8Hi! This is my sorry gift for everybody who's reading Percy Jackson and the Dissipating Mist. I've been abusing my free time by not writing. Please enjoy this and I do not own PJATO series, no matter how much I wish I did. – .BEASTXx (Percy does not get tired quickly in this story)
Percy's POV:
I was walking home from school. It had only been a month or so after the war, and things had finally gone back to normal. Except that Annabeth was my girlfriend and I didn't have to worry about Kronos getting into my dreams anymore.
I was sad in a way. Nico had gone to live at camp, Thalia was still with the huntresses and rocking the leadership role, Grover was spending as much time as he could with Juniper, and Annabeth was up in Olympus 24/7 re-designing everything. I only got to see her once a week which was killing me.
Last night, Tyson had visited, giving Paul a chance to meet my overenthusiastic half-brother. He had also made me a set of armor, which could be disguised as a jacket. It was celestial-bronze armor with extra plating on the lower back, which I was grateful for. Perfect for staying alive.
As I was making the last turn, I heard a screech and a silver car stopped right beside me. Something didn't feel right. A guy got out and I started turning around when I felt his hand touch my arm. I knew he was mortal, so I couldn't do anything with Riptide. All I could do to not get captured or blow my cover was to start running.
I went full out, at least until clumsy-on-land me tripped over seemingly nothing and went sprawling across the sidewalk. The man caught up to me and grabbed me before I could get up. I tried struggling away from him, but there was a sudden spike of pain in my lower back and all my senses were lost.
I woke up to a dark room and crazy mumbling, as if whoever had taken me here was whispering to themselves. I moved my leg a little bit and felt pain. I guess I was sore from being kneed in my Achilles heel. I forced my eyes over to where I heard the mumbling coming from. A man dressed in all black rubbing his hands together was sitting on a metal fold-up chair staring out the windows. I started to pick up what he was saying.
"They won't make fun of me anymore, I can prove to them that I'm not weak. I can be strong. The kid will never know what hit him. How I'm going to keep him quiet though, that's a different story. If the neighbors hear his screaming, then I'll be investigated. They will surely arrest me or put me back in the mental facility."
He turned to look at me then, catching my eyes open. "Hello boy." He said with a deranged smile on his face. That smiled burned me, it reminded me too much of an evil I had to face not too long ago. I was going to punch it right off of him and run, but when I moved my arm, I noticed that my arms were tied together, along with my legs.
"You won't be able to get away boy. I have to prove to them that I am strong. That I can think out my actions."
I almost snorted out loud. If he was thinking out his actions, then he would know that he would eventually get caught and put into the crazy house. Plus, what harm could he do to me unless it was to my weakness?
The man stood and pet my head with disgusting grimy fingers. What was I? A dog? "Soon, this will all be over for you." Then he walked out, locking the door behind him.
I sighed and tried to get myself untied, but the knots were tied strong and there was nothing I could use to cut them. I thought of something I could do. The only thing I could think of was an Iris message, but to who? Grover was too far away, my mom would start freaking out. Chiron would seem really weak in a wheelchair. Thalia was out in nature. The only person I could think of was Annabeth.
I collected a little moisture from the air and made a mist, then I jumped up and down until a gold drachma fell out of my pocket. Carefully, I bent down and grabbed it with my pointer fingers and threw it in.
I whispered: "Annabeth Chase Mt. Olympus." A beautiful face made its way into my view and I smiled despite my position. She was dressed in a normal white t-shirt and jeans. Her bright gold-colored hair was tied in a pony tail behind her head. In her hair sat a personalized pin that I had made her out of shells and a pearl. And her eyes, her light gray eyes were absolutely stunning.
While I was staring at her, she had turned to face me and a smiled broke out on her face as well. "Hey Seaweed Brain, what's going on?"
That's when I remembered where I was at. "Annabeth, I need your help."
Her face became serious and I watched her eyes become dark and stormy. "What's wrong?"
"I was walking home earlier today and I got picked up. It's only a mortal, but he was strong. He had kneed me in me Achilles heel, making me black out. I'm tied up, and I don't know where I'm at. All I know is that he's going to try to kill me. I know that he can't, but I'd rather not answer the questions of why I'm not dying."
While I explained to her what was going on, her face became horrified. Then shocked, and then furious. "I'm coming to help you."
"Be careful." I replied. I didn't want the Phycho to get to her. Especially since she wasn't invincible.
She nodded. "I will." Then she cut off the message.
At the moment, there was nothing to do but wait, so I decided to inspect my surroundings. I was in what seemed to be a large wooden closet. I was sitting on top of a small, odd-smelling bed. There were clothes in random piles everywhere and a small window in the corner where there was a little bit of light coming through. The only water in the room was that in the air. Not enough to get me out of here. My only hope was the man coming to get me and me running or Annabeth.
