Disclaimer: All PJO characters belong to Rick Riordan.

The first thing Annabeth did was hold her breath.

She'd heard the stories. The air in the Pit was toxic. If she let in a breath, then the air would go into her and her lungs would collapse. But was that fate really worse than the one that she was about to endure?

Fisting her hands at her side, she lifted her head and looked around at the barren landscape. The Pit looked like something out of a history book. Annabeth couldn't help but be reminded of the Sahara Desert, something she had read about in one of her aunt's geography novels. The world around her was glittering with golden sand that the wind used to paint swirling designs in the air. The sun was big and hot and scorched down on her. Almost instantly after being thrown out here in this wasteland, sweat had covered her face.

She was afraid to breathe, even though her chest was constricting with the need for oxygen. She was afraid to even move, remembering the stories that her cousins would tell her in the dark of the night when Aunt Mary and Uncle James were asleep. They said that the environment of the Pit was so harsh that no one ever survived it. There were dead bodies buried under the sand, rotting away until there was nothing but dust. Annabeth shut her eyes tight, trying not to think about how the sand squishing beneath her feet could be the dusty remains of someone's dead body.

A cry bubbled up in her throat. She couldn't take it anymore.

Tentatively, carefully, Annabeth opened her mouth and let in a tiny breath. The air was rancid and heavy but as far as she could tell, it wasn't toxic. Her lungs hadn't collapsed and each breath was coming a little easier. Annabeth should have been relieved that she hadn't died instantly, but instant death would have saved her from the horrors she was about to endure.

Panic was building up inside of her. She took deep breaths and tried to get herself under control.

Now is not the time for a panic attack, Annabeth, she thought to herself. Get yourself under control. Find shelter. Get somewhere with food and water. You will be okay.

Her panic was suppressed for a moment as her eyes roamed the wide expanse of the desert. She turned and walked a few steps and prayed that she would find something, anything, just so she could rest for the night. She was exhausted.

A silent gasp escaped her mouth when she saw the outlines of a city in the distance. It was so far away that she couldn't make out much more than the shapes of the buildings, but it was there. Annabeth tried to view it as a place that offered shelter and food rather than a place where she would be eaten alive by the convicts that lived there.

Her hands quivering, Annabeth began to walk.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Everyone in the world is born with a twin.

No one knows how it happens. No one knows when it started happening. No one knows why is started happening. But for hundreds of years, everyone has been born with a twin.

You do everything with that twin. They're like an extension of yourself. You live with them. You eat with them, you play with them, you learn with them, you sleep with then. And when you turn sixteen, you are torn away from them. It's the way it has been for as long as anyone can remember.

When you turn sixteen, a pair of twins must go to the government building in their province and take a test. The test determines which twin is good and which twin is evil. Once the decision has been made, the good twin goes to Elysium, the territory for the good. Rumor has it that the sky is always blue and the river that runs through the territory is crystal clear. No one is ever sad. There is no pain and hurt. Everyone is kind and loving and accepting. There's always food and laughing and no one ever wants for anything.

The evil twin is taken to the Pit. The nickname for the territory of the evil is well-given. Set in the middle of one of the harshest deserts in the world, the Pit houses the cruel and insane. The food is scarce and when it is given, it's hard and brittle and tasteless. The crime rates are through the roof. The weak are singled out and quickly crushed. The Pit practices the survival of the fittest. The strong survive. The weak die.

Annabeth was born with a twin. But when she turned sixteen, she was the only one left.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

It felt like she'd been walking for an eternity before Annabeth finally reached the city. A compound was a more accurate word, really. The entire thing was surrounded by a thirty-five-foot concrete wall. Barbed wire twisted and tangled together on the top, preventing anyone from climbing over it. The only entrance was a big stainless steel door. Annabeth lumbered over to it and waited for it to open.

It stayed tightly shut.

Annabeth sighed. She wasn't exactly sure what she expected when she arrived. The door to open at her arrival and a bunch of heavily tattooed people to welcome her with open arms? Or, more accurately, a bunch of heavily tattooed convicts waiting to pulverize her the second she took a step inside.

Annabeth tried pounding on the door as hard as she could. She waited a minute and still, it didn't open. Sighing in frustration, Annabeth took a step back and looked around for a way to open it. Her eyes caught on a touchpad on the right side of the door. She stepped towards it and studied it.

