Chapter 9
All rights and characters go to Rick Riordan!
Hey guys, thanks to all you guys for liking my story. It really does mean a lot. I didn't know that the story would actually pick up. It was just something I wanted to experiment with. I may do another story based on Katniss and Peeta, which may or may not be a vampire one. I'm not sure. But anyway, on with the story.
Thalia's POV:
Annabeth told me about Tartarus, even though I know it must have been hard for her to sift through those memories. Especially those memories. I saw pain in her eyes. Real pain. She recounted the times when Percy turned the poison back on that creature, how terrified she'd been of him. She also told about how once there, there wasn't anything to eat except for the lava, or whatever it was. It kept them alive, but only to survive, so they could suffer. She told me about the entire thing, from the falling because of the web, to the closing of the Doors of Death. I sat in awe.
Annabeth, who used to be no taller than like 4 feet, going to Tartarus and back, battling Gaea, defeating Kronos. I looked at her and couldn't believe she was still the same girl that Luke and I had found.
"I'm sorry," was all I could manage. "But Annabeth, we are going to find that thing, and we are going to find a way to turn this curse, or whatever it is, back. We'll reverse it. I promise. I swear on the River Styx."
She gives me a sharp look. Breaking a Swear on the River Styx can have dire consequences. People don't usually do that, but for Annabeth, I know we all would.
"There was something I needed to tell you guys earlier, but I forgot to," she says, "When Percy was attacked, I saw a creature a lot like the one that attacked me, but it was different, in a way. It was more beast like than man. I think Tartarus is creating more. We may just need to capture one and get it to answer our questions."
"That's a brilliant idea!" I tell her. That really is a brilliant idea. Of course she is wisdom's daughter. duh. "Hey we should head back, I'm sure the rest of the people would love to hear your theory."
"yeah, but can we stay here for awhile?" She asks.
"Sure," I say. We sit there and stare at the pine tree that I used to be. It was so strange. One minute I'm not even there, and the next, Annabeth is staring at me, but she's older. That was a weird day.
"Percy is a really great boyfriend, but sometimes I just need some girl time,"she says out of nowhere. Of course, I understand. Boys will be boys, even my brother.
Annabeth's POV:
"Hey, let's head back now," I say. We start to head down the hill, but I smell something, and it's not a smell that I like. I race down the hill back to the luncheon. Nobody's there so I look around. The next moment I see demigods racing out of the forest and there is one chasing them. Jason hurls a wind blast at the person. I don't see the person because it's too hard to see, but I race towards him and pinn him down.
"Percy!" I shout, but it's like he doesn't even hear me. He hits me with the butt of his sword and I tumble off of him. He runs off and I hear metal clashing. I look up to see him and Jason dueling. I race off and get Jason out of the way of Percy's slash with Riptide.
"Annabeth Chase, you will suffer like you never have before. You will know loss, and you will know defeat," says Percy. I look at him in bewilderment. I look at his eyes. His eyes aren't green anymore. No they are black, as black as Tartarus. And his voice isn't Percy either, no Tartarus is controlling him. Before he can even react, I knock Riptide out of his hand, take my dagger out, and knock him upside the head. He falls to the ground in a heap. 'Kill him' a voice says in me. 'Kill him, you want to, drain him, drink him.' I bend down to Percy, my fangs coming out. Suddenly Percy opens his eyed wide.
He jumps back. But I leap after him and grab him. I'm obeying the voice. It just sounds like the right thing to do.
"Annabeth stop!" His eyes are a sea green once again, but that doesn't stop me. suddenly I feel a great force on me and I look to see Thalia. Then next thing I know I have about four other demigods on top of me. The voice starts to quiet and I lose the urge to drink again.
I look over to Percy to see that about three others are dog piling him as well. Once we are in the luncheon, Percy and I are tied to chairs.
"What's going on?" I ask. I don't have a chance to say anything else.
Percy's POV:
I wake up with Annabeth on top of me, her eyes are red again, and her fangs are out. I jump out of the way but only barely. She comes towards me in a blur and is about to munch on my neck, again! But then she gets blindsided by Thalia, oh Gods couldn't have been a better time. I start to back away but the next thing I know Nico, Frank, and Piper are dog piling me. What is happening?
Both Annabeth and I are lead into the lunch room. We are then tied up, but I'm sure Annabeth could break these bonds pretty easily.
I hear Annabeth. "What is going on?" she asks. She doesn't have time to answer.
"Percy what happened?" asks Reyna. She looks concerned, but I honestly have no idea what she's even talking about.
