The Blood of Olympus

Chapter 24: Annabeth

Hey cupcakes, I present chapter 24!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Annabeth realized to late that there was a slight problem with diving into the sea to rescue her friends: she couldn't breath underwater.

As she hit the ocean headfirst, water swirling around her, her obituary flashed before her eyes:

Annabeth Chase, aged 17, drowned trying to save her posessed boyfriend. Remembered by her friends Frank, Hazel, and Leo. Assuming that they didn't die.

She emerged, spluttering, the water lapping against her face, treading water as she got her bearings.

"Frank," she spluttered, "a little help?"

She looked up, and saw Frank peering over the edge of the Argo II.

"Annabeth?" he queried nervously, "are you ok? For a daughter of Athena, that was a really, really stup-"

Annabeth glared at him.

Frank gulped, "Anyways, here."

He let down a rope, and Annabeth took hold of it, trying hard to keep it together. Even before she had hit the water, she had known that there  was no chance of finding her friends once she had lost sight of them. The Androktasai were probably busy spiriting them away to the giant army at that moment.

Annabeth fought back tears as she clenched the rope so hard her knucles turned white, waves still lapping gently on her cheek. She had failed them. For once, she hadn't been able to think of a plan.

"Annabeth?" Frank called tentatively, "you should probably come up."

But Annabeth didn't reply. Well, she tried to, but as she opened her mouth, she suddenly felt a tugging on her right leg. A heavy weight, clawing at her leg, dragging her down...

Annabeth gasped, holding the rope with one hand while with the other she clawed at her right leg, trying to find the weight that was tugging her, pulling her leg ut of its socket. Frank was shouting now, Annabeth could vaguely hear him asking what was wrong, but the pain in her leg, the weight, was drowning everything out, and the effort of holding onto th rope was overwhelming....

The weight on Annabeth's leg doubled, and she screamed as she felt herself sinking into the water, her grip on the rope loosening. She could feel the rope tugging upwards as well, Frank trying to pull her up, but the force on her leg was stronger than him.

Annabeth gritted her teeth, and reached down to her ankle, trying to feel whatever it was that was wrapped around her leg.

And then she felt the hand.

The wet, slimy, hand, wrapped around her ankle.

Annabeth didn't even have time to scream. The moment her fingers touched the hand, she felt the tugging double once more, and with a shriek, she felt her other had let go of the rope, and she was being tugged down into the water...

Annabeth felt bubbles caress her face as she writhed and kicked out at the person dragging her down. In fact, she was so busy trying to free herself and stop herself from drowing, that it took her a second to realize two important things.

One: That she could see through the murky water like it didn't exist.

Two: That she was breathing.

And then she knew whose hand it was dragging her down into the water.

Annabeth didn't know how long it took for her to reach the bottom, and to be honest, it could have been five minutes or five hours for all she cared, She had been too busy trying to figure out how she was going to save Percy.