Cheerra12 commented: I 100% feel like the line "I hired you to take her out, not TAKE her out" inspired this whole story and I am here for it.
I have never been so called out in my life.
Yep. You got me. That one line sparked all of this.
I am so predictable.
Chapter 19
"Oh you are fucked."
Nico was absolutely no help. From the couch he stared up at Annabeth, the glare of his paused video game illuminating his face. "There is no antidote for strychnine."
Percy swallowed his panic in one painful ball. "But there has to be something you can do!?"
"Personally I'd pick your favorite deity and get drunk," Nico said, far too nonchalantly. "Strychnine isn't just deadly, it's one of the most painful poisons to die by. So whoever poisoned you didn't just want you to die, they wanted you to suffer."
"Nico!" Percy hissed, squeezing Annabeth's hand a bit tighter as he tried to keep the tone low and calm. "Maybe think a little."
Before I kill you?!
"Well I could try a DIY stomach pump," Nico set his controller down. "Give you some activated charcoal. I have Dantrolene if things get crazy."
Annabeth stepped back into Percy to let Nico by as he scampered to his room. There was a clatter of books falling over, the sound of a few metal boxes being rifled through. Did he have filing cabinets in there?
When he emerged he was holding a long clear rubber tube with a giant syringe, the size of a tall beer can, duct taped to one end. In the other he had a white cardboard box smudged with black fingerprints. He shuffled into the kitchen a little awkwardly.
Annabeth fidgeted, brushing shoulders with him as her eyes remained glued to the tools Nico was spreading out meticulously on the counter.
He squeezed her hand. "Your call. If you still want to go to the hospital, I'll take you."
"No," she breathed anxiously. "But thank you."
Percy wasn't prepared for how prepared Nico was. He supposed it was because he always thought of Nico as a couch potato hobo. Clearly that bias needed to be re-examined. Nico snapped on a pair of rubber gloves and carefully adjusted fluidshield mask straps over each of his gawky ears.
Silently, he washed and prepped the hose, the syringe and a bucket.
"Go lie on the couch on your left side," Nico said. His syringe was sloshing a quarter full with water, he held the nozzle to the tube skyward so nothing leaked out onto the floor. "Before we start, how are you feeling?"
"Nervous. Jumpy," Annabeth muttered. Percy followed her to the couch. "Like I have to move."
"Oh boy," Nico winced. "Alright, hold still. Open mouth, don't gag. And whatever you do, don't bite the tube! It's expensive. Don't wanna replace it."
Percy was thankful it wasn't him. Nico jammed the tube down Annabeth's throat and into her stomach. He flushed the water into her gut, and then broke off the tube from the syringe and dropped the end into the bucket on the floor. Yellow liquid swirled and poured from the open end. Siphoned straight out of Annabeth. Bile. An empty pill capsule was swimming around in the middle.
It was less than a minute, but Annabeth couldn't fight her reflexes forever. Red-faced and choking she eventually shoved Nico away from her and carefully pulled the length of tube out of her throat. Anxiously, Percy patted her back as she retched and heaved into her knees.
"That was fucking awful," Her voice quivered.
"About to get worse." Nico said, still infuriatingly careless in his demeanor. He handed her a tall glass filled to the rim with what looked to be a black slushie. "Drink."
Annabethers storm grey eyes shot up to shoot a venomous glare at him, but still she took the glass from his fingers, then tipped it back and chugged with her face towards the sky.
She slammed the empty glass onto the low coffee table with a grit jaw. "Tastes like dirt," she gagged. A black film had settled over the surface of her teeth.
"Because that's pretty much what it is," Nico deadpanned.
"What was it?" Percy asked.
"Activated charcoal."
With another guttural augh, Annabeth stumbled to her feet and staggered over to the kitchen. Dipping her head into the sink, she turned on the faucet and washed out her mouth.
After the third rinse, she returned to the living room. Sucking her teeth and pinning Nico with her calculating eyes as if she were thinking of all the ways she could make him experience hell.
"Was it necessary?" she asked.
Nico shrugged. "I dunno. I don't even know how much strychnine you ingested and for how long it's been there."
