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Sorry for typos/OOCness. Hope You Enjoy... Oh, and this is off topic, but GO REDSKINS! :)

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Chapter 19

Annabeth

The house loomed over Annabeth and Percy. She was sweating with nervousness. Percy was shaking as he carried her. She still hated the useless feeling, but she couldn't help but wonder if there would be help inside of the building, or if there would be certain death.

There wasn't even a lock on the gate. It swung open before either of them touched it. A gust of wind blew in their face, followed by a trill of laughter. It was from a man.

"Okay, let's turn around," offered Percy pivoting on his heel.

"No, we're going inside," Annabeth insisted, using Percy's hair as a reign. He grunted and tuned around.

"Don't pull my hair," he mumbled, and Annabeth giggled. He continued pulling them forward, through the gates, but then stopped. "Do you hear that?" he asked her suddenly.

"Hear what?"

"That noise… it sounds like wings. Listen." She turned her head to the side and leaned slightly toward the house. They were both absolutely silent. And then she heard. It sounded like a thousand wings. Something screeched, and it wasn't a human.

Annabeth was starting to think that they really shouldn't go inside. And then it happened.

A murder of crows flew out from behind the house, so many that she couldn't even count. It was a sea of talons and black feathers and beaks. They were headed straight for Percy and Annabeth.

She couldn't help it; she screamed in shock. Percy was completely still. At the last second, he fell to his knees and put her down. He curled up so his back was towards the crows and she did the same.

Tens of them flew into her back, which didn't help her ribs. She gasped in the newfound pain. It was like a million knives were being drilled into her back. She could feel her shirt being torn up to little shreds in the back. She could already feel the blood beginning to seep through her clothes, and it stung like crazy.

Something reached out and touched her. She flinched away, closing her eyes. But when she opened them, she could see Percy's green eyes and his outstretched hand. She gladly accepted it and threaded her fingers through his.

Just when it seemed like the assault would go on forever, it ended. Annabeth looked up. All of the birds were flying over the churning sea now, happily free from where they had previously been.

"Well, that was different," admitted Percy, stretching his arms. "They kind of reminded me of those birds… what were they called? Something with an s?"

"Stymphalian Birds," she informed him. "But no, those were only normal crows. I wonder what they're doing in Tartarus."

"They probably wonder what we're doing in Tartarus," said Percy. He pushed himself to his feet, and Annabeth gaped at the sight of his back. His legs and back were covered in nicks and blood. It looked like someone had whipped him.

"Oh, gods, are you okay?" asked Annabeth.

"I'm fine," Percy told her. "And now I'm kind of glad that I don't have the curse of Achilles anymore. I was nailed in the small of my back so many times that I'd definitely be dead now. But are you okay?"

No, she wasn't okay, but she nodded anyway. "I'm fine. Let's get inside."

Percy bent down and picked her up in his arms. "This place just gets weirder and weirder by the second," he muttered, and Annabeth couldn't agree more.

She glanced at the building. It looked a little bit the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but the dimensions and sides were all wrong. The thing really looked like it was going to collapse at any moment. It was an architect's nightmare. (A/N: In case you guys haven't noticed yet, this place is the cover of the book *Look above at image*)

The grass surrounding the building was black and dead. It got hilly in the distance. The fence closed around the building. The only way to escape was to go through the building. With their luck it would collapse on top of them. That was just wonderful. Think positive, she told herself.

Percy carried her up the steps of the building. They were wooden and creaked. Annabeth tried to look past the building again. Her eyes landed on a grave yard. Even better. She tugged on Percy's head, and he started to protest, but she pointed at the grave yard and he fell silent.

"Lovely," he said. "This just makes me want to go inside so badly."

Right next to the door, there were two plaques. Annabeth and Percy studied them silently.

The first one made sense, sort of. It said: Σε περίπτωση απώλειας, αποκάλυψε, which was Ancient Greek. "Where the Lost are Revealed," Annabeth translated, and Percy nodded. "What do you think that means?"

"No idea. You want to take a guess at the second one?" The one below that was short, but the language didn't make any sense. It looked like a bunch of scribbles and mismatched letters, which matched the house. It seemed like an older language, probably one monsters or giants spoke. But there was no way she could understand what it meant, and it seemed very important.

"I don't know. I'm not even sure if I want to know." The words were in cursive, somehow beautifully elegant yet eerily terrifying. She shivered and nudged Percy forward.

He knocked on the door. "Hello?"

"Percy, now is not the time to be knocking."

"You never know. Maybe the people inside like it when you have manners and kill you when you don't." But he pushed open the door anyway, using his back. The door looked stuck and like it hadn't been used in a long time.

Once it swung open, a white and gray wall of cobwebs blocked their path. Annabeth stifled a scream a tried to scramble backwards, which only resulted in hitting her bad ankle against the wall of the house. That did make her scream.

"Calm down," soothed Percy. He brought out his sword and cut a path through the webs. They fell to the side like curtains. Percy didn't even seem to be bothered by the cobwebs. He pulled them apart, and Annabeth shrank into Percy so that they wouldn't touch her.

