WORD COUNT: 1,500+

DISCLAIMER: I don't own PJO, Rick does.

Random note: ... I betcha the next person that talks to you, will be someone that breathes. ;)


Annabeth's POV

11:34 P.M. The clock on the wall read.

I yawned and stretched out on my sofa. I should've probably gone to bed earlier, but I must have lost track of time during the movie. I pushed someone's head off my lap and slowly trudged to a bed, slipping under the soft covers. My eyelids felt heavy and closed shut as I fell into a deep sleep, dreaming.

~Dream~

I stood in the far corner of my cabin in Camp Half Blood and walked toward the door. Everything looked very dim and grey, like the old silent films back then, except this wasn't a movie and there weren't any lights at all. I tried my best to move toward the door without tripping. I looked around and saw Malcolm on the floor randomly playing with a ball, looking very depressed.

"Malcolm," I said, getting his attention.

He looked at me with a blank expression, his hands not letting go of the ball. "Yeah?"

"Why is everything so dark?" I asked.

He looked down at the ball in his hands. "The power went out in camp and no one knows why. All the lights are off, so no one is allowed outside."

"Where is everyone?"

Malcolm shrugged. "Dunno. I think they're still at camp, but everything is so quiet so I'm not sure."

"Okay, thanks," I told him. He nodded and I headed out the door. I got the odd feeling that he wasn't telling me everything. Why was he so down? Where was everyone? And why were the lights off?

Once I stepped out the door, it slammed into my back and I stumbled outside, looking back at the door in shock. I banged my fist against the door. "Open the door, Malcolm," I demanded. I continued to hit the door a couple times.

Silence. There was no answer at all. Suddenly, my gut told me something was definitely wrong. I tried twisting the doorknob but it was locked. Sighing, I turned away from the cabin and decided to go to Percy's cabin, hoping to have him help me and actually tell me what was going on. My vision was already adjusting to the darkness and it wasn't a problem for me to walk to the cabin.

I knocked on his door. No answer. I knocked again. Still no answer. I twisted the knob and pushed. Much to my surprise, it opened and creaked loudly.

"Hello?" I called softly to the dark room. I stepped inside, surveying the area. The bed sheet was on the floor, the random stuff on the shelves were all knocked off onto the floor, and there were odd sized dents on the wall with a giant cut into it. It was as ff someone about Tyson's size was thrown against the wall and Mrs. O'leary with claws and clawed the wall, that was exactly what it looked like.

My fingers skimmed the dent and cut. Both of them seemed very fresh as if it had happened while I was talking to my half-brother but the funny thing was that I never heard anything. With nothing else to see and Percy clearly not being here, I turned to exit the room.

"Where is everyone?" I wondered out loud. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I needed to search the other cabins to make sure I wasn't the only one who was suspicious here.

Suddenly, I appeared in the Hermes cabin. I peeked through the crack on the side of the door as yelled, "ANYONE-"

I was cut off by someone pulling me inside. Before I had time to react, I was pulled into a tight hug. "I can't believe they didn't catch you!" A familiar female exclaimed.

"Rachel?" I asked, surprised.

"In the flesh," she smiled, her red hair slightly dulled by the dark, her eyes shining brightly. "What cabins did you go to?" Rachel asked me, worriedly.

"Percy's," I said.

She sighed in relief and I looked at her weirdly. Rachel caught my look and explained. "Sorry, it's just that I was worried you would be caught by something. I don't know what is happening but, we need to stick together. I get the feeling that something caused this on purpose."

"I know! I get that feeling too! I think we shouldn't stay in one place for a long time. We need to look around camp and confront whoever is doing this."

"I completely agree with you. Either way, I need to stretch my legs."

"'Kay. Let's go."

We both decided to go to Zeus' cabin, for it seemed less likely to have someone to be there. As soon as I took one step out the door, two figures crashed into me, making me land on my behind with a thud.

"Oww," I groaned.

"Oops. Sorry, Annabeth," one of the figures, named Jason Grace, said as he offered a hand to me.

I took his hand and hauled myself up. "Thanks, Jason. I so needed to be pushed to the ground. What are you two doing here?"

