The Ghosts Among Us: A Percy Jackson Halloween Special

4 | In Which Thalia is Finally Here

Annabeth and Percy leaned in to kiss each other, when they were interrupted by the conch horn. He froze, their lips only a centimeter away from each other. Percy closed his eyes and sighed. "I suppose we have to go see why the horn was blown?" Percy pouted, then opened his eyes to see Annabeth's expression.

Annabeth smirked at Percy peacefully, pulling away from him whose hands were on her waist, and patted his black haired head. "That's exactly what we have to do, Seaweed Brain," She said.

"Yeah, I figured," Percy said, sounding disappointed though he wore a grin on his face. The pair left the cabin, holding hands. They began to walk towards Half-Blood Hill, reaching it just a few minutes later. And standing on the hill were the Hunters of Artemis, Artemis in the front.

She was in her auburn haired, 12-year-old girl form, a bow slung on her shoulder and a quiver full of arrows on her back, and surrounded by a silvery aura. She looked incredibly intimidating for just a 12-year-old.

Percy scanned the crowd of Hunters, and saw that Thalia was among them. Percy and Annabeth looked at each other and ran up the hill, hands still interlocked, to go meet Thalia. Thalia made eye contact with Percy and Annabeth and her face immediately lit up.

She grinned and ran towards them, tackling them both in a hug and knocking them to the ground. "Kelp Head! Annie!" Thalia said.

"Hey Pinecone Face," Percy laughed.

"So what's up, guys?" Thalia smiled, pulling away from the hug and standing up.

"Ah, not much. Just be on the lookout for some of the campers, they're acting kinda weird," Percy said.

"Not that surprising," Thalia scoffed, "Doesn't everyone here act kind of weird?"

"Yeah, they're just acting different," Annabeth shrugged.

"Like who?" Thalia asked, adjusting the bow on her back.

"Um, so far just Will, Rachel, Grover, Clarisse, Leo, and Piper, but there might be more. I'm not quite sure," Annabeth said.

"Well, we'll figure it out. We always do," Thalia shrugged.

"Yup," Percy said cheerfully, though he was still a little unsure.

"So why are you guys here?" Annabeth asked.

"There's a monster around here that we're hunting for. I can't really say much, but we need to stay here while Artemis and a few other Hunters go hunt for it," Thalia explained.

"And you're not? Aren't you her lieutenant?" Percy asked.

Thalia rubbed the back of her head and looked down nervously. "Ah, yeah. But I kind of got in a bit of trouble in our last hunt, I don't really want to go into details... but Artemis is really mad at me which is pretty uncommon, and she's making me sit out the next few missions..." Thalia said sheepishly. Wow, Percy thought, Thalia's never embarrassed. I wonder what happened.

"Anyways!" Thalia said. "Let's get going!" Percy looked over at Artemis who was exchanging a few words with Chiron, both looking solemn. Artemis nodded, then turned around, beginning to sprint away with a couple Hunters, about six of them, following her. Percy looked at Thalia who was looking anywhere but at the goddess of the moon.

The three of them began to walk down Half-Blood Hill. "So even Grover is acting weird?" Thalia frowned.

"Yeah, he's acting all tough and has been in the forge all morning," Annabeth said. They all walked in awkward silence, and Percy decided to try and lighten the mood.

"Hey, at least you'll probably be here for the Halloween party in six days!" Percy said cheerfully. Halloween can be one of the most dangerous times of the year for half-bloods, at least the week of it, since monsters usually disguise themselves as regular people in costumes. You're never safe.

So every year, the week of Halloween, demigods are given an excuse to be off of school, and get to go to Camp Half-Blood. They then throw a party the night of Halloween, and they all wear special requested costumes from the Aphrodite cabin in which they make the costumes. It's the most the Aphrodite campers work all year. Percy and Annabeth already had their costumes requested and made for the special event.

"Oh yeah, a Hunter that used to go here to camp told me about that," Thalia said, "Wearing a costume is kinda lame though."

"Everyone's going to do it! C'mon, Pinecone Face, you have to!" Percy said.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine. I'll go talk to those Aphrodite ditzes later," She sighed.

"They're not all ditzes," Annabeth said pointedly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Thalia said. "I'll be there."

"Yes!" Percy fist pumped. Thalia just smirked at her green eyed cousin.

"Gods, this may sound weird, but I've never dressed up for Halloween before," Thalia admit.

"Wait, what?" Percy gasped, coming to a sudden halt. "How?!"

"I don't know, um... well, I guess my mom never thought we were worth the money to spend costumes on, or the time to take us out for trick-or-treating. She always claimed Halloween was the worst holiday of all, and our little kid minds actually believed her. Jason and I usually just watched rated R horror movies on Halloween, but our mom didn't care, she was too busy getting drunk and high.

"Then Jason disappeared, and I stopped with the movies. Halloween just became any regular day that I sat around on. Lame, I know, but I can't help but feel like I was missing out," Thalia shrugged. She blinked. "Wow, I've never spilled my guts to anyone before, at least not about something so petty like dressing up for Halloween. Guess none of them are really worth it. You guys on the other hand..."

"It's not lame, or petty, Thals!" Annabeth said. "I get it. Your mom is a jerk, so is my step mom. I hardly got to do anything as a child, at least not until I ran away. Just never be scared to be honest with us!"

"Thanks, Annie," Thalia smiled, beginning to walk again. Percy studied Thalia who wore a smile on her face as she walked. She seemed pretty happy considering she just got in trouble with Artemis and having to miss out on a few missions, and just telling us a little bit about her sad backstory.

But Percy also knew a thing about faking happiness, about pretending to wear a fake, happy, smile so people wouldn't be worried or waste their time on you, when they really were just trying to help. He looked at her eyes which were dull and much less brilliant than usual. They say the eyes were the windows to the soul, and he could definitely tell that everything that was happening at the moment was eating the daughter of Zeus up inside.

Percy just hoped that Thalia could open up and express her true self, and not just hide behind a fake persona of herself. Percy had trouble with that himself, but his Wise Girl helped him through it. He still has issues, but at least they're a lot less worse than six years ago.

"Well," Thalia said, taking a shaky breath as they reached Cabin 8, Artemis's cabin, "I gotta get going. Um, I'm excited for the Halloween party, I guess."