The Half-Blood Project

11- Lights On

Percy Jackson 

"Percy! Percy! They're back!" A couple of shouts rang down below my loft early in the morning, rays of sunlight peeking through my window. I groaned, rolling out of my sheets and into my clothes, unhappy to be awake, it was a Monday. 

If I was going to make a wish, any wish, it would be to discard of Mondays and just have six days of the week. 

Boom, my bad case of the Monday's would be solved. 

"What?" I rubbed my eyes with my fists like a toddler as my feet hit the rough-edged stairs and into the main part of the warehouse. Standing there with Malcolm Pace, Miranda Gardener(slight bruised, beat up and several nasty scratches down their face and hands but other wise-looking quite healthy and alive) was Frank, not two people behind him, but four. 

We hit the jackpot, didn't we? Suddenly Monday didn't seem so bad after all. 

"You're alive, I'm impressed." 

"Thanks," Frank said grudgingly and set down his quiver, empty. He gestured to the four half-bloods. "Clarisse La Rue, Chris, Sherman Yang, and Charles Beckendorf." 

Beckendorf looked to be my age, how he survived these many years was obvious, he was built like a giant, African American, six-foot, and probably two hundred pounds at the least. 

"I'm Percy Jackson, leader of the Half-Blood-Project." 

They looked nervous, Clarisse looked around, wrinkling her nose, clenching and un-clenching her fists repeatedly. Why I had no idea. 

"I'll have someone show you around, but don't worry you're safe here, can you tell me about yourselves?" 

Charles grunted something out and then spoke up with a heavy voice. "You're fighting him aren't you? Kronos?" 

Everyone around us went quiet, they didn't speak, looked at the ground. 

That man had killed some of our friends, taken them to the dark side, and turned them into slaves of their own free will. 

"Er, yeah. We are. Hey uh, Travis? Show them around the compound. You and your brother are their guides." I tried to keep the conversation off of Kronos. Both Stoll boys eagerly showed the four around, both Sherman and Clarrise who had similar features, dark eyes, and brute faces with squashed noses and thick eyebrows. 

"I need the details later and how you managed to find two other half-bloods." 

Frank nodded and picked up his empty quiver, heading to Leo's workshop where he would probably end up spending the rest of the day, helping him in the forge with Leo's siblings. 

Again, rubbing my eyes with my fists I slumped into a stool, letting my forehead rest on the thick marble countertop of the kitchen. So many waves of tiredness washed over me and I fought them endlessly. 

Annabeth took a seat next to me, a steaming mug of mint tea in her hand. "You didn't sleep either huh?" 

I nodded, lifting my head, and straightening a little. "No. Not after our conversation." 

"You have the nightmares, the visions of him?" Her voice was much quieter, a tremble in the back of it. How did she know about the visions? Did she have them? I just figured I was the unlucky one, being me. 

"Y-yeah? You have them too?" 

"Ever since, ever since he started up. I always thought they were just harmless dreams but they are real. I saw--I saw Luke in one of them." Her tone is bitter, clipped, and edged with pain and sadness. Had she dated an evil mass murderer that worked for a terrorist, be friends with him?