"Are you sure this isn't just- just-" Annabeth faltered. Her breath stalled in her lungs. Percy thought maybe she'd suddenly got another wave of gross taste but it didn't pass.
Twitches started pulling against her skin. Jarring her arms, making her wobble on her feet. Uncontrolled, her ankle rolled and her legs gave out from beneath her.
Percy dove and caught her centimeters from the ground.
"What's happening?!" Percy grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into his lap. "What's going on?!"
Annabeth couldn't speak. Her chest was convulsing, her eyes were wide and lucid and devastatingly full of fear. With a choking growl, he could see her try to speak but her jaw was shaking to badly. Desperately, Percy wrapped his arms tightly around her small body. A weak attempt to calm her writhing. Instead he felt her muscles snap and roll without reason to. Against his shoulder she gasped a guttural sound of pain, tearing a hole right through his heart.
"What's HAPPENING!?" He demanded this time.
Nico was enthralled with the reaction. His eyes were fixated on her jerking form. "Strychnine messes with your nerves. I don't know if I got enough of it out to save her. The next twelve hours are going to be brutal."
"What do I do?! What should I do?!"
"She needs a lack of stimuli. Darkness, no noise, no strong smells, no food." Nico instructed. "I also have dantrolene. It's a muscle relaxer-"
Percy was already moving towards his room, Annabeth cradled in his arms. He pushed open his door with his foot and thanked his lucky stars that he'd cleaned up before he left. Gently, he lay her convulsing body down on his bed then locked the light out behind the door. His window drapes were drawn. Lights off. The final key was jamming a few shirts under the crack in the door to secure them in near total darkness.
Annabeth whimpered from the bed. Watching him move. He could see her wide eyes as they reflected the tiniest bit of light still coming from the edges of the drapes.
"No, close your eyes," Percy said softly. Gently brushing his fingertips over her eyelids to encourage them shut. "Don't try to see anything okay?"
"Percy," she managed to cry. Croaking, hopeless, afraid.
His heart heaved for her.
Percy didn't want to touch her. If stimuli caused these erratic seizures, then technically he shouldn't even be talking to her. But he couldn't just leave her in the darkness. The girl who was scared of death couldn't be alone as she faced it.
Helpless, he caressed her hair back. "It's okay. I've got you, baby. I'm not going anywhere."
Annabeth writhed again, expelling tortured gasps. Her body stiffened once more and forced her back into an almost unnatural arch. Agony rippled out of her in the way she screamed with her head thrown back against the pillow.
It was as if she were battling a demon, something evil trying to take control of her body. Unnaturally, her arms twisted and wriggled. Her legs stiffened and shifted and rolled in random directions. Cramps, her muscles were firing randomly. All at once. An acute flush of colour had altered her complexion.
Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance. Percy's brain chanted when her second bone chilling scream razed through the air.
He fumbled for his phone. It took him three times to get into his pocket before he realized he was shaking too. His dumb fat fingers were trembling too much to put in his passcode. Call an ambulance. Call an ambulance. Call them-
"No," Annabeth gasped. She could see his phone out, the light that poured from it. Still thrashing she somehow found the strength to speak. "No."
But even her voice sounded like it was being strangled by an invisible monster.
Percy clutched the phone between his hands, dimming the light. Silently, he watched her. A deep panicked pit had opened in his stomach. Flooding him with an itchy sense of doom.
She knew what he was trying to do and she had just shut him down. Condemning him to do nothing as she potentially died.
He could only sit next to her quietly. Unable to even touch her.
Percy grit his teeth so hard his jaw popped. With his hands fisted around his phone, the metal biting into his palms, he found himself praying. Get her through this. Please. Just get her through this..
Another curdled scream broke past her lips a moment later. His hair stood on end. His ears rung. He jumped to his feet to pace to the other side of the bed, his eyes never left her. Sweat, he could see it glinting off her forehead, her neck, her shoulders in the dim light.
Another scream. It felt like the room was made of static.
"NICO!" Percy was shaking. He raced to the door with every tendon in his body tight from stress. Then paced back to her side. "NICO!"
Nico marched in a second later and flooded the room with light. Easily, he uncapped a small syringe with one hand and motioned for Percy's help with the other. Percy pinned her flopping arm down, Nico sunk the needle deep into her flesh and pumped in the liquid. Leaving a small bead of blood swelling up where he punctured.
