A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and not being too hard on my grammar. I have to admit the reviews were highly effective to get me to sit down and continue writing... 'Gratia Donatus' - I'm so sorry I can't get Annabeth quite right. I probably should have finished the series before sitting down and writing the fic. But thanks for reviewing. I'll try my hardest not make her too much into a Mary Sue. 'Myfriendscallmecrazy' - I've ordered them in English yay! :DD I refuse to read in my own language :(

Warning ahoy: If you don't like angst, this is not for you, jsyk...

---Chapter two: 'Somewhere a Clock is Ticking'---

"Doors slam shut
A clock is ticking, but it's hidden far away
Safe and sound

I'm broken and I'm colder than hell"*

---

Percy woke up to a splitting headache and uttered a pained yelp.

As he tried to reach for his bruised head he noticed the chains stopping him. He was half sitting half laying up against a pole and his hands were wrapped around it and chained at the back.

Then he noticed a familiar stench.

Panic started to raise in his chest.

It was so appalling it made his eyes water. He gagged and tried not to breath through his nose. It was the unmistakable smell of monsters. Percy fought to remain calm as he blinked the room into focus.

The first thing that came to mind when he saw the hard wooden floors and walls was that it looked kind of like a stable, but it was much too big. There was no electrical light, so it was hard to distinguish the surroundings exactly. The room was only lit up by a torch hanging on the wall, besides that everything was black.

But he could make out shapes of other people sitting all around him.

They all seemed to be sitting up against poles around the room, just like him. As far as Percy could tell the poles made out a sort of a half circle. And they were facing a large opening, like they were sitting in a booth. He couldn't make out what was on the outside of the booth as everything beyond that point was an empty darkness. All he knew for certain was that they were inside some kind of space that reeked of monsters. And he needed to get the hell out.

Percy had learned from previous experiences that if you find yourself chained up in a strange room with other people who were quiet, it was best to follow their example.

But he really needed to find out where he was.

Last thing he remembered was seeing Annabeth stomping off towards camp and then everything went black and he woke up here.

Apart from his sore skull he felt a little banged up, but his limbs seemed to function. His eyes were getting used to the dark by now. He was just as clueless about the surroundings, but he could see the two people sitting on either side of him more clearly.

To his left sat an elderly man and to his right, a young girl. The man seemed to be sleeping and the girl was slumped up against her pole with her head resting on her knees and her arms clutched around her thin legs.

When Percy strained his ears he could hear the low murmur of crying. He hadn't noticed it before partly because of his headache and partly because it was so constant, almost like the noise from an air conditioner. But the crying was coming from everywhere, like a pitiful echo bouncing off the walls around him. Percy felt a chill down his back as it gave the room an even more creepy atmosphere.

Where the hell was he?

Far off someone seemed to be praying, but not in a language he could understand. He had a gut feeling they were in some kind of large warehouse that contained several of these booths. He wondered just how many people were locked up in this place and why. He needed to ask somebody, but he figured he better wait until he was certain there weren't any monsters around.

Some time had passed and the situation hadn't really changed. No monsters had appeared.

It was time to have some questions answered, he couldn't stand this much longer. He was getting antsy; Percy had never been one to sit still for long.

"Hey, girl!" He whispered into the dark towards the girl sitting to his right.

The girl looked up swiftly, Percy could see the terror in her eyes. She was blond with light eyes. She looked almost ghost like. She was young, maybe 9 years old, and really dirty and her clothes were torn and really old fashioned, almost like she was wearing a costume from another period in time.

She was shaking her head vigorously at him. He felt bad for making her more scared than she already was.

"Look, I'm sorry!" Percy whispered, "But can you please just tell me were we are!"

"Ikke snakk!" The girl hissed back.

Great, Percy thought, she didn't speak English.

The girl had gone back to her previous position of burying her head in her knees.

"Anyone speak English?" Percy asked a little louder into the room. He was getting desperate

Again all he got was hushing.

Percy was getting annoyed. He understood they were playing the sit still and be quiet game; or else something scary would probably kill you. They were in grave danger, he knew the drill, he just really wanted to know what he was afraid of. He was not about to wait until he starved to death or a monster came to kill him.

"Boy!" A hoarse voice suddenly whispered from his left.

Finally.

Percy turned his head swiftly towards the sound; the old man with the long white beard to his left was looking at him. He didn't look angry, just really scared and he kept glancing upwards. "Not speak!"

He had a strong accent, Percy couldn't quite place it. It sounded European, maybe Swiss. He was wearing a beige robe tied together at his waist with a golden rope.