The first chance I got was only a few seconds after thinking about my choices. The man came in and I was able to get a better look at him. He had gray, thinning hair and a crazed look in his eyes. He was missing a few teeth and two fingers. His clothes were caked in mud and grime so thick that it looked like he lived in the stuff.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me up with surprisingly strong arms, then started dragging me out of the closet. His house was almost as dark as the closet. It was dusty and all the blinds were closed. There were dirty dishes all over the place and the smell of raw sewage.
"You're not going to see tomorrow boy." He cackled.
I was tired of this already. Did he honestly think he could get away with this? "What do you have against me anyways?" I asked.
He looked at me in anger. "The strong arms. The structure of your body. Everything about you. It once was mine. I had been strong, I had been cared about and loved, I had friends. But they all left me. Just for one mistake. Killing the brother of a friend. He was sickly and wasn't going to live anyways, but he still got more attention than me. He always did. You look just like my brother when he was younger. He had everything I liked. The muscle, the looks, the friends. A life for a life. I never got to do away with him." I understood now, sort of. This man was severely deprived from attention. But killing was the reason, and now he was thinking that killing me would gain him the attention he had never gotten.
"You think killing another innocent person will get you more attention? If it didn't in the first place what make you think it will now?"
He ignored my question and carried me into a giant back yard. There was a pit, a bunch of newly sharpened gardening tools and, to my relief, a deep water-filled pond.
"How do you wish to die? Chopping off your strong arms and legs, then burning you? Cutting off your head? Poison? I'm a courteous man, I will let you decide.
"First I prefer to learn about you for a little while." I was stalling and I was surprised that he didn't know it.
He smiled. "You drive a hard bargain. My name and birthplace are not important. All you need to know is that I was raised in a family of three, my mother, my brother and me. My brother was the favorite. I was the outcast. Ignored, last to be helped." He frowned. "That is all there is to it. Now choose your way of death."
I suddenly got an idea. "Drowning." I replied easily.
He looked at me odd. Then the crazy smile appeared again. "Drowning eh? A good choice. Did not think of that myself. A very un-messy thing to do. Not a big clean-up. Good idea." He dragged me over to the pond and rubbed my head again. "See ya kid." He said before throwing me into the pond and holding my head underneath. I pretended to struggle and blew bubbles, then after what seemed like a fairly good amount of struggling, I held myself still, keeping my eyes closed. He pulled my head up to make sure I wasn't breathing. When I came up, I heard a gasp. A terribly, familiar gasp. I felt the man turn to look and I opened my eye a crack to see Annabeth staring at me. Her eyes widened when she saw my eye open. Then looked a little relieved. She had though I was really dead.
The man dropped me and went after her. I watched in horror as he grabbed an axe and went after her swinging. She screamed and started backing up. I used my newly refreshed energy from the water to break the bonds between my arms and legs. Before thinking about what the consequences of what I was doing were, I stood and ran after the man.
He didn't notice me. He threw the axe in a perfect spiral and it flew at Annabeth, hitting her in the ankle. She cried out in pain, took one more step and fell. The man picked up the axe again and held it up to hit her with it. I jumped in the way and blocked it with my bear hands. The man looked scared.
"Leave her alone." I said menacingly. He ignored me and tried to hit me again, the point hit my leg and then my arm, then my neck, he hadn't done any damage on me. "I said leave her alone." I repeated after the man was breathing hard from so many swings. He dropped the axe and started running for the house.
I looked over my shoulder to see Annabeth holding her bleeding ankle, but happy face. She was glad I was still alive. I bent over and helped her up to her one good ankle. Once she was standing steady, I hugged her tightly. She hugged me back and we just stayed like that for a few minutes. She broke the hug.
"I brought a cell phone. Should we call the cops?"
I nodded and took the phone from her hands. I dialed 911 and told them (almost) everything that had happened. I left out him continuously hitting my with an axe and me not even feeling the pain.
Once the mortal police showed up, we showed them the house, where they took the man into custody, never to be seen again.
"Are you sure you two are ok." An officer said.
"Yes, we're fine. I'd just like to know where we are right now." I said. Annabeth hadn't told me.
"You're in Rhode Island right now son. You're the Percy Jackson kid right?" I nodded to him. "Your parents have been looking for you for two days now." So I had been in that man's clutches for two days and five hours. It was around ten p.m. right now. I must have really blacked out.
"Thank you officer. We can get home from her now." I replied. He nodded and walked away. I helped Annabeth over to the pond, then we both sat down.
"Put your foot in the water." I said softly. She did as I said and I let my water healing ability heal her foot. She was smiling at me when I looked back up.
"Thanks." She said.
"No, thank you. You gave me the chance to get away from that Phycho. If you hadn't, I probably would have been buried in that hole in the ground."
She frowned. "I wouldn't know what to do then."
"Well, I know what to do now." I said.
She smiled at me. "And what is that Seaweed Brain?"
"Go home." I pulled her up and as we made our way to the car the police had rented us, I kissed her gently on the lips, happy that we were both safe alive.
Done! Please don't laugh at the cheesy Percabeth moments. Please review!