There was nothing on it, no words of instruction or drawings to tell her what to do. Annabeth brought her finger up and pressed it against the surface, thinking that it might read fingerprints. When that didn't work, she pressed her entire hand against it. It still didn't work.

Annabeth felt like crying. She was hot and exhausted and hungry. As strange as it seemed, all she wanted was to be inside the compound already, because at least inside there was shelter and food. Out here all she could do was wait to die. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration and tears were beginning to well up in her eyes. How embarrassing would it be to cry right then when, for all she knew, everyone inside was watching her on some hidden camera right that instant?

That's when something on her wrist caught her eye. Tattooed on the skin right above her veins was a coiled up viper. The government officials that had decided to throw her in the Pit had tattooed this on her wrist, marking her as evil forever.

"Now," he had said, "everyone you will ever meet will know what your true nature is like."

Annabeth had wanted so badly to tell him that she thought that he belonged in the Pit as well.

Government officials were different. They had twins, just like everyone else, but before they were sixteen and had to take the tests, they were hand chosen by the government to join them. They were neither good nor evil. Annabeth had always found that a bit unnerving, how the people who ran their world were in a bit of a gray area when it came to their nature.

Annabeth stared at the viper tattooed on her hand, then looked at the touchpad in front of her. There was still nothing on it, nothing that indicated what she should do. Annabeth bit her lip and then she pressed the tattoo onto the touchpad.

The screen turned green. Annabeth heard the sound of shifting gears and then the steel door was opening, lifting up like a garage door. Annabeth stood in front of it, frozen in place, as the opening door revealed a group of about ten people, most of them men and all of them staring at her. Sizing her up. Annabeth's breath hitched with fear. Was this it, then? Were they going to see that she was too petite and weak to ever truly be one of them? Were they going to kill her because of it?

Her breath came a little easier when the man in front – a guy a few years older than she with sandy blonde hair a handsome face – smiled at her.

"Congratulations," he said. "You passed the first test."

Annabeth stared at him with a confused expression on her face.

"We have that little touchpad puzzle out there to whittle away the weak," another guy said. This one was a bit closer to her age and had salt-and-pepper hair that stuck up in all directions. He had a rifle strapped to his back, which sent Annabeth's nerves on edge. "If you can't figure out the puzzle, then you ain't belong in here. If you can, well, let's hope you pass the other tests."

"Stop, Travis," the first guy scolded. "You're scaring her." To Annabeth, he said, "Don't worry. Most everyone who passes that puzzle can pass all the other tests we have in store. We got no room in here for the weak." He walked over to Annabeth and threw an arm over her shoulder, pulling her inside with him. Annabeth was too exhausted and afraid to fight him. She let him lead her inside, only jumping when she heard the big steel door slam shut behind her. The sound of the lock engaging rattled in Annabeth's skull, right along with the realization that she was stuck here, possibly forever. Probably forever.

You don't understand, she wanted to scream. I'm the weakest one here.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The compound was not like anything Annabeth had imagined. When she'd grown up, she'd heard stories of a poor community; dirty, dark, hungry, but civilized. The Pit was the opposite. The only thing Annabeth could compare it to was a zoo. As she walked with Travis and the other guy – whose name she'd learned was Luke – and the eight other people in their group, she passed a huge cage the size of the foyer in her aunt and uncle's house. Inside the cage, twenty or so women were chained up, their dresses torn and dirty and revealing way too much. Their hair looked like just strings hanging around their dirt-coated faces. They called out to the group, twisting and writhing around in a way that Annabeth supposed suggested sex. When the girls saw Annabeth, they scowled at her.

"Prostitutes," Luke explained, leaning down to say it in Annabeth's ear. Annabeth's stomach twisted, but whether it was because of the prostitutes or because of Luke's closeness was a mystery.

It just got worse as Annabeth continued walking. She'd expected street fights, but what she got was even worse. People were fighting, but they appeared to be fighting to the death. Bloody men lay on the ground, completely unconscious and immobile while their opponent kept kicking them in the gut, in the head, in the groin over and over again. Each fight had a crowd of at least fifty people around, shouting and cheering. One of the men fighting caught her eye. He stood over the body of a man who looked dead and when he caught her gaze, he didn't smile or wink or do anything that Annabeth expected an experienced street fighter to do. He just stared coldly in her direction until Annabeth was too afraid to keep watching.

