HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR! Whooop! 2012!

Sorry this is late but I've been really busy lately, what with school, sports, extra-curricular activities, sudden inspiration for new story ideas, and other events that I'm too lazy to write about.

DISCLAIMER: I, O814, do not under any circumstances own PJO, nor any other thing that's recognizable.

Lights! Camera! Action!

LOCATION: GRACE RESIDENCE
TIME: 9:43 P.M.

It was the traditional Family Game Night that occurred every Saturday night in the Grace household. In this tradition, the person of the week, this week it was Jason (They rotated turns every week. For example, last week it was Thalia's turn) would make up a list of all the games they would play and what they would have for dinner. Jason chose to have Chinese food delivered to their house while they were playing sidesplitting series of rounds of Apples to Apples.

"Okay," Mrs. Grace spoke up. "This round's topic is…disastrous."

Mr. Grace and Jason looked at their hands for a moment before both of them decided on a card. Seeing that they were done, Mrs. Grace picked the two cards up and quickly shuffled them, having witnessed the two placing the cards down. "Hmmm…Barney and…My love life."

Mr. Grace and Jason stared each other down as they awaited the verdict. They were interrupted, however, when the phone started blaring throughout the household. Mr. Grace placed his cards in his pocket, having learned his lesson from the last time he left his cards on the table ("Cheater! He cheated! Unfair! I demand a do-over!" "Zeus, it's just a game." "No it's not!"), and quickly walked over to the portable phone on the kitchen counter.

He glanced worriedly at the caller id before answering it. "Is everything okay? Is someone hurt? Is Thalia hurt?"

The voice on the other end-Mr. Chase's-responded before he could ask any more questions. "Yes, yes, everything's fine. Everybody's fine. Thal-wait…why would Thalia be over here? Annabeth went over there to have a sleepover with Thalia at your house."

Jason's eyes grew wide as he finally realized who his father was speaking with. Busted. He figured he'd have at least five seconds to make an escape before his father noticed him. Five…He quietly sat up from his chair. Four…Quickly, he jogged slowly towards the door. Three…He snuck a glance back at his dad. Two…He turned back around and nearly collided with the wall. One…Victory! Sweet vict—a hand shot out and grabbed his elbow, preventing him from leaving the room. Realization struck him instantly. Ανάθεμα σας, φορητό τηλέφωνο!

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about the whereabouts of your sister,"-a voice over the phone interrupted his dad, yelling out "And Annabeth!"- "do you?"

Gulping down his fear, he felt his face slip into an impassive mask before he quickly replied, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Zeus's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized his son. "He's lying."

Panicking, Jason looked left and right for an escape route. If I act quickly, I should be able to make it to Leo's house in time!

Taking his chances, he placed all of his weight on top of his dad's foot, causing him to yelp out in pain and release his hold on Jason. As soon as he was free, he bolted out of the living room and raced towards the garage, his dad tripping and cursing behind him. He fumbled with the door knob a bit before he finally managed to open it. Without further hesitation, he rushed over towards his midnight blue Schwinn. Due to his delay with the doorknob, though, he barely had enough time to unlock the garage door and strap on his helmet ("Safety first!") as his dad barreled into the room in pursuit of him.

Fear engulfed him as he quickly started pedaling away from his anger-driven-overprotective dad, said dad bellowing out after him, "JASON!"

It's safe to say he didn't stop once in the fifteen mile bike ride towards Leo's house.

LOCATION: THIRD FLOOR
TIME: 9:45 P.M.

"Okay, here's the game plan," Thalia spoke, determination all throughout her voice. "Grover, Tyson! You two are in charge of carrying all the supplies and making sure we don't lose anything, am I clear?" The two confirmed their agreement. "Nico! You're my second in command! Any ghastly looking figures come near us; you're in charge of removal. Clear?" He nodded his head, a weird glint in his eyes. "Connor! You are in charge of—" She looked around for the mischief-maker. "Connor? Cut it out, Connor, we don't have time for this!"

