Chapter Text
The text that comes in at 3:02am is the first interaction Percy’s had with Jason Grace in eight years.
He falls asleep on the couch around midnight, the room cast in the blue light of the television. He really did have full intentions of going upstairs after dinner, but then he got caught up in the ‘one more episode’ trap. Now reruns of a sitcom from the 90s play on low volume while a bit of drool darkens the throw pillow underneath his cheek.
Bzzt… bzzt… bzzt
Sometimes he does sleep downstairs when his mom works late. He’d never call himself paranoid, exactly, but something about being upstairs alone with the first floor empty has just never sat right with him, he hates the idea that something is going on down here without him knowing about it.
But if you call him paranoid, he’ll deny it until his last breath. If anything, he considers himself cautious.
Bzzt… bzzt… bzzt
He’s not usually a heavy sleeper, often waking up any time something goes bump in the night. That’s absolutely not because he’s paranoid, though, he just… doesn’t like to be snuck up on.
Bzzt… bzzt… bzzt
His phone wakes him up with a gasp. The only person that would be calling this late is his mom, and she’d only be calling if something was wrong. Before his eyes are even open, he’s reaching out to feel around for the phone on the coffee table, knocking a cup of water over in the process. Cleaning it up will need to wait until later, because his stomach drops when he sees who the message is from.
Jason: percy
Jason: i fucked up im sorry
Jason: i went back i had to prove to myself it wasn’t real
Jason: but it was real percy he’s real
He tries to blink himself awake, he even reaches down to pinch his arm. There is absolutely no way this is reality. He hasn’t spoken to Jason in years, he hasn’t spoken to any of them in years, and now it’s 3am and he’s missed a dozen calls within the last ten minutes, and the phone keeps vibrating as another series of terrified texts comes through.
Jason: he’s here with me right now
Jason: i can hear him whispering
Jason: the tall man is real it was not a game
Percy: are you drunk?
Jason: im scared dude im really scared
Percy: the tall man isn’t real jason it’s a stupid game we made up
Percy: he doesnt exist he never did
Jason: yes he does
Jason: he’s here with me now
Percy: with you where?
Just as he sends the message, loud banging on the front door startles him so bad he nearly throws the phone across the room. He gets up from the couch, but doesn’t say anything yet. Turns out, he doesn’t need to.
“Percy! It’s Jason!”
He starts to move towards the door, slow, quiet steps so the floor doesn’t creak.
“I’m sorry, I know it’s been forever,” Jason says, quieter now, “but I think he’s following me. You have to let me in, Percy, please.”
The doorknob is scorching hot when he reaches for it, enough that he yanks his hand back only to see that there are blisters already forming on his fingertips. The phone vibrates again in his other hand.
Jason: please help me
Jason: i dont want to play anymore
Jason: but all of the trees are starting to look the same
Jason: he said i cant leave until we finish the game
His eyes shift from the phone, to the door, back to the phone, trying to make sense of things that he knows aren’t going to add up.
Jason: are you still there? i think im lost
Jason: percy? my phone is almost dead please help me
The banging on the door picks back up, louder now, perhaps more desperate. Like whatever is out there knows he’s not going to open it.
A voice speaks on the other side of it. “We have to go back to the woods, Percy.”
Percy: jason where are you?
Jason: i dont know
Percy: how long have you been in the woods?
Jason: i dont know
Percy: can you call me?
“Everyone plays together.”
It sounds so much like Jason that if Percy wasn’t texting him right now, he would open the door without hesitation.
Percy: jason
Percy: are you still there
He waits, but as quickly as it started, the banging stops, leaving the house in an abrupt silence. Percy waits for another text to come through.
For what feels like forever, he just stands there in the middle of the living room, staring down at the screen like it’ll offer an explanation, but nothing new appears.
Percy: are you okay?
No answer comes. It goes straight to voicemail when he tries to call. Percy knows Jason’s phone is either dead or off, but he calls again. He calls three, four times. All straight to voicemail.
He allows himself a glance out the front window, but there’s no one— nothing?— on the porch.
His heart threatens to beat out of his chest as he sits back down, he hadn’t even noticed his hands were shaking until now.
Everyone plays together.
The words echo in his ears long after the voice is gone. It’s what The Tall Man used to say if one of them wanted to go home early, or if their group showed up without somebody. Everyone plays, or no one plays. That was the rule.
Bianca got hurt because they broke the rule.
