Chapter Text
“Percy!”
I whipped my head around to find someone running toward me at full speed. It was a girl: blonde hair, startling gray eyes, and a knife hanging at her side. She was pretty despite the tears streaming down her face. Somehow the knife didn’t bother me the way it should have. When she got close to me I assumed she’d hit the brakes, but instead she tackled me to the ground and was hugging me so tight I could barely breathe. The cement bit into my back as I landed hard, knocking whatever breath I’d managed to hold onto out of my chest. Her arms wrapped quickly around my neck, squeezing ever tighter as though she were trying to drain the life out of me. I couldn’t help but try and squirm out of the girl’s death grip, but she was impossible to escape.
“Where have you been?” she demanded, her gasping breaths hot on my skin as she buried her face into my neck. When I didn’t answer she lifted her face to look into mine, and the smile melted away when the joy she was expressing wasn’t mirrored in my own. “Percy?” I stared at her and knew that I was missing something just from how she stared at me. I just couldn’t figure out what that something was.
“I’m sorry,” I said slowly, “but who are you?”
“Wh—What?” Her eyes were watering again, though I was pretty sure she wasn’t crying for the same reason as before. “Seaweed Brain,” she said, as though the words should mean something to me. “It’s me: Annabeth. Your girlfriend .” My blank stare had her sitting up as her eyes narrowed. “Come on, Percy, stop messing with me. I’m not in the mood.” I blinked at her and frowned, but I wasn’t upset. I was so confused. My name is Percy? I have a girlfriend? I have a girlfriend that looks like that? How did I land someone that pretty when I don’t even have shoes? Wait, where are my shoes? What is happening? I shut out the thoughts and tried to think about her face, seeing it in the past, but there was nothing. I had no idea who this girl was. I had no idea who I was.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, quite sure that I actually meant it. “But I truly don’t know you.” I gently pushed her aside and got up from the ground, leaving her shell shocked as I started to walk away. I looked over my shoulder once and it hurt me to see her sitting on the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her whole body was slightly shaking, and I didn’t think it was because she was cold. Judging by the heat and how the pavement was burning the bottoms of my feet through my socks, it was the middle of summer. I sighed and looked away as I continued walking down the street. I didn’t know anything, but I knew I wasn’t a mean guy, so to see her just sitting there on her own made my heart ache. I didn’t know where I was going, or even what part of the world I was in. I just knew that I wanted to get away.