Hey guys! Sorry once again for the wait- school has been driving me insane, my math teacher has no clue what she's teaching, and science labs are now one of the banes of my existence. But anyways.

Thanks to That Was Such A Face Palm, SomethingMoreCreative, Tanaya1261, lexgracemutkus0414, and Kira Liven. Your reviews were all so sweet and lovely and made my day.

I know the last chapter was kinda off, and I feel like this one is too. But the next one is going to be long, so watch out for that!

Enjoy!

Annabeth

The stairs creak under my feet as I walk down to the kitchen, a book in one hand. I attempt to ignore the digital clock over the stove, although my eyes stray there anyways, the red numbers searing themselves into my mind.

10:44 PM. I have just over ten minutes and then, if Athena was correct, the end of the world begins. But it's not my fault, right? Percy and Grover both refused to come with me. I'm starting to think it was all just some dream, except there's still a coin in my pocket and a bag filled with presents from my supposed 'mother'. Items like that don't just appear. Yet at the same time, I'm scared to tell anyone, for fear of sounding insane. I've always been a logical person, but no amount of math or science can give me a straight answer to this equation.

There are muffled voices sounding upstairs- my stepmom and dad putting my two half-brothers to bed. I can hear their door shutting and feet crossing the landing before my dad leans over the railing and whispers to me down the stairs, "Not too late, alright?" Obviously, they've figured out that I'm not in my bedroom.

I nod, even though he can't see me. "Goodnight," I mutter back, leaning over to open the fridge. It bathes the dark room with a florescent glow, making shadows appear around every corner. When I was little, Percy and I would sneak down here during sleepovers and eat until we got caught, with sticky hands and messy faces. I shake the thought of Percy away, leaning in to grab some orange juice. His words today stung, more than I let on.

Granted, our disagreement was a lot bigger than I had described it as in the café, but I wasn't just trying to coerce him into joining me the whole time! I honestly (although you'll never get me to repeat this) miss him, but what he did was unforgivable. It was all his fault, really. His fault that there's this giant rift in between us. His fault that I can't make my mother proud. This quest is too big to undertake by myself.

10:50 PM. My gaze wanders over to a bag in the corner, packed with food and supplies and clothes. Athena took the liberty of providing me with a supposedly 'unlimited' credit card, which hopefully will still work even if I choose not to take the trip. In the front pouch I shoved the two pictures from the office- the wedding day and the one with me as a baby. I won't need any of that, though. At eleven pm, I'll still be safe.

There's a crash outside and I jump, my nerves already on edge. 10:52 PM. I shakily drink a little bit of my orange juice, attempting to calm myself. Nothing's going to go wrong. It was all some insane hallucination. My mother is dead. My mother is dead. My mother is dead.

I repeat this mantra over and over in my head until another crash sounds, much closer this time. A bit of orange juice sloshes out of my glass and onto the tile floor as I leap into the air again. It's probably just the wind. My grey eyes land on the clock yet again. 10: 54 PM.

I let out a shudder before racing over and grabbing the knapsack from the corner. Even if this really is nothing, I still want to be prepared. The Mark of Athena, still in my pocket, now feels like an anchor, dragging me down. I could swear it was heating up, but that's probably just me. I close my eyes slowly, and then open them again. 10:55 PM. I let out a shaky breath. I'm alive. Nothing's happened.

And that's when the dogs burst through the front door, sending it off its hinges and into the dining room wall.

I scream, loudly, hoping to alert my parents to the feral beasts that are currently clattering down the front hallway, to no avail. The dogs round in on me, two of them, both big black creatures with saliva dripping from open jaws, low growls emitting from their throats. Panicking, I throw the glass of orange juice at them, watching for a moment in satisfaction as the glass shatters and shards pierce their thick skin, before racing over and grabbing a kitchen knife from the counter. I really don't want to kill them, but there's no other choice.

The dogs begin to circle around me, the blood dripping off of them making them appear even more terrifying. The knife is making them stay at bay for now, but how long will that last? My parents still aren't down, despite all of the noise I've been making- something must be keeping them away. That thought alone scares me, for it shows me even more that Athena was right. I have to go on that quest, otherwise I'll be putting both myself and my family in danger. But how can I do that if I can't even get away from a few mutts?

