Chapter Text
A blue light blinked in front of me, the sign of an incoming Iris Message. I accepted.
"Jason, thank the gods you answered!"
"Hey Pipes. What's up?" I asked.
"It's Annabeth. She's gone."
My mind reeled. Annabeth and I might not have known each other for very long, but she was still one of my best friends. She had gone through some pretty traumatic experiences in Tartarus. So with Percy dead, Annabeth going missing was a big problem. She wasn't really... mentally stable.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Malcolm found a note on her bunk in the Athena cabin this morning that said 'I can't do this anymore.' You know how Annabeth has been these last few months without Percy. We couldn't find her anywhere."
"That's not good." I heard a knock on my bedroom door.
"Jason, get off the phone with your girlfriend. We're going out for dinner," my roommate, Bradley, said.
"Love you, Pipes. Hope you find Annabeth soon," I said as I swiped my hand across the mist screen to sever our connection.
I went to Taco Bell with my roommates Bradley, Adam, and Josh. Adam's girlfriend also came, along with a girl that Josh somewhat dating. Knowing Josh's track record with girls, I doubted this relationship would last long. They were all mortals. I was rooming with the boys this year because a faun- no, satyr, had smelled “something funny.” at a college. So I had to pretend to be a student. It was about 6 hours away from NYC by bus.
After dinner I sat on the tiny sectional in our apartment with the boys watching American football. During halftime, I heard uneven banging on the door. I stood up to answer it.
I shoved the old handle down and the door swung open to reveal a bloody, hunched figure with long dirty blond hair.
Annabeth was clutching a dagger. She looked up at me and mouthed my name before crumpling to the floor. I glanced up and down the outdoor hallway to make sure no one had seen. Then I reached down and gathered Annabeth into my arms, cradling her like a child. Then I flipped her dagger with my toe, catching it in my right hand. Annabeth was so skinny she barely weighed anything.
I walked back into the sitting room where my halftime had ended and my friends were engrossed in the game again. As I walked in, they looked up.
"Jason, who's that?" Adam asked to break the silence.
"Um, this if my... friend, Annabeth. She's going to be staying with me for a while," I said.
Josh balked, "she's injured. Shouldn't we call the police?"
"Um, no, I don't think that's necessary." I was pretty sure they wouldn't call the police. They were pretty laid back.
I took Annabeth to my room and laid her on the bed. Then I opened a drawer in my nightstand and took out a thermos. Unscrewing the top, I drizzled some nectar into Annabeth's open mouth. She woke with a start.
"Jason?" Annabeth mumbled.
"Yeah. What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I couldn't stay at Camp any longer. Not without....," she trailed off. Not without Percy.
"And I was the only person outside Camp that you could come to."
"Yeah."
***
Annabeth drifted into a fitful sleep after a few minutes. I took my extra blanket from the closet and went to sleep on the couch. About 2 o'clock in the morning I was jerked from my sleep when I heard a scream. I snatched my gold coin from under my pillow and sat up, ready for battle. There was a second scream, and Bradley flicked on the light.
"Dude! Your girlfriend is having a nightmare or something."
I put my face in my hands. How had I forgotten about this? Pipes told me that Annabeth had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and got vivid nightmares from her time in Tartarus.
I hurried to my bedroom behind Bradley. Annabeth was crouched on the corner of my mattress in a fighting stance, tears streaming down her face. She held her dagger, which I had stupidly left on my nightstand.
"Annabeth, please put down the dagger." Even in her current state, I had no doubt she could
injure me in a fight.
"Dude, your girlfriend's crazy!" Bradley grinned. Annabeth slowly swiveled her head toward him.
"I'm not his girlfriend," she growled.
“Woah, woah, okay. You’re not his girlfriend. That’s cool.”
“We’re FRIENDS.” She spoke through clenched teeth, “he’s… a relative.”
“Yeah, I said that’s cool.”
“Annabeth, I need you to hand me the dagger,” I said. She glowered at me for a few seconds before holding it out to me, blade pointed away. “Thank you.”
