*Possible Trigger Warning for SA- no descriptions and it's only alluded to briefly but please be warned and don't trigger yourself just for this chapter!*

Dearest Readers,

Thank you for all the comments and faithful following. It's been a hot second since I've updated, but I think that'll change pretty quickly here. I hope you enjoy it!

For those of you who are wondering why I would even allude to SA in this chapter and create a possible triggering effect on readers, I would like to point out it's never described or explicitly stated that it's happening, as it's only briefly alluded to. I just want to make sure people are aware before reading and not surprised in the worst way possible.

It occurs to illustrate the depth of Persie's trauma due to what happened to her and why she is the way she is. It becomes obvious why she ran from the demigod world- this was the moment everything changed for her.

I didn't make the decision to include this lightly, and it was one of the reasons I struggled to update this story. However, while writing I discovered there wasn't a way around it as it was a massive turning point for her character that we will start to see take even more prevalence in the next few chapters.

My next chapter will be out shortly, so if you don't choose to read this one, please stay tuned. Love you all!

XOXO Ally Layne

Holy Water

Chapter 36: A Different Kind of Darkness

Sam was sitting on his laptop when a knock sounded on the door, shaking him out of his research. He let out a sigh as he closed it and got up to answer.

He pulled it open a few inches, only to fully open it as soon as he was met with a familiar face.

"Sorry," Annabeth said, as she walked into the room. "I just forgot my key and a few extra files."

Sam smiled at the slightly frazzled look in her eyes. "Hey, you're fine." He closed the door just as she stopped and turned to face him.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw she was standing right before him, wearing a coat that ended just at her knees. He tripped back against the door with a faint gasp.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes, taking a few short steps to be fully pressed against him. "You okay, Sam?"

His breath caught in his throat.

His eyes traveled her face, the unrelenting desire that seemed to dance in her gray orbs, and then lower, lower, where he swore he could see hints of her breasts as they pressed up against him with every breath she drew in.

"F-Fine."

"Do you want to know why I'm really here?" She got even closer, not that he thought it was even possible, and placed a hand on his cheek.

"Wh-What are you doing?"

"I came for you." She tilted her head, and bit her lip for good measure.

He let out a low groan.

"You feel really, really warm," she said, rubbing her thumb along the bone of his cheek.

His mouth fell open. How was he supposed to speak? To think? What was she… how was she-

Any internal monologue was cut off from the blonde opening her coat, only to be left standing there in a black lace babydoll… and her heels. Damn. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you," she told him, dropping her coat to the floor.

He was about to respond, but was cut off by Annabeth slamming her lips onto his. As soon as their lips met, Sam's arms wrapped around her into a tight embrace, pulling her as close as he could.

Her hands moved to the back of his neck and around his waist, pulling him in- as if the two were trying to meld themselves into each other.

Before he pulled her to the bed, ignoring her searching hands, he pulled away to look once into her startling gray eyes. "Are you sure?"

She smiled up at him. "Always."

At that word and the look of excitement shining in her gaze, he tipped the both of them back onto the bed. They tangled together, roaming hands and precious kisses combined sent Annabeth moaning his name, over and over.

It was music to his ears.

"Sam," she breathed, her breath hitching as she gasped, "oh, Sam!"

"Sam!"

"Sam, wake up!"

He blinked, and sat up in bed with a start. Sam wiped his face with the back of his hand, grimacing down at the drool.

"You were out like a light, Sammy," Dean's teasing voice pulled him from his sleepy confusion.

Sam stiffened when his eyes wandered to where Dean was sitting, only to see the very same woman from his dreams there, too.

Her gray eyes were dancing in mirth.

"You were making some seriously happy noises," Dean added.

Now the youngest Winchester wanted to crawl into a hole and never get found again. He could feel the flush on his cheeks, and didn't even try looking over at the woman who's breathy moans were now going to be inhabiting his every thought.

"Who were you dreaming about?" Dean continued.

"What?" Sam's face reddened even more at his voice crack. "No one. Nothing."

Annabeth kicked his brother's leg. "Leave him be, Dean Winchester."

Dean only laughed. "Come on, you can tell me. Angelina Jolie?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "That's very typical, isn't it?"

Sam sighed, falling back onto the pillow with a huff. "No."

"Brad Pitt?" Dean snickered.