Everyone plays together.
Somewhere around 5:30 he shoots up on the couch, adrenaline burning through his limbs as he tries to fight off something he can’t see. A shadow, a disembodied voice, something that feels inherently wrong.
At first, he manages to convince himself all of it was a weird dream. It had to be a weird dream. He’s just sleep deprived because the nightmare disturbed his REM cycle or whatever. That had to be the explanation.
The burns on his fingertips and the very real texts and missed calls in his phone say otherwise.
It’s one of those days where he skips breakfast. Normally if he woke up this early, he’d make a bowl of cereal, some eggs, something. But he woke up with no appetite this morning, so he just shoves his phone into his back pocket, throws his backpack over one shoulder, and locks the door behind him on the way out.
He searches for any proof of the banging from the night before, but the outside of the door looks untouched.
The tall man isn’t real. Jason couldn’t have seen him.
Still, his eyes linger on the treeline where the woods meet his front yard, half expecting to see Jason emerge. Shaken up, yes, but unharmed. Percy tries to remember the last time he really saw Jason other than just walking past him in the hall at school, and he can’t place it. Yet something made Jason call him specifically last night when he was lost and afraid.
Instead, a friendly voice calls out from the yard on the other side of his house.
“Morning, neighbor!” Paul says as he approaches.
“Hey, Paul.” Percy tries to produce a smile, but it doesn’t feel very convincing. “What’s up?”
“Just coming back from our walk. Mrs. O’leary, come look who it is!”
A giant mass of black fur crashes out of the bushes, leaves and twigs tangled all over her. Mrs. O’leary bounds over, her bushy tail waving like a flag.
“Hey, Mrs. O,” Percy says, just before the dog nearly tackles him to the ground trying to lick his face. “Good to see you too, girl.”
“Your mom around?” Paul asks. It’s no secret, at least not to Percy, that Paul is into her. Honestly, he really just doesn’t understand why neither of them have said anything, because the feeling is clearly mutual.
“Yeah, she worked last night. She got home about an hour ago.”
“God, being home alone in that house at night must be creepy,” Paul says, shuddering sympathetically.
Percy shrugs. “The nightly ragers keep me occupied. Nothing like kegstands and strip poker to start off senior year, right?”
Paul laughs, shaking his head. “You know, as someone who's been to college, I feel obligated to tell you that kegstands are awful in practice. I mean, unless you like the feeling of cheap beer all in your sinuses.”
“Gross, no thank you.”
“A lesson learned the hard way,” Paul says, then sighs like he’s remembering something. “Well, I’ll let you get to school. Let me know if you ever need anything, alright?”
“Will do.”
Paul whistles once and Mrs. O’leary follows him across the yard. Once they’re gone, Percy takes one more look at the treeline. Nothing looks out of place, which is almost as unsettling as if it did.
A thin crowd of students trickles across the front courtyard of the school, waving and calling out to friends they haven’t seen all summer. Squeezing through the crowded hallway, Percy’s surprised to find a familiar face standing at the open locker next to his.
“Oh! Hey Frank. This hasn’t always been your locker, has it?”
He moves aside as Percy reaches for the combination lock.
“No, it got reassigned.”
“It’s been a while, how was your summer?”
“It was good!” Frank seems to perk up a bit. “I just got back from this coding camp in Portland, one of the other guys invited me to collaborate on a game he’s working on.”
“Well, let me know if you ever need a playtester,” Percy jokes.
Frank glances around conspiratorially. “I was actually hoping I’d catch you before the pep rally, there’s… uh, something I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay… sure, what’s up?” Percy asks, turning his attention away from his open locker.
Frank’s visibly nervous, picking at the sleeve of his hoodie, hesitating like he’s trying to force the words out but they won’t come. “I got some really weird texts last night…”
Percy feels his mouth go dry and he takes in one sharp, involuntary breath. “What kind of texts?”
Instead of explaining, Frank pulls his phone from his back pocket and clicks open a text thread between himself and Jason. The only messages in it are dated from last night, all around 3am.
Jason: frank i need help
Jason: please come i really fucked up
Jason: he doesnt want me to go
Frank: what are you talking about? is everything okay?
Jason: i dont know where im going everything looks the same now
Jason: i hear it everywhere
Frank: hear what?
Jason: the whispering it’s in the trees
Frank: you’re in the woods?
Jason: i dont know which way to go the path isnt there anymore
Jason: we shouldnt have left her there
Frank: where did you go in at? should i call the sheriff’s department?
