The mystery of the last island

Chapter 24

There you go. A double update on the account of 100 votes on my story and almost 500 reads. Yay! 

I have aldready expressed my gratitude, so I won't bore you with it again. Go on, read for some Annabeth and Keefe.

Annabeth blinked her eyes to rid herself from all the images her mind kept playing over and over again.

Percy in a trap screaming and dying and slowing death as imaginary people shot arrows at him.

Malcom and her other siblings in a room, looking with utter fear in their eyes as rows and rows of spiders crawled slowly towards them.

Piper, Hazel, Calypso, Reyna, Thalia, Jason, Frank, Leo, Nico, Will, Grover and all her other friends trapped and screaming for help. 

Her dad, Helen, and her two little baby brothers, trapped in a burning house.

Luke in fields of punishment, fighting with his sword, dead on his feet, as more and more monsters came towards him. This reminded her, that it was all an illusion. A trick of the mist. 

Luke was a hero. He couldn't be in the fields of punishment. He was a hero.

Even now, when she had broken throught her barrier, she could see the images vividly. She took a deep breath.

In thought her nose, out through her mouth. In thought her nose, out through her mouth. It was all an illusion. Nothing else. Just an illusion. 

She looked around her. Beside her, Keefe sat with his eyes closed gasping and breathing heavily. They were in a tunnel in the Labyrinth. The black threads she had seen swirling around her had disappeared and they were now in a relatively lighter environment. 

She stood up on her feet.  The cold floor making her numb body get back to life. Keefe stood up beside her, blinked his eyes for a second and then focused on her. He looked at her carefully, scanning her body for any injuries as she did the same to him. He wasn't hurt at all, not physically, anyway. Mentally, was another thing. 

He narrowed his eyes at a part between her back and stomach and turned up her Tshirt there. And true enough, a large ugly bruise was there in the shape of vines, where they had clutched more tightly. Nothing ambrosia can't heal, she thought as she popped it into her mouth and saw as the wound heal on her skin. 

She turned to Keefe and asked, "How did you know? The T shirt wasn't even scratched from outside."

He smirked and said, "An empath always knows."

"Don't use that sass on me, Keefe. I know all about dealing with it." Annabeth warned.

Keefe put his hands up in surrender, though the smile never left his face, "Fine, fine. Jeez, you should meet Foster."

"Don't try to divert the topic."

"Okay, okay, I am an empath."

"You mentioned that one second ago."

"And empaths can pick up human emotions in the air. You guys are part humans, so I can understand your emotions if I concentrate hard enough."

"Hmmm. Ok. It would've taken a lot less arguing if you had given straight answer."

"You sound like my mommy dearest."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't." Something about his tone said that it wasn't really as lighthearted comment as he made it sound. But Annabeth didn't push it. He would share it if he wanted to.

"...so what now?" He asked.

"I don't know." Annabeth replied. She had gotten a lot more comfortable using the phrase than she had previously been.

Keefe smirked, and this time it reached his eyes, "Really? But Athena always had a plan?"

"Oh, shut up." Annabeth grumbled. 

Keefe grinned, but shut up. Annabeth knelt down at the floor, running her fingers along the cold hard stone, so smooth, it was impossible for it to be natural. There was something off in the air too. Where did the monster go? She doubted it just went away once she and Keefe escaped its vision. It never is that easy.

"You have any way for light?" Annabeth asked Keefe as she straightened up.

"Yes, but don't you think it would be better if we don't light up. Why send a straight signal to people that we are here?" Keefe asked.

Annabeth held out her hand wordlessly. She explained, "There is something queer in this room. I think the monster has not disappeared. Not that easily."

Keefe shrugged and nodded. He blew a  breath on a pendal he had worn and it lit up in faint blue light. Annabeth took it from him. Its light wasn't bright, but it was bright enough. 

She took it towards the tunnel ends, taking her hand towards the wall. But where she expected to be a wall, was nothing. It was just a trick of light, cleverly done and completely not natural. She stumble and fell. It wasn't very graceful.

Keefe laughed, and Annabeth joined in, as Keefe gave her his hand to stand up. "So tell me, the girl who survived two wars..."

"Don't you dare compete that sentence." Annabeth said. Keefe chuckled. Her hubris was relatively low now, and Keefe's teasing didn't bother her, but she had seen the black vapors move farther away when Keefe and she laughed. 

"Oh! And what will you do, if I do complete the sentence?" Keefe asked.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I am very ticklish behind my ear." She said, as she suddenly grabbed his wrist making skin contact and tickled herself behind her ears. Tickling herself didn't hurt as much as it would, if someone else had tickled her. 

But the contact sent familiar, and very unexpected wiggly feeling to Keefe. He pulled his hands away from her. Turns out, his empathy needn't be used, as he was very ticklish himself. 

He rolled over the floor laughing as she tickled him and saw from the corner of her eyes as the darkness disappeared and what had previously been a tunnel formed a big, wide spaced room.

Annabeth stood up from the floor, and let Keefe catch his breath before smirking and saying, "Well, Athena always has a plan."

Author's note: 

I felt that the story was getting too anxious for the past few chapters. And so, here's a funny chapter.