Alternatively

What Friends Are For

"I know it looks bad."

Those were his first words upon her stumbling upon what looked to be something straight from a horror movie. Blood and gore everywhere, intestines strewn across the pavement and a severed leg tight in his grip. Despite the carnage dripping from his mouth, his pleading eyes softened her initial revulsion. Who could blame her; he had the most adorable puppy dog eyes.

"Don't worry about it."

That's what she said before stuffing a dismembered torso in the trash bag she had used for storing spare bedding in her trunk. He sat on the edge of the curb, chewing on the leg with a mild look of panic, and had the nerve to complain when she wouldn't let him in the car. Puppy dog eyes or no, there was no way she was gonna let him ruin new upholstery with some random guy's blood.

It took an hour or so to clean up the crime scene and only a few minutes to clean up the Percy. She sat on the toilet seat as he showered, listening to him explain how he, "didn't know what had happened", just that one second he was walking home and the next, he was knee deep in guts in the middle of a K-Mart parking lot.

"And you kept eating?"

A shampoo bottle clattered to the floor. "I couldn't stop, it was like..."

"Like you were on bathsalts?" she fiddled with the toilet paper. "What did I say about doing drugs without telling me?"

He poked his head out of the shower curtain, water dripping down his face. "The moment I know I'm doing drugs, I'll let you know."

"Ha," she rolled her eyes. "Maybe something happened yesterday? Did you meet anyone weird, eat something you shouldn't have?"

"You were with me the whole time, you tell me."

Annabeth leaned across the counter, switching on the sink faucet and wiggling her fingers under the stream. Nothing had happened, nothing at all. She watched the stranger's blood circle down the drain, as little as it may be, and she heard the curtain rustle as Percy ducked back into the shower. It wasn't right; she should be afraid of the guy who just ate another guy, but the sight of him ripping into an esophagus didn't bother her as much as she thought it would.

They kept the body parts in his freezer, moving the frozen vegetables and ice cream to her place. There wasn't a lot they could find out about the guy Percy ate, but it was safe to assume he had been one of homeless people that camped on the outskirts of the parking lot at night.  Eating anyone was wrong, and the homeless were disadvantaged enough, but at least no one would actively start looking into his disappearance.

Which, she supposed, was a slightly concerning line of thought.

She invited him to crash at her place when he mentioned being "kinda creeped out" by the dead guy in his fridge and she almost resisted commenting on the irony of that fear.

Almost.

"It's not like I meant to kill him," he protested, tucking a sheet into the cushions.

"I know," she folded her legs under her on the chair. "You've been saying."

He paused for a second before gently placing a pillow against one arm. "You...believe me, right?"

Truthfully, she didn't really think so. Normal, sane people don't eat other people. But it was Percy she was dealing with, a person she had grown up with and knew better than anyone else. Even if he was lying to her, she would help hide the body out of principal. "Go to sleep."

"Annabeth-"

"Go to sleep," she repeated, staring him down. "We'll figure this out in the morning, okay? My class doesn't start til ten, we have time."