We Are Cursed (A Percy Jackson AU) || BOOK 2

Chapter 17 || Frank

Being snapped out of a somewhat peaceful dream by a very angry blonde was not the ideal alarm clock for Frank.

"EVERYONE WAKE UP!"

Not even out of his bed yet, he could feel the tugging of the covers being pulled off, Annabeth's gray gaze full of urgency. Frank got out of the bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. That didn't really help at all, actually. Jason stumbled out of his room, Annabeth dragging Piper and Hazel by their arms. And Leo... Poor Leo. He got pulled by the ear when he complains she was being psychopathic. To be fair, he wasn't wrong.

"We're short on time! We've got two weeks before--" Annabeth started to rampage, but Frank interrupted.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. What happened?"

"Well, I had a really bad nightmare where this woman was talking to me. She said 'Time' and that we thought it was 'infinite.' I didn't get it at first, but then she started saying that it was clearly printed on paper for all to see. I didn't get that either. But then I walked over to Percy's room to check on him and... he started saying these words."

Annabeth paused, as if to gather herself up.

"Take your time," Piper soothed. "You're gonna be okay."

"Fourteen days... Till I die..." Annabeth took a deep breath. "104 days... since it started... Two weeks, two weeks."

"And?" Hazel asked, though dread was pooling in everyone's stomachs.

"We're wrong about the fact that Percy's not gonna die from this curse. We have two weeks left before the curse will kill him."

"Shit..." Jason breathed. "But... The book said--"

"We could've missed something on the book!" Annabeth grabbed the book, flipping to the page. "What? I don't see anything! All I see are a few little black dots on the bottom of the..." She trailed off, a look of dawning on the daughter of Athena's face. "Hand me a magnifying glass."

"Why--"

"Just do it."

Leo grabbed one off the table, handing it to her. As Annabeth peered down, Frank had to say... she really was one of the smartest kids of Athena he'd ever met. She pulled away from the magnifying glass, her face showing nothing but horror.

"It's in Ancient Greek, but those black dots are little words..."

Everyone as now rushing to peer at the little words on the paper.

THE BOOK IS WRONG, THE WIELDER OF THE CURSE HAS 104 DAYS TO LIVE WITH THE CURSE BEFORE THEY ARE DEAD ON THE SPOT.

It'd been three months. 90 days. Now, they only had 14 days left before Percy would be lost forever.

"Shit!" he finally cursed, surprising himself. He'd never really said many curse words in his life. "Why? Why?!"

"Frank--"

"No! The Fates never give Percy a break! They never give us a break!"

"That's the way life is," Annabeth sighed. "You lose the people you love and you're stuck with people you hate."

Frank sighed. "Leo, how far are we from Lebanon? We only have 13 days left and we need to collect 8 items."

"In a few hours," Leo said, sipping some coffee.

It always confused Frank as to why some people with ADHD were calmed down with caffeine and it didn't affect their sleep. Of course, he only got lactose intolerance, but he still didn't understand.

"Okay, let's construct a plan," Annabeth said, trying to stay strong.

Frank had to admire her. Her boyfriend was laying in a room with thirteen days to live, his life depending on them, and she was starting to plan. If it were Hazel on that bad and Frank in Annabeth's position, he'd be bawling on the floor.

"In order to find the right items in thirteen days, there's no way we can risk travel time. All the locations on the map are listed out. If we drop off people in respective areas, we can get a lot done with minimum transportation time."

"That's a bit risky," Piper added in, cowering slightly under Annabeth's piercing gray look. "Splitting up means dividing our abilities. If a certain ability is needed, the only two people who can shadow-travel are Hazel and Nico, and the only mist-traveler is..." She trailed off when Annabeth looked away sharply.

"The items are labeled on each place. If we divide our groups based on the item, it would work. We can't afford to play safe. The circumstances are obviously risky already. If we wanna save Percy, risks can be taken."

"Good, but there's still gonna be travel time," Leo said.

"If it's not too much work for Hazel and Nico, their groups can be transported out first. We have eight people. We could do teams of two, or we could split three and three and have one group of two."

"I think having only two per team isn't enough. We could put children of the Big Three together to create a more powerful duo and have teams of three," Frank suggested.

"Nice idea!" Annabeth praised.

"Why don't we have Leo, Nico, and Piper for the group that gets 2 golden apples? Their skills of fire, shadow-travel, and charmspeak can be good for the task," Jason said.

"Yes, but we need good sword-fighter to face Ladon. It's also unnecessary to have a shadow-traveler with a group that already has a means of transportation, which is from the battleship. Switching out Nico with Jason could be in handy."

"And if we need charmspeak in any circumstances, all you need to do is press your watch. Any charmspeak works the same from devices or in person," Piper added.

"Alright," Annabeth said. "We've got our first group. You guys get to collect the snake venom and dirt from the Underworld, as your items are located in America. I think having me, Frank, and Nico together for the Phoenix feathers might be a nice choice, because it would need persuading. We'll also get the hydra flesh."

"That leaves Hazel and Thalia for the Night Leaves from Apate and the unicorn horn powder."

"What about the Moonlace?" Leo asked.

"I don't know how to get to Ogygia," Annabeth admitted. "No one can get there on a map. It's kinda impossible."

"But it's needed!" Piper exclaimed.

"If we can plan our accordingly, whoever finishes first gets to look for moonlace flowers."

"Sounds good," Hazel agreed.

"We're nearing Lebanon."

"Here goes nothing..." Frank muttered.