Her eyes widened for a moment and then she started shaking.
“Bradley, get out,” I said.
“Okay!” He hurriedly left my bedroom.
Annabeth was a shivering heap on the edge of my bed. I pulled the blankets that had fallen to the floor during her thrashing around her. Then I sat on the edge of the bed and gave her a side hug.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” I awkwardly patted her back.
Annabeth pulled away from me, “I can leave tomorrow. I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”
“Where would you go?”
“I’ll find someplace.”
“You don’t have to leave.”
“I can’t go back to Camp and you’re recruiting demigods.”
“Annabeth, stay here. You’re like a sister to me. I won’t mind.”
She sighed, “I guess I can stay.”
“Great. I will Iris Message Piper when it’s not the middle of the night.”
“Night Jason, sorry again for waking you.”
The next morning I IM’d Piper once my roommates had all left. She was at archery class but took a break to talk to me.
“So, about Annabeth,” I scratched the back of my neck.
“Yeah, we haven’t found her…, Jason! What aren’t you telling me?”
“She’s staying with me.”
“WHAT?!” Piper shrieked.
Annabeth walked into my bedroom, “Hi Piper....”
“Annabeth! Are you okay?”
“Yep, I’m fine. I just couldn't stay at camp.” Annabeth sighed.
“I’m really glad you’re alive,” Piper said.
“Yeah.”
I cleared my throat, “Anyway, I have to go to class now, so I’ll IM you at our normal time later Pipes?”
“Okay. Love you. Annabeth… stay safe.”
Annabeth nodded and I cut off the connection.
***
My next class was Ancient Greece. I was technically studying for a teaching degree, though I wasn’t doing so well. Despite being the model Roman, I never actually got stellar grades on things that included sitting for long periods of time. Normally I would have eaten lunch at one of the cafeterias on campus afterward, but today I decided to check on Annabeth.
As the door swung open I saw something that made my stomach do a backflip. Annabeth was flattened against the wall behind the couch. In front of her stood Bradley, pressed into her, one hand on her chest, holding her against the wall. His other hand was in her hair and he was . . . kissing her. Annabeth was frozen.
The room was so small that it only took one stride for me to get to Bradley and yank him off Annabeth. She crumpled to the floor.
“What are you doing?!” I shouted at Bradley.
“Making out with a hot girl. Right babe?” His question was directed at Annabeth.
She stood up, eyes blazing with fury, “I have a boyfriend.”
“Annabeth!” If she got in a fight with him he would probably end up dead.
“Fine. I had a boyfriend.”
“Well why’d he break up with you?”
“He didn’t break up with me, he was murdered while protecting me!” Her voice was shaking as if on the brink of collapse.
“So you’re single.”
I couldn’t hold it together any longer. “Bradley, you forced yourself on her! I could get you arrested for that. I’ve held up with you bringing home girls almost every night! The parties, the hangovers afterward. But this is TOO MUCH. We’re leaving as soon as possible and you get to tell the others why they have to find a new roommate in the middle of the term, because I know you can’t pay my share of the rent yourself.”
I grabbed Annabeth by the arm and dragged her into my bedroom.
“Thanks,” she mumbled, “I probably would have judo flipped him.”
“Like that time in New Rome when you flipped Percy,” I grinned and then winced. To my surprise, she smiled sadly.
“Yeah, maybe not the best first impression I’ve ever made.”
“I don’t know, a lot of your introductions to monsters include you killing them.”
“Well, yeah. I haven’t killed anything in awhile. Not after seeing where they go when I chop them up.”
“How did you survive down there? What’s it like?”
“Well, I couldn’t have done it without Percy. As for what it’s like, well, It’s hard to explain. Everything wants you to die. You drink fire to stay alive. The terrain- it’s like you’re walking along an actual body. The body of Tartarus. The heart is- actually a heart. Just really big and swarming with monsters.”
“Sounds terrifying.”
“Yeah.”
She drifted off after a few minutes. I couldn’t fall asleep for hours, thinking about where I would be if it had been me to fall into Tartarus.