Chapter 2: Her Life
Third Person
"Annabeth, wake up! Come on, you can't die on me!" Piper yelled trying to wake up her best friend from the semi-unconscious, extremely injured state she was in. She had every right to be worried as the girl lying in front of her was bleeding profusely. Her long blonde hair were almost red, her dress was ripped to shreds near her abdomen where there was a large knife wound, slightly tinted green and her wrist was not facing where it should've been.
As worried as her best friend was, dying right now didn't seem like a bad option to Annabeth. After all, a pain-free afterlife in Elysium with maybe some bonus points for not doing any drastically bad things in the sixteen years of her existence would be nice for a change.
It certainly would have been an understatement, if she said her life had been uneventful. Left at an orphanage by parents she didn't know, she was an inferus which itself was a crime in her society that people made sure she was punished for. She was first adopted when she was six. Actually, adopted was the wrong word, the correct one was enslaved. Until then, she was one of the only girls who were being educated along with her best friend piper who was just a few months younger to her and had come to the Orphanage for Inferus Females when she was three. Her first job was comparatively simpler; she just had to keep Khione, the daughter of a minor noble along with her best friend Piper; if keeping company meant waiting at hand and foot. Even when she was seven, Khione managed to be a snobby, conceited bitch and was the stereotypical spoiled girl. Annabeth & Piper cleaned her messy bedroom and wardrobe did small chores and that was it. They, fortunately/unfortunately were fired when Annabeth told Khione how snobby she was and they were back at the orphanage after a year where they continued learning.
Even as an inferus, Annabeth knew a lot more than an average seven year old would and was doing middle school courses much to Piper's dismay. Life was more or less peaceful until the time they were nine. At this time, Piper had started middle school courses while Annabeth had finished them. Why these two girls were being educated was still a mystery for the children and many adults.
This time they were hired again as workers for Lady Hestia's sewing business, while Annabeth was fired within two months for she could hardly hold a needle correctly , much less sew; Piper managed to sustain her job for a longer period working there for thirteen months before returning to the orphanage. The girls had another two peaceful years at the orphanage during which they had Annabeth had almost completed the school courses and Piper wasn't far behind.
The real hell began when they were twelve. Again both of them(she couldn't figure out why were they always hired together. Not that she was complaining.) were hired by Lady Hera, a noble who was detested by many civilians and almost her whole community. She along with her two children, Drew and Ethan made life a living hell for the girls. The twins were ten times worse than Khione, not to mention cruel. Soon after Lady Hera died, living with them became like being stuck in Tartarus with no means of escape. It was horrid. The twins expected to be called Master and Mistress and were intent on torturing the girls in every possible way: mental and physical. Ethan hardly ever beat them but Drew and her boyfriends…. They took every possible chance to make them miserable especially Piper whereas Ethan paid more attention to Annabeth, to put it simply. This continued for at least four years. In fact, it was only a week ago that all this mess really began.
Drew had gone to live with one of her boyfriends and Piper was allowed to return to the orphanage, however, Ethan was staying in, so naturally he expected 'his favourite servant' to stay with him.
As soon as Piper stepped out, Annabeth came face to face with the man's true brash attitude. He was harsher than ever and use of physical force was also quite excessive. He brought in quite a lot of women and Annabeth was expected to wait on them. Even a delay of three seconds would send him in a rage.
"Woman, clean the bedroom." He told her early in the morning. Annabeth hurried in the room not wanting to anger the beast. She seriously and utterly hated her society.
Entering the room, she was extremely surprised to find it clean without a speck of dust. Confused as she was, she tried to hurry out just to have Ethan block her way out.
"Going somewhere, Annie?" He asked in a husky voice as he stepped closer backing her up against the wall and then kissing her neck. Panic rising, she pushed him and muttered a string of curse words; she would've reprimanded Piper for using.
The guy just smirked and pushed Annabeth on the bed. In the spur of the moment, she kicked him in the most inappropriate spot a guy can be kicked in and ran out. Ethan grabbed her leg and pulled her back taking up his knife and stabbing her in the stomach. Annabeth thanked whichever god created adrenaline, for she didn't know how she managed to trip the guy tangling him in the quilt and stabbing him in the leg. But as luck would have it, she tripped on her way down the stairs and banged her head pretty hard drawing an awful lot amount of blood, barely managing to reach the orphanage before falling and ending up in her current position.
"Annie, please!" Piper's voice broke her out of her reverie. "Will she make it?"
"Yes, she will," she heard an unfamiliar voice say, probably doctor, Will Solace.
Deciding it was time to assure Piper, she opened her eyes and said "Don't call me Annie," before passing out.