"How long until it takes effect?" Percy demanded over Annabeth's throaty whimpers of agony.
Nico shrugged. "It may do nothing."
"What?"
"It's a muscle relaxer. Not a miracle worker."
"Well what else do you have?!" Percy simmered. Setting his eyes on Nico murderously. "What ELSE?!"
"Sedatives. I have a few sedatives. Pain meds won't do anything at this phase." Nico left the room in a hurry. Shutting the door behind him and spiraling them back into the darkness.
"It hurts," she sobbed. "It hurts."
Percy bit his lip to hold back his own anxiety swelling in his throat. Shaking his head numbly he brushed his hand through her hair one more time. "I know baby, I know. We're doing everything we can."
Seconds later, Nico came barging back in and unceremoniously stabbed Annabeth twice with two larger syringes. Percy watched as the tube of yellow liquid was forced under her skin. Praying, praying, praying that it would offer her some relief.
"Now what?" Percy said through his teeth.
It felt like a demon had clamped their molten hand over his heart. It felt like every ounce of his life was about to become stripped of colour and music. It felt as if he was watching her sink into a black hole.
He held a curl of Annabeth's hair, the only part of her she couldn't feel. She was panting, exuding sweat at an unnatural pace and still jerking around like a puppet with a cruel master. Scrambling the blankets that lay beneath her.
"We wait," Nico said with a shrug.
Percy's nerves were strung too high to care about the indifference Nico was showing. Mournfully, he gripped her one curl tighter and stooped in closer to her bed.
"Fuck."
.:oOo:.
Her body never stopped moving. Thirty minutes after the injections, Annabeth's full lunged screams started to lose momentum. Slowly they turned into heavy whimpers, then empty moans. In a fritz of total panic Percy was sure he was losing her, that her life was slipping away before him. Until he noticed the way her eyes were fluttering, how her breathing was evening out. Even if her muscles hadn't stopped jerking, the sedatives were working their magic. Carrying her off somewhere where there was no pain.
When her cries stopped completely, Percy gently wiped the tears from the side of her face. Feeling so relieved it almost overcame him.
Gradually, the spasms stopped too. Eventually the only sign that she was poisoned at all was a few twitches in her calves and forearms.
In silence, Percy stroked her hair. A pit in his heart so wide it could swallow redwood trees. Guilt, why was he feeling it? He wasn't the one who poisoned her. Or maybe he did. She took those pills in an attempt to save his life. If he hadn't fucked up and turned his back… Maybe he felt like she was suffering for his sins.
Dawn was creeping in from outside. Cracks of it dimly slipped under the edge of his drapes, dripping a faint dusting of light across his room.
He must've dozed off, his head against the mattress and his legs splayed out on the floor, because when he looked up again, midday light was streaming in through the window.
That throat binding panic was racing in his heart.
Is she alive?! is she alive?!
He jumped to his feet, and stood over her. Scanning her so fast for signs of life that he almost missed them.
Annabeth's unconscious form had been spurred into another flurry of spasms. Undoubtedly because of the light.
Percy lightly jogged to the window to draw the curtains tighter together. Breathing out a deep sigh of relief at the little sounds of pain still coming from his bed.
She was still alive.
Eyes were staring back at him from just outside his window. Shattered eyes.
Percy pulled the drapes back an inch in confusion.
A panda stuffie, its stuffing ripped out and its bead eyes splintered was duct taped to the outside of his window. It's ghoulish little expression sent a stab of fear through him.
"Fuck," he breathed. His gun was still empty. Annabeth was too weak to be moved.
On cue, Percy's door swung open. Edgewise sauntered forward lazily. Enjoying his surprise.
"Found you, bitch." She halted just shy of six feet away from him. The sleek shine of a metallic gun was gripped in her fingers, her other hand hovered over the array of throwing knives strapped to her thigh. Redundantly, Percy found himself shifting to cover Annabeth.
