Bianca di Angelo & The Olympians

Gods Were Never Good

Annabeth POV

I didn't have much in common with the girl sleeping across from me. But there was one thing. We both hated boats.

I sat on the inside of the giant yacht, where the water wasn't visible to me. Bianca was trying the opposite approach, having been staring at the horizon for a long while before succumbing to sleep for real. I figured she needed it, seeing as she had shadow traveled us from the north to the south of the USA, then had to fight a bunch of crazy pirates who thought we were handmaidens.

Piper was upstairs with our unwanted guest. I had discussed with her why we shouldn't be trusting her to sail us around, but she argued that we had no idea where we were going anyway, so I didn't really matter if or where the handmaiden sailed us. I agreed. Barely.

The boat hit a big wave again, and I nearly ran over to the edge to puke. But I knew it would be pointless, seeing as I hadn't eaten anything substantial and nothing would come up. Gods, I can't believe that Percy would find comfort in this.

We had been traveling for a few hours now, at least that's what I assumed. I sighed. How had I let Circe manipulate me? It's not like I would want to stay on an island and kidnap innocent souls meanwhile turning men into hamsters.

At least that is what I assumed they did. I had noticed a little cage of rodents on the side and had asked what they were. The response I got was something like 'Oh, ignore them, they are just projecting their true selves'. Understandably, I got a little suspicious.

Paired with Bianca sudden appearance and yelling "Evil! Kill! Or- I don't know, run!" I had been able to fight them off. The cost being me telling Bianca to throw the gummies in the cage, then taking a few for ourselves, therefore using them up.

I was so annoyed. I knew exactly why I had wanted to stay there. It was filled with knowledge and potential, both of which I desperately wanted more of. If my quests had taught me anything, it was that I was terribly naive. Which wasn't my fault, it was just that I was a year rounder. I had no home to go to, no home to teach me about the real world.

Gods, I was a mess. I shouldn't be. I knew there would be kids who would do anything to have my wisdom and smarts, combined with no parental figure. That might sound awesome.

But there were two sides to that life.

Everyone who called me a friend was just using me to get ahead. They acted like they could use my pride to lie to me, laugh, then pretend it didn't happen. But I noticed.

No one was there to tell me it was okay, that everything would be fine. I didn't care. I didn't want to be lied to, to be told that everything was great, that nothing could hurt me.

Luke had told me that.

Look where that got him in the end.

I noticed Bianca was shaking in her sleep. Her head jerked to the side, and she jumped up. "Annabeth!" She looked around wildly.

I moved over to her position. "I'm fine. I'm alive, Bianca. Calm down."

She took a few deep breaths and moved to a sitting position. She rested her forehead in her hand. "Jesus."

I bit my lip, trying not to laugh (It was not the time), "Wrong godly being."

She let out a puff of air, which I assumed was supposed to be a laugh but came out as exhaustion. "Non mi interessa." I do not care.

"How do you even know who Jesus is anyway?" I said, trying to get her mind off of the nightmare.

She shrugged. "I'm from the 1930's or something, I'm probably Italian, it makes sense that I would be a Christian." I nodded. It made sense.