"What's going on? The last thing I remember was trying to go after Annabeth, then everything faded. I feel like I was asleep." I say, trying to explain myself. I told them about how I blacked out, and the last thing I remember is Annabeth pinning me to the ground. They seem to believe it but I need to know what happened. They fill me in. How we were waiting around, but all of a sudden I stormed off into the woods. They tried to come after me but I attacked them.
"I don't remember any of that." I say, bewildered.
"of course you don't," says Nico. "You were possessed. Probably by the same thing that created the creatures." He is so dark and cynical. Nico has always been that way though, since Bianca...but I don't think about that. For the first time thoughI notice the necklace I grabbed after I turned the creature we encountered earlier to dust. I took it out of my pocket in my shorts. It was glowing, but now a glow like Annabeth's, no this was a sinister light. Once I got it out, it turned to dust.
"That's what was probably making you act that way," says Jason. He comes up to me and unties me. I'm glad but still.
"What about Annabeth?" I ask. Nobody answers. I look at Annabeth and she looks at me, her eyes are pleading for her to be freed, but they're red. I kneel down to her level.
"Percy, please, stay away. You can't trust me," she mumbles. she looks down but I tilt her chin up so she can look at me.
"C'mon wise girl, you know me better than that." She takes her head away and looks back down.
Reyan's POV:
After Thalia left we needed to figure out a strategy for how the plan would possibly work. I know Annabeth wouldn't accept all of us going down into Tartarus to make him pay, but she also couldn't stop us either. Thinking about it, we would out number her.
"Ok lets see what we can do," I say, but before anything Percy darts into the woods at full speed.
"Percy!" I shout at him, but he isn't even listening, it's like his body is just a machine. He runs into the woods. We all start running towards him. Into the woods we go. It's dark now, so the forest is very hard to see. I stop and take in my surroundings. I think I hear a twig snap off to my right and I start running. I see a person that looks like Percy. But instead I stumble into Jason.
"Ufff!" We both collide.
"I thought you were Percy!" I say as we dust ourselves off.
"Nope, but I think I'm hot on his trail," he says.
Out of nowhere, Percy jumps into view with his sword, slashing away. I barely have time to parry the strike before he counters then goes on to Jason. Jason and Percy are pretty much equal when it comes to sword play. But once Percy notices, the ground starts to rumble, and I hear thunder, looking up in the sky to see a giant cloud forming above us. Before I can even move, a wave of water and a wall of lightning collide, creating some sort of impact or explosion type thing. the force of it sends us all spiraling into the air. But Jason catches me and Percy is flung into a tree.
We figure it's best to run into the field, where there is more visual on him. I see that the rest of them spotted us and see them darting out of the forest as well. Jason and Percy come darting out one after the other. As Jason slashes and stabs, Percy is already forming spears from water. Jason sees this just in time to create a massive gust of wind to push them away.
Next thing I know, Annabeth is on top of him and wrestling with him. She calls out his name but he doesn't even notice. He hits her with the butt of his sword, but it doesn't do the damage he thinks it does. Instead I look and her eyes are red, and she looks pretty angry.
"Jason!" I shout, but he is unprepared for the attack. I think Percy is about to slash right through his torso when Annabeth takes him out of range.
Before I have any time to react, Percy starts to talk. "Annabeth Chase, you will suffer like you never have before. You will know loss, and you will know defeat," he says, in a voice not his own. It is like a growl and an echo and just all out terrifying. I look at him, and his eyes are solid black marble. I see something floating in his pocket, but quickly dismiss it as nothing.
Suddenly, Annabeth is pinning him down again. This time I notice he isn't struggling, and his eyes are their normal color once again, but Annabeth isn't backing down. I run to pry her off and Thalia beats me to it. We both have to gather all our strength to even move her a bit. Next I see Jason is pulling on her too. Eventually there are like four of us just trying to get Annabeth off of Percy. I look and see that Three people are dog piling Percy. We manage to get both of them under control, then we tie them up with some rope and stuff.
Annabeth's POV:
I'm tied up, which should be a good thing, but it's not. I'm tied up next to Percy and he has no idea how much I just want to rip his throat out and suck his blood. I can hear the voice since it's returned, but it's not as loud, and it isn't as demanding. Still I don't know what's happening to me. I've been getting hungrier and hungrier in shorter time spans. It's bad, and I know we have to figure something out before I completely lose control and kill everybody.