Edgewise stood right at the foot of the bed. With one throw she could…
She wasn't wearing a hood or face cover this time. Just a leather jacket and ripped black skinny jeans. Her black spikey hair was licked up in every direction. Catlike, she slunk towards him. A bloodthirsty glint in her sky blue eyes. The mangled part of her face pulled up the left side of her lips a bit, giving her a perpetual twisted smirk.
Percy hadn't meant to injure her so grotesquely. In all honesty he was trying to kill her. His bullet missed the center of her head and instead shredded up from the bottom of her cheek to up past her ear. When he caught up to her, she was worming against the ground in pain. Her ear dangling by a strand of sinew.
The ear couldn't be saved, so he cut it off. Normally he'd end things there, but she'd looked so pathetic, so defenseless he couldn't do it. At the time she was new to assassination, she was only seeking to jump the ladder, that's why she attacked him in the first place.
He figured if he let her go, he'd never see her again. But with her standing face to face again, he understood it was a gross miscalculation. She was no longer just seeking his position, she was looking for revenge. A much more dangerous motive.
"If you want to get a weapon. I'll wait," she purred. "I've been waiting a long time for this and I don't intend to end things quickly."
Percy gripped his fists. Over her shoulder he could see the flash of Nico's video games leak into the hallway. The bastard had probably just let her in.
"I'm good." Percy glanced back at Annabeth, a bubble in his chest. He had some spare pistols hiding around his room, but gunfire would certainly set her off in seizures again. "I don't need to hide behind objects to beat you."
"Oooh you cocky little shit-"
Despite the pure toxicity of her eyes, she holstered her gun and flicked out one of her blades. A short black thing with shining razor edges. Percy didn't wait for her to make the first move.
He lunged. Feigning for her torso, but diving last minute into her legs. With a grunt, he swept them out from underneath her. Last second, he rolled. Feeling her blade skim his back and the instant slick of blood that coursed down his spine. Shallow, no real damage, he determined just by briefly rolling his shoulders.
In seconds she was on her feet again. Swiping at him in outward arcs. Percy dodged, feeling the whisper of her blade hiss past his ears. Second slice attempt, he caught her by the wrist. Reeling her in. Feeling the warmth of her shivering body collide with his made his gut recoil.
Human.
His headspace was dripping away from him slowly. Melting. How could he just pretend that she was an object when he could feel her heartbeat raging against the confines of her ribs?
Calm. Cool. Water. Percy dug his fingers into her wrist. Crushing it with all his strength. With a snarl of pain, she whipped her fist forward. Barely, he missed blocking. Her knuckles met his temple. Dancing with spots, his world turned sideways. Dragging her with him as he crumbled to the ground.
Water.
He caught her fist the second time. Securing her by the wrist, and rolling over to pin her to the ground. Punching his knee down into her stomach and momentarily winded her. While she retched for air, Percy reached for his sneaker and twisted the shoelace around her wrists.
Desperately she thrashed against him as he slipped a knife free of her thigh. In a heartbeat her movements stilled when the cold of her own blade threatened the purity of her neck.
Cold. Cool. Water.
He'd slashed necks before. One quick movement, a few painful minutes of pleading gurgles, and a violent wave of blood that would wash a one meter diameter red. But there was something about this time. Not her, he didn't care about her.
Annabeth was asleep just a few feet away. What if she woke up? What if the smell of blood pulled her back into that terrifying state of endless seizing?
"Do it." She bared her teeth. Defiance and anger burning in her lightning blue eyes. "Just do it."
In their struggle, her necklace had torn free of her shirt. A little arrow with letters lined up down the side.
Thinking, he paused. Weighing his options. Then Percy took the knife back slowly. Releasing his hold on her.
"Thalia Grace." He didn't have to squint to read, they were embossed in purple lettering. "Nice to finally know your name."
Thalia lay motionless. Eyeing the knife he still had gripped in his fingers. Figuring that if she moved, he'd nail her through the heart with one solid throw. She was only half right.
"Assassin's truce?" he offered.
"What?" she hissed.
"Truce."
"Why?"
"I don't particularly feel like dealing with a body right now," he said honestly. All the blood she would leak, the evidence she would leave behind. She was in his home, and that was too close to make a kill.
Thalia ripped off the shoelaces and sat up. Rubbing her wrists as she kept her steady gaze on Percy. "So that's it?"
