Hello Everyone! Here is chapter 7 of this intensifying story! Things are heating up at the NYC Hospital...

Also, P.S., Percy has NOT been wearing a hospital gown at his time at the hospital. I just wanted to make that clear, especially right before this chapter ;)

Percy's POV

I had never felt worse than I did in that moment as Annabeth grabbed her bag and walked out the door. She had turned back, though only for a second, and looked like she wanted to say something. However, nothing came out and, after she locked her stormy-grey eyes with mine, she turned on her heels and ran out the door shutting it behind her.

After that, I felt truly and utterly alone.

I mean, I had just woken up from a traumatic event. An event that no normal 17-year old has ever experienced. Someone tried to kill me. And yet, I felt so relieved to find Annabeth sitting by me when I woke up. It was if I was falling into a black, empty void, and all of a sudden the world turned from darkness to light in a matter of those few seconds. Call it cliché, but Annabeth helped me feel safe. She helped me feel like I was unstoppable. Though, after last night I can't really say that; I almost died.

And the ugly truth was that I was angry with Annabeth. We were only together for 15 minutes, talking hurridly about the events of the previous night. Then suddenly she tells me that she has to go, as if nothing had happened.

"I really have to go", the sentence was still stuck in my head even after nurse Kira had come in and served me breakfast (Eggo waffles with yogurt and orange juice).

What I said next just blurted out of me, as if all of the anger from the past few days from hearing Annabeth say that she had to go just came out in that one retort. I was sick of hearing excuses, apologies, and explanations. All I wanted was one, peaceful hour with Annabeth; no talking about murderers and mystery, no worry or stress, just peace and quiet, hanging out together. I knew this about as likely to happen as the dream I had the night before, but I couldn't help but feel wistful, in a way, homesick. I missed the good 'ol days; the normal days. Now my life was turned upside-down and I didn't know what to believe anymore.

On a brighter note, some nurses came in my room an hour after breakfast and took off the bandage around my nose and the cast around my neck. They also fixated the casts around my arms so that they weren't dangling from the ceiling anymore. They told me to move my fingers frequently, or else they might get paralyzed in a fixed position. After they told me that, I couldn't stop wiggling my fingers; I didn't need any more problems.

All of this took a lot off of my shoulders (literally). I could move around now, pacing around the room pondering the question that has been on everyone's minds the past few days.

Who the heck was trying to kill me!?

Like, I don't mean to brag, but I was a pretty good kid at school. Sure, sometimes I was late to class (well more than sometimes) and sure, I've been caught at the pool during study hall. But, other than that, I couldn't think of anything that I might've done to upset anyone.

And then it all hit me so hard and so fast that I tripped and landed on the bed.

Luke.

I could literally feel the gears turning in my head as all of the jigsaw pieces connected in my mind. The swimming competition, Annabeth, the truck that ran me over and the tall figure looming over my hospital bed. It was all Luke.

Then I second-guessed myself; why in the world would Luke do all of this? Just because I beat him at the National Swimming Competition at school doesn't mean its ok for him to go on a rampage and try to kill me! There must've been something else...something that was encouraging him to do this...

Something startled me out of my deep thoughts. I was standing in the middle of the room, just staring into empty space wondering why Luke would do all of this. Suddenly, I heard something coming from the bedside table in the corner of the room.

Static.

At first I had no clue where it was coming from. Then I heard an all-too-familiar BEEPBEEP and a rattled voice on the other side of the line.

"Percy, there's not much time. Luke's on his way, you have to-", Annabeth said in a hushed, but hurried voice. Her sentence was cut off by a loud SCREECH and the walkie-talkie got quiet. She sounded absolutely petrified.

For 5 minutes, all I did was stare, open-mouthed at the walkie talkie, as if I thought that if I stared long and hard enough, the sound of Annabeth's voice might go away.

But of course that's not what happened. Her broken voice was playing and re-playing in my mind. It was as if her panic was contagious, because suddenly I started sweating and shaking.

