Chapter 24
Annabeth opened her eyes. She would have liked to say that it was a dramatic flutter of the lashes, or something to that effect, but that wasn't the case. Her eyes simply just... opened. The first thing she noticed when she woke up was Percy. He was in an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair next to her. His head rested in his arms against the arm of the chair and he appeared to be asleep. The second thing that made itself clear to her was where she was. The couch in the Blofis-Jackson residence living room? For some reason, that didn't surprise her.
The third the she was aware of was the pain. Her head was pounding as if some heavily-muscled person was swinging a hammer into her skull. Repeatedly. She pressed her hand up to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. The pounding was almost rhythmic. It was agonizing. But what was the cause? I must have hit my head on the way out of the mansion, she reasoned with herself. But... how had she gotten out?
She noticed something else. Her hand was wrapped in something warm. She looked down. Percy's hand. How did she not realize that when she saw him? She smiled softly. She couldn't see his face, for it was hidden by his arms and his unruly black hair.
"Annabeth?" She looked up. Sally Jackson had just entered the room, clutching a gray mug so tightly that her knuckles were white. Annabeth was surprised that the handle hadn't snapped off. "Oh, you're awake!"
Sally swiftly strode over to the couch and set her mug down on the coffee table. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? You were in that house for such a long time, and I - we were scared that..."
"I'm fine, Mrs. Jackson," Annabeth assured her. "No broken bones, or anything like that. I just have a few scratches, and a little headache." Little, she scoffed at herself inwardly. That's a bit of an understatement.
"Ah, yes. Percy did mention something about hitting your head on the doorframe when he came in, or something like that."
"Percy- what do you mean? He... he carried me here?" Annabeth could not keep the surprise out of her voice. Then she felt ashamed. Why was she surprised? Percy was perfectly capable of doing something like that. He wouldn't have just left her in the mansion, even if it was to get help.
"Yeah, you should have seen him when he came in," laughed Sally. "His face was so red, and he could hardly breathe! I think it physically exhausted him." Sally's eyes softened. "He wouldn't go sleep, though. He wanted to stay with you, in case you woke up."
Annabeth blushed. Of course he did. That's exactly the kind of thing he would have done. Seaweed brain.
"Percy really cares about you, you know," said Sally, her eyes on her son's sleeping form. And possibly the place where their hands were still connected.
"Yeah," agreed Annabeth. "I know." She knew now, anyways.
"Do you want me to make you some tea or hot chocolate or something?" said Sally, maternal instincts taking over. "You have to at least have some water. Lots of water. After all of that-"
Annabeth laughed. It hurt to laugh. The pounding in her head became more insistent. She just wanted to lie back down on the couch and curl up in a ball. "It's fine. I'll drink some water, I promise, but I can get it."
Sally nodded and climbed up the stairs to the second story. Annabeth gently sat back, grasping her locket in her hand. It had survived the fire, and so had she. They were both survivors. For some reason, the locket felt warmer in her hands than usual.
She was just about to close her eyes and mull over the fact that ghosts did indeed exist when Percy stirred. He lifted hid head groggily, eyeing her. After a moment, he seemed to realize who she was. "Annabeth!" He shot up and his hand was pulled out of hers. Annabeth was quite sorry about this.
"You're awake! You're- Are you hurt? I was - I mean - I didn't mean to fall asleep," he said sheepishly.
"I'm okay," said Annabeth, deciding subconsciously it was best not to tell him about her ever-increasing headache. "You sound just like your mom. She just came in here and said all the same things."
No one spoke. The silence was like a platter made of ice. At any second, it could be dropped and shatter. Annabeth rather enjoyed just sitting in the quiet, watching Percy, trying to ignore the hammering in her head.
They both opened their mouths to speak. "I-"
They stopped. "You go first," Percy suggested.
"I'm sorry," confessed Annabeth. "It's all my fault you were in that mansion."
Percy snorted. "Are you serious? It's my fault that it burned in the first place! I should have tried harder to stop them."
"Well, I-"
"Look," sighed Percy, running and hand through his hair. "Let's not do that."
He stared at her once more, as if trying to decide what to say. "Do you wear contacts?"
Annabeth blinked. "What?"
"I mean... Did you wear contacts, and then take them off? Is that why your eyes are different?"
Annabeth shot up off the sofa. "Whoa! Annabeth!" The room blurred around her, and it was suddenly hard to feel her feet. Her head pounded worse than ever. Luckily, Percy had stood up just in time to steady her. "What- what's wrong?" stammered Percy.
"I want to see my eyes," Annabeth responded hoarsely.
Percy didn't respond. "Percy," she said, more sharply this time. "I want to see them."
