princess // percy jackson (under editing)

i. twenty one - barnacles' comeback and half-blood hitch hiking 101

words : 4373

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"they're looking at us..."

grover motioned towards the group of police officers stood by the fountain. some were jotting down notes on clipboards while others talked to some of the arch's visitors, trying to get a handle on why the fire alarm that had sent the people in a frenzy, had been activated despite the lack of a fire. annabeth turned to see that two of them were in fact, looking at them.

"just don't pay them any mind." she answered.

"well we should probably get out of here, don't you think?" grover suggested nervously as he tried his best not to make eye contact with the suspicious officers.

he was met with no reply.

"dude, they're literally looking right at us."

"thank you grover," alliah sighed, annoyed. "i think we got that part down."

the three, cut down from four, were exhausted.

between running for their lives, screaming their lungs out behind the room percy had locked them out of, and then dealing with the devastating silence after the chimera's last shriek - walking down that staircase felt like the hardest task with the greatest weight on their shoulders as they left and walked out.

thoughts raced through their minds.

how were they gonna go on with the quest? what were they supposed to do now? where would they go? who do they call? - but most importantly, percy was gone.

what were they supposed to do with the guilt that came with that knowledge now?

annabeth's own gaze drifted towards a bench and her sights focused on it for a while, freezing in her tracks. the other two were too beat down and miserable to notice her odd behaviour, only halting in their own steps as well, as they tried to gather their own thoughts.

"where would we even go?" alliah muttered helplessly. "we don't have our money anymore and i think i'm all out of charmspeak for the day..."

"we'll figure something out, okay?" grover answered, trying to keep up the optimism but his broken voice betrayed him - his best friend was dead. even he was too devastated to keep up the act. "we can maybe sneak onto a bus and-"

"no," annabeth suddenly spoke. "no, we're gonna...we're gonna go find percy."

"annie..." alliah's eyes pleaded with her. "we can't, he's..."

she couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.

"trust me." annabeth turned to face off her friends, a stern look on her face. "he's alive - this quest isn't over and it can't go on without him."

alliah and grover exchanged hopeless looks.

they wouldn't find him - they couldn't.

percy jackson was dead.

they would never see him again. they would never see his face. or his hair. or his smug smirks that made alliah want to deck him one-

alliah felt her heart sink.

she would never feel that feeling again - the feeling of wanting to swing at him. she'd never thought she'd miss that feeling, but here she was.

she'd never see his dumb smile, his eyes that were so blue it sometimes scared her - she'd never hear his witty quips that always came at the most inappropriate times, his stupid laugh, his stupid voice.