appreciate it, either. I mean, do these guys even have the decency to not hit me over the head, use chloroform, or torture me just once? If they bothered to refrain from doing that, it would easily be the best thing that had ever happened to me.

But when I started to think about things reality-wise, I realized that it would probably never happen, especially since it would be in my favor.

Luke never does anything in our favor.

My head ache started to clear as I started to feel a small little ticklish feeling that was running through my leg.

I looked down, my eyesight that had previously been clouded wasn't so clouded anymore as I saw a little black thing with eight legs making its way to my face. I screamed, and moved in a jolting motion, all the while trying to flick it off my body.

Having arachnophobia does wonders to your heart beat.

I quickly searched my body to see if I had any more of those things crawling all around my body. Like they had before….

Screaming.

Crawling.

Screaming.

I took a deep breath, trying to think of something that wasn't about those… things. I ran a hand through my hair, trying to calm myself down. You're not in that room anymore.

Wait… I ran my hand through my hair…

I picked my arm up into my eyesight, amazed at the sight of my own hand. I haven't seen it since I've been brought to this place. For some reason, Luke decided that I didn't need to be bonded to anything anymore.

Growling to myself, I moved my legs, and I saw that they weren't being held back by anything either. I knew that there had to be some reasoning to this; I mean, Luke wouldn't just let me be free to roam for no reason.

I knew that there was something missing, though. Something that I had forgotten about, maybe? I looked around the room that I was in, immediately seeing another being on the floor.

Jackson!

I crawled frantically to where he was laying, all crumbled up in a heap of lanky body. Quickly I checked for a pulse, anything that could tell me that I wasn't alone.

I let a breath out that I didn't know that I was keeping in when I found one.

Curiosity took over me as I checked his body over for any injuries, and my heart beat picked up when I noticed that he had a head wound that had supplied a nice little pool of blood on the floor.

My breathing hitched as I remembered the last time I saw something like this…

Red! So much red!

I was confused… my head hurt. But I wasn't hurt, Malcolm was.

His blonde hair, like mine, was soaked in blood. Red blood… Too much red blood.

I was crying, crying out for my brother. He wouldn't hold my hand like he promised to always do earlier. I felt alone. I was alone.

I want my brother.

"Malcolm! You need to wake up, okay? Mommy wants us to come home!"

My breathing came out in choked sobs, sobs that would haunt me in my nightmares for the rest of my life.

"Please! I need you, please!"

I never said please or thank you. I prayed that if he woke up and held my hand that I would always say my please and thank you's.

"Malcolm! Wake up!" I screamed.

My eyes opened to reality, and I was pretty confused. My hands weren't covered in blood. Malcolm wasn't there… Percy Jackson was. And he needed my help now.

He wasn't going to turn out like Malcolm. Not if I were still alive.

Closing off all thoughts that lead to my late brother, I took a deep breath and started to tend to Jackson's head wound. I looked for anything to use to clean his head up, but found nothing but a toilet in the corner of the room.

God knows how many people Luke had here in this torture chamber of his.

I looked down at Jackson again, and sighed when I realized I was going to have to bandage his head. I dragged him over to the toilet, and took some water from the bowl, and cleaned his cut from the blood. I guess it was better than nothing, but I was definitely not going to tell him I cleaned his face with toilet water later.

I looked down at my shirt, which had already been ripped a little at the bottom, and his, that really hadn't been changed in any way besides the color.

I decided to make a little sacrifice in the name of my new acquaintance. At least, I think he's my acquaintance. Scowling at the ground, I quickly took off my shirt, only in a thin tank top and my bra, of course, and ripped away at the bottom of my shirt.

Ripping in an orderly fashion, I had four strips that I would be able to patch Jackson up with. I slipped on my now belly shirt, and started to get to work on Jackson's head.

I wasn't sure if he had a concussion, but when I had felt for a pulse, he had a strong one. So, if he was concussed, I was pretty sure that I didn't have to worry about hurting his head any more. All I knew that he had a cut on his forehead, and it needed to be taken care of.

