Listen, if you had asked Percy what he thought he'd be doing on Halloween, he definitely wouldn't have answered with what ended up being reality.

   It had been over a week since Percy explored the abandoned school, the building was fun to experience and he definitely planned to go again. But today was not the day, as Halloween was reserved for much finer activities.

Like taking a cute blonde to a candy store.

  Well, okay she had a boyfriend so it wasn't like he was trying to get with her or anything, but one could dream, right?

Whatever, Percy was sat in the passenger seat of a car as Annabeth drove it past the gates of the school. He didn't know whose car it was, but he had a feeling it was Thalia's. Nirvana CD's littered the interior and the stench of smoke lingered. Was Thalia a smoker? He'd never seen her smoke, but the distinct stench was undeniably cigarette smoke. Percy used to always smell like that, though the stench was from his step-father smoking in the apartment all the time.

  "Do you guys ever doing anything on Halloween?" He asked finally, the feeling of silence was becoming suffocating.

  "Sometimes. Last year we didn't though." She looked over at him, "Once you're in high school, everything fun about Halloween is gone. You can't go trick-or-treating without adults looking down on you, and you can't go to parties here because it's a boarding school and the teachers monitor everything."

  Percy sighed and leaned back against his seat, "You should make it a tradition to go to the candy store."

  "Maybe." She was focused on the road, her eyes constantly darting between the mirrors. Her curly hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, she wore a gray sweater and black ripped jeans. Percy looked out the window before he stared at her for too long.

  Rain poured onto the windshield as the wipers constantly wiped the droplets off. The sky was a bit dreary and full of dark clouds, Percy liked storms like these. They often sent him into his head, thinking about his life and things that's happened recently. It was sometimes unfortunate, but not at that moment. Until his mind stumbled across a certain topic that he couldn't ignore.

  "What's the deal with Piper?" He finally asked, he had decided that it would be the best moment for that question.

  "What about her?"

  And then came the hard part, but Percy tried not to focus too much on which words he chose. "I just noticed that she's really skinny, and I know some people are naturally that skinny, but.. it's just that I can see it's not like that..."

  Annabeth sighed, "Piper has Anorexia. We all know, but we can't... we can't really help her too much, so we just support her the best we can."

  That wasn't really new information, mostly just confirmation.

  "Don't talk to her about it, she's gonna be seeing a doctor about it soon. She's hopeful that it'll help, but I don't really think she needs a reminder of her disorder."

  Percy nodded as he watched the buildings pass by. Small local shops flooded the streets and there could be small groups of people in costumes passing by. It was a bit too early for trick-or-treating, but dressing up wasn't always strictly for that.

  "So, tell me new boy, what was your life like before boarding school? The blue food story has piqued my interest."

  "Well..." What exactly was he supposed to say to that? There wasn't many memorable moments that he felt like sharing, his household was always like a war-zone. "My mom and I would always go up to this cabin in Montauk, my step-father would stay home so it'd just be the two of us. It was the only time we could ever really spend together, since she was always so busy."

Annabeth smiled a bit, "Sounds really nice."

  "Yeah, it was." He sighed, "How about you?"

  Her teeth bit at her lip, she didn't have an answer. Percy waited for her to remember anything, because there had to be something in her life that was worth mentioning.

  She sighed at last, "I guess when my father was less busy, he used to always take me to my mothers grave and we'd talk to her. I'd tell her about the stuff I learned, and he'd just let me ramble and ramble. It was kinda sad, but..." she sighed again, "I needed it."

  Percy nodded, "Sounds nice."

"It's weird," she parked the car in a parking lot, "I haven't known you for long, but we can have deep conversations all the time." She unbuckled her seatbelt, but didn't move.

  "You think that's a good thing?" He asked, also pushing down the button to unbuckle his seatbelt.

  She nodded, "I think so." There was a pause before she opened the door and stepped onto the concrete of the parking lot. He did the same, closing the door gently and staring at the store. There were a few other cars there, all parked near the front of the small little lot.

  "So what's the plan? Buy candy, but then what?" He asked, she walked as though she knew what she were doing. She always seemed to, it was something he admired about her. A small detail he couldn't seem to ignore.

