Run by The__Crazy_Girl

Mortal AU thing

Leo smiled as he went into the soon familiar high school. He couldn't believe it, he had soon been here a month, that was maybe the longest time he had ever stayed somewhere, since the accident.

The smile at his face stiffened a bit, and he could feel tears whelm up in his eyes. Bad Leo. Don't think about the accident. Just don't.

The shouts of his mom and dad still echoed in his mind. And he remember to well how the flames felt licking up of him, mocking him, because they wouldn't kill him, so he could join his parents.

An accident, the police had said. His Aunt Rosa had agreed at that, but she had meant him. He could still feel how her high-heels had drilled into his skin as she kicked him out.

A hand touched his shoulder lightly, and Leo looked up wildly, expecting to see a police officer, or a gang member, or something like that. Instead he looked up in Piper's kaleidoscope eyes. And he remembered he wasn't on the run anymore. At least for a while.

But at some point it would catch up with him. The sadness. And he would run away again. Trying to keep ahead of it.

"Hey, Leo? Are you listening?" Piper asked, her tone was casually, but her expression was concerned.

Leo sometimes wondered how Piper could control her mimic that well, but he guessed it was something you learned with time. Just like he had learned to laugh and joke around when he was dying inside. Like an extra shell of lies, hiding him from the sorrow.
"Eh, what?" he asked.

Piper rolled her eyes. "I have been talking to you in a last minute or so."
Then he noticed something, her eyes were red and puffy.
"You have been crying." He blurted out.

Piper laughed. "No, silly, this is just my usual morning look!"

They both knew it weren't.

But if Piper didn't questioned him, he didn't question her, a silent deal they had made. But he had an idea about what was going on: her dad. After all, all he had ever seen of him was his sectary. Even Leo knew that was not the way you raised a child. If Piper once confirmed his theory, he was going to kick her dad's ass, no matter how damn important he was.

"Hey, Pipes." Jason shouted across the hall.

Piper turned around, a big smile plastered at her face, as her boyfriend walked closer at them, but it fainted as soon she saw the giant black ran under Jason's eyes, making his head look like a cranium. "You don't get enough sleep." She scolded.
Jason sent her a faint smile, "Sorry, I was studying."

Leo and Piper exchanged a look, he couldn't have been studying. Not again.
"Jason," Piper said carefully, trying to not cross the line, "I know we got a lot of homework, but not that much. What aren't you telling us?"

"Yeah," Leo putted in, feeling that he at least owned Piper some kind of support, "we are your friends. We won't judge."

Jason sighed. "Guys, it's complicated, you won't understand—" his voice trailed off.
Leo wanted to tell him, that he did understand. That he had seen the worst cases, abuse, alcoholics, all of it. He wanted to help them both, to solve their problems. To just pull out the right screwdriver and fix them, but he couldn't. Organic life forms weren't like that, they were way more complicated.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the trio, and everybody was relieved when the bell rang.

The next two hours, Leo used in drowning the teacher's voice out, desperately thinking about Lunch Break. And the whole time Jason and Piper's problems were echoing in his mind. He had only been in this place in a month, but he already felt more connected to those people than he felt to his family, what was left of it, anyway. Not that it was hard; everyone was better than Tia Callida, his crazy babysitter and Aunt Rosa. Leo hadn't been very lucky with his family.

And finally the bell rang, signaling lunch. Leo pushed himself through the crowd of people on their way to the cafeteria.

He scanned through the crowd of teenagers sitting around the tables, looking for his friends, and then he spotted them. They were sitting a bit away from all the others, they were laughing and chatting, just as everyone else, but there were still something about them that made them stand out from the others. Maybe the fact that their shoulders were all a bit more tense, and that their face was shot. Maybe the signs of stress that was a bit more significant, or maybe the ever-hidden sorrow, you always could get a glimpse of, in their eyes.

They were a beat up group of friends; Leo had to admit that. Normal people would probably put them in boxes, full of diagnoses, and throw all their problems at them, under the excuse of 'trying to help them'. But as they sat together, it wasn't like that. They were people, not boxes, in the other's eyes. Everybody was aware of the problems, the other had, but they didn't comment it, they waited to the person was ready, and gave them the silent support, only the one who suffered too, could give.

"Hey, Leo." Jason greeted, acting like their conservation before hadn't happened. "How was class?"

