Annabeth

Annabeth quickly pushed Ethan off her and sat up gasping. She looked up at him, ready to apologize but he looked away.

"I am sorry. I should not have- I offended you, I-"

"No!"

Ethan looked at her, startled by her outburst.

Annabeth flushed. This was so complicated. How could she let him kiss her to fulfill her daydreams about kissing someone else? The moment their lips had touched for the second kiss she had been so sure that she wanted Ethan but the moment she closed her eyes she could see only one person touching her and doing sinful things to her and that person wasn't Ethan.

That was enough. She needed time.

"I just need some time. My life is really in a... mess."

"It will never work anyway. You are a noble and I am not."

With that he started to get up. Annabeth quickly grasped his hand and made him to look at her.

"That's not true. Any thing is possible and besides-"

She would have confessed that she wasn't really a noble. That all this was a farce and she was only taking advantage of the fact that she looked like a noble if he hadn't said,

"I am sorry Annabeth but a relationship with you would be more trouble than it is worth. I- I don't want to make the nobles angry. I would rather not."

Coward. That's the first word which popped into Annabeth's mind when she heard him say those words. Tears pricked her eyes as she stood up and hastily made her way towards the huge garden doors.

She couldn't believe she had laid herself out like that. Bleary eyed she started to go back to the roof. After climbing the marble staircase when she didn't reach her room she realized that she was lost. Frustrated she cursed under her breath and looked around.

She was standing in what could be any corridor as they all looked the same with mosaic flooring and heavily draped windows. Painting of Kihone and other frosty people like her adorned the walls while vases and other antique looking furniture occupied the sides of the floor. Annabeth looked at the paintings. One of them advertised a plump women with snowy hair which was just like Kihone's. The women's frosty blue eyes were painted artistically. It appeared that she wasn't really all that pleasant from the way she was frowning. Annabeth saw another women with a huge golden wig and another one with rosy cheeks but the rest of the women was so white that her colored cheeks made her look like a pig.

Annabeth stifled a laugh.

The next photo was of a man with spiked golden hair and broad shoulders. His eyes were almost grey. His nose was long and a bit crooked and his smile was sly but there it was. Startled Annabeth looked around at all the paintings ones again. All the other ones were of women except this one.

Cautiously, Annabeth bent over the painting and read the calligraphy at the bottom of it,

"Duke Byron Belemy Jonardan Edger Winters."

Her soft breath hit the aging canvas as she lightly traced her fingers against his name. She noticed his eyes again. Up close they looked more grey... just like her eyes. For the first time Annabeth registered the striking similarity in her and the nobles. Was it possible that she had some noble blood after all? Her mom looked just like her and so did her mom's dad.

Annabeth remembered how her grandpa used to wrinkle his nose and pretend that her dad didn't exist. In fact his distaste for her father had been the primary reason for her parent's first divorce. Even her mom hadn't looked so pleased when Vera had started dating her lab partner, Mike Joves, and she had almost had a heart attack when Vera came home all happy after loosing her virginity with Robert who had red hair and lovely emerald eyes. Her dad hadn't been too pleased when he found out but her mom had been really disturbed.

They didn't like the idea of Annabeth dating an older guy like Luke but mom had insisted that he was better than the boys Vera dated. Maybe it was because Luke was blonde and blue eyed. Maybe her grandpa didn't like her dad because he wasn't.

That meant there was some noble blood somewhere in her bloodstream.
Annabeth gasped at her realization and pressed her palm against the duke's painting for support.

That's exactly when the trap door behind the painting opened. It was a moment in those crappy suspense or horror movies where the female protagonist found the hidden treasure or stumbled to the antagonist's lair or to the antagonist himself, or she was eaten by a hideous beast.

Annsbeth looked around the hallway to make sure that no one was looking. The hallway was strangely deserted. Even tough the palaces's staff wasn't humongous there was always a maid or a butler parading down each corridor. But this one was completely isolated. This section of the castle must have been off limits. Annabeth noticed that there wasn't any source of light down the trap door. She could see the first three stairs and a little of the forth one but after that every thing was pitch dark.

After a lot of consideration she finally decided to explore. The moment she climbed the first stair she expected the door to close or some fire torches to come to life along the walls. Nothing of that sorts happened. After swallowing a lot of bile and bunching up her skirt in her fists she slowly made her way down to nowhere.

After a few steps her fingers trailed the wall for direction. There were several turns and Annabeth could only wish for no forks. She peeked over her shoulder and realized that she was quite below ground level. The door through which she had come was just a tiny blob of white.