Annabeth never imagined that the Pit would be like this. She never imagined she would see people so thin they were practically see-through. She never thought that she would see kids running around in this environment, their faces dirty and their bellies swollen from lack of nutrition. She should have expected this, she guessed. After all, she herself had grown up in Elysium. She'd been lucky enough to have parents that were the good twins. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like to grow up here, where horror was waiting around every corner.

They took her to a long concrete building with a low ceiling. All of the men had to duck down in order to go through the doorway. Annabeth followed them in, her entire body shaking.

The building was just one long room filled with about fifty tables. On the left, there was a buffet that opened into a dirty-looking kitchen. Annabeth figured this was the mess hall and she couldn't help but be disgusted by the idea of eating food made in that disgusting kitchen.

They sat her down at a long table in the middle. None of the men sat down with her, opting to stand instead. Luke stood on the opposite end of the table, facing her. He had his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. It was obvious that he was the leader of the group.

"What's your name?" he asked her. Annabeth stared at him, her eyes wide with fear, and she didn't say a word. Luke repeated his question, his tone of voice a little bit more forceful and irritated. The fear in Annabeth grew, yet she still didn't say anything.

She hadn't said anything in ten years.

"What, are you mute?" Luke demanded in anger? His eyes were ablaze and Annabeth was afraid. She nodded meekly, hating that there were tears gathering in her eyes, hating that she was so weak and vulnerable.

Being mute was her last defense. She'd seen how terribly cruel the world could be. She'd experienced it. She had found herself in the darkest of places at just six years old, and the only way she could find to deal with such cruelty was to simply stop acknowledging it. So she'd stopped talking. She hadn't said a word since she was six years old, not even when her aunt and uncle practiced their own hidden evil on her. Not even when the government had dragged her to a place which she didn't belong. Not even when she woke up screaming from the nightmares.

Not even now, when words could save her. She'd grown so accustomed to not talking that she wasn't even sure her voice still worked.

"So," Luke said, mildly impressed. "We have a mute. This should be interesting." The men surrounding her all shared a harmonious evil laugh and a chill ran through Annabeth's body.

"Here's how this works, Mute," Luke said. "There's a system to the way things run here. We're not just a big group of criminals running around and causing chaos. We have leaders, or a sort of government, you could say." Luke grinned a perfectly shiny grin. "I'm the man in charge. I decide who survives and who gets killed. I get to decide your fate. And these are my men." He gestured to the nine men surrounding him. "If you step outta line, they're the ones who're gonna take care of you, not those wimpy guards keeping watch. And they ain't very nice, you got it?"

Annabeth swallowed down a lump in her throat and nodded. Luke nodded back before continuing. "Now here's how this works. You passed the first test. You successfully entered the Pit. And in the Pit, we don't have time for weaklings. You gotta pass three other tests before we let you live. The first is getting food. Food is scarce here and you gotta prove yourself in order to eat. You got three days to pass that. If you don't pass it, we kill you. If you do, you move on to the next test: surviving an attack. It's survival of the fittest here and if you can't hold yourself in a fight then we ain't got room for you. And the last one changes depending on the person, but it's usually surviving a storm. We get some pretty nasty ones out here and our numbers go down after every single one." He paused to take in Annabeth's reaction before saying, "If you pass all of the tests, then you get the best reward of all: your life." He snickered and Annabeth took a deep breath.

I'm going to die, she thought. I'm going to die here in this hellhole.

Luke jutted his chin out at one of the men. "Nathan, take her out," he instructed. The man – Nathan – nodded and grabbed Annabeth's arm, harshly pulling her up and away from the table. Annabeth let out a cry of shock. Nathan and the other men snickered at her weakness.

"Don't forget, Mute," Luke called to her as they walked out of the building. "Three days or we kill you."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The compound was almost like a neighborhood, Annabeth thought. If that neighborhood had brothels every six houses and street fights in every corner.

Nathan kept a tight grip on Annabeth's arm as he dragged her through the streets, weaving through the massive crowds of people. Annabeth still couldn't believe how many were here. Back in Elysium, the streets had been crowded with cars, not people. The houses had been more spread apart than in the Pit, where the most space between the houses had been three feet. While all of the houses in Elysium had been colorful three-story mansions, all unique in their own way, these houses here were small and flat and standard, made out of concrete. There was no electricity. As far as she could tell, the mess hall seemed to be the only place with electricity.