Sam groaned, throwing an arm across his eyes.

"Yeah, you sounded a lot like that, just a little more excited if you know what I mean."

Annabeth chortled. "You're ruthless."

Sam blinked, slowly moving his arm from his face as he looked over at the blonde briefly. A vision of her, standing there in that black baby doll nearly made him die from the sheer torture of it all.

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the delightful image. "No… no, dude, it doesn't matter."

"Whatever you say." Dean looked back down at whatever he was doing with Annabeth on Sam's laptop.

"Whatever."

"Dean called Bella," Annabeth said, looking over at Sam who quirked up at that tidbit of information.

"She, uh, gonna help us?" Sam asked, clearing his throat as he turned his attention back to his brother.

"Shockingly no, which puts us back to square one," Dean said with a huff.

"Nico will try reaching out to some of the… lesser popular campers to see if they have any left over, but I doubt they'll give, even to him," Annabeth said. "It helps when he summons ghosts of their nightmares but I don't know how much ground we've got with those demigods."

"What about that Lou Ellen chick?" Dean asked, grasping for straws.

Sam could clearly see that his brother was struggling to keep it together. Hell, he didn't blame him. He knew all too well what he was going through.

"Lou's got nothing, either. She did put out a few requests to some vendors," Annabeth added helpfully. "But that could take months."

"And Seph and Bobby don't have months."

Annabeth sat on the edge of Sam's bed and started to pour back into the doctor's notes before she paused her reading and turned back to Sam. "You wanna help with this? I could use an extra set of eyes."

Little did she know, he was nowhere in near enough shape to be helping with research.

He placed a pillow on his lap as he adjusted himself to sit against the headboard. "Yeah, sure."

Little Sam was upright and ready, and the last thing he needed was for her to get a full glimpse at just what he was packing.

Or maybe he did want her to-

A knock sounded on the door.

He let out a sigh, and looked down at his lap that was covered with thick blankets and now a pillow. Dean was definitely going to roast him alive for all of this later.

He looked over at his brother who was shooting him a knowing grin, green eyes flicking between the pillow and his face, and he glared.

"Dean…"

"I didn't say nothin', Sammy."

Luckily Dean didn't drag this little show-down on any longer than necessary and opened the door, only to let out a huff. "Bela," He greeted, rolling his eyes. "As I live and breathe."

A faint growl sounded from Annabeth's chest. "What is she doing here?"

Bela walked in, wearing a black trench coat, dishwater blonde hair falling down her sides in curls. For someone who seemed to have a lot to run from, she looked pretty immaculate. "You called me, remember?"

"I remember you turning me down."

"Well, I'm just full of surprises."

Annabeth's eyes narrowed on the jar that held familiar looking roots inside it. She shook her head in disbelief and nausea.

"Hello, Bela," Sam deadpanned, having slowly risen up from the bed at this point.

Annabeth did her best to ignore that his eyes have been locked in on the blonde bombshell ever since she stepped into the room.

She also did her best to ignore the fact that he had hardly been able to say a word to her, much less spare her a glance earlier. And now all the attention on Bela of all people?

Dear gods.

She was jealous.

"I brought you your African Dream Root," Bela said, holding up the jar before handing it over to Dean. "Nasty stuff and not easy to come by."

Annabeth narrowed her eyes as Bela dropped her bag on the TV and opened her coat.

"Why the change of heart?" She asked, crossing her arms at the other woman.

"What?" Bela asked. "I can't do you a little favor every now and then?"

"No, you can't," Dean said.

"What strings are attached this time?" Annabeth stood from the bed and took a few steps to stalk toward Bela with a glint in her eye.

"You said this was for Bobby Singer, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, him and Seph," Dean responded.

She pursed her lips. "Well, I'm doing it for him. Not you."

"Bobby? Why?" Dean eyed her suspiciously.

"He saved my life once," She said, before shrugging. "In Flagstaff. I screwed up and he saved me, okay? You satisfied?"

"No, not really," Annabeth grumbled as Dean let out a, "Maybe."

She chose to ignore the daughter of Athena. "So, when do we go on this little magical mystery tour?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh, you're not going anywhere. I don't trust you enough to let you in my car, much less in Bobby or Seph's head. No offense," he added, giving her a wink as he walked over to the closet and placed the jar in a safe where the Colt was.

