A lump rose in my throat, and I stood in the same place for a while, the fact that Annabeth also left was still sinking in. The cold air that coming from the windows gave me goosebumps, so I sat down finally. My heart is pumping, my stomach warm with butterflies.

I sigh into my hands, "Dammit."

Why did I have to be such a fuck up sometimes? Gods, how did I get here? An angry girlfriend, a girl I'm starting to fall in love with, a camp to save. It's just too much. I just...I pull out Annabeth's dagger from the couch. She'd accidentally left it here. I stared at the celestial bronze blade, and cleaned it to a shine with my shirt. Looking into my reflection, I put the sharp blade over numerous scars on my arm. I know I should stop, but I can't. The pain can just take you, swallow you into nothing but it. It hurts, but at the same time it doesn't.

Soon I'm turning on the sink to clean the blood on it. I cleaned it just as I had before I used it, and set it on Annabeth's bed. It took me a while to get there and back, but I managed. I felt the lukewarm blood trickling down my arm, but I ignored it. I jumped when there was a knock at the door.

I walked to the door, and opened it slowly. A scrawny Latino boy stood on the narrow bridge between this tree and another. His brown hair was a mix of curly and wavy, not too much of either. Brown eyes met mine, and they lit up with a touch of hope. "Percy." It felt weird to hear my name again from someone other that Annabeth.

"Leo," I say, my voice caught, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, Nico's here too, he sorta shadow trav--"

"I heard my name," says a younger boy with dark shaggy hair and eyes even darker, he had pale skin and a skinny figure. "Hey Percy." I could've sworn I saw his cheeks get a little pink, but decided to ignore it.

"Guys what is it?"

Both of their faces grew grim when Nico said, "The Romans are planning an attack. We both saw them twenty miles from Camp Half Blood. There's an army of about a hundred and fifty. Twenty five on pegasi. The hold their golden eagle."

"Well we should go get what we came her for."

"But the person--they're a Shadowhunter! They'll never listen!" Leos eyes had widened.

"Then we should hurry up and convince them," I say, and invite them inside to prepare.

Notes

we got our student ids today and i look so fugly D: