Chapter Text
Gabe had been angry all day, short tempered and snapping. Fear grew in my chest throughout the day, watching him carefully. Trying to stay out of the way. Trying to stay quiet.
I’d really tried.
But his temper reached a boiling point as I went for some chips to eat something that day. Mom had been out working all day and Gabe hadn’t fed me and-
I dropped the chips and Gabe turned with a furious look.
“What do you think you’re doing you ungrateful brat-”
My heart leapt to my throat as I leapt back. The bottle was coming right for my head and I threw my arms up, eyes squeezing shut.
And tumbled right out of bed with blankets tangled around me.
I blinked.
A bed?
Was it a dream-
I looked around the dark room, not my room I could tell that much immediately. All I could see was the gleam of hundreds, thousands of eyes. Scuttling tip taps chittered through the air, filling what should’ve been peaceful silence.
Spiders.
Thousands of them.
This was not my room.
I leaned away from the spiders creeping closer, eyes flitting around desperately. What- where was I- That wasn’t my bookcase, that wasn’t my bed- this wasn’t even my floor.
Like gossamer silk legs dusted up my arm and I screamed as the spider hooked onto my shirt. Terror in my chest as I flailed.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Get off. Get off, get off, get off.
I choked on a sob as I scrambled frantically at my arms, trying desperately to remove all of the spiders- some of the spiders-
My arm stung from legs and fangs biting into them- my legs scraped- so many spiders- it was dark and crawling with spiders, so many sharp dark creepy crawlies why were they here why were there so many get away get away get away-
And then they did- they scuttled away and disappeared into the shadows as if they were never there. I sat on the floor, teary eyed and limbs stinging with spider silk trailing from my fingertips and stared in confusion.
Footsteps caught my attention right before the door flung open.
“Annabeth?” called an unfamiliar voice. A man with light brown hair came in, eyes shadowed underneath a lot like mom’s.
I sat on the floor staring up at the man, rubbing my arms and hiccuping as I tried to calm my tears. My eyes flicked around, still searching for the spiders.
“Why’d you scream?” He blinked down at me on the floor. “Why are you on the floor?”
“It- the- spiders-” I stared up at him in confusion. Who was he?
His face fell as he slumped, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Annabeth- Annabeth I know you miss me but we’ve told you not to lie about the spiders.”
I blinked slowly, swirling thoughts filling my head. It was almost too much information, nearly overwhelming. I didn’t know what to process first. Annabeth? Spiders? Lie? Who would lie about spiders attacking them? They’d been a living tapestry of creepy crawlies and I was in the center of their web. What was I supposed to do? Not scream? Why was he- Where was I? Who was he? What was going on?
I didn’t understand.
Something happened but I didn’t know what.
Who was Annabeth?
What was going on?
“Back in bed,” he declared, coming over with heavy steps to urge me up and into bed again.
I stumbled as I stood, my bottom aching from the fall.
He tucked me in and kissed my forehead. “Now, try and sleep, okay?”
I nodded, trying not to cry as my gaze flit around the room again, wondering where the spiders had gone.
He pat my head, “We’ll spend some time together soon, okay? So no more spiders.”
“Okay,” I whispered, my voice… different.
I watched him as he walked out and closed the door softly behind him. His footsteps slowly disappearing down the hall.
I sat in the bed until he left.
The spiders wasted no time reappearing once the footsteps vanished. Scuttling skittering around the room, eyes gleaming as spiders crawled back out, coating the floor in bristling eight legged terrors once more.
A moving tapestry of terror.
I swallowed down the scream that crawled up my throat. The man had said not to, he’d accused me of lying. And clearly he thought I was this Annabeth- did Annabeth have to handle this?
I could handle this, I had to handle this. I didn’t know what exactly was going on but- what else could I do but handle this?
Even if I just wanted mom.
At least it wasn’t Gabe.
The spiders crept onto the bed as I clutched an owl plushie to my chest, taking some comfort from the softness. One darted to my arm and I clenched my teeth and squished it.
Spider pieces and goo was on my hand now, but it was dead and the other spiders scuttled for a moment, as if wary I would squish them too.
I shoved a strand of blonde hair out of my eyes with my other hand, ready to stare down the spiders and squish any that got near me when I realized.
…
My hair wasn’t long enough, or blonde enough to be pushed from my face.
I tugged at the hair, trying to get a decent look at it. It was definitely blonde, the pretty kind of golden blonde that I saw on TV. And it went just past my shoulders, with ringlet like curls. My hair was only wavy.
What.
I scrambled in the bed, trying not to step on too many spiders, making a face as I was prepared to step on them- except they seemed to just dodge my feet as they tried to crawl up my legs anew.
