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One Day.
Annabeth Chase had known Leo for one Day and four Hours.
Annabeth Chase had met and lost a child in one Day and four Hours.
Annabeth Chase had been with Leo for Twenty-Eight Hours and she had already lost him.
She stared blankly at the empty ceiling with cracked and molded paint. It wasn’t fair.
None of this was fair. She wished she had never left Leo alone in this place. If she had stayed behind or if she had made a better plan than this wouldn’t have happened.
She should have known this was going to happen.
It was all her fault.
Leo was gone because of her dumb plan.
Behind her Annabeth hears the fire escape creak, “Annabeth?” Grover’s signature worried voice calls out.
She can’t move, it's like her knees are made of paper and acid is burning behind her eyes. Annabeth takes in a gasping breath struggling to force air in and out of her lungs. The world seems to shake around her and she tumbles to her knees. She tries to focus on something anything but all she can think is-
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
“-beth ple- eath”
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
“Plea-ann-ust-us- on me”
ITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULTITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
“Annabeth-it-n-ault”
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
ITS ALL YOUR FAULT
“ANNIE PLEASE…”
She hears someone next to her, they're talking to her saying her name. The room is still spinning, shaking, washing together like looking through the bottom of a glass of water, but the voice is there. It's talking to her, it's so steady, so familiar, and it doesn’t blame her. Why doesn’t it blame her? She listens more trying to find out why, Why didn’t they blame her? It was her fault, wasn’t it?
The voice is louder now, comforting. “It’s going to be ok, we are going to be okay”, there's a sharp breath “This kinda reminds me of the time me and Percy were playing Mytho Magic at school, we um, weren't really popular so this really mean girl, Nancy came and knocked all our cards off the table and called us a bunch of dumb nerds. It was kinda weird since most of the time nerds are thought of as smart but I guess Nancy wasn’t really, well she wasn't really the brightest flower bulb in the garden.” He lets out a soft laugh.
“Anyways Percy got so mad he tried to get revenge. He didn’t really have a plan for that though, and all the teachers were against him. So I tried to help out a little, I didn’t want Percy to get in trouble so I made a plan by myself. It didn’t really go well. I had put these little seeds on Nancy's uniform, they kinda act like an itching powder, anyway she had no idea who did it. So it seemed successful at first. Then Nancy went to the office and pinned the whole thing on Percy anyway.” Grover lets out a sigh.
“Even though I had been so careful, and I had tried my best to make sure Nancy couldn’t get anyone in trouble, she still put the blame on Percy. I was so ashamed but me and Percy still had to convince the principal not to expel him because of Nancy…” Grover shuffles a little bit adjusting his seat on the floor.
“I… honestly I felt terrible. I was supposed to help keep Percy safe and I almost got him expelled over a dumb prank. Percy must have noticed it though, right after he came right up to me and told me it wasn’t my fault. He kept insisting it wasn’t my fault so much I believed him too. I never could have known that Nancy would blame Percy for any random act against her, Percy knew I couldn’t have predicted what Nancy would do, and that's exactly what he told me.” Annabeth feels the acid behind her eyes lessen, the air become less heavy and thick, and her knees while still weak felt more like cardboard than paper now.
“So I- I just want you to know-”
“Grover”
He stares at her startled
“Thank you”
“Oh- ok Annie”
They sat there silent in the dark, until sleep stole their consciousness.
The ceiling was still cracked and molding but this time the morning light started to shine on it making small bits of dust appear in the air.
Slowly as the morning light filtered through the small window Annabeth began to rise dusting herself off, she looked around the room in the light and she could see small details she hadn’t seen the night before. The old pot that had been knocked further on the floor a new dent on its surface and a piece of paper was settled next to it.
Annabeth remembered the pot when she and Leo had arrived, she used to use it to collect rain water, but the paper was new. Walking over she kneels down and picks it up.
One of the corners of the page was slightly burnt and messy handwriting sits on the page.
“I'm Sorry
-Leo”
Annabeth could feel her hand shaking as she set the paper back down, slowly she turned to her companion who was slowly stretching where they had slept the night before.
“Grover”
“Yeah Annabeth?”
“It’s Leo, he- He left a note”
…
“What?”