"What is going on?" I ask in bewilderment. I don't have any time to say anything because Reyna starts questioning Percy. He explains everything, and how he blacked out and what happened when he 'regained consciousness' I'm sure he's absolutely terrified of me, because I can hear the fear in his voice at the last part. But for some reason he just never backs away. He always comes back, which I am thankful for, but also wish he wouldn't.
"What about Annabeth?" I hear him ask. I'm brought back to reality. He comes down to my level, and I look, the voice is getting louder and louder. 'Kill him, c'mon you know you want to', 'it would be so easy to just rip away the rope and bite him'. But I can't avoid his stare. I look at him, pleading for him to please just let me go, so I can get out, get away. My eyes are a dark red though, which means I'm hungry, which I am, but I just want to get away first. Please.
"Percy, please, stay away. You can't trust me," I mumble. He touches the bottom of my chin, and I look up. I am forced to look up into his green eyes that make me melt, forced to see his cheeky grin. He is so hopeful that I will make it out of this. I doubt I will.
"C'mon wise girl, you know me better than that." he says. I tear my gaze away and lower my head back down. But suddenly he takes my head and kisses me. Again, there is a fire that lights up in me. I brake the rope easily and fall into his arms. The voice goes quiet in my head and all I hear now is my own thoughts, and Percy's heart. I focus on that, and it helps me hold on.
Finally, I tear away. I look at him. He looks disappointed. We both stand up. Everybody is looking at us.
"Annabeth, please, tell me what's happening to you. I want to help. I swear on the river Styx, you are going to have this curse lifted," he says. Great. That's two people swearing on the river Styx for me.
Piper's POV:
Being a child of Aphrodite has it's perks. I can tell which couples will fail, which will succeed, and I can definitely say, all the people in here, will be happy couples. even people who don't know it yet. But the aura is greatest from Percy and Annabeth right now. Each person has a special aura, and that aura is magnified like 10 fold once they meet their love. Percy and Annabeth's is really bright right now. I can see it and it's to the point where I almost need some shades. Jason comes over and wraps his arm around me and gives me a little kiss. I know if I were a vampire, I know he'd still be there for me, just like Percy.
Annabeth and Percy walk over to the table and we all sit down.
"Ok, you sure you want to do this now?" I ask to Annabeth. She nods her head.
"Ok, so vampires have this hunger," she says. "and I mean we've all heard the legends, that a vampire has to drink blood to survive. But each person has a special scent. It's just some scents are more powerful than others."
"So basically you are saying that Percy's scent is more smelly than the rest of us?" Leo says playfully. calypso elbows him in the side. She is immortal too, just no blood drinking thing, and no superpowers.
Annabeth gives him a glare, but continues. Leo is just being Leo I think. He's always that way, even in that camp we went to before Camp Half-Blood.
"Yeah, but some of the things I've been experiencing are like out of the ordinary." she says.
"Even for a vampire?" Frank asks. He seems really interested, and I can tell he's going to research more. I can also tell Hazel is pretty interested. Being the boyfriend to a child of Hades, you are kind of in tune with the whole death thing.
"yeah," Annabeth continues, "there is this voice in my head, and it doesn't belong to me, and it...scares me," she stops. We all stare at her. even Percy looks at her for a second. But then he laces his fingers between hers and wraps her arm around her. Gods they're so cute.
"So what kind of voice is it?" asks Calypso, "what does it say to you?"
Annabeth's face turns pale and she stops talking.
"Hey guys, it's getting kinda late, maybe we should finish this later," I suggest. Annabeth gives me a look that says thanks. He what are best friends for?
We all head out, knowing we have more than a fair share of work cut out for us.
Before Annabeth goes off with Percy though I catch up with her.
"Hey Annabeth, can we talk for a bit?" I ask.
"Yeah sure," she says.
"Ok first of all, I can tell you, being a child of Aphrodite, I know which relationships are going to fail or not. And yours is definitely going to pull through," I tell her. she smiles at this and looks over to Percy.
"Second, maybe we need to consult the oracle to get some information," I suggest. She nods her head.
"Can it be just us?" She asks apprehensively.
"Sure," I say. "meet tomorrow at around 7-ish?" She nods and we head our separate ways. Gods I pray this is the last life or death mission we have to do, though I doubt it will be.
End of Chapter 9
Hey guys, had some spare time so I thought I'd write some. Please guys, leave a comment or a review or something to let me know what you guys think and stuff. I don't know if I already said this, but I will say it again. I may or may not be doing a Hunger Games kinda thing. Maybe werewolves or something. Let me know if I should or shouldn't. Also, constructive criticism is always good, but no hate. Also, Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!