Jason: no do not call them
Jason: absolutely not
Frank: what should i do?
Frank: jason?
Frank: are you still there?
Frank: jason?
Jason stopped answering Frank at the exact same time he stopped responding to Percy.
He blinks at the screen, rereading the messages twice, three times, but they never get any clearer. Before he can get the chance to compare their texts, the PA system crackles on, and they hear the vice principal’s voice come through.
“Goooood morning, New Rome Wolverines! Welcome back, I hope everyone had a restful summer break and is ready to get back into learning! To kick our new school year off, the back to school pep rally will be starting in the gym at 9:00! As a reminder, all students are required to attend, we can’t wait to see all of your faces!”
Percy sighs and hands Frank’s phone back. Neither of them speak as they both shove their things into their lockers, but Frank hangs by Percy’s side as they head towards the gym.
Some part of Percy is searching the crowd, hoping to see Jason. The other part has a feeling he isn’t going to find him here today.
The bleachers are starting to fill up fast, but they spot a few empty seats behind the teachers’ bench at the very front. They come to an unspoken agreement to sit together, even if today was the first real conversation they’ve had in a long time. Before they even make it to the bleachers, something catches Frank’s eye and he nudges Percy with his elbow.
“Ow– what?” Percy follows his gaze up to the very top row, tucked into the corner.
“I bet if there’s anyone who might have some insight into whatever creepy shit is going on here, it’s Leo,” Frank says, nodding up to where Leo is actually snarling at a group of freshmen who attempted to sit beside him.
Before Percy can even make it all the way up the steps, Leo’s eyes are on him.
“Anyone sitting here?” Percy asks, once he gets within earshot.
“Just my ghost friend,” Leo says. “But I guess he is incorporeal… so it doesn’t really count.”
Percy laughs, until he realizes Leo is not.
“What?” Leo raises an eyebrow.
“Sorry, I just can’t tell if you’re messing with me.”
“It’s all part of my mystical charm.”
Percy looks at the bench, then Leo’s expressionless face. Leo smirks as Percy sits beside him, leaving a person sized amount of space between the two of them.
“Cool. Good to know I can still make you do stuff by saying random spooky shit,” Leo grins, clearly pleased with himself.
They sit together for a few minutes without speaking, Leo scribbles in a leatherbound notebook. “So you gonna tell me what’s got you so freaked out, or are you just gonna keep dismembering our poor bleachers?”
“Huh?” Percy looks up, then down at where his hand has been picking splinters of wood off the edge of the bench. “Sorry, it’s just… weird stuff going on.”
“Percy,” Leo says sternly. “Just look at me. Weird is my middle name— well, actually it’s Marcello, but if you tell anyone that I swear to god I will go to your house and put eyeballs in your food.”
“Where would you get—”
“You go to pour a bowl of cereal? Bloop! Eyeball in your Frosted Flakes!”
Percy inhales a deep breath, then nods. “Okay. Noted. So… what would you say if I told you last night I encountered some sort of… I don’t even know.”
“I’m going to need a few more details than that, blondie.”
“Okay.” Percy lowers his voice and leans in closer. “So I got some super weird texts.”
Leo nods along encouragingly. “That’s just another Tuesday for me, but go on.”
“They were from Jason–” Percy watches as Leo tilts his head, but he doesn’t interrupt. “He was saying that he went back to the woods, he said he needed help.”
For a moment, Leo just stares at him. He blinks slowly. “It feels like there’s supposed to be more to this.”
“Well, he was texting me, right? And then there was this… I don’t know, banging? Like someone was trying to break down my front door. It sounded like Jason, like he was begging me to let him inside. He said he was scared.”
“So, you were texting Jason about being lost in the woods. But then Jason was also at your door,” Leo recounts, squinting like he’s trying to make sense of it too. “Plot twist.”
“Yeah, I guess so. But what do you think?”
“I think you should see a shrink.”
Percy lets out a dry, humourless laugh. “Great.”
“I’m kidding. It sounds like a mimic,” Leo says, as if this is something anyone would be familiar with.
“A mimic?”
“It’s a creature that can mimic voices or even appearances. Sounds like it fits the bill.”
“I guess… but why would it just leave then? I mean clearly it wanted my attention, so why just leave?”
