Percy Jackson

Spoiler alert: the state that looked like Grover's Uncle Ferdinand?

That was his uncle Ferdinand.

Aunty Em, or as I like to call her, Medusa, fed us dinner before noting Annabeths gray eyes and then immediately trying to kill us via statue-ification.

It didn't work. Grover got use his flying shoes to kick her in the head. I lopped the head off and the three of us managed to get it wrapped in a box because fun fact, the head of Medusa still works after death.

Also! Medusa exists because my sperm donor had an affair and his girlfriend of the time, Athena, cursed her.

So you can imagine how much she loved us.

After digging around in Medusas office, I managed to find some useful stuff: some drachmas, a bit of money, and the address of two very important things: The Underworld and Mount Olympus.

But you know where the Empire State Building is, I hear you ask. Why do you need the address?

After putting the head in the box, I grabbed a marker and proceeded to write on it:

The Gods
Mount Olympus
20 W 34th St.,
600th Floor
New York, NY 10001

With best wishes,
Percy Jackson

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They're going to think you're impertinent."

I smiled an almost shit eating grin at my best friend, dumping a few drachmas into the box and seeing it vanish for Hermes to deliver to his buddies up in the clouds.

"I am impertinent."

I glanced at Annabeth, daring her to challenge me, but she seemed resigned to the idea that I may exist solely to spite, tick, and piss the gods off.

"Come on." She insisted, walking back towards the entrance. "We have to make a new plan, before the gods smite you for being smug."

•••

We found a clearing in the woods to sleep in that night. We took some blankets and food from the emporium, but we didn't dare light a fire.

We may be stupid, but we're not suicidal.

After the monsters, it seemed smart to take turns sleeping and I was still wound up from the day, so I offered to take first shift. It'd give me time to think, at the very least. Something most people don't think I'm capable of.

"It makes me sad, Percy" Grover's voice caught my attention maybe twenty minutes after him and Annabeth were supposed to be asleep. Annabeth was decidedly out cold, but Grover hadn't fallen asleep yet.

He turned to face me, and I saw his eyes gloss over.

"What does?" I asked, feeling like there was a lot of things he could answer with. "the fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"

"Gods, no, not that," he said before motioning to the general area we were in. "just... This. The garbage and knowing that Uncle Ferdinand is actually gone and like... You can't even see the stars, Percy. Have you ever seen the sky full of stars? This is an awful time to be a satyr."

"Oh, I... Suppose it would be." I said, suddenly aware of an issue I knew existed but never thought about because of how sparingly i left Manhattan. "I uh... Maybe not a full sky, but sometimes there were stars at Yancy or just upstate in general. I guess I noticed it but never... Thought about it?"

Grover sighed.

"Of course not, most humans..." He let the thought die. "Sorry, it's unfair to lecture you on the pollution that humans have caused. I just get frustrated and at this rate I'll never find Pan."

"Pan..." But my brain didn't compute the statement. "As in like, a frying pan? Or pansexual? Are you pan?"

"Am I... I mean, yeah, I am pansexual," Grover confirmed for me. "i thought I mentioned that earlier on at Yancy, but maybe not. Either way that's not... What I'm talking about. I'm talking about the god Pan. Why do you think I want my searchers license?"

Feeling a gust of wind roll by, I couldn't help but feel a sort of nostalgia for what never was.

"Tell me about it."

With that, Grover launched into a mini lecture about the great god Pan and his disappearance and search. Some of it sounded familiar from Chiron's class this year, but it was a hazy memory at best so I was more than happy to learn from Grover. He sat up after a few minutes before slowly, but surely slumping over and falling asleep as he told me about all of the things he would do if he ever found Pan.

After a half hour he was fully asleep, and I was his pillow.

Not that i minded, I've done the same thing to Grover in the past, but it made waking Annabeth up for second shift a little harder and a lot more awkward.

"Hm...?" She hummed, rubbing her eyes before sitting up and looking in my direction. "when did you and Grover..."

She stopped herself, looking around the area to make sure nobody else was around (as if it wasn't like 3am in the woods) before looking back at me and leaning forward.

"Are you and Grover a thing?" The daughter of Athena whispered, still groggy and waking up. She almost seemed like she was drunk asking the question. "Like are— are you guys together or...? It's cool if you are, gay people are cool. I know gay people. I'm not gay, though. I don't think so, at least— I haven't thought about it much. Are you gay?"

Her string of questions and statements nearly launched me into a panic attack, overwhelming me for many reasons that were causing my fact to turn redder than a firetruck, but i managed to control my breathing.

Was Annabeth going to be the first person I actually came out to?

"I— no," I insisted, deciding that other people needed to know before she did. We've only known each other for a week. "No. Grover and I aren't like... That. He couldn't fall asleep so he started talking about pollution and then he was telling me about Pan and his searchers license and then he fell asleep like this, so... We're friends, I swear, we just were also roommates so the physical contact doesn't bother me anymore."

"Oh, yeah, you hate being touched." Annabeth recalled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes before passing me a blanket. "I'd ask more about that, but you look exhausted and I'm not awake enough to process a story, so I'll ask later. Get some sleep, cuddle with your not-boyfriend. I'll let y'all know if anything happens."

Y'all?

Is Annabeth southern?

Well, okay, her name is Annabeth, but... I feel like she might get mad if I ask her personal questions so I just fell asleep.

And woke up to a poodle in my face.

•••
Gabe Ugliano

"Mr. Ugliano, can you please tell us about—"

If I got another call from a news outlet, I was going to smash our landline, which would just make Sally mad, but she wouldn't actually show that she's mad and...

"Are you sure I can't just have one drink?" I asked Eddy, who sat on our couch. "Just one?"