Percy rolled his eyes besides Jason "Seriously, Jason. What kind of thing is that to ask about?"

Jason slapped Percy's back lightly, but even through that, Percy winced in pain.
Jason frowned. "That wasn't that hard."

Percy made a face to Jason, as Leo plopped down besides Piper. "I have a bruise there. I fell at the skateboard yesterday."

Everybody around the table exchanged a knowingly look, Percy still unaware of what they all were thinking: Yeah, as if. We all know you didn't.

"Eh, Percy?" Annabeth asked softly, something that was very unusually for her. "Do you want to stay at my place tonight?"

Percy bit his lip. "No. Not tonight." He answered, but his eyes said something else.
In the same moment Thalia entered, not knowing or not caring, what she was interrupting. "Have any of you seen Luke?" she asked, as she plopped down besides them.
"Nope." Piper answered, her tone light. Too light.

"Oh." Thalia said.

A silence fell over the table, as they all started to eat. It wasn't awkward, as you would expect it to be, but simply the silence of hungry teenagers sucking out energy from their food.

"So," Percy said, after he had finished his sandwich, the first one as usual,"Mr. D made such a giant fool out of himself today."

"How?" Bianca asked, frowning slightly.

Soon Percy launched into telling the ridiculous story of how him and the Stolls had pranked Mr. D. Before the story was over, everybody was howling with laughter.
Suddenly the laughter got interrupted by a loud bang!, as Leo looked in the direction of the sound, he gulped.

"I think I have found Luke," he told Thalia.

"No," Thalia told him, "that can't be Luke."

But as Leo studied the guy standing in the doorway to the Cafeteria closer, he had to admit that it defiantly was Luke. The scar, the eye color, the hair, the face structure, the clothes, all of it basically screamed Luke! The only thing out of place was the gun he was caring, and the grim look on his face.

"Fuck!" Percy muttered somewhere in the background. "He-he shot me!"
Leo looked back to see Percy looking shocked at his pierced hand. Then Leo realized where the bang had come from. It had come from the gun. Luke had shoot Percy. It took some moments to let that sink in.

"God, Percy." Annabeth said with a small voice. "You need to go to the hospital!"
Percy shook his head. "Not now," he said, his voice surprising calm, "we got to stop Luke first."

"But," Piper protested, "you are going to bleed to death!"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "That bit? Nah. Just give me a sec." and with trained movements he held some water over his hand, ripped a bit of his shirt off, and tied it around the hand. "See," he said, "completely fine."

Hazel's eyes starred wildly at Percy. "It pierced through your hand!" she shouted, her voice shrill, "you are not okay!"

Another bang! echoed through the room, this time followed with a scream. Leo looked in the direction the scream had come from, and saw a girl laying at the floor, blood from her chest, spilling at the marbled floor.

First there it fully dawned at Leo. He was in the middle of what soon was going to evolve to a full-fledged school shooting, and if he didn't do anything, they were all going to die. Everybody was still staring shocked at the death body at the floor, but Leo knew that this was only the start, and that they had to react before Luke shoot again.

They had to create some kind of distraction. Something that would create a moment of confusion.

"The fire alarm." Frank mumbled, too low to anybody else than the people around the table could hear it. "We can use that as a distraction."

Leo sent the younger boy an approving look, even through Frank was clumsy as heck, he had his moments.

"But we need to reach it first," Piper pointed out, her lips nearly not moving. "It's in the other side of the room."

"I can do it," Annabeth offered. "I am the fastest runner."

"No, Annabeth!" Percy protested. "You are never going to reach it!"

"Watch me," Annabeth told him, and with slow moments, started to walk closer on it, fitting in with the crowd of humans.

"Well, well," Luke said, with an uncharacteristic sneer, "what do we have here?"
Nobody answered, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Luke laughed, and looked around the room, taking in their fear.

Then Leo realized something, at some point, Luke would notice Annabeth. He was just on his way to say something insulting, and probably really stupid, when Percy started to speak.

"Luke!" he shouted. "What the fuck are you doing, man?"

Luke turned around, so he now was facing Percy. 

"What does it looks like?" he asked, with a crazy smile as his lips.

"Uh," Percy said, "smiling like an idiot?"

"Wasn't being shoot in your hand enough to shut you up." Luke sneered.

"Obviously not."

"Well, let's see what a shot in the heart can do then."