Leo shrugs. “Full disclosure. All my knowledge on mimics is like 60% Wikipedia and 40% some dude named MagicStan75 that I met on a warlock forum. Maybe whatever powered the mimic got tired somehow? You know, ran out of juice or something. Or maybe it was all just a dream,” he says, wiggling his fingers in the air like a magician.
Percy glances down at his finger tips, still bright red. “Definitely not a dream. Dreams don’t leave blisters.”
“They could, actually,” Leo says. “There are entities that can enter or even affect your dreams, one of them could theoretically hurt you. Or you’re under a curse. I’ve read a lot about curses.”
“What, for fun?”
“Sure. Let’s go with that.” Leo shrugs.
“You’re a little weird.”
Thankfully, Leo laughs. “Only a little? You wound me, Perseus.”
“Okay, you’re super weird. Thanks, though. I needed to talk to somebody about it, but I didn’t think anyone else would believe me.”
“Well, the jury’s still out on whether I believe you or not. Who knows?” Leo shrugs. “You could just be making all this up to mess with me.”
“Do people do that to you?”
“They try. But my kung fu is strong.”
“Okay, then thanks for listening without immediately dismissing me then.”
“Cool. Glad to help. I think I’m done now,” Leo decides.
“Done with…?”
“Being nice,” he says flatly. “I’ve got this whole bitter misanthrope thing going on. If people see me being nice to you they might start thinking it’s okay to act friendly.”
“Can’t have that.”
“Absolutely not. I would die.”
Percy grins and grabs his things, starting to edge towards the end of the bench.
“Hey, Percy?” Leo stops him.
“Yeah.”
“You’re not as big of a toad as most people are.”
“Coming from you, that means a lot.”
“Yes. Yes it does.”
Percy makes his way back down the bleachers, looking for an empty spot as more students begin to pack in. For a moment it looks like he’s going to have to go ask Frank if he can sit on his lap or something, then he finally spots one empty seat, next to a familiar figure slouching in the front row.
If Nico notices him staring, he makes no move to acknowledge it. Percy hesitates, eyes scanning for an open seat literally anywhere else.
Then Nancy’s voice from a few rows back. “Sit down, loser, you’re in the way!”
And Mitchell from the lacrosse team joins in. “You’re the last thing anyone wants to be looking at!”
So Percy sighs and turns back around, only to find that Nico is looking right at him.
“Hey, Nico, do you mind if…?”
“Knock yourself out,” he says, pulling his hood back over his head. He scoots over so that Percy can squeeze in beside him.
“So, how’ve you been? We haven’t really talked since…” He’s not sure why he says it, only that he wishes he could take it back as soon as it leaves his mouth.
“Yeah,” Nico says, quiet, but sharp. “I know.”
There’s more Percy wants to say. He wants to apologize, he wants to ask how Nico’s been doing— how he’s actually been doing, he wants to ask if he’s still close with Hazel, if they’d grieved Bianca together, if he let his cousin be part of his support system or if he’d kept everything to himself.
They sit in silence, Percy shifts uncomfortably in his seat as they wait for the pep rally to start. Nico doesn’t move at all.
A few minutes go by, then down on the floor, a pretty girl walks up to the podium.
“How are we doing today, New Rome Wolverines?”
The crowd roars in response, the bleachers shaking as the students stomp their feet. Percy glances around, finds Leo disinterested in the back row, focused on whatever he’s writing in his notebook. Frank’s sitting directly behind Percy’s math teacher, but he’s not cheering either, as if he can sense something is wrong too.
“Jesus… When did Annabeth get so popular?” Percy asks.
“Shortly after getting her braces off and discovering mascara, right before becoming student body president,” Nico says back.
Annabeth flashes a bright smile at the crowd. As she turns to wave to the other side of the gym, her hair bounces around her shoulders, small, delicate rows of braids that dissolve into thick curls at the crown of her head.
She leans closer to speak into the mic. “Welcome back everybody! For those who may not know me, I’m Annabeth Chase, your student body president. I know you’re probably thinking about how much it sucks that summer vacation is over, but trust me, this will be a school year you’re never going to forget! And on that note, let’s kick this pep rally off Wolverine style!”
With that, cheerleaders hop up in synchronicity from the bleachers, waving their pom poms in the air as they try to get the crowd energized.
“Come on, you can do better than that, let’s hear it!”
“Glad Piper is doing well,” Percy says. This time, Nico doesn’t respond.