Annabeth trudged forward, praying to whichever god was listening to have a spider free journey. After what seemed like forever when nothing happened Annabeth decided that there was nothing there to see. This was a forgotten part of the palace. She should hurry back up before Jasper or Rachel notice her absence. She had no idea how much time had passed. With a sigh she turned around and slowly started to climb up. If she tripped and broke her legs then the next person who would see her would be a grave digger.

Annabeth's hand pressed against something sharp on the wall as she touched it for support.

"Ouch!"

As soon as the word escaped her mouth a snort of laughter like sound flitted through the air. Annabeth dropped her hand and turned around in a circle.

She waited for more sound.

She heard was a scream.

Annabeth quickly backed away and bumped into the wall. This was a bad idea. What if there was some sort of wild beast down there?

"Help!"

A shrill scream bounced off the enclosed space. The voice was kind of... familiar.

"H-help." This time the voice was just a moan and more feminine.

Annabeth found her tongue pressed painfully between her teeth.

"Where are you?"

She screamed, when there was no response she screamed again, "Where are you?"

"Help me. They will kill- they will kill-"

"Keep talking!", Annabeth said as she rushed down to follow the voice.

She had to help this girl. She just had to.

"They brought me here- kill me-"

Annabeth steered away from the wall to where the girl was. At first her voice was her only guide but after that a faint light caught her attention. Annabeth lunged towards it like a thirsty animal and squinted at the sudden outburst of brightness. She was completely blind for a moment put then the world came back to focus.

That's when her eyes landed on the brunette girl sprawled on the floor. The girl was wearing a blue Victorian gown and blood was gushing out of her eyes, her nose, her ears, nails and every other opening of her body. Annabeth could see trails of blood trickling down her calf and knew which opening it came from which would have been normal for a girl but Annabeth got a feeling that nothing about this was normal.

With shaking hands she turned the girl around to reveal two huge black eyes staring at her. Bile rose up to her throat. With shaking hands she checked for the brunette's pulse. Nothing. Her skin was cold. She was long dead.

"An- nnnna- behth?"

The sound of her name had never surprised her like that before. She wiped around and looked everywhere. The ground was littered with bodies of young boys and girls about her age. The light was streaming down from a whole in the roof. The sunlight was oddly warm for the cold and stale atmosphere.

"Anna?"

This time she pinpointed the person and rushed to her side. She pushed back the blood socked hair from the girl's face and made her sit up. The girl was wearing a pale blue hospital gown which looked oddly out of place ...out of time.

Through all the blood and gore she almost didn't recognize her sister.

"Vera? Veronica?!"

"Annabeh?"

Her sister coughed and more blood gushed out of her mouth. Annabeth's arms went across her sister's fragile body, she almost didn't care about the blood.

"Did they kill you too? Are we dead?" Vera's voice was barely a whisper.

"What are you taking about?" Annabeth asked.

"The people they-" more coughing.

"Hush. Don't speak. I'll get you out of here."

But Vera refused to move.

"Cut open our brains and did something. They- they talked about some king. He want's to control the minds of people, he-"

More coughing, more blood.

"Stop it Ver!"

"H-he made us think time was slow or really fast. It hurt."

"Stop it." Annabeth begged, her voice muffling with her tears.

Then Vera turned her complete attention towards her, her brown eyes wide open with her fear transparent.

"I don't wanna di- die Annah! I don-"

"No!" Annabeth shook her sister, "No, no, no, no, no!"

Annabeth watched as her sister kept on repeating her last will until she could talk no more. The silence that followed after that deafened Annabeth. She shook her sister again and again but all her efforts and screams were proving useless. The world was slipping through her fingers like dry sand.

Ironically that was the moment when Veronica Chase died.

Annabeth tripped about hundred times while climbing back up. She couldn't see straight or think straight. She had wanted to bring her sister with her but Vera was chained to the wall. Annabeth Barely remembered pushing the painting back to it's place and gliding down the hallways.

Every maid, every guard and every worker she passed turned back or stopped in their paths to look at her. A soft murmuring ensued behind her back but all their comments and questions bounced off her ear drums.

Her little sister, Vera, was dead. She had literally raised her sister when their mom had left them and her dad had been too busy with work and her step mother wouldn't touch her baby sister. She had taught Vera to comb her unruly golden curls. She remembered how her sister had laughed happily on her eight birthday when Annabeth had gifted her her first tennis shoes. Her athletic baby sister who lived mostly in the gym, who was afraid of gaining weight and shared the same phobia of spiders.

