Dreams (A PERCABETH AU)

Chapter 14- A Little Less Human

(A/N): Oh, sorry quick message! I have been calling Octavian, Octavia all this time! How come no one said anything! I'm an absolute idiot! I feel like it's too late to go back now though so he'll just have to be called Octavia in this story. Lol sorry :))

Annabeth POV

Monday, 11th April

It was a strange feeling—going back to school. Hearing the same buzz of gossip sweeping across the car park and the same ring of the bell bouncing off the walls.

I hadn't set foot in those corridors in almost 6 months. Half a year had passed. Just the thought of doing so now made my stomach sick and it wasn't because I'd have a lot of work to catch up on. I'd been a year ahead of everyone since I was eleven years old. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that everything inside those doors was going to remind me of Silena. Every tiny little detail.

Gods, I wish Percy were here...

Tossing my old white school bag over my shoulder, I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. My mum had hired someone to drive me around again because my car was pretty much doomed from that crash and it was way too long a walk from home to school now. I'd have to wait a few weeks for her to get me a new one but I had a feeling she was going to take her time. She'd been terrified of letting me leave her sight for days, I don't think she was about to let me drive alone anytime soon.

Even the slightest movement, like rising out of a car, caused a sharp pain in my stomach to appear. It had been like that ever since that night. That terrible, terrible night. And though I was healing, it was a slow, gruelling process. There were important things I had to worry about now like not eating too much, and not doing any excessive exercising, and being careful about taking the stairs and remembering to take my medication on time.

It felt like I was tipping back pills whenever I got the chance nowadays. Anything to get rid of the discomfort.

I pushed my not-for-fashion-but-for-hiding-tears-sunglasses up to the top of my head and started to walk—slowly. There wasn't much of anything I could do that wasn't at a snail's pace nowadays. My grey-blue jeans were faded and light against the mid-blue of my loosely fitted v-neck cashmere jumper. I'd gone for comfort over class today and I can't remember the last time I wore anything other than my converses.

The warm sunlight on my skin didn't do much to soothe me, as I walked towards the stone steps. Nothing could really soothe me today at all. I'd spent the whole weekend at home, in my room, by myself and I'd cried more than I care to admit.

My mother was worried sick and I was scaring the hell out of Bobbie and Matthew. I was like a ghost in my own house all over again but I couldn't help it. With Silena gone, everything just seemed so...so lifeless and pointless. The things that once made me happy no longer even stirred a smile on my face anymore. The days were bright and the golden sun shone like beacons of hope. The skies were crystal blue and nature was green and alive once again. But I never gave it a second glance. Things that were once beautiful in my eyes, brought no emotions to my mind now, not a single one.

This whole thing was eating away at me from the inside out and I wasn't doing anything to stop it. I would just sit at the bay window and stare outside mindlessly. Some nights, when it was really late, I'd just gaze up at my ceiling, tearing up until I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open anymore. Then I would close them and I'd fall into something that never really felt like sleep at all.

The police came by my house for questioning a number of times and even the CIA once. I could see right through their good cop-bad cop games as they callously made me describe every abominable and gruesome detail of that one night. I'd give anything to forget it—to never even speak of it again.