One by one, the cheerleaders tumble across the gym. Piper draws thunderous cheers as she pulls off a seemingly effortless triple back handspring. She gives one swift bow before taking her spot back in formation with the others, but Percy can tell by her facial expression that her head is somewhere else.
Briefly, he wonders if she got any strange texts last night. If he and Frank had received them, but Leo didn’t, it’s possible that anyone who was in the woods that day may have gotten them too. But that’s not really the kind of thing you can just walk up and ask someone like Piper, especially when you hardly know them anymore.
His eyes drift back to Annabeth, who is easily clapping along, and cheering. She looks like she slept just fine last night, so he assumes she hadn’t experienced anything strange. His eyes linger on her a moment longer than he knows he should, he tries not to let himself wonder what her life looks like these days.
Annabeth steps back up to the podium as the cheerleaders arrange themselves into a straight line behind her. “Well, now that they’re done blowing our minds, let’s give it up for our New Rome varsity basketball team!”
More applause sounds as a group of girls in basketball jerseys emerge in full sprint from the locker room. The team captain lets out an enthusiastic ‘AWOO’ as they approach the podium, which earns a chorus of howls back from the crowd.
“Go Wolverines!”
Nico nods to a more sheepish figure hanging closer to the back of the group. “Looks like Hazel made the team this year.”
“Good for her!” Percy says. “I guess she’s been working hard.”
He flinches as Drew Tanaka’s voice breaks through the applause. “Hey Goodwill!”
Hazel immediately spins around after hearing the nickname. “Why don’t you come over here and—”
Piper doesn’t speak a word, just grabs Drew’s arm and walks her back into formation, not necessarily pulling, just guiding.
Before anything can escalate further, Annabeth steps back up to the mic and calls up the basketball team’s captain.
“We’ve got our first game coming up next week, so you guys better show up and show out to watch us crush it! Now, we got a couple rookies on the team this year, but we’re not gonna let–”
“Thank you, Clarisse!” Annabeth steps forward and places one hand on Clarisse’s arm, a silent ‘that’s enough’.
Just as she raises the microphone again, the PA system crackles overhead and a burst of loud static cuts through the gym.
“Sorry about that,” the vice principal’s voice sounds again over the loudspeaker. “Can I please have everyone’s attention for a moment?”
Cheers dissolve into confused murmurs, even Annabeth falters slightly as she locks eyes with Malcolm, the student council vice president. Nico pulls his hood off and sits forward a bit.
“Jason Grace, a senior here, was reported missing earlier this week. Authorities have been searching the area for the past several days.”
The confused murmurs die instantly, replaced by tense silence. Percy’s stomach drops. He feels Nico reach out to grab his arm and nearly jumps out of his own skin. His fingers are cold and trembling where they close around his wrist.
“If anyone has any information on Jason’s potential whereabouts, please report to the main office, where there will be detectives ready to take statements.”
Nico’s grip tightens, and Percy opens his mouth to ask if he got the texts too, when Nico leans closer, his voice lowered almost into a whisper just loud enough that Percy can hear, and says something far worse.
“How has he been missing since Monday? I just saw Jason last night.”
The pep rally wraps up shortly after that, Annabeth reiterates the importance of coming forward with any information, thanks everyone for their attention, and dismisses the students back to their homerooms.
The gym slowly empties out, but Nico makes no move to leave, just sits in the bleachers with his hands clasped in front of him, elbows braced on his knees. He doesn’t seem to be in the mood to talk, but Percy needs to know what he meant by I saw Jason last night, and the middle of the gym isn’t exactly the best place to ask.
“Hey.” Percy clears his throat nervously. The two of them really haven’t spoken since his sister died. Actually, it doesn’t seem like Nico speaks to anyone anymore.
For a moment, Percy thinks he might just ignore him, but then he turns his head to look at him, waiting.
“About Jason,” Percy starts, “I heard from him last night.”
Nico narrows his eyes like he’s trying to decide if Percy’s playing a messed up joke.
“So did Frank,” Percy adds quickly. “We need to talk.”
“Yeah. I think we do,” Nico agrees.
“Leo knows too.”
“Wonderful.” Nico sighs.
Percy rubs the back of his neck. “Meet outside the doors by the vending machines?”
Nico hesitates, then nods once.
“I’m going to get the others,” Percy says.
Nico climbs down the bleachers and starts towards the side door, pulling his hood back up as he walks.