I folded on of the strips, so when I was finished it would act more like a blood absorber, like a bandaid. I wrapped the other strips around his head, and tied it together at the back of it. I left the other two strips for later, knowing that the make-shift bandage wouldn't last forever.

When I had finished, I looked at my handiwork with some pride, and moved myself so I could lie down too. But not too close though, so I wouldn't get infected with whatever disease that he had.

I took a few deep breathes to clear my head. If we were going to get out of here alive, the both of us, I was going to have to have a clear mind and relax. I needed to figure out how to get out of this hell that the two of us had landed into.

When I let my guard down, I started to remember when the last time I was here. In this exact room.

I could recognize that toilet anywhere…

"Annie? Annie wake up!"

Reacting to my brother's terrified voice, I shot up, finding myself in a dark room, and the only other person that I could see was my brother, Malcolm.

I rubbed my eyes, tired and confused. "Malcolm? What's happening?"

I've never woken up into a dark room before. My mom always would keep my bathroom door open in my room, with the light on. I was always scared that a monster would come and eat me at night, so she made sure that the monster wouldn't come because they don't like light.

Or so I thought.

"Annie, we're trapped in here! The door won't open!"

My gray eyes went wide, and stared into his. I could tell he wasn't kidding with me. We really were trapped.

"Then why won't mommy come and get us?" I asked, my voice really small and innocent. Malcolm who was older than me by four years, looked at me all sad-like. "What's wrong Malcolm? Why are you sad? Mommy is going to come and get us, right?"

Even as a little kid, I could still tell that something was wrong… very wrong.

"Annie, please! Mom isn't going to come and help us! Can't you see that we're kidnapped!"

I started to cry at the anger in his voice. Malcolm never gets mad at me. He never has yelled at me before.

Malcolm noticed what he did, and saw how he had reacted really bad. He got a really sad look on his face, and came over to me, and gave me a hug. "Annie, I'm sorry. But mommy is going to look for us, okay? We are going to get out of here. I promise."

I looked up to him, my gray eyes big, and held out my pinky. "Pinky swear?"

He smiled at me as his pinky locked with mine. "Pinky swear."

My breathing started coming out as pants as I looked down at my pinky. Just now I'm starting to realize how we probably will never get out of here… well, the both of us anyways. Luke always gets one.

He always makes people break their promises.

Malcolm was sitting in the corner of the room, his head in his hands. I was trying to get him to talk to me, and more or less- play with me.

"Malcolm, why can't we just play some tag?"

"Like I said before, Annie. We can't!"

My eyebrows went together, and I stared at him with curiosity. "Well why not?"

Malcolm sighed, and ran a hand through his curly blonde hair. His stormy gray eyes stared straight into my ones that matched his. He was serious. "This is no time for playing, Annie."

I sighed, and laid my head down on the concrete. There was nothing to do here. I was so bored. I needed to talk to someone. "What are you doing Malcolm?"

I heard a heavy sigh, and didn't bother looking up. I knew he was going to answer me. He always did.

"I'm trying to figure out how to get out of here, Annie. Please, can you just be quiet for a few moments while I figure this out?"

I let out a little "humph" and crossed my arms, but let him be. I knew that if I wanted to get out of there, I was going to have to let my brother use his mind. And I guess that when you use your mind that you are going to need some silence. That's when I figured that I better shut up.

I had tried to think of betting times… good things. Like how my mom would wake me up with pancakes all the time. Malcolm would always take me to the park. When we get out of here I want him to take me to the park again.

I knew that much.

While thinking of pancakes, my mom, and Malcolm, I had drifted off into a sleep. I didn't really dream. I just saw pictures. Pictures of things that I wanted to happen.

Like going on the swings with Malcolm, and having him give me an underdog. He always did give me the best underdogs.

My mind subconsciously roamed onto other things, but then my dreams started to become nightmares. I started to see Malcolm on the floor, crying out to me. I was trying to get to him, but something invisible was in my way.