She decided to study Nathan as they walked. He looked like he was in his early twenties, so he was quite a few years older than her. He had dark brown hair that looked perfectly mussed up. He was at least half a foot taller than Annabeth and he had dark, tan skin that Annabeth knew all of the girls would be sighing over back in Elysium. In fact, Nathan was the exact kind of guy that the girls in Elysium would be all over, with his angular jawline and long, dark eyelashes. He was handsome. Annabeth would give him that.

It seemed like they had been walking for ages when they finally stopped in front of a concrete house that looked exactly like the hundreds they had just passed. The number 256 was painted in black above the wooden door. Annabeth stared at it, unable to believe that this was her life now. This was her home.

"You'll be staying with Clarisse," Nathan said. It was the first thing he'd said since they'd started walking. "She arrived a month ago, and already passed all of the tests." He let go of Annabeth's arm and she rubbed it. "She looks tougher than you, Mute, just to warn you."

Nathan chuckled and gazed at her. It unnerved Annabeth, his stare. "You sure are pretty when you do that," he murmured. He stepped closer to Annabeth. Annabeth took a step back. "Tell me," he continued, completely unfazed by Annabeth's reluctance to be near to him. "How did a girl like you end up getting stuck in the Pit? You look about as dangerous as a flower."

Annabeth spit in his face. No way was she allowing him to get any nearer to her.

"Gah!" Nathan cried, wiping Annabeth's saliva out of his eye. His gaze was bloodthirsty when he looked at her again. "You're going to regret that, Mute," he threatened. "Watch your back." With that, he stalked off, muttering about stupid girls thinking they know everything.

Annabeth relaxed a bit when he left. She ran a hand through her hair, trying not to think about the fact that this was her new home. This was her new reality. A place where criminals ran wild and hurting people was normal. She didn't belong here. She wasn't evil.

Taking a deep breath, Annabeth gathered herself together and decided it was best that she go inside and meet her new roommate. Anyone had to be better than the scumbag she'd just spit on. She walked inside and was surprised to see that the room was bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside, though that really wasn't saying much. The room was barely big enough for two people to live. It had two cots on opposite sides of the room with a couple thin blankets on each. There was a small chest at the foot of each bed and a toilet in the two back corners behind the beds. Two curtains hung in front of each bed, offering some semblance of privacy.

It could be worse, she thought. At least she had a place to stay in this hellhole.

"And what do we have here?" a female voice called from the right side of the room. Annabeth looked over and saw a monster of a girl about Annabeth's age sitting over on the bed. She had long, stringy brown hair that was thrown up in a messy ponytail and dark brown eyes that glinted red in the light. She was tall, very tall, and had a good seven or eight inches on Annabeth. She wasn't slight, like Annabeth was, but she wasn't huge either. Her muscular build made Annabeth think of an athlete.

The girl laughed, delighted. "A newbie!" She took a minute to look Annabeth over before chuckling to herself. "You won't last another day in the Pit," she said. She hopped up off the bed and stuck out her sweaty, grime-covered hand. "I'm Clarisse LaRue," she said. Annabeth hesitantly stuck out her own hand and Clarisse shook it. She shot Annabeth a questioning eyebrow, waiting for Annabeth to answer something that she never could.

"Can you talk, Blondie?" Clarisse asked. Annabeth shook her head solemnly. Clarisse stared at her for a second before bursting into laughter. Annabeth looked at her, confused.

"That's perfect," Clarisse said. "Just perfect. My new roommate is a mute!"

Annabeth's face turned red. She kept her gaze down, staring at the floor. She'd been experiencing this kind of reaction for years, and every single time it happened, it sent on a brand new wave of embarrassment. She was mute and she'd never be able to speak like a normal person.

You can, a tiny voice in her head whispered. You can speak if you want to. All you have to do is open your mouth.

But she could never do that.

Clarisse seemed to notice Annabeth's embarrassment. "No, no," she said, still giggling a little bit. "No, that really is perfect. I'm not a friendly person. When they told me I was getting a roommate, I wasn't very happy about it." She rolled her eyes. "You being mute is perfect. Now I can just pretend that you're not there."

Annabeth wasn't really sure how to take that. She supposed she understood Clarisse. Annabeth wasn't the friendliest person out there either. After all, she was mute.

"That's your side," Clarisse said, gesturing to Annabeth's left. "I'll probably keep my curtain closed most of the time, so see you around." With that, Clarisse closed the curtain on her side, leaving Annabeth alone.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Annabeth jerked awake at the sound that rang throughout the Pit. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her eyes were wide. The sound resembled that of a blow horn, or an alarm. She was still frozen in place when Clarisse ripped open the curtain that hid Annabeth from her.

"Rise and shine, Blondie," she said, her eyes still bleary from sleep. "Better hurry if we wanna make it to breakfast on time." Then she was gone.

Annabeth sat in her bed for a second, the blankets still twisted around her. She tried to catch her breath and think straight. Breakfast. Breakfast meant food. Luke had said that she had three days in order to get food or he would kill her. And while the consequence of her not finding food seemed rather dire, how hard could it really be?

Annabeth realized exactly how hard it could be when she made it to the mess hall five minutes later.

It was a zoo. She wasn't exaggerating. People were fighting over scraps of food all around her like wild animals. When a person did have food, they stuffed it into their mouths so quick and intensely, it was like they hadn't eaten in days. Annabeth supposed that maybe they hadn't.

As she stood in the doorway, an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness crept up on her. How could she ever get food when every meal would be like this? There was no way she would pass Luke's test. She would be dead in three days.

Her stomach growled. She might be dead in less than three days if she didn't eat. The last meal she'd had was at her aunt and uncle's house before the test.

She took a step inside, her eyes roaming the room. The table in the middle, the one that she had sat at yesterday with Luke, was covered with food. Annabeth figured that she could go over there and get some, but she would probably lose an eye in the process. It seemed like half of the population of the Pit were crawling all over each other in an attempt to get just a bite of the bread and fruit covering the table.

Annabeth swallowed down the panic that was crawling up her throat. She still had three whole days. That was nine meals. If she sat here and watched, she could strategize and be prepared for lunch. She was certain that she could get herself some food at lunch, even if it was just a bite of bread.

Feeling content with this new plan, she held her head up high and walked over to one of the tables where there was the least amount of fighting and she sat down. Her eyes continued to roam the expanse of the room. All she had to do was target the weak ones. She saw a girl over in the corner munching on a slice of bread. She was thin and small and looked like she was sixteen as well as Annabeth. Annabeth figured that she could take her if she needed to and made a mental note to remember her.

She moved her eyes away and caught Luke's gaze. He stood against a wall, a half-eaten banana in his hands. Nobody was trying to fight him. Nobody was bothering him. He watched Annabeth with a sly smile, like her suffering and hunger was amusing to him.

A chill went through her. Suddenly, she realized that the center of this man's attention was a very bad place to be.

"What, you too high and mighty to eat?" a gruff voice said next to her. Annabeth tore her gaze away from Luke and looked to the man sitting beside her. He was so tall that Annabeth had to crane her neck back in order to look at him. He looked oddly familiar, like one would look if you passed them on the street one day. He was slender, but muscular – Annabeth could see the shadow of muscles beneath his shirt. His hair was midnight black and stuck up at odd angles, like he was constantly running his hands through it. His eyes were green and framed by long and dark eyelashes that Annabeth knew would be the envy of every girl back in Elysium. And they were cold as the man glared at her.

Suddenly finding it difficult to breathe, Annabeth shook her head. The man snorted and rolled his eyes. "Better gather together a little toughness, girl, or you won't last another day out here." He shook his head, like Annabeth's lack of strength amazed him, and went back to eating his food. Annabeth was surprised to see that he had so much. In the small circle he'd made with his arms, there was a banana, some strawberries, and at least half of a loaf of bread. Annabeth stared at it, wondering how cruel and monstrous he'd have to be in order to gain that much food and not having a hoard of people at his back trying to take it from him.

She stared at the strawberries, thinking that if she could just swipe one, her life would be spared. She would pass Luke's test.

They were red. And ripe. And so, so tempting.

As if her hand had a mind of its own, she reached out when the man was looking away and wrapped her fingers around a small strawberry. Almost immediately, the man's own hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, twisting it until the strawberry fell out of her hand. Annabeth watched it, her eyes welling up with tears. She had been so close.

The man twisted her wrist even harder and Annabeth let out a cry. He leaned forward until she could feel his hot breath on her face. "Nobody steals my food, you hear?" he threatened. Annabeth nodded and he let go of her wrist. Annabeth scrambled out her seat, aching to get out of there and away from that man. But then he stopped her in her tracks with one word.

"Annabeth."

