All at Sea

16: Bang.

Content Warning ➙ shooting; talk of firearms; dissociation; graphic depictions of panic attacks; traumatic events; depictions of violence; canon typical violence; implied/mentioned trauma

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The thick bronze doors slammed open with a collective flinch. Gasps were heard running through the crowd as people started turning around to face the intruder. Percy's back was to the door which did nothing to assure her. She noticed Bruce's stance hardening when he saw whoever had entered the grand room. His eyes flickered to Jason and his brow furrowed with concern. He turned to mumble something to Selina who managed to get off the makeshift stage without drawing attention to herself.

Percy turned her head, the pretty curls that had been made of her hair swishing around her at the movement. Three burly men in cheap-looking clown masks held large guns at their side. They yelled at others who were out of Percy's line of sight but promised danger. Their eyes weren't visible, yet the malicious glint in them reverberated through the room.

"Mista' Jay sends his congratulations. He couln' make it outta there in time for yer party but he sent us bearin' gif's," one goon said, his accent butchering the words terribly. He pointed the gun towards the guests.

She turned her head forward again, a lump forming in her throat. She suddenly remembered Jason beside her, she turned her body slowly to face him. His muscles were tense to a point of shaking, she noticed his chest's uneven rise and fall, the hitches in his breathing, and the shallowness to it all. She wanted to help, she'd reached out a hand tentatively but quickly drew it away at Jason's violent flinch in response.

Dick was doing something about it, Percy's attention had drifted to trying to still her shaking hands, so she wasn't too sure what it was. She had a vague recognition that the boys were leading Jason towards the tables.

She was fully turned towards the entrance now. The men were practically in the same spots though a new one had joined them and a couple of others were rushing in through the lavish halls. She couldn't assess how much time had passed—either the clown men were really slow, or Percy was thinking really fast—distance was also becoming a foreign concept to her. Everyone was so close to her and they were all breathing so loudly. 

Breathing.

 Was she breathing? 

She couldn't really tell but she guessed she must be breathing through her mouth if her mouth was so dry. 

Was she breathing? 

She pressed a hand to her chest to try and feel the rise and fall of her chest but the velvety fabric of the dress make the palms of her hand feel as though they were on fire. 

Fire? 

Is that why she couldn't breathe? She was pretty sure she'd heard Annabeth telling her something about how smoke closes the airways. She couldn't afford to have her airways closed if Jason was stressed. What happened to Jason? Did he make it out of the room? was he–

Percy's thoughts were broken by the trilling sound of bullets falling down upon the partygoers. She dropped to the floor with the rest of the crowd, a shriek of terror coming from somebody near the doors. 

Percy tried to shuffle out of her shoes. Her hands were shaking too badly to undo the tiny clasps so she gave up on the endeavor. Her hands felt the cold floors but the mass of bodies that scurried around her made it hard to focus on any one thing.

Those guys had guns. Why guns? Percy had no experience with guns except for that one time with Annabeth's dad but that didn't really count, did it? Percy'd never even held a gun; New York had a decently low rate of gun violence (she'd learned that once when she'd fawned over memorizing crime rates, for some reason) so of course, she had to move to the city with the highest gun violence rates. And of course, the gunners had to have those stupid clown masks on and their guns had to be as stupid and loud as they were and– 

Oh Gods could she hear? 

Things went so quiet Percy doubted if she could hear. Did they really all shut up or was her brain doing the thing again. She really hoped it wasn't her brain. Something like that happened with Gabe, she thought, she couldn't be sure but she felt the gross slimy hands searing into her hips and– Fuck! Was she breathing? The stupid necklace was digging into her neck and why was it so scratchy? 

She reached up to touch her neck but her hand was slapped away. Or maybe it wasn't. She couldn't really feel her limbs; it all felt like TV static. But now she was falling to the floor and her TV static limbs didn't hold her up in time. When did she stand? She didn't remember having gotten up from the floor but maybe that's why her hands felt less cold. 

She was being picked up by her necklace (was it a necklace? She didn't remember having put one on. Thinking back on it it might actually be a rope) and dragged up onto her feet again, with something that was too hot and smelled of metal and smoke pressed to her head. Someone was holding her and it was too tight and too rough and she couldn't struggle and she still couldn't breathe. How long can someone survive without breathing because she's pretty sure that--

Whoever was on her groaned loudly and fell to the flood, his hands barely coming off of her before he fell. Percy looked around, trying to see beyond the foggy memories of Gabe (but she felt his hands on her wrists and she needed to get it off, off, off) and someone pressed her to their chest and it smelled like Cass but the fabric wasn't soft like the big sweaters Cass usually wears. But the touch was safe and warm and feminine and everything not-Gabe so maybe Percy wasn't going to press back just yet.

People were shouting around her but they weren't terror-filled anymore, and there were sirens ringing and she was so tired. She felt Cass leaning into her and mumbling something that sounded a lot like "Safe now," before she was being princess cared away. 

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p.s. um idk what happened there lol. idk if i wanna keep this chapter, i might delete it cuz it wasn't what i was going for and its really messy but I'm tired rn and i wanna hear from yall so this is what you're getting for now

this happened a while ago but i don't think I've brought it up on this app and it makes me so happy to think abt: two of my friends went to supercon a while back and they were super apologetic that they couldn't invite Sebastian and i and we were like its fine u two goo and have fun and i come to school the following Monday and what do you know they have an anime poster for seb and a rightwing poster for me and i love it so much jfc I'm so thankful for my friends T^T

hiiiiiiii<3 hows it going yall?????? btw... i think that Sebastian is like the like hottest like person like ever??? do I? noooo,,, unless! sometimes i dont.

right thank you sm, i love you all so much please let me know what you thought of this chapter.