The dream changed, and instead of Malcolm on the floor, it was my mom. She was crying, and I never had seen her cry before. "Mommy! Mommy I'm coming!"

I tried my hardest to get to her, and started to cry when I couldn't get to her. Something that I couldn't see was hitting and kicking her, and all I could hear was, "Annie! Run!"

But it started to morph into someone else's voice. It wasn't my mom's. "Annie! Wake up! Get out of here!"

It was Malcolm.

I opened my eyes and saw someone with blonde hair and blue eyes that reminded me of ice that was standing over Malcolm, holding his hair, and glaring at me.

I gulped.

The sound of a moan took me out of the trance-like state that I was in, and shocked me back to reality.

Jackson.

I sat up to look at Jackson, who was just waking up himself. I tried to make myself look like I hadn't just been having a flashback, but when I saw the immediate confused look in his eyes, I didn't bother. It's not like he could tell if anything were wrong anyway.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty. Looks like you're the one who needs the boobs and the blond hair."

He just glared at me, automatically remembering what kind of situation we were in. "Shut it, Chase," his hand went to his head, and he moaned. "What the hell happened Chase? Why do I feel like crap? And where in the san hell are we?"

I rolled my eyes. He still hasn't realized he could move around.

"Holy shit!"

Now he did.

I gave him a little smirk, trying to hold back a laugh at how he was looking at his hands confused, as if they weren't his. But I at least had the decency to not do that, considering I was just doing that about an hour ago.

"Surprised much?"

His sea green eyes looked at me in shock. "Why would the bastard do this? What kind of game is he trying to play?"

I sighed. "If you want all of these questions answered, you're going to have to slow down, cowboy. To answer your questions from earlier, all I know is that you were hit in the head and I had to patch you up. As to what 'the bastard' has planned for us, all I can say is that I'm in the same boat as you."

Jackson nodded, and his eyebrows were scrunched together, as if he were taking it all in. "That explains why my head is kidding me."

I nodded, and leaned back onto the nearest wall, and sighed to myself. I couldn't believe I was back in this situation… and I still came close to being all alone.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?"

My head snapped up to meet his questioning gaze. I looked at him, trying to sound genuine, "What do you mean?"

He just rolled his eyes. "Look, you don't just go and look like that for no reason, okay? Sorry to say that you're stuck with me, so I think that whatever you're hiding, you should probably let it out."

I just scoffed. "And have you judge me? No way!"

He put his hands up as if he were surrendering. "Hey, I'm not going to judge you. Like you said before, I'm pretty much in the same boat."

I sighed. Using my words against me was good, but I definitely wasn't going to tell Percy Jackson what happened to me and my brother when we were here. I'm not going to be a downer on his hope. Even Percy Jackson doesn't deserve to have no hope.

Only I do.

We sat in silence for a good ten minutes. I suppose he was waiting for me to say something, but I kept my mouth shut. We sat like that till we both fell asleep.

What a waste of time.

I dreamt of Malcolm. Of him telling me that I should trust Jackson. He told me that he was the only person that I could trust, and that I was supposed to be smart enough to realize that.

I couldn't speak back to him, it was as if there was something that was preventing me from speaking. But seeing him again was enough for me to tear up.

"Annie, you have to trust Percy. You can't keep holding this in, okay? You're not going to get out of this alive if you keep everything bottled up."

Malcolm looked around. "I have to go, but remember what I told you!" As he was speaking, his voice slowly started to fade out, and into the darkness that plagued my mind.

"No! Please No!"

My eyes snapped open at the sight of Percy Jackson himself, flailing all around, hitting and kicking at some unknown force, and screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Please! Don't do it! Please, I'll do anything!"

My breath caught in my throat when I realized that he was having a nightmare, and a bad one at that. And I, being the socially awkward person that I am, had no idea what to do with him. In all honesty, I have never seen someone have a nightmare before, let alone know what to do when someone had one.

So, I just did what my brother and mom used to do when I had nightmares.