"No!" Annabeth screamed, and Leo mentally face-palmed. She had been so close on reaching the fire alarm.

Luke aimed the gun at Annabeth, without even the slightest hesitation, which was the scariest thing Leo had seen all day. The fact that Luke was ready to kill the girl, who was like a little sister to him, without even hesitation.

Bianca let out a battle roar, and charged at Luke, a wild look in her eyes. Luke turned around, and in one flowing movement pulled the trigger. A bang! echoed through the room, the last sound Bianca would ever hear. She fell to the floor, her head connecting with the floor, with a bone-crushing speed, but not a word came over her lips, because she was already death. An inhuman sound pierced the air, when it stopped, the room was left cold and empty.

"You" Hazel said, her voice shallow and empty, "you killed her." Salty tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn't seem to notice. "You killed her," she continued, her voice now rising. "How could you do that! You sick bastard. She was your friend! And you, " Hazel snarled, her voice filled with piercing disgust and anger, "you killed her."

Then she charged at Luke, like an animal, driven by its instincts. Before Luke could react, Hazel was two meters away from him. In one hopeful moment, Leo thought she would make it, and then the dreaded bang! sounded, and the kind girl died, with a snarl at her lips, witnessing the horror she had seen the last few moments of her life.

Leo froze, his brain still not able to accept what he had seen. They were death, both of them. And all he had done was watching. It was the accident all over again. He was a coward. He should just let Luke kill him, he was not worthy enough to live.

Then Leo gave himself a shot in the arm, now wasn't the time to swim in self-pity. He had to save what he got left of his friends.

Annabeth used the moment of confusion after Hazel's death, and ran the last way to the fire-alarm, and smashed the glass. She pressed it at the same moment the bullet pierced her hearth.

"Luke!" Thalia shouted, for the first time acting since Luke entered the Cafeteria. 
Luke turned around, a sick smile at his lips. "I aren't Luke, " he told her, and took out something who looked contacts, to reveal golden eyes, "I am Kronos. Luke is death. He have been that for a long time."

Thalia's body started shaking, and then, in a blink of an eye, she threw the breadknife at Luke, no Kronos, giving her just enough time to reach him. They started wrestling about the gun, and Leo knew this was the best chance they would get to escape.

"Run!" Piper shouted, her voice piercing the air like knives, so full of panic that it kicked to everybody's instinct. And people ran, but some stayed back, not able to leave the deaths.

The fight between Kronos and Thalia were reaching its end. And in one desperate movement, Thalia snatched the gun from Kronos' hands. Shaking she pressed the trigger, and then the last bang! sounded that day.

Soon people surrounded the deaths. Except one, the first girl who had gotten shot, was laying alone, and as if in a trance he walked over to her, ignoring the shouts of his friends in the background.

"Oh, god." Leo muttered, as he realized she was still breathing. "We need some medic help. Right now."

The girl shook her head slightly, a sad look on her face.

"Don't." she whispered.

"W-Why? You can still be saved." Leo could feel his whole body shaking, and suddenly the only thing that mattered was saving this girl.

"Maybe I don't want to, Leo." The girl said, her dark eyes, piercing his.

Leo frowned. "Where do you know my name from?"

"I heard it," she told him, her eyes closing a bit more.

"Hey!" Leo shouted. "Stay with me, don't close you eyes. I said, don't close your eyes!"

The girl smiled a bit, "It's hard, you know."

"T-tell me you name!" Leo stuttered.

"Calypso."

Despite the situation Leo couldn't help, but frown. "Like Caribbean music?"
The girl laughed, a raw and desperate sound, and her eyes opened a bit more. "Yeah, exactly like that."

The girl was beautiful, Leo realized, with her caramel-colored hair, and her piercing eyes. "How can it be I have never seen you around here before?" he asked.

The girl reached for his cheek, and Leo let her.

"Nobody noticed," she told him, "until you."

"Just stay alive, and I will make sure they do." Leo promised.

"We all got our punishments," Calypso told him, brushing his cheeks. "And yours is to live."

Then she closed her eyes, leaving only the weak smell of cinnamon behind her, and Leo, who had never felt so alone.

*

That night Leo ran, this time not only from the memory of the accident, but also for the ones with his friends. For the words there never got said, for the problems that never got solved, and for the happy memories they never made. That night, he ran away from the two homes he could have had. And he knew he had to deal with his punishment, the rest of his life. He hoped it would be short.