Jason sat next to Piper. It had been a while since he had been to the hospital since his recovery. He didn't like being in it, but he wanted to make sure Piper is alright.
After a day of unconsciousness, Piper still haven't woke up. The doctors said her situation is stable and she will recover soon but Jason isn't so convinced. Seeing her in the same position as she was knocked down is worrying him. Although, Jason hadn't knew her for a long time, he stayed beside Piper the longest. He felt like he was obliged to be there like how Piper (and Reyna) was there for him.
"Hey man!" Jason greeted Nico di Angelo as he walked inside of the room.
"Jase!" Nico gave him one of his odd smiles and walked straight to Piper who had been lying down on a made-shift bed. "Was Piper by chance holding something when she was knocked over?"
Jason shook his head. "I don't know. After Leo unlocked the bathroom door, the doctors carried her away in a stretcher. I don't think they touched her that much. They were only taking temperatures, feeling her forehead etc."
Nico took a peep of the hospital corridors and unclenched Piper's fist. As Nico mentioned, she was holding something - a piece of paper.
"What's that?" Jason asked curiously.
"Oh nothing." Nico muttered hastily as he took the crumbled piece of paper and put it inside his pocket. Quickly, he clenched Piper's fingers into a fist again. "Look, if anybody asked, I did not touch Piper McLean in any way." he whispered.
"What's with all the secrecy?" Jason pressed on.
Nico hesitated then said "My dad." as if it would explain everything.
"Dad?" Jason asked as the Grace family sat down for their rare family dinner. The Grace Family is very busy indeed so they hardly spend their meals together. Zeus always eat at odd hours especially due to his busy schedule while their mom Joan is a famous reporter. Joan always had to go to press conferences and didn't get to spend a lot of time with her family.
"Yes, son?" Zeus boomed proudly although there wasn't anything to be proud of.
"Do you know Nico's dad?"
Zeus gave a grim smile to his son. Of course, he knew who Hades Di Angelo was. They were once best friends but they fell apart during the end of high school. Poseidon, their other best friend also fell apart around the same time although Hades and Poseidon remained closer. "Yes." He answered shortly making it clear that he doesn't want to elaborate further.
"Who is he?"
"Nobody you need to know of." Zeus said hastily and used his fork to twirl some of his spaghetti. "Great food, Joan. Could use some salt though."
Annabeth stood in front of seven white tombstones, lined up neatly in a cemetery and bowed her head in respect. It was almost the third anniversary of the Shooting and Annabeth liked paying her respects before the season comes. When it comes, everybody crowds around the tombstones and to her, it's not really paying respects. Some people even appeared there to socialize.
Most of the victims were her closest friends. Like Silena, Beckendorf, Zoe…okay, maybe not all of them are her closest ones. However, they were connected in some ways. For example, Chris was Clarisse's boyfriend and Clarisse had never dated since he died.
Solemnly, she stepped up the each grave and placed a rose on the stones. The wind blew against Annabeth's cheeks harder as she stepped onto the last grave. The sky seemed to become a darker shade of gray as Annabeth put down her rose. Annabeth shuddered, the whole atmosphere seemed like a horror movie.
Suddenly, spiders crawled out from gravestones a few steps ahead. Annabeth froze in fear. She isn't normally scared of anything but spiders are one of the things in the world she fear most. Just the thought of their fuzzy, eight legs climbing up Annabeth's body wanted to make her scream.
Calm down, she told herself. It's no use screaming in this deserted cemetery. Even if there's people, they'll all think she's gone crazy. The cemetery is one of the most used settings in horror movies and it'll make people think she's hallucinating ghosts, vampires and all kinds of creature. As Annabeth blinked a few times, she realized that the spiders weren't real. It was all her imagination, she was truly hallucinating.
Annabeth felt somewhat ashamed of herself. It's not her being scared in a cemetery. For the past two years, she had been to the exact spot without being frightened. There is just something special about this year that made everything spookier. Did they change anything in the graveyard? No, a definite no. The place haven't changed in years. Nobody bothered to sponsor money to help fix this place.
"Annabeth." A coarse voice whispered hoarsely behind her.
Annabeth jumped shocked. She would be screaming but she couldn't seem to find her voice. Not daring to turn around she forced herself to say without quavering "Who are you?"
"You know me, Annabeth." the voice seemed to be smirking, but rather weakly.
Slowly, she turned her head. Messy blonde hair, piercing but tired blue eyes and a huge scar across his face. Luke Castellan.