Percy scans the gym for the others. Leo, still scribbling in his notebook in the top row, clearly in no hurry to leave. Piper chatting with some of the other cheerleaders, pom poms still in hand. Hazel, alone and dribbling a basketball off to the side.
Annabeth and the rest of the student council are packing up equipment, winding up cords and gathering stray papers. She’s trying to appear composed, but Percy can tell by the way her shoulders tense that she’s shaken too.
“Frank!” He calls out, jogging towards him.
Frank turns his head just as he gets to the exit, and waits for Percy to catch up.
“I need a favor,” Percy says. “It’s going to seem weird.”
“Okay…” Frank frowns slightly.
“I need you to get Hazel and wait for me by the side door, okay?”
“But why–”
“It’s about Jason. I’ll explain when I get there.” Percy’s words come out rushed.
Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Leo shoving things into his backpack, finally deciding to leave, right now of all times.
“Frank, please.”
Frank nods, his protests dying as he sets off in search of Hazel.
Leo freezes halfway down the bleachers before Percy even says anything, as if he’d been expecting him. Briefly, Percy wonders if that’s why he packed up so slowly.
“Jason?” Leo says as he gets close.
“Yes. Can you please talk to Piper and meet us by the side door?”
There’s no argument, no follow up questions, Leo just nods and follows him back down to the gym floor.
Annabeth will, undoubtedly, be the hardest to recruit. She’d been the first to pull away after the accident, actively avoided everyone, and immediately threw herself into enough extra curriculars that she barely had time to breathe, let alone think about any of it.
Her back is to him, but she looks up when she hears his footsteps. The moment she recognizes him, she looks right back down and keeps gathering the cords.
“Annabeth.” He slows down as he approaches.
“I’m busy.”
A beat of silence. She stands and brushes some dust off of her jeans.
“Please.” He takes a step closer. “It’s about Jason.”
Her eyes widen for half a second, before her jaw tightens and she takes a deep breath.
“We’ll be working with the sheriff’s department to organize search parties,” she says briskly. “All of the information should be out by this afternoon, then you’ll be able to sign up with Malcolm.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
She doesn’t respond.
“We need to talk, we all do. Everyone’s waiting outside,” he says.
“Everyone…?” Her eyes narrow at him.
He knows that she understands. He also knows that she’s hoping he will just give up and leave her alone if she pretends otherwise.
“Everyone, Annabeth.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m not doing this, I’m not playing that stupid kid’s game again, things are already—” She stops herself.
He frowns. “Already what?”
“Nothing.” Her eyes dart away.
“Did something happen to you too?” he asks.
“No.” She won’t look at him. She’s looking anywhere but him, actually.
“Jason texted me last night,” he says quietly. “Frank too.”
This makes her look up.
“Nico says he saw him,” he continues.
Now she’s staring at him, her brow furrowing slightly like she’s trying to solve a complicated equation in her head.
Finally, she exhales. “Okay. Let’s talk.”
She follows him outside to where the others are waiting, lingering a step behind instead of walking beside him. Neither of them says anything until they round the corner where the others are waiting in uneasy silence.
“So.. Jason,” Percy starts. Not his most eloquent moment. They all know why they’re here.
The rest of the group exchanges glances.
“He tried to call me last night,” Percy says quickly, an attempt to ease the awkward silence. “I was asleep so I missed it and then he sent me like fifteen texts in a row,” he says. “He sounded terrified.”
The fact that it was Percy’s phone number that Jason— who always knew what to do and always held it together for everyone else— dialed when he was afraid and didn’t know who else to call, is not lost on him. Even if he doesn’t understand why it was him specifically, he knows that it matters somehow.
Hazel opens her mouth like she wants to say something, then decides against it.
“Then I heard him at my front door, or— what I thought was him, I guess.”
“A mimic, we theorize,” Leo chimes in.
“Yes…” Percy trails off, still sounding slightly unconvinced. “Maybe that. All that I know is he was banging on my front door at the same time he was texting me about being lost in the woods and I’ve never heard him so scared. Not even when Bianca…” He doesn’t finish the sentence.
After a few moments of quiet tension, Frank finally speaks.
“He also texted me. Same thing, he sounded like… like he thought he was going to die. He just kept saying that he was lost, then he said…” He takes one brief glance at Nico, then his eyes drop to the ground. “...that we shouldn’t have left her there.”
A heavy silence falls across them. Percy risks a glance at Nico and finds that he’s staring at the ground, jaw set beneath the shadow of his hood. When his eyes shift to Hazel, she’s already looking at Nico, but her face is unreadable.
