Favorite : Change for the both of us

Chapter 23

Percy's POV

Once again, I wake up to Kronos storming into the room. Before I have time to react I'm pulled away from my comfortable pillow which is Annabeth – causing me to scream in pain as the man purposefully grabs my welts. I half-expect myself to be thrown on to the floor and lashed again, but I'm not. I hear asnap as the belt is brought down, but not on me.

"Annabeth!" I exclaim in horror. The guy holding me punches me, causing blood to trickle from my lip.

Luckily, she doesn't get as many lashes as me and the belt seems to be a normal belt – not a weirdly heated-up one with freaking studs. When Kronos is done, one of the men pulls her back. I'm thrown on to the floor. Again, I expect the belt to come down. Instead I'm greeted with a fist to the face. Great, a lovely beating for me. Just like my mom's old boyfriends...

It's all over after ten minutes. The men leave, leaving Annabeth and I to curl up in the corner together and try to comfort one another. I groan in pain. My back is still stinging horribly from the welts – I'm pretty sure that Kronos broke my wrist by stomping on it. Not to mention, every other inch of my body aches.

"Are you okay?" I manage to ask Annabeth.

She nods her head silently and leans against my shoulder however she was clearly being mindful not to put too much pressure on it. I do my best to give her reassuring hug.

This time, I don't fall asleep. Annabeth does. I let her rest her head in my lap like she did for me as she finally has a moment of peace. It's all ruined way too soon, however, when Kronos returns after what feels like maybe two hours. Again, it's hard to tell what time it is in here.

Annabeth is woken from her slumber when she's torn away from me and tossed to the floor. Kronos beats her and I scream at him to stop – the guy that has hold of me keeps punching me and scratching my welted back with what feels like a key of some sort.

Luckily, Kronos seems to be merciful towards Annabeth. He doesn't beat her as much as he did me. When he's done, he motions for me to be thrown on to the floor and pulls out a knife.

"Let's play a game," he says, kneeling down in front of me. Oh my god, didn't I say he's just like Saw?! "I'm going to ask you a question, and every time you get one wrong you get sliced,"

He starts to ask me a load of questions that you'd expect to find in a school pop quiz. I get some right but because I'm so nervous I get a majority wrong. Every time I do, Kronos grabs a random body part (my arm, my leg, my face) and creates a long cut on it. They're not deep, however they are painful.

It becomes a routine. Every two hours, Kronos will come in and do whatever he did to me to Annabeth, only not as badly, before doing something new to me. So far, he's whipped me, beaten me, cut me and electrocuted me multiple times. A day has gone, at the least. After the third round of being lashed, I start to feel my hope seeping. Annabeth's, too. Every time Kronos leaves us alone, I want nothing more than to just curl up and cry.

I want my dad. I've never wanted something so much in my life. All I need is to hear my dad's voice, and I'll be fine. I'll have hope. But part of me knows that the only way I'm ever going to see him again is if I find a way out of here. But how? I'm in so much pain and moving seems like such an effort (I know, it sounds lazy, but it's true...).

"Hey," Annabeth says as she wipes my side with my torn shirt. I'm lying shirtless on the floor, letting her tend to my bleeding wounds.

Kronos has just left after giving me some more cuts, but this time he went further. He's carved something in my side, just under my arm. It's a lot deeper than any of the other cuts so it's bleeding a lot. I can feel the blood-loss making me a bit queasy, along with the pain.