I wondered what she meant by "there's not much time". I wondered if her warning about Luke had been true. I wondered if she had realized the same thing I had about Luke. And I wondered what cut her off, where she was and if she was ok. All of these questions and more were flooding my thought process, making it difficult for me to do anything other than stare at the dead-quiet walkie-talkie wondering if I had imagined the whole thing.

I took a deep breath, thinking it might clear my mind, but then everything went wrong.

Let me just take a quick pause to explain to you that, everyday around noon, most of the hospital staff - the nurses, doctors, and secretaries - would be out of the building, having lunch or whatever. That being said, there were only a few people at the hospital during that 1 hour period, the patients and a few security guards randomly placed around the hospital. Just thought that would be helpful information considering what had happened right after I tried calming myself down.

I suddenly heard a huge CRASH from behind the locked door of the room.

Wait locked? Of course, this was the least of my worries at the time but looking back at this makes me wonder when the nurses started locking the patients' doors.

But anyway, the door flew open and I saw a tall, familiar figure, with sandy-blond hair, pale blue eyes, a small scar on his chin and an expression that could scare away Principal Chiron (and, trust me, he might seem like a happy-go-lucky guy, but make the guy mad and you will regret it for the rest of the school year).

But something in Luke's eyes made me feel like he had changed from the last time I saw him (I'm not counting the time he gave me a midnight surprise the night before, but the time when we saw each other in the school hallway, at least one week earlier). Sure, he looked terrifying with that furious look on his face, but, looking beyond his expression, he looked miserable. His clothes were ratty and dirty, his hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks and he had deep, dark bags around his eyes, making him look tired. Almost broken.

He darted his eyes toward me and stared me down for what seemed like hours. His gaze made it hard for me to focus. I don't know why, I mean I should've been doing something (like running away from this maniac and calling the cops). Instead I stood in the middle of the room, with my bandaged arms at my side, looking at Luke with a little bit of sympathy. I could tell something was off about him, but I didn't think I was going to find out what.

He finally turned his attention to the door; he fiddled with the lock on it until I heard an ominous Click! sound.

Apparently I was locked in the relatively large hospital room with a teenage killer.

Can this day get any worse?, I thought.

And of course, it got worse. Luke dashed forward, so fast I couldn't even react quick enough, and shoved me onto the bed.

"Nice to see you Percy", he was breathing heavily from just pushing me, something I wouldn't expect from a 5-year Swim champion.

"Luke", I said trying to handle this situation before it could spiral out of control, "I know you're the one who tried to kill me."

He actually laughed at that. And it wasn't one of those laughs that would tempt you to follow along; it was one of those laughs that made him seem like a villain. A short, swift laugh that got the point across; I had to be careful of what I said next.

"Oh, Fish Boy, you really aren't the smartest guy are you? I expected you to put the pieces together days ago. I was actually scared you would figure everything out before my plan was set into action...", he took a pause; apparently everything else he had to say he couldn't said out loud.

Then he mumbled something that got my attention "I even expected Annabeth to find out sooner."

Hearing her name made a flame kindle inside my throat. "Where is she!? What have you done?"

"Oh, calm down. You were the last one to see her. I have no idea why she ran out on you. She might've finally figured me all out..." he actually sounded worried on his last comment.

"But that doesn't matter", he continued "they said they'd cover me...I still have time."

Who's they?, I thought, And how did Luke know about Annabeth dashing out on me this morning?

"Listen Luke, I don't know what you're going on about. But, knowing Annabeth, she's probably figured everything out. She is probably on her way right now with half of the New York City Police Force. I suggest you start confessing your crimes now, there's nowhere to run."

He chuckled, "Oh Fishbrain, you're amusing. I know Annabeth WAY better than you do; I'm her boyfriend for God's sake!"

This made the fire in my throat creep into my stomach.

"Um, well considering you are a psychotic raging lunatic, I don't think she'll want to date you anymore. She's way too good for you. And you know that."

