Annabeth
"Percy, if there is so much as a hint of alcohol at this party…"
"Don't worry wise girl, it's not like we'll be drinking any." I frowned at my boyfriend but carried on walking.
The two of us were walking down busy streets that were brimming with life and car fumes. The bustle of traffic intertwined with the colossal buildings made the perfect example of life in Manhattan. We were headed to a house party that we had been invited to or Percy had rather, by a girl named Lucy and although I didn't much like the idea, I was happy to go if my seaweed brain was.
I was wearing my favourite grey owl t-shirt and skinny jeans, my owl earing dangling securely from my ears. Percy had a blue shirt on (which could definitely do with some ironing) and denim shorts. His black hair was in its usual messy state and despite my urges to flatten it, it was one of the things I couldn't help but love about him.
The last two days had gone very quickly ever since Jesse's incident with Mark. I was still extremely curious about what Mrs Dodds had said to him as Percy had told me that he didn't seem quite right at lunch. We had been meaning to ask her but couldn't find her yesterday. What also made me curious was how Jesse had managed to stand up and knock Mark unconscious after such a beating.
I turned to Percy, my thoughts clouded with ideas and possible dilemmas. "Percy I've been thinking. What if Jesse is one of us as well?"
He paused for a moment, his sea green eyes rolling with thoughts. "I honestly don't know. Even if he was, who would he be the child of? I don't remember there being a god for taking a kick in the balls."
This got me thinking as well; he couldn't be a child of the big three otherwise we would be seeing more than just Alecto at school, and he didn't resemble any of the other gods of Olympus.
"The house is just round the corner I think." Said Percy, gesturing to the end of the street. We turned round the right corner and stopped in our tracks, seeing a familiar head of shaggy black hair waiting for us about twenty five metres down the street outside one of the houses.
"Nico?" Percy said in evident surprise. I looked at Percy with a mutual expression. He had a troubled expression on his face as he stared the pavement down, did he have news from camp?
Ever since the end of the war we've all been pretty distant from each other but none more than Nico. Piper told me that after Diocletian's tomb, he would rarely meet anyone's eyes and suddenly seemed to develop a strong bond with Jason. During the war I thought he had seemed to become much closer to the group but after, he became a little despondent. Maybe he just wanted some time alone.
We drew closer to Nico and he turned, noticing us. His previously dark and brooding face lighting up somewhat.
"Nico, what are you doing here?" I asked him.
He looked at me grimly. "Looking for you two."
"Aw come on, we're not that bad are we?" Percy joked but Nico's expression remained unfazed.
I punched seaweed brain on the arm and continued. "Did you talk to Chiron?"
"Yeah…" He replied. "He said he would send a satyr to investigate and in the meantime, you two should try not to create any attention."
"Well that's not going to be an easy feat." I stated, gesturing at Percy.
"Love you too." He replied with a smile, then turning to Nico. "If that's what he said, then why the whole apprehensive expression?"
Nico looked at Percy- though not directly- very seriously. "There's something not quite right at camp, but I don't know what yet."
"How can you tell?" I asked after a pause.
"It's like my ability to sense death, I can feel something… something wrong." Nico trailed off, a frown encompassing his features.
We stood in silence for a moment, taking in Nico's words. I looked down at the pavement like Nico had done earlier, my thoughts a raging cloud of mind maps and possibilities. Percy was the first to break the silence.
"Well the camp borders haven't weakened at all have they?"
"No," Nico responded. "Not as far as I know anyway. Chiron would've told me if they had."
"Then there shouldn't be much threat from monsters from the outside, and the gods wouldn't allow the camp to be breached… especially now." Percy said with a small amount confidence.
"I don't know." Nico sighed gruffly. "Anyway, I better get going."
"So soon?" I asked.
"Yes, my dad seemed a bit unsettled last time I saw him."
"Oh, ok." I replied and with that he vanished in a cloud of shadowy tendrils. "You don't think Hades being troubled and something wrong at camp could be linked do you?" I asked Percy.
He looked at me through rich sea green eyes. "I hope not… but in the meantime, we have a party to attend."
With that he took me by the hand and led me to a fairly large three storey yellow house with stairs leading up to the front door, a brass door handle sat timidly on the front of it. Percy just rang the doorbell. The door opened a few moments later to reveal Lucy and a hallway littered with people from our grade.
"Hi guys!" She chirped cheerily. "Come on in."
Percy held the door open for me and gestured me inside, all gentleman-like.
"Percy, I can open the door myself you know."
"What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I didn't?" He replied casually.
"One that's not a complete seaweed brain," I sighed but in good humour, and walked in.
The party wasn't much of what I expected. There were no drunken guys running around with no shirts, there was no couple in the corner making out and no loud dance music. It was nice.
Lucy's parents were home so there was a limit on the drinks which I was happy about, alcoholic beverages do really bad things to your mind especially if you're a demigod. That does of course exclude children of Dionysus who are practically made for drinking. There was a pretty big turnout overall, considering this was more of just a get together rather than a party. Mark's two friends had turned up but sat in a corner and kept themselves to themselves, which was fine by me.
Me and Percy spent most of the time chatting to people and trying to make the time go faster and unsurprisingly, it didn't. That is until a tall African-American guy by the name of Trey, came over to us. Percy and I were standing in the kitchen by ourselves and Percy was pouring out some coke out for us when Trey came through the door.
"Hey guys, you enjoying the party?" He started with a jolly expression on his face.
Percy turned to face him. "Yeah, I don't think you've met Annabeth yet have you? Annabeth," He said gesturing to him. "This is Trey. Trey this is my girlfriend Annabeth."
"Nice to meet you." He said shaking my hand. "Percy, you didn't tell me you were dating a supermodel."
"Trust me, Annabeth beats any supermodel by a mile." He said, laughing and I couldn't help but feel my face sizzle.
"Is Jesse not with you?" I asked him.
"Err, no, he's not. He had to stay home and look after Rebecca and Shane."
"Shane?" Percy asked.
"The moody looking kid he sometimes hangs around with." I remember Jesse walking with a messy haired boy in school once, that must have been him. "They both live with him and he doesn't want to leave them alone in the house, he can sometimes be a bit too paranoid.
He may be paranoid but if our guess is correct, a monster could attack them at any time and I doubt Rebecca would be able to defend herself against a fully grown hellhound. Best he stays with them.
"Are they his brother and sister?" Percy asked, which I was also wondering.
"No, they're not." Trey answered.
"Oh, well then where are their parents?" Continued Percy, talking about their mortal parents although I don't think Trey knew that.
Trey rubbed the back of his neck looking determinedly at the floor. "Well, umm, I think Jesse would prefer to tell you this himself but since he never tells anyone… they don't have any parents. Well they do, just not with them anymore."
"Their orphans?" I questioned, quite taken aback.
"Yeah, or they used to be anyway. Their orphanage was shut down and they decided to live together instead of going to another."
"Couldn't they have tried to get adopted?" Percy interrogated.
"There aren't many families, if any, that will accept three orphans into their home."
There was short silence in which Percy and I took in the new information. Percy's gaze never left the wall opposite him, he was in another world entirely. I decided to break the ice, curiosity enforcing my question.
"Do you know what happened to their parents? If you don't mind me asking."
"Well Jesse I know comes from Sweden," That explains his accent then. "He said he never knew his father and his mother died a few years after they moved here. I think she had lung cancer and died when he was twelve."
More silenced pursued this statement and swept over the kitchen like a chilling wind. In the background, the sound of people playing spin the bottle could be heard, shouts travelling through the walls.
"What about the others?" Percy asked, unusually quiet. From his expression I could tell he didn't like hearing this.
Trey sighed, scratching his long arm. "Rebecca I'm not too sure about. I think she lived with her dad but he abandoned her. Jesse said she got adopted again but ran away because she didn't like the family. Shane ran away from his home, I don't know much about it though."
I sting of familiarity shot through me when I realised Rebecca was left alone much like I had been, and we both found a new family to live with. If they were demigods then we needed to get them to camp as soon as possible.
The rest of the party went pretty solemnly, we didn't talk to others as much as we had done and we didn't talk to Trey again after we parted in the kitchen. We decided to take our leave at about half eleven, said goodbye to everyone and left for home. Percy walked me to my apartment and asked again if I was sure I didn't want to live with him to which I replied that I was happy here.
He kissed me goodnight which left me buzzing till I fell asleep cosily in my owl sheet bed. My dream as usual, wasn't quite as nice as the bed I was in…
I was looking over camp half blood, from the perspective of a bird, soaring over the cabins and past the mess hall. Suddenly I was jerked forward, as though a hand had plucked me out of the air and pulled me toward the beach. I landed without impact on the sand and although it was a sunny day, I felt no warmth from the sun or the sand beneath my feet.
I gazed out to the water feeling as though there was something radiating from it. I studied the waves, watching them as they travelled toward me and broke onto the sand. I expected the water to retreat onto itself but it didn't, it stopped where it landed and waited for the next wave to break ashore, moving closer to where I stood.
I tried to turn and run but my feet had been engulfed by the sand. I struggled to escape but fell backwards and landed sitting, watching the ocean close in on me.
Then it stopped. Going from forceful four foot waves to complete still. Then a voice resonated from it, vibrating the sand underneath me and echoing in the woods behind me.
Under the cover of darkness we shall come,
Even the strongest amongst you shall succumb.
Through treachery and hate we shall claim our life,
And have our rule through your blindness and strife.
None of your kin shall live to tell the tale,
Of how demigod strength did naught but fail.
Wow, two weeks… I apologise deeply for having kept you waiting. I finished school the day after I published that last chapter so I've been a bit occupied, but don't worry, I stayed up till one o'clock in the morning to finish this for you guys :)
Mah wonderful reviewers: 'Guest' (the first one and possibly the last one if it's the same person :L I can never tell) I'm very happy you like it so much it means more than you imagine, I tried to slow down the pace in that chapter and I'm glad you like it. 'SirPepsi' I'm glad you're picking out the parts you most like, it helps me know my strengths in writing and thanks for all the continued support again! 'Jimsdale' It's nice that people enjoy these chapters and let me know but criticism is also appreciated, it helps me improve. That goes for all of you by the way. 'Noordinaryguest' haha I'm glad you picked up on that, clever you :P 'Me' Thanks for continued support, it means so much! Sorry if you're disappointed I went with Annabeth, don't worry though, I promise to do a Rebecca chapter. 'PJOfan and Guest' I'm sorry if I sound snarky guys but this has to be set straight, I don't want like one word reviews or people asking for more in reviews, it makes me feel under more pressure to submit faster and I want to take my time with this. I'm not in this for the reviews either so if I do get them, I would like them to be done properly, thanks.
Thanks for reading,
Have a beautiful day you lovely people and enjoy your summer!
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