𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 ─── container sixteen

7th avenue, september 3rd 2009

𝔓ercy Jackson was confused. More so than he had ever been in his life.

He had thought that at sixteen, his problems would be school work, or his love life or anything else. But no, now, his problems were that he had seen far too many people killed by monsters, watched someone that he knew being murdered and almost lost the people closest to him all in the same space of a few days. 

It had been a very hectic past couple of weeks.

The grip on his hand tightened and he was reminded of who he was there with. Turning, Percy looked down at the frizzy hair of Annabeth Chase. Her curls were greasy and knotted, stress having taken it's toll on the girl.

"Hey. How you feeling?" He cooed gently, squeezing her hand as it trembled in his grip. Her face grew paler at the question, fiddling with the key in her hands. 

"I-"

"Sorry, was that a stupid question?"

"A little." Annabeth scratched at the back of her head, but she stepped closer to Percy anyway. 

They turned back to the building they were in front of. It was tall, multiple stories high, with gaudy orange colours on the outside. Annabeth took a deep breath, swallowing harshly.

"Orange was his favourite colour." Percy could feel the sadness in her voice, so squeezed Annabeth's hand once more. They'd been standing outside of the storage centre for near to five minutes, neither of them having the courage to step inside of the building. Percy had a feeling that if they didn't do that in the next few minutes, they might get the cops called on them.

They probably looked slightly sketchy.

"You know, I think we might need to go in." Percy muttered, causing Annabeth to nod shakily, but neither of them made a move to step towards the building. "We probably look like we want to try and rob this place."

"We do look like a mess, don't we?" Annabeth and Percy both managed shaky laughs, though it was only for a short while. But, he supposed it was a win of some form. "We should go in."

"Come on." Percy walked up, holding the door open for his new girlfriend. Annabeth thanked him, walking up to the receptionist. The lobby wasn't busy and in fact, there was nobody truly around as they headed for the desk. The receptionist was clicking away at the computer.

"Excuse me?" Annabeth asked, letting go of Percy's hand to wipe the sweat away on her jeans.

The woman glanced up, pausing as she saw the two teens. Percy could guess that they probably looked like they didn't fit in. Both were dressed in their camp shirts and ripped jeans, but Annabeth's hair was messy and Percy knew that the lack of sleep was making him look gaunt.

"Can I help you?" Annabeth faltered at the secretary's words, shuffling her feet awkwardly. She sent Percy a helpless look.

"Oh, we've got a key for a container." Percy slipped the key from Annabeth's grasp, showing it to the woman. "The owner asked us to check it for him."

"I see." The receptionist took the key from Percy's hand, "and the owner's name would be?"

"Luke Castellan." Annabeth visibly tensed at the mention of the name, her shoulders hunching inwards but Percy couldn't tell if it was from fear or grief.

"I'll have to call the owner of the container to confirm this." The receptionist spoke, giving them a look that Percy could clearly read. Troublemakers.

She didn't trust them and honestly, Percy couldn't blame her. 

"Uh..." Percy trailed off, looking over at Annabeth, before glancing back at the receptionist. "Luke died a few weeks back. We had his funeral three days ago. It was his last, dying wish that we went and sorted through his things."

"Oh..." Now it was the receptionist's turn to trail off, her shoulders falling as she licked her lips. "This isn't procedure."

Percy and Annabeth shared a worried glance, before the receptionist looked up at them.

"Take a right at the end of the corridor and then continue on. It's container sixteen." She shook her head, "and I'm really sorry. Luke's been putting stuff in storage here since I started working. He used to come in every few months or so, always said hello. He was very polite."

"He was?" Annabeth didn't know whether to be sad or happy at the information of Luke.

"Yes. He was a sweet boy and I'm so sorry to hear that he's passed," She shook her head again, smiling sadly. "God always takes the good too soon."

"I guess he does." Percy muttered, not willing to mention that Luke was evil. Annabeth may have forgiven him, but Percy was still holding a grudge. The man had forced Annabeth and Artemis to hold the sky, but for some reason everyone was treating him as a hero.

"Here." The receptionist handed the key back to them. "You're good friends for doing this for him."

Annabeth nodded, her words failing her, as the receptionist turned back to the computer, typing away swiftly. Percy took that as a sign, reaching for Annabeth's hand once more, albeit hesitantly, and leading her down the corridor that the woman had pointed to.

Florescent lights flickered over head, reminding Percy of school, as they hurried past door after door. Each one was painted orange with iron numbers nailed into the concrete above it. Most had locks on them, all shut up tightly, as they took a right.

"Container sixteen..." Percy muttered, looking up. They passed the earlier numbers before finally, container sixteen came into view, with an orange door and a lock keeping it closed. Annabeth examined it, shaking her head. "What?"

"It's Celestial Bronze." Annabeth told him, relaxing as she began to discuss about things that were more familiar to her. "These locks are impossible for even children of Hermes to unlock. Luke showed them to me when I was at camp. They're really hard to come by, and even more difficult to make but..."

"Let me guess, Luke knew how?" Percy questioned, fighting down the urge to roll his eyes.