It felt like the entire mess hall went silent, though everyone still carried on with their futile battle for food. Annabeth froze, her heart pounding.

How do you know my name?! she wanted to scream. Her throat clamped shut, though, just like it did every time she was close to speaking aloud.

She turned and caught his eye. How did he know her? He did look familiar, but Annabeth remembered most everyone she knew in Elysium. She studied him, frantically trying to put a name to a face.

"You don't remember me," the man said, shaking his head bitterly. He looked up at her. "But I remember you. Annabeth Chase. You're the girl who doesn't speak."

Hearing her name in the Pit felt weird. It was like hearing you speak on a voice recording. Slightly off. Not quite right.

The man cleared his throat. "I'm Percy Jackson," he said. Then he went back to eating.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Percy Jackson. It was all coming back, now. She remembered him. He was two years older than her, but Annabeth had always been in the advanced classes in school, so she was used to having classes with the older kids. She remembered him, though she had never spoken to him. He had been the quiet one in the class, the one everyone had thought was dumb and retarded. His twin, Ryland, had been the popular one, the one everyone admired and the one every girl had a crush on. Percy had been the bad boy, the one whom everyone knew was going to the Pit when he turned sixteen.

And when he did turn sixteen, it had been quite the incident. Percy had gone into the town hall to take his test. When he was dragged out ten hours later, kicking and yelling, the entire city had stopped everything they were doing to watch. Annabeth had been there, just fourteen at the time. She had seen the desperation in his eyes, heard the panic in his screams. She knew exactly how Percy felt. She'd screamed like that herself.

The next day, it was announced that Percy's twin, Ryland Jackson, had died during his test.

Rumor had it that during his own test, Percy Jackson had killed a man.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Annabeth had never felt hunger like this. She was ravenous. She was desperate. Her stomach was a yawning chasm, ready to devour anything that came her way.

Nothing did come her way. Annabeth's strategy for trying to take the food away from that girl had been shot when she'd found that girl dead on the floor at lunch, trampled to death by starving people.

Dinner had brought even worse luck. Annabeth had been hungry enough to chance it and fight through the hungry mob surrounding the table. She came out with a twisted ankle, a black eye, and no food.

The next day brought the same thing. No food. Annabeth's hope was like a thin thread and the scissors were fast approaching. Every meal, she would see Luke, eating happily while smiling at her, like he was going to enjoy killing her. And Annabeth knew her death was coming. She was weak from not eating for two days straight, weaker than normal. The heat was horrible and with no water, she was throwing up with dehydration. She was sweaty and sick and absolutely miserable.

You gotta pass three other tests before we let you live. The first is getting food. Food is scarce here and you gotta prove yourself in order to eat. You got three days to pass that. If you don't pass it, we kill you.

Annabeth sat up. Her stomach was growling so loud, she was sure Clarisse could hear it through the curtain. But that didn't matter. An idea was forming in her head.

Luke never said that the food had to be retrieved at mealtime. He had just instructed her to get food. If she tried to get food from the mess hall, then she would be dead by tomorrow. But if she got it from someplace other than the mess hall . . .

Annabeth's brain was whirring. Slowly, she climbed off of her bed and onto Clarisse's side of the room. The girl was passed out on her bed and snoring so loudly, Annabeth would probably have to bring the entire house down before she woke her up. Still, she made sure she was as quiet as a mouse as she snuck over to the chest at the foot of the bed and opened it. She searched through all of the items in there, celebrating inside when she drew out a burlap satchel. She threw it on over her shoulder, closed the chest, and scurried out of the house.

The sky was black but spattered with stars as Annabeth sprinted towards the mess hall. She silently thanked any gods out there that everyone she missed dismissed her and didn't try to stop her. Her adrenaline was pumping and her heart was racing and if she was stopped now, she thought she might collapse.

She made it to the mess hall in three minutes and found it blessedly empty. Glancing around to make sure no one was following her, she snuck around to the back, searching for a back door or an open window or something. Going in through the front door would seem too suspicious.

Her heart leapt when she spotted a window in the back. Then it sunk again when she saw that the window was higher than she could reach. She cursed internally and whirled around, searching for something that would serve as a stool to get her up to the window.

What she found was a person.

Annabeth jumped and covered her mouth just as a little shriek came out. She backed up, but ran into the building. Percy Jackson was standing in front of her, his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry," he said, biting his lip. "I just – I saw you running this way and I was curious, so I followed you. I didn't mean to scare you. What are you doing over here?"

