A Game of Promises

Chapter 29: Lost

Percy's POV

I wake up, so happy from last night. With Annabeth there, everything was perfect.

I roll over to give Annabeth a good morning kiss. She isn't there.

No biggie, I tell myself. She's probably out finding breakfast or something.
Her back pack is missing. So is my sleeping bag. I have hers.

Okay, she brought her stuff with her in case she needs it.

When I see the note, I know something is wrong.

I read the note. By the end, my anger is almost uncontrollable.

She couldn't just leave me. She couldn't. She means everything to me. She claims that she didn't want to break me. Doesn't she know that this is breaking me?

I grab all of my stuff and walk out of our cave. No good staying there.

I walk for a bit, tripping so much because my thoughts are scattered. I feel that a body of water is close. I head in the general direction of it.

When I find the lake, I wish I never left the cave.

Annabeth and another boy are in the water together, splashing each other. Annabeth dunks the boy underwater. She shrieks when he pulls her under. They both come up, sputtering water.

I can't bear it anymore. I walk away. Before long, I break into a run. I can't stand the thought of Annabeth leaving me for some other guy. She told me she loved me. I love her.

I stop when I hear sobs. They're coming from high up a tree. I don't know what to do.

"Hey, you okay?" I call up.

"What could you freaking want?" The voice yells, her voice choked with a sob.

"Um, to know if you're okay."

"Yes, I'm fine. Have a freaking nice day."

"Well, if it helps, I'm having a terrible day. Like, end of the world terrible," I confide to the tree-uh I mean person in the tree.

"Yeah, we have to kill everyone in the arena. What else is new."

"No, even worse than that. If I come up, do you promise not to kill me?"

"I guess."

I start to climb, my bag getting caught on branches. I finally reach where the girl is sitting.

"Bella," she says.

"Percy. How could your day be so awful?"

"It wasn't today. More like yesterday. My friend was killed..."

She starts crying again. "Sorry, geez. I hate crying," she says with an exasperated tone.

"I won't judge. I feel like crying to. My ally wasn't killed. She left me."

I begin to tell her about Annabeth and I, how well we worked as a team together, how much she meant to me. Bella nods like she understands.

"I was close with my ally too. Her name was Ari Sanchez. She was a daughter of Apollo. Ari was one of the bravest people I know. She was an amazing shot with the bow, hardly ever missed. And then the idiot Mitchell killed her," she curls her hands into fists.

"Wait, didn't he die?"

"I killed him yesterday. He didn't deserve to live after what he did to Ari."

I nod in understanding. Friends die, people move on. That's the way of the crummy world.

"Well, as long as we share one thing in common, we can be allies," I say.

"And what's that one thing?"

"Misery. You're heartbroken over the loss of your friend, I'm heartbroken over the loss of my ally. Two broken hearts make, um, four parts of a heart? I'm not good with this kind of stuff. But the point is that you seem like my kind of fun-dangerous. You and I could kick everyone else's demigodly butts. You with me?"

She smiles at me, her eyes still puffy.

"I'm with you. Just one condition. If we see anyone, we kill them."

I nod in agreement.

"Then we're good to go."

Bella starts climbing down the tree and I follow her.

"Where should we go?" I ask.

"Anywhere but here," she replies.

That was good enough for me. Keep moving on.

"This way," I say, pointing in a random direction. She nods and we head off. I secretly hope that I don't run into Annabeth. Bella would probably kill her and as mad as I am at her, I can't bear the thought of her dead. I want her alive, I want her to win. And I'm going to make it happen.

Annabeth Chase will be the victor if it's the last thing I do.