Chapter 18

Light was all around me. I could hear Luke crying "no" over and over. "I'm not going back!" Luke screamed.

He was being pulled from my body. I could hear a gunshot and screams. What was going on? Suddenly my limbs felt as if, I was on fire. It felt like something was being pulled from my back. I shut my eyes and screamed. "Come on, Percy! Fight back! I can't do this without your help!" a voice screamed.

The voice was Nico's. "I don't know what to do!" I yelled.

"Find the strength to push Luke's soul out of your body!" Nico shouted back.

I felt inside my pocket. Backbiter was still there. How? I had given it to Annabeth. Well, I didn't have time to figure it out. I uncapped Backbiter and pointed the sword to my chest. "Find the will" Nico had said. I stabbed Backbiter through my chest. It burned. Luke's screams filled the air. The light around me started to clear. Forcing my eyes open, I found that I was lying on the ground. Nico had Backbiter in his hand and Luke's soul on the tip of the sword. The skeletons Nico had called earlier came forward. Each grabbed one of Luke's limbs and dragged him in the crack in the ground, back to the Underworld. The crack in the ground closed. Nico stood a few feet in front of me. He had Backbiter stabbed in the ground so it could support him. "That...was...fun," he panted.

I just laid there. Luke was finally gone. I remembered the gunshot and the screams. Who had gotten shot? I slowly moved my head on the ground. My heart almost stopped. Annabeth laid on the ground with a bullet wound going right through her lung. She was breathing heavily. Thalia held her. I forced myself to stand up. "Annabeth!" I cried, stumbling over to her and Thalia.

Tears ran down Thalia's cheeks. "Luke...shot her before you broke free."

I knelt down next to Annabeth. She smiled at me. She WAS NOT going to die. An idea passed through my mind. I picked Annabeth up in my arms. "What are you doing?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth choked up blood. She laid her head against my chest. "Percy..." she muttered.

"Where is Blackjack?" I demanded.

"All the Pegasus are waiting outside. But where are you-" I didn't stick around to listen to what Thalia was going to say.

"Nico!" I yelled. "Come on!"

Nico ran after me. When I got to the door, my friends were waiting for us. Chris and Clarisse started pushing the doors open. Katie and Jake helped Connor and Travis stand up. Cold wind blew in my face. Hey, boss! Blackjack greeted.

I didn't answer and ran over to him. Everyone started climbing on their Pegasus. I put Annabeth on Blackjack's back. Then I climbed on and sat behind her. "Nico, we need to shadow travel," I said.

"What?" Nico said.

"Annabeth isn't going to make it if you don't help us shadow travel!" I yelled.

Nico took a few moments to think about what I would do to him if he could of helped save Annabeth, but didn't. He looked at me and nodded. Nico climbed on his Pegasus. I could tell Nico had barely any energy left. Thalia threw a cell phone to me. "Call us when you get there. Then get rid of the phone."

Suddenly we were surrounded by darkness. There were strange noises all around us. "W-What's going on...?" Annabeth asked.

I wrapped my arms around her. "Sssh," I brushed her hair. "We're going to get help."

Then we were standing by a hospital. The mist helped us being unnoticed. The mortals around probably thought Blackjack was a motorcycle. Quickly, I climbed off Blackjack and picked Annabeth up. Nico weakly got down from his Pegasus. We rushed to the Emergency Room. Annabeth was starting to close her eyes. "Stay awake, Annabeth!" I told her.

The doors to the Emergency Room opened. "Help!" I cried.

Doctors and nurses came rushing toward us. They laid Annabeth on a bed and started to push her away. "Annabeth." I tried to follow them, but a nurse held me back.

Nico put a hand on my shoulder. My heart was beating a thousand miles an hour. "Where are we?" those were the only words I could say.

"San Francisco," Nico panted.

"I'd better walk a couple of miles and call Thalia," I sighed.

"No, no." Nico put up his hands. "Let me."

"No. Really, Nico, it's okay. I'll do it. Plus, you need to rest anyway."

"Percy, they're going to want to know what happened to Annabeth," Nico said. "You're better at coming up with excuses then me."

He grabbed the phone and walked out the doors. A nurse walked up to me. "You're the boy who brought the girl with the gunshot wound, right?"

"Is Annabeth going to be alright?" I demanded.

"Right now, she's in critical condition," the nurse sighed. "We'll have to keep her over night. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

I shook my head. She smiled weakly and we sat down on some nearby chairs. "What is her name again?" the nurse asked.

"Annabeth Chase."