"Please, sir..." Percy started but the man cut him off.

"Tomorrow! Quiet now!" The man lifted his chained arms and put a finger to his mouth. Then he pointed upwards with his fist, before leaning back against his pole and remained still.

Percy thought for a second he'd imagined the whole thing.

Desperate he pulled his chains and moved around his pole to face the man. "Please sir, just tell me what is going on!"

Then he learned why everyone were quiet.

It was like the strong arms came out of nothing. There had been no forewarning, no sound, no footsteps, no shadow.

Suddenly a claw like hand curled around his neck and lifted him clean off the ground.

Percy spluttered and gasped for air and tried desperately to slip out of the grip, but when he swung his feet out into the dark he hit nothing but air. It was like the arms were coming from above somewhere. In the next second he heard his chain click open and he was slammed hard into the hardwood floors with a grunt. He tried to roll around but strong arms pushed him onto his back on the floor and his arms were yanked forcefully above his head and held down.

Percy stared in terror at the strange black shape hovering above on top of the pole.

He hadn't noticed them before. It looked like a bird that was somehow part of his pole and it used its long claws to hold him down.

The next moment it released a piercing shriek and then heavy footsteps were moving down the hall.

With a hammering heart Percy tried to do everything to get free of the claws holding him down, but his attempts were feeble. It was like fighting a crane with a straight jacket; impossible.

And then the guard stood over him, his yellow eyes gleaming in the dark. It looked like a large cave troll, only more humanized and uglier, if possible.

He had a flashlight, which he pointed up in Percy's face.

"Shut your mouth!" The troll wheezed as he grabbed a handful of Percy's hair and held his head down as he leaned over for a closer look.

Percy blinked against the blinding light.

"You're the new kid" The troll mumbled and immediately jabbed his finger into Percy's mouth to inspect his teeth. Percy tried to bite down, but his jaw was locked. The guard seemed to be experienced with this kind of thing, and knew all the tricks.

"Excellent teeth." The troll said as he released Percy's hair. He seemed to be in a better mood now.

The troll moved his flashlight up Percy's arms and felt around them as to see how strong they were. He then continued down to Percy's body and legs and sort of grasped around him everywhere too measure up his muscle mass.

"Not much to you, but I'm sure King Arvid will like you. He likes disorderly pretty-boys" The guard grinned. The flash light was back in Percy's face.

"I'm sixteen" Percy hissed, "There must be some regulations..."

The troll snorted, "You're from the modern times, I can tell by your teeth"

Percy suddenly hated his dentist for making him wear braces as a kid.

"You're not in your world anymore, boy!" The troll bellowed. "You're in Mid World*. We get customers from every time period and place. Time is irrelevant here. King Arvid is from 900 AD, this is a slave house my boy, the best in the universe!" He said proudly.

Percy felt all the blood drench from his face. He remembered the Lotus Casino where time stood still and how days felt like a couple of minutes. His heart sunk in his chest.

"I'll get a lot for you." The troll wheezed "Most of the runts that come in here are aren't worth much. Seems like my spies finally hit the jackpot" He meant to give Percy a pet on his cheek, but it felt more like being slapped.

"I always get more for people from the modern world. You're all in such good health!"

He preceded to open one of Percy's eyes with two fingers. He nodded pleased.

"Green eyes, good teeth, pretty face..." It was like he was checking off a list, and Percy almost fainted from the trolls foul breath. "King Arvid is after a new plaything, he'll be paying a lot for you."

King who?? Percy felt panic rising, he was not about to be sold to an ancient Viking king. He started trashing on the floor but without accomplishing anything. Before the guard left he gave some sort of hand signal to the black bird on the pole before turning to Percy with a grin, "Let's hope you make me rich!"

And then the arms went to work on him.

A fist slammed into his face, over and over, cracking his nose and his jaw.

Percy tried to tune out the cracking sounds as his ribs and bones broke and tried to focus on breathing.

Blood was running freely from wounds all over his body and from his nose.

It filled up his mouth as a fist crushed into his kidneys. Eventually he fell into a blissful darkness, where all he could see was Annabeth's beautiful face.

---

Annabeth was sitting in the middle of Percy's room clutching one of Percy's old shirt. Even though it made Annabeth feel sick with grief she couldn't help but going back to his cabin to be amongst his thing. They were filled with dust by now. And the wind had strewn loose pages and leaves all over the floor. She brought up the shirt she was holding to her face and inhaled.

She loved his smell more than anything, it used to make her head swim. Now it was fading.

She threw the shirt aside and clutched her fists. Even after all this time the grief over his loss hadn't gone away. Everyone had told her it would get easier, but it didn't!

