Comatose

Chapter Two

The woman nodded. "I'm Mrs. Solace, but you can call my Chloe."

That's not Will's moms name...

"You've been in a coma for, well, eight years. You're twenty at the moment. You and your mom got in a car accident when you were twelve, trying to flee a storm on Montauk. You got caught and were knocked out for eight years."

I shook my head no, and the Chloe girl looked confused. "What do you mean no?"

I was only able to shake my head. This was just a weird dream. I passed out in my cabin and was dreaming. "Honey, this actually happened. This is real. You just woke up, and I understand that this is confusing and overwhelming but-"

I shook my head harder. No. This is a dream. Nothing else. If only I could wake up...

"Percy, listen to me honey," the mom imposter whispered, brushing some hair behind my ear. "Chloe is telling the truth. She's a trusted doctor, she knows all about these sorts of things." Her smile faltered for a minute. "You really don't think I'm your mom, do you?"

I shook my head no. She wasn't. My mom was different. Her features, all though similar, were different. My mom had dark brown hair, this woman had light hair. Different shade of brown eyes. Everything was a little off.

Chloe looked a little fearful. "Hey, honey, do you think this is a dream?"

I stared at her untrustingly before nodding hesitantly. Because it is!

"Honey, this isn't a dream," she whispered. "This is real."

She grabbed my hand and squeezed in gently. "You said a lot of names in your sleep, can you tell me if any of them wring a bell?" She whispered. I nodded carefully.

"How about Annabeth?"

I nodded and her gaze grew worried. "Do you think she's a real person?"

What did that mean?

I furrowed my brows and nodded. "Honey, you've been dreaming for the last eight years of your life. This is reality. This is real. Annabeth, Nico, Grover... They... They aren't real people, Percy. They're fictional, they're dream characters."

I shook my head no as violently as I could, which wasn't much but I still managed. Chloe sighed and squeezed my hand. "You look tired Percy. Get some rest, we'll talk tomorrow okay?"

I didn't answer. This was just a nightmare. None of this was real. It just wasn't.

Right?

Percy's POV

After a long while, I drifted off, against every instinct in my body screaming for me to never sleep in unfamiliar territory. I had spent the last few hours alone, staring at the door in front of me blankly- and then I was out.

When I woke again, I wasn't back at Camp Half-Blood. I was still in this damned room, the imposter Sally reading at my side. Once I started to stir, she looked up and gave me a pained smile. "Good morning Percy. Chloe is going to be over soon to check your vitals, okay?"

I blinked. Why wasn't I at Camp Half-Blood? Why was I still here with my fake mom, the improper mother to Will, unable to move? I had to be able to move- I couldn't just abandon everyone at Camp. I was part of the counsel, I was involved with all the deals and trades, they needed me there.

Riptide.

Even in my dreams, Riptide was always there. It was sewn into the very fabric of my life. Once I got out Riptide, I could take down the mimic Sally and get back to camp. I struggled to move a bunch, the monster trying to ask if she could help and what I was doing, but I merely shook my head. I searched my left pockets. Nothing. I searched my right pockets.

Absolutely nothing.

Was... Was it possible? Was my entire life a comatose dream? No- I worked to hard. I suffered too much, I made so much progress, I did everything for the people and camp, there's no way it was a dream. It couldn't be. This was fake. The mist was being used to trick me. I fumbled for my pockets again, growing desperate, checking for shirt pockets and cargo pockets, starting to hyperventilate.

Riptide, come on, where are you...

Before I knew it, I found myself hysterically sobbing. I couldn't defend myself in such a weak state without Riptide. I was going to be murdered by these mimics without any control over it. "Honey, Percy, calm down, it's okay-"

I shook my head, flinching away from her, tears blurring my vision. She... She was human. She didn't have a monster aura.

She was human.

That means... They weren't lying...

The door opened and Chloe stepped in, gasping at my hyperventilating and sobbing state. "Percy baby, it's okay, it's going to be okay."

I shook my head, suddenly finding strength through my sobbing, pulling myself away from her. "No," I whispered, shaking my head vigorously. "No no no no. This isn't real. You guys are fake. Where's Riptide? Jokes over, I know your fake, tell Hermes this isn't funny! Or Leo or-or Piper, or who ever set this up!"

"Percy... Honey..." Chloe placed her hand over mine. "This is real. It isn't a joke, love. There isn't a Leo or Piper."

"No, there is!" I screamed, crying harder. "Leo's a tiny scrawny latino boy who's amazing at blacksmithing and mechanics and building, he-he built the Argo II! He's a son of Hephaestus and a mother who died in a fire, he lived in foster homes and ran away from a of them, he's funny but sad and lonely and always thinks he's-he's the extra but he- But he isn't!"

"Percy... There isn't a Leo."

I stared at her for a long while. "... Piper?"

She shook her head. "No Piper, either."

"Annabeth? Grover? Nico? Jason? Hazel? Frank? Chiron? Rachel? Reyna? Thalia? Coach Hedge? Tyson, Ella, the Stoll brothers, Castor? Pollux?"

"Percy, they-"

"Katie? Ethan, Luke, Zoe? Beckendorf, Selina... Calypso? They-... They don't-..."

"They don't exist, Percy. They're part of a dream. You've been in a coma for so many years..."

"I made them up..."

"I'm sorry honey."

I stared down at my lap. What was I supposed to do? My entire life was a lie. All I remember is my dream from a fucking coma. No one I took the time to know, no one I saved, no one I helped- I didn't do a damn thing. I didn't help save the world ever. I didn't do a single goddamn thing in my life- I've laid in this bed and dreamt up my own literal fantasy world for the last eight years of my life.

So... What was the point of living?

Everything I knew, I loved, is gone. Literally. People always say that when they move, but every single aspect of my life is actually gone. There isn't a single thing left. My mom is an imposter that I don't recognize, my friends are but a thought that I'll never be able to grasp, never able to talk, laugh, have jumbo sleepovers with, ever again. It's like an alternative universe, except everyone is dead and what's left are torturers to do nothing but make me confused and want to kill myself.

I didn't have any friends. I didn't have a girlfriend. I didn't have my friend group that I loved with every fragment of my being, the only reason I was living being because of them. Now they're fucking gone. My very reason of living just disappeared in a split second. I didn't have a chance to even talk to them a last time or anything. They were just gone. Everything I worked for in life, the torture, the literal hell I went through to protect others, everything I did, the permanent trauma I'm going to have from a fucking dream that no one is going to understand.

The last thing I remembered before I passed out was the furious beeping noise and a scream.