"None taken," she said, watching him carefully.

Annabeth frowned. "I don't buy you being here because Bobby might have saved your life once in Flagstaff," she told her. "What are you actually after, Bela?"

Bela raised a brow in her direction. "You think you're so smart, is that right?"

"No," she said. "I happen to know that I'm smart. There's a difference."

She paused. "I don't need to answer to you, Daughter of Athena."

"What demon did you summon to tell you that?" Annabeth asked, knowing from Bela's shock that she was right about the assumption. "And what did you offer that demon? It's not like you can offer something that's already been bartered."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked carefully.

Annabeth snorted. "Nico could tell from a mile away that this woman sold her soul to the devil years ago. And from the looks of it your time is finally running out, hm?"

"You don't know-"

"And I'm assuming you're only here because we have something that a mortal can use to kill a demon," She continued, gesturing to the safe Dean had just locked up. "The Colt."

Dean's eyes narrowed dangerously in on Bela. "Leave. Now."

"It's 2 am, where am I supposed to go?"

"Get a room," Sam suggested carelessly. "Just stay out of our way."

Dean's signature smirk plastered itself on his face. "Ah, they got the Magic Fingers, a little Casa Erotica on per-view. You'll love it."

Annabeth had to wring her hands together to keep from slapping the back of his head. She told Persie she'd protect these two idiots, and apparently abuse isn't involved in that.

Bela glared at the three of them. "You…" she shook her head, before grabbing her coat and stormed out.

Annabeth snorted as the door slammed behind her.

She glared at the older Winchester as soon as he grabbed his jacket and slowly walked to the door. "Where do you think you're going?"

Sam looked over at his brother tensely. "You're leaving?"

"I'm going to keep tabs on her," Dean said, still wearing the smirk Annabeth wanted to smack from his face. "Keep your enemies close. Be back in a few."

He was out the door before either of them could reply. Annabeth was just peeved that she was now alone with the guy who could hardly look at her, let alone talk to her for some reason that she didn't know.

Was he in love with Bela and hated the comments she made about the other blonde?

She bit her lip as she thought back on everything she had said about the other woman.

Did he think she was a bitch for how rude she had been? Annabeth let out a sigh. Men were too complicated. She was going to need an instruction manual on how to deal with them, especially this particular Winchester.

But without an instruction manual, she was going to have to ask and find out for herself. "Are you okay, Sam?"

His eyes snapped over to her, and she watched as his face started to flush. "Uh... yeah, I'm fine."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she walked over to stand in front of him, and placed a hand on his cheek as she felt him burning up under her touch. "You feel really warm," she murmured, before feeling him stiffen. "Are you sure you're okay?"

He let out a cough. "Y-Yeah, of course."

"Is it me?" She let her hand drop, feeling her arms wrap around herself as she prepared to hear an answer she didn't want to hear.

Sam blinked. "Is what you?"

She sighed. "Did I do something to upset you?"

His features softened. "No, of course not. You've done nothing wrong-"

"Then why are you avoiding me?"

He gulped. "I'm… I'm just tired, I guess." He slowly shook his head, "I'm sorry. I think I need to go take a walk."

Annabeth hugged herself tighter. "Okay."

He nodded shortly, and hurried out of the room without another word.

She let out a long breath. Well, that was certainly odd. At least he wasn't upset with her.

So what's bothering him?

She bit her lip. This is another mystery she was going to need to uncover.

Annabeth smiled to herself. Too bad for Sam, she was going to find out what's going on in his head one way or another.

.

.

.

.

An hour later, both Winchesters found themselves wandering back into the hotel room, where Annabeth had been decisively taking notes on the dream root and going over possibilities of what to expect in their absence.

Dean plopped down on the bed and explained that Bela had gotten a room in some fancy hotel a few blocks away as Sam started preparing the root.

Annabeth looked over at Sam curiously as he finished with three cups of liquid containing the Dream Root, and turned to them with determined eyes. "These are for us."

Sam handed Dean a cup and then turned to hand Annabeth hers, where she was still sitting as far away from him as possible on her bed. He pursed his lips, but didn't blame her considering how weird he was acting in her presence.

Dean looked between the two, eyebrows raised in a silent question.

Annabeth looked away.

