𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚢 || 𝙿𝚒𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝙼𝚌𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚗

𝕋𝕣𝕖

Chapter three

(A different version of you exists in everyone's mind)

㋛㋛㋛

The three girls hiked further up the hill, following a snaking dirt and cobble path that twisted and turned until it reached Rachels cave.
Random bones and swords littered the ground of the cave, and torches flanked the entrance, casting an eerie shadow over the entrance, which was covered in a green velvet curtain embroidered with snakes, making it look like some demonic show.
The cave did not remind the Thea of her red-haired friend at all, but more of some weird underworld ritual.

"what's in there?" Piper asked, her eyes examining the mysterious outside of the cave.
Annabeth said nothing, instead poking her head just inside the curtain, sighing, and closing the curtain.

Thea looked at the exhausted girl in sympathy, she knew how much Annabeth was depending on their resident Oracle to gain even the slightest of insight on Percy's whereabouts.
"Nothing, right now. A friend's place. I've been expecting her for a few days, but so far - nothing."

Piper's eyes widened slightly. "Your friend lives in a cave?"

Annabeth managed a small smile.
"Actually, her family has a luxury condo in Queens, and she goes to a finishing school in Connecticut. But when she's here at camp, yeah, she lives in the cave. She's our oracle, tells the future. I was hoping she could help me—"

"Find Percy?" Piper guessed, shrugging her shoulders gently.

All energy drained out of Annabeth, like she'd been holding it together for as long as she could. She sat down on the rock that was laying besides Thea, her expression full of pain, making the brunette feel bad once more.

Thea turned her gaze to Piper who was looking at Thalia's tree, where the golden fleece and Peleus were chilling together in the warm weather.
For the daughter of Hades this was completely normal, so she often forgot that it wasn't normal for other people.

"That's - a dragon," Piper stammered. "That's the actual golden fleece?"
Annabeth nodded, but it was clear that she wasn't listening.
Her shoulders drooped. She rubbed her face and took a shaking breath. "Sorry. A little tired."

"Yeah, no shir sherlock," Thea muttered under her breath, but luckily none of the girls heard it.

"You look ready to drop," Piper said.
"How long have you been searching for your boyfriend?"

"Three days, six hours and about 12 minutes,"
Annabeth answered completely exhausted.

"And you've got no idea what happened to him?"
Pretty girl questioned.

Annabeth shook her head miserably.
"We were so excited because we both started winter break early. We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together. It was going to be great. Then after campfire, he - he kissed me goodnight, went back to his cabin, and in the morning, he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom. We've tried to reach him every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared."
The blonde shakily explained.

Piper looked to be thinking. "How long were you guys together?"

"Since August," Thea said for Annabeth, remembering that day clearly.
"August eighteenth."

"Almost exactly when I met Jason," Piper said.
"But we've only been together a few weeks."

'Dammit, she isn't single,' Thea though jokingly to herself, finding herself funny.

Annabeth winced, not wanting to be the one to tell her.
"Piper... about that. Maybe you should sit down."

Piper seemed to know where this was going. Looking a little panicked she broke the silence.
"Look, I know Jason thought - he thought he just appeared at our school today. But that's not true. I've known him for four months."

"Piper," Thea said sadly. "It's the Mist."

"Missed... what?"

"M-i-s-t. It's a kind of veil separating the mortal world from the magic world. Mortal minds. they can't process strange stuff like gods and monsters, so the Mist bends reality.
It makes mortals see things in a way they can understand - like their eyes might just skip over this valley completely, or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables," The brunette explained.

Piper swallowed. "No. You said yourself I'm not a regular mortal. I'm a demigod."

"Even demigods can be affected," Thea told her.
"I've seen it lots of times. Monsters infiltrate some place like a school, pass themselves off as human and everyone thinks they remember that person. They believe he's always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened-"

"But Jason's not a monster!" Piper insisted.
"He's a human guy, or demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren't fake. They're so real. The time we set Coach Hedge's pants on fire. The time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof, and I finally got the stupid boy to kiss me..."

Thea zoned out after that, not interested in listening to a bunch of made-up memories this girl had with her so-called boyfriend.
That was more of Annabeth's expertise.

Annabeth pursed her lips, having actually been listening to pretty girl's ranting.
"Piper, your memories are a lot sharper than most. I'll admit that, and I don't know why that is. But if you know him so well-"

"I do!" She insisted.

"Then where is he from?"

Piper looked like she'd been hit between the eyes. "He must have told me, but-"

"Did you ever notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you anything about his parents, or his friends, or his last school?" Annabeth continued the interrogation.

"I- I don't know, but-"

"Piper, what is his last name?"

The girl in question started to cry. She sat down on the rock next to Thea who had sit down sometime during Piper's rant.
Then she fell to pieces. It must've been too much for the newly discovered demigod.

Not knowing what else to do with her terrible people skills, Thea tried to give her a comforting pat on the back... yeah, she needed help with those skills.

"Hey," Annabeth said in a soft voice.
"We'll figure it out. Jason's here now. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out with you guys for real."

Thea rolled her eyes. That sounded like something straight from some sort of teen movie.

Piper brushed a tear from her cheek. "You brought me up here so no one would see me blabbering, huh?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I figured it would be hard for you. I know what it's like to lose a boyfriend."

"But I still can't believe... I know we had something. And now it's just gone, like he doesn't even recognise me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How'd he get there? Why can't he remember anything?"

"Good question," Annabeth said. Hopefully Chiron can figure that out. But, for now, we need to get you settled. You ready to go back down?"

Piper gazed the camp below, a thoughtful look on her face... not that Thea was looking of course.

"Yeah," Piper said. "I'm ready."

A/N

I'm back

I have no excuse for not updating... February was a boring month and I slept for most of it...

Since I felt like I should update this I wrote this at 1 AM so if it's bad I'll blame it on that:)

Peace out