"Gabe, one drink will turn into one pack," he reminded me, throwing the coin I was given the other day to me. "That's how it happened last time, remember? Have you tried calling either of them recently? Have you tried your dad?"

"Percy doesn't... Have a phone." I reminded our landlord, crossing my arms. "Sally's is either dead or off, if it didn't get destroyed in the explosion, I don't... I don't even know how I'd get ahold of my dad anymore."

I closed my eyes and tried to swallow my emotions.

"It's... It's been over a week, Eddy," I rationalized as the grief sank another level deeper and I itched for the cabinet that no longer held the liqour I would use to drown the despair. "What are the chances that she doesn't... Don't they say that after three days it's almost impossible to..."

I let the thought die.

"We saw Percy, Gabe." One of my longest friends reminded me. "With that boy and a girl I've never seen, but we saw him!"

"W... But what if he..." I went on as my brain continued to spiral in the same pattern it has ever since I got the call from the police that my car was destroyed and Percy and Sally weren't anywhere to be seen. "What if they left or if... If he's running away because she's gone and... If he's going to try and find his real dad or—"

A knock at the door cut my spiral off. Eddy offered to see who it was.

"Hey, can— oh! Amelia, Leah, Owen, hi!" Eddy said. "What's up? I didn't know you guys would be in town, it's... The start of June. Where are your kids? Spouses?"

"We uh... We heard about what happened." Amelia, Sally's best friend from high school, said. "Is he here? Is he... Okay?"

"I'm here," I answered our friends, Eddy stepping aside to let them in. "I'm even sober. It's been... 10 days?"

"I dumped his liquor the day he got the call," Eddy filled in.

"That's good?" Owen ventured. "That you're not drinking, that is. It's not... I'm so sorry, Gabe, has there been any word...? I know they were investigating the possibility of foul play but have they come up with anything?"

I shrugged again.

"The car rolled and eventually started on fire," I told them. "there were no remains in the car. Sally may as well have vanished from thin air, I don't... I saw Percy."

Their eyes may as well have popped out of their heads.

"You saw him? Where is he?"

But once again, I shrugged.

"Not fucking here," I balled my fists, trying to stay calm while also trying to cope with the fact that I may have lost my family for good. "I was at Grand Central trying to see if Sally's coworkers knew anything and I turned around and he was... There with a friend he made this year and a girl I've never seen before and he looked at me but he got on the subway and I couldn't get to it and time and I... I called the metro to have them look for him and I called the police again and they say that he might've gotten onto a Greyhound that was bound for Los Angeles but it was only eyewitness accounts and the bus also fucking went up in flames and... J don't know. I don't know where either of them are."

"Do you think he caused any of it?" Leah asked as if that wasn't my fucking kid she was talking about.

I laughed, which probably came off as psychotic, but I was too far gone to care.

I just want them home.

I want to apologize and I want to rebuild what we had and I want to have a serious conversation with Sally about therapy and about AA and about us. I want to make sure that Percy knows that I still love him because he's my kid and I can't stand the thought of losing him.

"If Percy were to harm either of us, it would've been me," I reminded our friends who we've known since before Sally's uncle died in high school. "You know him, he has bad luck, I just don't... Know why he'd be going west."

"His bio dad maybe?" Owen suggested as Eddy brought out some waters for them. "What was the dudes name again? Did Sally tell him about him yet?"

"Has she— she hasn't told me about him, and Percy's never cared to ask about the guy." I told them. "trust me, I've tried getting info on him since they disappeared, but he didn't sign any paperwork stating he's Percy's dad and Sally seems to have nothing about him— I can't even find a photo of them from that winter to go off of. Did she tell any of you about him?"

"Just that he was handsome and like, wanted to give her everything in the world." Amelia told me. "she never said a name, but I remember her telling me a joke that he said he'd build her a whole underwater mansion if she wanted it. He worked at sea, right? Maybe he's in the navy."

I shook my head.

"He's not navy, I did ask about that once because we've never gotten child support." I recalled. "He also just... Vanished. It's... Weird. I haven't had any luck—"

The phone cut me off.

I, vert reluctantly, answered it.

"Hello?" I started. "If this is a news outlet, I'm not giving a statement or doing an interview."

"Hello, Mr. Ugliano, I'm sure they've been pestering you non-stop." A familiar voice said over the line. "but don't worry, it's just your case officer, Officer Sibbons with the NYPD. I'm calling to inform you that Percy's been spotted in St. Louis, and police forces in St. Louis and surrounding cities are currently searching for him to take into custody."

"He— St. Louis? Where in St. Louis?"

"At the arch!" She answered. "Sadly, there's no new updates for Sally and we couldn't confirm if Percy was with the other children that you described to be over the phone. We've also informed the LAPD that he may be heading towards the city based on the Greyhound that he might have been on. His missing poster and current information as you provided is also being broadcasted nationally. Are you considered a legal guardian, Gabriel? I understand you're not Percy's biological father, correct?"

"Yes, I adopted him shortly after Sally and I got married." I told the officer. "I don't have any information on his father, him and Sally were only together for a short amount of time and he never signed the birth certificate."

"Perfect, thank you, I just wanted that confirmation since it'd take much longer to dig the files up ourselves." Officer Sibbons explained. "Do you have any updates for us?"

"Do I— no. Just what I told you yesterday."

"Sounds good. Thank you for you time, Mr. Ugliano. We'll inform you as soon as he's in custody."

Before I could thank her, the call ended and the despair returned.

Why is he going to LA?

"Gabe?" Eddy asked. "Who was it?"

Why won't he come home?

"Just the police." I answered. "They spotted him in St. Louis, but they haven't gotten him into custody."

Where was my family?