“What is he talking about?” Piper asks.
Hazel looks away, her hands clenching by her side.
“I don’t know what he meant by it,” Frank admits.
Hazel takes a breath, then looks as if she might be sick. “He texted you guys? Last night?”
“Yeah, did you get the texts too?” Percy asks.
“No, I—” Hazel shakes her head. “I found his phone yesterday morning when I was at the park. It was dying but I figured I’d just give it back to him today. It’s still in my locker.”
“How did…” Frank blinks, trying to digest the information, but no other words come out.
Nico speaks next. “He wanted my help. He came to my house last night.”
Everyone turns to him, vaguely surprised to hear him speak.
“For what?” Hazel asks.
“He asked me to come with him. He said we needed to go back to the woods to play the game again. He kept saying, ‘I need to finish it’ then he asked me if “he” had been talking to me too.”
Hazel freezes. “He?”
“The Tall Man,” Nico answers.
No one speaks, waiting for him to continue.
“Look, I don’t know. It was like midnight and my mom would’ve killed me if I went. He got upset when I told him I couldn’t come with him and then he just left.”
He shakes his head while he recalls the memory. “He was so scared that I thought there was no way he was really going to go. At least not alone. I would’ve tried harder to stop him if— if I knew.”
“God, this doesn’t even sound like Jason,” Piper says quietly.
She’s right, Percy thinks. None of it sounds like the Jason they used to know, and it occurs to him then how little they understand of who Jason was these days.
“You said that was around midnight?” Leo asks, crossing his arms.
“It might’ve been closer to 12:30, I’m not really sure.”
Leo nods slowly. “I was hearing weird shit last night,” he says. “Some kids playing hide and seek outside.”
“In the middle of the night?” Piper asks.
“Yeah, I thought it was weird, but I kinda like weird, so I really didn’t worry about it. Now with everything else… I don’t know, it feels wrong.”
Percy can’t decide if it’s a coincidence that it’s the same game they used to play in the woods.
“This is genuinely insane,” Piper says. “Do you guys realize how insane this sounds?”
Nico turns to her, an accusatory look on his face. “So things have just been fine for you recently?”
Piper hesitates, then her eyes drop to the ground. “I don’t know. I’m probably crazy, that’s all it is.”
“Or maybe you’re just scared,” Hazel says softly.
“Okay.” Piper exhales a long breath. “It’s possible that I saw something.”
“It’s possible?” Nico asks.
“I don’t know!” She snaps. “It was when I was driving home from cheer practice last night.”
Percy takes a small step forward. “What time?”
“I’m not sure, maybe nine? It was dark. I was driving down that gravel road that my house is on, I don’t know if you guys remember—”
“I remember.” Percy nods.
“There was someone on the side of the road,” Piper rubs at her arms. At some point the temperature outside had dropped, Percy can’t pinpoint exactly when.
“I couldn’t tell who,” Piper continues. “I flashed my headlights, I wanted to at least slow down to see who it was in case they needed help, but…”
She shakes her head like she’s trying to shake the image out of it. “I don’t know, I flashed my headlights and they just stood there—”
“—They didn’t move?” Leo interjects.
“I was getting to that,” Piper says, shooting him a look. “They— whoever, whatever it was— raised their arm and pointed to the woods. It freaked me out so bad I just sped off. I don’t know who it was.”
Percy nods as he pieces it together.
“Okay, so… Hazel finds Jason’s dead phone in the afternoon, then Piper sees someone on the side of the road around 9. Around midnight Jason shows up at Nico’s house asking him to come into the woods with him.”
“At the same time, I hear random kids playing outside my window,” Leo adds.
“And then Jason texts us both around 3,” Frank says, shifting nervously on his feet.
“Okay, so we have a rough idea of what went down last night,” Percy agrees.
He glances beside him. Annabeth’s been silent this entire time. She’s chewing the inside of her cheek, pulling at a loose thread on her sweater. She doesn’t look annoyed the way she’d been when they first got here. Now, she looks nervous.
“Annabeth?” Piper says gently.
“I’ve been having nightmares again, like when everything first happened, and last night I had this dream, or… I thought it was a dream,” Annabeth admits. “Now I’m not sure.”
“What happened?” Nico asks.