They started to retrace their steps, trying to find the lone Stoll, only to fail epically when they realized they had past the same gruesome drawing on the name chart of a door. Apparently the room belonged to a Nancy B., a Kampê, and a Kelli.

Grover's lower lip started to tremble before he started to wail, "Not another one!"

He felt a large hand being placed on his shoulder, causing him to tremble even more. Tyson. "It's okay, Goat Boy. We'll protect you and we'll fine Brother!"

"But what about Annabeth, Connor, Travis, and Katie? Are we going to find them?"

"We'll find them too!" Thalia and Nico spoke up, reassuringly.

"Yeah!" Grover exclaimed, a slightly crazed look in his eyes. He started to walk ahead. "We'll find them! Let's go!"

"Um…Grover?" Thalia questioned, eyebrows raised and a smirk on her face.

"Yeah?"

"You do know you're walking in the wrong direction, right?"

"Of course I know that! I was just…looking for my contact lens…that fell…"

"Grover?"

"Hmm?"

"You have a perfect 20-20 vision."

"…Your point?"

LOCATION: BASEMENT
TIME:9: 47 P.M.

It didn't take long for the impulsive side of Percy kicked in to overdrive. He reached out to grab Annabeth in one hand, his video camera in the other, recording the whole thing. He raced towards the opposite side of what obviously was a room used for musical therapy and stopped only to attempt to open the door. Attempt being the key word. After struggling for a moment, he passed the video camera to Annabeth and proceeded to nearly kick the door down.

Once they were out, they rushed past several cluttered rooms and up a stair case towards the lunch room of the building. It was rather large, filled with tables that still had half eaten food on top of it ("Eeewww! That's just nasty!" "I swear I just saw that…thing…move!") and chairs where the guards or doctors most likely sat to watch them were placed strategically throughout the room.

"Hey, look," Annabeth said, pointing towards something on the wall. Percy squinted to get a better look. It looked like a map of sorts.

"Do you think it's a map of this place?" Percy questioned curiously, only to be met with a look from Annabeth that clearly spelt out 'No freaking duh.' "Right. Stupid question. Carry on."

They walked closer towards the dust covered map on the other side of the cafeteria. Numerous colors, like red, blue, yellow, and green, made up the map, dividing it into several sections, like how the maps at the mall look, a couple of colors showing the different floors. According to the map, they were on the main floor, the same floor they were on when they had crashed through the floor and into the basement.

"Okay," Annabeth said, gray eyes narrowed in concentration. "Since, knowing the rest of them, they didn't notice us right away; they should most likely be on either the second or third floor."

"How do we know that they're not in the basement like we were?"

"We practically ran through most of the basement and I didn't see a glimpse of anyone, or anything, for that matter."

"Fair point."

LOCATION: THIRD FLOOR
TIME: 9:49 P.M.

"Seventy-five bottles of root beer on the wall, seventy-five bottles of root beer! Take one down, pass it aro—"

Nico was cut off from continuing his version of the "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer" when Thalia, fed up with his off-key singing, 'accidently' pushed him into the ground. He quickly got up, grumbling under his breath and giving Thalia the evil eye.

"Jeez," he murmured, brushing specks of dirt off his clothes. "A simple 'Quit it!' or 'Shut up!' would've been fine."

A smirk worked its way up Thalia's face. "Too predictable."

"…still…"

"Um, guys?" Grover spoke up nervously, eyes darting every direction. "Does anyone else feel the hallway vibrating, or is it just me? Please tell me it's just me."

They seemed to finally take notice of the obvious vibrations coming from above. Out of habit, Thalia looked upwards towards the ceiling. She felt a gasp threatening to escape as she realized what was happening. The roof was starting to cave in.

"Look out!" Nico shouted, tackling Thalia to the ground, preventing her from being flattened into a pancake. Unfortunately, the now-crumbled ceiling separated them from Tyson and Grover.