I slowly crawled over to where he was sleeping, and was cautious of his punches and kicks as I wrapped my arms around him and held him close, whispering kind words into his ear.

My whole body was telling me to stop, to get as far away from him as possible. He was my enemy, I wasn't supposed to help him. He had tormented me for years… what am I? His servant?

But some little part of me told me that I needed to help him, so I did.

Soon he was calmed down, and leaning into my embrace. He nuzzled his head into my neck, and mumbled something that I could just barely make out as, "Annabeth."

Instinctively I smiled at the sound of my name, and looked down on him in contentment.

Wait.

No way.

Realizing what I was just doing, I threw his heap of a body off of me, and quickly scooted away from where he was. He moaned, holding his head that had just hit the floor, as he woke up. Quickly, I turned around to face the wall, trying to think about anything that wasn't Percy Jackson.

"God, why does my head hurt even worse than it did before?"

I turned to look at him, and stared right into his sea green eyes. I found myself getting lost in them…

Get a grip, Annabeth! Get yourself together, and be strong, I thought.

Seeing that he was still expecting an answer, I just shrugged. A few awkward seconds went by, so I asked, "What was that nightmare about?"

Jackson's usually guarded eyes looked at me, shocked, and not so guarded anymore. I could see all the pain, and sadness that radiated through them. I felt like giving him another hug.

I pinched myself for that thought.

"Well…" he started, turning his gaze downward. He took a deeper breath than normal, and I heard a little hitch at the end. His hands went to his head, and he started to shake.

Now I wanted to give him a hug. And I didn't even bother to pinch myself.

Percy Jackson was crying.

I scooted over to where he was, and patted his back awkwardly. I could tell that he needed it… and I guess I was the only person in the building that probably would even come close to comforting him.

"Percy, what's wrong?"

He looked up at me, his eyes all watery. My heart broke at the sight of it. I never thought that seeing Percy Jackson cry would actually bring me pain. Hell, I never thought that I'd ever see him cry.

"You called me by my real name," he mumbled, his eyebrows furrowing. It was as if he just realized that he was crying, if anything, that he was crying in front of another person, and he scooted back to the other wall that was far from me.

"You didn't need to see that."

I raised an eyebrow, even though he probably couldn't see it. "I never need to see a lot of things. What did Luke do to you?"

His breathing hitched a bit. Jackpot. "How did you know that Luke did something to me?"

"I've been through this before, remember? I've seen this all before."

He sighed. "He did what you told me he would do… he used my weaknesses against me."

Now it was my turn to be shocked. "What kind of weaknesses are we talking about?"

"He made me kill my step mother."

Oh my God.

"Oh."

"You think I'm a monster."

His voice sounded so weak and so broken, and reacting on instinct again, I slowly crawled over to where he was, and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'd never think you were a monster, Percy."

He glared at me, causing me to flinch back and take my hand off my shoulder. "You should never say things that you don't mean, Chase. Don't call me by my first name ever again. You don't deserve to."

Saying that I was shocked at his actions was an understatement. I mean, I knew that people who are sad have a tendency to lash out at other people, just to hide their real feelings, but goodness, I was just trying to help.

"Okay then. Is there anything that I need to know?" I asked. Luke leaves messages from time to time. That's something that Malcolm and I had figured out together. He always says things that lead to something like a clue, of which we used to escape…

Well, I used to escape.

Jackson's eyes went wide, and the brokenness returned. He wasn't the angry guy that I saw before… he was Jackson again.

The look in his eyes told me he was going to apologize, but I gave him a look telling him to save it.

He shook it off and spoke, "Yeah, how did you know? Luke told me to tell you that this was only just the beginning."

I shrugged at him, and explained, "It's just something that I picked up on the last time I was here. It's as if he leaves clues in what he tells you. Stay aware of what's going on, okay?" He nodded, his eyes wide.

"Good. We better get planning on a way to get out, because I have a feeling that we're going to have more 'fun' with Luke soon."

Everything that I might have been feeling towards him was long gone and out of my mind.