"Uh, should we dim the lights and synch up 'Wizard of Oz' to 'Dark Side of the Moon?'"

Annabeth looked back to Dean and rolled her eyes. Sam looked at his brother with a small smile. "Why?"

Dean let out a low huff of disappointment. "What did you do during college?"

Sam glared at his brother before shaking his head.

Dean sighed, then went to drink out of the cup only to be stopped by Annabeth lunging over and stopping him from doing so. "Wait, we need Bobby and Persie's essence!" she exclaimed, making Sam look at her in shock.

"How did you-"

"I've dealt with this before, you know that."

Sam nodded, and pulled out two small brown envelopes. "I have hair from both of them, but the problem is I'm not sure if we can put both in at the same time."

"Which means one of us will have to go into one person's mind while the other two have to go into the other person's mind," Dean summed up, looking a little pained at the thought.

"Yeah," Sam said, looking between the two carefully. "Who should do it, then?"

"You mean, which one of us gets to go venture into Tartarus and which one of us gets to venture into the hell that Bobby must be facing after years of hunting monsters?" Annabeth asked.

Sam could see the tension between Annabeth and Dean. They both loved Persie, but neither of them wanted to put themselves in front of the other in their feelings. Obviously Dean loved Bobby and Annabeth respected him, but he knew his brother like the back of his hand.

"Are you sure you want to see that place again?" Sam asked the blonde woman.

Her face was slightly pale. "I'm the only one of us who has been there, and I have a good feeling on where she is in the pit."

Dean closed his eyes. "I need to-"

"Help Persie?" Sam cut him off with a raised brow. "Yeah, you do. I'll get Bobby out, the two of you need to go help her."

"Alright, gimme us a piece of her hair," Dean said, gesturing to the envelopes. "Let's go get our people."

Sam handed a piece of long black hair to both Annabeth and Dean, who sprinkled it into their drink.

"Can't believe we actually gotta drink hair," Dean muttered, swirling it around with a grimace.

"That's how you control whose dream you're entering," Annabeth explained, looking a little disgusted herself. "You have to drink some of their… well, some of their body."

Dean raised a brow. "I can assure you there are other pieces of her body that I would rather-"

"Di Immortales, Winchester, just drink the damn hair!" Annabeth exclaimed. Sam started to chuckle as Dean shrugged one of his shoulders, obviously not sorry or embarrassed at his words.

As Sam finished putting one of Bobby's hairs into his own drink, Dean raised his glass. "Bottoms up."

"Salud," Annabeth raised hers.

"Yeah," Sam added with another chuckle before they all downed it.

"Ugh," Annabeth grounded out, feeling her body shudder. It was disgusting as it looked, she decided, as she struggled to swallow the concoction. A mix between spoiled milk and toothpaste is how she could describe it.

Dean smacked his lips, his face squishing at the awful taste it left behind. He shook his head, looking at Annabeth curiously. "Feel anything?"

"Nope," she said, looking back down at the drink in distrust.

"Maybe we got some bad shwag," Dean said with a small shrug.

Her eyebrows furrowed. "But where's Sam?"

She blinked, and looked over at the bed that Sam had just been sitting on… and it wasn't there?

And what were they sitting on? They were on a ledge, and it suddenly got a whole lot darker than it was before. She looked down at her hands. They were misty, old, and withered as though the flesh was sagging off the bone.

Annabeth gulped. "I think it worked."

She looked over at Dean and was able to make out his own misty ghoul form in the darkness.

"No shit," he muttered, looking down at his own body with wide eyes. "What the fuck happened to us?"

Voices echoed in the mist.

Arguing voices that seemed very familiar and that continued to haunt her nightmares even now.

She held up a hand, silencing Dean who opened his mouth to add more commentary. "I'll explain later, but we need to move."

He looked at the darkness that shrouded them and seemed to poke at their misty bodies as if it was trying to break through. To get inside them… and do God knows what. He pursed his lips and gave her a stiff nod.

She grabbed his arm which felt oddly solid under her fingers, and pulled him along the edgeless darkness, searching for something that looked familiar.

"You said you had a feeling that you knew where she'd be," Dean pressed as they continued to walk without an end in sight. Granted, they couldn't see farther than a foot in front of them, which made it worse. "Is this-"

Annabeth jolted to a stop just as a scream rang out in the darkness.

