Percy Jackson - The House of Hades

Chapter 2 - Annabeth

The impact hurt much worse than her broken ankle.

Up until that moment, Annabeth had had her arms locked around her boyfriend's neck. The pain in her ankle was hurting even more as they were thrown from one side of the pit to the other. Her peripheral vision was completely back, and the only she could see was Percy.

Annabeth felt safe in the arms of her boyfriend, which was saying a lot, since Percy was usually the one to make something blow up or catch on fire.

After the fall had begun, Annabeth had blacked out immediately from nausea and the fear of death. She hadn't been sure how much time had passed until she had woken up again to the sound of Percy's voice.

His words had been muffled and unclear, and Annabeth had been sure that if opened her mouth, the things that would come out would had definitely not been words. So she had nodded her head the best of her ability and stayed still.

Annabeth remembered when Percy got hit with the asphalt. She could hear the crack when it happened. Knowing that he might let go at any second, Annabeth'd wrapped her arms around Percy. She couldn't afford to lose him after all they'd been through.

And then, Annabeth had heard the bone-chilling voice of Gaia, taunting Percy. Annabeth wanted to grab her knife and hunt down the earth goddess, but she'd remembered that her backpack, laptop, and bronze knife were gone, during the fall.

Once Percy had been knocked out cold, Annabeth had been complete unsure of what to do. She hadn't been ready for a situation like this. If she were Jason or Frank, her other crew mates from the giant warship - Argo II, she could've flown to safety, but she wasn't, so wishing wasn't an option.

As they continued to fall, Annabeth felt that tug on her ankle stop, and a huge amount of pain just ceased. She let out a sigh of relief, and tears of joy crept into her eyes. She blinked them away quickly, knowing that she would need to be able to see.But her heart stopped beating when she realized what was going to happen.

The only reason the pull on her leg had stopped was because the thing hold it down had stopped falling. Annabeth and Percy were the only things falling now, which meant that their impact was going to come pretty soon. How was she supposed to prepare for it?

She tried to relax all of her muscles. She loosened the grip she had on Percy's neck, making a bit of space between them. Now that Percy was unconscious, maybe he'd be okay when he landed.

A golden light of the pit shined brighter, kind of like that ghostly twilight before nightfall. They tumbled through the air flipping and turning, and then, Annabeth's head snapped to the left, and she saw the ground.

It was coming at her a little too fast.

She had two seconds. She let all of her limbs loose, and then her back hit the ground.

Instantly, she and Percy were separated as she screamed in pain. She bounced straight back up into the air, probably twenty feet up. A car slammed into her side, and her screams were cut short as she chocked on her own saliva.

Her back slammed into the ground again, and something cracked. She whimpered as she continued rolling down a hill. The sounds of crashing cement and bit a buildings and car invaded her ears, screeching loudly.

She couldn't even see Percy. She could barely see what was around her. She was sure that she had blood in her eyes. Her hands were scratched from trying to stop herself, and from thorns that scattered the ground. She wondered briefly why thorns would be woven into the ground, but that thought disappeared when she hit against something hard.

The pain was blinding. She couldn't even feel her ankle anymore, which maybe was a good thing. Maybe the ambrosia from earlier was finally mending the bone. There was a pain near her lungs that was excruciating.