Recovering (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

A/N Please watch the video above. I'm not sure if you can hear it so if you can't look it up on YouTube. I was looking at songs I could put for this chapter and it came up. I like it, hope you do too.

Percy

  Coughing up blood was not the highlight of Percy's day. He just wanted this to be over. He wanted to be able to stand up and fight. To take care of his Wise Girl and see his mom. He just wanted to be happy for once. No strings attached.

  He wanted to be able to sleep at night without seeing hell. Or his friends dying. He wanted to be normal and go to high school and get detention and fail tests. He would give anything to have that be his biggest problem.

  But of course, that's not how it is. No, he just had to be half God. He just had to be the one who wasn't suppose to be born. The one who's too loyal. The one who leads the quests. The one who went to war at 16. The one in the prophecies. The one who went to hell.  

  He doesn't know what he did to anger the Fates so much. He doesn't know why they chose him to have this torturous life. Why they won't let him be happy for more than six months.

  Whatever it is, he'd like them to accept an apology and move on to torturing someone else. But apparently he was a better dummy.

  Percy sighed and looked at his scar-covered arms. He could place each one. No, he thought to himself, don't think like that. You don't want a flashback of that.... Time.

He narrowed his eyes in concentration before forcing his fingers to twitch. It hurt like Hades but he didn't stop. He'd had enough of this.

  He moved his wrists and had to purse his lips to stop sound from coming out. It felt like they'd been severed from his arm. But he'd felt worse before.

  Percy moved his elbow and bit his lip hard. His arm felt shattered. But he couldn't stop now.

  He dragged his hands to his ribs and tried to push down on the bed. The farthest he got was the small of his back off the bed.

  Even after such a little effort, he was breathing heavy. His arms throbbed so much he almost regretted trying.

  But he didn't. At least not until his vision blurred and his pain brought him into another not-so-peaceful slumber.

 

  He was in his cell. Staring into Annabeth's eyes as the whip was brought down one, twice, five hundred times.

  Still, Percy refused to scream. Even as the sharp glass attached to the whip dug deep into his skin, his mouth stayed shut.

  His Wise Girl was already near tears. He would not be the reason those tears fell. It took all his effort not to sob.

  His back was on fire. It felt like the River Styx a thousand times over. And Annabeth was sitting in the corner, gagged and tied to a chair. Her eyes were wide with panic.

  Finally, he couldn't hold his pain anymore. He let out a blood curdling scream and watched in horror as Annabeth tears dripped to the floor.

  "It's okay Annabeth! Everything will be okay!" He yelled to her.

  He looked Tartarus (his torturer) in the eye. He glared as menacingly as he could managed. But the world was tinted red. And soon everything went black.

  Percy's eyes shot open. He blinked a few times before realizing two figures hovering over him. He felt his eyes widen and panic swell in his chest.

  He tried to move backward but his limbs felt like noodles. He started hyperventilating. Or at least he tried.

  The air mask was preventing his breathing to get too ragged. Wait, air mask? he thought. 

He dared to look up at the figures, eyes still filled with fear. What he saw surprised him. Annabeth and Piper stood over him, concern etched in their features.

  "Hey," Annabeth cooed, "It's okay. Your out now. He's not here." Piper looked at her in puzzlement. They hadn't told anyone what happened. Although, Percy would bet they'd made plenty of theories.

  "I'm here," Annabeth continued, "I'm not going anywhere." Percy visibly relaxed, although he still looked tense.

  Annabeth gave him a small smile. "When we came in, you had... Passed out." (A/N I just realized I said they had a watch system. So let's just say that Piper was with Percy and he was tired so he grudgingly  had agreed she would go get Annabeth because Percy he needed sleep. Just go with it please. 😊😇☺️)

    "It didn't look like you were sleeping," she continued after a moment and took off his mask, "It looked forced. And not to mention you usually can wait for me."

    Percy took a few ragged breaths before looking down and whispered, "I tried to move."
  "What was that?" Piper asked, her voiced etched with charmespeak 
  "I tried to move," Percy said again, louder and tinged with anger.

  Annabeth pursed her lips and closed her eyes. "I can't even move and stay conscious," Percy muttered quietly. 

  Annabeth and Piper both took their seats on the sides of his bed. "How far did you get?" Annabeth asked softly.

  "I moved my arms. But I couldn't push myself up. I wasn't even close."
  "But you moved."
  "Barely."
  "Your making progress."
  "Barely," he repeated 

  Annabeth stayed silent for a moment. "I'll talk to Will."  Percy lifted his head with difficulty.
  "What?"
  "I'll talk to him. Maybe he can get you moving around."
  "You think so?" Percy asked like a five year old.

  Annabeth chuckled lightly and nodded. Percy smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. Maybe there was still hope in the dark room he was trapped in.

Disclaimer: No matter how much I wish I do, I don't own and PJO/HoO characters.

A/N This whole thing is 1,012 words. Cool. 😀