Cursed: Annabeth Chase

Drowning

Broken

That's what people called her when they thought she didn't know. They whispered it behind closed doors and shattered windows. They yelled it across islands and tables. They talked behind her back and to her face. They thought she wasn't right, wasn't ok.

Because she wasn't

It's true, Annabeth wasn't always in the right mindset. She had too many things going on. Her head was a jumble of thoughts, memories, worries, and words. Words. She had loved words. But that was before they turned against her. Now all the words she heard were ones about her.

They're right

She knew that. They wouldn't let her forget that. They were always calling her names and reminding her what she was. They played with her mind and made her rethink every little decision. They tormented her. They showed her harshest memories. They talked about what she lost and what she would never have.

They never left her alone

She never felt alone. They followed her everywhere she went. They were always there, lurking around the corner. They loved causing her pain and they loved watching her squirm. She knew who they were yet she never did anything about it.

Because she couldn't

She hated that she couldn't do anything about them. They tricked her in the cruelest ways. They made her believe things that weren't real. They made her question her sanity and everything around her. She didn't know what was real anymore and it was because of them.

Not them, her

It took her awhile to figure it out. The voices she always heard but saw nothing, the people that tricked her and did all those horrible things, they weren't real. Well, they were, but only in her mind. It was her thinking all those things. It was her. She is them.

They are her

But they're not. They are an entirely different voice. She didn't know how to describe it but it wasn't her. It was inside her head. All of it was inside her head. They were inside her head. They might have been real once, but now they just became a subconscious voice always there.  

Always there.

They never left. Not even when she was at the bottom of a lake, not even when her mind was drifting and she was going crazy. They were the screaming voices. It was the loudest they've ever been. She didn't know why they were so loud that day but they consumed her. They made her feel even worse. They made her feel like she was drowning everyday, all the time, always drowning.

-----

I gasp and throw up. Gross. I cough up some water and a small fish. Even grosser. I look around and gasp again. I'm alive? I'm alive! I'm not in the underworld anymore! I climb onto the dock and stand up. There's nothing except the dock and a few building in the distance. Yay.

I start walking towards the buildings. I want to put as much distance between me and the water. I shiver at the thought of going back into the cold, empty pit-like thing that most people call the ocean. I look around for a sign or something that will tell me what year it is.

I spot one up ahead. I run up to it and almost scream. It's 3042. I've been dead for over a century. I shake my head and wonder what's changed. I sigh and continue reading the sign. I'm apparently in a small city in Alaska called Valdez. Why does that seem familiar?  

I feel like I know this place. But I don't. I remember everything and I never went here. Even through all the quests, I never went to Alaska. I never went, but someone went. Who? What am I not remembering? Why does this place, no, the name of this place seem familiar.