I was there. At Camp Half-Blood. I was sitting on my bed, surrounded by everyone. Annabeth, Nico, Grover... Everyone I was close with that survived the giant war. Then then I heard a voice, like a god was speaking to me. The voices of my friends blurred, along with my vision.

"He's starting to show symptoms of waking. He could wake up any day, hour, minute; any time now."

None of my friends seemed to notice the voice, the warm, gentle voice of a middle aged women. "Uh, guys? Did you not hear that?"

They all stopped talking to look at me. "What do you mean? Hear what?" Annabeth turned to face my more, her face twisting into a look of fear as she took my hand in between her own, squeezing it tightly.

"There- There was a voice. Did you not hear it? A voice about waking up."

"Waking up?" Annabeths brows furrowed, her eyes shining with worry. "Percy, there was no voice."

Everyone else was silent, watching Annabeth and I. "It's probably nothing, then. I'm probably just hearing someone outside or something."

Everyone nodded, except for Annabeth, who pulled her bottom lip between her teeth nervously before looking away. Then it came again. The voice, right in my ear yet a thousand miles away, firm but lucid.

"We're not sure, miss. It depends on a lot of things." The same voice from before. There was a quiet sniffling noise, then another voice. Warmer and more comforting than the last. Familiar.

"I-I... Okay. Thank you."

"Call us if anything drastic happens, alright miss? We'll be right at the hospital just in case. Remember to keep a close eye on him, this is when a lot of people slip and fall, even when it seems like they're getting better."

A deep, shaky breath. "I understand."

A high pitched ringing noise, starting from far away and slowly getting closer. Louder. More painful. I realized that I had my eyes closed, and I couldn't hear anything but the loud ringing, sending waves of pain into my temples.

I forced my eyes open and saw Annabeth, kneeling above me. Three Annabeths, blurry and moving in slow motion, mutely shouting as tears ran down her face. Her eyes were blotchy and red, and I wanted to comfort her, to all her what was wrong, but I couldn't seem to move.

My eyes slowly closed, and once they opened again, it was Nico, Annabeth, Grover and Tyson. Most crying, screaming, glitching around my vision as the ringing got louder and louder.

There was a fast paced beeping now, one that I knew from somewhere but couldn't place, going off in my ear. My ears seemed to pulse from the pressure of the ringing and high pitched beeping, a quickly rhythmed throbbing at my temples sending waves of pain and nausea through me.

I didn't want to close my eyes. The dark seemed scary to me. But they closed anyways, and a few moments later, they opened. The ringing was gone, as well as the beeping. The pain was still there, along with the throbbing, though both seemed to be slowly fading. I was in a dark room, laying on a bed; neither of which I recognized.

I couldn't move anything but my eyes, flitting around the dark room, trying to adjust to the darkness. I could vaguely make out the window on the left wall, outside of which was pitch black, and a dresser to my right. A closet, a desk, and a nightstand were along the rest of the walls around the medium sized room. I still didn't recognize anything. I figured I would be in the infirmary after what just happened, whatever just happened, but I appeared to be in an ordinary bedroom.

Maybe Chiron brought me to a new room in the big house? He always did that for people who were unconscious for more than ten hours. Then again, I felt like I wasn't out for more than ten minutes, and this didn't have a Camp Half-Blood feel to it. I knew all the rooms in the big house, and this definitely wasn't one of them. I tried to move again, but it was like I was paralyzed; there wasn't any feeling in my body. Just a numb buzzing sensation; like I was crammed full of TV static with a physical form.

So I waited. I don't know how long I waited, staring at the door, incapable of moving, until something happened. A woman walked in. She could have been my moms sister. She was carrying a book with a cup of tea balancing on top, humming quietly, but when she saw me, when we locked eyes, her humming stopped. The book fell from her hands, and there was a loud sound of glass shattering. She pinched herself, then ran over to me. "Percy!? Oh my God, Percy!" She engulfed me in a hug, but I wasn't capable of moving. I couldn't ask who she was, or why she was hugging me, or why I was here. I just stared blankly.

She pulled away, wiping at her eyes, which now had tears brimming in them. She grabbed the phone on the nightstand and started to talk extremely fast. "Hi this is Sally Jackson I need to talk to Mrs. Solace please?"