Thalia couldn't help but groan as she felt a fierce pounding in her head from where here skull hit the tiled-floor. As she attempted to sit up, a quiet hiss escaped her mouth as she felt her wrist give out under her weight.

She felt Nico watch her as she lay back down to assess the injury. Having broken a wrist before, she compared the pain of a broken wrist to what she was feeling now. It's most likely sprained.

"You okay?" Nico questioned, watching her wince slightly.

"You mean besides the throbbing headache and sprained wrist?" At his nod she continued. "Then I'm about as well as someone who nearly saw the light can be."

Nico let out a sigh of relief. At least she was hurt too badly.

"What about you?"

He snuck a glance at his disfigured pinkie. "I think I broke my pinkie, but other than that, I'm fine."

A muffled voice was heard from the other side of what used to be the ceiling. "Glad to know you care about us over here!"

"Stupid," Thalia mumbled to herself. "It was so quiet, how could you not notice that Grover was missing?"

"—but that's okay, really. I mean, I'm used to the constant neglecting—"

"Grover."

"—the loneliness—"

"Grover!"

"—the lack of confidence—"

"GROVER!"

On the other side of the debris, Grover winced, covering his ears at the volume of the shouts, even if they were slightly muffled. "No need to yell."

"Well, maybe if you stopped talking—"

"Well, maybe if you weren't so love struck—"

Nico, finally cracking underneath all of the pressure, shouted, "Oh would all of you just SHUT UP!"

All arguing ceased for a minute before both shouted, "NEVER!" and continued to bicker back and forth.

Nico sighed and dropped his head into his hands. This is going to be a long night.

LOCATION: SECOND FLOOR
TIME: 9:54 P.M.

Travis continued to bang restlessly on the door, hope slowly diminishing after all of his cries for help went unanswered. He winced as his knuckles started to bleed from the constant scrapping against the stubborn door. Why won't it open already?

He felt his ears twitch as he heard a noise nearby. As realization hit him, he froze. Someone was right outside the door. He felt new strength build up inside him as he continued to knock, albeit more persistently this time. "Help!"

He heard whoever it was quicken their pace outside as they rushed to hopefully free both Katie and him. Speaking of Katie, she's been awfully quiet throughout this whole ordeal. He snuck a glance at her through the corner of his eye. She was staring at what could only be described as a ghost. Her jaw was dropped and her body was so tense and still that the ADHD part of Travis couldn't help but compare her to a tree. Snap out of it, Stoll! He mentally berated himself.

He felt the door knob jiggle within his clenched fist. He was at first confused at the fact that the doorknob was moving on its own free will before he realized that someone was trying to open the door from the other side. Letting go of the doorknob, he turned to grab Katie's hand. As soon as the door opened he shut out so fast that he was sure that somewhere a record had to have been broken. Not even stopping to thank his savior, he turned, slammed the door shut and ran to a nearby room. He reemerged seconds later with a dusty looking, old fold-up chair. Ignoring all the looks he was receiving from everyone around him, he placed the chair underneath the doorknob, efficiently stopping all those who wished to exit the closet.

He couldn't help but let his shoulders slump in relief as he slid down the wall and laid his head in his hands. They were safe, safe from whatever it was inside of the closet. They, along with the help of another, had managed to escape.

He was knocked out of his state of relief, however, when a voice questioned from above him, "Travis? Katie?"

He felt his head whip up quickly as he turned to face the speaker. "Percy? And…Annabeth? What are you doing here?"

"Well," Annabeth spoke up from beside Percy, "we were on the main floor looking at a map of the asylum in the cafeteria, when we decided to look for the rest of you guys. It was by accident that we happened to stumble upon you two. That reminds me, what was it that had you two so freaked out?"

Travis felt his face drain of all color, just the sheer thought of the ghoul made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, what with its beady little eyes that looked straight into your soul and seemed to uncover your deepest, darkest fears. Travis wasn't so sure about Katie, but he liked his fears kept under lock and key in some place far, far away from him.

