Nightmares are bad. Nightmare daimons are worse.

Annabeth went to bed with a strange feeling. She felt... kind of sad and... alone. It was stupid, yes, but she couldn't help it. She was angry on herself for feeling that way. She wasn't some kind of barbie, who needed her boyfriend every second of the day. 

But somehow... She felt so left behind. She had always known Percy's secrets, but now it felt like he hid it from her. Annabeth stared at him, but he wouldn't look in her direction. She would ask him what was wrong, but he wouldn't answer. He'd just look away. 

"If someone you love puts a wall between you, take the door. If there isn't one, get a window. And if that doesn't exist either, then you take a sledgehammer and make one for yourself."

Thalia's words were echoing in her head. It had been years, but she still remembered that.

I would, Thalia. I would. But what if the wall is made out marble you can't break? 

That was what he did. Building a wall between them she couldn't break. She had looked for a window he already closed. They had always been a team, bonded in a way nothing could compete with. But then, he just turned away, leaving this bond shattering on the ground. Suddenly all that was made out of stone was glass. So fragile. 

Drama queen, she thought. So pathetic. 

She sighed. She even talked with Tyson and Grover about Percy, while Juniper and Ella were just standing in the background, talking. It could have been a funny day if they wouldn't all agree that Percy was not okay, even Tyson seemed to be worried. They all had seen the pain in his eyes he tried to hide for the last two weeks. He just would not tell anyone what this sh*t was all about. They had visited camp last week because all of them had started missing their nymph friends or the satyrs. They had visited Coach Hedge and his little monster-baby, and Annabeth would always look at Percy, just to see if any of this could make him happy. But somehow, it could not.

And Annabeth just wanted to know so desperately what was going on. Why he was locking her out. Why he was locking everyone out. 

She wanted to scream. She wanted to beg him to tell her what was going on, what she had done wrong. The others always looked away, let Percy think. They knew he would tell them if something was wrong. And Annabeth knew that, too. But somehow... what if he wouldn't?

 She swallowed her anger, her sadness. Now it was time to sleep, she convinced herself.

She was laying there, staring at the ceiling, cursing herself. She shouldn't be so dramatic. She turned in her bed, stared at the light blue walls. Percy had painted them, while Annabeth was not there. When she came back home, he stood there, all over covered in blue paint. She, Frank and Hazel decided to draw black pattern all over the blue wall and now it was covered in leaf pattern and intricate characters. 

Piper and Will had joined them and now a beautiful cat sat in the corner of the wall and stared at a bird Jason and Nico drew. Meanwhile, Leo, Rachel, Grover and Kalypso started painting on the other side of the room, because the room was filled with people. Percy decided to paint his own walls and somehow, all of them painted one room after another together. They had problems with Hazel's room, because it was small and stuffed with bean bags. It was a funny day and it was the last time she had seen Percy really happy. 

With this memory, she drifted off into sleep.

"Whoop- you asleep? Hope so. Because then the fun can begin!"

A snarling voice ringing in Annabeth's ears, but she didn't really get what it was saying. Her eyes were closed, and she couldn't open them. She started breathing heavier. Everything felt so wrong, a blurred reality. She could feel something creeping closer, breathing heavy on her shoulder. She was frozen in her position. A hand on her head. 

"Oh darling. We are going to have so much fun!"

"She can't hear you, does she?"

"Oooooooh, I think she can...."

"Shut up! I'm trying to make it dramatic!"

"Can I drop her?"

Drop her? Annabeth tried to open her eyes again, and now it worked. Nothing else than darkness in front of her. Nothing else than darkness underneath, left and right to her. 

There was still someone behind her. Her back automatically arched into a hollow back, when a hand seemed to touch her back. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a glow behind her.

She tried to use her voice. But she couldn't.

"Oh honey."

"Shouldn't we give her the warning?"

"Blah blah blah, warning. Can't we have a bit fun with her?"

"The lady was strict about it, we should give her a warning. But she didn't say anything about NOT having fun..."
 

Laughter.

"Soo, baby, we are here to give you a little warning about your lover."

Percy?

"So basically, see what's going to happen!"

Screaming suddenly swelled in her ears. Almost hysterical male laughter. The running of water, the screaming of a crowd, desperate cries. She heard her own voice roaring in sobs, she heard a dull crack. The clanging of metal, a scream of pain. Then images in front of her: she had a hard time seeing anything, but then she felt completely cold. 

Percy was kneeling in the middle of the picture. His eyes were rolled back in their sockets and blood was dripping from his mouth. There was a knife in his stomach. And Annabeth felt sick: the way the handle looked, it kind of looked like Piper's dagger, Katoptris. No, no, no, no, nonononono. A repeating mantra. NO!

She felt so sick. She wanted to throw up, as if she could get rid of the pictures by that. And then the voices spoke up again.

"Okay, that was it."

"Can I now drop her?"

"Why you? You did it last time!" 

"Not true!"

"True!"

"Not true!"

"Let's just drop her in one, two, THREE!" 

And Annabeth fell. She fell lower and lower, wind roaring in her ears. 

And then she woke up, sitting up in her bed, panting heavily. And as she sat there trying to compose herself, tears streaming down her face, panicking,  she thought: No, Percy definitely wasn't okay.

~1038 words

Okay I have to do an author's note.  I am thinking of discontinuing this, because I kept reading Percy Jackson Fanfictions Mistakes Books, and now my tiny bit of self-confidence is... er, gone. Because after all I know, I am doing everything wrong...... From my grammar (*waves Hello from Austria*) to my characters to the fact that Leo isn't funny in my stories.

Which is, because I struggle with writing funny characters. I like writing brutal and dark stuff, and I am not RR. I just am not funny. There will be no chapter from Leo's PoV in this book, because i suck at writing jokes. 

 So... uh... I need your help.... Do you like this story? Is anyone out there reading this? 

Annnnnyyyways, ily all.

~Hestia