Dean felt his knees threaten to buckle underneath him. "Seph," he rasped.

"This is the Mansion of Night," Annabeth choked out, feeling her own fears start to seep through her veins and take over. "This is where…"

He looked down at her carefully. "Where what?"

"Unspeakable things happened here," She muttered, blinking rapidly as she felt the memories threaten to consume her. "We need to find Persie and get out of here."

"You didn't talk about this place when you told us about the pit," Dean pointed out.

Annabeth looked up at him, and it was then Dean realized just the amount of trauma they must have faced in the walls of this Mansion of Night. "I'm not sure we could talk about it even if we wanted to."

He felt a retort at the tip of his tongue but stopped short. Seph was their priority. "Do you know where she might be in this Mansion?"

She swallowed hard. "Yes. Yes, I do." Her brows furrowed and her back straightened as she faced the direction the scream came from. "Follow me."

Dean noticed that her persona seemed to shift in a near instant as she quickly started to navigate the halls, her hand on a black dagger that magically appeared in her hand.

He blinked, but didn't bother saying anything as he followed the determined woman through the darkness to find the person they both loved.

It became obvious that they were getting close to where Persie was when the screams became more pronounced and other voices could be heard.

There were two low, gruff demonic voices that echoed the halls as they slowly stalked forward. And then there was Persie.

"Behold the endless darkness."

"You are all alone."

"Stop, please!"

"We are only doing what you have done to countless others. Innocent people, who you tarnished with your anger. You were their undoing."

"I-I I'm sorry!"

Dean stiffened at the choking sound she made and struggled to move forward.

"You will drown from the darkness until it consumes you."

"Give in, Persephone. Give in, and let it take you over."

"N-No!"

He felt his eyes start to water at the sheer amount of fear in her voice, mixed with more sounds of choking, as if she were being hounded by water and waterboarded.

"Then we will take from you."

"We will take your innocence as you have stripped it away from so many others."

A long, guttural scream sounded through the darkness.

Annabeth took off in a sprint. "Not this time, you won't!" she yelled.

Within moments, Dean realized two things. One, demigods must have a lot better eyesight than he was ever gifted with. And two, demons in the pit were a lot uglier than the meatsuits they inhabited in the normal world.

Well, he also learned just how vicious Annabeth was with her dagger.

She lunged at the two demons that came into Dean's line of sight a few seconds after Annabeth made her move, and in two strong moves, the demons burst into mist around her.

He took two more steps, and nearly let out a sob at the sight of Persie.

She was chained to a wall and as pale as death, and not just from the ghoulish features she wore. She was breathing heavily and started to cry when she realized that she wasn't alone any longer, which had him lunging to her form and in a moment he realized what he held in his right hand.

A key.

He blinked, staring down at it in awe.

"You wished to free her, so you can," Annabeth told him, recognizing the shock on his features. She held up her dagger for a point. "Just as I wished to slay the creatures I have had nightmares of for years. We control this dream now."

Persie blinked up at the two of them, her sea green eyes starting to clear from the fear-induced haze they had been in. "This is a dream?"

Dean slowly crouched down at her side and cupped her cheek with a steady hand. "We're here to get you out, Seph. Do you remember what you were investigating with Bobby?"

She blinked a few more times as he fumbled with the key as he put into the lock, and officially broke her from her chains.

"Uncle B…" she mumbled. "Dreams… someone was keeping people locked in their dreams…"

Annabeth knelt down at Persie's other side. "Someone has been keeping you in this dream for too long, Seaweed Brain. It's time we got out of here."

"There… there was someone else here," Persie said slowly, looking around the darkness as if it would provide some hidden answer. "There was someone else here."

"The person who was controlling your dreams?" Annabeth asked.

Dean reached around Persie and pulled her slowly to his side. "It doesn't seem like he's here any longer."

"So he must be in Bobby's dream at the moment," the blonde deduced. "Which means Sam-"

"Sammy's gonna take him out," Dean finished, slowly helping Persie into a standing position. "He wouldn't let him continue to do this."

Annabeth nodded. "Then let's try to get out of the Mansion at least. Do you think-"

Dean jolted up on the bed, and his arms felt empty. He quickly sat up to see Sam and Annabeth waking up just as violently, and let out a huff. "We need to get to the hospital."