  She shrugged and looked over at him, "I guess we'll figure that out after we get candy."

Percy nodded and entered the store behind her, the shop was warm, it felt friendly. It reminded him of his mother's soft smiles and cozy hugs, he couldn't figure out why. The woman behind the counter was older, maybe in her fifties. She greeted the pair as they walked inside, and they said their hellos right back. There were shelves of candy, some in jars and some bagged up. Percy smiled as he made his way towards the jars and grabbed a small bag, then began the hunt for blue candy.

Annabeth looked around, not seeming to know what she wanted. Percy hoped she'd pick something out, he didn't want to be the only one getting any candy. There was a certain loneliness to it that he didn't want to think about.

"I used to like licorice, but now it tastes disgusting to me," she sighed, "Like plastic."

Percy shrugged as he put some blue gumballs in his bag, "I never liked licorice."

She chuckled, "I always liked chocolate bars. My favorite was Snickers."

"Snickers?" Percy pretended to scoff, "Milky Ways are obviously superior."

They glanced at each other and laughed, Percy filled the bag with more blue candy until the bag was full. Annabeth had a few candy bars in her hand, she wasn't as interested in the jars of candy.

There were a few other people there, all teenagers from Goode. It seemed to be the only candy-related thing a teenager could do in that town.

"Well, I think I'm content with this, how about you?" She gestured to his candy bag and raised an eyebrow.

He nodded, "Yep. Here, I'll pay for yours too."

  They walked up to the counter and set the candy onto the surface, the lady rang them up and told him the total. He pulled out a ten dollar bill from his pocket and gave it to her, she entered it in and gave him his change. He handed Annabeth her candy and grabbed his own.

  "Now what?" He asked, but she shrugged and walked out the doors.

  And for a moment, just one moment, it felt as though time had froze. The autumn sun shined on Annabeth's golden hair, her gray sweater standing out against the red and orange of the trees. She turned and smiled at him for a moment, her teeth were whiter than the snow that would soon fall from the sky. Percy smiled back at her, and as soon as he did, time unfroze. He could almost feel the air drop down onto him.

  "Let's go on an adventure," she finally said, dragging him towards the car. They drove off through the distance, passing by places Percy had never seen. Small stores with dull signs, young children dressed in cheap costumes with jackets overtop, tired parents following along. They kept driving, only the sound of music filling their ears.

  Eventually, Annabeth parked the car at the shoulder of the road. She smiled and left the car, Percy stared at her in confusion.

  "Where exactly is the adventure?"

  "Well, Look in front of you. There's a whole forest to explore." Annabeth was strange sometimes, it was something that surprised him. In a school full of crazy people, she was the only one who seemed normal. It was something he admired, but now he supposed there was no normal, no one was normal.

  He chuckled and followed behind her into the forest, it was connected to the one at the school, but too far off to be near the school. "So what, we just wander?"

  "Well, city boy, I thought a bit of nature might be exciting for you." She stepped over a log as she tied her hair back. "The nature gets the best out of people, from what I've seen anyways."

  "You say that, but Goode is surrounded by nature and yet there's still so many assholes there." He stared at her for a moment before laughing, "So, is this your favorite place to go?"

  "I've never been to this part of the forest," she admitted, turning around and staring at him, "But I've always wanted to. There was just never the right opportunity."

  "Are the others Not big fans of walks through the woods?" He asked, half jokingly, but also curious.

  She shrugged, "They're all stuck in their own realities, and there's never a chance to really escape it. But you... it always seems like you're trying to escape something. So, how about you escape your escape?"

  "For a smart person, that's the dumbest thing you've ever said."

  "Oh shut up!" She lightly shoved him against a tree, he rubbed his shoulder and and chuckled.

  "Ow!" She began running, so he chased her, "I'm getting you back for this!"

  But then she stopped. It was sudden, she didn't even slow down beforehand, and so he stopped too. He wasn't sure what he was expecting from her silence, but what he saw definitely wasn't anything close.

  "Is that..." he began, but couldn't even finish the sentence.

  Laying on the ground was the body of Charles Beckendorf, and he was very dead.

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I'm back from the dead

Angst is the only thing I enjoy writing rn lmao