I kicked my feet out, swiping at my legs and wishing I had shoes to stomp on them.
I reached the wall and turned on the lights, scanning the spiders quickly for any of the colors mom said to look out for because those were poisonous.
None looked poisonous.
I looked around the room for a mirror, finding one on the vanity against a wall.
I stomped my feet as best I could and kicked out at the spiders, running across the room to the vanity.
I continued trying to stomp my feet in place, to encourage the spiders to NOT climb on me as I turned my gaze to… my? Reflection.
That was not me.
I waved my hand and stared at the reflection mimicking me.
It wasn’t me, yet it was.
Staring back at me was a girl, she looked my age. She had golden blonde hair in pretty princess curls and sharp gray eyes that seemed to stare right through the mirror.
Her/my/our skin was tan, like she/me/we spent a lot of time outside.
In my shock I’d stopped stomping and a spider crawled up my leg, I quickly brushed it away, still staring at myself- herself? Ourself in the mirror.
A spider bit my leg, the sharp pain cutting through my shock. I squished it with a wince, glaring at the spider guts on my hand.
Spiders sucked.
I noticed tissues on the vanity so quickly grabbed one to wipe my hands before tugging at my/her/our hair. The girl in the mirror did so too. The hair was pretty.
But… why was I a girl? Where was I? Who was I? What was going on?
I’d been there, trying to dodge Gabe and then… I was here, fleeing from spiders.
Another spider tried to climb leg leg, crawling quickly onto my shirt and up to my neck. I snarled angrily, swiping violently at it and knocking it off.
“Leave me alone,” I snapped.
And they… listened. They still stayed there, scuttling back and forth and surrounding my feet. The carpet was a moving field of black. But… even though they surrounded me still they weren’t climbing on me anymore.
Weird.
I rubbed at the bites I already had, they hurt, a lot more than I thought spider bites would. I’d never been bitten by a spider before.
The girl in the mirror caught my attention again and I looked back.
This was bad… good? Bad? I wasn’t sure… I wasn’t being hurt by Gabe, but now I was surrounded by spiders. I wasn’t sure which was worse.
Plus I was suddenly a girl. And a totally random girl at that, I didn’t know who I was now!
Well, I knew her name: Annabeth.
But I didn’t know what to do at all. I’d never heard of someone- what? Spontaneously getting a new body? Suddenly switching bodies?
Was Annabeth me ?
I moved back to the bed and climbed on, holding the owl stuffie as I tried to think.
I didn’t know where my mom was, I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know who was here. And I definitely didn’t know why there were so many evil spiders who could apparently disappear at a moments notice!
I was Annabeth, but what did that mean? Who was Annabeth?
I needed… I needed a plan.
First I needed to know where I was. Other than… in this room. And I needed to find mom. That was a good start, I thought. I didn’t really know what else to do.
I nodded to myself, pushing the spiders off the blankets as I tugged them onto me. They were so soft. My blankets at home couldn’t compare.
The spiders crawled onto the blankets and I scowled.
Bonus plan: figure out what to do about the spiders. Maybe mom would know.
I wished I could explore the place, the house probably. Maybe an apartment- I could figure out where I was and what was going on but… I was exhausted.
Now that I wasn’t terrified of the spiders as much, now that the shock wasn’t keeping me going, I was… so tired.
It felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks.
My eyes ached, burning as if I’d kept them open for days. I couldn’t resist curling up in the bed, nuzzling into the pillows.
Spiders swarmed the bed, I felt them on the blankets, some ghosting through my hair.
They didn’t bite again though. They didn’t go on my face either.
Maybe I/she/we were so tired because of the spiders. I- I yawned- I thought it was kinda hard to sleep… my thoughts drifted as I nuzzled the owl stuffie. A spider scuttled through my hair. They made it hard to sleep.
I yawned.
I’d figure out… killing them… in the mornin.
My eyes closed and despite the spiders, the new room, and the confusion still filling me, I slept.
OO OO OO OO
I gave up on holding back my screams as the spiders swarmed me once more. I scrambled back, sobbing and trying futilely to escape and hit the floor hard.
I blinked in confusion, the floor rougher and my clothes feeling different.
“-brat! You’ll pay for that! After everything I’ve done to provide food for your ungrateful self you dare to cheat me like this?”
I gaped up, eyes opening to stare at the terrifying man above me with a red face and narrow eyes. I flinched, curling back as he waved a beer bottle at me. There were shards on the floor next to a bag of chips.
“I- what?” I choked out.
“Shut up!” he snarled. “I didn’t say you could speak.”
“But I- I didn’t-”
“I said shut up!” he roared.
I flinched away.