"Surprise to see me?" he managed a small smile with his feeble lips. God, Annabeth didn't know how to react. This guy, Luke Castellan had to show up in her life now. Truthfully, she isn't entirely sure if she's glad how Luke disappeared after the Shooting. However, he just seemed so fragile and sickly, Annabeth wanted to help him.
"Yeah." Annabeth admitted carefully. "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing." Luke whispered. "I just can't anymore."
"Can't what?" Annabeth asked. "And where were you all these years? The police had spent days finding you but they couldn't. Everybody thought you were dead, in fact some people even suspected you as the shooter. You can't just appear here - in this city - like this. It's like a ghost coming alive!"
"I guess it would be." Luke nodded. "But I had to."
"Why, Luke. Why?"
Luke's blue eyes gleamed dully. "I might tell you after you get me some food. I can't go into the shops without scaring everybody there so I'm counting on you."
Annabeth grumbled. "Fine." Normally, she would say 'no' if somebody was in Luke's position asking her to help him but this is Luke Castellan. Her long-term crush until she met Percy. To be honest, meeting Luke was kinda of freaky but she still felt her heart pound two times as quick like before.
"Did you get the paper?" Hades Di Angelo bore his dark melancholic eyes onto Nico as if he had nothing better to do.
"Yeah." Nico handed over the crumbled piece of paper anyone could have thought as scrap. Both father and son knew this was more valuable than diamonds. They are lucky how the police haven't been through Piper's pockets or figure out that Piper is clenching this piece of information in her fist.
"Yes." Hades murmured greedily stroking the rough paper. "This is gold."
"Unfold it!" Nico urged but quickly quieted down as his father gave him an annoyed glare.
"Fine." Hades spat smoothening the creases. When the paper is flattened, they leaned in and read the note silently.
"No." Hades hissed dangerously. "They could not have."
Nico studied his dad's expression. He had never seen him this angry before. Wait, what's that? Hades' lips twisted maliciously and sly. "Dad, they just-"
"Don't say it." Hades' snake-like eyes narrowed towards his son. "She messed with the wrong person and she should be taught a lesson. Bring me my phone."
"Uh..dad? It's in your pocket." Nico reminded him.
"Right. Curse this." Hades rolled his eyes as he took his phone out of his pocket. "You know, your mom had style. This only seems to work with her and 'Bring me my phone' makes me seem wealthier and grander. Like I have slaves bringing me whatever I want."
Nico groaned. "Let's go through this again. I'm your son, not your slave."
"Whatever." Hades flicked his hands making it clear for Nico to go away as he grasped his phone lovingly.
Percy was walking down the street when a girl with blonde wavy hair and sparkling blue eyes walked up to her. Percy didn't recognize her but she looked somewhat familiar. "Hey, you're Piper's friend, right?" she said in a British Accent.
"Yeah." Percy scratched his head.
"Will you please give her this?" the girl handed over a box. "Say it's from Catriona. She knows me."
"Uh…okay?" He is confused. "But why me? Why don't you give it to Hazel or Jason or somebody else?"
"Well, where is Hazel or Jason?" Catriona questioned almost haughtily.
"I don't know." Percy shrugged. "It's kinda your job to find them if you want this delivered to Piper."
"So why won't you go and deliver this to Piper yourself? You are her friend too."
Trapped. He sighed. "Fine, give me your goddamn package."
"Thank you!" Catriona handed him the light box and gave him a beautiful but creepy smile. Creepy as in like one of those all-knowing smiles you see actresses give when they're pretending to be some fortune tellers or oracles. Giving Percy one last look, she turned and walk away as if she's in a runway.
As Percy walked towards the hospital Piper is kept in, Catriona took out her phone and typed 'Received 3:00pm'
BEEP! Somebody texted her almost right away. "Really? Cat, did you have to put the time as well?"
"Shut up. Just tell your dad that Percy should be heading towards the hospital now." she texted.
"Percy? Smart. Only he would be so gullible." Cat's friend texted back.
Catriona smiled. "Ttyl. Coming back but I'll have to get rid of this first." Without waiting for any texts, she attached a self-destruct bomb to the back of the phone and a timer of 10 seconds. She looked around the empty streets to make sure nobody's watching then tossed her phone carelessly towards a bush.
As Cat sashayed casually down the road, a barely audible phone started beeping. It wasn't the timer, as the timer was soundless. Chelsea Tait had texted.
So I decide to give you guys one more chapter before I'm off to camp. You guys probably figured it but I won't be updating until next Saturday/Sunday but I have the chapter already written so it'll be done fast.
Anyway, yeah I dare to bring Luke Castellan into the story ;)
~Kisses, Emily