Chapter 123

[Third Person's PoV] 

Lucian was sitting on his bed with his legs crossed in a meditative position, with one hand on top of the other and his thumbs connected.

As Lucian opened his eyes, the white around them started turning black while his pupils glowed bright red.

He used Bartholomew to get a view of how he looked and couldn't help but smirk. "I could use this as an intimidation factor. Cool."

Suddenly, he wasn't in the middle of his bed anymore. He was now in a graveyard surrounded by tombstones, feeling the sudden cold air, the ominous breeze, and the thick scent of death.

Out of nowhere, white skeletal hands shot out and grabbed him, taking hold of his body. Lucian felt their bony fingers grip him tightly, another skeletal hand covering his mouth.

The ground started to split open and began dragging him down, causing more hands to appear covering face before covering his eyes. As they pulled him down, a single red glowing eye was visible through the multitude of hands.

There wasn't a hint of worry or fear in his eyes as he watched the ground above him close shut. He slowly closed his eyes.

When he reopened them, he was back on his bed. "It's one thing to have fear; that's normal, everyone has them. But it's an entirely different thing to let those fears control you," he said as he grabbed his mask from his side and wrapped it around his eyes, though there was no overlooking the small bead of sweat at the corner of his temple.

"So that's what happens when I amplify the curse. Even I become affected by it. Good to know."

Just then, Lucian felt his phone buzz, a phone he and Annabeth had created and enchanted so they could keep in contact with one another.

It wasn't the only thing Lucian and Annabeth had created over the year. Due to her wanting to fully digest her Architectural Engineer potion, she went into a crazy creative episode where she built mostly anything they could think of and could at the time. Ultimately, her creative bug was contagious as it affected Lucian as well, leading him to join her in making a multitude of items.

…

[Texting:]

Annabeth🦉: Can you come and pick me up?

Lucian:Why?

Annabeth🦉: Don't want to be here anymore…

Lucian: Stepmother?

Annabeth🦉: Stepmother

Lucian: I'm pretty sure with all the improvements you made on your wings you can fly back here

Annabeth: Please…

Lucian: …

Lucian: Alright, I'll be there in a few. Wait for me.

Annabeth: Thank you

…

Lucian sighed as he stood up and got dressed. "Heh, I think this will be the first time I'll be meeting them. I'll dress to impress."

Lucian wore a black turtleneck with black dress pants. He reached into his shadow, pulled out his Nemean Lion skin fur coat, and turned it into a black dress coat for him.

He took off his eye mask, which turned into black shadow wisps. Lucian rolled it up in his hand and began changing its shape. When he was done, they had turned into round sunglasses which he immediately put on.

Lucian started posing in front of a mirror.

"I hope her stepmother doesn't fall in love with me. I would hate to break her heart."

"I'm not even a god, and my looks are already divine."

"My father is the lord of the dead… that must be why I. Am. Killing. It."

Lucian said these lines with every pose he struck. After he was done admiring himself, he walked out of the cabin. Lucian put a hand in his pants pocket and began walking like he was a runway model.

This ultimately drew attention, mostly from the girls.

A few of the girls from the Aphrodite cabin walked up to him and began complimenting him and asking questions.

"Lucian, is that you?"

"Whoa, I love what you did with your hair."

"I'm going to miss your long hair."

"Sorry, ladies, but I have someplace to be," he said, as he controlled his curse slightly so it wouldn't affect people. He lowered his glasses to the bridge of his nose and winked back at them as he began walking away.

Some were captivated by his red eyes, while others were just amused by the way he was acting.

As Lucian walked out of the camp, he stepped into his shadow and sank down effortlessly.

He reappeared a few houses down from where Annabeth lived. As he arrived where he once kidnapped Annabeth, he went off and quickly bought something before rushing back to Annabeth's home. As he arrived, he heard shouting coming from inside.

"I know you don't want me around. I'll be perfectly fine on my own!" Lucian heard Annabeth yell before detecting her going to her room and shutting the door.

Lucian smirked as he went around the house and climbed up towards her window. He found her with her face down on her pillow. She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through pictures they took together.

Her sad expression slowly morphed into a smile.

Lucian smirked as he secretly opened her window. He sat by the window ledge and began swinging his feet to the side while he leaned on the window frame. He summoned his scythe as he looked in her direction with a smile.

"I see you could use some help," Lucian said as he swung his legs side to side.

Annabeth's head snapped towards the direction of the voice, her expression blossoming into a big smile. "Lucian!" she yelled excitedly as she rushed towards him and practically tackled him into a hug, luckily he managed to turn his scythe back into a ring in time.

"Hey Tinkerbell, miss me?" Lucian asked teasingly.

Annabeth, with her face buried in his chest, nodded without hesitation. She practically melted in his arms.

When she looked up, she was taken aback. "You cut your hair!?" she asked, reaching over to touch it.

"Yeah, it was getting pretty long. I'll explain later…"

"Why are you dressed so nicely?"

"I thought I was meeting my future in-laws."

"I think I would die of embarrassment if I let you meet my father."

"Aww, so I dressed up this nicely for nothing?"

Annabeth pouted slightly. "Am I nothing then? Just say you dressed up nicely since you were coming to see me."

Lucian patted her hair. "Alright, I dressed up nicely since I was coming to see you."

Annabeth smiled and nodded.

"So, what's wrong?" Lucian asked.

"They want to move to San Francisco…"

"And you don't want to?"

"It's not that I don't want to. I'm barely around enough to care. But it's the way my stepmother brought the news."

Annabeth's voice went high-pitched as she moved her head side to side in a mocking manner. "'We'll be moving away from all the strangeness and danger. It will be a fresh start.'"

"Do you know that she looked right at me when she said strangeness and danger? She then looked at her kids and my father when she said a fresh start. My dad agreed!"

Annabeth looked down and bit her lip slightly as she muttered, "Like I would willingly put them in danger… It's fine though. Since they want to have their fresh start, they can have their fresh start."

"This could be a misunderstanding, you know? I think it's better to talk it out with them before thinking about cutting contact."

"I'm sorry. I know that's probably the right thing to do, but I don't feel like doing the right thing right now. Please take me away… Just like last time."

Annabeth looked at Lucian hopefully, which caused him to sigh. "Alright," he said, kissing her forehead.

"But let me leave a little note first." Lucian pulled out the bouquet of flowers he bought to introduce himself and set it on her study desk with a little note.

The note read: *Hey Mr. and Mrs. Chase, Lucian Blackheart here. You might or might not have heard of me, but I kidnapped Annabeth last time. Anyways, I'm doing it once more, teehee.*

*Death and Shadows, Peter Pan aka Lucian Blackheart…*

"Death and Shadows?" Annabeth asked questioningly.

"Yeah, you know, like how some cards end with 'sincerely.' Mine ends with 'death and shadows,'" Lucian said, nodding proudly.

Lucian then went and stood by the window ledge. He made Bartholomew appear and fly into him. He leaned back and held out his hand towards Annabeth, which she happily took.

From his back, two large crow wings appeared.

"You are so dramatic," Annabeth said with a large smile.

As he fell back, pulling Annabeth with him, he said, "What can I say? It's a part of who I am."

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