I'm updating. Yeah, I only published the other chapter a couple of days ago, but I'm doing so again. Why?

'Cause I want to.

I actually found this chapter really hard to write, so I hope it's okay. Usually, I rewrite my chapters once or twice, usually, but I'm not doing this one again.

WARNING: Content is graphic in nature. Viewer discretion is advised. Mild profanity from an extremely pissed-off Percy, also.

Right now,

You're the only reason,

I'm not letting go, oh.

September 12th, 2006. Annabeth's eighteenth birthday.

The party was in full swing. Lights were strung up in the trees, blue, green, white, casting glows into the dark. A little way off, a bonfire roared up into the night. Chiron and Dionysus were nowhere to be seen, and the alcohol was flowing freely. Annabeth herself was sitting against a tree trunk, paper cup in her hand, drinking some sort of punch, though it made her feel woozy and out of touch with the world.

Travis Stoll was sitting next to her.

"Did I...Did I ever tell you that you're pretty?" he said, slurring drunkenly.

Annabeth laughed, slightly less inebriated. "No, you haven't."

"You are," Travis giggled, then but his hand over his mouth. "I shouldn't 'ave done that. Giggled, I mean. S'not very manly."

Annabeth laughed at him, and his expression, and her earlier worry floated away. She had been sad, because Percy was off on a quest. They had been officially 'going out', for about a year and a half, after all the crazy with Kronos—crazy with Kronos—Annabeth laughed at that. He had to go on a quest last week, and sadly he wasn't home from her birthday. So Annabeth had decided before to drown her sorrows in whatever was in the paper cup.

"Indeed she is," said a smooth voice from the edge of the clearing. Annabeth and Travis turned to stare at him. He was tall, with spiky blond hair that formed a perfect messy halo around his face. His features were clean-cut, razor-edged. And he had the strangest eyes. They were purple. Not blue, not green. Purple, a light, bright shade.

He was pretty, Annabeth thought. Not handsome, as such, but pretty.

"Than you," she said, then laughed. "I forgot the 'k'."

He smiled briefly. His teeth were, oddly, sharpened to points in his mouth. Like a shark.

"Anyway," he continued, voice deep and measured. "I wonder if you would come with me. We have something we need to discuss in private."

Annabeth hesitated for a moment. Even in the state she was in, she knew she shouldn't really go off with anyone alone. But then, they were at camp; there were tonnes of teenagers here, and a god probably lurking around somewhere. He was a camper; she'd seen him around before. It's not like she was going far. But then, why did he want to talk to her anyway?"

She was about to say no, sorry, she couldn't, because she was drunk, but then he said something that instantly made up her mind.

He stared into her eyes, and then said, in a cool and measured tone, "It's about Percy."

Annabeth immediately rose, with a little difficulty, to her feet. He stepped forwards to help her. He smelt like wine. Supporting her, he led her away, with Travis Stoll looking a little concerned about something.

Travis stared at them as they departed.

There was something... something about that guy... But he couldn't remember what. He simply shrugged it off and continued drinking, finally falling asleep against the tree.

It wasn't until an hour later, when Travis suddenly woke up, that he remembered what it was. Immediately sober, he stood up and was off into the trees with a flash, hands fumbling for the phone that was in his pocket, not knowing it had slipped out as he had stood up.

I was deep in the forest when it happened.

I had been walking along, behind blondie, wondering how much further we needed to go. The sounds and lights of the party had faded away a good while ago, and now all I could hear was my breathing and the crunch of leaves and other stuff under our feet.

I was starting to worry, somewhere in the back of my alcohol-ridden mind. Before I could ponder it for too much longer, he stopped, and I ploughed into him.

"Oh, sorry..." I muttered, as he straightened me. I tried to get out of his grip, but he held me tighter. The worrying feeling intensified.

"Can you let go of me, please...?" I asked. It came out as a question.

He grinned at me. "Certainly."

He let go, and I tried to turn. However, something erupted from the ground at my feet. I tried to scream, but be put his hand over my mouth. And I could feel something twining around my legs, like snakes. I bit him and shrieked. He used this opportunity to force his tongue into my mouth, muffling any noise I made except grunts and moans.

