Child of Time

Chapter Twelve: Fillers are the Worst.. and so are The Fates

LUKE

We had come to a silent agreement. We avoid Perseus and Perseus avoids us. I would occasionally look over at him to see if he's alright but would immediately turn away. To be honest, I missed him. We had stayed together for a whole year, barely staying apart for too long and suddenly this happens and it's like we're complete strangers.

"We should follow him." I'm shoved back into the conversation as Thalia proposed this plan of hers.

"And do what?" I ask. "Wait for him to find out that we're following him and he gets mad? That's going to be great."

Thalia rolls her eyes at me. "I meant that he leaves camp a lot right? We should follow him and find out what's going on." She looks behind me. "Look he's leaving again."

She gets up and quietly runs to the woods. I share a look with Annabeth and follow her, knowing that if Perseus only caught her he would be even more mad. We catch up to her and we stay low to the ground. Thalia suddenly stops so we all hide behind the bush. I look through the leaves to see Percy take out a cigarette. He lifts his index finger and it ignites into a small flame. He lights his cigarette and puts it to his lips.

When he takes his hand away he lets out a long sigh and leans against the tree.

"Why did you force me to come here, Father?" I frown and look at Annabeth. She shrugs and we look back to Perseus.

"I don't care if you sent me here to gain information about my siblings. I haven't had to do anything since I stole the nitwit's firecracker."

He stays silent for a few seconds before sighing.

"No. They're mad at me."

I look down at the ground.

"I killed some guy in an alley."

He put the cigarette back to his lips.

"No, I did not. I didn't want to kill him. He started.. doing something so I stabbed him. It was merely self-defense, Dad."

"Of course I didn't tell them that. They wouldn't have believed me." He lets out a dry laugh. "Hell, Thalia would've said I was lying."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have to wait to come home. Bye Dad."

He sighs again and slides down the tree.

He starts humming a song I don't recognize and I look at Thalia. Her eyebrows are furrowed and she looks deep in thought which quickly vanished when a sound echoed through the woods.

"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Perseus exclaims as he takes out a small phone from his pocket. He slides his finger across the screen and puts it to his ear.

"Dave. To what do I owe the pleasure." He grinned as he clicked something on his phone and set it down on the grass.

"Hey, Perseus. You heard about the murder last night?" Percy puts his hands behind his head as he closes his eyes.

"Yes, I've heard about the murder."

"Are you okay?" Dave asked through phone.

"Let's just say I wish I had taken you up on that ride."

"Did you know him?"

"Yes, I know exactly who it was. And good riddance anyways. He was a dick."

"I don't think he actually deserved death though, Perseus."

He scoffed at Dave.

"That's what Annabeth said. He did deserve to die. You would say the same thing if you knew who he was."