A hand clamped on her arm.

"Are you okay?"

Annabeth turned around to find Ethan looking at her through eyes filled with concern. Her gaze traveled down and took in his blue royal guard uniform. He was one of them, one of the king's men who had killed her sister.

With a jerk she threw his hand away.

"Don't touch me!"

Ethan looked shocked, then he must have noticed all the blood and big fat tears rolling down her cheeks because he tried again.

"Annabel-"

"I said don't touch me! Don't come near me!"

More guards rushed towards them and pushed Ethan back.

"What is the matter My Lady? This guard giving you trouble?" A gruff guard asked.

Annabeth's blood boiled and her vision blurred. She picked up the nearest vase decorating the corridor and threw it at the guard who had spoken.

"Monsters! Y're all murders! Get away from me!"

The guards backed away, looking confused and more people rushed towards her. Someone put both their hands on her shoulder and made her turn. It was Jasper. With the big ornate crown on his head. He killed her sister too.

"Get off! Get off! You-"

Khione came running towards them, her pearl gown trailing behind her. She looked like a morbid bride ready to drink her groom's blood. The duchess's frown transformed into a cold smile as she took Annabeth in.

"Well Well Well. What do we have here? A wild uncultured noble? Never heard of those? Are you sure her blood isn't dirt my Duke?"

Khione's venomous tone broke the glass wall keeping Annabeth sanity safe to pieces. She lunged for Jasper's knife but he grabbed her. She thrashed and flailed against his grip, firing away obscenities.

"Incapacitate her!" Jasper barked.

Something heavy hit her head. A sharp pain coursed through her skull as the world slowly started turning black. Maybe they had killed her too. Maybe she would be lucky enough to meet her sister again.

Annabeth was feeling like some beast had clawed out her insides and left a void within her. Sometime when she had been unconscious her tears had dried. She didn't know what to do anymore. How could her sister just... die?

She pressed her back against the cold white cell wall and the setting rays of sun warmed her face. The iron barred window was just above her head. Annabeth stared ahead at the large rusted grills that locked her in.

Jasper had thrown her in an asylum. It somehow seemed fitting. All she could see when she peered through the bars were rows after rows of tiny cells like hers with most of the people chained and drugged. Once in a while one of them would get up and howl until a nurse or a doctor would come to sedate them again. If a person wasn't mad already he sure would be after taking those drugs. She was sure that HIV and aids killed half of theses people as the syringes were surely no recycled.

Annabeth could see two cells across from hers. One of them contained a malnutritioned child with hollowed eyes and jutting ribs. His pale skin and dusty brown hair were caked with dirt. Annabeth couldn't tell what color his eyes were because he hadn't opened them for her yet. From the way he was lying on the floor peacefully, one would think that he was asleep or dead. According to her the second option was more likely.

The cell right across from hers contained a strange person completely clocked and covered. Even his or her face was hooded. The person just sat there on the floor and occasionally moved to lie down or stare out of the window.

Annabeth looked outside her's too. She just saw the beginnings of a forest and a darkening sky. Judging from the height she was at least two stories above the ground.

Annabeth sighed and hung her head.

The nurse did her routine rounds to inject required nutrients into their blood streams. Annabeth knew this because she had asked about the stuff in the syringe and the nurse had snapped the reply back to her.

This time it was a different nurse. She was plumper and looked more human with her short brown curls and doe eyes.

She greeted Annabeth and injected her, Annabeth didn't even flinch.

"You'll get out of here dearie. You don't look insane to me. I'll put in a good word with the doctor."

The woman smiled down at her but Annabeth just stared back. She wanted to say that she didn't care, that her life felt pretty meaningless at that moment but her tongue refused to move. The nurse gave her a sad look and moved on to the clocked person who lived right across from her.

Last time when she had got injected she had been the only one. So this time she observed her neighbor, trying to figure out weather she was looking at a he or a she.

The nurse drew the cloak back to reveal a strong, muscled and barely tanned arm. A thin blue vein was visible on the flesh along with many tiny white scars. Definitely a he.

The nurse thought so too and went for the hood. But the patient was too quick, he caught her hand inches away from his head and held it there for a moment before throwing it back. Annabeth glared at the man. No wonder the nurses hated them all. She dismissed that thought as soon as it had entered her brain, that guy was mad and probably disfigured, it was only normal for him to act like that.