It looked like I struck a nerve on that last comment. He seemed to lose his footing and his gaze seemed a lot more careful.

"Listen Percy...you don't have the faintest idea of what I've been through. I've suffered more than you and if I don't do this he'll kill me."

"Alright enough with the riddles! Who's they and who's he!?", at this point I just wanted answers; apparently Luke assumed I figured out more than I did because this question seemed to catch him off-guard.

"HA! Like you don't know. Like you don't know about Kronos and his army. Like you don't know about Camp Half-Blood and it's army. Why you and Annabeth and all of us are so wanted by these armies. Like you don't know about why Kronos wants you out of the picture. Like you don't know about what your own FATHER did!"

Okay, after that last comment, getting killed didn't sound so bad. I mean, hearing someone address my father wasn't a normal thing for me. See, my dad left my mom when I was born; I never met him. When I was little, my mom would always talk about how he was a great guy and he just had more important things to worry about than raising a family. But I still felt iffy about my dad; I mean I didn't understand why he left my mom and I didn't think it was fair on my mom's part either. She's been trying to sustain herself and I since I was born. She's had to deal with this grumpy old guy as her boss at the bakery. She had her own plans in life, and they were snatched away when I was born and my dad left her. Most of the time I didn't think about my father, but when I did they weren't nice thoughts.

I haven't heard someone say "your father" to me for a while. I was caught off-guard by the sudden mention of him.

But then I thought about what else Luke mentioned. Armies, why Annabeth and I are wanted by them, something about some guy named Kronos; what the heck was going on here!?, I wondered.

Since I had so many questions, I decided to ask the question I was most curious about; "Who's making you do this Luke? What have I ever done to you that would give you enough reason to try and kill me!?"

"At first I DID want to kill you, just for beating me at the Swim Competition. You stole my title away from me. Not to mention that I could tell Annabeth cared WAY more about you than she does at me. I finally got the resources and the help I needed to put my plans into action. Obviously, I didn't suspect that idiot, Ethan, to try and run over Annabeth. Obviously, I didn't expect you to have a way to call for help last night. But I had back-up plans. And this is the last straw. If I don't succeed, he WILL kill me."

Apparently, Luke still thought I knew more than I was leading on. I guess he expected me to figure out exactly what was going on from that blurb.

What I learned; absolutely nothing.

He suddenly pulled something out of his pocket. A syringe with a HUGE needle (like 4 inches long). Inside of the syringe was a pitch-black liquid, the only gleam of color being the light reflecting off of the glass.

He gingerly held it up in front of me. He was inches away from my body. I scurried to the corner of the room.

"You know what this is Percy? This is a powerful and rare poison from the Amazonians; my master personally delivered it to me. Now, I'm going to have to kill you with this. Now you might be thinking I have no real reason to do this. And you're right; it's nothing personal", he said this as if being poisoned by this substance would be such an honor and that it not being personal would make me feel any better about being stabbed with a long, pointy needle (alright you caught me; I hate needles, they freak me out).

Even though I still didn't have the faintest idea of what was going on, I still felt like I had to do something to keep him busy; to keep him talking. Maybe I could buy enough time for help to arrive.

"You know, it's not too late to stop this Luke. You can turn yourself in and-"

"NO! You d-don't understand-I-Kronos will KILL ME if I don't do this. I thought-I-", it seriously looked like he was having a nervous breakdown.

It sounded like this Kronos guy was powerful in more ways than one and that Luke was absolutely terrified by the thought of confronting him. I got that much out of his random comments.

It also sounded like keeping him talking wasn't going to work. It seemed like he already had his mind set on killing me; whether he liked it or not, he had to do it; or else this Kronos guy would get to him. I didn't understand his position, I just wanted to stay alive for a few more minutes.

I decided that if I couldn't keep him talking, I would have to fight him.

Now that might seem very desperate, at this point. I was no martial artist and I had no weapons.

