The Half-Blood Project

36- Feel The Heat

Percy Jackson

I don't even know how I ended up by Long Island, at one point the water simply turned darker and darker and I was soon washing up on the sandy shores of Long Island Sound, right by Camp Half-Blood. 

Part of me didn't know what to expect, was Annie, Grover and Tyson even there? Or were they still in the death maze? Where they even alive? Or struggling to stay alive. 

Climbing out of the raft I hiked up the sandy hill, the summer sun was hot against my skin and it felt much harsher, on the island it felt soft and comforting, here it felt the opposite. Like the sun was against me all of a sudden. 

As I climb into the camp, I see way more than just Annabeth and Chiron, but most of my friends and trainee's from the Project back home in Los Angeles, and I feel a pang of nostalgia, remembering all the good times we had there and the days we spent fighting, training and trying to survive. 

Part of me knows that we can never go back to what we were before. 

Most of them look well, a few look sick or unwell but they're alive and I'll take it. 

I see Piper, Nico, Will, and Leo looking somber, sad, and somewhat depressed, I inch closer to the circle they stand in, circling a huge green bonfire. 

"-to assume he is resting forever in paradise," Chiron spoke in a sad, hollow like voice. Did someone die? Who? I came closer and closer ot the large circle, everyone had their heads bowed down would some form of prayer, and I spotted Annabeth, a single tear falling from her left eye. 

"Wait, who died?" I asked the silent crowd and everyone snapped their heads up to look at me. their eyes wide with such surprise I've never seen in someone before. 

"Percy!" Several trainees cried with glee, Nico looked triumphant and nudged Will like he had taken a bet, Leo and Piper gave each other a large, hug and even Chiron seemed to feel in the party mood. 

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth growled and the entire crowd came to a falter, they stopped hugging and crying joyously and looked to the blonde in fear like she would skin them all alive without a second thought, which I didn't doubt. 

I stepped back from the crowd as she stalked over, fists clenched, and in temple throbbing, and her eyes dark and stormy, like the eye of a hurricane. 

"Where were you? Two weeks, two whole freaking weeks with no word, no trace of your existence and you just show up to yourrereall?" She demands, very angry and homicidal. But isn't she always homicidal? 

"I-I got lost." I stammered and stepped even further away from her as she came up to me, no-one else dared to move a muscle, all staring at the two of us with wide, frightened eyes. 

She laughs in a high-pitched sarcastic voice that is honestly more frightening than Kampe and I never want to hear it again. "You got lost! Of course, you did." She snarled and I fully expected for her to outright slap me in the face and call me a moron, but she didn't, she punched me right in the nose. 

I've been punched before, many times, by many different people. Now I can add Annabeth to that long list. Pain shot through my head, nose, and face and I stumbled back, almost falling to the grassy earthen ground. 

"Holy hell, woman," I yelped and clutched my nose which was already starting to bleed. Annabeth glared at me as if daring for me to say something else, to hit back(which was tempting at first), or to even start yelling. She crossed her arms over her chest, spun on her heel, and was out of the circle in a matter of seconds, leaving me behind with a bloody nose. 

Everyone unfroze and just stared at Annabeth's retreating figure and back to me, hunched over, putting pressure on my nose, trying to stop the bleeding.