I'm going to be stuck here forever.

That thought didn't break her heart like it used to. There was no point in going back to her old life if her sister was dead. It would be a constant reminder of this awful reality.

Darkness spread across the place as the sun went to sleep. A man in grey clothes lit the torches to light the passage. Shadows moved on the wall and across the cemented floor in a celebratory dance, mocking Annabeth's grief.

Without the light from the sun she couldn't see the hooded man at all.

The shivering started soon after the torches were out. She glared at the hooded man's cell again. All those layers must be protecting him from cold and here she was... freezing to death.

Annabeth curled in herself to keep her body warm. It worked for a few hours but then cold wind started blowing in through the window without flaps. Her teeth started to rock softly after the first sneeze. There was no bed or even a sheet of cloth. Where was her blanket?

She rose to her feet to call for someone. Even tough dying wouldn't be so bad but freezing to it would surely be painful.

Thug

clank

Annabeth staggered back as someone pushed the grills caging her to the right. It was too good to be a nurse with a blanket so she figured that she should be scared.

Right.

"Who's there?"

Her question was answered by stealthy footsteps and a swish of a black cloak. Annabeth backed away until her back hit the wall hard and her knees gave in. She must have looked pathetic to her tormentor but she was bone tired and dirty. They hadn't changed her dress so it was the same emerald gown caked in her sister's dried blood. She fingered the emeralds on the hem of her gown.

The nobles didn't even take it back. Those few carats of emerald worth about a few hundred-thousands meant nothing to them but maybe it would to her intruder.

"I have a lot of emerald. Take them and leave me alone."

Annabeth's eyes finally adjusted to the darkness as the person moved closer. It was the same hooded man from across the hall. He was leaning closer with his hand on his thighs. With a spike of braveness and mostly stupidity she pushed back his hood in one swift movement which crammed her arm.

Somehow she had expected to see cold blue eyes and dull blonde hair. But what she saw instead brought tears to her eyes again.

Percy Jackson's eyes looked more green than blue in the darkness and oh gods she liked those eyes.

Her brain went numb with the shock.

What was he doing in an asylum?

Surprisingly her brain's numbness didn't affect her body. Her arms flung themselves around his neck pulling him down to her as she buried her nose in his shoulder blade. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her heart did a crazy flip. She was unnaturally relieved and overjoyed by his presence. She didn't know where he had come from or she didn't care. It was just... good see him... good to inhale his sea side smell again.

"Oh My God Percy! Oh My God!"

Annabeth hadn't noticed that he had gone all stiff and still until he let out a sigh and wrapped her in his strong muscular arms, his nose buried itself in her hair, inhaling deeply.

"I thought I would never see you again." Annabeth mumbled into his thick black cloak.

Percy was quiet for a moment then his voice shattered the silent bubble in which she had been since she had woken up in the mental hospital.

"I didn't think I would see you again too... I'm so sorry Annabeth for... calling you a-"

"I'm sorry too."

Their fight from earlier had squeezed her heart painfully before but it seemed so childish now. And she seemed more cruel than ever. She had thrown his trust at his face and left him alone in the woods.

Her arms tightened around his neck as more unexplainable tears burst out of her.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so-"

"Hush." He whispered in her ears as he rubbed soothing circles on her back.

His burning touch chased away the cold and made her feel almost feverish.

"You are alright. I am here."

Annabeth nodded weakly. And snuggled more against him. She didn't care about the way her body was completely pressed against his. Because for the first time since he had shined the torch in her eyes,

Nothing felt wrong and everything felt right.

Please tell me how it was!

To guest: Here Annabeth is kind of mine so I can't help her but make her a little OC to suite the story.

Vanne-the-bookworm : Thankyou so much :)

Gothazon: Rest assured it's not sinking.

Guest: Who do you think is the beast?

IIII Winter Wolf IIII : He does.

jessica jasso: They didn't. But I guess you figured that! xD

zarrey: Your English is perfect! And you sooooo do not apologize for anything. I would read what you have to say even if it is in Spanish. (Which I have no clue what is.)

Dawnwizard8010: Nothing basically. Annabeth was kinda just using him to get off Percy but it didn't work.

EvenTheSunsetsInParadise: You are the awesome one Alex! Love ya!

HispanicThug: She was I guess. She has had a sad life and now that she isn't fertile she wouldn't get someone easily. Old time, Old people, Old thinking.