¹𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀. percy jackson

𝟎𝟎.

☼

SHE STOOD IN THE FREEZING COLD, the sky was fogged up and gloomy. Her sneakers were planted in the muddy soil and her innocent brown eyes stared up at the rumbling clouds. She blinked away raindrops to clear her vision as they mixed with the tears that fell from her cheeks.

The weather was fitting to her emotions.

Her lips trembled and her hand fell over the smooth marble stone in front of her. She traced over the engraved name.

Carlos Verano

"Papa." the 12-year-old whispered, "Why'd you leave?"

The sounds of honking and traffic came from the highway behind her and she knew Sally would be there soon. Percy was coming home today from Yancy Academy and Sally made plans to pick her up after work to go see him before their trip to Montauk. It was hard sneaking away from her stepmom but Lucia was willing to do that and more for Percy.

She was selfishly ecstatic when she heard her best friend got kicked out of the academy. It meant he could spend time with her again. And oh how she missed spending time with him

Percy and she had always been close until he was sent away to his newest boarding school. Although they sent handwritten letters to each other as much as they could and Lucia visited him and Grover whenever she could sneak out all day on a weekend—it was still never the same. Now that he was finally coming back she'd make sure she would never be separated from him again; even if it meant that she'd have to drop out of her current school to follow him.

A shiver fell through her spine as thunder rumbled overhead. Lucia kept staring at her father's headstone. A frown fell on her lips, she'd been visiting his headstone every day since she was six, and not once did the pain ever dull.

She pulled her sweater over her as the cold water fell on her warm skin. She hated the cold...

She softly placed the bouquet she held down on her dad's grave: Purple Hyacinths. She never knew why but they seemed to always have been his favorite. He would always say they were special because they were tragically beautiful. He said an old friend taught him that, but to Lucia's knowledge, his only friend was his eight-string guitar.

"Lucia!"

Lucia jumped, she turned and came face to face to see her stepmother and unfortunate legal guardian storming towards her. Red high heels were wrapped in plastic bags as she trudged through the mud and tried not to trip over.

Lucia was tempted to run away and test her abilities to run in them but before she could move the beast already had her claws sunk into her arm.

"You're coming with me!" Agatha bared her teeth

Lucia tried to step away before she felt the nails sink deeper into her arm and whimpered at the familiar pain "Let go of me."

"Who do you think you are? just running off like that. you belong to me don't you forget it. I'm the only reason you aren't starving on the street."

Her hand fell across Lucia's cheek—Lucia let out a small gasp from the impact

"That's for disobeying me you little brat. Let's go. I need you to clean the bathrooms before the meeting with the new record company."