The nurse started writing on a clipboard. "How did this happen?" she asked.

"Annabeth, my other friend, Nico, and I were shooting targets. She fired the gun and somehow the bullet bounced back and hit her."

"And where were you shooting targets?"

"Uh... We were at Annabeth's house, in her backyard." I remembered Annabeth's dad lived in San Francisco.

Nico came through the doors. "That was fast," I said.

The nurse stood up. "Is there a number we can contact you by?"

I glanced at Nico. "Uh, I think we'll be staying here."

The nurse nodded and went back to her desk. I turned to Nico. "How'd you get back so fast?" I asked.

"Percy, we don't have to use cell phones. I just sent an Iris Message to Thalia." Nico shrugged.

"Oh," I nodded. "How long will it be until the others get here?"

"Thalia said a few hours. Oh, and I sent Blackjack and my Pegasus back to Camp Half-Blood," Nico said.

We sat in the waiting room chairs for hours. No one told us anything and they wouldn't let us go back to see Annabeth. I didn't think Luke would actually try to kill Annabeth or even Thalia. "Thanks, Nico," I said.

"For what?" he asked.

"Removing Luke's soul from my body."

"It was nothing."

The doors opened and Thalia came racing in. The others weren't far behind. "Where's Annabeth?" Thalia demanded.

"She's in critical condition, right now," I said. "They won't let anyone see her."

Thalia made a face and sat next to me. Connor limped in and sat next to Travis. We waited. Finally a nurse came out. "Annabeth Chase?" she read off her clipboard.

I stood up, so did everyone else. The nurse said, "Uh...could I just see one of you? Is one of you is named Percy?"

"Yeah. I am." I raised my hand.

The nurse nodded and motioned for me to follow her. Thalia mouthed the word Go to me. I followed the nurse. She took me down a hallway. "How did you know one of us was named Percy?" I asked.

"Miss Chase has been asking for you. She either asks, "Where's Percy?" or "Is Percy okay?". So you're her boyfriend, I take it?" the nurse said.

I nodded. "Yeah."

The nurse smiled and continued down the hallway. We came to a window. I looked in. Doctors were working on Annabeth. The monitors around her were beeping slowly. She was barely alive. "She is in critical condition. I'm very sorry to say, but I would be surprised if she made it through the night. She can hardly breath. That bullet went straight through her left lung." the nurse shook her head.

I pressed my forehead against the glass that separated me from Annabeth. Tears ran down my cheeks. I couldn't let Annabeth die. "It's getting late," the nurse pointed out. "You should probably get some sleep."

Weakly, I nodded and walked back to the waiting room. "Well?" Thalia demanded.

"They don't think she'll make it over night," I muttered.

Thalia almost instantly started to tear up. Grover hung his head. "Does anyone have a coin?" I asked.

Pollux felt inside his pocket and threw me a coin. I went to the bathroom and turned the sink on. "Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please except my offering." I threw the coin in the water.

Annabeth's dad was messing around in his study with some model airplanes. "Mr. Chase?" I said.

He jumped and turned around. "You're Annabeth's friend, Percy, right?" he said a little shocked.

I nodded. "Look, we have a problem. Annabeth was shot and the doctors here don't know if she's going to make it. Can you come and pick me and a few of my friends up? We kind of haven't slept in a long time," I said.

"What happened to Annabeth?" Mr. Chase demanded.

"I'll explain when you pick us up," I told him.

Mr. Chase pursed his lips. "I'll be there in about fifth teen minutes."

The image disappeared. I went back out to the waiting room. "Annabeth's dad will be picking us up in fifth teen minutes," I told my friends.

"Whoa. Wait, I'm not leaving, Percy. Not until I know Annabeth is alright or..." Thalia couldn't finish.

"We all need a good night's sleep. We'll come back tomorrow, okay?" I said.

Thalia looked at the floor. I didn't want to leave either, but I hadn't slept well in weeks. A van pulled up in the parking lot. Mr. Chase walked in. "Can I see Annabeth?" he asked us.

"They let me see her, but only for a few minutes. She isn't aloud the have visitors right now," I said.

The nurse from before came back out. "Are you Miss Chase's father?" she asked.

"Yes," Mr. Chase said.

He started talking with the nurse and gave her his home and cell phone number. We piled into his small van. Most of us had to double buckle. Travis and Connor rode in the trunk. When we got back to Mr. Chase's house it was like two in the morning. Mr. Chase's house was pretty big, so we all got our own bedrooms. I fell asleep in five minutes. For once, I didn't dream.