“You miserable brat, always sneaking around causing problems- well I don’t want ungrateful brats in my space!”
I opened my mouth, fresh tears prickling my eyes as I tried to figure out who this was, what was going on.
A beer bottle smashed against the wall, shattering and spilling beer everywhere. Shards sprinkling onto my arm and pinpricks of blood welled up.
My skin on my arm was darker than I was used to, not tanned but brown, like pretty sienna. The blood stained it.
“You’re staying in your room until Sally gets home,” he snarled. “No food either, stop stealing my damn chips you piece of shit.”
He grabbed me by the arm, dragging me up as I scrambled to get my feet under me.
“Let me go!” I cried, trying to twist free.
He barely paused, turning with a dark look on his face before stars exploded across my vision.
I choked on a scream, slumping in his grip as he dragged me down a blurry corridor before practically throwing me into a room.
“Any noise out of you and I’ll shut you up more permanently,” he hissed.
The door slammed, punctuating his threat.
I rubbed my head, feeling a bump already forming as tears blurred my vision.
What was going on? I was just at home- just trying to get away from the spiders when- I was here and the man-
My head was fuzzy, his hit must’ve given me a concussion.
Did a God take me here? They’d sent me to dad, maybe they’d sent me to a new, worse one. Had I angered them?
I stumbled to the bed, realizing a window was next to it. I tried to get a look out of it, to see where I was, when I caught sight of my reflection.
Warm sienna skin made up the face of a boy with black wavy hair and brilliant sea green eyes.
I looked around the room, searching for a mirror and found one over a desk. I stumbled over to it, staring wide eyed at my reflection.
It wasn’t me.
The boy still stared back at me, clear now in a mirror. With a Mediterranean nose and short hair. I raised a hand and looked at them, with small calluses already forming on small fingers.
He looked about my age, about my height. A little shorter. A little scrawnier.
I touched the hair, soft and wavy. I waved my hand, feeling a vague sting from the glass shards.
This wasn’t-
I’d never read a myth of this happening-
I- I’d switched bodies?
This wasn’t like a myth, it was like a fairytale. It was like a princess switching with a prince. Or- or like that one show where someone died and ended up in another world.
Did the spiders kill me?
Did the fall?
Did the Gods take me out of my body and put me somewhere else?
It must’ve been something with the Gods, how else? But what- why would they do that? I… I didn’t know what was going on. I needed a plan.
Who was I?
It might be important, I needed to- to find out. That was step one of the plan.
I looked around the room, taking it in properly for the first time.
The walls were a soft, if faded, blue. They were blank, unadorned except for a few photographs hung on one wall. They were all of the same two people, myself and a dark haired woman. She had- what had dad called it- natural looking hair? In a very dark brown, with faint hints of red in it. Several of the photos looked like they were at the beach. The rest- at parks and landmarks.
The desk I stood in front of had some writing practice on it, some coloring pages, and even some drawings of animals.
I picked one up, a dolphin I thought, and squinted at the writing carefully (and messily) penned at the bottom.
‘Pryce Jkacnos’
I scowled, his hand writing wasn’t great (neither was mine, I was still learning) but it wasn’t that bad I didn’t think. Reading just…. Was hard. It was frustrating.
I carefully sat down and practiced reading it just like I’d learned at home. One letter at a time, figuring out the word by sounds.
Per-cie… no, Per-see Jack-son.
Percy Jackson.
That was… probably the name of who I was then. But that didn’t explain much about him. Didn’t explain his family, the man downstairs, or if this was permanent.
Would I return home eventually?
Ever?
…
Would the spiders find me here?
I swallowed down my tears, the sob that wanted to break free, and crawled into the bed with its ocean-themed covers. They weren’t as soft as my blankets back home. There was no stuffie for me to hug. I tried to wrap the blankets tight around me.
I wanted my dad.
I didn’t want a new family, I didn’t want his new family but at least it had him . I wanted to go home .
I… I needed to find home.
I’d figure out where I was, that was step two, then I’d find my dad and go home and not get hit by the mean scary man outside this room.
It was a plan.
Because Athena always had a plan.
Even- even if I wasn’t a child of Athena in this body anymore. I was still Annabeth.
I was Annabeth.
Daughter of Athena.
Dad said I was super smart so I’d figure out a plan.
I rubbed my eyes, the tears making my eyes sting. My head hurt and my eyes stung and my arms still had blood on them.
I yawned, I had a plan for the moment. I’d need… I’d need more later but… I could do that in the morning.
I was so tired, I’d been tired for days. The spiders had been there so long- but there were no spiders here.
I could sleep here.
I cuddled more into the blankets, closing my eyes.
I’d figure everything else out in the morning. For now… for now I would sleep.