Well...that was until I realized I could use part of the heart-rate monitor in the opposite corner of the room as a potential weapon; the part that connects the monitor to all of the little sensors.

So, without any plan whatsoever, I sprinted past Luke towards the corner near the door and picked up the long, surprisingly heavy, metal rod that connected a black screen to a few random sensors, dangling on the side of the contraption by some tiny rubber tubes.

Apparently, my sudden motion confused Luke because he stood there for a solid minute before turning around and facing me.

I thought while I was at it, I could try and unlock the door. But when I turned to face the door, the metal handle was all mangled and misshapen; like Hulk himself had tried handling the door.

"Percy, don't try and f-fight. If you care about me AND Annabeth, you'd give your life away."

"What do you mean 'AND Annabeth'!? She's her own person! You two aren't attached. She knows much better than to be with someone like you. Maybe there is a way for both of us to live; you could run away-"

This must've been his trigger word; "NO! I am DONE with running away from my problems", I could've sworn I saw a tear form in the corner of his eye.

"I have do this, Percy. If you want to fight, then fine. I don't care anymore..."

I guess I had no choice. I had to fight Luke.

How hard could that be?, I thought.

Apparently VERY hard.

I charged him with the metal rod; the screen and sensors trailing uselessly behind. I raised the rod above his head - trying to see if I could knock him unconscious for the time being - when he freaking cartwheeled out of the way and slammed his back against the giant window that covered one of the walls.

Okay, so maybe Luke had more athletic abilities that I had been led to believe. I literally thought the only sport he'd been trained in was swimming (which would be a totally useless skill at the moment). Apparently his "resources" also meant he got some sort of training.

I could tell that he was exhausted from that one move; sweat was running down the side of his face and he was panting like a dog. Maybe if I kept him going longer, he would tire himself out.

I tried to swing the rod at him once more but he slid his body out of the way and I almost ended up hitting the window.

Fortunately, I stopped myself right in time. One more second, and the glass would've shattered (and I possibly would've ran off the floor and plummeted to my death).

Thank goodness for my cat-like reflexes.

Suddenly, Luke punched me in the gut and I fell to the ground with a loud Thump!. I felt like I would pass out or vomit but, fortunately, I didn't do either. I gingerly stood up, using the wall behind me as support, right before Luke charged me. I repeated what he had done seconds before to me, and slid out of the way.

Only this time, I took the opportunity to elbow him in the small of his back. He fell flat on his face onto the tile floor.

I ran to the door, suddenly wishing I had a safety pin or a credit card or something to open the door with. I couldn't find anything in my pockets that would help (unless you count a lonely mint and some tissues).

I tuned to see Luke gradually standing up and I could see blood dripping off of his face. I'm pretty sure I had broken his nose.

I also realized that he was extremely mad at me for doing so. I could see the pure hatred burning in his eyes as he looked up at me.

I HAD to get out of there. I couldn't keep this up forever and I knew that Luke was way more skilled than me at combat. I was either going to get beaten to death or poisoned to death.

Then something happened that made me feel a lot more hopeful.

I heard a noise on the other side of the door.

Again, Luke wasn't fully recovered from my last attack on him; he was still trying to stand up and cover his bloody nose. I was right next to the door, trying in vain to think of a way to break out of the room. Then suddenly, I heard footsteps and a voice come from the other side of the door; a voice I couldn't have been happier to hear at that very moment.

"PERCY! PERCY? Are you ok? It's Annabeth, open the door!", she was screaming and it looked like she was trying to open the door from the fact that the mangled handle was jiggling (so much so, it looked like it would fall off of the door).

I wasn't sure if Luke was aware that Annabeth had arrived, but since I saw that he would be getting up soon, I kicked him to the ground (a hint of guilt making its way into my conscious) so that I could have at least a few more minutes to talk to Annabeth.

"Annabeth, it's Percy. I'm ok", I said with relief to my voice; relieved that I was still alive.