Why had she run that day?

The same thoughts kept churning in her brain. She wished so much that it had been her and not Percy that had been taken. She just couldn't understand how, after such a long time, that they hadn't even found as much as a clue to what had happened. But he had to be somewhere. Someday, she would find him.

---

The pain Percy felt when he woke up was unbearable.

He was barely able to breath. In his dazed state of mind he could see someone was over him, it was an old man with a long white beard and kind eyes. Percy's eyes must have been badly bruised because he could barely see through them. The man's lips were moving, as if he was trying to tell him something and his ice cold hands had a healing effect on Percy's bruised skin.

It all came rushing back to Percy. He didn't understand how he could still be alive after that beating. He had taken a few beatings in his short life, and that had by far been the worst. He felt like he'd been run over by a truck.

He was stuck in hell. And back in his world the clock was ticking. He would probably never see Annabeth or Grover or Half Blood Hill again.

---

Percy fell in and out of an oblivious state and every time he opened his eyes, the old man was there. And every time he felt a little better. Eventually his head was clear enough to understand that the old man was dripping water over him. Percy whimpered in pleasure as he felt the water soak though his skin and mend his wounds and broken bones.

---

In his unconscious state before, Percy had thought that the old man had been set free to mend him, but it turned out that that had not been the case.

When the other prisoners had been fed that morning, they had gathered the little water they had been given and handed it over to the old man. The old man had the longest chains out of all of the prisoners, probably because he was the least threat, and could get to Percy to help him. Somehow he had understood that Percy could be healed with water. How he could have known, was the last thing on Percy's mind. Right then, to Percy, the old man looked like the nicest grandfather ever, kind of like Socrates*.

He kept talking to Percy in his own language, it brought him comfort even though he couldn't understand. And he petted Percy's head as he dripped drops of water over the wound on Percy's face.

"It's quite extraordinary" The man murmured "I have never seen anything like it"

Percy was too tired to talk, but he could feel his strength returning little by little.

"Birds are turned back to stone now, not to worry" The old man continued.

Percy tried to smile but it made him whimper in pain.

"Så, så" The man shushed him "Lay still" He said as he pushed Percy's t-shirt back to pour water over his bruised stomach. Percy winced a little but sighed relieved as the pain gradually disappeared.

Then he ripped a loose thread off of his robe and held it up before Percy's eyes, "Here, you wear this!"

"Err... Thanks" Percy croaked while looking at the minuscule thread. His clothes had been ripped to shreds by the claws, but this... Percy looked at the man perplexed. It was an odd time to try and be funny.

The man simply smiled and put the thread on Percy's chest and sat back. He looked pleased with himself. Percy would have chuckled if his face didn't hurt so much and it was an entirely different setting. But then suddenly he felt a tingling sensation on his chest as his clothes started weaving themselves back into shape. Percy had experienced strange things in his life, so he wasn't really surprised, but very thankful.

After being fed some mashed potato and some unidentified goo that tasted like the inside of a shoe, Percy felt his eyes glide shut and he fell into a swift sleep. It felt like years had gone past since the training session with Annabeth on Half Blood Hill.

----

Percy awoke with a start only a few hours later. The room seemed to have woken up by then.

It was as if the sound from the few hours before had been turned up to max volume. Percy figured the shop was open and costumers were arriving.

The room was a little lighter now, as if sunlight had creaked though windows, not that he could see any, but it felt like it was early morning.

The old man was back at his own pole and Percy had been chained up again at some point. Instinctively he pulled at his chains to see if maybe he could slip out of them. But he quickly remembered the birds and glanced up quickly to the top of his pole. The black bird was sitting there silently like a gargoyle. It had turned into stone, like the old man had said, but it left Percy cold and he felt watched. He pressed his back up against his pole and tried to sit very still.

He felt better. Not great, but his body was functioning again. Which was good news should he pursue his plan of escaping. In unhappier news, he remembered the conversation with the guard, and the viking king that apparently wanted to have Percy as his personal plaything. Percy shuddered in disgust. And then in the next moment he could hear several footsteps down the hall outside.

Percy swallowed and felt his pulse rising in panic. With a hammering heart he turned to look at the old man. The man met his gaze and nodded. He pointed to his own eyes and closed them shut. Then he opened them again to look at Percy to see if he had understood. Percy nodded. Then the old man slumped into a position that made him look weak and old. Percy understood, he tried to mimic the man's position. And as the guard rounded the corner with a batch of customers Percy pressed his eyes shut and tried to sit very still.

---

Thanks for reading! :)