Her jaw hit the ground when she saw the inside. So did Percy's. "So are we at a thrift shop or something?" asked Percy. "Habitat for Humanity? Dollar General? Wal-Mart?"

It seemed exactly like that. There were rows and stairs and so many walls that it was like a maze. Things were hanging from the ceiling. The shelves were overflowing with goods and devices that Annabeth couldn't even name. There were so many supplies that Annabeth's head started spinning from it all. It was so overwhelming to see so many things in one place that she felt dizzy and sort of claustrophobic. "Wow," she sighed. "This is amazing."

"This is crazy," Percy agreed. "Why is there so much stuff here? Is this the convenience store of Tartarus? Do monsters go shopping here?"

"Well, it said it was called Where the Lost are Revealed, so maybe this is like where all the lost things come to." It seemed like an appropriate guess. Percy stepped forward, and as fast as lightning, something snapped down from the ceiling at their faces.

Thankfully, Percy had good reflexes and escaped getting nailed in the face by whatever it was. He twisted them both to the side and out of the way. There was the shrieking of rusty gears and nothing hit them.

Percy stood up. A sign had fallen down. "'Welcome,'" Annabeth read. "'Please take only what is necessary or what was yours in the first place. Any taking of unneeded supplies will result in immediate expulsion from the building. Please use the sign-in sheet on the right. Thank you, and have a dreadful day.' Well, that seems nice enough, except for the ending."

"It's a free for all!" said Percy. "This is awesome. They've got to have something here for your wounds."

"Our wounds," Annabeth corrected. "You've been hurt too, Percy."

Percy didn't say anything, but turned to the right and found the sign in sheet. He blew a layer of dust and decay off of the top. He flipped it open until he saw the first open page. There was one signature on that sheet, and it was from Tisiphone, and it was from August 3rd, 1954. Next to that was a column for 'Reason for coming'. She said, 'Got some murders to avenge. Need torture devices."

"Who's that?" asked Percy, pointing at the name.

"One of the Furies," Annabeth told him. "She's the Avenger of Murders."

"Seems legit." There was a slab of charcoal to write with. Percy picked it up and wrote down Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, Some day in hopefully July, and 'We're sick and tired. We need supplies to continue our journy and medcal needs to attend to'. Annabeth didn't tell him that he misspelled journey and medical, because dyslexia didn't matter at the minute.

The sign swung up, somehow knowing that they had signed in. Percy stepped around the desk and laughed at something Annabeth couldn't see. "What?" she asked.

"There's a directory," Percy told her. Somehow, this place was familiar. Someone had been to a place like this before and told her about it. "Look. Medical supplies are on the second floor. And food is on the fifth. And on the eighth is mi… miscell…" Percy looked at Annabeth for help with the word.

"Miscellaneous," she pronounced. "It means random in a way."

"Okay, well, that floor has that." Percy's eyes squinted at the board. "Look. The basement level has been scratched out." Sure enough, the words of the bottom of the directory were scratched to little bits.

"I think someone doesn't want anyone to know what's down there," Percy said.

"You think, Seaweed Brain? Let's just go get our medical supplies." Percy obeyed, but he kept turning around and looking for the set of stairs that went into the basement. Annabeth wished he would pay attention. Whatever was down there wasn't any good to them.

It struck her then. Piper had told Annabeth about a place like this that they'd been to on their own quest, and it had been run by Medea. Piper said that Medea had used her own type of charmspeak on Jason and Leo. But this place was a dump, like no one had been there in a while.

When they got to the top of the stairs, they entered the medical emporium. Wheel chairs and crutches were on the lopsided walls that leaned way too far to the left. Gurneys and hospital beds were in a pile. Annabeth wondered how some people could lose those things.

Percy grabbed something and gave it to her. It was a bottle of nectar. Annabeth greedily took a sip and it reminded her of apple pie. Almost instantly, she could feel something in her midsection moving back into place. It hurt a little bit at first, but she was glad that something was happening.

He wrapped a new line of gauze around her ribs, and it didn't even hurt anymore. Setting her on the ground, he vanished into the isles. He quickly reappeared with an air cast and a small pump.

"I couldn't find a real cast, but this should be good enough." He undid it for her and slid it onto her leg. The giant boot nearly stopped at her knee and kept her ankle completely in place. He finished the straps and pumped some air into it. "Does this work?"

Cautiously, Annabeth stood up and she didn't fall. She took a step forward, and she was walking.

"Now I can kill some monsters!" Annabeth cheered, so happy. She jumped on Percy and kissed him. He laughed against her lips.

"I'm glad you can walk again," he told her, setting her down. "I feel safer with you fighting by my side."

Wow... I'm still pretty speechless. Thank you so much for the reviews, you guys. I think I might start crying. You all are just so... words cannot describe how great you are...

Reviews and ideas are still loved! Please check out and review my new story, Are You Scared? It's only a one-shot, so I hope you do read it!

-BBH