"Oh thank God. Open the door!", she said with a LOT more relief in her voice.

"I can't; the door handle is...broken."

"One sec, I'll have you out in a moment", I heard more jiggling in the lock part of the door; knowing Annabeth she probably had the supplies she needed to jimmy the lock, "Is Luke in there?"

"Yeah he just tried to kill me again. I-" suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and I screamed as I fell to my knees.

Luke was standing over me; his nose was still bleeding like there was no tomorrow (dripping all over the back of my shirt, mind you) and he had a crazed look in his eyes. I realized right then and there that he really didn't care what happened. As long as he stayed away from Kronos's clutches.

At the very second that the needle sunk into my skin, Annabeth had successfully opened the door. She was welcomed by two beat up boys; her maniac of a boyfriend (Luke) hovering over her life-long friend (me).

"LUKE!", she shrieked. I slowly raised my head to finally see her face. Most of her dirty-blond hair was out of her ponytail, with little twigs and leaves sticking out of her head. She was sweaty and panting with her backpack leaning against her feet.

Moments passed (though it felt like hours) and Luke and her locked eyes. I could tell that she was confused as to why this was all happening (not gonna lie; I was too) and that she was hurt that Luke would throw his life away to do something like this.

I couldn't see Luke's face; the only way I could tell he was even behind me was from the blood dripping off of his nose, down my back, and the force he was putting on the needle.

Speaking of the needle, he still hadn't injected the poison into me. It had been at least 5 minutes when I started preparing myself for any sudden movements.

But he just stood there, slowly loosening his grip on the syringe, as if he was having second thoughts on what he was doing.

After the staring contest between him and Annabeth, I heard a shaky breath come from behind me; a breath that sounded like a failed attempt at a chuckle.

Suddenly, the needle was out of my shoulder and Luke slowly stood up over me. I stood up too and backed up against the doorway; one of my bandaged arms in front of Annabeth in case Luke tried anything funny, my other bandaged arm holding my right shoulder (since I was bleeding from the needle). I suddenly realized how much my arms were aching from trying to fight off Luke; I guess the adrenaline had taken my mind off of the pain during the fight.

I was shocked to see that Luke was actually smiling. But it was a sad kind of smile. A smile you would have if you were about to do something you knew you would regret.

I also realized the syringe was still filled to the brim with the black poison and that Luke was clutching it in his hands as if it weighed a ton.

"Percy, do me a f-favor and-" he cut himself off, raised the syringe and injected the jet-black poison into his neck. He shook violently and collapsed onto the floor.

Annabeth shrieked and ran to Luke's side. I crouched down and tried to see if there was anything we could do. His eyes were still open but it looked like he was focusing on something else; something me and Annabeth couldn't see.

His breathing was labored and the area where he injected himself was turning a hideous dark purple color, but he managed to finish his statement.

"D-Don't let Kronos w-win".

His eyes closed, his hand with the empty syringe went slack and everything got a lot more quiet and somber as he drifted away from life.

Annabeth's hands were over her eyes (probably trying to hide the fact that she was crying) and I was just as confused as ever with a heavy heart that Luke had just killed himself right in front of us.

Suddenly a crowd formed behind us in the doorway of the hospital room and a man's voice startled me and Annabeth out of our dazes.

"Come with me, you two."

I turned and saw the crowd; all of the hospital staff, plus some. The man who had just spoken was none other than Principal Chiron from our high school.

He didn't look happy.

Annabeth grasped my hand, her fingers trembling between mine, and we both walked out of the hospital room, still shook from the traumatizing event and the possibility of being blamed for Luke's death.

We followed Principal Chiron away from Luke's limp body. People were starting to gather around him but I knew that he was already gone.

And that made a tear form in the corner of my eye. I gripped Annabeth's hand harder as we followed Chiron into the hospital elevator.

The metal doors slid closed as I thought of how hard Luke's death must've been on Annabeth.