Prisoner of Ice and Stone

Chapter 9

Yo so its been a hot minute. Things have been going down, almost dying, going back to on campus school and having to quit both my jobs, discovering I am even more of an idiot then I thought and finally coming back to this fic and a few other writing projects. Anyways again sorry for the wait for those of you who have been so patient, here you go hope you haven't totally lost your patience with me.

After dinner with my family and Annabeth, I lay in the room that my mom had apparently been keeping ready for me for the past ten years. She'd never given up on me. I stared up at the ceiling, my arms behind my head, thinking. What in Hades was I going to do with myself? My whole life had changed. Everything I'd planned for, most of what I'd spent my life working towards was gone. Annabeth may still love me, but the fact remained that there was now a ten year age gap between us. My mom and Paul loved me, but they'd also moved on, heck all my friends had moved on, and I certainly didn't blame them. In our lives hope for the impossible was dangerous, most of the time even deadly. Even if they'd known I wasn't dead because of Nico, their chances of finding me were slim to none, and they'd known that. I was no longer an integral part of their lives, I was simply the boy out of time. A memory. A fragment of the past. Honestly I wasn't sure what I should do. I had already decided I couldn't stay here. I loved my family and the others too much to do that to them. They had moved on and I wasn't about to drag myself back into their lives. I would make sure they knew I was alive, but other than that I would leave them be. Yea I knew my mom would probably never forgive me for it, but I had been putting her in danger for so long before I'd gone missing what right did I have to pull her back into that life again? None. My mom was too much of an amazing woman to have to deal with something like that. Besides that my poor siblings had heard only the best things about me, when I knew for a fact I was far from the ideal older brother. Yea it was best if I just left, I had a few places in mind. My dad had once offered me a place in his palace, and I knew Tyson would be there, if they really needed me my friends and family could find me there as well. Plus I had a feeling if anyone could understand how I felt it would definitely be the demi mortals, and immortals they all knew what if felt like to be left behind by time, and those you loved. I slowly sat up in the bed I had packed my bag earlier, for now I wasn't planning on going to my dads, that would be one of the first places they checked. I was thinking of asking those guys at the tower if they could possibly arrange for me to drop off the map for a while. I even had some demigod items that I was thinking of trading in exchange for a safe place and their silence. I carefully slid the bag onto my shoulders and slipped out of my room on silent feet. Years of fighting monsters had made sneaking around second nature. I made it down the stairs and was halfway toward the front door when suddenly the living room light came on. I jolted my hand automatically drawing riptide from my pocket as I did so, I found myself confronted by Paul, Annabeth, My mom, Lilly, and Daniel all sitting on the couch looking unimpressed. Lilly spoke first,

"Told you mom, I saw him grabbing stuff earlier."

My mom's gaze softened and she sighed before standing and crossing to me. She reached up to touch my face, but paused when I looked away. She sighed again and gently pulled my face towards her with her hands forcing me to look at her. She stared at me, her loving eyes hurt and confused, but mostly just worried, and full of love.

"Percy whats wrong sweetheart."

I wanted to talk and I wanted to tell her everything but all that came out was an exhausted sort of groan. She raised an eyebrow.

" I thought I taught you how to talk, please don't tell me you forgot how to do that while you were spending time as an ice cube."

Despite myself I barked out a laugh, which made her smile widen and she pulled me close. Soon enough she pulled back again though and gently tried to lead me to the couch. I didn't move. She laid a hand on my shoulder and spoke her voice soft enough that only I could hear.

"Percy I need you to tell me what's wrong. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong, please don't do that to me. I haven't been able to help you for the last ten years of my life. I've had to live knowing that my little boy was out there somewhere possibly in horrible pain and I couldn't do anything about it for ten years. Please Percy, please don't do that to me."

And my resolve crumpled. I slumped against her shoulder with a sigh and began to speak into her ear my voice even softer than hers had been and I could tell she was straining to hear me.

"It's all so different now, you guys don't really need me anymore, and you're all so....so different but I am just the same. I know you guys love me, heck I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you guys! But it doesn't matter because I am pulling you back into the danger that is my life, and the others have moved on, I mean yea they missed me, but they moved on, and I know Annabeth says she doesn't want anyone but me, but mom I am the last person she should have waited for, I am so just-just not in this century. I am stuck ten years ago and I just can't get free. Even if my body is free of the ice, I'm still on that beach the night I got taken. We still don't even know WHO took me, or WHY and that terrifies me because if they could take me right there, right next to the sea with dad and all the other creatures right there in the bay, with camp literally right there and dozens of campers they have to be powerful and dangerous. I can't' do that I couldn't-I couldn't-"

I heaved a choked breathe

"I couldn't live with myself if I was the reason you guys got hurt."