“I woke up at like 5 and I couldn’t breathe. It was Jason in the woods. He was running like something was chasing him. I don’t know what it was, I never saw it, but he was screaming. Like, horrible, ‘terrified for your life’ screaming.” Her fingers tighten their grip on her sleeves.
“He kept saying ‘I can hear you guys laughing’ and then he said ‘why are you hiding?’”
She looks around at them. “I think he was talking about us.”
Piper places one hand on her arm, Annabeth takes one long, shuddering breath.
“I don’t know what happened after that. He slipped in the leaves and fell, and then I woke up,” she continues. “Then I come in today and find out he’s been missing for three days?”
She laughs once, but there’s no amusement in it. “That’s a pretty fucked up coincidence, right?”
“Coincidence?” Percy looks between them. “Something is wrong here.”
Piper crosses her arms. “No way. There’s a normal explanation. I don’t know what it is, but this isn’t some ghost game we played when we were ten.”
“It wasn’t a game,” Nico says quietly.
“Then what was it?” Piper snaps.
“I don’t know. But whatever it was killed my sister, and now Jason is lost in those same woods with it. You guys might not want to admit it because you’re scared, but we all know what’s going on,” Nico says.
Hazel shifts uncomfortably. “I’m sorry about Jason. I’ll sign up for one of the search parties,” she says carefully. “But aside from that, I don’t even think there’s anything else we can do for him.”
Percy opens his mouth to speak, but Nico beats him to it.
“Hazel.” Just her name, but his voice is enough that her face twists into something like guilt.
She looks at him, she knows what his tone means. Everyone knows what his tone means, which is something complicated between two people that lost the same person and dealt with it in two completely different ways.
“I know,” she says, her voice comes out intentionally even. “I know, Nico.”
“Then how can you—“
“Because I can’t fix what happened before,” she says. “And I can’t give anything else to those woods.”
Her bag slips down her shoulder as she shifts to cross her arms. She doesn’t bother to adjust it.
Frank’s shoulders tense. “I can’t do that again. I’m sorry guys, I just can’t.”
Percy feels the frustration building in his chest.
“Frank—”
“No. We barely got through it the first time. Someone died, remember?” His eyes flick to Nico. “I’m not going back in those woods.”
Leo pushes himself off the wall. “I believe you,” he says.
“I knew you would,” Percy says, hopeful.
But Leo holds up a hand to stop him. “But that’s exactly why we shouldn’t mess with it. Jason did. And look what happened. This shit isn’t a game.”
Nico’s face twists up in shock. “Leo—”
“I’m sorry about what’s going on, I really am and I’ll even ask my abuela to pray on it. But clearly we need to leave this stuff alone, people keep getting hurt.”
“So what? We’re supposed to just ignore it?” Percy asks, voice rising despite his efforts to stop it.
Annabeth’s gone silent again through all of this, but finally, she speaks up.
“We let the sheriff’s department do their jobs,” she says carefully. “They’re organizing search parties. If Jason’s out there, we’ll find him.”
Percy stares at her.
“Annabeth.”
She refuses to look at him.
“This isn’t—”
She cuts him off. “I know what you think it is, Percy. But that doesn’t mean it actually is. Jason doesn’t need us on a wild goose chase, he needs us to find him.”
For a moment, Percy wants to argue. He wants to shake them one by one and say that Jason texted him specifically last night, after years of silence, because he was the one Jason trusted to show up. And Percy had been asleep, and Jason had gone alone.
He doesn’t say any of that. The looks on their faces seems to have sucked all of the fight out of him. He watches them walk away, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides.
Hazel leaves first, turning back towards the gym. Frank, shoulders hunched, follows soon after. Piper and Leo linger for a moment longer before Leo shrugs and they both head off towards the parking lot.
Annabeth hesitates, just for a split second, then she turns and walks away too.
Percy lets her go, and then it’s just him and Nico standing beside the vending machines. For a while, neither of them speaks.
Finally, he takes a breath. “That didn’t really go how I hoped it would.”
Nico shakes his head, then kicks at a pebble on the pavement. “They’ll change their minds.”
“You sound pretty confident.”
“I am,” Nico says, too definitive to question.
Percy stares at the treeline and thinks about how Jason had gone out there alone because Percy was asleep, and Nico said he couldn’t. Then he thinks about the thing that showed up at his front door that sounded like Jason but wasn’t Jason, how real the terror in its voice seemed. If Leo’s mimic theory was correct, then the terror in that voice came from somewhere he isn’t even ready to think about.