"He did. Learnt how to so that he could install them on the Athena cabin doors to keep the children of Hermes from pranking us with spiders." Annabeth's chin wobbled and she looked dangerously close to crying, but she shook it off. "You could only unlock them with a special key."

She held the key up, that was still dangling on the leather necklace that Luke had been wearing when he died.

"Do you want me to...?" Percy motioned to the door, his hand on Riptide. Maybe this was actually Luke's final attempt at killing them, as had been his primary goal for years. Or maybe there was a monster inside, waiting to kill them.

"No. I can do it." Annabeth nodded, as Percy pulled a face. He watched carefully, Riptide in his hands, as Annabeth slid the key into the lock and undid it. There was a clicking sound, and the padlock fell away and into Annabeth's grasp. She smiled, doing it back up and slipping it into her pocket, before reaching for the handle. "I don't know if I can do this."

"We can come back another day." They'd put off doing this for weeks now and Percy knew that both of them would be starting school soon, so they didn't really have another day. 

Annabeth took a deep breath, steeling herself, before pulling the door up. It rattled as it slid back, to reveal the contents of the container, like a garage door. Percy waited for something to jump out, but...

Nothing.

Nothing jumped out at them and Percy's eyebrows furrowed at that. So, maybe he'd been wrong, but what happens if this entire place was full of traps instead. Annabeth had already stepped inside, reaching up for the string for the light bulb. She had to stand on her tiptoes, tugging at the cord, as a bulb flickered to light to reveal the inside of the room.

There wasn't a whole lot in there, Percy noted. He thought it would be full of weapons, or dangerous poisons and such, but there was none of that. In fact, there was no sign of anything war related.

In one corner were things from Camp Half-Blood; some old shirts and a few celestial daggers. Each one seemed to still be in perfect shape, and Annabeth brushed the shirts free of the little dust that covered them. Beside them sat a golden apple.

"Is that...?" Percy trailed off. "I thought Luke failed his quest."

"He did." Annabeth nodded. "He must have taken it two years ago, when we were at the Garden of Hesperides."

They continued to muse around, finding newspapers, some more memorabilia from camp, before Annabeth stopped at a photo frame in the corner. On one side of it hung Luke's camp necklace, the beads dusty as if it hadn't been touched in a while. Tucked in the corner of the frame was a strip of photos that Annabeth hadn't seen for many years.

It was the photos of her, Thalia and Luke at a photo booth that they had stopped at on the run once. Annabeth felt her heart sink at the sight of it, gingerly brushing against it before looking at the picture behind it. It was of another girl, one Annabeth didn't know. Her curly hair was pulled up into a messy bun atop her head, and she was grinning at the camera with a plate of food in her hands. 

That was strange.

Percy coughed from behind her, and Annabeth turned to see him waving dust away from the air around him. 

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, but I think I got something." She walked over, helping him give another tug on a handle, pulling it out from behind a stack of boxes to reveal a chest. It was plain, with nothing on it and no lock to keep it closed, and Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed. She definitely knew that Luke didn't have this at camp. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know. Can you...?" Annabeth trailed off, causing Percy to unlatch the box and lift the lid. "What is it?"

"Paper." Percy's eyebrows were furrowed as he sat down and opened the first folded piece of paper. "No, letters."

"Letters?" Annabeth sat beside him, taking the paper from his hand with a raised eyebrow. "To who?"

"My beloved?" Percy pulled a face, struggling to read the first line of writing as Annabeth followed him. It took a few moments for her to work out what the handwriting said, but sure enough, the letter was addressed to 'my beloved' and had been sent a few days before the final battle on Olympus if the date was anything to go by.

"Well then, who's it from?" Percy was opening another one, looking right at the bottom of it. Annabeth was still trying to work out whether this was Luke writing to someone, or letters to him.

"Someone called Ellie?" Annabeth and Percy shared a confused look. "Ellie? Do you know an Ellie?"

"No, there aren't any demigods that I know of called Ellie." Annabeth shook her head again, thinking back on the people at Camp. "When's yours dated?"

"Uh, a month and a half ago, start of August." The papers were in neat stacks, causing Percy and Annabeth to fold their letters back up and pull the stacks out until they reached the very bottom. They opened the final few letters, calling out dates to each other before Percy nodded. "August 4th 2006 this one's from."

"That was just after Luke left Camp." Annabeth told him, sitting cross legged beside him as she waited for Percy to read the note aloud. All the while, her brain began to whir, trying to work out why Luke had left her the key to the container, who this Ellie person was and who the woman in the photo frame was?

"Dear Luke." Percy began to read, stopping Annabeth from questioning things any further. "You didn't really have time to give me the full story before you snuck off in the middle of the night. You should have stuck around, I'm known for my breakfasts."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

Have the prologue because I'm so excited for this. I've been changing certain things, and adding more stuff into the book, so hopefully you're going to have fun. It's set to be a wild ride and Arabella and Luke are gonna be a cute couple. Thanks once again to violetfairylara for allowing me to write this plot.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx