You know you love me

Chapter Nine

Annabeth POV

I groaned as I heard the shrill cry of my alarm. I hadn't even opened my eyes yet and I could feel the darkness around me looming in. It was way too early for this. I was just about to reach over and press snooze but when I tried to move my arm, it wouldn't budge. My limbs felt numb. No, they ached all over. The alarm turned into a ringing that felt like it was cracking my skull. My eyes fluttered open as the foggy vision cleared. I frantically looked around trying to take in my surroundings. I was in a large dark, seemingly warehouse. Warehouse?!

It was full of old boxes and statues and had a few windows that were clouded so you couldn't see inside. I looked around and saw my arms suspended, restrained on either side by a huge statue that did not look friendly. As I regained my footing, I tried to remember what had happened.

Medusa! Gods, that snake of a woman. Who does she think she is threatening me and getting in the way of my mission? I had to think. How was I going to get out of this mess? Gods, my mom is going to kill me. I tested my restraints, but there was no way I was going to be able to slip through the statues' concrete grip. I needed time and a plan. I called out to the darkness, "Medusa. Where are you? What do you want with me?"

You know I always see that in movies where the hero calls out and the villain walks in slow clapping but that always seemed way too cliche to happen in real life. I was wrong. Medusa walked in slow-clapping her heart away as she laughed at my predicament. Medusa hissed, "Well, well, well. Athena's daughter finds herself between a rock and hard place. You know I thought it would be much more difficult to find you with your mother looking for me. But, I found you right out in the open and I bet your mom doesn't even know you're gone."

I sneered at her, but I knew she was right. I was on my own. "What do you want?", I repeated.

She laughed, "Ohh please, child. You humor me. I want what any 'villain' wants, revenge, and a few alternative motives never hurt either. If the daughter of the agency's head went missing, who would be blamed? Maybe the rival agency suspected of stealing from your very own agency. So I thought, Why not kill two birds with one stone? I get back at Athena, while destroying both agencies at the same time"

I visibly rolled my eyes. Our agencies may be rivals but there was no way my mother would believe Poseidon wanted to start a war, we may be competitors but weren't enemies. Right?

Medusa walked towards me and grabbed my chin. "Huh, it seems you have an opinion about my plan. You heard it thirty seconds ago and already think it's foolish. I didn't spend 10 years rotting, scheming against your mother just for you to disrespect me while you are at my mercy", she growled.

She pushed my head to the side and started walking back from where she had come in from. "We will see how opinionated you are when I am done with you."

With that she walked out of the room. I still didn't know how she wanted to get my mom's attention, but I didn't think I had time to figure that out. I needed to escape, but first I had to test something.

Fortunately for me, Medusa had only restrained my arms so my feet weren't attached to anything. I kicked my foot towards the statue and listened carefully. Judging from the vibrations and the sound from the kick the statue was hollow. That would make this much easier.

I forced my wrists to turn to where my palms were facing down. I grabbed hold of the statues' arms and picked my feet off the ground. I started swinging my feet back and forth like a toddler swinging on her parents arms. I had to build up enough momentum to knock over the statues', but there were a couple problems.

One: they were eight feet tall and probably twice my weight and two: if they didn't both knock over at the same time whichever one stayed standing would be pulled on top of me crushing me to death. "Yeah" I thought to myself, "This is a great idea".

I made sure to steady my arms and thrust my legs forward and back as hard as I could. By the third swing nothing had happened. On the fourth the statues started to groan, and by the sixth swing the statues' feet started teetering. I

said, "This is going to hurt", and on the seventh swing both statues came down with a resounding crash.

Good news, I was free.

Bad news, I was probably concussed and there is absolutely no way Medusa didn't hear that. I got up as quickly as I could and grabbed the nearest rock I could find. I ran up to one of the windows and threw the rock straight through it then turned on my heels and hid behind one of the stacks of crates.

I heard two sets of footsteps run into the room and straight near the window. Two sets of feet? Medusa said, "How could she have gotten away? You said this plan was fool proof."

The other voice sneered, "It was. You should have followed my exact plan instead of trying to trick her into thinking you thought of this all on your own. You left too much room for errors...She couldn't have gotten far. Find her."

The other person walked out of the room leaving Medusa fuming. I heard her jump through the window and run down the alley.

I couldn't tell if it was the concussion or the chloroform but I could've sworn that that voice sounded familiar. Far too familiar.

I slowly looked around the room and saw the cost was clear. I took the opportunity to follow Medusa out the window.

Medusa would think to check the exit first to see if I had even made it that far. Me not knowing where the exit remotely even is decided to follow her right to the escape.

I crept around the corner of the warehouse and saw Medusa mumbling to herself as she scanned the pathway for any traces of a clumsy 19 year old with more than minor injuries.

Just as I was about to turn the corner, I heard a stick break at the other end of the wall. I quickly pressed my back into the warehouse and held my breath. There was no way I could fight Medusa off right now, even if I still had any of my gadgets.

I waited until I couldn't hold my breath any longer and breathed as quietly as possible before turning and looking around the corner.

Medusa either hadn't heard anything over her mumbling or didn't care enough to check.

I personally thought that whatever made that sound clearly wasn't part of Medusa's plan or they would have pounced on me at first sight.

Despite my better judgment, I started making my way back down the alleyway towards the other corner of the warehouse where the sound had come from. Just before I turned the corner, I bent down and pressed the button on the sole of the shoe.

I pulled out the hidden knife and took a deep breath. I quickly turned the corner and placed the knife a centimeter from the person's neck. I looked the person up and down and said, "You have got to be kidding me."