Annabeth stayed plastered against the wall, staring at him with wide eyes.

Percy took a hand out of his pocket and scratched the back of his head. "Oh yeah. You don't talk."

Annabeth watched him as he awkwardly stood there, trying to figure out what to say. She figured that if he was going to hurt her, he would have done it by now. She took a step away from the wall, thinking that if he wasn't here to hurt her, she might as well try to get him to help her. She walked over to him and grabbed his arm, then pointed up to the window.

"You need to get through that window?" he asked. Annabeth nodded, giving him a small smile. He nodded back, like he was confirming her confirmation. Then he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the wall. Getting down on one knee, he made a little step with his hands and looked up expectantly at her.

"You step on my hands and I'll lift you up to the window," he explained.

Annabeth gave him a wary look, to which he rolled his eyes at. "Oh please, you're not that heavy. You look about as light as a feather."

Annabeth still didn't move.

"Look, Annabeth," he said, a bit irritated. "We can stand over here as long as you'd like, but pretty soon, the guards are going to come and do their rounds over here and we're gonna get busted for trying to sneak into the kitchen. So you can either trust me or wait to die."

Annabeth stepped onto his hands, using his head to balance herself. Percy stood suddenly and Annabeth went flying towards the window. She tumbled inside with a yelp and landed on a counter. She tumbled off, landing in a crumpled heap on the ground. She stayed there for a minute, her entire body aching, before she remembered what Percy said about the guards. She hopped up, her eyes immediately searching the room for any kind of food.

The kitchen looked clear. There was nothing on any of the counters and nothing on the big island in the middle. Annabeth walked over to the fridge and opened it, only to find it completely empty. She bit her lip and walked over to the pantry, finding it empty as well. She ran over to the cabinets, going through each one. Finding each cabinet empty, panic rose in her throat. She slammed the last one shut, not caring that it made a loud bang. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she allowed her eyes another desperate search of the room.

This was it. She was going to die tomorrow. Luke was going to kill her and it was all because she was too weak to find food. What a pathetic way to die. She stalked back over to the window.

Creak.

Annabeth stopped dead in her tracks. She glanced around the room, searching for a quick hiding place, before she realized that the noise she heard had been made by her own foot. She looked down and put weight on her right foot.

Creak.

Annabeth fell to the ground and pried open the loose panel. When she saw what was inside, she almost burst into tears.

Food. It was food. Bread, meat, fruit, veggies. Annabeth dug her hand in, grabbing a couple loaves of bread, some strawberries, a few bananas, and a couple handfuls of carrots. She stuffed it all in her bag and put the panel back in its place. She counted and made sure that she remembered which one it was before making a beeline for the window.

Percy was still waiting underneath it. When he saw Annabeth poking her head out, he told her to jump for it and he'd catch her. Annabeth hesitated, but did as he told her, clutching the satchel tight against her. She landed in Percy's arms, who caught her like he was catching an inflatable ball. When he set her down, Annabeth gave him a smile – a real one, one that she meant. His cheeks grew red.

"You were sneaking in for food, weren't you," he said. "Because of Luke's test."

Annabeth nodded. He stared at her for a minute before saying, "Come on. I'll take you to his house."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Annabeth dumped the bag of food onto Luke's bed. Luke stared at it with disbelieving eyes.

"Where'd you get all this?" he finally asked. Annabeth shrugged, saying without words that it didn't matter. He stared at her long and hard, like he was trying to find the answer by reading her. Finally, his face broke out in a smile. "Well done," he said. "You passed the first test. I didn't think you had it in you."

Annabeth couldn't help smiling back. She didn't think she'd had it in her either.

Her smile was wiped away, however, when Luke continued, "Your next test is surviving an attack. I'll have some of my men do the job sometime soon, so watch your back." With that, he handed Annabeth her satchel, now refilled with the food she'd stole, and left the room.

Annabeth stood there, clutching the bag of food. She'd been so focused on passing the first test that she'd completely forgotten about the others. Annabeth had grown up in Elysium. Whenever she was beaten, the best thing to do was wait until her aunt or uncle had used up all of their anger. She'd never actually been in a fight where she'd have to fight for her life.

She'd felt so good about finding food, but how on earth could she survive this next test?

So this is the first part of a three-shot. I hoped you all liked it! Please review!