He removed his tongue and shoved something in my mouth. I coughed around it, although it tasted pleasant.

There were vines around me, locked together so that I had no hope of escaping.

I willed myself to fall asleep, to let the alcohol still fizzing in my veins to take me to a happier place.

He grinned again, nastily, and waved his finger.

"Uh-uh," he said, tutting. "I want you to be good and awake for this."

My head suddenly cleared, and I rapidly became sober, all effects of the alcohol leaving my bloodstream.

"My father is Dionysus," he said, still grinning. "I was claimed last year. He wouldn't approve of what I'm doing, but I don't really care."

I shuddered as I felt his hands on me, everywhere. He unbuttoned my shirt. Tears started to fall from my eyes, and he wiped them away, his weird purple-hued eyes holding a mischievous twinkle, as though he was a child who knew he was doing something wrong, but was sure he'd get away with it.

The tears coursed down my cheeks as he slid it off my shoulders, leaving it around my wrists where they were bound by the rigid vines.

He leaned in again, towards my bra. I closed my eyes, utterly repulsed at the sensation.

He reached around the back, towards the clasp—

And then he was gone.

A rush of wind passed me, and the vines went limp. All the strength in my lower legs disappeared, and I collapsed to the ground.

"Fucker! I'll kill you!"

I was dazed, but I managed to turn over, to stare at the direction the voice came from.

Whoever the blond boy was, he was pinned against the ground, head resting on a tree. There was another boy lying on top of him, between his legs. It would have been almost sexual, if the one on top wasn't strangling the one on the bottom.

"How dare you?" the one on top said, hands working around the throat of the other. "You are so fucking deceased."

It was Percy, his hair sticking up at odd angels and his teeth bared. Small jets of salt water erupted around his feet, and I could feel the ground shaking slightly. I had never seen this mad before, and it was starting to scare me, almost as bad as the person pinned underneath him had.

"Percy," I said, pushing myself up onto my arms. I pulled my shirt back on, buttoning it awkwardly. I crawled over to them.

"Percy, stop. You're killing him," I said as I neared them, the blond boy's face turning blue.

"Good," he said, savagely.

"Percy," I said, laying my hand on his shoulder. He stopped, eyes hard, and loosened his hands a bit. The blond guy sucked in a greedy breath, and Percy punched him square in the nose. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he was out like a light.

Percy was breathing heavily as he pushed himself off the ground. He turned to me, helping me up gently.

"Are you okay?" he asked, quietly.

I nodded, because if I thought about what had just happened, I would cry.

He wrapped his arms around me, and held me close, kissing me, as I melted into him.

"I'm glad you're back," I said, against him.

"So am I. Are you really okay? You seem pretty... fine for what just happened."

"I don't know. I don't feel anything."

"Shock," he said.

"Percy, look out!" I said, and he was ripped away from me in a flurry of vines.

I fell over, again, ripped away from the gentle warmth that had all that had been holding me aloft.

He was forced against a tree; the vines whipping around him as the encircled him and the tree. They started to strangle him, pulling tighter and tighter as the blond haired boy lay against another tree in the clearing, flicking his finger like a conductor's baton, blood gushing out of his nose and staining his teeth red.

"Stop it!" I screamed, trying to walk over to him, but only managing a crawl.

Then the vines went slack again, and I was pushed back by the water, the gallons and gallons of water that rushed around us like a torrent.

Now he was drowning, trying to claw at the water that encircled his head like a diving helmet. It was a war of the elements, and there was no doubt who won.

"Enough!" Percy yelled, the water dissipating up into the air, leaving the ground damp and dripping, along with our clothes. His were still perfectly dry. The area was completely barren, trees and sticks and rocks blasted away like driftwood.

I collapsed and began to cry, the night's experience rushing back to me. I couldn't take it anymore.

Percy didn't say anything, simply picking me up and setting me down with him, rocking me as I cried into his chest.

Well, there we go. A little back story. Uh, I have a forum. If you wanna chat, roleplay, or talk to the author. I've currently got a writing competition in the works, so if you wanna stay tuned, go there.

-pushes all towards forum-