"Pretty much."
Thalia scowled at the floor. "Alright… truce."
Percy allowed her to crawl to her feet. Still pointing the knife at her subtly to let her know that she needed to keep her hands where he could see them. Slowly, she backed up towards the door. Almost through.
Annabeth whimpered from the bed. Ticks of cramps were starting up her legs again. Slowly consuming her in pain.
Percy reached to shut the door, but Thalia wasn't budging anymore. Rigid, she stood there transfixed, staring at Annabeth's limp form. A tight twist in her lips.
She must've been so focused on him that she never even accounted for Annabeth's presence.
"What did you do to her," Thalia said in a low tone. Her rage had gone catatonic. He could see it melting out of her eyes, her stance, the quivering shake in her breath.
"Nothing-"
Within a blink, she had him by the throat and pegged against the wall. Swelling panic fluttered in his lungs as his breath was halted. In vain he stabbed at her with the knife, but she rammed her fist into his ribs. A hollow crack sent starbursts of pain fizzling over his chest. The world was blurred, the knife slipped from his weakening fingers. For a swimming second he lost grip on reality and drifted away. He was brought back by Thalia spitting words on his face.
"What. did. You. do. To. her," she seethed. This time loosening her grasp by a smidget so a rush of air could finally reach his aching lungs.
"Nothing," Percy gargled.
Thalia wasn't looking for that answer apparently. Growling, she unsheathed a dagger and split it across his face. A trickle of hot blood spit down the side of his cheek, over his eye. Tingles of adrenaline were throbbing through his veins making everything sharp.
"I should chop off your dick right now you vile wretch," Thalia gritted. "I should skin you alive and feed you to an ant hill."
Still gasping, Percy wrenched up his knee between them. His shin landed on her torso and pried her away. As she pounced back at him, he held up his hands and cornered himself against the two walls.
"I swear," he choked. "She was poisoned by her ex. He's the one who called the hit. If you kill me now, you kill her too. I'm the only one keeping her alive."
"You sick fucker, you drugged her didn't you?!" Thalia vaulted a knife. FWAP, it buried itself in the wall centimeters from his face.
Calm. Cool water. Water.
Percy leveled his eyes with hers. Allowing his shoulders to fall relaxed, allowing his brows to unfurrow. "If you kill me, you kill her too."
"I don't believe that-"
"You recognize her, don't you? You were working on her case with another assassin because you knew I took that case and left it. You were trying to find me. Once you spotted me, you knew you were on the right trail so you killed your partner."
Thalia had enough. She whipped out her gun. "But that doesn't explain why she's unconscious in your bed."
"Her ex lured her to his office and poisoned her with strychnine." Percy said slowly. "She's still sick and I'm helping her recover. But if you kill me, I can guarantee that she'll die because my roommate won't hesitate to drop her off on her ex's doorstep."
"Why do you care?!" she jabbed her gun at him. "Why are you trying to help her to recover?"
Percy started to talk but stopped. Any reason would be a lie. Confused, he glanced back at Annabeth. Aching at how she was twitching again, how an expression of pain was resurfacing on her angelic face. At least the sedatives were still at work.
"I just care, okay?"
"Because she has boobs?"
"Because I care." A flare of anger rippled through him. But he couldn't be that right now. He had to remember that he was a sinner. Of course Thalia would assume the worst. He was the one who gave her that scar anyways.
"I just don't want her to die, alright? Come back to kill me another time. I don't care. Just not when her life hinges on mine."
Thalia's gun fell. Still, a fire was in her eyes. "Don't do that. Don't pretend to be decent."
"I'm not decent," Percy said. "But I could do one decent thing before I die, it's saving her."
Thalia glowered at him. At first he thought she was going to give him a condition, a rule. He even suspected that she would volunteer to sit with him, just to watch over her. But he should have known better.
Edgewise was one of a handful of sinners who held themselves to a code of operation. A moral of sorts. But she was still a sinner, and one who wouldn't risk herself for the sake of someone else. With a final leer, she slunk out his door.
Percy heard Nico say goodbye before the front door slammed behind her.
Next chapter is... interesting? Let me just say this, next chapter I simultaneously dread posting but also look forward to posting.