Miles From Normal

Chapter 10

"What exactly have you gotten yourself into, Percy?"

The two seventeen-year old girls were sitting cross-legged on Percy's bed, a gigantic hellhound sitting on the floor, happily wagging its tail, Percy scratching its head distractedly, while Annabeth was shaking her head, exasperated.

It had only been a couple of hours since the daughter of Athena entered Mystic Falls, and the first thing the two girls did was embrace so tightly that it was hard to tell which limb belonged to whom.

Since she arrived, the night consisted of dinner with Sally and Paul.

But after a while, both of them moved upstairs, taking Percy's very excited hellhound with them, and tried to speak what they couldn't in front of Percy's parents.

"You offend me, Annabeth. I haven't gotten myself into anything. It's not my fault I live next door to a couple of vampires who killed a werewolf and that they want a stupid moonstone that contains some stupid Aztec curse."

"That Damon guy sounds like a monster," said Annabeth, after Percy described how he had tortured Mason.

"He's a vampire, Annie," said Percy. "They're all monsters. And I was just starting to think that maybe not all of them are bad." She paused and sighed. "Like Bob and Damasen."

"Maybe you should hear his side of the story," Annabeth suggested. "Ask him why he did what he did."

Percy nodded. "Maybe. But let's not talk about the vampires right now. I wanna have fun with you."

"Okay," Annabeth laughed. "No more vampire talk."

"We'll have a relaxed day, and then we can talk about vamps, wolves, Jason getting hit by another brick, trauma whatever you want to talk about."

The idea seemed to please Annabeth, because she grinned. "Can we go to that masquerade you mentioned?"

Percy groaned. "I'm not dressing up."

"Yes, you are. C'mon, Seaweed Brain, we'll see what this town has to offer."

"Okay. Now let's get some sleep. We have to head out to the movies tomorrow. You promised to come, Wise Girl."

"And I will. Now off to bed."

Percy joined her on the small bed.

Both of them were fighting their own demons and trying to survive what life was after Tartarus, yet together they fell asleep, holding onto each other as tightly as they had the day of their fateful fall.

And they slept peacefully, no nightmares of cold, dangerous places filled with monsters and enemies.

Percy woke up to find the spot next to her on the bed empty. Annabeth must have woken up early, she thought. She brushed her teeth, got dressed and went downstairs to greet her parents and her best friend.

She found Annabeth with her mom, making blue pancakes. "Yum." She stole one of the pancakes off the plate and started to eat it.

"You didn't wake me up," Percy pointed a finger towards Annabeth.

"You were sleeping like a baby. You looked so peaceful that I didn't want to disturb you," said the blonde goddess.

"When's the masquerade?" asked Sally.

"It's tonight," replied Percy.

"You're gonna go, right?" Sally looked at Percy curiously. "Take Annabeth with you?"

"Yeah, of course," said Percy. "She's the one who's practically dragging me along with her. I don't really want to go."

"We have to go shopping for a dress." Annabeth looked happy that she would get to spend more time with Percy.