A Life Of Love | Percabeth AU ✔

Chapter 36 ⚫Murderer on the gun⚫

Part II of III: Murderer on the gun

The Storm approaches.

Percy's POV

"Fucking gods, Percy. If you wanted me to come with you on another murdering spree, the least you could have done was mention stairs."

Stella huffed and looked back up at the flight of stairs above us. Thirty more floors, to be exact. I'm very sure my tailbone hates me now. Stella frowned, "Is...Is that an elevator? Couldn't we just have used that? For the past 10 floors." She said in her beautiful British accent.

I stammered "The 40th floor doesn't have a functioning elevator. It only reaches to the 39th floor."

She whacked me on the head with her gun. "We could just have taken the elevator to the 39th floor and climbed the stairs to the 40th one, you moron!" The look on her face was murderous. I guess that is what you get when you make someone climb 10 floors. I better run.

We piled into the elevator and I pressed the button to the 39th floor. Stella checked the bullet casing in her gun. She was dressed in a black jumpsuit with a low neckline and a metal belt with a holder for her gun. She had it specially made a couple years ago when we joined Octavian's gang. We never really talked about those days, when she was weak and vulnerable, and many men in the gang took advantage of that.

I leant back against the elevator wall, looking at the floor, remembering what had happened that night, two people running, becoming friends without realising it, with the darkness of the pitch black night lending them, us, cover. Ever since then, I vowed to protect her. Protect her, even if I couldn't protect myself. I glanced back at her. She was standing straight, alert, with a slight sway to her hip. 

She started training. Hard. She'd stay up till 2 in the morning shooting at targets until she could shoot a man in the center of his forehead from a mile away. She threw hands with me until she could bruise a man who even laid a hand on her, and left him bleeding on the ground. Soon she grew confident, and shedding her shy demeanor like a snake sheds its skin, she grew into the smart and fearless badass girl who's standing in front of me now.

All thanks to me. I did not get punched in the jaw a couple hundred times for nothing.

"For gods' sake Percy, stop staring at me."

I shook my head as the elevator came to a halt. "Come on." I whispered, flipping the safety switch open on my gun and cocking it. "Dreesen will be in his penthouse." Stella looked down the railing as we climbed the stairs to the 40th floor. "The building looks abandoned." She looked up at me, "Let me guess, a gang owns the apartment complex?" I nodded.

"They don't want civilians mixed with their business. Someone might report suspicious activity and call the police."

Stella nodded just as we reached the door to the penthouse. It was a huge wooden door situated in the middle of the wall, with different shades of grey paint splattering the walls, blending into each other perfectly.

I felt a smile tug the corners of lips, when I saw a certain shade of gray that reminded me of a certain someone, which also reminded me of the events that took place yesterday night. But my anger and sadness clouded back in when I remembered how our meeting had ended.

X~X

Yesterday night...

My soft footsteps were as silent as shadows as I jogged through the winding corridors of Athena's mansion to Annabeth's bedroom.