Noticing that Annabeth was getting frustrated with the lack of response to Percy's question, Travis quickly gave them the censored version: "Circles…door…locked…ghost…eyes…!"

Percy's facial expression shifted into one of deep thought and confusion as he pondered what Travis had said. Annabeth, on the other hand, seemed to understand almost immediately. "So you were walking in circles and were about to give up and go back when you saw a door, and when you walked into the room, the door locked behind you. Since you were distracted, the ghost was able to sneak up on you with its all-knowing eyes, right? Is that what you were trying to say?"

Travis nodded weakly.

Percy gave a low whistle. "Dang, you're good."

Though it was hard to see in the darkness, Travis could have sworn that he saw a pleased smile on Annabeth's face. Percy and Annabeth sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G—!

LOCATION: GRACE RESIDENCE
TIME: 10:04 P.M.

Zeus paced back-and-forth angrily in front of the main door as he waited for Fredrick to arrive. How dare she! Lying to her own father about her whereabouts and bribing her brother to keep them! How absurd! How childish! I swear when she gets back I'll—!

He was knocked out of his reveriewhen a sharp knock sounded at the door. He opened the door to reveal Fredrick Chase decked in his pajamas, a clear sign of a stressed out parent. He wasn't so worried he probably would have changed his clothes. It didn't really matter seeing as he was in his pajamas as well, and he was the host!

"Come on in, Fredrick; would you like something to drink, such as a glass of soda or perhaps some hot chocolate?" Mrs. Grace asked from somewhere in the kitchen. It was hard to tell, what with all the pots and pans cluttering up the countertops. Zeus let out a silent chuckle; she always was a stress baker.

Fredrick forced out a small smile, but declined nonetheless.

"Now, let's cut to the chase," Zeus let out a little snort before continuing. "Sorry, bad pun. Anyway, since Jason's gone and he was our last person of interest, we're going to have to scope out Thalia's room for clues."

Zeus turned towards the staircase to the right of him, Fredrick right behind him, and started walking in the direction of Thalia's room. He stopped at the third door to the left. It was painted pitch black with several splatters of neon colored paint here and there. There was no hot pink. Thalia despised pink.

The room was painted similarly to the design of the door. Each wall was painted black with a different color of neon paint splatters (For example, the wall to the west had neon green splatters while the room to the north had neon blue splatters). There was a queen-sized bed in front of the wall with the window, allowing the moon light to shine on the bed before Zeus turned the light on in the room.

Now that they could see better, Zeus turned to Fredrick who was standing awkwardly in front of the doorway. Before he could speak, Fredrick interrupted him, "Are you sure we should do this? I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to find my daughter as much as you want to find yours, but isn't this an invasion of privacy?"

Zeus frowned. "I wouldn't call it an 'invasion of privacy'; instead, I'd call it…uh… 'overprotectiveness.' Yeah…that. Now, start looking for anything remotely clue-like."

Zeus started looking around Thalia's desk, thinking that if she were to forget something it would be close by. He was right. There, near the trashcan, was something small, black, and with a keyboard. Picking it up off the floor, Zeus couldn't help but grin. Looks like somebody forgot there cell phone.

"I got something," he informed Fredrick, who was checking the floor for anything suspicious. When hearing that Zeus found something, he immediately rushed right over. Zeus was looking through the texts that Thalia had received from Annabeth within the last twenty-four hours. "Algebra homework-confusing…Did u start the science project yet?..."

This went on for several more minutes until an evil grin etched its way up Zeus's face.

"Remember to pack lightly for the asylum tomorrow..."

"Bingo."

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

So…

- Jason gets busted for his help in Thalia and Annabeth's plan

- Tyson and Grover are separated from Thalia and Nico

- Travis and Katie are saved by Percy and Annabeth

And, last, but certainly not least…

- Mr. Chase (Fredrick) and Mr. Grace (Zeus) go all 'protective dad'

See ya!

~O814