Sally Jackson? No, that's my mom's name. That woman is not my mother.

"Okay thank you."

She waited for a few minutes, looking over at me, fanning her face every so often in an attempt to not cry while I just stared at her. "Hi! Yes, this is Sally! He- He woke up! He's awake!"

"Okay, thank you so much!" The person pretending to be my mom took a feel breath and hung up the phone, putting it back down.

"Honey..." The woman clasped one of my hands in between hers, tears freely slipping down from her face. "Do you remember me?"

It took a lot of effort, but I shook my head. She looked so disappointed, but masked it with a smile. "Percy, I'm your mom honey."

I shook my head again. Her smile faltered. "We will talk about it later, okay?"

I didn't answer. We sat in silence for a while, until someone knocked at my door. Fake Sally jumped up to answer it, and when the door opened there most certainly was not Will Solaces mom. This was a young Asian woman who had the skin color of browned honey and seemed to glow like the sun.

Her face broke into a grin when she saw me. "He awakens, after eight years. Sleep well, Percy?"

I stared at her blankly. I was so confused. What was happening? Apparently I slept for eight years? She set a bag of stuff down beside the bed. "Now Percy, I'm going to test you on a few things. If you want to stop, just tell me, okay?" I nodded, though I didn't really understand what I was being tested on. I know that I missed my friends

"Now, look up," the woman instructed. I did as she asked to the best of my ability.

"Left." I looked left and followed every instruction she gave me.

"Right."

"Down."

"Upwards. Downwards. Very good!"

I frowned at her, but she didn't seem to notice. Next, she held a photo in front of me. "Is this your brother?"

It was a picture of a fat man I've never seen before. I looked up at her with a blank expression. "Okay, that's okay, don't worry about it sweetie. I'm going to give you a board with a bunch of colors on it. When I name a color, you point to it, okay?" She put a board on my lap about the size of a small board game, covered with tiles in all different colors.

I internally groaned but nodded best I could. "Blue."

Easy. I tried to move my arm, but it was still paralyzed. I looked over at my arm and frowned. "That's okay hun, you just woke up. I'm going to explain to you what's happening, okay?" I managed to nod my head in the most minimalistic way possible.

"Or, would mom prefer-?" She looked over at the imposter of my mom, who shook her head.

"I'll talk with him later."

The woman nodded. "I'm Mrs. Solace, but you can call my Chloe."

That's not Will's moms name...

"You've been in a coma for, well, eight years. You're twenty at the moment. You and your mom got in a car accident when you were twelve, trying to flee a storm on Montauk. You got caught and were knocked out for eight years."

I shook my head no, and the Chloe girl looked confused. "What do you mean no?"

I was only able to shake my head. This was just a weird dream. I passed out in my cabin and was dreaming. "Honey, this actually happened. This is real. You just woke up, and I understand that this is confusing and overwhelming but-"

I shook my head harder. No. This is a dream. Nothing else. If only I could wake up...

"Percy, listen to me honey," the mom imposter whispered, brushing some hair behind my ear. "Chloe is telling the truth. She's a trusted doctor, she knows all about these sorts of things." Her smile faltered for a minute. "You really don't think I'm your mom, do you?"

I shook my head no. She wasn't. My mom was different. Her features, all though similar, were different. My mom had dark brown hair, this woman had light hair. Different shade of brown eyes. Everything was a little off.

Chloe looked a little fearful. "Hey, honey, do you think this is a dream?"

I stared at her untrustingly before nodding hesitantly. Because it is!

"Honey, this isn't a dream," she whispered. "This is real."

She grabbed my hand and squeezed in gently. "You said a lot of names in your sleep, can you tell me if any of them wring a bell?" She whispered. I nodded carefully.

"How about Annabeth?"

I nodded and her gaze grew worried. "Do you think she's a real person?"

What did that mean?

I furrowed my brows and nodded. "Honey, you've been dreaming for the last eight years of your life. This is reality. This is real. Annabeth, Nico, Grover... They... They aren't real people, Percy. They're fictional, they're dream characters."

I shook my head no as violently as I could, which wasn't much but I still managed. Chloe sighed and squeezed my hand. "You look tired Percy. Get some rest, we'll talk tomorrow okay?"

I didn't answer. This was just a nightmare. None of this was real. It just wasn't.

Right?