He helped her lower herself back onto the couch and pulled out his phone. He turned it on. "Look at me," he instructed. Annabeth, feeling a bit too bewildered to argue, complied. His phone was pointed towards her. It made a clicking noise. What on Earth was he doing?
She leaned forward as he flipped the phone around, showing her the screen. "What-" She stopped. It was a picture of her, obviously just taken seconds ago. A picture of her and her unmistakably gray irises.
"Well, that's disturbing," she said dumbly.
"No kidding," muttered Percy, shoving his phone back in his pocket.
The action reminded Annabeth of something she wanted to tell Percy. "Oh!" she gasped, plunging her hand into her own pocket. Her fingers closed around a grimy piece of paper. "Percy," she started. "Something weird happened in that house. Something - something I'm going to explain, but you have to listen, and you... you can't think I'm crazy."
"What is it?" Percy asked warily. He eyes her suspiciously. "What's in your hand?"
Annabeth took a deep breath and pulled the letter out of her pocket. "While I was up on the 5th floor, I got angry. I started shouting and - and talking to the walls," She blushed a little at this part, "And I was talking to her, Percy. It all makes sense now. I - I understand it."
"Maybe you hit your head harder than I thought," said Percy, putting and hand up to her head. Annabeth couldn't tell if he was joking or he was genuinely concerned. Either way, she was irritated.
"No, listen to me! Carly was there. She's the only reason that I got out of the fire. She... did something, I don't know. It carried me down to you."
Percy shuffled his feet. "Well, you did kind of pop out of nowhere," he admitted. "But hold on! Who's Carly?"
Annabeth held Percy's gaze. She wouldn't look down. She was sure she was right. She had the letter to prove it. "Carly Jacobson. The real Ghost Girl." She held out her palm, showing the wrinkled and slightly blackened piece of paper to Percy. "Go on," she urged. "Read it. Carly gave it to me."
Percy reluctantly took the letter and smoothed it out against his knee. A few small shreds of the blackened part drifted off of the paper and too the floor. As Percy read Carly's message, his eyes widened. He made no effort to hide his astonishment. After he seemed to be done, he surprised Annabeth by standing up again.
"She's real? How- how is this possible? How can she be... real?"
Annabeth stood up again, successfully stopping herself from teetering dangerously. "How can't it be possible? Think about it, Percy..."
"Oh, believe me, I am," he stated grimly, and once again they were standing face to face in a room by themselves. Annabeth watched his green eyes search her gray ones. "Maybe that's it," he whispered. "Why your eyes turned gray. Maybe Carly bringing you down to me... had something to with that."
Annabeth nodded, feeling that it wasn't the right time to speak. She was trying to figure out what he was feeling. His face held so many emotions that it was unreadable. It was like a journal that someone had written layers upon layers of words on top of each other so that they were illegible, but they were still there.
Percy blinked, and in his fashion, brought up a completely unrelated topic. "You kissed me," he pointed out.
Annabeth flushed a little. "You didn't seem to mind."
"I guess it wasn't too much of a burden," he said thoughtfully. His face was so close to hers, she could see little flecks of different colors in the green of his eyes.
"For you or for me?" she said quietly.
Percy grinned, all thoughts of supernatural phenomenons disappearing. "What do you think?"
And this time, he was kissing her, bring his up to her face and holding it, putting his other arm around her waist and pulling her close. Annabeth closed her eyes. She felt his lips on hers, and remembered Carly's last words to her.
Live on for me.
She smiled into the kiss, not willing to break it. If this wasn't living, she didn't know what was. She was with Percy, and he was with her. He had promised not to leave her on her own, and that seemed like a damn good deal to her.
His mouth tasted like smoke and soot and ashes, but Annabeth didn't care. It was warm, and the moment their lips had touched, Annabeth's head had stopped hurting. The insistent throbbing, the persistent pounding of hammers and drums, it had completely vanished. And in this position, lasting in the moment, Annabeth thought that it would be a long time before it returned.
Okay! That was a hard one! I know it's been a month *hides* but it's summer. (And during the school year, I'll be using the "I have school" card for my excuses.) I hope you all enjoyed my Percabeth moment here. It wasn't easy to write.
Since this is the last chapter before the epilogue, I decided give you guys two theme songs, both for Piper and Jason.
Hero by Sterling Knight
and Fearless by Taylor Swift
Special thanks to bella345(guest) and thebestguest (guest) for these theme songs! I'm no longer taking theme song suggestions, but I do have a question; should I'm going to post a list of all the theme songs used here. Should I just put them on the A/N of the Epilogue or should I put them in a different post?
-Rebel