"To help you with this problem... and Rachel found us here a while ago too," Grover said.

"Ohh... oops," Rachel said, now remembering. "Yeah, I found these two in the cafeteria."

I raised a brow. "Doing what?"

"Eating enchiladas. Well, Grover was. Jason was just screaming about Barney."

I snickered loudly. "Didn't know you watched Barney, Jason."

Jason blushed. "I don't. Thalia turned on that show to scare me and I've been having nightmares ever since." He shivered. "Never again."


Place: Cafeteria

"Woah," I said to no one in particular. I was in the cafeteria, sitting on a table. There was a light coming from the kitchen and I didn't think it was creepy at all. But suddenly, its lights flickered on and off and I heard the subtle sound of something scraping a saucepan. That was so not creepy at all.

"Anyone there?" I called uselessly to the sound.

Silence.

"Hello?"

Silence.

"Jason?"

No one.

"Grover?"

Still no one.

"Rachel?"

I jumped off the table and slowly walked to the kitchen. I stood behind the wall with my back against it, breathing quietly. The scraping of the pan continued as I turned to look inside. A woman dressed in a white dress with long black hair, stood there. Her pale hand held a wooden spoon which was stirring something inside of the pot. A pot. Not a pan. A pot. There's a difference right? No? Okay.

Anyway, I walked to her and looked inside of the POT as quietly as I could. My eyes widened as I realized what was in there. Blood. A pot of blood. It made my stomach churn at the smell and sight of it. My eyes grew wider as I turned to look at the woman's face, which had black eyes and lips that were lifeless. But that wasn't the thing that had me in a state of horror.

It was the word 'smile' written across her forehead, in blood. I looked around the room and covered my mouth, gasping. My friends, which I saw moments ago, hung lifelessly on the wall. All of them had the same words as the woman's on their head also. Unfortunately, the woman decided in that moment to notice me and stopped stirring.

Are. You. Serious?!

The woman's lips curled into evil smirk. She dropped her spoon onto the floor and splatters of the red substance stained the wooden floor as she lunged at me with her pale long hands, grabbing my arms. I threw kicks and punches at her repeatedly, trying to remove her from me.

"Annabeth..." She said, over and over as I whimpered in fear. "Annabeth..."

Then everything went black.

~End of dream~

"Ow. Ow. Ow! Annabeth, stop it!" Someone shouted to me, pinning my arms down.

I didn't listen to him and screamed, "Bloody murder! Get off me, you crazy woman!" and threw a hard punch to her.

"Ouch! I'm not a woman!" A familiar male yelled to me. "Open your eyes!"

I opened them and touched my arms, sighing after I found that it was all just a dream. I looked toward the side of the bed, seeing Percy rubbing his now bruised cheek. Oh, I wasn't being grabbed by woman. It was Percy who was pinning me down and I had punched him in the face. Oops.

"I'm so sorry; I didn't know it was you!" I exclaimed. "Also, what are you doing here in my apartment?!"

He gave me a small glare. "I live here and you stayed over." Double oops. "Then one morning, I hear screaming in the morning and I went to check on you. Turns out, you were having some strange dream and your arms and legs were flying everywhere. So I pinned you down and tried to wake you up, but then you hit me on the face!"

"Would it help if I said that my arm slipped?"

Percy gave me a pointed look.

I groaned, pushing my hair over my shoulder and pouted. "Aw... do you want a kiss there?"

He nodded, looking like a wounded puppy. Smiling, I came over to him and gave a light peck and he grinned.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked.

He shook his head, still grinning. "Nope. Do you want to know why?"

"Why?"

"Because your hits are very weak."

"PERCY!" I smacked him on the back of his head.

"Ow! That hurts!"

Smiling, I ruffled his hair as I got up and said, "Happy Birthday."


A/N: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PERCY!

Oi, I was basically dying when I had to wait until today to post this because I wanted to post this on EXACTLY August 18, but it's worth the wait. :)

If this can 20 reviews from now until this Sunday, I will post another chapter immediately. But if not, you're going to have to wait one week for it since I'm probably not going to be on.

~A.G.I.

P.S. Thank you if you reviewed. :)