Chapter 9

Based on previous events that have occurred, one would probably assume that this chapter would be the last in this sad and unfortunate book. However, said person would be mistaken.

Although it's true that Percy took a substantial amount of melatonin, what Percy did not know and that I, in fact, did was that you cannot overdose on melatonin alone. So while Percy will sleep for quite a while and have terrible side effects when he wakes up, one of those side effects is not death. 

When Percy finally woke up many, many, many hours later, he discovered several things. One, he was no longer in Cabin Three, but in a brightly lit, luminescent room that could only mean the med bay. Two, Percy realized that there was an IV in his arm and a tube snaking down his nose. Three, the bottomless pit that usually accompanied Percy where he went thanks to lack of food consumption was not there. 

Four, he wasn't alone. Annabeth sat curled up in a chair next to the bed, facing away from Percy as she read silently. Five, the annoying and practically deadly voice that droned on and on in Percy's head was right back at it. Six, by some miracle of the gods, the note Percy had written had not been touched. Seven, he had a terrible headache; he hurt to move; the lights were making his already existing headache much, much worse; and he became incredibly dizzy every time he attempted to move his head.

Eight, the most important thing that somehow took the Kelp Headed, Son of Poseidon, the longest to notice. Percy Jackson was very much alive. Percy tried talking but his throat was too dry to make more than scratchy sounds. However, it was a sound all the same and it immediately alerted the daughter of Athena who quickly turned around and locked eyes with Percy. 

To say that there was a flurry of mixed emotions on Annabeth's face would be a way of lightly explaining Annabeth's facial expressions as grey eyes met sea green for the first time in weeks. on one hand, Annabeth wanted to judo-flip Percy so hard that she cracked the earth. On the other hand, Annabeth also wanted to jump on Percy and hugged him so tightly he couldn't breathe because he worried her so and she missed him even more.  Furthermore, she wanted to punch him until he was black and blue but at the same time, she wanted to kiss him and hold him forever. Emotions were a very funny thing.

Annabeth settled for Punching Percy in the arm and hugging him tightly. "Perseus Jackson. you insolent Seaweed Brain of a Kelp-Headed person!" She scolds, her eyes suddenly filling with tears. Annabeth scrubbed her eyes furiously and stormed out of the room. Percy furrows his eyebrows until Annabeth came back with Will moments later.

"Percy, I'm glad to see you're awake," Will says. He walked over and checked all of Percy's vitals, casting glances down at Percy every once in a while. Percy kept his eyes trained on his hands which were once again in his lap. He didn't dare look up to see the disgusted and disappointed faces he knew awaited him so he stared at his scarred and calloused hands.

'I said they would hate you. If you were going to try and kill yourself, you really should've done a better job.'

 Percy laid his head back and closed his eyes as he let out a groan of pain. "Percy?" Annabeth asks gently. "Are you alright? Do you need anything?" Her tone held nothing but kindness and sincerity. 

'It's a trick,' the voice insisted. Percy didn't respond to her and Annabeth sighed and sat back down.

During Percy's very long and grueling stay at the med bay, he did not utter one word, nor did he meet the eyes of anyone. Eventually, Percy was able to get the feeding tube that ran down his nose removed after he had enough nutrition in his body so he wouldn't die. The IV was able to come out when he woke up. The only thing that didn't change that quite annoyed Percy was that he was never alone. 

Percy would often glare at whoever was 'guarding' him as he called it whenever they were not looking. He could not wait until he could be alone in Cabin Three but Will was extending Percy's stay in the med bay as long as he could but eventually, Will ran out of ideas.

Finally, Percy was released. He returned to his lonely cabin and sat on his bunk alone and as he sat in the darkness of his cabin, Percy began to come up with a plan to get rid of the voice once and for all.

Have an amazing *enter time of day here* loves!