I raise my knife for a second, ready to lunge forward and slit their throats, when a shout makes me turn. The dogs take that as an entrance, jumping towards me, their mouths open and eyes shining with feral rage…

And then they're gone. There's a hiss, and then suddenly all that's left is a pile of ashes and a single ballpoint pen. I turn, shaken, only to see Percy standing there, leaning on the counter with his hands out in front of him, his face a mixture of shock and horror. The sight of him, ever-familiar in my kitchen, makes me even more dizzy than I am already as I turn and retch into the sink, the enormity of what had just transpired hitting me all at once. This is insane. Dogs don't break down your front doors at night and try to kill you before being turned into a pile of ash thanks to a pen wielded by your ex-best friend. I grip the sides of the sink, shaking. For once, there's no logical explanation.

"Annabeth?" It seems like Percy was about to put his hand on my shoulder, but once I turn he hastily retracts it. "We need to go."

I nod, stepping away from the sink before his words can fully be processed. "Wait, what do you mean we?" Percy rubs the back of his neck, looking sheepish, and suddenly I understand. "You're coming with me?"

"Grover and I are coming with you," Percy corrects me, his face void of any emotion. "Only because I think this is something you shouldn't do alone. This is a business relationship, alright? Nothing more."

I bite my lip, trying not to show how his words stung. "I would hope not," With a frown, I grab the backpack from the corner and walk out into the hallway, past the broken door. "We better hurry- who knows what'll happen if we stay around too long."

Logic is my cover, my way of hiding the fact that I'm internally freaking out right now. I just want to crawl underneath my covers and never emerge, but for whatever reason, Athena chose me, and I'm not letting her down. The consequences could be fatal if we do. I don't know anything about the Mark of Athena, but I do know that we have to find the secret, and that means moving quickly. If the dogs were any indication, we can't inform anyone or the consequences could be deadly.

The sky is dark when we emerge from the house a couple of seconds later. Grover's sitting in the passenger seat of Percy's blue minivan, which now has several scratches along the front. I look at Percy inquisitively, wondering what happened, but he simply pulls me into the backseat, mumbling about "Stupid grains and schist," although the second word could easily have been something else.

Percy clambers into the driver's seat and screeches out of my driveway, turning unsteadily around a couple corners before finally making it onto the interstate. I have no clue where we're going, only that we need to get far away from here. The backseat is a mess, all old papers and bottles, but I see some things that look like they were brought along for this specific journey- some food and water, along with duffel bags packed with clothes for Grover and Percy, most likely. Underneath the seat, however, after a little bit of poking around, I discover the real treasure- several grocery bags stuffed to the brim with blue candy. With a grin, I begin eating blue licorice hungrily, as Grover and Percy carry on a quiet conversation in the front seat, oblivious to us all.

"So what's up with the magic pen?" I say, the candy feeling surprisingly calming. "I mean, you kind of made two full-fledged demon dogs detonate in my kitchen, so I feel like I deserve a bit of an explanation."

Percy sighs, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel as he continues to drive. "Well, it was kind of a gift from your supposed mother, right before she almost blew up my van."

I choke on my licorice. "What?"

Grover grins at me, seeing my astonished face in the mirror. "Yeah, and I got these really weird pipes that can, like, put people in a trance or something! They appeared in my room after Eco Club, so then I started to mess around with them and accidentally knocked my hamster out. So then I called Percy…"

"…and I had just found my bomb-pen," Percy continues, grinning at my dumbstruck expression. "So Grover and I talked for a bit, realized maybe we overreacted, and decided to come with you, as crazy as this whole thing seems. So then I got Grover and we- Hey! Are you eating my blue candy?"

I shove a pile of it behind my back. "No…" I say sheepishly, gulping down the licorice still in my mouth. Percy rolls his eyes at me and turns back to face the road, humming a song underneath his breath.

This all feels so surreal yet so natural all at the same time. An hour ago, I was drinking orange juice in my kitchen, and now I'm roaring down the interstate in a blue minivan with a two boys- one I barely know and another I'd like to forget. I'm surprised by how readily I'm handling this, but I suppose when things like this happen, you kind of just have to tune out the sheer unpracticality of the situation and just deal.

After a little more driving, Percy turns off of the busy highway and into a carpool parking lot, turning around to face me once the van's stopped. "Okay, we got far enough away from our homes now. But pretty soon, someone's going to discover that we're gone and that your front door is busted, and they'll be cops everywhere. We have to get out of the state quickly. It's too risky to try and contact anyone."

I nod, admittedly a little surprised by his quick thinking. "I agree. But Athena didn't give me any instructions on where to go. Meaning, we're basically wandering blindly in hopes that we'll stumble upon information. And sheer logic states that it's statistically improbable that that will ever work."

This time, the word Percy says definitely isn't schist. Grover looks up from the passenger seat, dismayed. "You mean nothing she gave you had any clues about where you were supposed to go?"

I shrug, feeling helpless. "I don't know! I mean, there was the coin…" Percy lets out an aggravated sigh, and I frown. "You didn't have to come with me, you know. And trust me, if there was a plan, I would have told you already!"

Grover looks at us nervously, sensing the oncoming fight. "Guys…"

Percy frowns, glaring back at me. This is more like what our relationship is usually like. "Honest to God, Annabeth, I assumed you would have planned ahead! Don't blame me for thinking I knew you so well! I mean, we did spend the majority of our life together!"

"Guys…" Grover interjects yet again.

"You don't know me at all!" I scream back at Percy, ignoring Grover. "If you had, you wouldn't have decided to ruin everything!"

"Guys…" Grover definitely looks panicked now.

"I ruined everything?" Percy looks at me and laughs derisively. "That's a good one, Annabeth. That's real funny. The way I remember it, you were the one that walked away." His face is angry, but in his eyes something else flickers… sadness? Remorse?

"Guys!" Grover shouts, right before I make a scathing comeback. We both whip our heads around to glare at him in unison, causing Grover to sink back in his chair. At any other time, I would have felt guilty for making him be this terrified, but I'm still buzzing with adrenaline from that spat with Percy. "Um, Annabeth's kind of... glowing."

I glance down in shock, only to see, that, in fact, Grover is right. The Mark of Athena, still in my pocket, is emitting a strange silver light that casts creepy shadows all around the van. I pull it out, wincing as the glow increases, as both boys stare at me in confusion.

"Is it, um, supposed to do that?" Grover asks timidly, and I shake my head no. The coin's getting uncomfortably hot on my palm, it's surface shaking a little as if charged with electricity. Athena never mentioned anything about this. Maybe this is what the secret is supposed to fix? I wince as the temperature increases even more. This is getting kind of painful. With a yelp, I toss the now smoking coin onto the floor of the car, cradling my burnt hand to my chest. The owl insignia is now permanently engraved on my palm, much to my chagrin.

The coin is shaking faster now, the light blinding all three of us. I can barely make out Grover and Percy in the front seat as they shield their eyes from the glow. Finally, the coin shoots a blinding beam of light upwards, before doing something remarkable.

It begins to speak.

Well, not have a conversation per say, but a voice begins to emit from the inside, strangely robotic and yet familiar all the same. "Half-Blood Tourism. Long Island. Hurry."

With that, the light suddenly leaves the coin and the shaking stops, leaving the three of us sitting in the van in silence. It feels ridiculously dark now without the glow, my hand throbbing quietly from the burn left from the coin.

Percy looks up at me, his eyes wide. "What the f-"

I frown at him, cutting him off before he could swear. "I don't know what that was either. But we need to follow the Mark of Athena. We need to go to Half-Blood Tourism, whatever that is, and see if they can help us. We have a plan now. We can do this."

Grover sighs, rubbing his eyes. Clearly, this trip has not been what he anticipated it being so far. Trust me, I was having the same thoughts. "At least we won't be wandering around blindly now. Let's go."

Percy nods, straight-faced, as he reverses out of the parking lot and back onto the busy highway. I close my eyes, attempting to catch a few minutes of shut-eye before our next scare.

Something tells me this isn't going to be as easy as I thought.

Once again, a lot of stuff is still confusing, but it'll hopefully clear up soon... or not. I plan on keeping you in the dark about what went down between Percy and Annabeth for a very, very long time...

I think at this point, you can expect weekly to bi-weekly updates from me. It all depends on homework and projects, plus whatever stuff my parents force me to do on the weekend.

Oh, and I think I may start posting sneak peeks of future chapters on Tumblr! Search the tag labelled Fanfiction if you don't want to have to scroll through all my crap, lol.

Happy belated Valentine's Day/Family Day (for all of you Canadians).

Thanks for reading,

-Jace ;)