The Owl and the Trident- A Percy Jackson Fanfic

We're Pronounced Dead on Arrival

The next thing I remember was... nothing. I felt nothing, I was nobody, nothing mattered. I didn't even remember my name. I saw the bored looking man at the front desk of the tired looking waiting room but I wasn't really aware of any of it. The only thing that I was aware of was the person beside me.

She was staring at me, staring as if I were a mystery she needed to solve. She cocked her head at me.

"Percy." She said it with melancholy finality. Percy, I thought. My name is Percy.

I reached out and took her hand in mine. Both were nearly invisible but she felt solid. "Annabeth."

She smiled that soft smile but she looked so sad. Why are you sad? I wanted to ask. I wanted to help but for some reason I felt sad too. She stood up and started to drift away but I still held her hand. She pulled me toward the man up front and I felt what she did. This is where I need to go. It felt natural. The only natural thing to do.

The man looked at us appraisingly. "Boss man wants to see you before you go, even paid your passage across the Styx. Play nice you two."

Something's wrong. I felt uneasy. This is not how it goes. I knew something wasn't right. I shouldn't be meeting anyone.

Then I felt it. A tugging in my gut, like a magnet, pulling me toward something new. I allowed it, this feeling, to show me where to go. The nearby shades moved out of my way as I got closer until only a solitary figure remained.

He sat by a window but was looking at me. The expression he wore made him look like an old man, though he wore the face of a young one. His presence was like a shot of adrenaline. My head felt clearer. I remembered him, remembered him from back when I was alive. Oh, yeah. We're dead. That's why she looks sad. Duh.

"Nico?" He nodded for me to continue. "How long- how long has it been?" I was curious. It felt like I'd been dead for hours.

"A month Percy. You guys died a month ago. Time is different here."

I looked around the waiting room. I've been here before. I couldn't shake the thought so I tried to remember. Then, all at once it came to me. "DOA Recording Studio."

Nico smirked. "Dead on Arrival. Pretty accurate I guess." He went on to say something else but I didn't here him. I couldn't. My ears were ringing and my eyesight was a little blurry. I clapped my hands over my ears but it did nothing. My concentration was slipping, like when my ADHD acted up but ten times worse.

What am I doing? I no longer knew. Nico obviously noticed my distress because he grabbed my shoulders, lessening the buzzing enough for me to hear him.

"We don't have a lot of time. Dead demigods can't stay on this side of the Styx very long before they start having side-effects. Your memories will return after you've been judged and you cross into Elysium."

He glanced at Charon, that's the man's name, anxiously. Charon tapped his wrist, reminding Nico to get the show on the road. "I had to be sure you were here before I let them call of the search for you two. I was hoping I was wrong."

He took his hands from my shoulders and walked away, straight out the door. That was the last thing I saw before everything faded back into fog.

I will never be sure what happened between Nico leaving and Charon calling Annabeth and I up to his desk but I guess it doesn't really matter. What matters is that he did. I didn't think anything of it; honestly, I didn't really think much of anything at that point. The ferryman seemed relieved the Son of Hades was gone.

"I didn't think he would ever leave," he sighed. "I had orders to keep him from knowing where you people are really being sent." Normally that kind of statement would have worried me but apparently dead-me was less interested in self-preservation than living-me because dead-me didn't really react.

Charon started shifting through the sheets of paper on his desk before handing Annabeth one from the middle. "Transfer order. You wouldn't believe how often those get lost around here." Charon reached over and tapped the sheet. "The kid wasn't lying about staying here too long. You better get going. So... bye." He waved us off but we just stood still because even in our drugged-like state we could tell the paper was glowing.

Soon it wasn't just the paper. I looked like a sparkly vampire (which was really not okay with me) and so did Annabeth. The world started to spin until I thought I would puke. You know, if dead people could puke. I shut my eyes and by the time I opened them I was someplace else. Someplace that made absolutely no sense.

Someplace... sunny.